Shared 12/29/14 - Christmas Party and Soccer - Umlazi Zone vs Durban Zone

 President Z

6 of the 9 Zones in Durban for Christmas Party

Umlazi Zone vs Durban Zone soccer match…..Umlazi won

Playing Tenzi!

Sweatin' in a summer swelter-land..

Sanbonani!

Eish... You remember in Holes where Mr. Sir tells the guys at Camp Green Lake a story? "Once upon a time, there was this magical land where it never rained. The end." Reverse that, and you've got Durban in the summer time. If it isn't raining rain from the sky, it's raining sweat from your face. Yoh yoh yoh... Christmas day! Haibo... We got out of the car and were walking for only five minutes before my face was completely drenched. But it's ok... Other than baptizing (or playing soccer on a drenched field...more on that in a minute), that's about the closest thing you get to swimming on mission. Bring on the sweat and rain!

Christmas week... What a joy! The Christmas party with six of the nine zones in the mission was fantastic. Got to see the Herringtons one last time before they head home (speaking of whom...as of right now, they're GONE! And they came out just a couple weeks after me! Is time flying...? You better believe it!), got to catch up with a bunch of other missionaries, got to see Big Z in a Santa hat and reindeer antlers... And finished off with the end of year slideshow! Ah, mission is good my friends. 

Afterwards, we organized with the Durban ZLs to have an Umlazi Zone vs. Durban Zone soccer match. We all brought our clothes and everything, but due to the aforementioned rain, we were a little bit hesitant. Thanks to some convincing from various members of our zones, we decided to press forward and play on. It ended up being one of the best decisions we've ever made. You don't realize how much fun slide tackling in the rain can be until after you've done it. I bear solemn testimony that rain soccer blows the doors off of sunny soccer. And miraculously, no one was injured! Hurrah for Israel!

Oh, and don't worry... Umlazi won.

On Christmas Eve we hosted our zone training meeting since everyone was in town for the Christmas party anyway. I think one of the themes for the week, and kinda the theme of President Zackrison's presidency has been personal conversion. You spend a lot of time as a missionary strengthening everyone else you meet, but if you're not careful, you'll completely forget about your own spiritual welfare. The Christmas season amongst the missionaries has been a great time to reflect on our own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had a lesson planned for ZTM, and then as the discussion got going, it kinda went in a different direction than I had planned, which ended up being super ok. By the end, the idea that we were all grasping is that if you're working your hardest to do everything that the Lord asks you to do, you'll achieve what he needs you to achieve. If He has a bunch of families that he needs brought to the gospel, that's great. But perhaps He simply needs to test and strengthen you. The only way to find out, though, is to work your hardest. Know God. Know His character. Find the path on mission (and life) that will lead you back to him. Do all you can to follow it. You'll fall short, but He's asking you only to try, and He'll cover the rest. You'll do what He needs you to do.

What else, what else... Christmas day was great. Fam, you know all about that. :) Missionary work slowed a little the rest of the weekend. We spent most of our time visiting members and investigators we hadn't been able to see during the week. We gave Sister Greeh and her kids a bunch of presents that they seemed really to enjoy. Great stuff.

Things started to return back to normal on Sunday. The elders in BB3 had a baptism, and what a humbling experience that was. Sister Mcanyana was baptized, with her children to be baptized next month. Everything went smoothly, and at the end when she was given the opportunity to bear her testimony, she was in tears at how happy she was that Elder Rowley and Elder Paige had knocked on her door about a month ago. That kinda hit me, because usually I bash on tracting as an ineffective way to do missionary work, and yet, there are still families other there that need to be gathered in by knocking on doors. "Any honorable way" as Preach My Gospel teaches us.

Later that day, we had a couple hours to kill between church and our lunch appointment, so we tagged along with Elders Wesonga and Larsen to go "church hunting." One of the most effective uses of times they've found is simply attending at other churches. Anything to turn the public's perception of the guys in white shirts and ties from something negative to something positive. We found a congregation that was meeting in a primary school, so we went in and took seats. One of the pastors came up and introduced himself, saw the name of our church, and asked if it would be ok if he introduced us to his congregation. Without missing a beat, he began telling them about uKhozi FM, and the trip S'bu Buthelezi and the other announcers had taken last year to Salt Lake City. He introduced us as the "youth from that church" and invited Elder Okeng to share a little more about us. Now, this was one of those "happy clap clap" congregations that will repeat "Hallelujah!" if you say it to them. So Elder Okeng started out, "This is Elder Wesonga, and he's here all the way from Uganda. Hallelujah!" And the whole congregation in a joyous shout repeated "Hallelujah!" Man... Okeng was a natural up there! So he shared a little bit about what we did as missionaries, and then closed with a quick testimony and a few more hallelujahs. We left soon after, the pastor invited us back for multiple services this week, so we're pretty excited for that.

...did I say things returned to normal Sunday? Woops!

We went to a lesson with Elders Wesonga and Larsen too, and they were teaching someone they had "performed an exorcism for" the previous day. Which kinda just means they gave a priesthood blessing to. The lady was healed, and a bunch of her YSA aged friends and a random gogo joined in on the lesson. By the end of it, we had given three more blessings, dedicated the home, and taught the Restoration to a bunch of people that were super prepared to hear it. And all of this because of a gogo that called the phone number on a pass-along card. Again, like tracting, I've never been a big fan of pass-along cards, and yet... Here are people who were prepared!

So it's been a week. Got some good things coming up this week. Most likely my last week with Elder Okeng, and then he'll be off to the PMTC for a couple weeks before he goes home... Gotta make it a good one!

uKhisimusi omuhle, sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Shared 12/23/14 - Soccer on the beach, zone conference, and food

Soccer on the beach….

 ….and then some braai….

 Cooking the Ugandan food…chapati

 Zulu meat…sheep!

 Everyone dig in!

It's a Festivus MIRACLE!

Sanbonani!

Oh boy we walked into the mission office yesterday, and there sitting amongst the pile of packages was a box from good ol' Fruit Heights, UT! The 24 days of Christmas box finally made it here, just in time for Festivus! Bust out the aluminum pole and bring on the feats of strength! Heeyeah! Great stuff. So after zone conference yesterday Elder Okeng and I got to open 22 days worth of Christmas presents with scriptures attached to them, and that ended up being pretty cool. Thanks mama :)

Ah, what a week... December is kinda notorious in South Africa for being kind of a "dead month." People go out of town, everyone is drinking, no snow... But hey, we've been givin' it our best and if anything, I think we spread at least a little bit of Christmas cheer.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned this last transfer has had to do with ministering as a leader. I went into the calling of being a zone leader thinking that if you just be an example to those you're called to serve, everything will go smoothly and all the missionaries in your zone will be the missionaries their mothers think they are. Yeah, rookie mistake... It's not quite that simple. To effectively lead a group of 18 missionaries to being consecrated servants of the Lord that can "speak with the tongue of angels," you have to love them in the same way Christ loves them. Which, is hard sometimes. But that's what set Christ apart from the rest of the world. While the Pharisees refused to mingle with the sinners (which, ironically, includes every single one of us), Christ made a point to dine exclusively with them many times. There's been an elder in our zone I've been concerned about due to his self proclaimed "apostate" practices, and I struggled for a few weeks how to deal with it. Ultimately, I decided to follow Christ's example. We had the whole zone up Monday for soccer on the beach and a braai, which ended up being a hit, and this elder and I were able to bond over a conversation whilst chowing wors. We talked, we laughed, we reminisced over friends back home, and he ended up opening up to me a bit. It turns out he's faced some depression on mission, and the impression I got from him is that, like me, he's trying his very best, and that's all Christ asks of us. Ministering... It doesn't happen a whole zone at a time. One person at a time. Something interesting to think about.

MLC was power this week. President Zackrison... We're blessed with the best mission president in the world (sorry anyone else who's reading this that doesn't get serve with Big Z). He understands ministering, he understands the tough times missionaries go through, he understands revelation, and he just wants all of us to be happy and to be the best missionaries we can be and to one day all be happy together in the Celestial Kingdom. He always makes MLC a spiritual experience... It's not just the nitty gritty issues in the mission, but he ministers to US as leaders. He's kinda like Jack Johnson in the sense that you can't walk out of a meeting with him feeling sad or anything like that. What a guy.

Hmmm... We've been singing a lot of Christmas songs lately. We had a family home evening with Sister Gree's family this week and just spent an hour singing all the Christmas songs in the hymn book over and over again! Ah, there's something about music... I think for Elder Okeng and I our favorite hymn this year has been Far, Far Away on Judea's Plain. Family... If you haven't been listening to the Lower Lights Christmas CDs, go listen to their version of it now now!

We've played the role of cooks this week too. Elder Okeng led us in cooking chapati for Lungile's family this week (which is a Ugandan food that basically is a really thick, slightly sweetened tortilla) and I led us in making chili bites and scrambled eggs with Del Taco sauce for Baba Mkhize's family. Mexican food in South Africa... Lekker lekker!

Eish, there I go talkin' about food again...

Had some great lessons this week. We've been teaching the Plan of Salvation a lot, and I think it's been a big help to Elder Okeng due to the loss of his mother. It's comforting to know God's plan for us. "Because of him, death has no sting, the grave no victory." Lungile's family has loved learning about it, and they accepted the invitation to be baptized! So that's exciting.

Sister Nomthi is one of our very favorite inactive members. She hasn't been to church in a number of years due to a challenge she is facing, and I can honestly say I can't blame her for not wanting to return. Were she to go back right now, odds are many of the members would treat her less than Christ-like, which would do more harm than good. She has a rock solid testimony, though, so our visits to her are just to invite the Spirit and make her happy. There was something cultural or traditional or whatever going on at her house Sunday, so she invited us and one of the sets of missionaries in W over for some Zulu meat. Which is basically sheep cooked without any spices and jeqe. It's all on one plate and everyone just digs in. Man, Zulus... They know how to feast!

Zone conference yesterday was power power power, and we're heading off to the mission Christmas party in just a few minutes! Six of the nine zones in the mission are down for it, so uh... This is huge!

Excited for what lies ahead.

Mele kalikimaka, merry Christmas, sala kahle, stay positive, love your life, all that jazz... Family, see you Thursday. :)

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Shared 12/15/14 - Umlazi, a wedding, and painting a house

 The house before…..

 ...painting the house…..

 …the house after!

 Cooling in our boarding.

 Wedding at the church.

 Speaking at the wedding.

 With my companion….

Oh, the weather outside is PRIDEFUL!

Sanbonani!

Man... South Africa weather is kinda like Utah weather... It can be summer in the morning and winter by the afternoon. The only difference here is that winter just means rain and it's only like 70 degrees instead of 80, but somehow we still freeze...

This week! Has been crazy. Transfer week is always hectic, and the week ahead is looking to be no different... Where to begin, where to begin...

We have this guy named Qhawe I contacted the first week I was in Umlazi, who I didn't realize at the time was super drunk... But! He was happy to hear what we had to say and was even interested in learning about the Book of Mormon! So  we see him out on the streets all the time, but the thing is every time he's either struggling to walk straight or he's sitting at a tavern. But he always greets us with a smile and a wave. We found out this week that the name "Qhawe" translates to english as "Hero," which Elder Okeng and I had a good laugh about.

We've been trying to get in the Christmas spirit as best we can! So we've got Christmas music going in the car 24/7, Elder Okeng's contemplating buying a Father Christmas suit, we're Christmas tracting, we're singing Christmas songs to members... Just having an all around jolly and merry time! While we were visiting Baba Mnguni this week with a Christmas message, he happened to be enjoying the beautiful South African weather on his back porch with a friend who had been drinking lots and lots of umqombothi. Which, in English, is traditional African beer. He wanted to start arguing with us about... Man, I can't even remember! It was funny whatever it was, and eventually it got to the point where he asked us, "Where does God stay?" As I pondered the question, my thought process was, "Ok, this guy's drunk... He's not going to remember any of this conversation anyway. This is your one chance on mission to teach Kolob to a complete stranger." So, with Elder Holland like confidence, I blurted out "Kolob!" Elder Okeng and Baba Mnguni busted up, and the drunk man just kinda scratched his head in confusion.

We had a couple powerful contacts this week! We were doing some finding in M section, and a gogo answered the door at one of the houses we knocked on. Usually the response of people is, "Oh, I'm busy..." But with her, she saw Christ's name on our name tags and ushered us right into her living room. She told us a little bit about herself and her love of Christ and her family. We had to rush to an appointment right after, but we gave her a Book of Mormon and she couldn't have been more excited. With the Book of Mormon, it's easy to lose sight of what it's true purpose is. Aside from being evidence of the Restoration, evidence that Joseph Smith was a propet, and the keystone of our religion, the primary purpose God brought it forth in these last days is to bring us closer to Christ... It's there to shed light on His earthly mission, His perfect example, and what we need to do to become more like him. And when it's introduced in that way, it opens the doors for people to find truth in it and to feel the Spirit testify to them of its divinity. And that, my friends, is what happened with Gogo Nzama.

On Saturday, somehow I found myself preaching from the Book of Mormon at a Zulu wedding for two non-members... What an experience! Bishop Magaqa is the man. He's got a license to marry, and the chapel is open to anyone -- member and non-member alike --  to host their wedding there. What a fantastic way to do missionary work. I think the only members there were Bishop, his wife, and the missionaries. People saw and mingled with us and saw the Church in a good light. They heard good things coming from the Book of Mormon. They saw us volunteering afterwards to clean up. We didn't get to talk to EVERYONE there, but we were able to plant some seeds for missionaries to harvest in the future. Showing people what we're about... Not simply telling. There's something to be said for things like that.

What's coming up this week... MLC tomorrow, ward Christmas party on Thursday, lots and lots of jolly good times ahead... Christmas time. Great time to be serving the Saviour and doing His work!

Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends!

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Shared 12/8/14 -Braai, volleyball, soccer and chapati

 Soccer

 Braai

Playing some volleyball