June 26 letter

To Mom:

My companion is fluent in Swedish German and English.  He can also kind of understand Afrikaans because it's similar to English Swedish and German.  Me and him have been having the greatest time.  I don't think I've ever worked this hard in my whole mission.  We are really smashing it, it feels great.  We've been having some really amazing spiritual experiences.  Just this week a guy got online and ordered a Book of Mormon.  We went and brought it to him and sat down with him and he explained to us that he is the founder of a church that has 8 branches.  He's very wealthy and he has 5 kids.  4 of them have already married and moved out of the house.  He basically has a massive household with so many potential members.  He told us that after all of this time he just feels so drawn to learn about Mormonism and the Mormon book and that he wants to learn all the details about it so he can decide for himself if he wants to join the church.  He said that he wants us to come by about once or twice a week and talk about things which is really exciting.  He is also in like 5 different organizations in the community.  This guy is a potential stake leader so I'm really excited to teach him.   

We also met a guy named L.  He is really awesome.  He's 19 and he's so excited about the Restoration.  He told a bunch of his friends and stuff and he's planning on getting baptized on July 30th.  Even though I just met him this past week my vision for him is that he will get his mission call before I go home from mission.  

Me and Elder Lillback got our hair cut and Elder Lillback decided to go big or go home hahaha.  We are just having the greatest time together.  Right now we have 34 people on date for baptism for the end of the transfer so our goal is to have at least 10 baptisms together which may be a bit high but we're working super hard and we are very optimistic.  I can really see the Lord blessing me in my missionary work right now.  

June 19 letters

Don't worry about my foot problem.  It turns out it was just an infection and not an infestation so I will be totally fine.  It is actually healed by now so I am fine and will live.  Too bad it wasn't fly eggs because that would have been a way better story. 

This week has been a pretty crazy week.  I said goodbye to everyone in Langa and left Elder Mabanga in charge of the area.  It was a very sad goodbye but life goes on.  Me and Elder Dove flew together to PE so we're here together again and we've been together for the entire mission so far.  

Uitenhage is a crazy area.  First of all it's a really rich area which is kind of bizarre for me.  All the people live in the most massive houses and it's just weird to me that we can even teach people in these massive houses.  It's a mixed area though.  There's blacks whites and coloreds.  Of course you can never teach whites.  No white person will ever listen to the missionaries I'm pretty sure.  But the colored' are pretty good to teach.  The best thing about the area is that there's a lot of father led families.  Almost everyone we're teaching lives at home with their wife and kids which is awesome.

The biggest thing that I hate about this area is that it's an Afrikaans speaking area so there aren't too many Xhosa speaking people.  Even the black Xhosa people speak Afrikaans and not Xhosa.  That makes me sad but there's still a few Xhosa people who I can speak to from time to time. 

The area is absolutely blowing up right now.  I have never been doing better missionary work in all my 10 months of mission.  We actually received more than 40 referrals last week which is just absolutely insane.  

Since I got here on Wednesday we have already committed 18 people to be baptized on July 30.  I hope that some of those can make that date.  There's some people I'm really excited about.  A girl named C who came to church a few weeks in a row but she hasn't brought her husband yet.  She's 27 I think from Zimbabwe and she will be really powerful once we bring in the father of the home.  We met a guy called M who is only 22 and already married which is really crazy for South Africa.  He came to church too but he left his wife at home.  I'm really excited about him though he's a sweet guy.  There's also a girl that is going to college here named B.  We taught her about the Restoration on Friday and she was pretty skeptical.  When we went back Sunday we found that she was hiding from us.  We cornered her though and had a lesson.  In the lesson she really opened up to us and she was pretty emotional.  She said that she had prayed to know if what we said was true and she had some pretty powerful experiences.  She had read some things in the bible that really spoke to her and basically told her that she needed to join the church.  She was hiding from us because she was really scared about the whole thing and she didn't want to make a big change in her life, but the Lord already showed her the way and she will certainly do the right thing.  It's always an amazing thing to witness someone's conversion so I'm really glad that 4 days in I have already seen this girls conversion.

One of the weirdest things that happened is that we were driving downtown in Uitenhage with the windows down when we heard "Come Come Ye Saints" just playing so loud.  Everyone could hear it in the whole city square.  It was kind of crazy.  We went over to the guy with the speaker and he was just a guy with some MoTab CDs and he wasn't even a member.  He told us that he just really loves Mormon Tabernacle Choir so we took his details and sent his referral to the missionaries in Kwa Nobuhle where he lives.  

Me and Elder Lillback are getting along great.  He's from Sweden but he lived in Germany for most of his life.  I like  him a lot.  His previous companion was Elder Ondracek who is also a friend of mine.  He is really hard working and obedient and so we're having a really nice time together.  I really love it here in Uitenhage so it should be a really great time for me on mission. 

To Dad;

Yeah so I'll tell all about the new area to mom no need to worry about that.  I'm a district leader just to answer your question. 

My foot is completely fine.  The doctor said when I left that it was just an infection and nothing too crazy.  It was basically healed by then anyway.  I asked her if she thought it was a crazy infestation of Mango flies and she said no the chances of that were very quite low which will give you some peace I guess.  I'm sure I'm fine now.  

M is S's daughter

This is S in the orange and the other one is N who was baptized about a year ago.

Here is a generation picture.  Elder Wilson on the right who trained Elder Greengrass who trained me who trained Elder Mabanga. 

Here is a picture with one of my favorite missionaries Elder Hugo

Here is me and Elder Dove on the plane together.  We started in East London then flew to Cape Town together and then we flew to Port Elizabeth together too haha.  I can't get rid of this guy. 

This guy was playing Come Come Ye Saints way loud in the town square downtown.  Apparently he was selling MoTab CDs hahahaha.  He wasn't even a member.  This kind of blew my mind hahaha

Then I thought this was kind of funny.  Just a cow chilling in the middle of someones grass hahaha

Here is a picture of my companion

June 12 letter

To Mom:

I feel like I should share some few details about my experience this week with some mysterious abscesses on my leg.  Firstly the one on my right leg actually turned out to be no big deal.  I did have to go to the doctor on Monday and she looked at it and didn't really know what it was but she didn't think it was a bite.  She gave me some antibiotics to eat and some cream to rub on it and it pretty much went away by now.  On Monday I did also have a throbbing pain on my foot which I didn't know where it came from so the doctor told me to where fat shoes and eat some painkillers and she gave me some painkillers.  Then that night I couldn't sleep at all because my foot was in so much pain.  I went back the next day and the doctor said that either I had broken my toe, or I had gout hahahaha.  So I got a x ray and they told me I didn't have a broken toe.  So then the doctor said to me that I have gout and she gave me some strong painkillers to eat and made me stay home from the area. The next 2 days I didn't go to the area.  Instead I stayed at the mission office while my companion went with a member to teach our lessons.  It was definitely the Lord's hand in making me stay home, because I got the time to study the Plan of Salvation for about 3 hours.  After studying for those hours I actually got very detailed and powerful revelation that I've been seeking for quite a while.  I know that I could not have received that revelation without staying home and I know that I wouldn't have stayed home unless something happened where the doctor made me stay home.  

Anyway the next day when I woke up I was eating my painkillers and then I looked at my toe and I realized that the whole inside of my toe had pretty much exploded.  There was just blood and so much puss oozing all over the place and I'm not going to lie it was pretty graphic hahaha.  So then I was kind of freaked out and I went to the doctor again.  She told me that at least it's definitely not Gout but she doesn't know what it is and she squeezed my toe a bunch of times which was definitely not very fun for me hahaha.  Then she gave me some ointments to rub on my toe and sent me away.  Anyway after that the pain died down a lot.  I went back to work on Saturday.  The wound still hasn't healed but it doesn't ooze nearly as much and it doesn't really hurt very much any more.  

This will definitely freak you out a lot.  Sister Hansen from the office has been in contact with the area doctor and sending him pictures and stuff and he said that he thinks probably a mango fly layed eggs in my sock and the eggs hatched and started eating my toe hahaha.  But whatever happens I'm sure I'll know by the end of the week and it will all turn out great :)

This was my last week in Langa.  There was different emotions for me.  I know I need to move on but it is sad to leave.  I will definitely miss the 2 converts that we taught and baptized here which is S and E.  Actually I gave S my journal and she wrote the most beautiful letter to me that made me want to cry.  It was so beautiful and nice and while I read it the Spirit whispered to me that one of the reasons I was asked to serve in Langa and even in South Africa is to teach her the gospel.  I am really going to miss her.  She actually gave me a horn on a necklace that her grandfather gave to her which is really cool. 

Other than leaving Langa this week, not a lot has been happening.  Like I said I have been in the mission office and we haven't been particularly diligent in our missionary work, of which I will repent and be better in my next area.  

My transfer news is that I am going to Uitenhage which is in Port Elizabeth, and my new companion is going to be Elder Lilback from Germany I think.  I met him on his first day on mission and actually I took him proselyting for an hour.  I will be his second companion.  I think it's kind of funny.  I am going to make it to just about a year on mission without ever getting a companion with more than 4 months of experience haha.  

June 5 letters

To Mom:

I knew about Wonder Woman before I came on mission.  In fact if people ask me what my favorite movie is I say "I think it's Wonder Woman.  I'm not sure because I haven't seen it yet but I'm pretty sure it's Wonder Woman"  Hahaha.  

This past week the APs actually told me that despite what I thought, I will be leaving Langa next week on Wednesday.  I've been feeling different lately.  Lots of things have been going on but I've just been a bit lazy lately and not quite as driven.  I think it's definitely inspired for me to leave because I truly feel that I've learned all I will from Langa. 

I don't have a lot to say this week.  Apparently I got bit by some sort of bug or spider and I've had a rash on my leg for like a week.  That's kind of dope.  I'm going to get it looked at today.  It isn't a big deal but it will be cool to say I got bitten by an indigenous and deadly species of insect.  Also I got Athletes foot so that kind of sucks hahaha.  But those things will be gone by next week. 

To Dad:

I'm really excited about the commentary you sent me last week.  I've studied really deeply about this a couple of times since I've been on mission and I've had a lot of revelations.  The times that I've been closest to understanding the Book of Mormon is when I've studied it against the definition of "Hell" in the bible dictionary.  I actually noticed that in Alma 12 there seems to be an almost imperceptible shift from speaking about the state of all the wicked, to talking about the state of only the sons of perdition.  I've actually put off deep studying for the past few weeks because I wanted to finish the Book of Mormon, so I've just been reading lots and lots of Book of Mormon lately and it's been good.  I'll probably finish it today or tomorrow though and then I'm going to study deeply the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants again.  If I find anything I'll let you know.  I am really excited to read what you come up with though.  I don't trust very many people to teach me doctrine.  Most of the missionaries here have bits and pieces of false doctrine and not a lot of them have a very deep understanding of true doctrine.  I'm really glad that I have a dad that taught me about the true points of doctrine. 

May 29 letter

To Mom:

Mike Mower apparently knows Elder Greengrass' cousin or something so he came to our branch to find Elder Greengrass so yeah he was a nice friendly guy. 

This past week was a really strong week for missionary work.  Me and Elder Mabanga had a lot of success and we found lots of really good investigators.  We have an investigator called Brother B who is around 30 who we've had for a while.  He's actually come to church for 3 weeks in a row now.  Me and Elder Monoalibe taught him the first 3 lessons a long time ago, but he kind of disappeared after that so we didn't teach him again.  Then me and Elder Mabanga recontacted him.  But he's really hard to teach because he talks forever.  The first time we taught him after we recontacted him I asked him "Did you read the Book of Mormon" and he literally talked for more than 15 minutes to answer that question.  He was talking all about his entire life story somehow it was really weird.  But anyway this past week we went to teach Brother B and we went over the Restoration, and he actually remembered it perfectly.  But not only that but he told us all about how he has had a powerful witness from the Holy Ghost that it's true and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that The Book of Mormon is true.  It was really cool and so we're excited to get him baptized some time soon. 

We have another investigator named N who is a 16 year old girl.  She is really progressing and this Sunday she came to church with S and E, who are both of the people me and Elder Mabanga baptized.  N stayed even after church to go visit 2 members of the church who had a death.  When someone has a death, all the members go to their home and preach or something so N came to both of those things which lasted about 3 hours after church.  N will definitely be baptized soon.  We are even going to teach her dad as soon as possible. 

We also met a new sister named N.  N is 22 and she lives next door to the Mbaki's who are a member family.  We taught N the restoration and she was really excited about it.  She actually just moved to Cape Town and she is planning on inviting her friends to come to church with her which should be nice. 

Today for P day we went to a members house who has lots of snakes so we took lots of pictures with snakes.  I also attached a picture with my buddy Qhawe and my comp.

Also today me and Elder Mabanga got locked out of our boarding so I had to climb in through the window and we had no ladder so the other missionaries just kind of hoisted me to a ledge and I pulled myself up and went through the window.  It was pretty sick actually to be entirely honest so I'll send a picture of that too.

I'm really excited to stay in Langa for 12 more weeks.  

May 28 letter from Brother Mike Mower

Hello Sister Heald:  I met your son while attending the Langa Township Branch today.  He did a nice job playing the piano and was so nice and friendly to all of the members.

May 22 letters and PICTURES finally!

To Mom:

I really wanted to take pictures and repent but I really hate taking pictures so I just tried to take pictures with the Book of Mormon to help me get over my mental block haha.  

This week was kind of a slow week for me and Elder Mabanga.  We didn't teach too many people.  S was confirmed on Sunday by Elder Greengrass so now we don't really have anyone that we're seriously working with anymore.  S is really amazing though.  We have another recent convert who was baptized before I got here named N and the three of us decided to have a challenge to see who can finish the Book of Mormon first.  Last night S was on 3 Nephi 6 so she's really killing us all haha.  I actually gave her Jesus the Christ to read.  

An interesting thing about N is that she is only 17 but she had to drop out of school and she lives in a really hard situation.  She doesn't have parents or anyone to take care of her so she has been struggling lately.  Anyway Me, Elder Mabanga, and S fasted with her to get a job on Saturday and Sunday and towards the end of our fast N got a call I don't know who from, but randomly I guess a member family offered her a job, and a place to stay and they are basically going to take her in and train her and have family home evening and stuff and it's going to be really good for her.  So a notable miracle I guess you could say.  

Something you'll definitely find interesting is about one of our other investigators.  We have a sister named N who we are working with.  She's 16 and she's really excited to change.  She's keeping her commitments and she teaches all her friends about the Book of Mormon.  Anyway this past week she actually invited us to speak at her school.  Hahaha I thought that was kind of bizarre because I don't think that would be legal in America, but we just went into one of her classes with the permission of the teacher and the principle and we just taught about prayer and scripture study.  Apparently it's like a free time space where the students can pick which class to go to, so we went to the religious study class and taught from the bible.  We are actually going to start going once or twice a week and we are planning on teaching about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and stuff.  Kind of crazy but it was a really fun experience. 

I think I'm going to be in Langa for 2 more transfers which is going to be really long.  I'm kind of disappointed about that.  That's going to be 3 whole transfers with Elder Mabanga so it's a good thing that I love that guy haha.  Yeah the next transfer is only going to be 3 weeks, and then there will be a 9 weeks transfer, so I told President Merrill that I was planning on finishing Elder Mabanga's training in 9 weeks rather than the normal 12 weeks in preparation for the long transfer, and President Merrill emailed back, don't worry, you will get to finish the training.  I do love Langa though, but I'm sad because I'm gaining weight here.  The members actually feed us every single day.  And 6 months in one area is a really long time.  No problem though. 

To Dad:

I can't think of much to say.  I sent mom a long email so I'm sure you'll read that.  

One thing is that I started reading the book by Hugh Nibley.  It's definitely not for everyone hahaha.  I really like it though.  I'm excited to finish it.  It's really complex and I have to work to understand it sometimes which is really nice. I've decided to finish the Book of Mormon though.  I will be putting all other books on hold for the next 3 weeks while I finish the Book of Mormon.  That's nice.

The first picture is me and my zone leader Elder Hernandez

Me and my good buddy from Langa, Brother Guellor.  He's way ripped and yeah I love that guy

Me and 2 small children whom I am teaching to read the Book of Mormon

Me with the Book of Mormon

Me and My companion Elder Mabanga

Me and my buddy who is the Branch Mission Leader, Kevin

Me with my Tongan brothers Elder Faingata'a and Elder Latu

Me and my comp with sister S at her baptism

My buddy Brian

Me at waterfront