Fwd: green water, green son

HEY~

What a great week it was in Grahamstown! Unfortunately, our baptisms didn't go down, the water was still green, and dirty... So.. hopefully in the next couple days it will be cleaned! until then.... we will see.

This week, the Petersons, a wonderful couple serving in Port Alfred, about 40 min from us, are going home, so Elder Mofokeng and I will be covering that area! Our load of people just doubled, and we will see how we can handle it, to make sure that all of them get into the waters of Mormon. There are great people there as well, and we are blessed to be in the position to work with both of them!

We met one of the greatest families this week, full of 6 kids! 6! A Father, Mother, and 6 more. The DEMBESE family. They understand kancinci english, but we are excited to help them progress to baptism, which would be SO amazing. Some even came to church yesterday, and kept saying how great it was! 

We are excited to keep the work of God moving forward, and thank you so much for the love and prayers!

Love you all, and Pray for Snow!

Elder Ivins

Fwd: Green green Green

Hello!

What a wonderful week in SA. It was quite weird actually, to have gone from being companions with the oldest missionary in the whole mission, to the the youngest. But it has been a great ride.

Elder Mofokeng is amazing! He is a little different than me in lots of ways. He is the first member in his family, differing from my 8 or 9 or however many generations. He is the first missionary! Definitely different than our family. He has a younger brother, and mother and father. His dad is the only one not a member, YET.

He has graduated with a degree, and worked for a year. He is 23, and very powerful! BUT, despite the differences, we have loads in common. We love the gospel, we love to teach it, and we love to eat! So what could be wrong? haha

We are speaking to lots of new people, and it is very fun to try to keep up with Elder Mofokeng. We have 3 wonderful sisters preparing for baptism next week, so lets pray that all goes well for that, and we are really excited to see Ntombikhona, Thandazwa, and Salamina get in the water. They are a little afraid, cuz its nice and green, but other than that, they have wonderful testimonies.

The church is true, and I love to tell everyone about it! Thank you for the love and support, and I challenge you all to reach out and share the gospel in any way this week. It may be a text message, and tweet, or giving someone a book of mormon. As you do it, Heavenly Father will bless you!

Love always, Elder Ivins

Jarod bought his new "son" a baby backpack, filled it with green baby items and have to him upon his arrival from the MTC. His new greenie didn't totally get it, but it seems like something I would do! He's my kid for sure!

Pictures!!

Fwd: Pregnant: ITS A BOY

WELL, I guess the news is out, I will be having my 3rd son!

Pretty Crazy, but I am really excited! I will be shipping off Elder Chaparadza, and getting Elder Mufekeni, from Johannesburg! He is brand new on mission, and I am really excited to get him, meet him, and love him!

Should be a very exciting, and hectic week. It was really sad this past week, to see my amazing companion say goodbye to people and knowing that he is done with mission! But, he finished strong, and It helped the week go by in a very interesting way.

We are having lots of great things happen here in Grahamstown, and on Sunday we had an Area 70 come and visit, He really helped with some investigators, including Matthew. Matthew's family are members, and his younger brother is going on mission at the end of this year. Elder Vanreenen helped Matthew see the importance of the Gospel, and we hope to help Matthew to be baptized when he goes home for school Holidays!

I'm really grateful for the gospel, and that it is true. We met lots of great people, and seeing someone read the Book Of Mormon for the first time is so beautiful. We had a new investigator named Hermanus come to church, and be so excited to receive a Book of Mormon. It really changes lives.

This week should be a fun one. Get to see old friends, and new faces. And I'm even more excited to meet my new boy! Wish us luck and we are gonna kill it in Grahamstown!

Love you all! Have the best week!

Elder Ivins

PrayForSnow

Pictures

For some reason the pictures didn't attach. Here are a few of our happy missionary!!

Fwd:

Here's a little snippet of our wild child!! 

Fwd: A Joyous Reunion

What an amazing week it was! It was full of Zone conference, Stake conference, and lots of tears of joy!

The highlight of it was the best Thursday I have had on mission! After a wonderful Interview with Pres. Lebethoa, I was able to go Proselyte with the Motherwell Elders, and to go see some of the amazing people of Motherwell again! We saw some recent converts, old friends, and ended the day with an amazing dinner with the Sam family! It was so exciting to see them again!

All of that led perfectly into an amazing Stake Conference! It was so fun to see even more on Sunday, which just left me smiling for the whole day, and still is here! We even had 2 investigators come all the way to stake conference in PE! Zikhona, a friend to sister Phumela who is a wonderful member, and Khanyo, and wonderful boy, whose mother is an amazing member as well! Member missionary work is key!

The greatest thing I took from this week, is the importance of the Book of Mormon. It really is the key to conversion. If we read, pray, and study that book everyday, we will legit be led right back to living with Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the book of mormon in my life, and the blessings that we enjoy together because of the Resoration!

In all of the traveling, back and forth to PE 3 times this week, I was very grateful for the hook up of Chocolate Covered Almonds, Beef Jerky, and Lemon heads. They were much needed! Ah, Africa is great, but they don't have good Chocolate covered almonds ;)

The church must be true, and God loves us all! It was a brilliant week, and I hope all of you enjoy this coming week.

Pray for rain, and Snow.

Love, Jarod

The school teacher in me (Mama Robyn) loves these pictures of Jarod teaching in the local school!!!