Fwd: GO JAZZ

Hello hello helloooooo

Hows it?

This week was really great! We unfortunately didn't have as many lessons or investigators at church. ugh. people bail and im like. yeah shame. hahha but it was still a great week! 

Some of the many highlights were all you can eat pizza, zone conference and int. with president Merrill, too much ice cream, Bongiswa and Ntando's confirmations, and a member being car hijacked, stabbed and kidnapped... All is great!

We have these really 2 amazing brothers. Aphiwe and Aviwe. They have read everyday this week and have such strong testimonies of Joseph Smith. They are still a little hesitant about being baptised. And feel like they need a stronger answer than what they have. Unfortunately they went out of town saturday and couldnt come to church, but we saw them friday morning before we left to queenstown. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and emphasized baptism, and receiving answers through the STILL, SMALL, voice of the spirit, and that the answers that they have of Joseph Smith and the BOM are reasons to be baptised. They took it really well and will hopefully be ready next week for the commandments and will stay fire. They are preparing for the 14th of may!

We went and taught Clive, the yomie who has the old BOM. He knows that thing soo well. He has read it 3 times all the way through, in order, and everyday since! He knows all the stories, and loves the 3 Nephites. He is also convinced that they have been to him. "3 men came to me, in suits. and taught me. so yeah. it must be them!" HAHAHa it is soo funny! He has been always looking for the Church of Lamb of God, but could never find it. He now found it! He struggles a lot with smoking unfortunately, but it will just be a speed bump, and we know that the Atonement of Christ will be there to help him. He is very poor, and stays in a shack, so it will be hard to get him to church, but we are hoping a less active, brother Dion, who stays nearby will be able to hooketh with rides. It is sweet, that no missionaries, no church, no members, just the Book of Mormon alone can convert people! The power of the Book of Mormon is unreal. Read it everyday. 

We had a great "When In Queenstown" weekend! It started Thursday night with all you can eat pizza at panorattis with a super nice member Siyonela, paying for all of us! We had such a fun night with SOO much food! We then left friday and got to queenstown right in time for the new KFC grand opening!! We got out of the car to them with a huge tent with games and prizes and the people on the radio. I took this opportunity to do what i do best. So I started dancing, and the other 3 elders joined. Everyone went NUTS! It led to us getting a bunch of free meal cards, free KFC beanies, and footballs, and me getting a bit on the radio! I was able to speak in xhosa and tell the whole of queenstown how much we love KFC, and how we came all the way from america to find the BEST kfc, and that we finally found it! everyone was going nuts, and it was so fun!

That afternoon i had great interviews with President, and together we really focused on the BOM.

That night, Elder Gibbons and I had a great reunion and had a great McDonald's session followed by homemade cookie dough late night. It was bomb.

Zone conference was really great. We learned so much and it focused on how all things need to point to Christ. We need to be HEROS. It was really fun, and im so grateful for the wonderful time spent with the Merrills, and we are excited to be having the Lebethoas coming in July!

Its so sweet to hear about the Jazz. Our branch presidents wife really hooks it up with those updates, blessed. They better win and then take GSW to game 7. then... hmmm they can beat steph on a buzzer beater. Watch and see. Ahhaha. I love you all and am so grateful for another amazing week in Mthatha.

LOVE YOU! Have fun and no more wrecked knees!

Elder Ivins

(Bro Godfrey's story:) He was driving home from a friends( in his friends car), and he was at a four way stop. the other car past, and these 2 guys walked out in front of him. He just thought they were passing, and then one ran to the window and punched it, grabbed him, and starting stabbing his hand, telling him to get in the back, and to give the car. They also had guns. So they go. Brother Godfrey was out of airtime, but miraculously had some, and sent a 911 to his friend and they called the cops. They went into our area and then down a long dirt road, and he said, "I knew I was going to die." Suddenly the cops caught up, and the two guys ditched the car and ran away. He is all good, and we had an appt with him last night. He got dropped off by the police 3 min before we got there. We were able to give him a blessing. He is confident all will be well cuz he poured brake fluid over the cuts, supposedly supposed to help? idk ahahha. Pretty crazy! 

Jarod's birthday cards/messages

Hello friends of Elder Ivins,

If you would like to include a little thought in his birthday package, please get your letters/emails/cards to me by this Wednesday, April 26th. If you want to mail it to me, I will put it in. My address is 1343 E. 5935 S. Murray, UT 84121

Thanks so much!!! we sure do love our missionary! I received a Facebook message early this morning from the wife of the branch President in Mthatha, who said Jarod asked her to find out details of the Jazz game!! Some things never change!!! I relayed to her the sad news that we couldn't play defense, but didn't tell her that we watched from the hot tub on the back deck. That might have killed him!!!

Thanks for your love and support of Jarod!! He's doing great and loves South Africa! (In 3 weeks we get to Skype with him!!! Come on over if you want to see his face!!!)

Love, Mama Ivins

Birthday Boy!!

Hello everyone!

Jarod is going to be a birthday boy soon! Actually, it's not until May 23rd, but our friend is traveling to Capetown and has offered to deliver a birthday package to him!! (I am insanely jealous that he will be so close to our missionary!)

I would love to send Jarod a stack of notes/letters/well wishes from his friends. Please send me something by next week. 

He'll love getting these!!

Thanks,

Mama Ivins

Pictures

Fwd: When in Conference

We've been traveling and just arrived home. Here's Jarod's email for the week!!!

Hey!

What a great week it has been! This whole week we were looking forward to conference this weekend, which was definitely the highlight of my week. It was fun to be able to see Temple Square and hear President Monson speak, along with everyone else. We were able to watch both morning sessions live, and then Sat pm and priesthood on Sunday. We will be watching Sun pm next week. We really wanted Conference to be fun. So we had the theme of When in Conference for the week. We bought loads of snacks Sat morning for the 2 days, and had an amazing dinner. We wanted to make it feel like Priesthood, going out for a really nice dinner. We went to Mugg and Bean, and I got the Big Daddy Burger, sweet potato fries, and bottomless lemonade. Not a bad meal.

Conference was great though! It was fun to help investigators understand it, and why it was so important. The whole week, people are sometimes reluctant to come to church, because they "have their own church", but when we can tell them that this week the Prophet of God is speaking to the world, they get a little interested. I think my favorite talk so far, was Pres Eyring's in preisthood session, or Elder Rasband's in sun am. But then that whole sessions was just on missionary work which was so amazing to have! This weekend really has motivated me and im hyped for this week!

The rest of the week was great! We really got back into the flow of things, and worked really hard. Elder Zander and I had a great exchange. We were looking for some lunch and walking around town, and saw this lady selling shishkabobs. They looked pretty great, full of beef and chicken! But then upon eating, it was very dry liver and greezed fat. The liver was just too bad. We had much better illusu later in the week at a members house, but those kabobs. no bueno. so we decided to go to kfc. much better. Outside there were a couple hundred people watching these traditional dancers dancing in this street corner. I took this great opportunity to show off my dance moves, and the hundreds of people died laughing as I walked in and started dancing with these four guys. It was so amazing.

We met this amazing lady on Wednesday while tracting in her neighborhood. We have this deal in our district that we will always knock on double stories and houses with cars, because families, and a higher chance to come to church. It has been really beneficial these past weeks, in leading to finding many large great families. So we went to this dub house and no one was there, so we went to the house down the street with a bakkie in the yard. When we go to the door, I saw this mama inside and I knocked. No response. Knocked again. Didn't phase mama. I was a little frustrated cuz I could see her in the house walking around. I was calling to her, and nothing. Then her son, Yanga, came from the back, and told us that she is deaf. hahaha i felt like the biggest idiot.

But we went in, and she is soooo nice! I was able to sign a little to her with the small things I remember (just the alphabet) and then she taught me more things! Most of the lesson was me and her writing back and forth in my journal! She writes in broken english but it is understandable. "Me want understand this book, your church and my church what different" Which led great to answer those questions about different churches and the bom. "Me heart so happy you come meet nice"

She has an amazing family and im so excited to keep working with her!

The BOM is true and I'm so glad to be teaching about it! Conf was awesome and make sure to watch and listen to the talks again and learn from them!

I love you!

Elder Ivins

Mthatha>Mexico!!

Hola! Muy bien! Como estas!

Ndiphilili enkosi kakhulu. Unjani wena?

 This week has been really good! It was weird to think my fam is in mexico, and friends are now gonna go on mission, and just the little things at home! But, mthatha, Eastern cape, South Africa is the place to be! 

This week was a little slower than usual, so thats lame. We had a great training from President and Sister Merrill Tuesday and Monday i had a great interview with President. My main focus is wanting to become better at following the spirit and not giving rote lessons. We talked a lot about the Spirit and the gift of discernment, and listening. It was awesome. He is such an amazing guy!

We ate A LOT of icecream in queenstown, and the theme for us 4 elders, was, When in Queenstown. Shafted our msf, but worth it. 

Wednesday, i was super sick. It was bad. had to sit in bed all morning, and just felt useless so that was lame. Elder Kyles was a great comp and made me german pancakes! (we had them monday, tuesday wednesday and thursday) Hah. We still had some great lessons with Charles and the Samuel family! We found out charles is a doctor, WHAT? but is sooo smart, and only really knows french. As he has been reading the BOM in english, he is learning so much more than he is in school it is amazing! He bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Bongiswa is still doing amazing! We had a great baptism for her friend Sibusisiwe yesterday! As she has come to church she has found all of her friends that she went to school with, that are now members too! They had no clue, but now love it so much!

We met this amazing guy Leeroy! He came to church, and has read the pamphlets, and we gave him a bom. He stayed at church after for the baptism, and as we were waiting to change, He was just all over his new BOM. It was soo cool!! 

Saturday. It was one of the funnest days Ive had on mission! We got up to play basketball at 7 with some kids at WSU, but then they no showed, so we had fun walking around the campus, got some groceries, and then went to take the car to get new tires. They fix the tires, and then boom. They dont take the fleet card. So, after an hour of figuring things out, and other people coming, they had to take the tires off and put our flat ones on. but now their was a big line of cars. so it would be another hour. Elder Paskett and I decided to go on an adventure. and try to get jikilezas (small taxis usually 10 r) home to get the other car, about 6 miles) too far to run (cuz im fat and out of shape). We got this guy, Ling, or Ding, maybe Ding a ling. HAha this asian guy. NO english. pick us up, but didnt even stop, so we had to just jump into his huge truck! he didnt stop at anything and then we had to jump out at a turn. 1 car. 

Next car, we got this guy in a bakkie to stop for us! it was nice, we hopped in the back, and got a nice bumpy ride up the hill. and finished with a 5 min walk, with NO Money spent! It was awesome! that hsould be our new mode of transportation!! 

So we went out, had some great lessons, and then had a dance that the yw were putting on for the yw and ym! It was SOO fun! The past couple weeks on saturdays we have been teaching them how to dance and stuff, (made sure to teach them my new dance io've patented here in SA). But it went from about 7-9. We had a nice program to begin, snacks, Dance, and some BOMB food! They made an amazing braii for everyone! Great steak and chicken and pork and pap and chakalaka. As missionaries we didn't wanna dance with the yw, that might be weird, so we balled out and danced with the little primary girls which was sooo fun! One of the funnest nights! We had a bunch of investigator ym/yw there who brought their moms our aunts! It was great!

Church was great yesterday! We had a great sunday school with a lot of investigators!! We had a great baptism after of Sibusisiwe in which our investigators stayed too and had a great support from members! She is so powerful and funny!

We are excited to work hard this week and look forward to another great week! Thank you so much for the prayers and love and pictures and support! We need them!

I LOVE YOU!

Ndiyalithanda eli khaya

Te Amo! 

Elder Ivins

Jarod has 5 elders from his MTC group serving in his zone right now. He's so excited! 

This darling girl was baptized on Sunday. She's been attending church for 2 years, and no one knew she wasn't a member!

They had a fun dance in the branch.

Fwd: Lot of Work

Last Monday.... We were at the HOLE, of Mthatha, this deep thing that no one knows much about. It had a sweet river in it, and while we were there, the amazing Heisman QB Elder Ivins, threw the football right into the river, and it floated to the other side. This was quite a problem considering how missionaries are not allowed to swim. 

So we decided to hike up the river to find a place to cross. Which didnt become reliable. As I was standing out on this rock, with a little water running over it, as seen in pic, but I look down stream about 50 ft and I see this green/brownish thing, about a foot out of the water, with a small wake behind it. We weren't quite sure what exactly it was. Got a better view and moved closer, and boom. THIS CROC. So amazing. So beautiful. I peed just a tad, but yho! It was nuts! It was like, real. I didnt think so, but then BANG! It made this idea of crossing the river to get the ball a lot scarier and harder. 

We did get the ball, and it took a solid hour, but.. It was a great accomplishment. 

What a great week it has been! We have been going hard, and finding a lot of amazing people that we are hoping and praying will progress! 

Ive been trying to think about what things to say here, but not much other than it was a great week. The Zone Leaders came up for the first part of the week and had exchanges and a fun p day! Later the week I was able to go with Elder Paskett, our fearless district leader, HAhaha but yeah it was a great exchange. 

I also had to teach district meeting on Friday, which went well! We talked about miracles, and how to get them. As we have Prayerful goals, Constant Finding, and Spiritual Power. It was really nice to dig deep and study more about each of them. But we all realized how we can be better and be more influenced and guided by the spirit. Something I have really been trying hard to work on. 

This week we met with these two kids. Lisakhona (13), and Aviwe (11). They have been coming to church for 2 years, but havnt been baptised!! It was a shocker, everyone thinks they are just these amazing members. We met with them, and man they know SOO much. We had a great lesson with them and they are so ready to be baptised in about 3 weeks! 

We also met with this less active sister yesterday, after she came to church! She brought these 5 kids she nannies, and they are all so powerfull. 2 of them are 7, and the rest are 9,11,and 13. They all love the bom and read hers while she is busy! They also are preparing for a couple weeks! 

The samuel family came to church yesterday and we were so excited! They all loved it, and the young niece, Tyler, loved it most. She is so cute and I love her so much! They all are getting stronger and stronger testimonies each day. I love the power that the Book of Mormon has on people! An amazing Life changer. 

We had a great baptism on staurday of this 14 year old boy named Achumele! His father is a rm and a powerful guy, but there were some complications as his son grew up, but now he was able to be baptised! It was so great as his father was able to baptise him!

I had to give a talk this week in church on honesty. I had completely forgotten about it until president boateng reminded me on saturday. It went well, but while I was sitting on the stand, it was really fun to mess with the little kids with going cross eyed, and facial expressions, and then wigglying my ears, which is a jaw dropper. Ever since that talk Pres Monson gave where he did it, I always laugh at every time i get to try it! 

The people of Mthatha are really amazing. I love them so much! They are so humble and ready to receive the gospel. We have been having really long days from 10 am to 930 every night with no breaks. It is awesome to be dedicating all of my time to God. Thank you all so much for the amazing prayers and support! I love you!!

Elder Ivins