Sanboni!
Haibo... A year ago, I wondered why, when he saw me order a Coke, the man sitting next to me on the plane from London to JoBurg was super confused. Now, I understand. Yoh, too many missionaries of ages past preaching that Coke and caffeine are against the Word of Wisdom. I've seen it in people baptized in the 80s and I've seen it in someone that was baptized in February. But it's fine, one day we'll find Heavenly Father enjoying an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola on a hot summer day in the Celestial Kingdom. I guess if all the blessings of eternal life aren't enough, there's always that to look forward to. Gotta hope for something, right?
Ah man, excellent week. Transfer news came Saturday night and Elder Marumo and I will be together six more weeks! Take that, Satan! Little do you know we CAN have our vetkoek and eat it too! Stoked for another transfer with this guy. Man, this guy... Cracks me up. We were driving between appointments the other day, and there he was, just looking out the window saying stuff like, "Sometimes my race really disappoints me. They suck. At everything." Maybe you have to know him for that to be funny... But man, when teaching time comes, Elder Marumo invites the Spirit like it's his full time job. We gonna give 'em heaven this transfer!
I forgot to mention this last week, and I can't remember if I've talked about the Lower Lights before, but they're a folk band that sound somewhere between Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers, except they do hymns from the green book. Anyway, I was looking at the contributing artists on one of their CDs a couple months back and saw Dorothy and John Zackrison. Now, it's not just everyday you find a couple named John and Dorothy, let alone having the surname Zackrison, so I finally got to ask Sister Z what was up last week. Apparently, the Lower Lights were started by their son in law. There was a frustration that other instruments could be played in sacrament meetings while guitars always got the shambock. And with that, the Lower Lights were born. Cool, hey?
But anyway, work of salvation... We've been working on contacting more people, and eish, it's tough. But don't worry, we're not turning into Lamans and Lemuels saying stuff like, "This is a hard thing Big Z has required of us." We're big strong Nephis that go and do. Just so we don't have to do too much tracting, we're trying to share with the people we meet doing our day to day stuff. It's funny though, you can tell all the places missionaries shop at when you ask the cashier if you can share a message about Jesus Christ with them and their response is, "Oh yeah, the missionaries used to visit me!" Go figure. Guess it's time to branch out a bit.
But man, the longer I'm out, the more I gain a testimony that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. Somehow we always seem to end up in the right place at the right time. Tuesday morning, Brother Gbenga called us and asked us to give Sister Mlambo a blessing. I told him we could go after finished our studies, but it's a good thing at least Elder Marumo was listening to the Spirit. "We need to go NOW," he said. Long story short, we found her praying and in a lot of pain, we gave her a blessing, and she was almost instantly at peace. Let's hear it for the priesthood. Later that day, we were looking for a less-active we'd never met. When we finally found his house, we learned he had suffered a stroke and was at hospital. We rushed to the MediClinic to visit, and as we were walking in, we bumped into the one and only Baba Mlambo, who, slowly but surely is warming up to the gospel. We were able to greet him and talk soccer for a brief moment before he told us how grateful he was that we had even able to help out his wife that morning. That really touched my heart. Shoutout to the Spirit for always taking charge!
Thursday was a cool experience. Got to do my first baptismal interview, with six more on the way next week. Yoh... There's a scripture in Moroni 6 that puts forth what you have do to be baptized, and among the broken hearts and contrite spirits, you must witness before the church that you've repented of your sins, and that's kinda the purpose for the baptismal interview. It's just you, the candidate, and the Holy Ghost in there. It's enough to make you a little nervous as the interviewer, but hey, if you're listening to the Spirit, nothing can go wrong. Man, but luckily Mxolisi is power and passed the inteview with flying colors.
Haibo... A year ago, I wondered why, when he saw me order a Coke, the man sitting next to me on the plane from London to JoBurg was super confused. Now, I understand. Yoh, too many missionaries of ages past preaching that Coke and caffeine are against the Word of Wisdom. I've seen it in people baptized in the 80s and I've seen it in someone that was baptized in February. But it's fine, one day we'll find Heavenly Father enjoying an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola on a hot summer day in the Celestial Kingdom. I guess if all the blessings of eternal life aren't enough, there's always that to look forward to. Gotta hope for something, right?
Ah man, excellent week. Transfer news came Saturday night and Elder Marumo and I will be together six more weeks! Take that, Satan! Little do you know we CAN have our vetkoek and eat it too! Stoked for another transfer with this guy. Man, this guy... Cracks me up. We were driving between appointments the other day, and there he was, just looking out the window saying stuff like, "Sometimes my race really disappoints me. They suck. At everything." Maybe you have to know him for that to be funny... But man, when teaching time comes, Elder Marumo invites the Spirit like it's his full time job. We gonna give 'em heaven this transfer!
I forgot to mention this last week, and I can't remember if I've talked about the Lower Lights before, but they're a folk band that sound somewhere between Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers, except they do hymns from the green book. Anyway, I was looking at the contributing artists on one of their CDs a couple months back and saw Dorothy and John Zackrison. Now, it's not just everyday you find a couple named John and Dorothy, let alone having the surname Zackrison, so I finally got to ask Sister Z what was up last week. Apparently, the Lower Lights were started by their son in law. There was a frustration that other instruments could be played in sacrament meetings while guitars always got the shambock. And with that, the Lower Lights were born. Cool, hey?
But anyway, work of salvation... We've been working on contacting more people, and eish, it's tough. But don't worry, we're not turning into Lamans and Lemuels saying stuff like, "This is a hard thing Big Z has required of us." We're big strong Nephis that go and do. Just so we don't have to do too much tracting, we're trying to share with the people we meet doing our day to day stuff. It's funny though, you can tell all the places missionaries shop at when you ask the cashier if you can share a message about Jesus Christ with them and their response is, "Oh yeah, the missionaries used to visit me!" Go figure. Guess it's time to branch out a bit.
But man, the longer I'm out, the more I gain a testimony that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. Somehow we always seem to end up in the right place at the right time. Tuesday morning, Brother Gbenga called us and asked us to give Sister Mlambo a blessing. I told him we could go after finished our studies, but it's a good thing at least Elder Marumo was listening to the Spirit. "We need to go NOW," he said. Long story short, we found her praying and in a lot of pain, we gave her a blessing, and she was almost instantly at peace. Let's hear it for the priesthood. Later that day, we were looking for a less-active we'd never met. When we finally found his house, we learned he had suffered a stroke and was at hospital. We rushed to the MediClinic to visit, and as we were walking in, we bumped into the one and only Baba Mlambo, who, slowly but surely is warming up to the gospel. We were able to greet him and talk soccer for a brief moment before he told us how grateful he was that we had even able to help out his wife that morning. That really touched my heart. Shoutout to the Spirit for always taking charge!
Thursday was a cool experience. Got to do my first baptismal interview, with six more on the way next week. Yoh... There's a scripture in Moroni 6 that puts forth what you have do to be baptized, and among the broken hearts and contrite spirits, you must witness before the church that you've repented of your sins, and that's kinda the purpose for the baptismal interview. It's just you, the candidate, and the Holy Ghost in there. It's enough to make you a little nervous as the interviewer, but hey, if you're listening to the Spirit, nothing can go wrong. Man, but luckily Mxolisi is power and passed the inteview with flying colors.
Hmmm... What else has been happening this week... We've got some power people we're teaching. Some have a few stumbling blocks to get over before they make it to baptism, but hey... As long as the desire's there, there's nothing Satan can do to stop the work of salvation. We have one family, the Shanges, that we've been working with for a month or so. They stay about 20 kilometers from the chapel, and they were all able to make it to church this week! It's actually a super cool story. One Sunday after church, Elder Marumo and I had split with Gbenga and Lungani doing some contacting, and Elder Marumo and Gbenga found this family super prepared for the gospel. They've loved having us over ever since, and it's such a blessing seeing them finally be able to act on the message.
Sunday night was transfer dinner, which is always a good experience. A few see ya laters, but many more good times ahead. Elder Marumo and I helped the Herringtons prepare Hawaiian chicken and fried rice for the whole zone, and boy, what a treat it was. Sister Herrington taught me how to make cole slaw with pineapple in it, so uh... Family, you've got that to look forward to next year. The departing elders shared their testimonies and we had desert afterwards. Ah... So great to hear so many people that love the Lord and love the work they're called to.
A couple funny stories before I finish...
So there's a less-active family in a neighborhood called Paradise (you'll see the irony of the name shortly), and they have (well...had) a big tree outside their house that a lot of the neighborhood hooligans come drink and smoke under. Last Sunday, there was somewhat of a windstorm in Newcastle, and it knocked the 40 year old tree down. Shame... Elder Marumo and I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. #RIPBigTree
Slowly, we're losing our testimonies of Al Habib. Sigh... They're under new ownership and it just isn't the same. We have a feeling we were converted to the workers and not the establishment. But I guess not completely. As much as we miss the old guys and aren't completely satisfied with the new guys, we keep going back because where else are we gonna go to get cheap tikka and biryani? But we did find this new place called Porto's that I guess Newcastle is famous for. It's a fish and chips place, and the chips they make are the bomb. They put peri peri on them and yoh... They're to die for. It's not tikka, but hey... It's something.
Gregory told me about a saloon you can go to that does facial shaves for 10 rand, or one dollar. So I'm giving that a try today before we hit up Vulintaba with Brother Classen again. The church is still true, the Book of Mormon's still blue, and the work is still as good as ever. More good times ahead.
Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
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