Monday, September 30, 2013

Pictures shared 9/30/13 - Naval Hill, The Big Hole, Kimberley Diamond Cup and Rugby

Kimberley


 Ancient Cemetery



Naval Hill






Floor Rugby


With Pres. Zackrison



The Big Hole!







Kimberley Diamond Cup















Rugby!




If you could say Hi to Kolob.....


Sawubona!
So did you know that even the apostles committed the sin of being prideful? Go read John chapter 20 verse 4... It talks about a disciple outrunning Peter. It's a piece of information that could have entirely been left out but was included anyway. And the other disciple that John is referring to? Himself. Haha...I laughed when I realized that. :)
Anyway, this week has been a crazy one! It's just felt off the entire week...Tuesday felt like Friday, Friday felt like Monday... Ah, where to begin...
So last Monday! First time we spent P-Day in Kimberley. It was good...there's nothing terribly exciting to do there, but we killed time during the afternoon. We were gonna hit the Big Hole, but Elder Kruger's done it already, and it's the kind of thing you can do once, but don't need to go again. Paying $8.50 to see a hole once is probably enough. Haha...but the ZLs were gonna be in Kimberley Friday and Elder Francom hadn't been yet, so we decided him and I would use our lunch hour then to go see it. So what did we do to kill time Monday? Roamed the mall... Went and checked out a shop at a mental institution... Roamed around an ancient cemetery... And visited Patrick. He is the man. He hooked us up with tickets to his Griquas game on Saturday! Woo!
Tuesday was probably one of the best days of missionary work we've ever had. We had three members come to appointments with us, and we felt the Spirit so strongly during all of them. And! We heard some bad news from Rocklands and Blomanda... When we drive to Bloemfontein Mondays for P-Day, we stay with them. And Monday nights they have appointments, but since we're two hours away from our area, we don't, so we just go to their place and chill and study til they're back. So during that time Monday night, they had people break in... They found a knife and ski masks that the thieves had left behind. Luckily, nothing too important was stolen, just some money and stuff. But the crazy thing is had we gone to Bloem that Monday, we would have been there during the robbery... Who knows what could have happened. Blessed much? The Lord really watches out for his missionaries.
We were gonna be in Bloem Thursday for interviews with President Zackrison, but we ended up having to drive there a day early. Tuesday Kruger came down with an illness and we had do go see a doctor there to get him taken care of. So unfortunately, we had to cancel our Wednesday appointments (and with them a lunch and dinner appointment gosh dang it). But the ZLs and Carliles took great care of us that day... Elders Francom and Stengile cooked us lunch and the Carliles took us to Naval Hill to try and see the giraffes. No luck, but it was nice spending some time with them. We stayed with the ZLs that night and played this game called floor rugby. It's basically exactly like it sounds. We piled all our mattresses in one room and played rugby. Don't worry, we're all still in one piece!
Thursday was interviews with President Zackrison. But man, he is the man. Us South Africa Durban missionaries are truly blessed to have guidance from him. While we were waiting our turns, Sister Zackrison had us film ourselves on her iPhone and say our name, where we're from and favorite hymn (oh! And I'd like to give a shoutout to Sister Zackrison who, if she's gotten her blog figured out, should be reading this!). It was really sweet, because we got to see all the other missionaries in the other zones. Elder Dube cracked me up... His favorite hymn was "If you could say Hi to Kolob." Still not sure if he meant to say that or not... Haha, I hear so much about Elder Davis, who served in Kimberley before me, so seeing and hearing him for the first time was pretty shnazzy.
Friday was awesome. The ZLs slept over and went on exchanges with us. Elder Francom and I went to the Big Hole during our lunch hour, so I can finally cross that off the bucket list! Woop woop! We stopped at Debonairs Pizza for lunch, and lo and behold I was 40 cents short to buy my pizza (in dollars that's approximately 4 cents). But luckily, someone in line had 40 cents, and I was surprised to hear she had a Californian accent. Turns out she was in charge of something with the Kimberley Diamond Cup which is the big skateboarding competition they have in Kimberley. We started talking, one thing led to another, and I ended up with seven free tickets to it. Talk about being in the right place at the right time... Smalls and Fud, two of the young men in the ward, are big into skateboarding, so Elder Kruger and I called them to see if they wanted to come with us for a little while Saturday. But! Onto the rest of Friday, I was on exchanges with Elder Stengile. It was awesome. We can learn from absolutely everyone we're with. Most of our appointments bunked, but that was a-ok, because we got to do some serious finding.
So Saturday morning we stopped by the Diamond Cup (everyone in Kimberley was calling it Maloof though...can't quite figure out why) with Smalls and Fud, and the skateboarders there...fetching ridiculous. I included a few pictures. Nyjah Houston, I guess the current best skateboarder in the world was there. They make it look so easy...but! We were armed with pass-along cards when we went, so got to teach a couple people there as well. We also hit Patrick's rugby game, which was kind of sad... They lost fifty something to ten. But it's ok, the church is still true. After some solid teaching Saturday and planning Sunday, we should be having two baptisms a week from this Sunday! It's an exciting time, and the work is moving forward!
So a couple cool things from Sunday. Our ward organist was gone and bishop asked me to conduct. Conducting an acapella congregation is probably one of the coolest things I've done. And then Sunday night just before we had FHE at Sister Thlabisang's... You know when you see a halo around the moon? There was something kind of like that around a star, except really bright. Then it started getting bigger, fading, and eventually disappeared. Never seen anything like it before. If anyone has an explanation, please let me know.
Well, that's it for me this week. Stay positive, love your life my friends!
Much love,

Elda Johnson

Monday, September 23, 2013

Pictures shared 9/23/13 - Zone Activity/Braai (BBQ), Windstorm, and Spider in their room Saturday!



Zone Activity...Volleyball, Soccer, having braai and watching Forever Strong!

 Braai (Barbecue)



The windstorm in Kimberely






 the small spider they found in their room