KaNymazane District

Is it Immortality or Immorality?     June 22nd

I am glad that the Hunt's had good things to say. I try to do my best here and help as much as I can. I hope they see that. Well I know they do. They told me that the branch has been better since I got here.
So it's nice to see that they see when I am doing.

Let me see. Questions. No I still haven't received your package. I really hope that I do! I have been longing for some Melatonin these last couple of night. I have had a lot on my mind, and have found it hard to get it out so I can sleep. But I have been okay.

I haven't yet received the things Brother Davies brought. The AP's will be here tomorrow, and the Zone Leaders will be here on Friday. So I hope that one of them will bring it. Hopefully Brother Davies has dropped it off at the mission office already.

This week has been pretty good. Nothing too eventful. I do have a family I want to tell you about. The N'kosi's. My heart goes out to them. It just reminds me how blessed I truly am. Anyway. They are a young couple. Less active. They have been members for about two years and are less active because they both have to work. Anyway. This last March they lost their son in a car crash. Very tragic. He was on his way to a funeral. And died. Anyway. They also have a four year old daughter. She has Hydrocephaly. So her head is filled with water. They took her to a "natural healer" or a sangoma or a with doctor basically. Anyway. The Hunt's convinced them to take her to a real doctor. They put a pipe in her head to help. Because if you don't know, which I am sure you do, Hydrocephaly is when their head is filled with fluid and it is WAY enlarged. Anyway. They don't know if the pipe will work. Or if the girl will even live much longer. They are an adorable little family. I love going to see them. But it is still hard. I have to hold back tears every time we go. Anyway. We are just trying to help them remember that Heavenly Father loves them and hasn't forgotten them.

Let's see. We also have some random funny things happen at church. For instance my first Sunday here, this old Gogo (grandma) got up twice to bear her testimony. The second time it was to tell us that everyone needed to get married! Haha! Also whenever someone gives a talk, they basically just pick a chapter in the Gospel Principles book and read it to the congregation! Baha! The language difference is funny as well. They read some English words totally different. And get confused between words. For example we learned this last week, that "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the IMMMORALITY and eternal life of man". Didn't know that He was trying to bring to pass immorality! Haha! It was very hard to stop ourselves from laughing!

Sometimes I think this branch is going to fall apart if missionaries ever are taken out of the area. The Elders Quorum president basically just thinks we should do everything for him. So this past week we watched some talks from the last Priesthood session. So we had to lug around this HUGE ancient TV and DVD player. Anyway. We get there and he says to me, "So which talks are we watching and how long are they". I just told him I didn't know. I mean, it wasn't my lesson. Ugh. Anyway. He says, "I told you to watch them so I could know how long they were!". I  just looked at him and said, remember, we are busy. We didn't have time to watch all of priesthood session again. I am sorry. I know I probably should have been more patient and kinder. But it was frustrating. That is like the hundredth time he has gotten mad at me for something stupid like that.

Anyway. This week has been good. This coming week we will be busy. The AP's will be here tomorrow. Then on Wednesday we are doing exchanges with the Nelspruit Elders so Elder Brackett can interview two people who are planning to get baptized on Sunday. Then on Friday the Zone Leaders will be here for splits. This week will probably fly by because if will be different from the every day schedule. That's always nice.

I love you so much mom. Thank  you for all you do. I miss you like crazy! Can't wait till I get to see you again! I love you more than words can describe!

Father's Day - June 16th

Okay for this week. We drove to transfers again this past week. It was good. We slept at the mission home again. Elder Rako and I both had a chance to interview with President Omer again. It was so nice. He is such an amazing man. I am going to miss him. But I am excited for President and Sister Dunn to get here. Sounds like the farewell was pretty great. Wow. This is getting off topic. Anyway. Transfers. It was great to see people I saw Elder Roybal. He was in my MTC group. I really like him. He's from California. Like fifteen minutes outside of Oceanside! Where we stay all the time! (Well the past couple of times we have been there) Anyway. I also got to talk to Elder Wilkinson again. Which is always nice. Want to hear something funny though? So you know how I had the Zone Leader, and the whole awkward hug experience. Well he is now Elder Wilkinson's companion! Haha! So funny!

Okay. Here is something I always love. So Elder Brackett got his backpack stolen as well. He had all of his previous areas and peoples contacts from those areas stolen. So we got permission to go see a couple of them on our way to transfers. Anyway. People guessed that I was European. And were like amazed when I told them that I wasn't! haha! So yeah. I'm pretty cool that way. I mean, I don't know why I find that cool, but I do.

Let's see. What else. So Elder Brackett got his new companion. His name is Elder McClellan. He is from Washington. I think Sister Hunt, Elder Rako and I are all sitting here trying to remember. But I am pretty sure that is where he is from. 

 

So here is some interesting side news. So the black people love white Americans. I have had some interesting experiences with that. Some marriage proposals. From Peace's sister Thandeka. She is kind of crazy. But it's funny. Anyway. But I have also gotten marriage proposals from the boys for Rachel! Haha! They all ask if I have a little sister and say that they are going to marry her. So watch out Rach! You have people all the way around the world that want to date you! Haha!

Let's see. I don't think much else has happened. We get to go meet the Dunn's on July Second. So we will be driving up for that. I am excited. So I will get the stuff from Brother Davies then or our Zone Leaders are coming down here on the Twenty Seventh. So I will honestly probably get it then. But I am very excited and grateful for that!

Hmm. Well I don't have much more news. But I love you so much! I miss you like crazy! But I know I am doing to right thing. And it is also nice that the time is going by pretty quick. I mean, I love it here. But I miss my amazing family! I love you more than I can describe!

June 9th

Let me see. I will try to answer all questions first, and then talk about the week. So first. Gospel Conversations have to be with someone new. It can turn into a lesson, but a regular lesson with a person you have already taught before doesn't count. So like tracting, that is gospel conversations. I hope that sheds a little more light on that subject.

I think Elder Rako thinks some of the things that I think are funny are funny. But some things he doesn't think are funny. I guess that is one of the results of growing up in such a different way of life! And that is what makes it hard sometimes. Even our humor doesn't match up.

American names. Yes. But they are basically just American words, not names! Haha! Like the people named Goodwill, Surprise, Lulu, Princess, Prince, etc. Those are their American names. Then they all have African names as well. Like Goodwill's name is Bongani. Pretty weird. Like some of the names here are really odd. Well the American names. Like Patience, Peace, Service, etc. Yeah. That is what they consider names. I guess TIA (this is Africa).

Johannesburg was great! The drive was LONG. It's like driving to St. George. It's about four and a half hours. We went to a China mall, the Distribution Center, and the Sandton City Mall. The Sandton mall is HUGE! Like I am pretty sure it goes on forever. It was SUPER nice. Anyway. Then we slept at the mission home. Well. Basically I laid in a bed all night at the mission home. Not much sleeping happened. Zone Conference was great. As you know, President Omer and his wife are leaving. On the 29th? Maybe the 30th. Anyway, so this was the last time. It was great to be there. I love going to Zone Conferences. They are always great motivators. It was also nice to see people. Elder Wilkinson was there. I talked to him for a while. Good to get to catch up with him. I miss him. I also got to see Elder Rushton, one of my two MTC companions. And Elder Roybal from the MTC as well. We got to talk for a while it was nice. I also saw all of the Elders in my last district. That was nice.

Now here is the downer about Zone Conference. So we first, driving back down. Being with the other Elders was nice, but then leaving back to my own corner of hell kind of sucked. But anyway. We stopped at a McDonald's to go to the bathroom. While we were inside, someone broke into our car and stole some stuff! They took three backpacks. Mine, Elder Rako's and Elder Brackett's. In mine I had quite a few things. First, the backpack, also I lost a new pair of shoes I had bought like three days earlier, my suit pants, a long sleeved white shirt, the tie dad got me from Italy, socks, one of my t-shirts, my Under Armour shorts, my Nike sandals, and all of my toiletries. Which consisted of toothpaste, toothbrush, razor, shaving cream, gel, deodorant, and the cologne that Taylor got me for Christmas. You could say I was/am pretty upset. So now I have had to try and replace everything. That is why you will notice that there has been a decrease in my account. Because there is not enough money allotted to us each month to replace those things! The hardest will be my suit pants. Because they are kind of a weird color. And they will probably be kind of expensive to replace. I also want to replace the sandals fairly quickly, because walking around our flat bare foot pretty much makes me want to vomit. Oh, I also lost a watch.

Transfers. Nothing is happening to Elder Rako and I. We are still together in our own little cozy corner of Hell. I honestly wasn't expecting anything to happen. But all of the sudden, a couple of days before the transfer news came (news comes on Saturday night before the Tuesday transfer) Elder Brackett and Elder Rako decided that Rako had a large chance of leaving. They talked about it so much, that I kind of started to believe it. But then when transfer news came, Elder Rako and I are staying together. Anyway. We are driving down to Johannesburg today with Elder Brackett and Elder Mukasa because Mukasa is leaving. So we will sleep at the mission home tonight and then transfers will happen tomorrow. It will be nice to get to see everyone again.

Alright. I hope that I answered all of the questions, and that I answered them thoroughly enough.

So let's start with this week. So Tuesday was pretty uneventful. Didn't really do very much. Then Wednesday we went to transfers. Drove around Johannesburg, and did all of those things that I mentioned before. Then Thursday was Zone Conference. Again, see above stories about Zone Conference. Oh! Except there was something sad on my end as well. So Elder Wilkinson told me that a guy in Vereeniging died. His name is Casper. He owned a restaurant called Bunnies Bite. Anyway. He was pretty inactive because he worked every Sunday at the Restaurant. But for years he has been feeding the missionaries for free every Friday after district meeting. Anyway. The last week we went, he wasn't feeling well. So he asked for a blessing. Turns out a couple days after, he died. I was the one that gave the blessing and I remembered a kind of odd feeling. Like he wasn't going to get better. But I didn't really think much of it, because the feeling was faint. Anyway it was an odd thing to find out that the last blessing I gave was to someone that died very soon after. I didn't really know how to feel. Oh, I also got my package from Reggie. Fun to get those. I am sure that I will be getting yours fairly soon!

So. Friday was pretty uneventful as well. We went to the mall after district meeting. Mostly to start replacing things that were stolen from us. Saturday we went to Seminary. The Hunts teach seminary and like us to come. So we can help, and then we get to know the kids better. It is always fun to go and be around them! And I have been mentally preparing myself, because the Hunts are leaving in August, and they don't know if there will be a senior couple to replace them. So if there isn't, the missionaries will be teaching seminary. Of course, the one job that I always said I would never do! Haha! But it would actually be a pretty fun and interesting experience.

Saturday night we went to this family's house. Their kids are members. The mom wants to be, but she and the husband aren't actually married. Here you have to pay Lebola. Which basically the husband has to pay the wife's family a LOT of money. So in the end, people just move in and start a family with out paying lebola. But she can't be baptized if they aren't legally married. Anyway, they like to feed us. And the wife, Sonia is a really good cook. But they eat a lot of fish. Which I like. Apparently it is Angel fish that I have eaten there. And basically, I don't think that they bones all get cleaned out and the skin stays on. That is how fish is eaten here. Yeah. And chicken actually. Africans eat chicken bones. It is a very different experience at KFC here than it is at home! Haha! Anyway. This week they gave us this fish that had like everything on still. Head, tail, skin. yeah. Luckily, I only at the angel fish, which is breaded and nice.

Sunday was nice. We had the confirmations. They were kind of odd though. Our branch is really different! Haha! Elder Hunt is the Second Counselor and is there to help guide the ward a bit!

Today should be interesting. A lot more driving. Back down to Johannesburg. It should be fun to see everyone. We have a farewell lunch for Elder Mukasa at the Hunt's. Which is exciting. Because Sister Hunt is a really good cook!

Some last news. Elder Rako's family situation is not very good at the moment. His dad lost his job, and his mom has been really sick, and hasn't been getting better. I know we aren't supposed to do this. But we are going to fast for his family this Wednesday. And for him. He doesn't know if he should go home or not. But anyway. His situation is sad. I feel so sad that he doesn't have much to go back to. Especially since I have such a great situation to go back to. So if you or dad feel like it, you could fast with us on Wednesday. I know that is kind of a hard thing for me to ask you. You don't have to. But I don't know what else to do to help him. I feel so helpless.

Anyway. I love you so much and miss you like crazy. Thank you for all that you do. I love you!

Two Wonderful Things: Baptisms and Oreos June 2, 2014

Could there be any more delicious treat from home! Thanks to Taylor:)

So great to hear from you. Good to hear the news of the family. Since a lot of it I don't hear from the siblings! But it is fine. This way I don't stress about writing everyone back. But Rachel has sent me some pretty funny emails lately. Haha! She told me that she is stills ending me Snap Chats so I will have a ton to look through when I get home! She is so funny!

At the mall I bought protein powder and laundry detergent. I figured it would be good for me to get some protein powder. I don't think I am getting all of the nutrients I need. The protein has helped.

Okay. Let's see. This week. Let's start with Tuesday. So a new stat, or goal, that President Omer has given us is to have 5 "Gospel Conversations" every day. So basically the areas that have to do tracting, it actually shows that they are working. But anyway. It has been frustrating to try and find the right time to do it, and motivate ourselves to, especially since our investigator pool is pretty full. Anyway. On Tuesday we set out to meet the quota of five for the day. We were driving into the area, and drove past a guy sweeping his porch. Elder Rako kept driving, but then turned around. Told me that he wanted to talk to the guy. So we went and talked to him and his wife. Which was great that they were married, because most people aren't here. Especially because they have this thing called Lebola where they have to pay the wife's family a ton of money. So people just move in together and don't actually get legally married.  Anyway. We taught. It was a good lesson. When we left, we discussed how we both had a very distinct impression that we needed to go back and talk to him. Great experience.

Interesting experience number two. So during our "Gospel Conversations" time. We found this older couple. Anyway. We didn't really plan on going back to visit them. I mean, they weren't first on the list. But then the wife called us and asked when we were coming back to "pray for them". (people here think that's what we do) Anyway. We went back and only the husband was home. We started teaching and all of the sudden he stood up and took his pants off! He had boxers on, but still! Anyway, something was bugging his leg and he was trying to figure out what it was. So we were just sitting there awkwardly, not knowing what to do with this old wrinkly man standing in front of us with out his pants on! Bahah! So funny. Finally we were just like, "uhh..we need to go". Haha!

We also had some frustrations this week. So we had the four prepared to be baptized this last Sunday. We go to visit Alex and Mandela (the two nineteen year old friends). Anyway. Alex tells us that his mom won't let him get baptized. She said that he was baptized by a "white man" in Mozambique when he was a baby, and that you can't get baptized twice! They trouble was that he was legally old enough to sign his own baptism papers, but he hasn't graduated high school yet. (still grade 11. People here just stay in school until they pass) Anyway. She said that since he was still living with her, he couldn't get baptized, but that he was welcome to when he moved out after finishing high school. So Alex, sadly, didn't get baptized.

This is what a portable font looks like!

Mandela was baptized by Elder Hunt

Turner and Rako with Mandela

Father and son, George and Pascal

Baptismal Group

The Branch

Richards and Rako

However, we had three wonderful baptisms. Mandela was baptized by Elder Hunt. And then I was asked to baptize George and Pascal. Such a cool experience. It was odd at the same time though. We have a "portable font". Basically..well I don't know how to explain. I will send a picture! Anyway, it was just outside of the school. Everyone sat outside for the service. It was great though. After the baptisms, the new members get the chance to bear their testimonies. It was great! The three of them bore powerful testimonies of how they knew it was the true church and how it had changed their life. George was very thankful. He used to be a heavy alcoholic I guess. But with help from the missionaries he has stopped. His wife even told us how thankful she was, because George has changed so much! Too bad she has "her own church" and won't listen to us.

Anyway. Here was good news. Mandela's family came. We have been teaching his sister. Like just started. Like one lesson. So she isn't on date or anything. But she told us that she wanted to be baptized! Her name is Nomagogo (Cynthia). Anyway. Mandela's mom was there. She has her own church as well. But she is very supportive of her children. She was SO excited for Mandela to get baptized. Hopefully after Cynthia does as well she will open her heart a little and listen to the missionaries! She also told Elder Rako that she as going to talk to Alex's mom and tell her that she is being stupid about the whole baptism thing. So hopefully we will be able to get him baptized on the 29th.

We have also been teaching a kid. Thobekani. He knows a lot about the Bible. Anyway. Smart kid. I really like him. We haven't even talked about baptism with him yet. But he told us that he wanted to be baptized soon! So cool!

So on the 29th we should have more baptisms. Two girls named Nunu and Hlengiwe. And a kid named Elvis and then hopefully Alex. Nunu and Hlengiwe are very quiet. But their guardian is a member, and has really pushed them to be baptized. Hopefully they will be ready. Nunu will, but Hlengiwe is sometimes a little too preoccupied with the boys. Elvis has shown a lot of growth. His Gogo (grandma) is a recent convert. Anyway. Super excited for him!

Exciting news about next week. We have Zone Conference. So we have to drive down to Joburg on Wednesday, so we will make it for the meeting on Thursday! So Wednesday night we stay at the mission home. We are planning to leave early on Wednesday so we can explore Joburg a little bit! I am excited for that! Anyway. It will be fun to be in a little bit of a bigger place. Somewhere not so far out of the way!

Also. Transfer news comes this Saturday night! There has been a lot of talk about what will happen. (the transfer ends June 10th) Anyway. So we think one of the four of us will be getting transferred. So we will drive down to the mission home again on Monday, stay the night and then be there for Tuesday's transfers. We will see though. I feel like Elder Rako and I will stay together for another transfer. And then he will leave. But we will see. He is worried he will be leaving this transfer. But we will see! Anyway. Not much else to report on. At least I don't think!

Oh. Here is another interesting tidbit! Nothing important. But thought I would share! So there are a TON of orange...farms? orchards? Anyway. There are a ton of them here! So this past week I finally took advantage of that! I bought some oranges! They are SO good! Like usually when you buy oranges there are a couple in the pack that aren't that great. But they are all delicious here! I think I might turn orange from how many I have been eating! Haha! Mmm. Oranges with cheese. So good. Anyway. That is all. Love you!

Watch out or you'll get PICKPOCKETED!!! May 26, 2014

First. I would love a couple pictures! I want to see what dad looks like! I have heard he looks quite different! Taylor did send a package and it had a little 4x6 of our family picture! That is nice to have! Actually she sent a whole bunch of pictures! It was great to get them! Good to see everyone's faces again! Haha! It also makes talking to companions about people a lot easier because now I have pictures so they can connect faces with stories! It makes it more interesting!

Anyway. I heard you guys went trail running while in Ely! I am so jealous of that! I also heard of your snake experience! Yuck! That is not cool! I would love to go train running here, but first, Elder Rako doesn't really work out! I guess he used to run marathon's back home, but he doesn't want to run anymore. So there has been no running for me since I left Elder Wilkinson. It is odd, and probably something you probably would have never expected to hear from me, but I miss running! Probably because there is no way I can go swimming, so running is the next closest! Haha! But I am sure there are great places to go trail running here. But the problem is snakes. In SA there are these snakes called Black Mamba's and I guess Green Mamba's too. But they are very poisonous. And there are supposedly a ton in my area. I have yet to see one, which makes me very happy. I would probably never leave our flat if I saw one. So it's good that I haven't! Blessings from heaven?

Okay. Next. We have exchanges again this week. I went back to Nelspruit with Elder Mukasa this time. Because Elder Brackett had to interview our baptismal candidates. Anyway. The split was fine. Nothing too exciting. But I did miss KaNyamazane again.

The next excitement happened on..Well I guess it was the morning that we switched companions for the exchange. We were at the grocery store with our branch president. He had to pick up food for a family in the branch. Anyway. We went early in the morning. So we weren't dressed up. I was just in sweats and a hoodie. I was picking up some food as well. I had a bunch of stuff in my arms and this kid came and talked to me. All of the sudden he was talking about pants and then he was like feeling mine. I don't really know. I was kind of annoyed because I was trying to pick out a candy bar, and that needed my full concentration! Plus he didn't speak English too well, so I didn't want to carry on the conversation too badly. Anyway, I looked down at what he was doing to my pants. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw someone watching. So I looked. It was only Elder Rako. But by the time I looked back down at my pants. The kid had stopped. And he just walked away. I grabbed my candy bar and then felt my pocket. Realizing that I had been totally oblivious to what he was actually doing. He was pick-pocketing me! He stole our phone! Luckily it wasn't my wallet with my cards, money, license and copy of my passport! But still!

Anyway. That was dramatic. But in the end, it all worked out. The Zone Leaders were making the long journey down to KaNyamazane to give us the Zone Meeting details that they had given the week before, and to go on splits with Nelspruit and us. So they just brought us a new phone. It was good to have the miniature Zone Meeting. It was a good motivation to work harder. We needed it. Basically Elder Rako has been having a rough time because he is so close to going home. (Only about three months) and his uncle who has been serving in Ivory Coast is going home today. So he has been struggling to find motivation. But this was a good motivator for me, and hopefully we will start working harder this week. That has been my goal. To work harder. There is a lot of time that is being wasted. And I don't like that. The thing we need to realize is that the time will go by faster if we are working. And get wrapped up in the work. So I am trying to give Rako a little fire before mine dies out! Haha!

So Zone Leaders. We were with Elder Searle. He is a nice enough kid. From Idaho. He only has one more transfer left. So about one month! Well a little over a month! I guess almost two months. Okay. So he has eight weeks. There we go! Haha! Anyway. One annoying thing. I was working out in the morning. He was as well. But then, in the middle of my workout he comes in and says, "Want a good ab work out?". Umm. No. I don't. What I want is to finish mine. I didn't say that. I just kind of looked at him. So he brings all of this stuff in where I am working out and takes over my workout! The stuff we did was good. But still. Don't disturb me! Haha! No, in reality, it was fine. But just a funny story I guess.

Oh here is a bonus. He fixed our shower! We have been waiting for a plumber. Because the shower was broken. So because I refuse to take baths (because that is pretty disgusting) I have been showering with a cup for the past four weeks. But now the shower is fixed! Hallelujah!

Here was another bright thing from this week. Taylor sent me a package and it arrived! So the ZL's brought it down! I was so happy! So fun to get stuff in the mail! But I basically have just been pigging out the past couple of days on the candy she sent! She also sent a whole bunch of pictures with stuff written on the backs! It was so fun! I love having pictures to actually look at! And memories! To remind me that my life is still happening. That I haven't actually been stuck in this black hole my whole life! Haha! Even if it feels like an eternity some times! Haha! I really do like it here though. Don't worry!

This coming Sunday we should be having four baptisms! George and his son Pascal, and Alex and Mandela! I am excited! They are too! I hope everything goes smoothly! We have a portable font that we use I guess! It has worked, I just hope it works this week! We had eleven people come to church Yesterday. So that was promising! I hope they all continue to grow and learn and love the church like I do!

I am so thankful for this gospel. I am thankful to know that I have a Father in Heaven that loves me and is watching over me and helping me. Especially on the hard days. It is good to feel the little pushes he gives when it feels like I don't feel motivated enough! I am so thankful for the family I have at home and the love and support they give me! Some days I feel like these two years are never going to end. But then I realize that four months have already come and gone! The next few will feel the same. And before I know it, this adventure will be over and I will be home! I just hope I can make the most of this time I have in Africa!

I love you so much mom. I love you and miss you a ton! Especially this past week! But I know, like I said, before we know it I will be home! I love you so much! Thank you for all that you do!

Love,

Turner

Beautiful Hell

More beautiful . . .

And more. . .

Our great missionary!

Highway to hell?

This week has been so much better! I mean, there are still struggles and frustrations, but I have really had an easier week this week.

It all started with Thursday. We were originally having baptismal interviews, but all or our baptisms that were supposed to happen yesterday ended up being moved to the 1st of June. So we didn't do interviews. But we still did exchanges. But because there were no interviews I went to Nelspruit with Elder Brackett. He is the one that is from California. He is also the District Leader. Anyway. When I first got to our area I wished that I was in Nelspruit with Elder Brackett. But during exchanges I realized that I am in the right place with the right companion. It was nice to have that realization. Elder Brackett is super nice, and I like him a lot, but I just realized that Elder Rako is truly meant to be my companion. Also, driving around Nelspruit made me realize that I actually missed KaNyamazane! Who knew I would ever miss that little corner of Hell? Haha! But for real. I never thought I would say that. It was just super nice to come to the realization that I am in the right area with the right companion. I just have to remember that even though it is right, doesn't mean it is going to be easy.

Second. The boys that have been bugging me haven't really bugged me that much lately. Prince, the ring leader, left on his mission his past Thursday. Anyway. I don't know if they do this in every mission or if it is just a thing in ours. But we all have a journal that people write in when we leave. So people from Vereeniging and Elder Wilkinson signed mine. But anyway. Prince signed mine before he left. He had some super nice things to say. It was very nice, and unexpected. But I was glad that I could at least have some sort of positive influence on him before I left, even though I only knew him for about two and a half weeks. Anyway. The other boys have grown on me a lot. There are two that I really like. Thabong and then Peace. Peace doesn't speak English super well, but he is the nicest kid. He has the biggest smile I think I have ever seen. Thabong is nice, and has grown on me a lot. I actually bought some watches from him. They were both eight bucks! So it was nice to get some replacement watches for the one that I had that broke!

Okay. President Omer. I knew there weren't going to be changes in my area or companionship. I just wondered if anything would happen with the Nelspruit elders. Nothing did. President was super busy while he was here. He got here in the late afternoon on Wednesday and left fairly early on Thursday morning. He had to set Prince apart and to some training meetings and a couple of temple recommend interviews. In the end, he didn't get to see any of us while he was here. He did call Elder Rako and I about some of our investigators. KaNyamazane has a problem with modesty. Big time. Anyway, we are teaching these two girls that their aunt or something is a member. Anyway. They have a problem with modesty as well. He just wanted to make sure everything was going okay with us and teaching them. Everything is fine, so we just reassured him. But that was all of the contact we had with him.

The weather. I guess it doesn't really change to much here. As in the winter isn't actually cold. But it has been chillier the past two days. Cloudy and then in the afternoon it starts to cool down. So yesterday and today I have worn a sweater. Really, it is that kind of weather that you could survive with out, but I just figure if I don't wear one, I will end up wishing I had. But overall the weather is nice here.

You could put some work gloves in the stuff for Ty to bring! I forgot about that. Elder Wilkinson had two pairs and they came in handy. Very handy when we moved the poopy fridge and other treasures from that home. And I don't really want to end up going to something like that with out gloves. So it would be nice to have some, and be safe rather than sorry. So like two pairs? They don't have to be super nice or anything, but yeah.

Our investigators. We have four baptisms planned for the 1st of June. Alex and Mandela. They are two teenage boys. They are both really great. We got Mandela's sister to come to church yesterday and she liked it. So hopefully she will keep coming and we will be able to keep teaching her. George and Pascal are also getting baptized on the first. George is the dad and Pascal is the son. They are great. George is pretty smart, but very quiet. Pascal is a good kid. he is probably thirteen or fourteen. I like going to their house. The rest of their family isn't interested, but hopefully with the influence of George and Pascal, one day they will be.

We also have Nunu and Hlengiwe. They are the girls that president talked to us about. They are super quiet. But things seem to be going fairly well. We also have Goodwill, Surprise, and Wandile. They are all coming along fairly well. They just haven't been coming to church lately. So we need to get on that. We started teaching a girl named Sheila. She is in her teens. She has been coming to seminary and church for a while. Rako thought she was a member, but on my first day here, we found out that she isn't. So we have been teaching her. She is smart. Which is nice, to work with someone that understands a little bit more. At this point, those are the investigators worth mentioning.

Hmm. I hope I answered all of your questions. I don't feel like I have much more to tell. Nothing too exciting has happened here. Today we are going to drive around and take pictures of all of the pretty places we have seen! So next week there should be some pictures! This place is beautiful! That would have to be the number one bonus!

Best Mother's Day Gift! So good to talk! (5/12/2014)

 I am so glad that we were able to talk this last week. Saturday was so great. It was kind of a rough day, but then when I got to talk to you that night it melted all of the frustrations away. I looked forward to talking to you again on Sunday. It was great being able to Skype and then to have the chance to talk to you again. I hope you didn't care that I called Taylor and used one of the cards. It was probably good that I didn't use them both for the family though, because then it would have made it harder to say goodbye.

 

I also got to email back and forth with Elder Wilkinson a bit today, so that was good to talk to him.

 

This week has been good and bad, a little bit of both. I have had some good days and some bad days. I don't really know where to start so I will just kind of start typing and see where it goes from there.

 

So this week there has been some drama between the elders. So Elder Brackett and Elder Mukasa have had some troubles. They don't get along at all. Anyway. To spare physicality, Elder Brackett decided to sleep on the couch a couple of nights. Which is obviously against the rules, but if it was preventing him from killing his companion, I mean, it was for a good cause. Anyway. Elder Mukasa called President Omer and told him. President Omer then called Brackett to talk to him about his obedience issues. Anyway. Mukasa and Brackett have not been getting along to say the least. The zone leaders and trying to figure something out, but who knows what will actually happen. There might be some changes made, there might not. We will just have to see what happens!

 

President Omer is coming down tomorrow and Wednesday to take care of some church business and come to some meetings. Originally he wasn't going to have time to see the Elders. Then, because of the whole Brackett Mukasa situation I thought he was going to do interviews - with all of us, but it turns out that if he has time for interviews he will probably not interview Rako and me and just do Brackett and Mukasa. It was a little bit disappointing seeing as I was excited to be able to talk some things through with him. But who knows.

 

On the news of talking with President Omer - I expressed my concerns to him this past week in my email to him. I got an email back. Basically he told me that when he felt impressed to send me here, he knew that it would be followed by hard times for me. He said he knew it would be a special experience for me and that I would be able to do great things here in KaNyamazane. I don't really know how to feel about all of this. Knowing that I was sent here to get over rough times. I know that there are things for me to learn. But I don't know how much I want to learn if it is going to be this hard the whole time! Haha! But I just have to remember that we need to bear our afflictions with patience. Not that this is a huge affliction or anything. But ya know what I mean?

 

On a more positive not. I have a stronger desire to work harder here. I hope that I don't lose that desire. I just want to bury myself and let the time slip away as I get wrapped up in the work here. I have been able to see my purpose as a missionary here. I guess I mean that I have been able to think about and focus more on my purpose as a missionary since I have been here.

 

I am starting to like the area more. I hope that I will continue to see positive things about the area. Mostly I would like some investigators that actually know and understand English. Maybe someone that is over the age of like 15 as well. Yeah. That might be nice. I think that is what I will pray for.

 

I don't really know what else to say about this week. There have been good times though. I have been happier. So don't worry too much about me! :) at least in that sense of things.

 

My companion though. I forgot that you asked about that. So I have had kind of a rough time with him But it is hard being with him. I have tried very hard to find things in common with him. I have tried asking him about things at home and how living in Madagascar is. But it is still hard. At times I wonder if he likes talking about it. Teaching with him is very hard. He doesn't know how to stop talking sometimes. I will try to say something and he will just talk over me. When we teach he doesn't usually let me say very much. And when I do say something he goes back over what I said as if I didn't explain well enough. Even though he uses the exact same words I do. I don't know.

 

The roughest part this week has been the language barrier. I feel like I have a lot to offer as a missionary and teaching the gospel. I know the principles we teach well, and feel confident in teaching. I also feel like my personality helps things come across easier a lot, but here those things don't work. Mostly the people don't understand anything we are saying. Which is very frustrating. I just feel like I have a fire burning, wanting to teach, but it is just stuck inside of me because when I try to let it out the people don't even understand. The hard part is that people agree to being baptized, but I am afraid that they don't actually have a testimony of things. They just know how to answer the questions.

 

Well those were my concerns for the week. Sorry for complaining so much. Thank you for everything though! I love you all so much! It was so good to talk to you! I can't wait for these next seven months to be over so that we can talk again on Christmas! Mom, I love you so much! I can't even express it. Thank you for all you do! I love you!