Monday, May 8, 2017

May 8 letters

To Mom:

I have made myself a goal to get a 4.0 in college.  I don't know if I will be able to do it and maybe I'll get wrecked but mission and especially South Africa has really taught me a lot about being a hard worker.  

This week President Merrill came to our branch for church, which was pretty cool.  It was a really powerful testimony meeting.  One of the prominent brothers in the ward, brother M, bore a really cool testimony.  Apparently, he is the person that translated the Book of Mormon into Lingala, which is the language of the Congo.  He said the day he finished and submitted the translation, is the same day he met his wife.  He has the best family.  There is 11 people that live with him that all rely on him for money and clothes and everything. 
The sad thing is that his family, the M's, got evicted from their house last week.  They were eating dinner, and a bunch of drunk people just walked into their house and started moving things outside.  There were some heated and angry words that night, and a lot of drunk people who were absolutely raging drunk and beyond reason which was funny.  We were actually there, and it was sad because they were all saying horrible things about the church, and the M's were very angry which gave the church a bad image.  They ended up staying in their house for the night, but the next morning we helped them move to a new place.  President M, the branch president, organized them a new house to live in which they will stay permanently.  

The next day we helped the young men's president paint his new place.  Afterwards he bought us a smiley (Sheep head)  It was Elder Greengrass' and Elder Hernandez' first time eating smiley so they were very queasy.  Elder Greengrass almost threw up it was really funny.  Of course I'm a seasoned vet at eating smiley so it was no problem for me haha :)
It's weird though, being in SA, because I eat way more things haha.  When I go home you guys are going to think I'm way weird because I always eat bones and stuff hahaha.


Next Sunday S is finally getting baptized, so I will be sure to send pictures of that.  

To Dad:

The Branch verse Branch soccer game was really funny because we played on a dirt field.  Like it was literally dirt.  So it was really hard to do anything except wack the ball and run.  I did have a couple of really sweet shots though.  My shooting and finishing has really improved since I came to SA.  

May 1 letters

To Mom:

I'm sorry that I haven't sent pictures.  Unfortunately I haven't taken a single picture in about 2 months.  I am sorry. I will repent and try to improve.

This week has been really easy for me.  It went by so fast.  Me and Elder Mabanga have the spirit with us so much because we have perfect companionship unity it's so awesome.  We taught a lot of lessons this week and we had the spirit so much.  We found a perfect father led family with 3 kids that came to church last Sunday.  The dad's name is N.  Too bad though they didn't come to church yesterday so we went to check up on them and we found out that N had been drinking Mqomboti which is African beer.  He was really drunk.  We were so disappointed.  He told us that he didn't want to drink it but he had no choice because it is his culture and he can't go against his culture.  Some things about African culture and tradition are very wicked and annoying.  Oh well.  He will certainly still progress.  He always talks about the church in terms of his church and not our church.  We'll just have to smack him around a little bit and teach him the word of wisdom. 

S is doing so well too.  We had to postpone her baptism because she had difficulty quitting smoking.  Ever since her interview she has perfectly lived the word of wisdom.  That's really exciting because she is going to be baptized on May 14.  She is really progressing as good as it is possible to progress.  She has read the Book of Mormon all the way up to Alma.  I gave her some books to read too.  Our Search for Happiness and Believing Christ and she finished both of those.  She's also reading the 4 gospels now too.  Every time we visit her I feel the spirit it's so great. 

Our branch mission leader is a guy called K.  He's my age and we are really tight.  Anyway we told him to get us more DAs and he talked to his mom who is the Relief Society president and she organized us a DA for every single day this week.  From now on we may have a DA every day.  That would be crazy.  Me and Elder Mabanga are going to redouble our efforts to run every day haha :)


Today Langa branch is taking on Mandalay branch in soccer.  We are going to kill them.  Elder Mabanga is also really good at soccer. 

To Dad:

Man speaking in church is the best.  It's my favorite thing ever.  I'm sure you smashed it.