Monday March 26th, 2018
Well today was awesome. Elder Phillips and I asked sister Tsoeu where we can get a cheep suit she said she's going to Joburg and she can get a cheaper one there, so we met her at the mall to check his style and size. so we got there and gave her a call asking where we could meet her... she said go to Euro Cafe and to have the Manager call her back, so we did so. The Manager knew her so Phillips and I ate at a super classy all you can eat Breakfast Buffet! then we looked at suits and she took his size:) and so did I! haha
I also bought some cool ties! :)
We taught Olga and Mantje's! The Mantjes were preparing some "Delicious food" (Ill attach Photos)
Tuesday March 27th, 2018
Service Project it Bloem town! A super rich lady named Sally Krugar was moving out, we helped her:) she gave us a ton of free food that she was going to throw away, so that was really nice!
Elder hicks the senior couple bought us Burger king, yes Bloem has a Burger king, MIND=Blown.
We then went teaching with the Hicks. We taught a women named Debora. we told her that if she feels good during the lesson, to stop us and let us know. we were teaching about Jesus Christ establishing his church, havent even Mentioned Joseph Smith, and she stopped us and said she wants to join our church. She's just Prepared. People like her just make mission so much more enjoyable.
Wednesday March 28
DDM, we did transfer predictions after Mots lesson. Everyone said that Im staying.
Oh and elder Phillips wanted to go to one last house tonight. it was super late but he insisted we go.. I was hoping for a powerful spiritual experience. However, we got to the last door, Luck, and he was Sooooo mad that we showed up!! He was clearly doing something illegal and thought we were the police. When we knocked he got super scared and... yeah... that was that..
Thursday March 29th
Favorite lesson of the day: Brother Mokgadi. He's been taught in the past and his wife is a member. However, he struggles with Drinking and smoking so he hasn't been baptized. We taught him the plan of salvation, and he realized how easy this life can be if we just choose the right and keep the commandments. He understood and was willing to change and really want to be sealed to his wife in the temple. Therefore, he's going to try harder, come to church more, and work towards baptism.
at the End of the night we went to Bloemfontein to give them their keys that we borrowed. Also Elder Jewkes gave me a hair cut.... he buzzed my head. And honestly it doesn't look as bad as I was expecting! so that was a relief!
Friday March 30th
Well we Had a service Project planned for this morning as well, but they bunked yesterday, so we scheduled another one with the Mzizi family. However, they called us this morning because it was raining and they bunked us as well... so instead we cleaned the boarding for the Hicks because they are coming tomorrow to check it out and do a boarding check.
first appointment: Olga. success. she is ready to be baptized.
we also, took brother Mei teaching with us. He is a really nice man. We taught Simon together. Simon can talk for dayyyzzz and he taught us about repentance. But good news, our prayers have been answered. Simons been unable to come to church because of work on Sundays. However, we prayed and he now only works Monday-Friday! success!
Saturday
Eish today was pretty rough...... Everyone bunked, we did our best... buuuuuut.. yeah..
General Conference was nice!
Oh fun fact: poor Elder Trapnell was making dinner and he went to throw away boiling oil and it spilt on his hand which caused him to lose control and... well it didn't end pretty. He has a 3rd degree burn on the palm of his right hand and second degree (almost 3rd) burns down his right forearm and leg and foot. We drove them to the hospital to get him checked up. We went classy and took him to the Second BEST hospital in South Africa, it was real nice and shouldn't have any scars$$$$$! They gave him some super fancy burn victim bandages! But I'm still upset that they didn't get us any hot chocolate.
It was pretty difficult telling the AP's and President, they thought it was April fools day prank.
Sunday April 1st
Well more general conference, another trip to the hospital for elder LARSEN this time, and a baptism.
First, Elder Larsen has a staff infection of some sort. The doctors, at the second best hospital in south Africa, have no idea what it is and they believe it might be contagious... Pray for him!
Second, we had a Baptism for sister Olga Ngaka!!!! she is amazing!:) She was so excited elder Phillips Baptized her and I gave a talk on the Gift of the holy ghost:) It went really well, but our ward is Terrible at singing. From the bottom of my heart I love this ward, but they are so bad at singing.
Monday.... well we went to a Cheetah park but Ill tell you more and why I couldnt email you guys next week!!Monday April 2nd 2018
Well today was quite interesting. Like I said last week we went to a cheetah park.. Well, we left at 9 and looked around. We went on a tour and he showed us all their animals. Lions, Leopards, cheetahs, caracals, etc. But my favorite was a Siberian Tiger, there is only 300 left, and it is the Largest Tiger breed in the world! Super cool! The only disappointment that happened at this Animal park was that they told us how much fun it is to play with the animals, but they never let us play with them... frustrating, and not as fun looking threw a fence all day. Elder Allen loved the "African Wild cat"... it was literally just a house cat that lived outside, he disagreed with the guide and told him that Wild cats don't purr and Wear a collar with a little bell... Funny guy!
They also had a mentally handicapped Cheetah... it was hard not to laugh when it walked around..
but in the end our Tour was over and we went back to the car... It didn't start. Im no mechanic but it assumed to be broken. So yeah we had to call a tow truck and they took it to the dealership, then Elder Hicks picked us up. so we were at the lion park from 9-5... Pretty good day. They saw that we had to wait so they took us on another tour and we watched some Lions fight, a Leopard try to grab a kid threw the fence, and we even got to pet a cheetah. Pretty darn exciting day.
Tuesday April 3rd, 2018
today was a day in the life of a zone leader, just a bunch of errands. I was with Elder Gehlbach (Awesome guy). Well Elder Phillips and I dont have a car so he went in Kimberly's car and I drove Thaba Nchu's car. I took theirs in and got the tires replaced, While I wait Elder Gehlbach and I went to the mall next door and I got some new pants, that was a Need!
then we had lunch and were on our way to give something to Kimberly and we had 20 minutes extra time so I showed Gehlbach the Giraffes, he's never seen one. Now, that was exciting and really fun! (Ill attach photos)
Tuesday night While I was on an exchange with Elder Gehlbach in between transfers, we went and taught Brother Mokgadi. Let me just say, Mokgadi is a really nice man, His wife is a Member, he is not, He struggles with and addiction to Alcohol and hasn't showed much progress in the past few weeks. However, While working with Elder Gehlbach, I think I had one of my best lessons in Months, the Spirit was there, And it seemed as if everyone was on the same page. We taught Mokgadi Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we asked him, at the end of the lesson, what we need to do in life. He replied "Have Faith, Repent, be Baptized Properly, and Endure to the end." The we asked another question, "therefore, What do YOU need to do?"
He pause for a moment, "I need to change, I need to stop some of the things I'm doing, go to church, and be baptized"
Well, brother Mokgadi, thats exactly what you need to do, then we explained again our roll as missionaries and how we are here to help him make that change. Great lesson, im excited for him.
later that night all three of us took elder Allen to the bus station and waited for his bus from Bloemfontein to Durban. The bus was late and didn't get there till 9:00PM. poor guys gonna be on the bus for 13 hours..
then we all met back up and went home with our companions. Elder Lowe and his new companion, Mulabe, spent the night because it was too late to drive all the way back to Kimberly.
Wednesday April 4th, 2018
Elder Lowe and Mulabe went home, then we took elder Trapnell to the Hospital to get new bandages over his burns. that was the saddest, thing ever, watching her rip off the dead skin on his 3rd degree burns. Yep they were worse than we thought, all 3rd. shame. The first bandage, took off his skin and arm hair. Eish... You can assume how that went..
then we bought some food, ate lunch, and went to the Hicks to send some Paper work to the Mission office. fun stuff.
Thursday April 5th, 2018
Not a great day... this morning I found out that sister Greig, My first ever Baptism and like my best friend in Amanzimtoti died of cancer.. that was really hard for me to hear and I can't even Imagine how the family feels..
Friday April 6th, 2018
Well... we planned... had some lessons.. got bunked...
Saturday April 7th, 2018
Today we went to a funeral for a member of the ward that passed away. He was the only member in his family and the church supported his funeral. his family filled the ENTIRE CHAPEL + THE OVERFLOW. I am excited to see who comes to church. after the funeral we got lost and ended up to their house for the dinner and after party a bit late. When we arrived, the four of us walked in, met a lady who took us to the front table an gave us all glass plates and silverware to eat off of! it was a classy sight. "God bless you, pastors"
we also got to watch the last session of general conference tonight. that was nice. Russell m. Nelson's such a funny guy! haha the people that came to watch were slightly disappointed there will be no new temples in Africa but were astonished to hear about Russia. T hats exciting! I also heard that the JW's got kicked out and there buildings were taken down as well because they kept proselyting when the leaders said no. Im glad our Church is understanding and is willing to listen to whatever the country tells them to do, for the most part... besides that, Gong and Soares seem like to solid new additions to the 12:) happy to have them!
Sunday MApril 8th, 2018
Sister Olga was confirmed, nobody else really came to church... so that was a bit disappointing. Im happy for Olga though:) haha
After church we tried to visit some people then all four of us were driving home and I saw that the stadium lights were on and the Celtics game was over. So I asked Elder Phillips to stop by... we walked into the stadium and met a super official guy and we asked him about making an announcement about church during one of the games. Then he walked away and called someone. I "Felt Prompted" To go walk on the soccer Field and stand in the net. Honestly, I just thought I would regret not doing that. But because I went out to the field the VIP People in their booth that were drinking and partying saw me. The official guy came back to us and told us that one of the VIP People wants to take a picture with us... Turns out the VIP guy was Brother Tsoeu and he was partying like crazy! hahaha However, because brother Tsoeu is a High paying customer the Official guy gave us the Head guy of the Celtics stadiums phone number and we are planning to meet him next week!
also, trapnell brought his camera and we took a bunch of pictures on the field hahaha
Monday-
Today I drove alllllll the way to Bloemfontein and because it was P-day we got to stop half way at KESTELL and Guess who remembered me!!! LEO My lion Cub! He followed me alongside the fence for for a long time and then the Afrikaner guy let me play with him again:)
also, I took a group of people on a tour of the place because Artie, the Afrikaner guy, was too busy! and they got 6 NEW LION CUBS!!!!!!!!! (PICTURES ATTACHED)
then we made it to Durban early so the AP's let us go to the Temple sight and Krispy Kreme!:)
Tuesday
long meeting, MLC. All the Zone leaders and AP's come together at the beginning of each transfer and have a MISSIONARY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL. It was pretty boring, yet affective.
Wednesday: I drove back. the good news is that the drive is really pretty, president gave us some money for lunch, and he told us to "STRETCH OUR LEGS" in Kestell again. He is the best!
