Ngolambile... Uguphi lokudla?

Sho sho madoda!

Ok that one's just kinda slang... Like you meet a gogo or whatever in
the township and you'll be all formal and say, "Sawubona! Unjani?" And
that's cool. But if you meet one of your mfowethus (brothers), it's
just, "Sho sho!" But that's just how I'm feelin' today. Kinda slang.
Today has rocked, but it's leaving me super short amounts of time to
email so I'll try and be brief.

Man today was a p-day for the books... We drove down to Margate for a
zone activity. Hiked this super beautiful gorge called... Oribi? I
think that was it. Anyway. Super cool hike. Beautiful view. We didn't
get eaten by lions. Spent some good time bonding with the zone. Life
is good.

It's been a week full of exchanges... First off was with Elder Wilson,
and man... It's about flippin' time we end up on exchanges! Serving
with someone from your graduating class and spending our whole day
talking about Cam Cam and Beto's and Club Chev... It's enough to trunk
someone out, but we're keeping strong! No joke. Our exchange we worked
flippin' hard. Taught some powerful lessons. Found a couple solid new
people. Had smiles on our faces the whole time. There's something
about teaching and working in unity, and a little bit of hard work...
If you do that and add the Spirit in there, you'll do what the Lord
needs you to do.

My other exchange was with Elder Hammon, and we were just busting up
laughing the whole time... The last time we were on exchanges we had
to drive to Durban because someone left a suit jacket in our car. This
week, our car battery became finished...and we had to drive to Durban
to get it replaced. And when you're in Durban, it's not like you can
just not go to the House of Curries... So we got to enjoy a nice meal
together both times. There's something about having good conversations
with friends over a nice meal... I don't think there's anything better
we could have done with the couple hours robbed from us by car issues.
One thing I love about Elder Hammon is that he understands this work
is a work of love. The people him and his companion teach feel the
love of the missionaries. I think we can forget sometimes that the
people we're teaching aren't just baptismal statistics... They're
people. Probably more than wanting to know if the Book of Mormon is
the word of God or that Joseph Smith was a propet they want to feel
loved.

Hmmm... What else has been going on this week... Elder Rowley and
Elder Paige had done some AWESOME work in this area, and four of the
people they found are getting baptized this coming week. Pretty
exciting! I'll talk a bit more about them next week when I have a
little more time.

I've refined my definition of what makes someone "prepared" for the
gospel a good number of times... And I've finally settled on one word:
humble. Unless a person is humble, they will not be able to accept the
gospel, no matter what angle you look at it from. It's tough to keep
the faith to find sometimes, but man... This week our faith was
boosted. Elder Aman'galia and I were doing some tracting in AA
section, and after a couple no thank yous, a brother named Thami let
us into his home. He allowed us to sit down, to share a little bit
about the Book of Mormon with him, pray with him, and at the end... He
told us how happy he was that we had come by. He was sincere. And when
we came by later in the week, he thanked us again for our visit. It's
tough to find someone like that. I hate chasing after people that run
away from us. So it's reassuring to find that there really are humble
people out there. Thank you, Thami!

We had interviews this week, and man... Big Z completely threw me off
guard! I was full on expecting to talk about missionary work... And we
did, for part of it. Most of it was about school and the future and
stuff. I dunno if his plans were to like make me trunky for the rest
of the day... If it was, it worked! Don't worry though, that evening
we had a birthday braai for Sister Mcanyana, so it was an OK time to
be trunky and Elder Aman'galia and I are definitely back in the swing
of things. Oh yeah... Elder Aman'galia and the Z Man talked about
marriage in their interview. So it was a mutually trunky rest of the
day. But hey... That translates to companionship unity, and miracles
happen when you're unified! Man... Five more months. Where did the
last 19 go? Time flies.

One last quick thought. I really like our district meetings. There's
something about a whole district of missionaries rallying around
thoughts and ideas that will help people accept the gospel and be
happy... Unity in doing some good in the world. Those are the times
that are the best on mission.

Things are good. A couple exchanges to look forward to this week.
Another with Elder Childs. That makes... Exchange number five? Maybe
six? With him, in five or six different areas. We've never been
companions, but... We kind of have in a way.

Until next time!

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

Thanda kakhulu,

Umdala Johnson