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!