Sawubona, family and friends! Kunjani? Igama lami ngu Elder Johnson!
Alright, for those of you who don't know how to say that, me either. Elder Shabalala laughed his head off when I attempted it. Anyway, that's basically, "Hello, family and friends! How are you? My name is Elder Johnson!" So the good news is I basically learned everything I remember from two years of Spanish in Zulu in about five minutes.
Holy cow, the MTC is incredible! If I'm not mistaken, the MTC is the only place in the world where you can ask for volunteers for a prayer, and you'll have more than zero people raise their hands. I don't remember what all I said last time, so I'll just start from last Thursday. There are 17 of us total here at the South Africa MTC, so it's different from any sort of experience at the Provo MTC where there are thousands and thousands of new missionaries. Six of us are from the states (Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and Mississippi, and yes...Elder Jeppesen from Idaho is indeed a potato farmer...that stereotype is 100% TRUE ;), there's one from the UK, and the rest are from different places in Africa. They are all incredible! Every single one of the Africans is just SO happy to be here!
My companion is Elder Kasambala. He's from Zimbabwe and he's a stud. He played soccer back in high school, as I'm pretty sure most of them have. If you know me at all, you know I'm very, very loud, and I'm pretty sure Elder Kasambala's the quietest one here. I have to listen very close to him if I want to hear what he's saying, but he's a bright young man. Always has a huge smile on his face, unless you try and take a picture of him... Don't worry, pictures are coming! The computers at the MTC are very slow though, so I'll have to wait 'til I'm out in the field. I think Sister Reber sent some to my mom though, which I believe are on FB if you want to check those out!
So all the gringo elders plus two of the Africans are going to Durban, and the other eight are going to Uganda Kampala, same mission as my roomie Elder Austin Allred! So stoked for them. So stoked for all of us! Crazy to think we've only known everyone here a week, and we're already really tight. And we leave Tuesday for Durban... Time really does fly!
We'll start with Thursday... It was basically an orientation sorta day. They immediately gave us four more shots...I don't remember which ones, but that was kind of a downer. On the plus side, I didn't get sick the next day like I did with the American ones! But like malaria and the plague and aids and stuff can suck it. It was around dinner time before Elder Kasambala arrived, and I was one of the last ones to get my companion. But he got here, and we were made zone leaders that night! And when I say we were made zone leaders, that basically means we were made the people who never have to say the prayer since we get to choose. Occasionally we'll have a meeting with President Reber, but it's a pretty easy gig. Just have to turn lights off at night, know what time everything's happening, and conduct a class or two (conduct a class, aka ask for volunteers for the prayer and the music as you're introducing the prayer and music. #procrastination).
Friday was the first real day at the MTC. Basically, we'll have breakfast, classes and practice teaching in the morning, lunch, classes, sports time, shower, dinner, and more classes and teaching before we sign hymns and go to bed. It's a lot more entertaining than it might sound. Our first class in the morning, our teacher had our district introduce ourselves. One of the questions was why we're serving a mission. Hearing the answers were really cool. I think Elder Halford's was my favorite. His answer? Simply because it was a commandment. He didn't say it was because he wanted to, and I never really thought that was a good reason to serve. But I started thinking about it, and if you have that much faith that you're willing to give two years of your life simply because God commanded it, that's pretty dang cool. Sports time was a blast. There's a sand volleyball court, so naturally that's where I went. I think this may have been the first (and possibly only) time in my life that I was better than a group of black people at a sport. Granted, they'd never really played before, but it was a moment I had to take in ;) That was also the first time I started to feel a little homesick... Just thinking back to playing at Barnes everyday... But don't worry, there's no place I'd rather be right now than right here in South Africa!
Elder Kasambala and I taught our first investigator Friday night, and...we'll just say we needed practice... ;) I think Elder Kasambala might have been a tad nervous...right after our investigator Pule said that he had lost his faith in God about ten years ago, Elder Kasambala taught something, and then asked, "So do you have faith in Jesus Christ?" hehe...we're getting better though, don't worry!
Saturday was INCREDIBLE! We got to go to the JoBerg temple. It's TINY. Like literally, one session can only fit 24 people. It was us 17, President and Sister Reber, and two others. What was really cool about it was they're closing the temple for the next 9 weeks for maintenance, and we were in the very last session before it closed. The outside was gorgeous as well. Eight of the elders went through for their first time, including Elder Kasambala, and four also received their patriarchal blessings while we've been through. Such an amazing experience for them. And it's really made me realized how blessed I was to be able to go to so many temples so many times before I left. Most of the others had only been through once. Reading the Book of Mormon that night, we read from the first chapter of 1 Nephi, and were finding things we'd never noticed before. It's like the temple, too. I think that was my 14th session, and I still notice new things, new insights every time.
Sunday was the Sabbath, which honestly...Seemed just like another day at the MTC. I guess when you're on a spiritual high like this that's what happens. :) We had a three hour block in the morning. All the speakers were missionaries. Very cool to hear. The rest of the day was just lessons. We didn't have to worry about teaching, which was a nice break. It was just a day to feel the spirit!
Monday was incredible. Started off the day going on a run with Sister Reber and a few of the other Elders. It was nice getting out of the MTC compound. Those who know me know I get kinda antsy being in the same place for too long. We went I think a couple miles out. It's gonna take some getting used to with the whole driving on the other side of the street thing. Oh! Fun fact: they're not called stoplights here. They're called robots, so that's fun. And the robots are weird here... But Elder Shabalala is from Durban, and he says it's a driving mission, so I guess I'm gonna have to get used to it! In addition to running, I also made a makeshift dumbell essentially by stuffing my backpack into my laundry bag. I also got a pushup/situp/lunge workout in, so take that MTC 15!!!
Monday and Tuesday we taught our investigators again. Pule went fantastically. He kept up with his commitments, and we were able to teach him the Restoration! Grace's was all over the place. She had invited a friend there, and her friend told us she was the prophet of her own church, and started Book of Mormon bashing, and I had nothing to back up my counterarguments, and it was just a mess... But it was a learning experience! I'm ready for you now, BoM bashers! You too, Satan. #comeatme
Tuesday we had a soccer match between the two districts! THAT was a blast, and really makes me wish I had kept with soccer longer than elementary school. All the Africans are SO GOOD!!! I guess that makes up for the lack of volleyball skill... ;) But man, since the missionary handbook says not to keep score, the game ended in a tie... If we had been keeping score though, it probably would have been Moroni district beating Helaman 4-3, which would have been a downer... But! I headed the ball twice and got compliments from real live Africans, so who's the real winner here? One of my sayings is that places with palm trees are always better... Still believe that, especially playing soccer outside. Sorry, Utah!
Wednesday was more classes... More teaching... and that brings us to today! We used some of our p-day helping to set up for Saturday. I guess it's the 10th anniversary of the South Africa MTC, so they're having an open house. From the sound of it, Brother Mocke was saying that they're gonna have people here from different embassies from different places in Africa come, to help ease the proccess, and even open the process of getting visas. He also mentioned we may be in the Ensign, so keep your eye out there!
So today's p-day, which in the MTC roughly translates to p-five hours. I'm gonna try and rap this up, and hopefully go take a nap if I have time after laundry. All you people in Utah who have the liberty of taking naps... DON'T TAKE THAT FOR GRANTED. I mean yes, I'm getting 8 hours of sleep everynight, but holy crap... I miss naps. Enjoy them. Music too... Good gandhi I miss music like none other and I've been out a week and a half. Hymns are nice though. I don't think there are any I love more than If You Could Hie to Kolob and Battle Hymn of the Republic (of South Africa...duh ;).
I think the highlights of my week have been Elder Bandi and Elder Esplin. Elder Bandi's an African, and he's probably one of the happiest people I've ever met! He's such a goof, and just so fun to be around. He's started to notice how I say "ok!" and "yeah!" and asks me to say them all the time. I love it. He's a beast at soccer, and always so excited to see me! And Elder Esplin is simply fantastic. I feel like he really looks up to me, which is cool since I look up to him too. He's from St. George and plays rugby. He's a little naieve, but has a strong testimony and is just a joy to be around.
So being without social media has taken away my outlet to share random thoughts... So to compensate, I labeled a page in the back of my journal "Random thoughts that would otherwise be tweeted," and I'll share some of my favorites at the end of my emails.
Reandom thoughts that would otherwise be tweeted:
- Hearing Elder Halford (British) say that something is "completely mental" and sound just like Ronald Weasley was bloody brilliant.
- President Bester's phrases are the best. #pregnantwithquestion
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was about Christian missionaries in Africa... Sound familiar?
- Tip: going running once at 5:50 AM turns waking up at 6:30 into sleeping in.
- Converted degrees Fahrrenheit to degrees Celcius without Google. Suck it, metric system.
- Preaching the gospel is like selling pest control, except someone's salvation is on the line if you don't make the sale.
I think that's about it for me this week... Next email I'll be in Durban! I'll try not to be as lengthy next time... Just so much happening this week! Love you all. Stay positive, love your life. Peace.
Elder Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment