Hebrews 13:1

Dumelang!

Ah... I have felt better these last two and a half weeks than I've felt in a long time. In response to my email last week, the Z Man said, "I'm glad that you are finishing strong in a good area, even if it is far away and new to you. It feels like it might well be the "cleansing" you needed to finish your mission with a wonderful feeling of accomplishment." Those words couldn't be more true. President's vision for us as missionaries from the beginning has been for us to become humble, consecrated servants of the Lord that can "speak with the tongue of angels." And this last week more than ever, I've felt that be fulfilled.

You may remember Barend that I mentioned last week. Yoh, he's a character, but he's a good guy and a lot of fun to teach. One of the times we visited him we found him outside playing chess with a neighbor. He wouldn't start the lesson until I played him. There's definitely something not right in his head, and I was worried it was going to be one of those things where he's just randomly crazy good at chess. As the game got started, I was surprised when I was able to take his queen pretty early on. And eventually, one by one his pieces started disappearing. And lo and behold, I was victorious! Perhaps joining the chess club in grade 2 ended up coming in handy! But then he challenged me to a second game, and with a new sense of confidence I gladly accepted. And then he beat me in three moves and my ego was shattered. Ay... It's ok though. We had a couple good lessons this week, and aside from a couple random outbursts, they went well. (Random outbursts meaning asking, "So you want me to join your church?" during the Plan of Salvation or, "Do you believe in ancestors?" while we're reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon. That question followed with, "Dead people... Like Osama bin Laden? Do you think he's really dead? He's still alive. It's just American propaganda.") He lost his mother last year, and I think the Plan of Salvation is really bringing him a lot of comfort.

Elder Brimhall came on an exchange with us this week, and man... That was power. He's in my MTC group, so we're going home together in just a few weeks. We got to catch up on a lot of stuff and try to keep each other from being too much trunky. (And we had some powerful teaching moments too, don't worry!) We're teaching a brother named Mokie who's getting baptized at the end of the month, and he's one of the best non-member missionaries out there. He's invited almost all of his friends to learn about the gospel, and we were teaching one of them with Elder Brimhall named Tebogo. (We call Tebogo "Laman" and his other friend "Lemuel." Our hope is that they understand the significance of that when they start reading the Book of Mormon.) Anyway, Elder Brimhall's a powerful teacher and he brought the Spirit in amongst lots of loud laughter and a lack of seriousness, and their interest in what we were sharing skyrocketed. Pretty cool what the right spirit in a lesson can do.

I'm continually amazed by Bishop Sebusi's wisdom. He started teaching a mission prep class to two brothers in the ward that are preparing to serve missions by the end of this year, and he asked us to be a part of it. The first class he expounded the counsel that Christ gave to his disciples to love one another. He asked the two potential elders (but I was paying attention, too, don't worry!), "How will people recognize you as disciples of Jesus Christ?"  We thought the answer was obvious... Love them! But then he shared a paradigm shifting insight. John 13:35 reads, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." People will recognize us as disciples of Christ if we love our companions. If people can see us unified in our purpose, the Spirit will be there and testify to them that we come with something great. So that was pretty cool.

Occasionally we'll find nine year olds that have slipped past eight years old without being baptized, so they have to be taught by the missionaries. We're teaching a nine year old named Tulamo right now. Great kid. I'm not sure where he got this from, but when we asked him, "What do we promise God when we're baptized?" his response was, "That we're going to go to America!" "And what does he promise us in return?" "Eternal love!" So there you have it my friends! Get baptized, go to America, and God will bless you with Eternal Love! (Which Sister Molutsi told us is actually a Bollywood movie...who coulda guessed?)

The members are still power as ever. We've been visiting more and more asking for referrals, and I'm amazed at how many people the members have for us to teach. And all it takes to help them realize this is inviting the Spirit. We visited the Makgalane family Saturday night, and after sharing Elder Wilford Andersen's talk "The Music of the Gospel," we asked them who the Spirit might be nudging them to talk to. Sister Makgalane asked us to work out a time to teach her sister, and Brother Makgalane his mother. They decided it was time for both of them. Man... The Spirit is great, eh?

So that's been this week. What a blast it's been. We visited the Mandela statue on top of Naval Hill, slept over at the Rocklands boarding before ZTM, braaied... Just like old times out in Kimberley. It's been a whole lot of deja vu. Yoh... And more coming this week, too. The last two weeks of mission I'm actually going to be out on the coast iwth a few of the elders in my MTC group doing something called the post-MTC. It's something that President Zackrison asked Elder Poelman to organize for the African elders going home to prepare them for post-mission life, since often times they'll be going back to circumstances far less fortunate than what the American elders are going back to. But, they've had such a positive experience with it that a couple of the American elders in past groups have done it, too. I got a call from Elder Poelman a few weeks back asking if I'd be interested. There isn't a driver amongst the African elders in my group, so I'll be behind the wheel during those last two weeks. And the deja vu's happening this coming Friday... I'll be driving Elders Sarai and Nthengu to Durban, and Elder Sarai's out in Kimberley... So I get to visit my birth place one last time before going home. Pretty stoked for that.

So all in all, this will be my last proselyting week on mission. We've got zone conference this Wednesday with Elder Ellis of the Seventy, so that should be a pretty cool way to go out on. I'm on a spiritual high and couldn't be happier to be out serving right now.

Until next week, sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.

Thanda kakhulu,

Ntate Johnson