Learn from the past. Prepare for the future. Live in the present.

Sanbonani!

 

So I know it's not happening for you guys until like October or whatever, but Elder Mphaka and I hit Daylight Savings Time a couple times this week. During my interview a week or so back, I was asking Big Z what we could do to make our evenings more productive and he suggested sleeping an hour early and waking up an hour early on nights we don't have evening appointments (ya know, so we don't get robbed walking around too late). Still get to be productive while at the same time keeping our belongings! Woot! Benjamin Franklin would be proud!

What a week, what a week... It's been filled with exchanges, splits, walking, hiking, a couple crazies here and there, but at the end of it, lots of smiles and good times.

So some people are in walking areas, but for us we're in a fetching hiking area. And that's not an exaggeration at all. One of the trails that we take to get to part of Shakaville is called the King Shaka Memorial Route. It's uphill, there's waterfalls, trail markers, and even tourist signs. We just find ourselves laughing. I guess it's breaking the sabbath to exercise on Sunday, but eish... Should I be repenting if my legs are sore from hiking? Angazi... But on the plus side, it's been pretty cool seeing the culture first hand. Walking around, mingling with the people. Going to the taxi rank in the mornings and seeing all the locals peddling their merch. "Secret socks! Five rand!" "Aaaaairtime airtime airtime!" Stuff you don't get to see from the car. So I guess that'll be something we'll miss next week because we're getting....A NEW CAR!!! Holla! I mean I know it's just a coincidence that we're getting it the same week as my birthday, but come on... How many missionaries can say their mission president hooked them up with a car for their 21st birthday?

So the good news is productivity is going to sky rocket. We went on exchanges this week, and on Thursday, due to taking taxis to get everywhere we needed to be (picking up Elder Nkomo in Durban... Taxiing to Stanger... Taxiing to Mandeni... Taxiing back to Stanger...) we ended up with an hour of proselyting time. Eish. So it'll be good to actually be able to have evening appointments and teach a whole lot more. The number of lessons we've been able to teach has plummeted compared to my last areas, and that's something I've missed. We've got some appointments scheduled this week now and we're pretty excited.

I was with Elder Sieverts in Phoenix this week and we had a couple pretty cool experiences. Phoenix is an Indian area, and Indians love free stuff. So most places, you give someone a pass along card for a free DVD, and their reaction is my reaction when someone hands me a piece of paper... Toss it. But Indians, man... They call that number. So that's how they do a lot of finding. Anyway, we were handing out pass along cards and a brother named Kuben came up to us in tears telling us how rough his life is. His wife has cancer, he's been kicked out of his house, he has nowhere to stay, he's sold everything he has for food... It was tough. But you could see a sense of hope in his eyes when we were talking about the Atonement. A lot of the time in those situations, the hope of God's love is about all you can offer, but often times, that's exactly what they need in their lives. Later that evening we visited a potential investigator named Ivan. Elder Sieverts was telling me about him, and his story cracked me up. He's staying in a trailer in a grassy area that's surrounded by houses. The street's in kind of a U shape. Anyway, I guess what happened is he just planted his trailer there one day and claimed that land as his own. All the neighbors were ticked and tried petitioning the city to get him to leave, but what ended up happening is the government built him a house there, but the catch is that there's no electricity. It's one of those situations that just makes you scratch your head... The line that kept coming to mind was, "Way to plant, Anne!" Family, if you don't know where that's from I'll have to come that way and sort you out... But you should get it. It's about as Anne as the nose on plain's face.

Saturday we got to attend a... I dunno what you'd call it, but we'll call it a fireside... in Durban with Elder Carl B. Cook, the president of the Africa South East Area. What an experience. He's by far on of my favorite General Authorities to hear speak. The fireside was directed towards the members, but what I learned from it was mostly about how to improve as a missionary. He did it in the same format as our zone conference with Elder Bednar last year. He didn't have anything prepared, but he assigned us three talks to read, and then the program of the meeting was that there was an hour to share comments and things we've learned, and then an hour to ask questions. The Spirit was so strong, and everyone left the meeting having been uplifted. I was really impressed with the loving way he answered people's questions. One man made a comment that most people (me included) seemed to be rolling their eyes at. Something about when you print off talks, the speaker's picture at the top of the page being distracting... Anyway, it would have been really easy for Elder Cook to have made a comment that got a laugh, but he answered his question in the Saviour's way, and treated it genuinely with love and respect. It was humbling to me. I figured after the meeting if I played my cards right, I could say hello to him and probably ask him one short question, so I spent some time pondering on what that would be. As I went up to the front, Elder Cook greeted me with a huge smile and a great big bear hug, and I asked him what's the best advice he could give to a missionary that's got about a year left and just wants to work his hardest, and he gave me probably the best advice anyone could have. He said to wake up every day and pray to the Lord for guidance, just for that day. Then at night, give him an accounting of your efforts. Then repeat. "Learn from the past. Prepare for the future. Live in the present." He was in a rush after that, but those few short lines I felt like were the inspiration I needed that night. So simple, yet so profound. I walked away from that meeting with a huge smile on my face and pumped to get back to the work in Stanger.

We had some absolutely wonderful appointments on Sunday. The Tembo family had loved the Book of Mormon passages we left them and were excited to read more with us. Hehe, this was actually really funny... The Spirit was so strong, and Sister Tembo mentioned that it's hard for her to read because of her eyesight. And in a really humble voice, we hear Brother Tembo say, "Yeah, her eyes are a little fluffed up." Now he didn't actually say fluff, but... Just use your imagination. It was hard not to laugh, but we held it in. 

Today we'll be off to Ballito, Crocodile Creek, and then 21st birthday dinner on the beach! If you can't be with your family, I can't think of a better way to spend the big 21. Stay tuned for more good times ahead.

Sala kahle, stay positive, love your lives my friends.

Much love,

Umdala Johnson