The Fresh Elders of Bellair

Sawubona!

Man this Africa thing is confusing until you get used to it... So there's the city of Durban, and then within Durban there are different suburbs like Pinetown and Queensburgh, and then within the different suburbs there are other areas... In Queensburgh there's Escombe, Malvern, Northdene, Hillary, and my personal favorite, Bellair. We've been on the lookout for Will Smith, but no luck yet. Eish, that one's a tough one to find.

But anyway, enough with our search for mythical beings, on to more important things! So in Africa, people will talk about the "big 5." It's not a sporting goods store as you may suspect, but five animals. Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, and Buffalo. I dunno how they were decided, but for them, they could break a human in half without even thinking. We hit Natal Lion Park last week for p-day and I got to cross elephant off the list. With rhinos and lions already taken care of, I just need to find a buffalo and leopard. Hoorah for Israel!

The work has been tough this week... Eish. Kimberley was lekker because we'd usually have teaching appointments all day. Here, we'll have maybe one appointment earlier in the day and nothing until night. It's tough finding activities to fill your day. We've been working hard and trying as many finding methods as we can, and you know, we're starting to find success! White washing an area isn't easy, but it's worth it. I'm not worried. Elder Higley and I have started to ask ourselves some big questions... Should we be trying to soften the hearts of everyone we find, or should we be trying to find those with softened hearts? We've come up with some great ideas and are looking forward with an optimistic eye. Take that, adversary!

One of the things we've been filling our days with is less-active finding, and eish... The ward-directory is too much outdated. To give you an idea, I was on exchanges with Elder Nielson last Friday, and we knocked on a door, only to find out the member that used to stay there moved away eight years ago. Eight! Eish eish eish... Maybe our mission in Queensburgh is just to make the ward directory accurate.

So fun story... Granny Heather told us it was our turn to make food for her this week, so I made my specialty... Bean burritos! S/O to mi madre for sending all the hot sauce packets from Taco Time, Del Taco, and Taco Maker to make our fiesta muy bueno! Oh, and I took a stab at making guacamole too. After Sister Carlile explaining to me over the phone how to chop chillies and garlic, I'm glad to say it wasn't bad and didn't give anyone a runny stomach!

We hit uShaka Marine world today for p-day. Man... Freaking lekker. People here always give people from the US and A fire for having the mindset that lions and stuff roam the streets of Africa. But eish... It's not that far off. The number of crazy animals I see here compared to the ones I see back home... Not even close. NEVER in Utah did I have to slow down because monkeys were crossing the street. Never could I drive twenty minutes and be able to see lions, zebras, giraffes, sharks, dolphins, rhinos, and elephants. So blessed to be serving in such an incredible environment with incredible people.

Love you all! The church is still true, and the work of salvation continues on! Stay well, stay positive, love life.

Baie liefde,

Elder Johnson

Shared 2/3/14 - Missionary, duck, bird, and cutting trees

Sure, we bless the food, but we don't **lays hands on bottle of Coca Cola** BLESS the food...

Sawubona!

Eish eish eish... So many happenings this week and so little time to talk! We're hitting up a game reserve by Pietermaritzburg just after we email so I don't wanna hold people up. My lions await.

Highlight of the week was def totes zone conference. Man, all us missionaries must have done something right in the premortal life to be blessed with someone like President Zackrison presiding over the work here. He does this really cool thing where he tells us exactly what we need to hear to hasten the work in South Africa. The big focus this conference was teaching the restoration and getting quickly to the Joseph Smith story. A big impression that I got was that I needed to memorize his account of the first vision, and man... Giving it for the first time in a lesson without having to read it from the pamphlet... Power. President knows what he's talking about. And another cool realization I had at zone conference... Because of mission, I now have friends from all over the states, and the whole world even! I serve around missionaries from Utah and Idaho, from Hawaii and New York, from England and Australia, from Kenya and Malawi, and everywhere in between. And despite our differences, we're all here for one common purpose... To preach salvation unto the souls of South Africa.

On another note, the people in the Queensburgh ward are fantastic! We've helped Sister Pinky with a big project she's working on a couple times this week. They're restoring an oldish house, and it's eventually gonna be sort of a refuge for LDS families in the area that need a place to stay, all the way providing work training for those with disabilities. How awesome is that?!

The work has been a little slow compared to Kimberley... I came from an area where we had appointments all hours of the day to an area where we'll have one on a good day (but only if we've been praying and reading our scriptures real good). Elder Mokoena, one of our zone leaders, came on splits with us Thursday and we had no idea what we were gonna do all day until a dinner appointment at six. Tracting isn't terribly effective in our area, so we're trying to find better ways to find people. We ended doing service at a library and putting DVD pass-along cards in mail boxes, all the while getting asked ridiculous questions by Elder Mokoena. "Would you rather have a midget, a Hyundai, or a unicorn?" Hahaha... It's nice to be around someone with an off the walls sense of humor. 

The assistants came with us Sunday and showed us where a few of their investigators stay, so we actually have somewhat of a teaching pool! Things are slow, but they are coming. All you have to do is devote yourself your hardest, and the Lord will make things happen on his time.

 Oh and I guess one more thing... Sister Shaik and her son had us over for family night yesterday (no Superbowl for us! Sorry, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and had this board game an elder had left with them years ago. I thought I knew my church history, but nope! Eish... The questions were totally bogus. "What is to be the initial size of the city of Zion?" "Who were the counselors in the Relief Society presidency when it was first organized?" -__________- If you can answer either of those, I'll mail you a two rand. Oh and no using Google either ye harlots.

Stay well this week! Stay positive, love your life.

Baie liefde,

Elder Johnson

Shared 1/27/14 - South Beach & Queensburgh/Durban area

Jack of all trades. Master of ocean, earth, and sky.

Sawubona!

Surprise! I'm getting transferred again! Got a call from Big Z Friday and he asked me if I'd be willing to go help him open the Iraq Baghdad Mission. So yep... Packing my bags after this then it's off to the Middle East! But also it's probably not good to be bearing false witness while on mission so uh... I should probably tell you that I'm actually still in Queensburgh and loving it. Hoping and praying for stability these last three weeks of the transfer!

Eish man, eish. Lots of changes and lots of adjusting, but I'm loving every minute of it. Elder Higley and I have been spending most of the week trying to learn the area and meet all the members. What a blessing it has been. The members are so excited to do missionary work, and with full time elders in the area for the first time since they moved the APs there about a year ago, we've been welcomed so warmly! I'm just hoping and praying we can live up to their expectations. 

Tuesday we went to the mission home to pick up Elder Higley and we got to meet some of the greenies there awaiting to hear their first areas. One of them was Elder Bryant. He's black, so we asked him where he was from, expecting to hear a country in Africa. We were shocked to hear him say Gilbert, Arizona. I guess being in Africa for so long has made me forget there are black people in the United States as well. Oops :(

We met a member couple named Chris and Betty. As we were talking, Chris pointed to a picture with the missionaries who baptized him, and lo and behold, it was Elders Francom and Kruger! I was so stoked to see such familiar faces, and Chris said they were his two favorite missionaries he's ever met. I couldn't agree more!

Met the bishop and a couple other members over the course of the week. Stuffed pass-along cards into mailboxes. Found libraries we can volunteer at. Looked for stores that would let us set up media stands in front of them. Basically did everything we could this week to be productive with our time and even managed to teach a couple lessons and place a couple Books of Mormon too. Take that, Satan!

Sunday was church (duh), and man... The ward is stellar. Very different than most of the mission... Mostly white and a bit on the, uh... More experienced side? That's a polite way to say they're older, right? Hehe, that's a compliment though. Met with some of them over the course of the day and couldn't believe some of the testimonies I heard. The Queensburgh ward is small, but powerful. So stoked to have the opportunity to work with them. And stoked to be able to continue learning Afrikaans! Beste dag ooit!

I guess just to finish up... I must have really good blood or something, because the Durban mosquitoes absolutely adore me. I wish I could say the same of them, but as they continually keep me up all night scratching at the fruits of their labors, it's hard to find love in my heart. But after hauling mosquito repellent and cortisone cream around for six months thinking "Ah my mama's crazy... When am I ever gonna need this?" I can once again affirm that moms knows best. Thanks mama :)

Stay well, stay positive, love your lives dames en here.

Baie liefde,

Elder Johnson

Shared 1/20/14 - Kimberley, Eating a Chicken, Soccer Game in Bloemfontein, Bus Station, and Pinetown

Take a good look, Pinetown, 'cause it's the last time you'll be seeing these!

Sawubona!

Feels good to actually be able to say that in a Zulu area! But oddly enough, you're reading the title to the email right. Man, this transfer has been anything but normal. At the Pinetown ward yesterday, I got to give my welcoming testimony, which consequently was also my departing testimony. I think it was...Friday night? Anyway, we got a call from the assistants at about 9 asking us to come to the office. "What did we do? Are we getting fire? Wait, we didn't even do anything! What the fetch is going on?!" "No fire," they told us. I guess what was happening is that their area, Queensburgh, has lots and lots of potential and lots of members that want to do missionary work, but due to them being the APs, they don't get a lot of time to proselyte. So since the Pinetown ward has four missionaries, they're moving two of us to their area, and they'll be the other Pinetown elders. But the story doesn't end there... We get a call from Big Z (that's what I like to call President Zackrison, but I don't know that he knows I like to call him that...Sister Zackrison, if you're reading the blog, can you ask him if that's ok?) the next day and are informed Elder Rajaonarison will be getting transferred near Lesotho. So gosh dang it, I only got to be with my hip-hop hipster French-speaking companion from Madagascar for a week. But you know, it's ok. I have a strong testimony that the Lord knows what he's doing and that His hand is in this work. As cliche as it sounds, everything happens for a reason. Just move forward with faith, and you'll learn what you need to learn and do what you've been called to do.

So, long story short... I'll be with Elder Higley this week, white washing the APs' old area. Luckily, I'm in the same boarding for the time being, until they can find a better one in Queensburgh. Eish, be careful about asking the Lord for a challenge, because he just may give it to you! Bring it on!

But other than that, it's been a pretty solid week! The last p-day in Bloem was excellent. I uh... I had been telling Elders Reeves, Gold, and Stengile that I wanted to eat a whole chicken at Nando's for quite some time. So uh... Not wanting to go back on a challenge, I did just that! Ate a full chicken doused in peri-peri sauce. Delicious to the taste, but uh... I paid for it on the bus-ride to Durban that night though...yoh. It taught me a lesson. Be thankful for the little things in life, such as toilets on Greyhound busses. 

The zone hit up a soccer game later in the day though. South Africa's hosting some tournament. No one knows exactly what it is or why it's happening, but we saw Ghana and Congo play. Man... The stadium was empty, but we were in Ghana's fan section and they were WILD. When I got to Pinetown the next day, members of the bishopric had seen the missionaries on TV... Any publicity is good publicity, right?

So just a couple cool happenings from my week in Pinetown... We were trying to find where someone stayed who had called for a DVD, and in the process gave a pass-along card to someone on the street. Didn't think much of it, but we kept on a walking, and about five minutes later, the man comes running after us, panting, and says, "I want to join you guys!" It caught Raj and I both super off-guard and were just speechless. That doesn't just happen! But it did, and it was awesome, and we started teaching him later in the week.

Crazy crazy stuff this week... Hoping for a pretty normal transfer the next four weeks! But with the way things have been going lately, I don't think there's such thing as normal in this mission. But no matter what, the work must be hastened and moved forward! Hoorah for Israel!

Stay well this week, stay positive, and love your lives.

Much love,

Elder Johnson