No hablo isiZulu...

Sawubona!

Man, I realized like ten minutes after we finished emailing that I completely forgot to mention what were the truths and what was the lie... So our iron definitely did burst into flames, the salesman guy really did turn out to be humble and wanting the gospel, aaaaaaaand we still never managed to meet the township mlungu while sober! So his salvation is still temporarily on hold.

It's weird to be out of Stanger though... But! It couldn't have ended on a better note! We spent the rest of the day last Monday with Benny and Nalin, and I learned how to make authentic Indian biryani instead of just using the biryani kit you can buy at the store (don't worry, I'm buying the stuff to make an attempt at it today!). Our evening appointments were a family home evening with Sister Mpume and her son Samkelo we've been teaching, and then one last teaching appointment with Bright and Octavia. We were doing lesson 5 in PMG which is, amongst other things......missionary work! We read some scriptures from John and Matthew, and the Spirit was so strong... I sure am gonna miss those guys. And Stanger in general. So many good people there.

Umlazi... Umlazi is something else! So there's 12 of us (soon to be 14 in a couple weeks) serving in the two wards here! So whereas in Stanger, our area went for like an hour one way and an hour the other, our area in Umlazi covers just a few sections (townships are typically divided into sections...there's 26 in Umlazi from A to Z to BB...our chapel's in BB section and we cover AA, L, M, and K, but people keep telling us not to go to K if we want to live...) It's crazy. We don't have the resources of a town to work with, so creative ideas are a little harder to work with! It's gonna be a lot of tracting and street contacting. But we've got a couple good ideas cookin'... Stay tuned over the coming weeks to hear how those play out!

Elder Okeng is the man! He's from Uganda, and he actually used to be a Muslim! He says like 90% of Uganda is Muslim, but he joined the Church about 4 or 5 years back, and he's never looked back. He LOVES deep doctrine and was telling me the one time he went to the temple at the MTC was one of the best experiences of his life. I'm killing him, which is kinda mission lingo for he goes home next transfer and I'm his last companion! I think he's a little tired, but we're gonna work hard his last transfer. The Lord has some people here we need to find and teach and be advocates of joy for.

One of the names you hear a lot in KZN is Bishop Charles Magaqa (remember, the "q" is a click...). He does a Thursday night show in uKhozi FM, and he's been in the Durban stake presidency and a bishop and stuff, and he's actually currently the bishop of the Umlazi BB Ward! So we get to work with him a bit. Pretty lekker. Well... I guess I shouldn't be using Afrikaans lingo right now! It's ZULU LAND baba! Everyone speaks Zulu here and I think I'm gonna have to be a little more diligent in learning it... Like half of church on Sunday was in Zulu! So I didn't know what a lot of people were saying, but I could tell the Spirit was there. So there's always that.

We had a couple solid lessons this week... Elder Okeng and Lewis had met a couple last transfer called Njabulo and Pamela. They taught them once, and we saw them this week, and lo and behold, they came to church on Sunday! They're engaged, and the lesson in Gospel Principles just happened to be on eternal marriage! So that's pretty neat. I have a good feeling they'll get sealed one of these days.

We met a brother named Dumisani. He's a little older, and a little slower to understand, but he's as humble as they come. We taught him the Restoration (we had to take it pretty slowly), and he loved it. As we were talking about the priesthood and showing him a picture of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery being visited by Peter, James, and John, he asked us ever so humbly to lay our hands upon his head and bless him. Elder Okeng and I had never been asked that before... Haha so we had to explain to him what the deal is with the laying on of hands! He understood and was happy with us just praying with him for the time being.

I'm getting better at recognizing if a person is sober or not, but I'm not perfect yet... We were walking earlier this week, and I stopped this guy and was teaching him a little about the Book of Mormon. He seemed normal to me and was super smiley and happy, but part way through he stopped me and said he shouldn't be talking about Jesus stuff while he's drunk! Woops... So we promised him a visit when he's sober.

What's in store this week... MLC with Big Z, the assistants, and other zone leaders on Wednesday, working hard in the area this week, and next week que the exchanges with the rest of the zone... Looking forward to everything! Let the games begin!

Oh and apparently a Dominoes Pizza just opened up in Westville. This probably means nothing to you Americans, but fetch... I haven't had nice pizza like that in more than a year. So maybe we'll hit that up.

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

Much love,

Umdala Johnson