Christmas Week!!

December 19th, P-DAYYYY

today was a lot of fun! besides the heat! We went to Funland again and we hit FOUR JACKPOTS!!!!!!! We have over 1,000 tickets! I think were gonna save up till we can get matching RC Helicopters for 6,000? Either that or Monopoly the board game! hahaha 

Later tonight we went Christmas caroling! we went sooooooo far away though! I could have sworn we were out of our zone but apparently our zone is WAYYY bigger than I thought! we definitely need to buy a map of our area cause there's a lot we didn't know about it! We passed a place called Crock-World! Apparently they have a bunch of live crocodiles there, so were gonna go check that out next week! haha:) Anyways, we Christmas caroled for about 5 families and then gave them some cookies:) they really appreciated it! 

Wanna play a game? its called "GUESS HOW MANY BLIND PEOPLE ARE IN OUR WARD!!!"

not one, not two, not even three,... now try guessing four... well if you guessed four then youre 100% WRONG! we have FIVE blind people in our ward right now! most famously is our bishops wife! Well thats all for today, folks stay tuned for our next episode of "GUESS HOW MANY BLIND PEOPLE ARE IN OUR WARD!!!"

Thursday: December 22nd, 2016

Well today was a lot of fun:) I got lots of Birthday wishes from people at church! I really like these people, and I'm making lots of new friends:) a little 7 year old girl named Buthle called me and sang happy birthday to me:) she's adorable. We're best friends btw! Anyway, a few more families said happy birthday to me, and my mission Presidents wife called and talked to me to wish me happy birthday:)

OH!! and today to celebrate my birthday we went out to eat at a delicious all you can eat pizza place! well its all you can eat on thursdays, which was perfect! They even gave me a birthday chocolate pizza cake thing:) It was really good! haha

But this morning we had to do a SUPER INTENSE cleaning of our apartment because they're doing inspections to make sure our apartment is clean and were not just up here cooking meth all day...I hear the Wood's are super strict when it comes to their apartment checks so i guess its gonna be interesting in the morning! :/ 

 

But all in all my birthday was pretty darn good and im loving it here in Africa!! haha I guess its the first year i didnt see snow on my Birthday... but i did see plenty of monkeys! haha

Friday December 23rd

Today was aweessommmeee:)) we had lunch with sister bell, shes reallllyyyy old and adorable! haha shes really nice:) she even gave us some cookies so that was awesome:)

We just went on a walk and played catch! we walked down to the beach and when we got there a super cool lighting storm started! it was Beautifulllll!!!:) then we walked back because it was getting bad! haha i walked back without my shoes and it was so weird to feel hot water run down the street over my feet! it was so cool:)

Saturday december 24th, Christmas Eve!:0

Today was also a lot of fun:) This morning our entire zone went to kwaMashu and we played soccer for like three hours! It was so much fun and I got to know all the people in my area a lot more, so that was nice.. I think this was the first time in my life that i got a SUN BURN on Christmas Eve!

And tonight we got invited to a member house and we did a braai:) they live in the township of Isipingo.. its kinda like a ghetto area... but the food was delicious!!! they even brought their truck up and played a bunch of zulu music really loud and they taught us some funny zulu dances! hahahah it was so much fun!! hahaha And i was helping this guy cook some chicken and he was like ÿo whats yo name man?"... öh its Elder Merritt:)"And he was like, "Maaaann we all *iggas out here. ima just call you merritt. we cool?".. it was so hard to keep a straight face when he said that hhaha

Alright I'm gonna get some sleep:) I love you guys! haha

Latest Email from Mitchell

December 14th, 2016

well today we had a bunch of appointments, we met with brother Greig and his wife. his wife is a non-member but she decided she wants to join the church and be baptized end of January, so that was a very successful appointment! they even gave us some food:) then we went to meet a guy named Alfred in Kwamakhutah... he doesn't live in a very prosperous area, we go tracting their and the people love to listen to us but the town is really far away from the church and a lot of people cant afford to taxi to church each week so its really hard for them:( and they live in really small houses and the main problem we have when going to appointments is barely any of the houses have an actual address... so its nearly impossible to find them.. I was talking to a 12 or so year old kid named mozi for about ten minutes and th whole time a little girl, about 3 years old, was walking around in a dirt field with a stick on top of a piece of bread. she loved her bread and stick and was really enjoying rubbing the bread in the dirt! it was the sweetest thing, it really made me feel super blessed for what i have:)

after that we went to phindys house and she fed us and it was AMAZING! hahaha 

December 15th, 2016

wow today was a HOOOOTTTTTT day! it was miserable today! everyone went to the beach and we had to wear collard shirts and ties with long pants. it pretty much sucked.

but tonight we went into the ocean to help the reises. they own the fish shop and needed help getting salt water! so we carried tons of big jugs and filled them all up carried them to the car, then filled up a big 250 gallon tank... then filled up all the jugs again and carried them back to the truck on the other side of the beach. I'm gonna be really sore tomorrow! but now i can say I have been in the Indian ocean... granted it was was only up to my knee, and i was in a white shirt and tie... but hey, it counts!

December 16th, 2016

today was really hot again. and my shoulders are killing me from last night! today we went and visited a few members, ate some food, and gave a blessing to sister nkosi who's sick.. so it was a pretty successful day........up until our car broke:/ so that kinda sucked.. the battery keeps dying... even when we drive it just shuts off. so we left it at the church and i think were gonna take it in on Monday. 

December 17th, 2016

Today was the Missionary Christmas party! it was a lot of fun and it was really nice to get to meet all the other missionaries in this area:) we played a bunch of games, ate some really good food, did a couple skits, and listened to president Thompson and his wife's little lesson thing! they even went out and bought a bunch of new ties for all the missionaries as gifts:) theyre really cool! i got a red one hahaha! today was a pretty good day!:) then we went to McDonald's for dinner:)

(the party went from 10:00am-4:30)

sorry guys it was a slow week... not a big email this time..

December 5th, 2016:)

Today was our P-day and it was soooo much fun! I gotta email my family then we played football in the park for hours! There's a bar at the park? or a booth? of picnic tables and a bunch of older guys were drinking and watching us play catch! Elder Nielsen isn't very athletic, he's more of a musical/Theater kinda guy.. but the guys drinking we could hear them making bets on him, if he catches the ball or drops it, or if he throws a terrible pass! it was pretty fun cause Nielsen was really cool about it! Then as we were leaving the guy came out and said " do you guys wanna make some money?" and i was like "well it depends what we're doing!? haha".. he told us he'd give us 100 bucks (Rand) if we throw the ball as far as we can to Nielsen, and if he catches it we win! We were like "well i mean we can try? its worth a shot at least!" so he said you get 3 chances to do it.. so we sent Nielsen out in the field and we started filming him! it was pretty exciting! First throw Elder Lesueur threw it way to short and he dropped it.. and we were laughing so hard! it was a lot of fun! haha then I gave it a throw and he actually caught it!!!!!!! it was CRAZY!!!!! the guys went crazy too! it was so much fun! then he told us he'd give us an extra 100 bucks if he could throw it all the way back and he was like 50 yards or so away....... he probably through it a little over half way.. But still we won 100 Rand so we went to the store on the way home and we each bought 2 litres (yeah thats how they spell 'liters'.. I know its annoying.. and they spell 'fiber' 'fibre' ) of soda! haha it was a really good day:)

after we showered and got cleaned up, we went to the Reise's house for family home evening:) we ate rice with like chicken and peppers and baby corn all mixed together.. it was sweet and actually pretty good:)) haha then we gave a spiritual thought (a little mini lesson) , sang a song and then Vicus taught a longer lesson.. and then we played the Dictionary game again:)) it was a lot of fun! after family home evening we always draw a little coin that either says "lesson, Opening Prayer, Treats, song, closing prayer, and spiritual thought:) i drew Opening prayer so i think im gonna try and memorize a short prayer in Afrikaans and try to impress them! hahaha well see though! haha:)

love ya:) gonna get some sleep! haha

December 6th, 2016

well today was nice, we worked a lot:) we got the car fixed today so now we can drive around:) So we went tracting again and i got chased by a monkey! that was by far the scariest thing that's happened to me in africa! there was like 15 monkeys or so just doing there own thing right in the middle of the path and my companion and i had to walk right through them... We did manage to give one of them a pass along card though! hahaha but that wasn't the best idea because when we did that they all thought we had food and started walking closer to us.. so i walked a little faster.. and faster.. and faster.. then i just ran  because those things are creepy looking and will bite ya!

after we did that we went to illovo and interviewed a kid for baptism:) him and his family lived in a township in an old house made of Cinder blocks.. when my companion and i pulled up at their house about eleven little kids surrounded us, jumped on my back, hung from my arms, and really wanted to play! they were soooo cute! it was a lot of fun!!!

then we all drove to the Reise's house to practice our christmas skit and play some games!:) our skits gonna be pretty bad and totally embarrassing! so if someone films it ill be sure to send it to ya! hahaha

December 9th, 2016

The last few days have been a lot of work.. but ive been enjoying every second! well.. most of the seconds.. im still not very happy with that monkey from the other day.. but last night was so cool! there was a HUGE lightning storm and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! it lit up the entire sky, we got a few pictures of or view and you would think its the middle of the day but the lightning was just super powerful! i took a bunch of videos so ill try and send them to you! hopefully their not too big!

Today is my companions birthday sooooo same thing as yesterday! haha 

nah a member made us a big birthday dinner and we played some games, it was a lot of fun! hahaha

December 10th, 2016

today we our ward Christmas party and boy was it fun! i was in two skits and it was completely embarrassing! but in a good way! haha ill try and send you guys one of the videos! haha for our skit we were in a "car" with our "mission President" on our way to the air port as if our two years were up and we were going home! and... well.. i dont wanna give anything away but i can do a sick macarena! hahaha hopefully you'll see from the video.. they filmed kinda far away so its hard to hear what were saying so i hope it makes sense! haha

then we did a bigger skit but it was a huge flop, too long, didn't make any sense, and the old guys in our ward can't read their lines very well... i'm not even gonna bother sending it to you or explaining it.. but i wore a plastic bag and my name was "Mr. Price"

then i learned how to Brai.. i think thats how you spell it? its basically barbecuing but everyone bring their own meat and we all cook it together!

December 11th

Today i had to give a talk in church!  i crushed it by the way! but i felt really bad because i went first and the last speaker, our stake president or something, didn't have much to say cause i took all of his info!.... i felt really bad! this bishop gave all three of us the same topic.

November 29th, 2016

Well I feel like we do almost the same thing each day so I'm not sure exactly what to write in this anymore... it would get pretty repetitive and boring if i told you guys everything we do each day... so I don't think my emails will be as long as the first few:/ 

hmmm... tomorrow I have a meeting with our mission president   he seems like a really nice guy:) we met him a few weeks ago when we got to Durban... but holy cow, no joke he's a BILLIONAIRE! he was telling us what his job was and he's a super successful business man and was like the CEO of DELL... he travels all over the world and was the guy that started opening more.. umm.. Units, companies,whats the word? stores? you know to help their company spread all over the world! Either way he made bank!

November 30th, 2016

The interview went great:) he's such a cool guy:) "now were gonna go get hair cuts and pick up some bread and stuff:) then drop it off shower, get changed and head to our appointments:)" 

.... well that was our plan.. it seemed pretty straight forward but after we changed and headed to our appointment we were driving down the road, all four of us, and there was a branch that broke and was hanging all the way across the road.. my companion was driving and didn't see it because it was right as we came around the corner...  he thought the branch looked small enough to go through...buuuuutttt, it shattered our windshield and now we cant use our car till it gets fixed:/ just one of those things that happen I guess.. nobody's fault, just kinda sucks.. so we had to cancel our Dinner Appointment and call to let the office know what happened... then we just watched the best two years...

I hope that doesn't happen again hahaha

DECEMBER 1st, 2016

Wow. its ALREADY December!! the days are FLYYIINNGG by right now! 

oh my haircut from yesterday looks great! I had to cut it cause people at church were judging me! oh well! I buzzed the sides and left it long on top:) talk about terrifying! I hate going to see new hair barbers! The guy barely understood English! I told him how much i wanted taken off in inches and I forgot they don't use those here, so it was an awkward conversation for a little bit. then I said he should just use scissors.. then he looked at me and started buzzing away....... whatever, it looks good.. hahaha

Today we TRACTED ALLLLLL DAY. Nielsen and Eastmond dropped us off on beach road, because we don't have a car yet, and we talked to almost every.single.person. we got FORTY peoples phone numbers! were gonna call most of them tomorrow and see if we can set up appointments to come talk to them:) 

so to celebrate an AWESOME day of work we went to an ALL YOU CAN EAT PIZZA PLACE!! It was Sooooo good! i had 16 slices of pizza and I'm soooo full! 

but holy cow these days are seriously going by sooo fast!! honestly I'm really happy our time difference is so different because I would drive myself crazy thinking "I wonder what mom is doing Right now?" now I know she's just sleeping so it's easier to not think about it.. then its harder to get homesick.. ya know what I mean? 

but I do miss you a lot! I wanna be at home more than anything,, so I can watch Mary, Jake, and Aspen play basketball, and watch Max, and Trevor at wrestling:) 

I miss you guys so much! i wish i could be with you!

but after what happened today, I know I'm here for the right reason. these people need to hear the gospel. And some for a few, I believe that I'm the only person that can help bring them closer to the gospel. If that is bringing them to church and baptizing them. or even showing them that they should change something super small in their life to help them become more Christ-like.

 

I love you guys so much. and I'm Super excited to see you on Christmas:) <3

December 3rd, 2016

well its been kinda hard to go place to place without our car because weve been sharing it with the other two guys... they wont let us drive ours because of the windsheild:/ so we haven't been able to get to all of our appointments, but we've done our best.. But this morning we did service at the church. Our church has a HUGGEEE Garden that wraps all around the building! it's really cool:) it was hot but i had a lot of fun:) one of my favorite people in our ward is Vicus! hes so cool! he played pro Rugby and is the coolest (most normal) guy here:)

then after the service project we got some McDonalds :) After Mcdonalds we went to Macro and I bought a new camera and i LOOOVVVEEEE it:))) i got the canon PowerShot SX620 HS:) ITS AWESOME! then we were gonna go talk to people but elder Neilson apparently got bit by a spider while we were in the garden so we had to call the Medical couple, sister Wood. she told us to go to a pharmacist and get some stuff.. but by the time we got there it was closed so we called her again and we had to go to our room so she could bring him some cream and stuff... So Elder Eastmond and I went on exchanges to a Members house that is in his area:) the Cebo's, and they were super nice:)))

Elder Neilsons fine... i don't think it was even a spider bite... I swear it's just a thorn. I think he's overreacting.. but the thorns here are super intense!! I dumped some weeds in the trash pile and a thorn stabbed straight through my SHOE! that was pretty eye opening and terrifying! but don't worry I put some ointment stuff on it, so I will be fine! hahaha

I LOVE YOU!

L-Durh Merritt

Sunday December 5th

Today was fast sunday... but whats nice about fast sunday's in this area is that we have a family that'll feed us after church so we can break the fast:) but their food was disgusting.. so that was pretty disappointing.. haha

oh and we've been practicing some skits for next saturday at our ward christmas party:) if they film them I will definitely send them to you! hahaha

after that we just kinda chilled all day  cause ya know, its sunday. and sundays are pretty slow.. but tomorrows P-DAYY!!! im excited cause we getta sleep in an extra hour:)) oh and I getta send you this email and hear how everybody is doing!:)

love ya, and I will talk to you next week:)