Sanbonani!
Ah... Even though we may be 9,787 miles away from our own country, you get a group of us Americans together on the 238th anniversary of our voetsek letter to Great Britain and we'll inevitably decide we need to blow up the sky to celebrate. (Voetsek is an Afrikaans word having a similar meaning to "buzz off." If you say it to a dog, that's lekker bru, but if you say it to a person, what the fetch is wrong with you?) Man, what a fantastic Independence Day celebration courtesy Mark and Nona Herrington. In the spirit of including the neighbors, the African elders, and the members that came, the Herringtons put together a flag drawing contest to celebrate all our countries. I hate to say it, but South Africa's flag may have ours beat. But hey, we have Mexican food so who's the real winner? Good food and good times followed. And to finish the night off, yoh...just because Elder Herrington's been around the block a little bit more than us 19 and 20 year old elders doesn't mean he's lost his love of fireworks. After verifying they were legal this time of year with multiple sources, he bought a huge bag of bottle rockets, fire crackers, fountains, sparklers, and a grand finale...basically every young Boy Scout's dream. It turned out so successful that one of the neighbors decided to call the cops and tell them all about it. But the cop's response when he got there? "No worries. You guys are fine. I just have to be able to tell my boss we came by. Have fun!" Happy birthday, iMelika.
Ah... Even though we may be 9,787 miles away from our own country, you get a group of us Americans together on the 238th anniversary of our voetsek letter to Great Britain and we'll inevitably decide we need to blow up the sky to celebrate. (Voetsek is an Afrikaans word having a similar meaning to "buzz off." If you say it to a dog, that's lekker bru, but if you say it to a person, what the fetch is wrong with you?) Man, what a fantastic Independence Day celebration courtesy Mark and Nona Herrington. In the spirit of including the neighbors, the African elders, and the members that came, the Herringtons put together a flag drawing contest to celebrate all our countries. I hate to say it, but South Africa's flag may have ours beat. But hey, we have Mexican food so who's the real winner? Good food and good times followed. And to finish the night off, yoh...just because Elder Herrington's been around the block a little bit more than us 19 and 20 year old elders doesn't mean he's lost his love of fireworks. After verifying they were legal this time of year with multiple sources, he bought a huge bag of bottle rockets, fire crackers, fountains, sparklers, and a grand finale...basically every young Boy Scout's dream. It turned out so successful that one of the neighbors decided to call the cops and tell them all about it. But the cop's response when he got there? "No worries. You guys are fine. I just have to be able to tell my boss we came by. Have fun!" Happy birthday, iMelika.
Ah man, what a week! A couple downs, but lots and lots of ups! Tuesday was just sort of one of those days you have to laugh about. We had time to go street contacting, but weren't even able to talk to one person. We started our quest and saw a couple guys. "Let's go talk to these guys!' I said. As soon as we started walking towards them, they started walking the other way. Dang it. We kept walking, found a couple more people on the street walking towards us. "Let's talk to them!" we said. But fate wouldn't have it, and they took the street running perpendicular. Same sorts of things kept happening, and by the end of our street contacting time we were asking ourselves, "Ok, what are these guys gonna do to get away from us?" We were busting up laughing, but were able to put the time to good use and brain storm some lekker finding ideas in the mean time!
I think I've mentioned this jobs idea we have, right? The idea is to help people realize that the principles of the gospel can be applied to finding a job. We got together as a district this week and planned out on we're gonna make this effective and do some good in the community in addition to preaching Jesus. As a district, we divided up four workshops that we can teach over the course of a month that will aim at helping people to develop qualities that employers are looking for, write a resume or CV, and keep themselves free of harmful substances (ever heard of the Word of Wisdom?). We're super stoked about it. This week marks the beginning of the contacting.
We've got some absolutely stellar people we're working with this week. The Mlambo family is doing fantastic! Buyi always told us she would be baptized and that her goal was the end of this year, but we felt prompted a few weeks back to set a specific goal to work towards, and she's doing wonders! She's doing her part, the Spirit's doing the rest, and us as missionaries... Well, I think we're helping a little bit in there. We met a member named Mukesh a while back, and he was baptized around 30 years ago, but when the chapel moved farther away from his house, he was unable to attend. But man, he's got desire to come back like no one I've ever met! He misses church and the teachings and everything. This last week he's started helping us to teach his kids about the Restoration. How cool is that?!
Oliver Pillay and his family are long time memberes, and they invited us over this week to share a family home evening lesson and have dinner with them. Now, they're an Indian family, so the dinner I was super stoked about. When they told us it was tripe and chicken liver, part of me died on the inside, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that tripe, if properly cleaned and cooked with Indian spices, can actually be very nice! Ah man, I reaffirm my testimony of Indian food. I know that it is the only true and living way to cook tripe on the face of the earth. In the name of Al Habib, amen.
As far as spirituality goes, it's been a very uplifting week. Brother Classen is one of my favorite people ever. He's instilled a spirit of unity in the active members that I believe is going to be a turn around for the branch. During PEC last week, he pointed out the weakness in the elders quorum that Elder Marumo and I had been noticing for quite some time and immediately made a plan to build it up in strength. After our Mormon Helping Hands project on Saturday (more on that in a minute), he led us and the other active elders in a group fast for the brethren in Newcastle. He took us out to Nando's, we shared a spiritual thought in the car, and then we prayed to open it. If there's one thing you can't forget in this glorious work of salvation, it's the spirit. The work of salvation includes far more than just baptizing people. There are people out there that need help enduring to the end, and I think our commission to serve our fellow man includes serving them, too. Brother Classen understands this, and I'm so excited to be a part of serving in this sense.
We started our Mormon Helping Hands project this Saturday and will be finishing it up next week. Brother Gbenga and Brother Classen have been the ones organizing it, and what we're doing is clearing a field and planting a garden for one of the clinics in Madadeni. The hope is to do some good for the community and teach them self-reliance. It was flooded with weeds when we got there, so we started by clearing them out. In an effort to save on plastic bads, Brother Classen let me take the lead in digging a fire pit to burn them all. Fire...that's one thing I haven't quite grown out of yet. We made some great progress in the five hours we worked this week and should be able to finish it up next week!
I want to give a shoutout to Brother Lungani real quick. Man, what an absolutely stellar young man. He's in grade 11 and has one of the strongest testimonies I've ever heard. He came with us teaching after church on Sunday, and he understands the importance of members in missionary work on a far better level than most. After taking us to a couple of his friends that would like to be taught, he took us to a couple less active members to invite them on the hike we're going on today. He has a spirit of love unmatched by most people. What a guy.
Exciting day ahead of us today! It was raining when we started emailing, and I'm hoping it continues as we hike Vulintaba again today with the young men. (Really, I'm hoping the rain turns to snow, but you guys would probably call me crazy for saying that, so I stuck with saying rain.) Let the good times roll! Got a great week ahead of us, and I'm so excited to be part of this wonderful work of salvation. Bizarre to think I'll be turning a year on mission this Friday... Time flies when you're having fun I guess! Sala kahle, stay positive, love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
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