Kunjani peeps

Another week down!  I think these weeks keep going by faster and faster.  Its week 4 in my second transfer now and there is already talk going around saying I'm leaving and some say I'm staying!  At first I wanted to leave but now that our entire zone is full the best kids, I think I'd rather stay.

Its been getting hotter and hotter here and its killing me.  I miss the snow and the freezing cold.  Like the heat just makes me sluggish and dead.  All my clothes are just getting gross and ew.  But we are trudging!  The thing is though is the area I am in usually one of the more milder climate I guess you could say. Like there is a place called Richards Bay which is just miserable in the summer time so I kind of hope I don't go there next transfer where it will be the hottest!

Anyways the work is going great!  We are teaching tons of peeps and some of them are bogus and some are actually way cool.  Basically one of the best ways for us to teach someone is mention cooking especially to Ma's.  They are like "how?  You don't know how to cook!?  Come, come I teach you." And then they want to know more about us and boom baptized.  

This week though!  HERITAGE DAY!  It was technically yesterday but everyone is celebrating it today!  But we went to a huge branch party and there was super cool zulu dancing and the 70 year old Ma's were just partying like crazy!  I've never seen 70 year olds be able to dance so good and with so much energy!  I took a ton of videos but I cant send them... sorry.  

So they fed us Tripe which is cow intestines and I've never hated food so much.   The smell is really what killed me but it was so potent.  And also the cow brain was nasty!!  I'm just glad I wasn't an elder who got one of the eyeballs.  

Anyways crazy week but here is some pics.

So this is me with the 1st councilor baba Moloi

And Nelli and Neo

and then this is my homie Elder Isooba from Uganda.  We became best friends the beginning of this transfer.    

Change is repentance.

What up  you crazy Americans!

So I can't really remember what happened this week because it went by really fast.  It feels like I'm in a weird dream and then I wake up on a computer and write about what I think was my dream.  

Anyway, we had zone conference this week and our zone is full of the coolest people.  I have made some of the best friends out here.  All these Africans just rave about McDonald's its crazy.  The only time I've eaten McDonald's out here is when President paid.  My companion is always wanting to eat fast food and I am just not down.   Its because all the American fast food here is not as good as back home.  So yeah its nasty and prefer eating at all the local Indian food places!  The curry here is crazy hot but its so so good!

We had some drunk guys call us over and ask what were are doing so I said we go talk about Jesus and we go to Jesus's church and he said "You go to the JESUS guys real church? And I said yebo baba (yes sir) and he told us he would come but never did.  Nobody comes to church here.  We had 28 people in sacrament last week. But if they would just stop being drunk then maybe they would. angazi (I don't know)  

So on a spiritually note we committed a guy to baptism on our first lesson on Sunday.  I knew right when I met him that this guy would get baptized.  He is just super humble and wants to change.  So note to yall umfanas change is repentance!  Any change is repentance and any change that is good is of God.  Kind of obvious but YES!  

As far as Africa goes it is still crazy relaxed!  Everyone is super chill here which makes it hard for me to teach people when we go into shacks we just relax and talk about weird stuff but no worries we always leave a message.  

So yes thank you for all the support and keep having fun!

Love you all.  

PICS

Don't drink cave water!

Unjani peeps!  

      So this week was a little insane.  On the hike I drank some water coming out of these rocks and I thought it was clean but its Africa and nothing is clean here so I got really sick and was throwing up all day Tuesday and Wednesday.  So much fun.

     Also it was very sad this week because I had to say goodbye to my best friend, Elder Thorsen... He's back home in Texas now with his family and he emailed me saying how weird it is to be home.  He kept telling me don't come home but I like home so I think I'll come back one day. 

   So my new companion is a Indian kid from Fiji.   This kid says he will teach me how to make good curry!  (Mecinna pay attention to this) So when I get home I'll be able to make some good curry!  Anyways I might struggle a little this transfer so please pray for me!  You have your agency though so you don't have to pray for me, its just a suggestion. But thanks if you do:)  

    Anyways we ran into a huge family the other day and taught them but the oldest sibling is 25 and she provides for the family and then there is 10 siblings in all and they all live in the same house!  Its crazy but they all are super happy and they are all best friends.  But yes the work must go on and it really is sad some of the living conditions here.  It truly makes me so grateful for the life I have back home! Never take things for granted for sure.  It seems like even though these people literally have  their family and the gospel and little to nothing else they couldn't be any happier.  So I know for a fact now that family and the gospel is truly what creates happiness and although the worldly things are great and fun the big painting contains only a few colors.

Have fun back home and I love you all!

Peace and Blessings 

Birthday in the field:

Landon had mentioned in his family email that he decided for his birthday that he wanted to buy a couple cakes and take it around to ward members and investigators and share a slice with them  So they did.  "So yeah it made me happy and that was my birthday wish, to celebrate it with everybody"

Week 9: Safari and getting a new companion.

Yebooo! This week was another fun week!  Since my companion is going home we have been doing everything possible.  We talked the senior couple to take us on a safari and it was a bucket list event for sure!! We saw lions, zebras, and so many weird  looking animals I cant remember the names of them all.  But we jumped in the back of a truck with a huge cage around it and they took us to see these huge lions and took us all over this hill side to see almost everything.  I really was hoping to see a hippo but its fine.  I will make sure to send pics.  And I will be sending pics for the next couple weeks of these animals.   We got to see baby lions and let them chew on our fingers.  

So yes today is my 2 month mark and I am finished with my first transfer!!  It's going fast.  But since my trainer goes home Thursday I will be getting a new companion.  All I know about the Elder is he is only one transfer ahead of me and he's from Fiji.  So it will be an interesting week because I am now leading my area. Madadeni 3 is one of the hardest areas in the mission so I guess I have Presidents trust.  

Had a good week so far and since its Monday night  l will talk about my morning!  So we decided to go hiking at this golf resort with a massive mountain range.  We were going to do the 14 kilometer hike but then we decided that the 20 kilometer trail looked way more intense.  So we starting hiking and when we got an area we were enjoying the view of the summit of the mountain with a huge cliff.  And we notice a tiny trail going straight up to the peak.  So of course we were down.    We ended up free climbing many cliffs and climbing through little holes and up sheer grass walls!  But we found the summit and ate some food at the top. But we kept noticing better things to go play on.  So we continued climbing up things and had a lot of fun.  We then traversed and bushwhacked it across the entire mountain range ridge and had too climb down a very sketchy wall but we made it and had one of the best adventures I have ever had!  

But for this week I will send some animal pics because I took so many.

cheers and love you all.