August 2012

Today was a very eventful day. We got up this morning and it was just freezing in the flat. We

couldn't turn on our little heater  because we were out of propane. It was blowing today and the cold goes right through your body and chills your bones. We have discovered here that

when you are out in the cold and you go in a building or some ones house thinking you can warm up. There is no relief because the houses and all the buildings have no heat. So we

have learned if you want to get warm you hope in your car and turn up the heat full blast.

Thank goodness for car heaters.

     We got a call from Vuyo to day who is a cop and told us about his non member friend

who works in the crisis center. She is in a bad way. Her power is shut off. She has no food.

She needs help could we help her. So we agreed to meet Vuyo and his friend at the crisis center. Sandra works at the crisis center. She has worked there for 12 years. She only gets money if she gives them  information on a case. She is an informat. She hasn't been

getting any money lately. She needs another job. We got there and talked about all the options she had and of her skills and what she needed to do. Elder Van Sickle asked her what religion she was. She said she was apostaholic. We started talking about prayer and our

believe in god. Then Elder Van Sickle tells her about the geat apostascy and all about the

Book of Mormon. She said she would love to read it. Elder Van Sickle gave her a pass along card and told her if she would call this number. The missionaries would bring her a video of Christ. She looked so happy and told us the story of how her son last Saturday wanted to watch a video on Christ and she didn't have one. She told him God will provide. Then she

prayed for one. She said 3 days later and here is the opportunity to get the video. We

left feeling really happy we were able to give the Book of Mormon to someone and bare our

testimony. It always happens when we least expect it.

    We went to the orphanage and had family home evening. Here are three kids from the

orphanage

7/2012

We have been staying in a guest flat in Gonubie by East London. We rent it for 110R a night. Which is about 13.00

 in American money. Sunday morning we drove to a ward in Sada. Which is about 21/2 hours from East London.

The ward is held in a small red brick building. When we got there it was so cold. The front doors had 21/2 inch gap at

the bottom of the door to the floor where you could see the outside. The men's restroom was outside. The electricity had gone off the night before so the

church was so cold and dark.There was 25 faithful members there that had walked along ways in the cold. The ladies  carry there small children and babies on there back the whole way. Because it was so cold most of the members stayed home. The members spoke in xhosa the large part of sacrament meeting. So we couldn't understand it. . It was just above freezing. Our feet and hands were so cold. In sunday school it was all in xhosa too. So

Elder Van Sickle and I decided that when he went to priesthood and I went to Relief Society we were going to both tell them to please speak in english. It worked. Relief Society was all in english. Finally the electricity came back on and

we all stood by the heaters to warm our hands and feet. We went to ward council after church. Sada has alot of unemployment. It was my turn to teach the ward council how to get there members employed and self reliant. when we

discovered there were people in the ward council unemployed so we spent two hours teaching these two how to get

employment. They had been unemployed for six years. The amazing thing was they didn't know the basic skills of getting

a job. They had plenty of skills. They just plain didn't what or how to go about getting a job. One was an accountant and

the other was a code 14 truck driver. There is jobs here for both those skills. The Lord loves these people he wants

them to be employed and successful. Love Elder and Sister Van Sickle

Busy With The Work

We had two baptisms in the Kwanobuhle ward 1, Ufield baptized his sister and Elder Fozard baptized Skifile's girlfriend.  How neat!

The Relief Society President of the Lorraine ward is getting ready to pass out the crocketed teddy bears the sisters in her ward made for the orphanage.  What a sweet spirit service brings!

Here she is handing out the teddy bears. The orphanage children were so excited to receive them!

The Relief Society President with all the orpanage children.  We have grown close to these children and love to see their smiling faces when receiving the teddy bears!

Earning $ For Missions!

Elder ans Sister Van Sickle have been working with the kids in the pictures to earn money for there mission. He has been working with facilitation's managment in Cape Town and he was able to get them to pay the kids to paint and clean the brick on the church.

 Siphosethu painting the bars on the church door

Phillansi pressure washing the brick fence around the church

Penny painting the bars on the other side

Siya and Henry cleaned and painted the church parking lot

Dear friends and family,

We had the open house and free car wash at the church. The young missionaries had gone to so much work. All 6 of them had

spent 3 hours last night cleaning the church. We were having and open house where non members could come in and learn about

our church. We had different rooms set up to tell about our church. Elder Van Sickle was to do the employment section. I was

to do the section on temples. We had a lot of members come through that were non-menbers coming to see what our church was all

about. Elder Van Sickle and I enjoyed telling the non members about it.Each room was set up with something about our church. In the

chapel they had the video about the Restoration. In the Culteral hall the bishops of the two wards did there presentation. One did

The Book of Mormon and the other one talked about the restoration of the church. We had some people come through and ask

some very interesting questions. One asked if I woke up one morning and had fire in my heart and I felt like I should be a prophet

of your church. Why couldn't I be the prophet of your church? Elder Van Sickle said because God doesn't work tht way. He told them there was a process that the church goes through when there is a new prophet to be called. When I was showing the self employment and career workshop to a non-member. I read to him one of the things Gordon B. Hinkley said about employment. That God wants

you to be sucessful. He does. The man said if he wants you to be sucessful. Why is there so much poor and suffering in this world.

why does he let that happen. Elder Mooki said you have to have faith and be righteous. I told him some people inflict things on them-

selves. Some people infect things on other people. We have are free agency. We told him about the city of Enoch and what happens

when everyone is righteous. Then Mooki quoted one of my favorite scriptures to him Moses 7: 18 For the lord called his people Zion

because they were of one heart and one mind and they dwelt in righteousness and there were no poor among them.

Love, Brother and Sister Van Sickle

Letter 5/22/12

   Hi Everyone, My wife is forcing me to write, she said it is my turn. so here we go, ready or not.  We have had a tremendous month. When we went on mission, if any one were to tell me how hard it would be, i would not have believed them. It has been so hard to deal with all the different personality's in the church. It is such a diverse country and the church is experiencing so many growing pains. It has so many cultures colliding and the church is in the middle of it all. You have tribal rituals that still play a huge part of their lives. You have this world economy that is playing a huge factor in all of this. As the first presidency put it in conference, they want sustained growth, they want people remain active and going to the temple. With a people so humble and meek, it is in there culture to be incredibly selfless in there desires and wants. So many  of them are hungry and only want a great job. It is this hunger issue that really shakes there faith some how. On e of the bishops took his first councilor and there wives and children in there little car and drove 14 hours all night to attend the temple in the morning. It was the councilors first time to go to the temple and be sealed. They had everything planned out to the penny. They had a great time and made there way back. Upon arriving back all that they had money  to eat for two weeks was just bread and a little rice. what a great sacrifice. It really make me question if i would do that. what faith they have. We love these people so much. they are such a great people.

     Last fast Sunday we fasted for our area and our mission. The bishops here are so young and faithful. They have so many people to take care of. We were having transportation issues in the wards trying to get people in to Port Elizabeth to turn in resumes for jobs. We had our bosses boss come out with one of the employment specialist. When they arrived we had several people ready for them to see and talk to . That night we had a large gathering at the stake center with all the bishops and there ward councils. That night everything that we had hoped for took place in one meeting. the information that was given to every body at that meeting answered so many questions as it pertains to welfare and employment. It helped the Bishops and the Stake to better understand there rolls in each of there callings. It removed a whole lot of the hard out of our mission. The next day the miracle continued as we traveled to East London  where we have been trying to get open 3 employment centers for 4 wards that have the highest unemployment in the eastern cape. the Area office and the stake presidency have been  having some rough times together. We went to the stake center that evening at the appointed time to meet with the stake  leadership. Once again heavenly Father heard and answered our prayer and every thing got worked out. We are now in the process of opening them up. We really hated being in the middle of  it, all we wanted was to help the people. We knew that something had to happen so the people of the lord would win. It is all matter of who comes first, the lord and his people. It makes it so easy to fight for our savior and his people because we love them both so much. There is no doubt who is running,leading and guiding the Saviors church. he lives!!!!!

 

Elder and Sister Van Sickle

3 Versailles Ct, Verdun Rd, Lorraine, Port Elizabeth, 6070

Cell: 083-251-7791