Ah... So in our visits with the Tembo family this week, we taught a little bit about clean language, and we told Bright there was a certain word that starts with "f" and rhymes with "duck" that he probably shouldn't be saying. The great thing with Bright is that he is so humble and so willing to bring his life in harmony with what his Heavenly Father wants for him. As we were walking into their place Saturday night, he was about to tell us the bench we usually sit on is fluffed up, but! He caught himself and we all shared a laugh. What a great family they are... We taught about the temple this week too, and they've already set that as a goal to work towards after their baptism! Life is goooood my friends.
What a week it's been... Full with so much of (<---the longer I'm here the worse my English gets) teaching, finding, good people, good food, and lekker times had by all. We started off our week with Benny and Nalin, learning how to make curry. Sister Nalin kept warning us that the "mother-in-law masala" that we were using (not kidding about the name) was going to be super spicy, but Elder Mphaka and I just kept asking how we could make it spicier. She said when we make it on our own, we just have to use chili powder. Hehe, will keep that in mind. But! For our first time making curry, we think it turned out pretty nicely! Benny and Nalin approved, as did our stomachs. Job well done.
The week picked up with an AWESOME family we found last week. Our emphasis has been father-led families, so typically if we find a home with only children home, we simply invite them to church and move on. So I think what...two weeks ago? We knocked on a door and found someone named Precious, invited her to church, and to our surprise, she came! We were able to make an appointment to visit with the whole family, which we were excited, but a little nervous about. We had seen on the wall a certificate saying "Doctorate of Theology," which we could only assume belonged to her father. Our fear was that the lesson would turn into a Bible-bashing session, which no good could come out of. We were pleasantly surprised as we taught to find that Baba Makhanya was one of the most humble men we've met. He listened intently to what we had to say, him and his wife asked good questions, and at the end, asked us how he could know if the things we were telling him are true. He brought up a concern that another group of people regard Shembe as a prophet (this is one of the dominant religions amongst the Zulu people -- I don't understand it exactly, but they believe Shembe to be a prophet sent directly by God and emphasize heavily the teachings in the Old Testament), and asked sincerely how he could know for himself where he could go for truth. We'll be sharing with them this week about the Book of Mormon, which we're looking forward to.
Another power family we found this week... This was cool. We were following up on a baba we had taught last week that showed a little bit of interest in what we had to say, and as we followed up, we found more of the family there. We ended up re-teaching the Restoration, and we weren't sure if it was getting through to any of them. At the end, we asked if there were any questions, to which one of the sisters asked, "There are so many ways to do baptism. Some use a sprinkling of water, some make a cross on your forehead, some take you down into the water... Which way is right?" And uh...I'm pretty sure I've asked that exact same question in the exact same wording in lessons before without much response, but now, an investigator's asking it! Do they come more prepared than that?! We'll be seeing them again this week, which we're pretty excited for.
Hmmm... We had training from the ZLs Wednesday, which was jolly good fun! Elder Childs and I have been brainstorming for months the best ways to talk to people, and that's what his whole lesson was on. We had talked months ago about using famous Mormons as conversation starters. Like for example... You have a picture of Imagine Dragons in your planner that you show to people and start a conversation with them. It just kinda sat on the shelf for a little while, but Childs put it into action this week! We've got laminated pages with pictures of Brandon Flowers of the Killers, Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons, Gladys Knight, Mitt Romney (crazy enough, even in South Africa some people recognize him!), and a couple others that are...well, less-active...but still baptized Mormons nonetheless! Julianne Hough, Ryan Gosling, Paul Walker... So that's neat. Ate at the House of Curries afterwards and enjoyed roti rolls as a zone. Which basically is a burrito looking thing full of curry.
Stop smoking efforts are going well still, and we can finally start telling people that the class starts next week instead of like a month away. Hola! Still haven't talked to anyone that doesn't want to quit, although we had a close call... We approached an Indian fella named Jerry that was smoking, and we asked him if he ever wanted to quit. He just kinda looked away and gave a really prideful, "No." Then as best we could, we told him we're offering a free class to the community to teach how to quit if he was interested. He took a second glance at our flier, and his heart was instantly softened. He told us he had actually been wanting to quit for a while. My guess is he had assumed we were gonna start giving him crap for smoking, but when he saw that we were really just reaching out to him, his heart was softened. That was something cool. A lot of the time, people recognize genuine care and concern for them.
Branch activity happened this Saturday, which coincidentally coincided with Elder Mphaka's hump day! Ended up being quite lekker. Spent most of the morning doing some last minute invitations to members and investigators, had a nice hump day lunch at Spur, bought some treats for the activity, and then met up with everyone at the chapel! The numbers were few, but the few of us that were there had a good time. We sang some hymns to the tune of my guitar and watched the Saratov Approach, which the branch seemed to love. Benny and Nalin were even able to bring a couple that we've been teaching, and it was their first time to the chapel. They seemed to really enjoy it.
Teaching the Mozambican families is turning into something pretty fun, and the branch is helping us greatly to fellowship them at church! With Sam and Fernando's wives, who don't speak English, we've been reading the Portuguese pamphlets side-by-side with the English ones, and now I've learned that Pai Celestial is Heavenly Father, Deus is God, sacerdócio is priesthood, and tchou is goodbye. Woo! I'll be able to say something to Jana and Eraldo's family now!
Ezron is doing great too. At church on Sunday I was fiddling around at the piano a li'l bit, and he came up and said he wants to learn. The branch is getting a couple new keyboards this week, so Elder Mphaka and I are gonna start teaching some people. Neither of us have any experience teaching, but uh... I guess if we can stay one lesson ahead of the students, we should be alright, hey?
Finished up the week strong last night visiting a brother named Roshan we had met on the streets. He used to stay in a flat by the missionaries something like 8 or 9 years ago, and he had never seen the Book of Mormon before! He invited us over to share a little bit more, so we stopped by last night and shared just a little bit with him. The downer is that Elder Mphaka and I had both given away our last Books of Mormon already... Had to chastise ourselves for being unprepared, but we got a few nuggets of truth in and him and his wife treated us to a nice meal, inviting us over again later in the week.
What's on the schedule this week... Checking out the Chief Albert Luthuli museum today, zone conference ft. Big Z Wednesday, exchanges with Childs Thursday... Gonna be a good week. Looking forward with excitement to it.
Sala kahle, stay positive, love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
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