The Fresh Elders of Bellair

Sawubona!

Man this Africa thing is confusing until you get used to it... So there's the city of Durban, and then within Durban there are different suburbs like Pinetown and Queensburgh, and then within the different suburbs there are other areas... In Queensburgh there's Escombe, Malvern, Northdene, Hillary, and my personal favorite, Bellair. We've been on the lookout for Will Smith, but no luck yet. Eish, that one's a tough one to find.

But anyway, enough with our search for mythical beings, on to more important things! So in Africa, people will talk about the "big 5." It's not a sporting goods store as you may suspect, but five animals. Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, and Buffalo. I dunno how they were decided, but for them, they could break a human in half without even thinking. We hit Natal Lion Park last week for p-day and I got to cross elephant off the list. With rhinos and lions already taken care of, I just need to find a buffalo and leopard. Hoorah for Israel!

The work has been tough this week... Eish. Kimberley was lekker because we'd usually have teaching appointments all day. Here, we'll have maybe one appointment earlier in the day and nothing until night. It's tough finding activities to fill your day. We've been working hard and trying as many finding methods as we can, and you know, we're starting to find success! White washing an area isn't easy, but it's worth it. I'm not worried. Elder Higley and I have started to ask ourselves some big questions... Should we be trying to soften the hearts of everyone we find, or should we be trying to find those with softened hearts? We've come up with some great ideas and are looking forward with an optimistic eye. Take that, adversary!

One of the things we've been filling our days with is less-active finding, and eish... The ward-directory is too much outdated. To give you an idea, I was on exchanges with Elder Nielson last Friday, and we knocked on a door, only to find out the member that used to stay there moved away eight years ago. Eight! Eish eish eish... Maybe our mission in Queensburgh is just to make the ward directory accurate.

So fun story... Granny Heather told us it was our turn to make food for her this week, so I made my specialty... Bean burritos! S/O to mi madre for sending all the hot sauce packets from Taco Time, Del Taco, and Taco Maker to make our fiesta muy bueno! Oh, and I took a stab at making guacamole too. After Sister Carlile explaining to me over the phone how to chop chillies and garlic, I'm glad to say it wasn't bad and didn't give anyone a runny stomach!

We hit uShaka Marine world today for p-day. Man... Freaking lekker. People here always give people from the US and A fire for having the mindset that lions and stuff roam the streets of Africa. But eish... It's not that far off. The number of crazy animals I see here compared to the ones I see back home... Not even close. NEVER in Utah did I have to slow down because monkeys were crossing the street. Never could I drive twenty minutes and be able to see lions, zebras, giraffes, sharks, dolphins, rhinos, and elephants. So blessed to be serving in such an incredible environment with incredible people.

Love you all! The church is still true, and the work of salvation continues on! Stay well, stay positive, love life.

Baie liefde,

Elder Johnson