When in Africa...

Sanbonani!

So there's that saying... When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or, when
in Africa, do as the Africans do. Our application this week has to do
with the, um... Facilities. Yeah. So once upon a time, we had a lesson
with the Sithole family earlier in the week, and I asked if I could
use the toilet. The part of Umlazi they stay in is super
underdeveloped, so the outhouse S'phe led me to was basically a hole
in the ground with tin walls around it. He asked if I had toilet
paper, and then kinda laughed when he found out I only needed to use
it for number one. All the dudes in their sections just use the trees.
So later in the week, Elder Aman'galia and I learned our lesson and
decided just to follow suit. Other guys will walk past, and you'll
just greet each other as if there's nothing out of the ordinary.
Man... I'm gonna miss this place.

Man, what an awesome week this has been. It was hectic and stressful
and crazy getting everything ready for Sunday, but thanks to the
tender mercies of the Lord... Things worked out!

Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Gwebu, and I was reminded once
again never to judge a book by its cover. I was kinda nervous for the
exchange, because what I'd seen from his personality was pride pride
pride... But I was pleasantly surprised. He was one of the most humble
and loving teachers I've taught with and gave me some great tips for
learning Zulu. During one of the car rides between appointments, we
started talking music, and as it turns out his favourite bands from
back home include Linkin Park, Coldplay, Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars, and
get this... System of a Down! Crazy for someone from South Africa...
Because amongst the strengths of the South Africans, music preference
is not one of them. We had a great time together and made some awesome
progress with the people we were teaching.

I mentioned the Sithole family at the beginning of the email, and we
have a couple cool stories to go along with them this week. They're
the family of Lungile, who Elder Okeng and I baptized my first
transfer here in Umlazi. They've been slow to progress, but something
keeps telling us to keep teaching them. They're super awesome and
super friendly to us missionaries. I don't know if it's just hard to
pronounce my name, but they just call me John. But we had a really
good lesson with them this week, and S'phe's always inviting friends
over to learn with us. One of them this week was asking about why
there are people that go to church, but come home and are rude,
terrible people, and then there are people that don't go to church and
yet live wonderful, loving lives. We talked about what will happen to
each of these kind of people in the life to come. It was enlightening.
So that was one of the cool things... The other is we were teaching a
sister named Thembi that owns a tuch shop a couple streets up from
them, and apparently they know each other. Bongikile Sithole stopped
by her shop during the week and saw Thembi's Book of Mormon sitting
there and asked if she knew us. So our investigators know each
other... Pretty cool, eh?

Oh! Speaking of Thembi! She's super cool. She's a
half-Indian/half-Zulu gogo that we've started teaching. Our first
lesson was all over the place, but eventually Elder Aman'galia and I
decided to teach her about the Book of Mormon and things settled down.
Crazy thing though. We stopped by mid-week and found her house
flooded. Something about a pipe bursting. So we had no lesson that
day, but it gave us a chance to serve. We rolled up our pants, started
scooping water, and basically just felt like we had done some good in
the world.

I've had Christmas songs going in the car all week just to see if
anyone would notice. No one's said anything yet. Hmmm.

Our week culminated Sunday with our four baptisms. What a great
service it was. Primrose has been investigating for a while now and
has faced some challenges in preparing for baptism. There will still
be challenges that loom ahead, but the ward is committed to helping
her every step of the way. After the baptism, she told us she had been
nervous about the water... But she handled it like a champ! Yiva's
been investigating for a while now as well. She bore a powerful
testimony afterwards and had the biggest smile on her face. Her gogo,
who's not a member, attended the service as well, and Elder Aman'galia
had the idea to ask her to give the opening prayer, and she welcomed
gladly the opportunity for that. And finally, two of Sister Mcanyana's
kids were baptized. Spha was so excited. He came running out of the
car when he got to church saying over and over again, "I'm getting
baptized today!" Anelisa's a little more shy, but I'm sure in her mind
that's what was going on too. Anelisa was really nervous about bearing
her testimony afterwards, and all she was able to get out was, "Good
morning my brothers and sisters!" But those six words were six words
more than we were expecting, and we were so proud of her. Her mama
came up and helped her finish the rest.

It was a super good day. Spha's excitement reminded me a bit of the
day I was baptized... I really wish I had written down my feelings on
that day (like mama kept telling me to do...woops!), but I do remember
that I was super excited I got to be baptized the day I turned eight
years old. I don't know how that ended up working out... But I'm super
happy it did.

Hmmm... Good week ahead of us. Should be much less hectic. We'll have
some time to focus on finding some people to teach and doing some good
in the world. Let's make it happen!

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

Thanda kakhulu,

Igosa Johnson

(Apparently "umdala" means like elderly person, and "igosa" means
church elder. So I guess I've been calling myself an old man for a
while now. Woops.)