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

May 15 letter

To Mom:

Obviously the highlight of my week was of course talking to you and the family. 

S is really great.  She's really become friends with the ward now and she has lots of support.  Everyone likes her.  She's really powerful.  Teaching her has been a joy.  We met her when I first got to Langa.  She was actually referred to us by an investigator and we caught her at her house.  She didn't seem really interested but she allowed us to teach her.  She even told us in the first lesson that she doesn't really believe that God is real.  The second lesson when we went back, she told us that she had prayed and that God had answered her prayer.  From there, she was already converted.  We gave her the Book of Mormon and she started reading.  sometimes 10 or 20 chapters in 1 day.  I gave her a book to read, "Our Search for Happiness"  By M Russell Ballard and she finished it in a few days.  I gave her 2 more books "Believing Christ" and "Following Christ" by Stephen E Robinson, and she finished those too.  We told her the Word of Wisdom and it turns out she struggled with just about all of it.  She gave up tea and coffee immediately and all of the other things she was doing as well, but she still struggled to give up Cigarettes.  We gave her a priesthood blessing and it helped, but she still failed her first baptismal interview.  After that she was really determined to make a full change in her life, and we gave her another priesthood blessing.  From that point on she never smoked again.  She said that the week before her baptism, Satan really tried to test her.  The father of her child came and asked her to marry him.  She asked him if he wanted to be married in the temple, he said not a chance, and she told him to get lost.  Her boss came to her with some anti mormon stuff and she related him to Korihor.  And she was offered cigarettes all week and she had no problem saying no.  The baptism was one of the most powerful days of my mission.  She's really awesome.  She even got LDS Gospel Library on her phone and she's been reading all sorts of things there.  

I did promise pictures today but I don't have a chord for my camera and the chord I thought I was going to use doesn't work anymore so I'll figure something out for next week :)

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.