September 25 letter

Everything was really great this week.  We even had 12 investigators at sacrament meeting which was the most that we've had since I've been here in Uitenhage.  The bishopric is actually going to put in a request to the mission president to have me stay in Uitenhage until next year January.

Today was a public holiday so all of the email shops are closed.  It's called Heritage day which is a really cool holiday because everyone dresses up in their traditional clothes and stuff.  We had a soccer tournament with lots of the wards in the stake.  I'll tell you all about it next week.

I'm emailing at the chapel so I don't have time for more than this 5 minute email but I love you and I'll give you a good email next week. 

September 18 letters

To Mom:

Yeah mission is still going really great.  This week was another amazing week.  

There's a guy called S.  I don't know if I've told you about him, but he's 24 with a great job, he's very intelligent and friends with lots of the members already.  His girlfriend is also a member of the church.  He's definitely a stake leader.  But he's investigating the church and this Saturday we taught him the third lesson which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was such a powerful lesson.  It was amazing and it really touched him.  At the end he prayed and he asked that his baptismal date for October 22nd might be realized.  He was at church yesterday and he talked to all of the leaders.  He might be the investigator that I'm most excited about because he's really committing now to the church and to his baptism and he's one that I know will never fall away. 

I don't know if you remember Brother G.  He's the one that has his own church and he requested a Book of Mormon online.  Well we started teaching his son last Sunday and this Sunday we came to him and he was really troubled.  He told us that he hadn't even touched the Book of Mormon and he felt like the bible was enough for him.  We had such an amazing lesson with him.  We opened the Book of Mormon and read some scriptures with him and we could see his countenance visibly change.  He was so touched and so humbled and at the end he realized what a wonderful thing the Book of Mormon was and he promised to read it. 

We're planning about 10 baptisms for October so soon you should hear about people who were baptized.  We're finally getting our people to church so it's really great.  

There's a less active member called M.  He had a vision about 2 weeks ago showing him all of his sins and showing him that he needs to repent because he's going to be a leader at church.  Anyway he went to the bishop and set a marriage date for November 3rd.  We have been teaching his fiancee and she was at church yesterday and her baptism is set for November 5th. 

Today we went to ride on the elephants.  It was a really cool experience.  They are so massive.  My camera doesn't work right now so that was very frustrating.  But before you lose hope in me don't worry I made sure that I got lots and lots of pictures of me riding them so I'll send them to you next week or the week after as soon as they come in.  But we rode on the elephants and then we went to feed them.  They are really smart so it was a lot of fun.  

The diet and the workout plan is still going strong don't worry.  I know you probably all thought I was going to flake out but it feels too great so don't worry I'll keep it up for as long as I can.  I remember when I was in 8th grade I always hung out with Nathan Wolfherts and I saw that he didn't eat any sugar or oil and he only ate healthy stuff and I told you I was going to do that and I wasn't eating sweet things and you said "Ok Adam"  and it lasted like a day and a half.  But this time I'm way more serious hahaha

To Dad:

Mission is really really flying by right now for me.  I am just trying to do my best.  But I don't have much to say because I only have 5 minutes left and I already said what I wanted to say to you, to mom so just read that but I love you and I want you to know that I really feel like I'm giving it my all right now and I have no regrets at the moment.

September 11 letters

Letter to Mom:

Week 1 of getting shredded has been really nice.  I have been eating so many fruits and vegetables and pretty much I feel good about everything that goes into my body and I've worked out every day but so far I look exactly the same as I did last week.  One more week at least for my 6 pack to come out I think. 

I can't believe all of those natural disasters in America maybe that's going to be the end of the world or something.  There's actually a member family here who feeds us every Friday night and they love to tell us all sorts of prophesies that they find online and stuff it's really funny, but they said that something major is supposed to happen on the 24th of this month so keep your eyes peeled :)

This week was pretty killer again for us.  We pretty much smashed it.  We found lots of new investigators and taught people who are progressing and everything great.  That family that I told you about which is the G family came to church on Sunday.  The whole family stayed for the whole 3 hours which is a family of 5.  As far as I know they really enjoyed church and they have been reading the Book of Mormon.  We're thinking about the 8th of October for their family and if not the 22nd.  We have some other investigators who we want to get baptised in October also.  S is the boyfriend of a member and has lots of friends at church and we committed him to the 22nd.  He has a lot of questions and doesn't want to be bound down to a church but we told him that he must pray and find out for himself that the church is really true.  He promised to study the BoM and come to church and pray so that he can know by the 22nd.  He's actually read 15 pages already. 

We met another girl named N last week.  She's only 18 so we have been trying to be really careful that she knows we are only there to preach the gospel because as soon as she thinks we're her buddies or that we're really cute or something, she will probably lose the chance to gain her own testimony.  It's been really good though she has read to chapter 7 in the Book of Mormon and had some crazy experiences praying to know that it's true.  She promised to come to church next Sunday and we've given her the date of the 22nd. 

We are still teaching R.  He came to church for the 3rd week in a row yesterday so we're going to baptise him on the 8th of october or maybe even the 24th but I don't think so.  He's been reading the BoM a lot though and he's doing great. 

Obviously there's a lot more people that we're teaching but those are the ones I'm really excited about that should be baptised soon. 

There's another sister who we've been teaching for a long time but who isn't close to baptism named Z.  She's pregnant and due in the next month of two.  She said that if she has a boy she's going to name him Adam haha :)  A while ago me and Elder Lillback were talking to her about a name for her baby and I told her I thought the coolest name is Adam and she said yeah it's cool.  She doesn't realize that it's my name though hahaha.  

President Lebethoa is making lots of changes.  He says no skinny pants, no skinny ties, no rolled up sleeves, no playing with children, no funny pictures and a lot of other things about the rules.  The whole mission felt pretty rebuked after MLC when he announced those things and I put away all of my ties except 1 haha.  I did end up buying some shoes though so they are very nice.  This week was the primary program which is the best Sunday of the year always.  It was really nice I felt the spirit and I thought of you and Dad the whole time. 

Letter to Dad:

Every morning for the past 3 or 4 weeks I've just woken up at 6:25 or 6:30 and I don't even need an alarm any more.  I'm really happy about that haha :)

September 4 letters

To Dad:

(Speaking of Training):  The Lord is giving me exactly what he knows I need to learn.  Mostly humility and more importantly charity which is the greatest of all.  I did struggle with my companions before I slowly started to learn more and more how to handle having a companion.  My last companionship with Elder Lillback was perfect and I have no doubt we could have stayed together for as long as needed without argument.  I really think the Lord arranges transfers based on weaknesses not on strengths.  He doesn't give the greatest leaders the greatest leadership responsibilities and down until he gives the most incompetent fools JC for 2 years.  Instead he gives leadership to those who needs leadership and JC to those who need to be humbled.  For me training 3 times is very clearly something that God is trying to teach me.  I believe firmly that he wants to teach me patience for weakness and most importantly Christlike love and Charity.  After everything that I've learned on mission so far I would say that's by far the most important and valuable thing I have tried to learn.

To Mom:

I'm really excited to see that Elder Koch is coming to our mission.  I knew that he was in the South East Africa Area Presidency and I also knew a seventy was coming to our mission so I was really hoping it would be him because that would be really cool.  So yeah that's really exciting news for me he should be coming in October so that will be really awesome. 

There's a missionary in our zone from England (coincidentally Elder Dove's companion) who used to be a professional rugby player and he also went to school to be a personal trainer and he worked professionally as a personal trainer before mission.  His name is Elder Sibiya.  Elder Sibiya has gotten a couple of us in the zone on his workout and eating plan promising shocking results.  I start today.  Basically his plan includes no sugar, no bread, no pasta, no butter or oil, no cereal.  Lots of eggs meat and beans as well as fruit and vegetables and peanut butter.  Lots of water.  It's going to be a pretty major change for me but I'm really excited about it.  I was eating a lot of junk this past week to prepare for my "before" picture and I tried to make myself look as bad as possible.  You'll see the picture I'm sure it is very funny.  But soon I will be shredded out of my mind :)

Me and Elder Khoza had a killer week this week for missionary work.  We are teaching this father led family who were referred to us by brother Freddie in the bishopric.  When we went back to teach them the second lesson we asked them if they had prayed.  The wife said "I prayed to know if Joseph Smith is a true prophet and if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on earth and I felt this amazing feeling inside that was so warm and told me that it's true, almost as if Jesus Himself was speaking to me telling me that everything was true but that I needed to learn more and come to church."  We were so excited about that and for sure she will be baptised with her family in the next couple of weeks. 

Also we've been working with the bishop.  We have a couple of investigators who the Stake President is probably going to come out and marry in the next few weeks and some other people who are really excited about church.  I'll let you know more about them as they approach baptism.  It's been 12 weeks in Uitenhage now and we're finally making real progress so that's exciting.