Would you like some chicken with that bone?

August 12, 2013

Sawubona!

Oy...this week has been a rough one, not gonna lie. But hey, nothing's gonna get us down here in Kimberley! There are souls that need our help!

So last Monday for P-day, we played soccer with a bunch of elders in our zone, and I think I was the whitest one out there, both literally in the sense that my skin is white even like unto the snow, and also in the sense that I wasn't good at soccer. Holy cow. But hey, I'm not gonna get any better if I don't try, right? We may go play again later today too! And then that night, we went to a nature reserve and saw Zebras, buffalo (but not the buffalo you're thinking of...), and boks! It was sweet. There will be pictures eventually, but they upload really ridiculously slow, so I'm about a month behind. My mama will have them up eventually though! There's this rule in the missionary handbook that says not to climb on sacred statues and whatnot, and we probably should have thought of that before we started hanging on Nelson Mandela's hand... Oops!

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting which was nice. I dunno if I mentioned Elder and Sister Carlile last week, but they're the senior couple here and they're from Farmington! And apparently they're in Spencer Hafen's ward back home, so we talked about him for a while. Oh! And Elder Carlile served in South Africa with Elder Cox in 1970! Small world, eh? Mom, Grandma and Grandpa, can you pass the word along to Bobby? He said he still sees him from time to time, and wasn't sure if he told him he'd been called back to South Africa. But anyway, ZTM was good. We set goals and stuff, and the message we focused on was staying positive and building unity... Dad, Blake, does that sound familiar?

Wednesday was good. We filled up with gas, which is about R13.50 a litre, and I did the conversion and it's about $5.51 a gallon... So you people back in the USA, hitting $4 a gallon isn't the worst thing in the world... It could be worse. ;) We went tracting Wednesday and found a few people that have potential to be strong investigators. I also ran into a drunk man that kept telling me he has HIV... I honestly had no idea how to respond, but luckily Elder Kruger was there to talk to him. We had a lot of appointments cancel that day, too.

Thursday also had a bunch of bunked appointments. One of them was a man we met and taught last week named Vusi. Once we can actually meet with him, he's going to be strong. He had so many questions and said that the answers we gave him were just what he needed to hear. He wants to come to church, which is excellent. Can't wait to meet more with him!

Friday morning I decided to take the thermometer out in the study area... It's 55 degrees when we study in the morning, so we have to bundle up. (Yes, it gets cold even in Africa!) We have weekly planning Fridays, and we really had to take into account our investigators and who were actually progressing. A few we had on for baptism we had to move down, just because they hadn't been keeping commitments... It was sad. We're looking for ways to contact stronger investigators, because tracting isn't super effective. We're hoping members in the area can start giving us more referrals, and we have some activities in the works... Perhaps a soccer tournament, chapel open house, or firesides and other activities that non-members can attend! And also contacting people at the mall and Pick 'N Pay as well. I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes! That night, we had dinner with the Vesagis, which was really good. Elder Kruger and Sister Vesagi started speaking Afrikaans to each other, so I started saying random words in Spanish. Katelyn, her daughter, then asked me if I knew French, to which I replied only bad words... She told me to stop listening to whoever taught me those. (Sorry David Earl, no more listening to you!)

Saturday was good. We had a solid lesson with the Mothelisis. And they came to church last week, which was excellent! The last couple lessons with them, they brought their neighbor Julia who honestly frightens me so bad, and I don't know why. She's so so so nice, but she's a preacher for another church. But she accepts everything we teach, she wants to come to church, and she even called for a Faith in Christ DVD! Which actually makes her one of our strongest investigators right now. Elder Kruger taught, and it was on the restoration, and we all felt the spirit so strong.

Sunday was great, as always. Church was nice and we had lunch with the Boiambos. When I told her I'm from Utah, she called it the "factory." Hehe...not the first time I've heard it called that. We're cranking out missionaries like crazy! #hastenthework

Welp, everyone's waiting on me right now to go get food (we're eating Chinese! YES!!!) so I guess I better call it a day. Stay safe, enjoy the rest of the week, stay positive, and LOVE YOUR LIVES.

Much love,

Elder Johnson