Pictures shared on 9/9/13. Birthday Cake and Roadkill

Birthday Cake

Roadkill?

Dallin's desk

So what we wake up? So what we go teach? We're just savin' souls. We don't care who sees.

Sawubona!

So here's something fun I heard a little bit ago... In Lesotho, it's illegal for you to fly your broomstick a certain altitude. It's kind of a downer...how else are they gonna practice for the Quidditch World Cup?

I'm picking up more and more lingo as the days go on... You know how we'll say "huh" after some things meaning "right?" Like... "This pap is good, huh?" The equivalent in South Africa is "neh." Lekker, neh?

Yho, but it's been a long week! I can now say I'm one transfer into mission, and only have 16 more to go! #PROGRESS Monday night we had to take two of the Elders getting transferred to the bus station... Their bus was supposed to get there at 11:45, but we were there past 1...latest I've stayed up in two months...#YOLO Speaking of! Two months ago today I was getting on a plane in Salt Lake City...feels like yesterday though. Time flies, neh? 

Tuesday we were back in Kimberley, and we went hard this week. We watched a couple training videos, and President Hinckley talked a lot about the importance of working with members. So that's what we've done a lot of this week! We have a ward directory, and during down time, we've just chosen addresses on the list and gone and visited them. It's slow at first, because we want to build relationships with the ward members before we ask for referrals, but in the coming weeks the work should start to really get going!

Thursday was very interesting... I dunno if I mentioned Gert earlier, but he's an Afrikaaner we met when we had a table set up at the Pick N Pay a few weeks ago. You know the Giddeons? The ones who put all the Bibles in the hotels? Apparently he's one of them, and not just one of them, but the president of the Giddeons in Kimberley. Go figure. But he wanted to come to our church and tell the congregation more about what they do, so we thought it would be a good idea to bring Bishop Tshabalala with us to meet with him. So we did and it was...interesting. He told us about what they do, his conversations with God and the devil, and then at the end, he started speaking in Afrikaans to Bishop and Elder Kruger. The only thing I caught was when he pointed at me and I made out the word "American..." Lo and behold, he said I wasn't needed in Kimberley and should be doing work in America. Well then! I was frustrated, but all that left me the next day when we saw him pulled over by a traffic cop (which is pretty rare...usually tickets are from the cameras here!). I laughed my head off, and was probably way more excited about it than I should be...haha...but! That night I wrote my testimony of the church along with my testimony of why I know I need to be here in Kimberley and not America in a Book of Mormon, highlighted a couple scriptures, and I'll be giving that to him later this week. Everyone's a child of God and deserves to have the Gospel in their lives.

I've been trying to workout a little more, and so I gave running a shot this week. Not running in the sense of outside (although Elder Kruger and I did do that as well) but in the sense of running ten feet back and forth in the living room. I had my iPod count the distance and apparently I went a little more than a mile. You know when you see a dog in the back of a bakkie (South African for "truck") on the freeway running from side to side? That's what I felt like. You have to improvise a lot on mission...

Here's what I want every single one of you to do right now. Go pray and thank Heavenly Father so much that you have a garbage man. Saturday morning we did service at a member's house, cleaning up her yard, and burning trash is one of the worst things I've done. I like the smell of campfire, but burning garbage smells HORRIBLE. Oy...but Sister Pinky appreciated it, and we'll be back again next Saturday to start working on clearing space for a garden.

Sunday was nice...we taught a lot, and I really felt the Spirit during all of our lessons. There's something about Sundays that does that. But I think the highlight was FHE with the Young Men. I promised them Pop Rocks if they read their scriptures every single day this week, and lo and behold, they did! Something about American candy was very appealing to them... But they LOVED them! Great idea to send those, Mama! 

You hear a lot of interesting questions on your mission, but I think this is the best one so far... "You two are church people, neh? My friend fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and he became a prophet of God! If I do that, can I become a prophet too?"

I'll let each of you ponder that in your hearts this next week... ;) Take care, much love, stay positive, stay safe, love your life, and have some fun this week!

Elda Johnson

Bloemfontein 8/27-28/13 and Birthday 9/1/13

Sister Carlile fixing his haircut

Happy Birthday...some treats from home

Celebrating Birthday with SBO Pudding...luckily he can still make in South Africa! This is after they have eaten the pudding... 

Een, twee, drie, veertien!

Sawubona family and friends!

So just to update you on my Afrikaans learning, I can now say "Ek soek kos" which I think means "I want food." So at least I'll be able to eat if I'm stranded alone with Afrikaaners. And also, if you can tell me what song I'm referring to in the title, I'll mail you a two rand.

But anyway, this week has been exciting! We had to stay in Bloemfontein til Wednesday night because our car had to go in for its 60,000 kilo service, so Tuesday and Wednesday I went on splits with the Rocklands elders. They had someone who needed a baptismal interview that was taking a while, so while Elder Francom was conducting the interview, I did a mock interview for Elder Dube and he passed with flying colors! When I asked "Do you have a testimony of God the Eternal Father?" he asked "Who's that?" I pointed to a kid down the street and he was like "Ohhh. Yeah I have a testimony of him!" 

The next day I went with Elder Childs and I taught some of the best lessons I've taught so far. It's crazy how much you actually do know when you teach by the Spirit. I was pulling out scripture references I didn't even know I knew! But I had another realization also...we learn from our companions just as much as the investigators learn from us. We each, as I like to call it, kind of have our own arsenal of scriptures. Scriptures that we love and have helped us in our lives in different ways, and they can help others as well, sometimes in completely different ways. The same scripture can be significant to someone for an entirely different reason than it is for you. The Spirit knows each of us personally and will help us with our own unique struggles.

So we finally drove back to Kimberley Wednesday night, had dinner at Sister Mpho's, and slept in our own beds for the first time since Saturday...yho, it was a long week! But Thursday was busy, and so was Friday, and so was Saturday, which is good! Lots of teaching, lots of planning, lots of good work done! Liberty recommitted to baptism on the 15th of September, and Bupilo committed as well! So excited for both of them!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it honestly was just about as good as it can get for being a world away from my family and friends! Fetch...I'm 20!!!! I woke up to texts from the ZLs, the Carliles, and Bakang, and a birthday package from the family! I think I may have been the most excited about getting a giant tin of refried beans...Man, I miss Mexican food SO much it's not even funny. But! There are twins in the ward, Smalls and Fad, and their birthday was yesterday too! They entered teenage years and I left. But we celebrated with them at FHE last night with cookies, and then we celebrated at the landlords as well. I made David Earl Miller's famous SBO pudding the night before, and even on the other side of the world, still the best desert around! Elder Kruger and the landlords couldn't get enough of it! He even asked me to have another 20th birthday soon so I'd have an excuse to make it again. ;) But man, they're so cool. They got me a tie and some South African candy! 

So anyway, here's a couple highlights of the week. I decided to stick a pass-along card in my wallet in case it gets stolen. I wrote on it "Call this number for a DVD. It's as free as my wallet was. Enjoy your day!" Hehe... And also, you know how people say "tomato tomatto?" Yeah I didn't think people actually pronounce it to-mah-toe...but they do down here! Crazy Afrikaaners... Also, lightbulbs in America are called globes here. It's whack.

Enjoy this next week everyone! Stay safe, stay positive, and love your lives!

Much love,

Elda Johnson

Zone Conference 8/20/13 and Lion Park at Kroonstad 8/26/13 - playing with lion and tiger cubs!

 President & Sister Zackrison

 The Carliles 

 The Carliles

 Lion cubs

 Tiger cub

 

Sippin' on Coca Kolob

Sawubona!

So I've been trying out a new hair style this week. It's called the "my-barber-forgot-to-cut-the-hair-on-half-my-head." It's stylish, but probably a li'l too cray cray for mission standards so Sister Carlile's gonna fix it this week.

Man...this week has been stellar though! Vusi committed to be baptized October 13, and Elsa did as well! She came to church Sunday and the sisters did a great job fellowshipping her. She loved it! Speaking of church...we offered to walk with some less-actives this week. 8 kilometers from the township! So Elder Kruger and I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning to be able to make it on time. It was tough, but I guess you really can't ask people to walk to church if you're not willing to do it from time to time. It was actually pretty nice. Lekker, as the Afrikaaners would say. We didn't walk back though. We took a taxi, and taxi here has a completely different meaning than taxi back home. Basically they're vans packed full of people that drive like they're a fat kid driving to buy the last Twinky. Fast and crazy.

We tried out something new in Kimberley this week. We set up a table at the local Pick N' Pay and had pamphlets for people. It was nice. An Afrikaaner named Gert came up and asked us for all the DVDs and he's coming to church September 1 to tell us about the Giddeons, sooo...we'll see what happens with that.

I've been thinking a lot this week and came to a pretty cool realization. Blind obedience is something I will never do, so I always get a little nervous when people say "obedience with exactness" while on mission. But when you're following the mission rules, it's not blind obedience like I sometimes thought it was beforehand. Every rule has a reason, even the silly ones like "no chewing gum while proselyting." And I've started to notice it as well. The missionaries who are a little more lenient tend not to work as hard, and therefore tend not to find as much success. It's not blind obedience. The mission handbook is inspired. If everyone followed the rules with exactness, EVERYONE would find success with enough faith.

P-day today was probably one of the coolest non-spiritual experience I'll have this two years, and it happened all thanks to the Carliles! We planned it out at Zone Conference last week (which by the way, was SPECTACULAR! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely LOVE President Zackrison. He's inspired and he knows so well how to work with people and inspire them to work hard). They drove the Rocklands elders to Kimberley this week for exchanges, and because of that, we were able to have enough allotted kilometers to drive three hours to Kroonstad to a lion park. The activity got approved by President Zackrison, and everything just sort of fell into place. The Carliles came with the rest of our district and we got to play with lion and tiger cubs. It was hands down one of the coolest experiences of my life, and it's going to make going back to the Hogle Zoo so fetching hard. My mama should be uploading some pictures. When people ask me how I ripped my jeans, I can tell them "Oh, I got attacked by a lion the other day" and not be lying. Wuddup.

Well I'm about out of time, but I love you all. Stay safe, have some fun this week, stay positive, and LOVE YOUR LIVES! Positivity will work wonders for you, remember that.

Much love,

Elder Johnson