March 5, 2007
The elders here are crazy-- great, but crazy. Elder Tonkin (from Capetown) who has been on mission for 9 weeks and Elder Dolder (from Washington) who has been out 6 months. On Tuesday night, they made some ginger beer. They live with a member, Sister Pearlman, and we were at her house for supper. So they split the costs 50/50 with Sister Pearlman and made 20 liters of the stuff. It's supposed to be like rootbeer, except ginger flavored. (I've had it before (not homemade) and it's really good.) Anyway, you make it with yeast and let it bubble for about 2-4 days and then bottle it and refridgerate it. If you let it sit for like a week, it actually does turn into real beer, so you have to be careful. Anyway, it's about 36 degrees celcius on average in their boarding (around 90 degrees F-- I don't know conversions.. I just know celcius). So after 2 days, Elder Tonkin took a sip and it was already alcoholic!!!! LOL. Elder Dolder said it smelled like beer in their boarding for two days! And, the most appaling part is that instead of throwing it out, they gave it all to Sister Pearlman, who took it to work to give out to peopl!!!! LOL! I was shocked! So they elders are running the brewery here in Berea!
August 14, 2006
I think it was the day we began contacting, last week, we got a call from Pres. Hill with a referral (Sharon De Beer). We taught her last monday and it went extremely well. We've been praying for her and I've been feeling good about her. But then she canceled our appt. on Saturday, which was disappointing. She said she would still come to church though and Pres. Hill was picking her up (She doesn't have a car.) SO, she came to Stake Conference yesterday (we had a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake with Pres.Monson, Elder Nelson, Sister Lant, and Elder Snow) and really enjoyed it. She told me as we sat down before the conference, "I was speaking with Garrith (Pres. Hill) as we were driving here and he told me about the rules you follow in your Church. I do drink, but I can give that up. And I drink coffee, but I think if I quit that now and just drink regular tea to ease off the caffine for a few days... I can go to only Rooibos (Mormon-approved tea)." She also said things like, "So how do you join the Chruch" and "when do you have baptisms?" LOL! I love those questions! So we showed her the baptismal font and introduced her to the members.
Then, last night, we visited her. She had not only read everything we asked her to, but also 1Nephi 1-4 and she had done the questions in the back of the pamphlet!!! We comitted her to baptism and she set a date for herself for October 7th because she wanted to be baptised around her birthday. It's a little far, but not too far away. She has had an extermely hard life.... been severely abused, and has lived a life of poverty. But things are going really good for her now and only going to get better. She works grinding plastic in this big machine all day and loves it (shows you want she's been forced to do for work in the past considering the job is wonderful to her). When we told Pres. Hill's dad, Brother Bob that we were going to commit her to baptism last night, he started to cry. He's the one that asked us to talk to her initially at a funeral she was at. He is so sweet. He knows how much she needs the gospel in her life.
It's amazing how quickly things change. The Lord really is in charge. It's been such a mercy to be part of Sharon's conversion in the gospel... and there are so many out there just like her.... ready to hear and just need the invitation.
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