hey guys:) i miss you and I'm realllllyyyy happy that my alpha smart works:) and my mission president ok'd me to have it so that's awesome!
I'm sorry I don't think i ever told you guys what we do at the MTC.. my B..
So these guys are teaching us everything we NEED to know about the gospel! and then they teach us how to, you know, teach it to other people:) so most of the time its reading, highlighting different stuff, and role playing with my companion or someone else from my district! then we later have a "investigator" that we teach! for example, today we finished teaching Jake Awuni, he own a small business in Johannesburg and is engaged to his girlfriend, they have two kids, and before we came to teach him he was wondering why god gives us such huge challenges... today was our second time teaching him and we got him to commit to baptism! that was pretty exciting to do:) however, when you teach Jake hes actually one of the MTC teachers so its super stressful teaching him because he knows wayyyyyyyy more than i do about the gospel and how to teach investigators! but I'm starting to get it all down and tomorrow we teach Benni, who was an atheist before we started teaching her but tomorrow were gonna invite her to baptism as well!
one of my favorite teachers here is either brother Wentzel, who grew up in Durban and served a mission in England, or brother Ramiaramanana ( yes thats how you spell it... i checked haha). Rami is from Madagascar and served his mission in south Africa and it actually saved his life going on a mission. When he got to his mission he had heart problems and needed open heart surgery, an he never would have survived if he had done it Madagascar because south Africa is much more civilized than Madagascar.
Anyway, I love you guys and I wanna see pictures of Max's game and hear more of the stats and scores that happened! hows Trevor doing, and Jake, and Milo? Has Max had any sacks? He told me he basically won their game on Friday after Trev knocked the ball lose and I'm really excited to hear how he does this week! it sounds like its gonna be a really good game and I'm super happy you're team is starting to realize how good you guys actually are! Tell everyone good luck and that I love them:)
NOV 11th.. First day in Durban
Wow. This place is just how I pictured Africa to be:) Kinda civilized but it has a bunch of African trees! like the ones on the lion king:) it is beautiful here! I went and saw the temple sighting and its in such a perfect spot! it looks over a cliff and is beyond perfect! and they said it should be done when im still here! meaning, i may get to usher people through for the open house:)) im really excited!
i haven't met my companion yet but his name is elder....... crap i forgot:/ but i got called to serve and be trained in the Amanzitoti area! its the lowest area in my mission area, and i heard my mission home looks over the beach! I'm really excited!
Today I met another elder who picked us up at the airport, his name is elder Adams! hes so cool!! He's from Germany! BUT GUESS WHAT!!!! he grew up in OREGON!! hes awesome!he lived in madras mostly, and a little bit in Portland, Eugene, and bend. we talked about OMSI, Seaside, he actually stayed in the same hotel that we did after the Astoria game!so that was really nice! hes a duck fan too!!!! he also served in my first area that im going to! he said I'm gonna get fed a lot!! and he told me one family that is apparently SUPER COOL!! and LOVE to feed the missionaries! I'm so excited!
Also, I drove on the left side of the road for the first time! like behind the wheel! its so weird because there's tons of new road signs, everything is in the metric system! kilometers, Celsius, everything!!!!! it sucks! and I'm not used to it yet! hahaha ill get there though!
Nov 12th
Well it was my first day with my companion and he seems pretty cool so far! his name is Elder Lesueur! hes from Arizona aaannnddd.. yeah! i got to our mission home and its pretty darn nice! its got a huge ocean view! its so nice! and its built for 4 missionaries so I'm here with elder Neislsen who was in the MTC with me, and some other guy that i don't know very well? hahaha
but today was cool! we went into town and did a little shopping and when we were driving there was a really baad accident. imagine you're on like HWY 26 and waiting in traffic... now picture a bunch of guys going through the grass to turn around! TONSSS of cars did that! its extremely illegal in the US but the cops don't enforce any traffic laws here! like you could literally speed RIGHT passed a cop and they'd just sit there! one time a cop actually did pull over an elder and the cop tried to write him a ticket but the cop was SO DRUNK that he couldn't so he let the elder go! hahaha or at least that's what my trainer told me...
I also saw my first albino black guy.. they call them "creatures" here because they're all homeless and come up to your car and beg for money! they're so scary! ill try and get a picture of one to show you! cause they also don't have all their teeth, a bunch of birth mark skin tab things, and ya know black people hair? well its white with a little orange..I feel really bad for the guy!
but whats nice is today was pretty easy, tomorrows Sunday so it'll be easy, and Monday is our P-day! so its a nice break! hahaha
Sunday, November 13th
well today i met my ward and they're really nice:) its less than 80 people which is actually pretty big over here. tomorrow were gonna go have dinner with them and i get to email! im so excited!and at church i helped teach the primary kids about reverence:) they're so flippin' cute!!!
oh and i went to give an old lady the sacrament today so that was a lot of fun:)) except, she said Toti gets really hot and most of the time its 80-100% humidity here during the summer so im not looking forward to that:/
but today I saw so many monkeys! like at least 20 or so! it didn't rain so they were all over the place! im gonna try and send a bunch of pictures but most of them are blurry and bad so don't share any of the bad ones! hahaha
I miss ya and I love ya to the moon and back!
-Elder Merritt:)
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