Sanbonani!
Yoh... The big 21. For being away from family and friends, I don't think there was a better way to celebrate it than chilling with the crocs, having dinner overlooking the Indian ocean, and being with good people. Crocodile Creek exceeded expectations. Apparently they have round about eight or nine thousand crocs there, and they actually moved around and stuff, unlike the ones at the Hogle Zoo that are just statues! Our crocodile dundee tour guide or whatever reminded me so much of Steve Irwin, and I feel like one day he's gonna reach the same fate... Haha, yoh. He was crawling all over the crocs, provoking them, making them bite... But I guess he's a professional, so he probably knows what he's doing! We could have eaten a croc burger there, which would have been cool... They say it tastes like chicken. But we ended up going to a place on the beach in Ballito called Al Pescatore. And mama...we used all the decorations you sent us! The waiters at the restaurant were cracking up! And to finish off the day, the Phoenix elders dropped us back off in Stanger. We had one appointment to walk to, and as we were walking back, one of the...uh...ladies of the night...that hangs around the chapel starts following us and says, "I love you!Where do you work?" Without missing a beat I say, "Oh, we don't work. We're missionaries for the Church!" As I pointed to the chapel, she stopped dead in her tracks, said, "Oh. Well I'll see you next time!" and ran off back to her corner. Here's to 21 years.
So probably the biggest highlight of the week is our new ride! We taxied down to Durban on Wednesday to pick it up and were pleasantly surprised to find that we'd be driving an automatic Aveo. Part of me was hoping for a manual Etios so I could learn to drive stick a bit better, but looking at how many hills are in Stanger... We'll be happy with the Aveo. There's no McDonald's here, but there are a couple in Durbs... So Elder Mphaka insisted we stop by before we headed back. There's something about a Big Mac... No matter where in the world you go to get one, it's still delicious to the taste. My arteries disagree, but it's fine.
Hmmm... The new senior couple in Durban is the Rowberries, and they are power power power. They joined us for our district meeting in Stanger this week and helped us out with some fantastic ideas. We're working on organizing some service projects, working with local churches and organizations to strengthen the youth, working with the community to organize a stop smoking class, and the big one I'm excited to see play out... The big radio station here is called uKhozi FM, and they were broadcasting from Salt Lake last month. The area office is working on putting together a DVD that shows the Church in action alongside with some of the people's favorite personalities from uKhozi, so we're gonna be able to use that as a proselyting tool pretty soon. The Rowberries have that greenie senior couple fire that Durban needs. Our district meeting might have gone an hour longer than we planned, but we're excited for everything we got planned! We're ready to see miracles!
So now that we have the car it's made it easier to have evening appointments with some of the members that stay kinda far. Brother Sudi recently got married and we're teaching his wife right now, and up until this point we've only been able to teach her at church on Sundays, but now with the car, we were able to make it out to their place! Woo! It was kind of an adventure... We went safariing (I think that's how you'd spell that...not sure) through like 50 kilometres of wrong turns, but finally made it there eventually. Unfortunately with how far it is and our allotment of k's, it looks like we're still going to have to stick with teaching her at church on Sundays... But it was a fun adventure while it lasted.
We did some service at Brother Benny and Sister Naleen's Saturday morning, and those two crack me up. Brother Benny's getting older and losing his marbles a little bit, and he was showing us all the plants and everything growing around his house. He told us something about how the birds carry seeds and stuff and stuff can accidentally start growing in your yard, and that he's accidentally growing daga for that reason, which is the South African word for herb, weed, pot, marijuana, whatever you want to call it... So he showed us, and I started cracking up because it definitely wasn't weed. Just a stray plant growing on the side of his house. Oh Brother Benny... But we love him anyway.
Taught some great lessons this week. Bright and Octavia have hit a couple rough patches, but they referred us to their neighbors, Clive and Yvonne, and they've taken the lessons very well. Clive works out of town most of the time, but we were able to share the Restoration with Yvonne, and she just lit up and was transfixed the whole lesson. She's accepted the invitation to be baptized, and the missionaries in Pietermaritzburg are going to get Clive updated on the lessons as well! The cool thing with missionary work is that we're gathering the Lord's sheep, and his sheep hear His voice. As missionaries, we speak the words of Christ, and the prepared recognize us as servants of Him. When you find those people, there's not a better feeling in the world.
Let's see... We taught a new brother named Pascal this week. His Muslim friend sat in on the lesson with us, and that was a cool experience. It helped me to become a little more familiar with the Islamic beliefs. We mentioned Christ as the Son of God, and he stopped us and told us he only believes Christ to be a prophet, and not the Son of God. We were able to find common ground, though, as we believe that one of the missions of the Saviour's earthly ministry was prophetic. Really cool experience.
A testament to me of the power of service is a brother named Mnqayo that we've met as we've helped out at the local clinic. He loves the help we give at the clinic and has been super friendly with us. He was telling us this week about a heart problem he has, and we offered to give him a blessing at his house in the coming week. The smile he gave us was one of peace and comfort as he told us he would love that, so we'll be helping him with that this week.
Lots of good stuff ahead of us. Exchanges, district meetings, teaching, the works. Transfer news comes this Saturday, and most likely I'll be here in Stanger another couple transfers, but knowing the Lord's sense of humour you just never know sometimes...
Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
Oh PS, the subject line... Is Brother Benny's favorite hymn, which we later found out is actually the Spirit of God, but we figured fire was close enough :)
