Man... So we walked into Pick 'N Pay on New Years Eve to buy meat to braai with the other missionaries later that night, and first off... The line for the liquor store outside stretched the length of the whole mall. After laughing about that, we walked into the store, found our meat and charcoal, walked to the checkout counter, and realized that the line to pay was actually wrapping around the entire store... Eish. But it ended up being ok. We met a lady there that has a sister who's a member, and told us stories about how missionaries from all over used to come to her house. Right place at the right time? You bet!
Man... It's been a little bit of a wild week! The weeks of New Years and Christmas are the two weeks of the year that the majority of South Africa gets wasted. So a lot of people have been hung over and stuff, but amongst it all, we've managed to do some good work.
Remember that church we went to last Sunday? We were invited to teach their congregation on Tuesday, and man... THAT was an experience. There were probably about a hundred people there from all over ZA. Newcastle, Limpopo, JoBurg, Ndwedwe... Apparently this pastor's a pretty big deal. So Elders Okeng, Wesonga, Larsen and I decided to share the Plan of Salvation with them, which we knew going into it might conflict with their beliefs, especially since we had plans to teach from the Book of Mormon. But hey... It ended up going well. We each took a chunk of it and shared while someone translated into Zulu. At the end, the pastor allowed members of the congregation to come up and individually ask us questions. We stayed for probably two hours after that and taught probably 7 or 8 preachers and many accepted Books of Mormon. Now, we're not too sure how many of them will read with real intent, so it would be easy to look at the whole ordeal as a waste of time, but hey... We were able to teach individually 7 or 8 preachers that we would never have been able to while tracting. And while we share different beliefs, we all respected each others' views, and the congregation in general was happy for our visit. If anything, they'll be warmed up to visits from missionaries in the future. I had the feeling going into it that there would be at least one person's heart who was touched because of what we shared. Ah, the Plan of Salvation... What a beautiful topic to discuss!
Said goodbye to Elder Okeng today... Well, kind of. Just until next Sunday. He's off to the PMTC, which I don't remember if I've explained in one of these emails yet... Basically Elder Poelman puts it on for the last two weeks of every transfer, and it's basically practical training for the African elders so they can find work when they get home. So Elder Okeng's doing that, and I'll be in a threesome with Elder Rowley and Elder Paige for the next couple weeks. But then Elder Okeng's coming to attend in Umlazi next Sunday, so it's just a see you later for now. Oh! And this is crazy... I talked to Elder Ryan Berghout today who's serving in Uganda, and he's serving in Elder Okeng's home ward! Small world, hey?
Let's see... We've been playing a good amount of soccer this week. It's been the common consensus that bonding with members is one of our best uses of time during this drunken rampage of a holiday season. All the mlungus got sunburned on Saturday. Gosh dang it... Why couldn't I have been born black?!
So this is something... Every once in a while you see someone wearing an MLB hat, yet no one plays baseball here, so you just wondering... Why? You see a lot of Yankees hats, which is more of a fashion thing than anything, but every once in a while you see random teams. Like this week, we were at a petrol station in Chatsworth, and I saw someone in a Cleveland Indians hat, and I was asking myself, of all the teams he could have chosen... Why Cleveland? Then it hit me. The man wearing it was an Indian.
Said goodbye to the Carliles this week... Which is crazy. They came out the same time as me. And they're seeing Mama and Pop Pop next week... Yoh. But it was a great send off. They finally got to try the Indian food they hear so much about in my emails! Hurrah for Israel!
And finally, we had our district activity this morning... This one was a repeat of one we did back in Queensburgh, but the second time definitely beat the first. We went to the Natal Lion Park close to PMB, and man... The lions were ACTIVE today! They were playful, they were climbing on our cars... Good stuff.
Gonna be an interesting week... Had two exchanges planned, but they're just gonna be threesomes now... You gotta do what you gotta do! Lots of good times ahead. Six months left... Gotta make the most of it. I'm gonna miss this place like crazy.
Sala kahle, stay positive, love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
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