Monday, May 25, 2015

Shared 5/25/15 - Berea South Africa - Gecko, Birds, and a Baptism

 Great meal!
 Gecko....






 The Daily Sun.....
Washing the car.
 Baptism...

"It's always darkest just before the dawn"

Sanbonani!
The last of 17 transfers starts namhlanje... Six more weeks of that thing I've looked forward to since the time I was in primary, and it'll all be over... I guess if there's ever been any time to make the most of it, it would be right now, right? Ah man, I'm excited! I'll be spending my last six weeks with Elder Kaitoo in Berea! I haven't met him yet, but he's from Ghana and I've heard some great things about him. Watch out, world, here we come!
Man, this week's been great, and according to the time I have left at the internet cafe I've only got about 22 minutes to tell you all about it... Here we go!
Thursday was probably our best day of missionary work this week. Usually, you'll go through a day and you'll have at least a couple appointments cancel on you, but Thursday was one of those rare days where not a single appointment bunked! Yoh, we TAUGHT, baba! We had some truly fantastic lessons. We taught a brother named Thulani (I think I've talked about him before... He's the one we had a really good discussion about the Book of Mormon with a couple weeks back), and shared Elder Bednar's "Come and See" talk with him. He was asking us questions about why we do things the way we do at church, and we explained about our lay ministry, where everyone is learning and growing together, and that ultimately it's something you have to experience to fully understand. It was a really good, spiritual lesson. We also taught a brother named Cyril, who's kind of been a joker up until this point... But asked us that day some really good questions about the Book of Mormon. And in the evening, we taught the Simelane family as well. The'yre good people... One of the brother's Lungelo, is especially relating to the Book of Mormon, and how it was written for our day.
Hmmm... Just noticed. I mentioned the Book of Mormon for each of those lessons. It must be important or something.
Bafo is our ward mission leader, and man... That guy is doing a great job. He was just called back in January, so he's still learning his way around. He's super humble and asks us questions all the time about how he can do better. He always thanks us for what we do for him, and this week he even offered to wash our car for us. We could use more Bafos in the world.
Sister Zuma is a star also. She's a member in our area, and her son is one of the assistants in the Cape Town mission right now. Man... She is a referral machine! She's trying so hard to share the gospel with people. She took us to a family this week, and they weren't too receptive to our lesson, but hey... She's trying. That seems to happen a lot, but she keeps on pushing and taking us to more people!
We had a baptism this week... Her name was Lwandle. She just turned 8 and stays with her gogo. Her father is a long time less active member, and he came to witness it. Man... That was cool. He stays in Kloof, but was baptized in Berea in 1998. It was the first time he had been to the chapel in years. Very spiritual experience.
I'm getting really tired of having to tell recent converts that Coca Cola is not against the Word of Wisdom. -______- Eish. It happened once last week and again this week. I don't think they trusted Elder Kakar and I when we told them it's ok.
And finally... You guys might like this. Elder Esplin and Elder Ocitti ran out of toilet paper this week, but they found some Huggies wipes in their boarding. Whenever we've gone out this week, Elder Esplin's asked me for my extra napkins. I laughed my head off when I used their restroom and found them next to the toilet. I guess there's more way than one to save money, eh?
Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends!
Thanda kakhulu,
iGosa Johnson
(Finished with five minutes to spare... Hurrah for Israel!)

Monday, May 18, 2015

Shared 5/18/15 - Baptisms and Natal Lion Park - Lions, Elephants, and Zebra!!!

 Nice ties!  The whole animal fits!





















 Slimy trunk



 Nice elephant.....











 With the South African flag