Companion Struggles, KFC, Thobekani's baptism September 29, 2014

Mandela and Cynthia - amazing converts

I am skipping around some. I'll start with Friday and exchanges. Elder Ah Wong was coming to KaNyamazane with me. It started out pretty frustrating. We had a lesson with a lady named Ntombi. It went fine. Then we went to our next lesson with our recent converts Mandela and Cynthia. It was probably one of the best lessons I have ever had. The spirit was there so strongly. I felt so touched that I had the opportunity to be a part of these two amazing converts conversion. They are both so strong and amazing people. I love them so much. But while teaching I could just feel the love our Heavenly Father had for, not only them, but for me as well. I was able to express that to both of them. Let them know that they would do amazing things for this gospel. It broke my heart when they told us that when they take the 5k walk to church every week, people tease them and say horrible things to them. But then it was beautiful to hear their words. That it didn't matter to them. They knew the church was true. It has brought them so many blessings, and no matter what anyone said, they couldn't take that way from them.

It just felt so amazing to feel the love of our Heavenly Father. Knowing that he cared from them, and he still cares for and loves me.

The next lesson we had was with Thando. He was supposed to be baptized yesterday, but he didn't pass him interview. Anyway, we watched the Restoration DVD with him. The spirit was definitely there as well. Testifying to me, over again, that all of this is true. This gospel, everything that happened to Joseph Smith, it is all so very real. It's always amazing to feel those spiritual impressions, re-testifying to us the truth of these things.

Needless to say, it was an amazing exchange.

Saturday was good. Back with Elder Malapula. I think that I realized that some of my anxiety is coming from him. I don't know what he does, but he makes me anxious. It's not his fault. He is nice. Doesn't do things wrong. But who ever said anxiety is rational? Anyway. I worked through those things. And eventually by today, I am feeling great about things again.

This gospel, and my mission, are bigger than me. Bigger than anything I could ever do or accomplish on my own. I am so lucky to be able to share this with the people of South Africa. That doesn't express how I feel very well, but I can't seem to but it into better words.

Anyway. Here are some highlights of the week.

Tuesday night we had a lesson with the Deluz family, for Khulekani. We decided to take KFC with us and eat dinner with them. When we walked up to their house (which happens to be at  the top of a mountain. It's beautiful I will send pictures soon) the kids faces lit up. They were SO excited! Anyway. We sit on make-shift chairs. Which happen to be five gallon buckets. And then we put our white board that we were using to teach on top of one to make a table. It was seriously so fun. I have never enjoyed greasy chicken more! Like I said, the kids were thrilled! Then, after we ate. The camera came out. And I am pretty sure they were just as excited about that as they were about to KFC. Anyway. They wanted TONS of pictures! It was hilarious! I will be printing those for them. They are very excited. It was a great night.

The Deluz Family - Great night eating KFC

Anyway. The Deluz family is struggling a lot. But Sister Swan, while she was on her mission in El Salvador, found that it was good to buy struggling families chickens. It provides some self reliance. So Elder Swan (who I am pretty sure is Bob the Builder) built a chicken palace (not coop). And bought them chickens. Anyway. They were very happy about that. Also. They have no running water at their house. And have to wake up at four in the morning to hike down the mountain (which isn't that big, don't worry, it's really just a hill) to get water every morning. But they have these big water tanks called Jojo's that you can buy. So the Swans organized a Jojo for the family as well. So many people are being blessed by the Swans kindness and willingness to help. They are amazing people.

Thobekani's baptism - great day!

Next. Thobekani's baptism. Such a sweet kid. He has been coming to church for about six months. I have been teaching him the whole time. Anyway. He was finally prepared fully to be baptized. It was a great day! So excited for him. However, as it is summer here, it is also the rainy season. And yesterday was very rainy. But the baptism was still great! The only problem, is how can you dry and pack up a portable baptismal font, in the rain. We were actually pretty successful with what we had. The baptism was great!

KaNyamazane. . .Great Happenings September 22, 2014

So. I don't know if I mentioned the banana bread incident yet. But one morning Sister Swan made us banana bread. We asked for the recipe and Elder Swan says that if any of us can actually bake banana bread, he will buy is a real steak dinner. To shorten the story, he obviously had to buy me steak. Because I can cook! But it's lead to me cooking lunch today. The Swans feed us lunch every Monday. But now I cooked today. I made salsa chicken. And we're gonna eat them like tacos. Guacamole, sour cream, corn, cheese, and the chicken. I also made a tres leches cake. To go along with the Mexican theme. Good thing I have good parents that taught me how to cook! 

We had the Zone Leaders here on Friday.  Elder Neuenschuander from Spanish fork came with us. We had two baptismal interviews. One passed. Thobekani. Seventeen year old kid. He asked me to baptize him. I am actually really honored to do it.  I love him. He is a sweet kid. Thando, the other interview. Didn't go as well. E. Neuenschuander felt that we should wait a bit. Which is totally fine with me. That's his calling. To see if people are prepared. If they're not, then we will keep working with them until they are! E. Neuenschuander also had some very kind things to say to me. About how he could just feel my love for the people, and that it's hard to find genuine love, but I have it. He told me I was funny. That's always a confidence booster! Haha. But it was nice to hear good things. 

So we have this kid named Mbonguseni. 20 years old. A bit defiant. But for some reason I care about him a lot. He has come SO far. Working with him to want to get baptized and to gain a testimony if the true church and Joseph Smith. But he finally realized that it's all true. He just struggles keeping the word of wisdom. But I offered to make him cookies is he would keep it for two weeks! And I don't make cookies for just anyone! And then his mom decided that after that I should teach him how, so when he wants it smoke, he can bake instead! Haha! Instead of smoking, get fat! 

Well. This week has been good. Nothing else too eventful. I am still loving KaNyamazane. Great place. Beautiful place. Amazing people. Just soaking it up whole it lasts.

Temple Visit, Zone Conference, and Investigators September 15, 2014

This week has been good. Nothing too crazy has been happening. Well. We had some great experiences. But we will get to that. Right now I guess.

So Thursday we got to go to the temple! Usually out here you don't get to go to the temple because we are so far away! But we got special permission to go when we went down for Zone Conference. So we went on Thursday! Of course we had the four and a half hour drive. That sucked. But we went to the temple. I made a few purchases. I got some new garments. And then Mormon Messages dvds. They are great to teach with. But I also got some new scriptures. But I am getting them covered. There is a guy who covers scriptures with different animal skins. So I am going to have him do that. Something I definitely couldn't get done at home! So I feel like it is a souvenir that is worth it!

Anyway. Back to the temple. We were supposed to go to the five o'clock session. But there was no witness couple there. So the temple workers hemmed and hawed over what to have us do. So they decided they would have us do sealings. Something I have never done before. So we went and were sealed sons to parents. There was a senior couple working in the area office, the Hales. They were the parents. It was AMAZING. I can't even begin to describe. The blessings that are given to sealed families. I mean, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't want those blessings. Blows my mind that people go through the temple and then decide that it's not important to them. Too many people here are like that. It's sad. But anyway. What an awesome experience it was. The spirit was overwhelming.

Then we got to do the six o'clock session. And it was with all of the area office couples and then the Area President was there! So great! And I saw the new movie. I don't know how new it was, but it was the first time I had seen it. Anyway. It was such a great session. I love the temple! Wish I could go every day!

We had Zone Conference on Friday. It was good. Very different from President Omer. I miss them. I loved President Omer. I am trying very had to find that love for President Dunn. However, Sister Dunn did a great little workshop. I really like her. She is just so loving and kind, it radiates from her. Great mission mom! But the sad part was the couple of zones that were at the conference didn't really have any of my mission friends. But it was still good. But we had to drive the four and a half hours again. Ugh. But it's nice being back. It's home out here in the middle of nowhere.

Those were some big events. But nothing else besides those happened. But we have some amazing people I would like to tell you about. I wish I could share about everyone. But there are too many.

Anyway. Shantel, when she was baptized the end of August, she brought her friend Brandon. Anyway. We started teaching him. He is a really sweet kid. He is 22 but still in grade 10. Odd how things work here. Age is very different, especially with school. Anyway. We have started teaching him and he has caught on very well. He even volunteered to teach Gospel Principles last week. So yesterday, his third week at church he taught a great lesson on Adam and Eve! But he is awesome. He and his sister are orphaned. They were both originally orphaned, but they were adopted. Anyway. Their adopted mom died earlier this year. And now they are alone. It's heart breaking. But I know the gospel will help him.

Next we have Thando. He is related to Nunu one of our recent converts. And randomly came to church one week a few weeks back. We started teaching him. He learned SO quick. It was great. He loves the church and will be interviewed this coming Friday. Super excited!

The last is a kid named Khulekani. His family, well parents, were baptised a long time ago. And then they left for about two years. Now they are back. Anyway. They came to church and there was a baptism. Their son asked when he could be baptized. He is eleven. So we have to teach him. Anyway. He is a sweet kid. But all the years of swim lessons, and swim team working with little kids is helping! And my primary experiences! He is eleven, but the English is I think his third language. And for the parents English is very hard. So it is a slow process but I love their family. So humble. they live in a little shack. Two parents two kids. No electricity, no running water. No job. But they are amazing still! I love going there. The spirit they have with them you can't find anywhere else.

Well the work is moving forward. I am loving being a missionary. Some days it is easier to love it than others. But I am trying as hard as I can. I am so thankful you got to talk to the Omers and the Hunts. I love them both so much! I hope you have a good week. I love you and miss you!

Herman the House Lizard. . .Evicted! September 8, 2014

Alright. So this week I wrote things down so that I could remember what to write about! 

First. Nelspruit got a new senior couple, the Scotts. They are from Alpine - great people. They are very comfortable with missionary work. Like VERY. Elder Scott gave a man a blessing in the middle of the grocery store parking lot. Very odd. At least to me. But they are great people. Very nice. But we don't really ever see them. But I love seeing the Swans! Anyway. Sister Scott reminds me of someone, but I can't quite put my finger on who it is.

Second. Happy birthday to my father! I won't try to sing anything awkward over email. Sounds like that's waiting for you at work anyway! I was laughing very hard at your description of that!

Third. Rako is now home he called me last Wednesday morning on his way to the airport. It is weird that my companions are already starting to go home! But I guess it also makes sense because I am approaching my nine month mark! But it was sad to say good bye to him. He drove me crazy, but in the process he became a great friend. I will miss him. He has plans to come to BYU. I just hope that happens.

 

Fourth. Lizard! Here there are lots of little lizards hat will just live in the ceiling of people's houses. And of course, we live in a township. So we have lizards. But ours isn't little. He's HUGE! I'll send pictures soon. But his name is Herman - Herman the house lizard. But Herman the house lizard is no more. We got home one night and he was just chilling on the wall. We were both kinda (okay not kinda, really) freaked out. So I got a broom and tried to get it to move. Wasn't really working. But then Malapula got another broom and together we started to direct it out the window. But imagine this, two missionaries, home after a long day, looking battered and worn poking a lizard with brooms, freaking out and yelling every time it even moved an inch! Bahaha! It was seriously hilarious. I don't know if you remember my bat story from Old Navy. But not only am I a bat wrangler, I am now a lizard wrangler! So many new talents I am learning. Now if we could only get the cat sized rats to leave our bathroom ceiling.

So yes, Malapula drives me crazy sometimes. But I have a new idea. And it works. I mean, it's not an original Turner Richards idea. But still. It all started when Elder Swan told us if we could bake banana bread he would buy us a nice steak dinner. Little did he know. I can actually cook. So long story short. We got the steak dinner. But it pretty much kick started my cooking habits again. So now I am cooking and baking. I made banana muffins one day. For our gospel principles class. Yesterday I made no bake cookies. Seriously love those! But anyways back to my original thought. I decided I would bake for Malapula now. So I made him creeps. I'm pretty impressed with myself. No recipe. Just made them. But if I cook for him. Makes things easier. It's true, serving your companion works.

Another cooking story. So we went to this investigators house. Sonia and Sam. The unmarried couple. She says that we are making pizza. Basically that we are making it for them. So, luckily I've been around the block a few times in the are of homemade pizza! But they didn't have sauce. They only have ketchup! So. I made a pizza sauce. Out if nasty ketchup. I added some flour. Garlic and herbs seasoning. Onions and some tomatoes. To my surprise, it came out pretty nice. But what they wanted on it was onions and viennas. Which are hot dogs! Hot dog pizza! What the fetch?! But I am becoming quite the chef! 

Alright. Your questions. People feed us. Like we get fed almost every night lately. But I eat a lot of veggies and pasta. Malapula and I have been cooking together. Tommy surprise, his food isn't that weird! But I haven't been drinking my protein cause I haven't actually been the best at working out. So ya.

Our investigator pool keeps growing. We actually broke my record of number o
f investigators at church last week. We had ten. My best was nine. But it was sweet! We have some cool people. A single mom named Nonto. I may have mentioned her a while back. But she finally made it to church. She is going through some rough times financially, but we have an amazing Branch President. President Banda. Ask the Hunts about him. Then we have Thando. Cool kid. He is kind of related to our recent convert Nunu. Super prepared. He'll be baptized on the 28th along with Thobekani another cool kid, and Mbongiseni who's  mom is a member. She had him while she was 14! Now he is 20. Cool kid. Just working out some bugs in his understanding. Praying hard for him.  Lots of our recent converts have been doing some sweet missionary work! Always plenty of people to teach and prepare. I am too blessed to be here. 

Anyway. Things are going goods thus coming Friday is Zone Conference. And the four of us are going down early and going to the temple on Thursday, I am too excited! Usually your zone goes every other transfer. But we don't get to go because we are so far! But we got permission! I'm too excited! I miss being able to go to a handful of different temples. Can't wait to do that again. I loved temple sessions with mom and dad!

Two Baptisms: Shantel and Goodwill September 1, 2014

Turner and Goodwill

Turner, Goodwill, and Shantel

Turner and Shantel

Malapula, Turner, Goodwill, and Shantel

Gogo Sophie and Shantel

Anyway. This week was good. We had two baptisms yesterday. They both asked for Elder Malapula. Which was fine with me. But it was Goodwill and Shantel. Goodwill has been taught for a LONG time. He had a problem with smoking and finally quit. I am super happy he got baptized. He is 22 but still in tenth grade. Odd thing about school system here, all grades, except twelfth, you just re-do until you pass. 

Then there was Shantel. Lives with her Gogo. Finally convinced her mom to let her get baptized. Which is sweet. She is only thirteen, but super smart. She will be a powerful convert. 

Transfers. I am staying with Elder Malapula in KaNyamazane. I think I just mentally prepared myself to leave so much that it felt kind odd that I didn't leave. But I am very happy about it. I just hope I continue to get along with Elder Malapula. He drives me crazy sometimes, but I have been trying SO hard to be kind and patient. 

To week hasn't really been that eventful. Like really, nothing happened. I hope that you aren't frustrated with the fact that this is short. But I honestly don't have much to say. 

However I do miss you A TON. But I keep thinking, time keeps moving. Each day the two year time is getting shorter and shorter! Haha! But I love you a ton. I seriously feel so bad that this is so short. But I really have like not much to say. 

Oo. I am thinking really hard to find things to tell you. So I have been drawing again. Which means I have been doodling again. Cause I can't draw real things. So you will al be getting a personalized doodle page not too far in the future! Haha! Doodling keeps me from wanting to kill people! 

Again, I love you and miss you like crazy. I will send pictures of the baptism hopefully next week. Emailing now consists of the four of us at the swans. Three on iPads and one on a computer. So I want get to have the opportunity to send pictures until it's my turn on the computers. 

Love you tons! 

Service brings about Strange Happenings August 25, 2014

Mother Dearest, (I hope you heard the sarcasm in that name. Not because it's not true, but because I don't ever call you that).

So things are going good. I feel like I had a lot to say. Especially after reading your email. But now that I am actually typing I feel at a loss for words. First however, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT TREVOR GOT HIS CALL! Where is he going? I've just been sitting over here in my own little corner of the world thinking that it hasn't even come yet. And now he is leaving! Haha! Also, Thomas Garrison, I think I heard where he is going, but a refresher would be nice!

I am glad that you got the letter. it was another one of those things that I thought I had a lot to write about in an actual letter, but then when I started writing, my mind blanked. Which is kind of what is happening now, so I hope that this doesn't just sound like babbling.

Alright. This week had been prettay carazay! Haha!

So first. we have been doing a lot of service. Which is sweet. A while back I wrote about a family that has kids that are members, but we are working to get the parents married and baptized. But, anyway. We have been helping them. They are adding onto their house, so we built a foundation! The way they do it is odd, I mean, I say that like I know how we do it in the states! Haha! But, they built bricks up and then filled it with as many boulders as they could. And then rocks, and then sand, and then they get it wet, so it all sinks down. But we have basically just been helping them carry boulders. Elder Swan was talking about how it was odd that they used rocks and didn't just fill it all with sand. And of course I started singing the wise man and the foolish man. I mean, that is a pretty good doctrinal reason if I do say so myself! Haha! I sound like a weird missionary.

Here is another service thing we had. This one was a lot more interesting. So there is this lady, Patricia. She was baptized in January, and has been less active ever since. But we go visit her. But we offered to paint her garage for her. So we went over one morning to paint her garage. So we get there, and she isn't there yet. But like two days before her two children, in their twenties had come home. Her son, who is twenty four has been at Sangoma Initiation school. So basically he has been studying to be a witch doctor. Anyway. We got there and they were burning something. And he was dressed like you would think a witch doctor would look, minus any bones through his neck. Haha! But then Patricia gets home, with a friend. The friend said that Patricia had been acting weird. But that was pretty much it. But she was talking a TON. And she is usually a pretty quiet lady. But she goes inside and we start painting. So anyway. The door into the house is open. And we can see in. Then randomly Patricia starts running around screaming and mumbling odd words. And she is like fifty years old. Anyway. She keeps running in and out of the house. While the son is chasing her around chanting with this giant stick. But they get her in the house. She is still screaming, and they lock all of the doors. She is screaming for about an hour. We finish painting and then go around to the back of her house to wash the brushes. But she is back there. Not screaming, but still talking way more than she usually does. She starts telling us about how God came and planted a tree in  her backyard. Anyway. Then she tells us everything that she had already told us that day. It was like she had it memorized. We finally got out of the place. But then we went back for a lesson that night. Still WAY weird. The spirit that was there was definitely not the Holy Ghost. Malapula keeps acting like we need to go back. But I have basically told him there is no way I will go back there. It isn't something we should mess with. And Elder Swan and our Branch President agree. So yeah. Crazy stuff.

Now I would like to share an odd tidbit. So our first counselor in our branch presidency's name is Zack. We went to visit him. He is a nice guy. Single. Talks a lot. I really like him though. Anyway. As he was talking all I could picture was King Julian from Madagascar. THEY HAVE THE EXACT SAME VOICE! All I could think of was, "He is carrying scissors and hand cream!" (if you don't understand the reference, please refer to my assistants in awkwardness, Matthew or Rachel). But instead of that he was saying "They are all jealous. Jealous of our Jesus Christ". He was referring to people being jealous of our church's name.

Lastly. The N'kosi family. The family with the daughter that has hydrocephaly. So their son died in a car accident earlier this year. They don't have transport to get to the grave. So we told them we would take them. It was FAR. But I was very thankful that we did. It was a very tender thing. To help them clean the area. And then watch them do some of the traditional things. But it was sweet to see them. I mean, sad, but still the spirit was there. It was a very tender moment that I can not describe, but I was just very happy that I was able to share the moment with such a beautiful family.

So transfers are coming up. We will find out if someone is leaving this coming Saturday. I will most likely leave. But we will see. I love this place so much! I don't want to leave! But we will see what happens. It is odd, like you said in your email, how much I have come to love these people and this place. I don't want to leave. But we will see.