Baptism pictures of Palesa

Turner Street

Turner and Elder Wilkinson had a great time visiting the zoo at Emerald Casino

This week has been kind of crazy! Actually really crazy! Haha! But it was still really good! First. Rachel looked gorgeous! No surprise there though! But she really did look amazing! My family is so awesome!

Okay. So let's start with the Safari! It was at Emerald. The Casino. It's really a nice place though. Anyway. We went in the middle of the day, so there was like nobody here! Anyway. So it was just the two of us! And then the driver of course! He was cool. And he actually used to visit with the missionaries. But then he moved. Anyway. So he was familiar with us! It was really cool though. There were tons of animals. Weird names that I can't remember though :( Sorry! But there are these little things called springbok. They were everywhere! And then Giraffes of course! That was cool! We got pretty close to them! And then there were these big deerish things that we got to feed! That was so cool! You just put the food in your hand and then it just ate like your entire hand! But it was so cool! Haha! There were also zebras and ostriches. It was really cool! Glad that we did that!

So Wednesday. It was Elder Wilkinson's birthday! We had interviews with President Omer. So we drove to the mission home. It's about an hour and a half away. It is such a nice house! It was nice to be there. Good to be in a normal house kind of like home! But interviews were SO good! I love President Omer. He is so gentle and loving! Ah! I can't even explain it! It was such a good interview though. I guess Elder Wilkinson had lots of good things to say about me. According to President Omer. So that is good. And I had plenty of good things to say about him as well! He has been such a great companion! Anyway. We went to Burger King after interviews. There are only two in the whole county! Haha! Actually probably only two in the whole African continent! But it was good! Then we went to the "China Mall". It reminds me of the place we went while we were in Cancun! Found these tie pins that are the South African flag. We have been looking for them for a while! We got home and got ready for dinner. We went to pick up the Asurons. But John came home two hours late. So we didn't get to go to the buffet. It was disappointing. But there wasn't much we could do. But we did get to change the reservation to Thursday!

So Thursday we got to go to the buffet. It was pretty good. Shireen kind of talked it up a lot. But it was still fun! I guess they are under new management since the last time she has been there and it isn't as fun and entertaining anymore! Shame. But it was still fun. The funny thing is the service here. Anywhere you go there is just terrible service! So different from home! Haha! But we had a good night! We took some pictures. Some of Lily and each of us. And Lily and Matthew, the Asuron's kids. Then there is a random picture of Shireen! And then pictures of all of us! I hope they upload. We are at the slow computer place again! Because today is a holiday, so the normal place is closed! But I will send all of them that I can!

This weekend was great because we were able to watch conference! It was so good to be able to FINALLY watch it! There were so many great talks! Lots of answers to questions! I love watching conference! Not many people came though. Which was a shame. There were like maybe fifteen people that came on Saturday. And then on Sunday there were more but after each session there were less and less people! Because we started with Priesthood and then Women's sessions. Then Sunday morning and then Sunday afternoon. It was a great couple of days! Odd to see home though. And see that it looks nice, especially since it is getting cold here! It was fun to see Nudd! Haha! As always!

This week has been good. A lot of saying goodbye to people for Elder Wilkinson. I kept thinking of how sad it was that he had to say bye to everyone and how happy I was that I had at least a month and a half left with all of these people that I have grown to love so much! But Saturday night we were sitting at Rahlda and Dmitri's house and we got a call from President Omer. He told Elder Wilkinson that he would be becoming a Zone Leader. Which was really no surprise. We knew he was leaving and that he would most likely be a ZL. But the unexpected part was when he told us that I would be leaving as well! My stomach just dropped! It is so unusual for a new elder to be transferred after he is done getting trained. But they are rearranging the Zones and making Vereeniging a Zone Leader area! So these last couple days have been spent with mixed emotions. At first I was sad about having to say bye to Elder Wilkinson, but now I have to say goodbye to all of these people that I love so much! On Sunday they announced that I was leaving. It was sad, but nice to see that people will miss me as well! It is sad. I love this area so much and I don't want to say good bye to these people. But I guess that is just part of mission. I am excited to get to go somewhere new though. For a new experience. But still bittersweet. I am afraid that there will be a lot of bittersweet feelings these two years.

Things have been going good though. I love you all so much. Mom I love you and miss you! Can't wait to talk to you in a couple of weeks! Love you tons!

Splits, Hugs, and Chapattis

This week.

Monday. Monday we had our Zone Activity. Our district was there early and we played soccer while we waited for everyone else. It was actually pretty fun! Haha! Crazy huh! And I even scored! But we went Laser Tagging for the activity! It was really fun! I suck so bad at laser tag, but I had a fun time! I was able to talk to a couple of kids in my group and see how they were doing. Elder Peterson. He is from Vernal. He is a super nice kid. So it was good to catch up with him.

Tuesday. Tuesday. Nothing too eventful happened on Tuesday. That I can think of.

Wednesday. We went on exchanges on Wednesday. So Elder Wilkinson went to Sharpeville and Elder Malapula came with me to Vereeniging. It was good. I was a little nervous to be leading, but it went well. Some times I feel stressed teaching with Elder Wilkinson because he is such a good teacher. I shouldn't stress over it, but sometimes I do! Anyway. With Elder Malapula I felt like I did a good job, and Elder Malapula always has super nice things to say after we go on exchanges. It’s always nice to go with him! He is from DRC - Democratic Republic of Congo. That day we taught some people named Papi and Mushai. They came to church one week and seemed to enjoy it. We asked if we could come visit them. They said yes. They are a married couple. Mushai - the wife, her dad is a Pastor or something. They still seem super receptive to the gospel. They just have a TON of questions. We ended up being there for over two hours! Holy cow! We will work on that!

Thursday. Thursday was pretty slow. We saw Rahlda and Dmitri. Our recent converts. They are great. Going to their house, or flat, is like home. They just make us feel at home. Super welcoming!  Nothing too exciting happened though!

Friday. We had splits with the Zone Leaders. Elder Lohmann, a German elder came with us to Vereeniging. I am the first person to be trained here since him. Anyway, he is really nice. We had a day full of lessons - which was nice. We mostly visited recent converts and less active. We saw a guy named Leonard. He got baptised last year right after his wife died – so sad. But he is very excited to be able to go to the temple to be sealed to her! He is very nice, but hard to understand. He talks in this mumble and slurs words. I don't even know how to explain it! But he is great! Anyway. Funny story - at the end of the night we got back to the flat and did our planning. We had just closed with a prayer and Elder Lohmann shook my hand and then like kind of backed away. Then he like opened his arms and walked back to me and gave me the most awkward hug of my life! And you know how I am with hugs! Haha! Anyway. Just imagine this short little German man, walking towards you with his arms open coming to hug you! Haha! It was hilarious though. He walked out of the room and Elder Wilkinson just kind of busted up! I had to run to the bathroom so Elder Lohmann didn't hear me laughing! Oh it was hilarious!

Saturday. We went to John, the ward mission leaders and he taught us how to make Chapattis. They are like a Kenyan staple. They are basically like a mix between homemade tortillas and pita bread. And then you eat it with this kind of stew! They are SO good! Anyway. They were fun to learn how to make! I will have to practice and then make them for you when I come home!

Sunday was good. We had an area seventy there. Elder Wilkinson gave a talk. I said the opening prayer. The one thing that stunk though was that we had NO investigators come to church. That's always a bit of a let down. But that is what agency does. There isn't much we can do about it.  We went to lunch at a family named the Herbert's. They are super nice. We had lamb poike. Basically like a stew made in like a Dutch oven on the stove. We eat a lot of lamb here. It is weird. Like the first time I had it, it was good. But it is really fatty meat. At least the pieces I have had. I am getting kind of sick of it! Anyway. It was great to be there for lunch. We visited the Van Rooyen family. They are great. They are the family with the dirty kids. They are super nice. They live like SUPER far from the chapel, but they come to church every week! It is awesome that they are converted enough to do that! We ended the night with dinner at the Asuron's (the ward mission leader's family). I love them so much! They are the greatest!

Anyway. Things have been going well here. It has been a good week. We are supposed to have a baptism this coming Sunday. A girl named Palesa. She is 20 or 21 and lives with two member sisters. There is Zodwa that I know well, she is about 14 years old. Anyway, Palesa lives with Zodwa and her older sister. They were born into the church.  Palesa told them she wanted to be baptised. So we have been teaching her. She will be interviewed this week. Hopefully it all goes well! 

April 21st email