We made it to 10 months!! Only 14 more to go

Monday... 

still no window...

Tuesday

still no window... people bunked us quite a bit but we tried and met some cool people ( Mitchell told us a few months ago that bunked means they made an appointment but nobody was there when the arrived for the appointment)

Wednesday

got our window fixed! were all good now:) and then we had DDM, Asemahle Interviewed for baptism, etc.. AND SHE PASSED.

But after her interview Elder Harper and I were walking down the street when I felt cold metal touch the back of my tricep.. so Instinctively I flinched and as i did I heard a 'GRZZZPPHGJAAPFH"... (Not exactly what it sounded like but it was a fetching kid, that tried to zap my with a TASER!!!!!!!!!! so I told him to  VOETSAC.. and he ran off.... )

annnnndddd LAttterrr.... we went to go see Nthombi and Ayanda. We thought they just wanted a special prayer because Ayanda was goign to have a very important job interview the next day.. but turns out they wanted to chat for a while hah. So we discussed how they felt about church and the message we shared with them.. Nthombi said something like "before you came i never really was a church person... but I have to admit I LOVE the church!" and Mbali said something like she loved that we did things "how they were done in the bible.. " and that we haven't changed anything, its the same as it was back then.. sounds like they really understand the whole Restoration message! Nthombi also said that she is in 2 Nephi chapter 17... WHAT last week she was on 1 Nephi chapter 8.. so she is just flying through! She told us she feels the Spirit so strong, and even though there are always screaming kids and noise in the house she can always focus when she is reading the Book of Mormon. So we talked about how the Spirit testifies of truth and committed Ayanda to start reading and praying. We have taught her once or twice and she says she loves when we come to visit how it uplifts her and makes her want to be better. So it was a pretty great lesson!!

Thursday 

So we decided to go through our area book and pick a few people that were taught a few years back and go and see if those people are ready or not for the Gospel! Most people were either note home or they quickly rejected us once again. But one door we came to the ma opened the door and before we could even introduce ourselves she was letting us in and callin the whole family together! Her name is Noxolo(click in the name) and she has a wonderful family. We taught them the Restoration and they seemd to understand pretty well. They said that they would love to come to church, and luckily it is super close for them. Andile, a 21 year old guy that was there was funny.. "yeah I don't even do anything on Sundays so I guess I'll come" was his response hahah.

Went again to the Mngadi family. we have taught several of the family but its always random who is home so we kinda have to show up, see who is there and what we have taught them and teach the lesson that most of them haven't heard... so we were thinking it would be nthombi and mbali.. the people we have seen most so we were going in with a law of chastity pamphlet and a tithing one as well. But when we walked in it was basically a family reunion.. not a big one but there were several new faces! Sooo obviously we switched to teaching the Restoration haha. But it was a really great lesson. Nthombi was just smiling the whole time, so happy that her whole family decided to listen to our message. One baba,Arthur, was asking some great questions and we were able to answer all of them so he was happy haha. The whole family said that they would come to church this sunday, which is good because their cousin is getting baptized! so hopefully that will spark some extra interest!! 

Saturday

Did Service for the Khumalos and we cleaned their Garage... the Ndlovus said we did a great job on theirs so they told The Khumalos that...but at least they fed us so thats a Bonus:)) 

Went on exchanges with Elder Knutsen! Hes a pretty cool guy He's been our DL for about 4 and a half months now so were pretty good friends, He's from Washington and he only lives 2 and a half hours from us... so that was pretty crazy! haha but we had some fun and taught some really cool guys:)

Sunday.. the baptism for Asamahle!

It was great except I haven't had time to go buy a new camera.. but other missionaries took pictures so i still got them don't worry! Unfortunately Nthombi and her sisters and family didn't come for some reason... :( BUT we still had 14 investigators at church so it wasn't bad at all:))) 

Heres a few pictures.... The Baptisms on Sunday... Uhhh...Thats me making like all the homeless beggars that like to ask for money at red lights.... "But are we not all beggars?"..(MSH 4:19) ... and the last one was elder Harper and I trying to stay awake during Zone Conference..:) ENJOY!!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!! 

~CTR~

Robbed in the rain... No more camera!

Tuesday August 15th, 2017

Helped a member paint a bunch of walls in their house.. hopefully it turned out nice because my comp and I are definitely not professional painters-- haha. 

Taught Minenhle and 3 of Lihle's siblings (Age 9,11,12? I think). The kids should be getting baptized by the end of the month, and we are hoping Minenhle will be able to maybe next month depending on how things go! 

Taught Kwasa(20) about the Book of Mormon. He described how he felt as he read from the Book of Mormon and told us that he believes it to be true. Had a really great lesson with him, he is loving the Gospel so much!

Wednesday August 16th

well today we're gonna have Zone Conference and I'll be teaching everyone for about 20/30 minutes.. my topic is obedience so I guess I'm gonna encourage a bunch of 18-28 year old guys to be more obedient... should be fun! 

well It went pretty well:) It was kinda fun! 

"it was good" said Elder Harper

"nice lesson" said Elder Knutsen.

'well done.. thank you.' said Mission President... so Yeah I'm Kind of a big deal over here right now! hahaha just kidding:) 

and President gave us a nice new book of Mormon, hard cover, so i need to start over and read all of it by Christmas.. which will be a nice momemento:)

Thursday

we had Service again this morning at the Msalis.. we did some yeard work so it was fun:) but it was actually quite Cold today... it even started to rain.. and right now it's raining really hard tonight!:) I kind of like it:) either way, today was super nice:) 

Friday Morning..... 

well this sucks... apparently last night when it rained The darn scabangos jumped the gate, Bashed the back drivers side window of our car in, and stole all our stuff out of the car while we slept... So They Stole my camera:( and my USB With Mormon Messages and music on it.. BUT THEY GOT MY CAMERA!!!:(

There was nothing we could've done.. both gates and the car were all locked! but they used the loudness of the rain so we couldn't hear them smash our window:( 

I've tried to keep a pretty good attitude throughout the day but that was expensive and Im really sad! Luckily I backed up my photos a few weeks ago and the ones I hadn't backed up, the good ones were just emailed to you guys... so i didnt lose too much.. Just my darn camera so I'm gonna have to get a new one:( Im gonna ask around the mission first to see if I can get a good deal... maybe a missionary is going home or something? we'll see! either way, Gonna keep moving forward with a smile.. nothin I can do now:/ (1Nephi 18:16)

I'd send you pictures...... but I don't have a camera... 

the rest of Friday...

well today the weather was soooooooo nice!! it was super cold so i got to wear a sweater:) but it might have just been cold cause were missing our car window... haha and people were nice to us:) so that was a bonus! hahaha

Sunday August 20th

Well we were super happy because Nthombi was able to make it to church! and then right before church was starting Mbali, her older sister, also came to church!! So it was super cool because they are both powerful investigators. We had our primary program which was pretty fun but also spiritually uplifting seeing the kids testify of Jesus Christ and how they want to always choose the right was super nice!

and well we still dont have a car window but hopefully elder Peterson will help us out real soon...... We could really use a window right about now...:/ i'd hate to get robbed again....  Pray for us!! hahaha

I LOVE YOU GUYS:)))

~CTR~

Picutres from Africa

Latest and Greatest from my Elder

Tuesday august 1st 

well its august now... sooo... today we had appointments.. taught people... typical week... one of the guys we are teaching, Omega, decided to quit his job... he hasnt been able to come to church yet because of church so he said the heck with it and left.. a Bold move.. But he came to church this sunday:) and when we saw him today he told us that he already found a new one... Seeing the the unemployment rate is nearly 35%.. I was pretty impressed! he said it pays better, is more fun, and he works monday through Friday:) BLESSINGS!

so that was the Miracle of the day:)

Thursday August 3rd

well HAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYY BIRTHDAY, BRINLEY!:) I hope You Had just a FANTASTIC DAY:)) 

Thursday

Went to go see the Mngadi family.. no one was home, except for ma. She has always sat out of our lessons but she agreed to listen as we read the book of Mormon. Luckily just as we were starting Ntombi came and joined us! She said she LOVED the book of Mormon and she was learning so much and was excited to read and learn more and to come to church!

Friday

well we had interviews with Mission President today...Hes a cool guy:) we talked about pigs for the longest time in our interview... it was quite strange.. hahaha besides that Im "Super Excited" to teach everyone  at Zone Conference... 

Sunday: August 6th or something?

well today was awesome again, church was great! people showed up, we had fun and elder harper and I taught Gospel Principles:) Have I told you guys that church here is backwards? like, 1st hour is Elders quorum, and 3rd hour is sacrament.... its super weird!! hahaha nobody shows up on time!

Tuesday august 8th

We had to take our car in for service which took soooo long.. too long. but we were able to go to a member's house because he wanted us to teach his two friends. Thabiso and Kwaasa. I've seen both of them before but never gotten the chance to teach them. Well we taught them the Restoration and they are super prepared. Kwasa kept saying how much he felt like he was in the same position as Joseph Smith, just wanted to know the truth because he was confused... and he told us how in the past 2 or 3 years he has been searching for true happiness.. he said he was out enjoying the world and getting that worldly pleasure but he still felt somethin gmissing.. and when he would come to church that whole was filled somehow. Super powerful guy. Thabiso said somethin similar, Thabiso is deep though, like when he speaks he is very careful with what he says and takes time to say it.. I like that because it makes it so easy to teach him exactly what he needs. Point is these brothers are awesome and have the biggest desire just to know the truth so I'm sure as long as that desire remains they will get their answer :) Im excited to teach them again:)

Wednesday August 9th

well today was national womens day... which is actually a much bigger Holiday here than I was expecting! hahaha No offence... anyway, it was nice cause they didnt have school today, so we had more people to teach after our DDM:)

Thursday August 10th

We visited Nthombi and taught her the plan of salvation, she loved it and said she is coming to church and is goi not invite her sister and her mother so hopefully that will all work out :) 

 we Played uno with one of our investigators Zamo, and based on how quickly she grasped the concept of the game.. We decided to kinda restart the lessons to help her progress. 

Saturday August 12th (EXCHANGES WITH DOOLEY)

well the day started with All four of us K1 and K2 had a combined service project... we had to use slasher (Dull swords) to mow basically the entire flippin' Jungle down for the Elementary school... then we were yelled at by an indian for 'poor Parking' I felt bad for Dooley, but the guys accent was pretty funny.. and then I spent the rest of the day with Elder Dooley... dooley and his comp Knutsen havent been getting along that much but He said it was nice to have a day aff:) oh and we Helped president with his sons baptism today!

and when I was with Him i tried to take as many pictures as I could:) ill attach some:) 

SUNday August 13th

Church was great For some reason a lot of people didnt show? so we'll pray for them, visit them some more and pray that everyone will be here next week:) 

then we went to dinner at the Mkhize family... Definitely my new favorite family in africa:) 

No weekly update but a sweet email from my boy...

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH:))) And we are definitely gonna have at least 8 baptisms but I dont think I'll be here for them... I might get transferred right before.. the work here is going so great! I Definitely am loving this area, and the members have noticed and now we have so many referrals and so little time in the week!   

How does the house look? are you guys ready for Ellie and them? 

I love you guys so so much:)) I Forgot to bring the cord for my alpha smart thingy so Im not sure if Ill be able to send you the weekly update? But this week was nice:)

Also, Mission President is having me give a 30 minute lesson to all the missionaries in Durban so if you have any suggestions let me know:) My topioc is how Obedience brings blessings! super easy:)

CTR and Love~

Elder Merritt