Zoning in with Bedfordview

Every week on Wednesday we get out and spend time on the ground with our missionaries. On June 10, we are enjoying another  Zoning In! This week we traveled an hour or so to the Bedfordview Zone and met with our great Elders in Vosloorus 1, Elder Ndwande and Elder Rakotoarison. The Zone Leaders set up our schedule and so it is always a fun surprise to see what they have in store for us.

It was such a pleasure to study with these two great Elders for an hour. They shared many insights from their own study and we read from theWhite Handbook and also Preach My Gospel. t It was an uplifting hour and reminds us all the value of studying together.

Elder Ndwande and President Dunn have shared some sweet experiences as of late, with some special baptisms where Elder Ndwande did the teaching, and President Dunn was asked to  perform the baptism. Fun to be together this morning.

These Elders live on the 3rd floor of a nice complex. They also earned green cards for the condition of their flat. They are model missionaries and we were honored to be with them.

Elder Rakotoarison is also learning English, since he hails from Madagascar, where his native tongue is French. It is remarkable to see the progress in his English speaking skills in such a short time.

Next stop: The Germiston Elders, Elder Downs and Elder Wegrowski. We were also so impressed with the cleanliness, orderliness and maintenance of their basement level flat.

We simply gathered at their flat and marveled at the organization and cleanliness and then prepared to leave, because we were scheduled to go teach a lesson with them.

Before leaving, we spied Elder Downs putting his lunch in his messenger bag. We asked him to pul it out and show us his healthy "Bag full of fresh beans!"  Pretty impressive.

We drove through Germiston and after a little searching, we found the street, and house, where this man lived. This is a young man who has gone inactive since moving away from his original ward. He had actually been looking for the missionaries and saw them out contacting over a month ago. He came up to them and said he needed help getting back into activity. It took over a month to get an appointment. Finally, today all lined up and we were honored to be able to go with our Elders.

His room where he stays is small, so he asked if we could just gather on a curb in the area where he lives. It was semi-private and our Elders taught a lesson and really connected with him. Scriptures were read, tears were shed and emotions were shared. It was one of the sweetest experiences we have had thus far. WE ended with a request for a blessing. We went back into the house/room and President Dunn gave him a beautiful blessing in his journey back to activity.  There are so many people in South Africa that could use activation. This was a great example of the desire and also the blessing of "coming back!" It was very powerful to hear his testimony and desire to get help to turn his life around.

One last stop: The Edenvale Old Age Home. twice a month, our Elders come here and meet with the residents and sing for them.  It was fun to see where they serve and to meet some of the residents. 

We got to see where they gather, but they we needing to wait until after lunch to sing today, so we were not privileged to hear their great voices this time. All i all, it was a great day in Bedfordview. Thanks to Zone Leaders, Browning and Nwokedi for organizing such a wonderful, spiritual schedule for us on this day.

Pictured: President Dunn, Elder Browning, Downs, Wegrowski, McCallister, Ainslie, Nwokedi