Feb 26 letters

To Dad:

I was reading in Alma 36 the other day and I noticed that the last verse and the first verse are the same, so I became a bit interested, and I looked through the whole chapter and discovered that the whole chapter is a Chiasmus!  I am sure that that's probably pretty common knowledge but I felt kind of cool for discovering that on my own.  Almost like you discovering that in D&C 1 but not quite as cool haha

There's been this kind of mission legend about a witchcraft talk.  I've heard all kinds of stories about it, the guy got excommunicated, the guy didn't get excommunicated he was a seventy, no he was just a guy, it's fake, it's real.  Anyway my companion actually has the talk so we listened to it.  It's pretty interesting.  There's a few things that he says there that I really like and that I think are really interesting.  Anyway I googled it and found some stuff that it was a mission legend in lots of different missions and stuff.  I wondered if you'd heard about it.  It's interesting but I prefer to learn the doctrines of the Lord and how I can profit from them, then to learn what wicked things are happening in the world. 

To Mom:

Yeah I think a bunch of us are going home on July 17.  From the group email it seems like probably 5 or 6 of us go home that same day. 

Nana emailed me about that retirement.  It seems like a lot of stuff is happening with them that you guys could easily be just making up.  The fact of them living with you seems really weird, and I will never see it with my own eyes.  And by the time I get back they will be living in England!  Weird.

We had a nice week.  First of all we got dropped like crazy.  I don't know what happened.  We probably got dropped like 6 or 7 times a day on average which just really slows things down.  It was pretty frustrating.  But it's weird because at the same time we met 5 or 6 new people this week that are way exciting and are definitely going to get baptized.  In the space of 1 week this area went from being a bit slow and frustrating, to just overflowing with exciting prospects.  Genuinely of the people we met last week I think we'll have 5 or 10 baptisms.  Super amazing.  We met 2 awesome father led families.  1 was a referral from the bishop.  I'm just so excited about them both.  I was hoping to leave King Williams Town but suddenly I'm hoping to stay!  I've also had a sweet idea for a big event that I want to plan and I've had this idea since I first went to Uitenhage so a long time.  Well I told the bishop about it and he liked it a lot, so I presented it to the ward counsel yesterday and everyone was pretty excited about it.  We're planning the event for March so it should be sweet.  Basically we're planning to invite all the people in all of King to come to the chapel and we're going to preach the restoration to them from the pulpit.  Exciting stuff

Some other funny things happened.  Me and Elder Steffensen played with some kids 8 on 8 in the street the other day.  There was a lot of kids so we went on different teams.  Those kids thought we were way good so they started calling me Messi, and Elder Steffensen Ronaldo.  It was really funny.  Every time I got the ball they'd be like "Pass it Messi!"  And if I scored a goal they'd all freak out and just yell "Messi! Messi! Messi!" hahaha.  when I left they were like "Bye Messi, you're always welcome here!"  Haha I went back the next day on exchange with Elder Shaw and they all crowded the car and started freaking out yelling in Xhosa and chanting "Messi Messi Messi!" hahahaha funny

Another thing that happened that was really nuts.  First of all we live in a townhouse, so our house is connected to our 2 next door neighbors.  Anyway while we were in the area on Wednesday our next door neighbors house burned down.  We didn't even notice until the next day when we were leaving for the area.  It was pretty nuts.  On one side of the wall the house is totally burnt and destroyed and on the other side of the wall is our bedroom.  None of our neighbors knew our phone number so they couldn't even call us hahaha.  The house was just about to burn down and nobody could get ahold of us.  We would have come home from the area and there was just no house there and we wouldn't have even known.  Crazy story.  Moral of the story.  Get to know your neighbors.  But I don't think anybody was hurt in the fire so that's good

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a girl named Y turning 2.  It was super hilarious.  her parents, brother and sister m prepared gift bags for all the kids in the apartment complex where they're staying and they invited them over.  So they were passing out the bags to all the kids and all the kids started freaking out and fighting over who got which bag and stuff, doing what bratty 5 or 6 year old kids do hahaha.  But then Y took one of the gift bags and walked straight over to the most obnoxious kid and with a big smile on her face she took the bag and just clocked him straight in the face.  It was so funny we were laughing so hard.  This little girl!  As if she was saying "Hey! it's my birthday be grateful!"  Hahaha the kid was like holding his face but it was pretty funny. 

Sunday it rained so a lot of our investigators let us down.  We still had 14 but we could have had so many more.  We were disappointed but a lot of really good things happened this week that we were excited about. 

Sunday was also a big day for me.  18 Months on mission.  Time flies.  I've now graduated from being a sister missionary and I'm an Elder. 

February 19 letters

To Mom

Other than interviews, we had zone conference this week.  It was pretty basic.  Just a nice zone conference as usual.  Overall it was a pretty slow week.  Zone conference week is always really slow.  But we focused on getting investigators to church and we had 16 investigators there which we were pleased about although a lot of people let us down.  We also had 1 baptism of a 10 year old kid named N.  Actually his full name is N Nephi M which is pretty sweet.  His dad baptized him. 

I'm not sure if there's anything else too exciting to share, but I got some pictures to send and I'll hopefully have more next week which is like the first time in months.  Sorry!

Yeah I feel a lot of excitement for my next area.  My next area will be my last area and I just know that I'm going to smash it so hard there.  It's going to be on fire.  What I'm kind of struggling with is to get that much excitement for my current area right now.  Especially since there's a good chance I might have another transfer here.

But Mission is great and the church is true!

From the Mission President on Feb 13:

We know that you’ve probably heard about the water crisis here in Cape Town and are concerned for the health and safety of your missionary.   We want to reassure you that all is in place to care for our missionaries.

Plans are in place for our missionaries to be able to collect their water at the Mission Office and at specified chapels.  We have received large storage tanks to store water here at the Mission Office.  We have a guaranteed supply of water to fill our tanks.  This water will be for washing and other such uses.  It will not be potable water.  In addition we will be getting shipments of large bottles of drinking water for our missionaries to drink.  We will also be receiving water purification tablets and hand sanitizers.  We want you to be assured that everything is being done for the health and safety for our missionaries.  All missionary flats have a 72 hour kit, a lantern and bottled water in case they are confined to their flats for any reason.

We petition the Lord daily not only for rain, but the abilities that we need to deal with this situation.  We pray for the city planners that they will be guided in their massive effort to supply water to this parched city.  We recognize our dependence on our Heavenly Father not only for physical water, but the Living Water of Jesus Christ.  Please join us in those prayers.

President Lebethoa

South Africa Cape Town Mission

February 12 letters

To Dad:

I've been reading that book by Bruce C Hafen.  I like to listen to Brad Wilcox so I've listened to a lot of his talks and he always quotes Bruce C Hafen and I've been reading a lot of the things he quoted in that book. It's opened my mind on a few things so it's been an awesome book to read.

One of my favorite things about my companion is that he loves doctrine.  I don't like it when people say they love deep doctrine, because that usually means in my opinion that they like deep opinions.  Or deep hypothetical ideas that no prophet has spoken about.  They're part of the goose pimple gang.  But my companion really likes true doctrine and so we've been listening to a lot of sweet talks and he's been reading my books.  It's been sweet. 

We were listening to a talk the other day and there was an insight from Stephen E Robinson that was shared.  That guy is so powerful.  Maybe you've already heard this but I want to type it out because it was sweet. 

He interpreted the parable of the good Samaritan.  He said every part of the parable has significance. 

A certain man fell among thieves.  Who is the certain man? us. who are the thieves? the world and the wickedness in the world.  The man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho.  He said Jerusalem is the holy city and is set high above sea level.  Jericho is below sea level and is not holy.  We came from heaven in a celestial world living with God and descended all the way to this telestial world.  

So a certain man who is us went from heaven down to earth and fell among thieves. 

The priest came by.  Who does the priest represent?  The Aaronic priesthood.  Can we be saved by the Aaronic priesthood?  No we can't.  A Levite came by.  What do Levites do?  They administer the law of Moses.  Can the law of Moses save us?  No it can't.

Then a certain Samaritan came by.  Samaritans were hated by the jews because they were half jew and half gentile.  Half holy and half not.  The jews focused on the half unholy part of them and hated them for it.  Who was the certain Samaritan.  Jesus Christ.  He was half God and half human.  The jews focused on the half human part of him and hated him for it.  Can Jesus save us?  Yes and only he can. 

So in the end Jesus said that the perfect example of being a neighbor was Jesus himself, and when he said go and do thou likewise, he was saying go and be like me.

I had never thought of it that way but it makes so much sense and I just love it a lot.  Super awesome.

Anyway Dad things are going great.  We're not allowed to play sports on P day anymore so that's going to be hard for the last part of my mission.  Oh well.

To Mom:

I forgot to tell you that last week was stake conference.  It was sweet to go to another stake conference and see all the people I used to know.  A couple of my recent converts moved to Joburg to go to College so I didn't see them and I'm really praying they can stay strong and active in the church over there.  The church is strong in Joburg though so I have hope.

This week the stake presidency was at our ward even though our ward conference was the week before stake conference.  So they were here again and I knew immediately we were getting a new bishop.  And we did.  They released the old bishop who has been the bishop for 11 years.  The new bishop is a sweet guy he's 31 and he's just had his first baby about 3 weeks ago.  He's really visionary and inspired and he's also willing to meet with us so that's a great blessing.  We already talked on Sunday for quite a while and made some great plans to get missionary work rolling. I'm so excited to be here all of the sudden and I just have a perfect brightness of hope for this area in the future.  It rained on Sunday and we had 11 investigators at church, so I'm excited so see how many come when it doesn't rain.  Everything looks exciting right now. 

My companion is awesome.  I love the way we're teaching the lessons.  We have so much unity.  I've never enjoyed teaching more than I do right now.  And I'm learning a lot from him which is just super sweet.  I hope I don't get transferred but we'll see what happens. 

February 5 letter

To Dad:

I'm actually liking the Old Testament.  I'm up to page 450 by now.  It's been a really enlightening experience I'm studying it with the student manual and I'm actually learning a lot and it's helping me in my teaching too.  At least I know how the Old testament works and what the church was like then.  

To Mom:

No we didn't get 20-0.  We didn't get time to play any matches on Tuesday or Monday so we finished our record 18-0

Last week we had the craziest experience and I forgot to write you about it.  Me and Elder Reynolds got invited by one of our investigators to a tent for a worship service.  It was in the middle of the village far from town.  We were driving around trying to find it and we found this little wooden shack which was apparently a church.  We walked in and caused a bit of a distraction from the pastor while he was trying to preach haha.  All the people were so surprised to see 2 white guys come into this random church in the middle of the village.  The pastor stopped preaching and everyone started praying at once.  That's very common here and it's really funny although I feel bad about laughing about it.  There's like 100 of them all saying prayers but they just try and make it sound as powerful as they can and they don't pay any attention to what they're saying.  Sometimes they even speak in tongues which is just absolutely senseless.  It was very funny but we realized we were in the wrong place so we left while they were praying and went to the right place. 

We got into the tent where we were supposed to be and when we got in they were really excited once again to see 2 white guys, so they brought us to the front and gave us a place to stand right behind the speakers.  When I say speakers I mean that they had 2 massive amplifiers and they were soooo loud.  We got in and everyone was singing in Xhosa and it was pretty cool.  Then they turned the speakers on and the worship team came to the front and the cool part was over.  I sacrificed my ear drums for that investigator so I really hope he joins the church.  They had the worship team of 7 people up at the front and they all had a microphone, and they each pressed their mic as close to their mouth as they could possibly get it and then screamed as loud as they possibly could.  All 7 of them at once, meanwhile everyone else was screaming as loud as they could too.  I screamed at the top of my lungs and I couldn't even hear it.  It was crazy.  I didn't know that the noise could be that loud.  That went on for an hour straight.  It was so ridiculous.  Then the apostle stood up and he said hallelujah.  and everyone said praise the lord.  And he said hallejuah again and everyone said praise the lord again.  He did that like 15 times and then he switched to saying praise the lord, and everyone said halleluja.  And he did that like 15 times as well.  Hahahah then he gave the mic to the pastor who started preaching in Xhosa.  Luckily they had a translator who followed him around and translated everything into English.  It was quite funny.  The pastor taught some ridiculous false doctrine which was just so bad, but meanwhile all the people were just shouting "Praise the Lord."  They didn't even really pay attention to what he was saying.  It doesn't even really matter to them.  They don't want to learn about Jesus they just want to sing and dance and praise in a really senseless way.  At one point a lady stood up and started speaking in tongues.  She just said "Hagagagagagagesi" Like 50 times in a row and then sat down.  It was so ridiculous.  I felt bad for those people they were so misled and they just believe anything anyone says about Jesus even if it completely contradicts itself.  To them everything is true and there's no point in learning or doing anything except turning up to the church every week to scream and dance and "Worship"  

It was quite a funny experience

But anyway this week has been sweet.  Elder Steffensen is awesome and our lessons have been going so well.  We're teaching great and I love it.  I'm getting excited about King Williams Town all of the sudden.  Unfortunately our baptism for next week has been postponed because the family that was being baptized had to go to Queenstown and they missed their baptismal interview.  I was pretty disappointed about that and I was disappointed in them too, but it's ok we'll probably just postpone the baptism 1 week. 

I went on an exchange with Elder Shaw and i found out his Dad does exactly what I want to do for a career so I've been really excited about that.  I emailed him today and I'm hoping he'll respond and give me some really valuable advice next week especially about what to study. 

January 29 letter

When I said I'm learning the organ I suppose I was a little bit hasty.  I just meant that I'm using the organ at the church and learning to make it sound nice without the pedal, but I'm not using my feet to play all sorts of crazy bass lines or something.  In fact the organ here can't do that.  But the organs are cool they actually have all the hymns programmed in so that in any given ward they can sing the hymns with the organ even if there's no organist. 

This week has been a great last week with Elder Reynolds.  We were teaching and having some sweet experiences. It's been a wonderful 2 transfers together.  So far we have won 18 games in the street against the township kids and lost 0.  Every time we play them we get out of the car and ask to play, they all get excited because they think white people suck at soccer and they're going to smash us, then we play and we smash them and all the kids lined up on the side of the road watching get so excited and yell and shout, and then we give them pass along cards and tell them to come to church and we leave feeling cool.  As I said our record is 18-0 we are hoping to win another 2 matches in the remaining 2 days we have together. 

Transfer news has come and my new companion is Elder Steffensen.  I was actually feeling a bit lonely in my current zone and I prayed that the Lord would send me one of my friends to be in my zone.  I mentioned 4 people to the Lord by name and Elder Steffensen was one of them and now he's my companion so that's just awesome. I'm really really excited to serve with him.  We're going to smash it. 

As for Elder Reynolds he's going to Mthatha to be with Elder Kruse.  We've been talking about him going to Mthatha to be with Elder Kruse the whole transfer so it was just insane that he really is going to exactly there with exactly him. 

We've been finding golden families lately so I'm excited to teach them and baptize them with Elder Steffenesen. 

***Adam did emails early this week, so I happened to be awake and had a little real time chat, which rarely happens.  He mentioned that no one writes to him except Colin and me, so that made me sad. He said Elder Steffensen is 2 transfers younger than him and that he is the one with him on the elephant in the elephant pictures.   Also:

Me: I don't know about your apartment there.  Are you with other missionaries or just your comp?  

Elder Heald: no it's just us 2 out in King Williams Town we drive a lot every week we drive 40 minutes down to East London and 40 minutes back twice

Me: To meet with your district, you mean?  Do you have a branch in King Williams or do you have to go there for church?

EH: yeah we have a ward in King but we go down for district meeting and for P Days and we end up driving there a lot for different errands and stuff.  Not to mention my companion doesn't drive and my new companion doesn't drive either

Me: Where is your new comp from?

EH: Utah Salt Lake City or close to that I think?

Me: And he doesn’t drive?  That’s surprising.

EH: he got in a big accident so he doesn't drive on mission anymore

Jan 22 letters

I got my package this week.  I loved it so much it was awesome.  The pictures were so amazing and I really liked the letter from all my friends.  It was really nice to hear them all bear their testimony about how they gained a strong testimony on mission. The books were so amazing I love them and for sure I'm going to study them.  Also all the candy was great I gave a lot of it to Elder Reynolds and he liked it too.  And the notes from the primary kids were really cute I liked them a lot. 

The article (http://time.com/5103259/cape-town-water-crisis/) is really true. When I got transferred to Cape Town which should have been about a year ago we were told that there was only 90 days of water left.  And it only rained twice in the whole 2 and a half transfers I was there, that I can remember.  But it's only got worse and apparently the missionaries in Cape Town have crazy restrictions on water and stuff.  I hope I don't go there.  It rains so much in King Williams Town.  Elder Reynolds says it rains more than it does in England.  So we don't have to worry about the drought over here, but I wouldn't be surprised to see all the missionaries evacuated to the Eastern Cape for a time. 

This week was Zone Conference week so for us we lost basically 2 days since we also have to drive down the day before for interviews with the Mission President.  It was a nice interview and a nice Zone Conference, but it wasn't really life changing like the last one for me where we learned about budgeting.  But yeah it was a nice Zone Conference that's all I can say.  

We were able to teach some new people this week and we found 2 more father led families.  The amount of father led families we're finding is just crazy.  And some people who are really exciting.  At least if we could baptize one of them it would be a huge strength to the ward.  Next week is ward conference so me and my companion are going to be singing in the choir.  It makes me think of when I was 10 and I volunteered to sing in the choir and then you or dad said I should wait until I was 12 and then by the time I was 12 I never had the desire to sing in the choir again.  But now my desire to sing is back. 

The week after next is stake conference again.  It was so recently that we've had stake conference.  That's exciting though. 

Lately I've been teaching myself to play the Organ which obviously is basically the same as the piano but I really love to play the Organ a lot.  It's so awesome. 

This should be my last full week with Elder Reynolds as he'll most likely be leaving the area next week Wednesday.  We've really gotten along great so I'm going to miss him.  It sucks too because we haven't had any baptisms together at all and we've scheduled 6 for two weeks after he'll probably leave.  

Everyone is saying I'm going to train again.  This is the longest I've gone without training which is 2 transfers.  I don't know how I would feel about that but I don't think it's very likely that I will.  We'll find out on Saturday though. 

We had an investigator, A, who was supposed to be baptized last year but she moved to Peddie.  We knew she was coming back in January but we misplaced her number and had absolutely no way to get in contact with her.  We were praying that somehow the Lord would put her in our path so we could recontact her.  She is supposed to be baptized on February 11.  Well she came to church yesterday.  She's so committed she came the first week she was back.  I was really relieved that the holiday hadn't shaken her testimony or something.  She was reading the Book of Mormon over the holiday and she came to sing in the choir after church.  Really sweet so for sure I think she'll get baptized. 

Otherwise things have been pretty basic here but finally they're really starting to look up

January 15 letter

Yeah Elder and Sister Davies are the senior couple for our zone.  Sister Davies is the mission nurse so that's what she mostly does but aside from that she also makes us food every Monday and brings treats to district meeting every Friday and spoils us all the time.  She is so nice.  Even last week she saw Elder Reynolds broken shoes and gave him 1000 Rands right there on the spot to buy another pair. 

Anyway I did have a little miracle with my license.  I was looking for it all over the place and I came to the conclusion that I lost it all the way back in Cape Town.  So I was sure it was long long gone.  Anyway I decided the only place it could be was in my suit case (even though of course I checked that thing a million times) But I put the suitcase there on my bed and I prayed and I said "I don't think my license is in there.  But I know that all things are possible to him that believes and I believe"  

And then I opened up my suitcase and there it was practically glowing right in the middle of my suitcase.  And then I was just so happy because it was going to destroy our area if we didn't find it. 

This week was OK.  2 of our father led families dropped us.  They weren't really understanding the message but I was disappointed to lose them.  But at least we found 3 new father led families to replace the ones we lost.  Still we only had 1 investigator at church.  All the rest of our investigators who left for December are coming back tomorrow.  Then everything should be good again.  The work has been a bit slow for a long time because of the Holiday season so I'm really looking forward to doing good again.

This week is Zone Conference and Interviews and then next week is the last week of the transfer.  These 2 transfers with Elder Reynolds have just flown by.  Probably because we just really get along but he's going to leave I'm sure at the end of next week.  This week we won our 15th straight match against the street boys which makes us 15 and 0.  These boys were really good and they were using an interesting ball we weren't used to so we nearly lost, but in the end we scored 4 quick goals and won 6-3 hahaha.  Our goal is to go 20 and 0 by the end of the transfer.

I'm also getting way excited about this world wide live message from President Nelson.  Whatever he's going to say it's going to be sweet.  

Anyway things are going on great and fine and stuff .

***SIDE NOTE***

Adam's article that he mentioned in his letter last week has now been published.  africase.lds.org.