Sanbonani!
On mission, you can spend lots of time whining and complaing that "Wah wah wahhh... Thanksgiving without a turkey is gonna be lame!" and stuff like that... Or! You can improvise! So my idea of Nando's with full chickens didn't happen... But! On Thursday nights, Spur has an all-you-can-eat ribs special! So we invited whoever in the zone wanted to come, with the promise that whoever could pound down the most plates of ribs would receive a hug from Elder Paige... And man, did everyone try hard! Proud to say that I put down four plates (and yoh... I was dying afterwards! NO ONE slept that night!), but came in third place after Elder Rowley who managed 4 and a half, and Elder Peterson who put away a whopping 5 and a half plates of ribs! So, he was our grand champion. And because it was Thanksgiving, we all decided as a group the next day that we are thankful for our toilets.
Oh boy... Hectic week! Exchanges up the wazoo, finding, getting bunked, and to end it all off... A missionary farewell, a fireside, three baptisms, one confirmation, one ward council meeting, and a partridge in a pear tree. Where to begin…
Oh! So this is kinda funny. Pamela's been hearing some negative stuff about the Church from a co-worker. There's the typical stuff like we worship Joseph Smith, we don't believe in the Bible, and so on and so forth... But then she also heard we don't wear wedding rings, which... I've never heard before, but it's ok. So she's kinda shying away from wanting us to continue teaching them, but! Njabulo...is power as ever! We were helping them chop down a mango tree on Thursday, and afterwards we were saying goodbye and that we'd see them at our Tuesday appointment, and Njabulo was like, "No! We'll see you Sunday! We're coming to church Sunday! Right, Pam? We went to your dad's church last week, we can go to theirs this week!" He kinda caught her super off guard, which... If you were there was pretty comical. They're like... Man they're just the coolest young couple out there! Once we hit them with eternal families and stuff... We're hoping Pamela will be a little more receptive :)
I was with Elder Moyake on Wednesday in another section of Umlazi... And what a joy it is to work with him! He's one of the most diligent elders out there. We were walking the whole day since their area isn't a driving area, and that was something good... I forget how many people you can talk to when you're not moving around in a car the whole day!
Let's see... Friday we were supposed to see Baba Mkhize, but we got to his home and found out he was working late... Now, remember what I was saying about lobola last week? His wife-to-be isn't too keen on bypassing the Zulu tradtions and signing the marriage papers until he's paid lobola... Which is the only thing really keeping him from being baptized. So we've always kinda been intimidated by his wife, but she invited us in and we were able to have a lesson with her. We taught her the Restoration, and she committed to pray and find out if it's true. So... Progress! Let's hear it for the Spirit!
Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Sarai, which was kinda funny... We're both serving in the BB ward, so it was exchanges like... A couple neighborhoods over! And all of us were invited to the wedding of the son of a member... So we ended up all of us at the same place a good chunk of the day. Hard to really call it an exchange, but...we roll with it!
Ah man, so the week culminated in three baptisms! The one from our area was Sister Lungile Sithole, and she's as prepared as they come. Crazy enough, she's been investigating and coming to Church for about four years now... So long that everyone's just assumed she's a member! When we told people she was getting baptized, they were like, "...again?" But she decided now she's ready, and her testimony... Man, it was power! Brother Lufuno was baptized from Elder Rowley and Elder Paige's area, and him too... Power. Ziggy Magaqa's one of his buddies at church, and he was the one to baptize him. Seeing someone bring a friend into the gospel... There's not much that's greater to see than that!
We got some crazy news yesterday... Big Z called us after our lunch appointment and asked for Elder Okeng. They talked in the car for a good long while, and come to find out... His mom passed away this weekend. Man... I can't even imagine. But he's a trooper. He's been telling me he's been studying the post-mortal life like crazy lately. Something's been driving him towards that. He's been saying what a blessing it is to know about the Plan of Salvation. It becomes so much more real when you lose someone that close to you. His mom was able to go to the temple last year as well. He knows she's somewhere where she's happy.
So this next week will be something else. President told Elder Okeng if he needs to take a rest for a couple days, that's no problem at all. Lots of love will be heading his way this week. Please keep him in your prayers... I'm sure he'll really appreciate it.
The work moves forward. The gospel is real. The healing power of the Atonement... The Plan of Salvation... It's all fo' real.
Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
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