So the reason I didn't really write good emails at the mtc
is because it was honestly not that interesting and nothing
really cool happened. Although there was a really cool story. so
the haircut guy came the last day we were there and me and Elder Ivins got to
go first because my hair was so long. So we got down there and we decided
to buzz our head. And so we both did it and it looked so bad and so we
went back to everybody and we were like "everybody join buzz crew"
and we didn't think it would actually happen but then everybody else at
the mtc buzzed their head. There were only 6 people who didn't out of 30
it was so funny. I will send you pictures but Elder Ivins has them on his
camera so bear with me for just one more week. Or I'm sure you'll get
them all from Elder Ivins mom because apparently you guys are best friends or
something. So that was the mtc.
I will answer all of your questions
now.
- spiritual experience at the mtc: We sang Army of Heleman with everyone one night and it was powerful. When we got to the mission home we sang a bunch of songs and we sang that one again like four times and it was super spiritual.
- What personal changes have I made? Probably none in the mtc but since I've been on mission I've been a little bit more serious but not too much. Also very obedient.
- What cool speakers were there? No speakers but we listened to a lot of really cool talks by Elder Holland. They love him there. They were all good but it was nothing that special because It was just conference talks and stuff
- Were there any SA missionaries? Yes a ton of the missionaries in Cape Town are from Africa. Like probably 30 percent or something. In the MTC there were 2. Elder Mohlahatsa who was my homie. He was awesome. And Sister Shongwe who was cool too.
- Is the MTC only for SA? no there are about 10 countries that go through the SA MTC and also they teach Malagasy for anyone going to Madacascar. A bunch of people at the MTC were going to Zimbabwe and Kenya and Uganda
- Sister Missionaries. There were 3 at the MTC going to Zimbabwe and Uganda. They were pretty good. There are no sisters in SA
- How many missionaries are here? 105
- Do you leave the same day? yes you were right they all do (Here's the actual questions: Does everyone enter the MTC on the same day and leave the same day? You said there were 29 missionaries and you all knew each other, so I can only assume that you all enter and leave the same day and then a new batch comes in right after that.)
- Teachers? Yes they are all from SA
- Where do we go to church? At the MTC we went to church in one of the classrooms and it was pretty lame. All the speakers were just kids at the MTC
- Why were me and Elder Ivins in the basement by yourselves? I don't know maybe it was timeout but it was awesome. We had our own space and at night everyone came into our room anyway
- Health policies? SA is not dangerous at all so none. I don't wear shower sandals either it's pretty much a first world apartment. and we get fed by the people about every day
- dangers? The mission is not very dangerous. Although we have been told if we do get mugged just comply and give them what they want and you'll get another one
So I am serving in Mdantsane but we live in East
London. We commute 30 minutes to get to the area every day.
It's super awesome. They call Mdantsane the land of milk and honey
because everyone here seems desperate to hear what we have to say.
There's some really powerful people. Everybody lives in these tiny
homes. Some are a couple rooms which are nice but some are like tin
shacks with barely enough space for a bed and a tv. They still have a massive shiny satellite dish stuck to a pole outside their shack though.
It's pretty hilarious.
We teach about 8 lessons every day and I have
never been rejected. Every person I see waves at me and smiles and if I
say we have a message about Jesus Christ they'll invite me in to share
it. A lot of people are just at home all day long because they don't have
jobs. The culture is really cool. Mostly nobody has a car so they
walk to church every week or some people sacrifice a lot to take taxis if they
live too far to walk.
Every single person is black and their first
language is always Xhosa. Xhosa is one of the official languages of SA
and it is a clicking language. The X in Xhosa makes a clicking
sound. It's really cool and I think I will probably learn how to speak it
on mission.
Something weird about mission is that we always always have
to have a fellowshipper. So there's a couple of guys from the ward that
come with us for like 8 hours a day. One guy is named Achuma but the ch
make a clicking sound and it sounds more like Atuma. He barely got
baptized a couple weeks ago and now he is like our best friend and he comes
with us about 3 times a week.
One of the coolest people we have taught yet
is a guy named Abulele. He reads the Book of Mormon every day and he
really has a testimony. He's going to be baptized on the 9th of October
but he has been struggling to come to church. So yesterday we went to his
house and showed him some scriptures in Alma 32 and Ether 12:6 and basically
said he has to sacrifice for God and when he does then he will know what he did
was right. We basically said Church and God have to be your absolute
first priority. The spirit was so strong and he was crying it was so
awesome. He will definitely be a powerful member of the church. I
could see him being the bishop or something like that.
The church is
really strong here. There are 9 stakes in my mission so if we get one
more we could get a temple. That would be amazing. If any stake
splits it will be ours. Our area is blowing up.
My companion is
Elder Greengrass. He's so awesome. He just barely got
trained. I'm the only companion he's had besides his trainer, but he's
super prepared for mission. Mission President says he's one of the best
simple teachers in the mission and I agree. It's hard to teach some
people because a lot of people don't have very good English, but he's super
good at teaching simply so they understand. He's a musical genius too.
He is legitimately the best singer I have ever met.
Church was really
cool. There was this less active girl we taught and we told her she
needed to come to church and we saw her at church and it just made my
day. I taught Gospel Principles which was a lot easier than teaching it
in Utah because nobody had a really deep understanding of doctrine.
Priesthood was really interesting though because people would say 2
sentences in English and then switch to Xhosa for like 5 minutes. I didn't really
get much out of it haha I was kind of falling asleep.
Mdantsane is a
really beautiful place. The pictures I take don't really turn out but you
should google it. It's amazing it's just rolling hills and millions of
trees and it's so green.
Anyway mission has been super great so far
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