Our Friday Night Date -gfh

Friday night we had a very special date.

Our mission office is in the same building as the South Africa Missionary Training Centre. There is a door between us and we respect that. The SAF MTC President came over early in the week and asked if we would like to come be “investigators” for the new young elders to practice teaching. This being the Easter Holiday weekend they were having difficulty getting their usual number of people to help. (By the way Easter is a big holiday here. Businesses, even grocery stores close down on Good Friday and Easter Monday. We didn’t get those days off of course so as it turned out things were very quiet in the office)

We were investigators for two different companionships. The lessons lasted about 25 minutes each with punch and cookies and an evaluation sheet to fill out at the end of each. We were asked to pretend to have a situation in our lives that either has kept us from the church or would make it difficult for us to be interested. We were also asked to take off our nametags so the missionaries didn’t know that we were an older, more experience version of “one of them”. The Elders were to visit, ask questions and then teach to our individual need.

The first companionship was an elder from England and the other from the states. The second companionship was one from the states and one from Kenya. Each time the missionaries were so nervous. This was their first time teaching. They had only been in the MTC one week but they taught with conviction, sincerity and strong burning testimonies. There is a term for that. They really wanted to teach and be effective. It is called "Greenie Fire". Even though it was only practice The Spirit was there to help them. We could feel it and we were so grateful to be a part of their learning experience.

It was one of the sweetest Friday night dates we’ve had in a long time. I hope we can do it again soon.