"For us we're missionaries and we have something called White Handbook so we actually can't come visit you tonight at 11..."

Sanbonani!

Another transfer down, five to go... Crazy how time seems to fly! Elder Okeng and I are going to be together for another four weeks or so! Elder and Sister Poelman have put something together for the departing African elders called the Post-MTC.They spend the last two weeks of their missions gaining practical training in plumbing and panel beating so they can go home and be able to sustain themselves a little bit. So Elder Okeng will be doing that, which gives us four weeks to baptize the heck out of everyone in Umlazi! Hurrah for Israel!

I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned this transfer is that there's much more to leadership than achieving results... Elder Okeng has taught me that in a big way. There's the list of things we're required to do every transfer as zone leaders, but then there's the unwritten list that you kind of have to think outside the box for. We saw a lack of unity in a couple districts in the zone, so we decided to do something about that. Last Monday we ended up organizing a family home evening at the Isipingo boarding in hopes of building the brotherhood. As missionaries, we do family home evenings for members and investigators all the time, but how often do we get to have a family home evening for our fellow elders? It ended up being a huge hit! We played some soccer during the day, Elder Okeng cooked chapati for everyone, we played some games, and shared lots and lots of laughs. Brotherhood... There's something to be said about brotherhood.

I've had to eat a little bit of humble pie this transfer (a phrase I'm borrowing from Elder Hansen) in the sense of not being able to work how I'd like... But it's been good. We haven't been able to do as much finding as I'd prefer, but we had a couple really good experiences this week. I'm not a huge fan of tracting in Umlazi, because I feel like it's been tracted to death. I think like three houses in a row one day people said, "Yeah, the missionaries used to visit us... We have the Book of Mormon, and it's great and stuff, but we have our beliefs." But, we press forward! I think it was Thursday, we were in U section, and we knocked on a door and the wife let us in to talk to her husband. Man... One of the most humble babas I've ever met! His name is Reginald, and he had been recovering from a spinal surgery (that was successful, don't worry!) But he was friendly, super positive, welcomed us warmly, and told us all about his faith. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he looked at it and asked us if it had anything to do with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He promised to start reading it, and we're seeing him again this week! Walking away, I couldn't believe that missionaries had never visited his place... He stays right by a member, his house is right out in the open, and yet... This was his first encounter with the elders! So the moral of the story? Keep pushing... The Lord IS preparing people out there... You just have to find them!

What else has gone on this week... We talked to a couple other people over the course of the week. One dude named Bheki was really excited to tell us all about his coaching career, his marathons he ran, his time in America singing opera... It seemed like if there was anything cool in the world, he'd done it! But he was at least humble enough to accept the invitation to learn more about the Plan of Salvation, so that's pretty cool too. We met another brother named Themba while we were trying to find where a member stays... Themba is the brother of this member, and told us he was actually the one that was wondering about the Book of Mormon when the missionaries started visiting his brother, but somehow he had never actually sat down with the missionaries and learned... Crazy right?!

There's this tuck shop by the chapel that you can buy mgwenyas at. Elder Okeng and I go there almost everyday for mgwenyas. Mgwenyas are basically like... Baseball sized scones. They're super good, and you can get them with like paloney and cheese and stuff and they make a nice li'l sandwich. But eating mgwenyas everyday... Kinda gets old. So Baba Dlamini, who runs the tuck shop, told us his wife can start cooking for us every day to give us more of a variety! Which the four of us in the BB district were totally down for. So she started by making us jeqe and sugar beans this week... Super super good! And guess what... Elder Rowley and Elder Paige have even started teaching them the gospel! The Lord works in mysterious ways, my friends...

Sister Gree is a crazy awesome member in our area, and she invited us all over for her birthday on Saturday, so that was super cool. We braai'd, we played volleyball, we laughed, we had a really really really good time. She ended up being our Sunday lunch appointment too, and she was asking us what we wanted... We unanimously said that on hot days, sometimes a big meal is just too much and that we'd be happy with bread. She laughed, but we kept insisting. And so...on Sunday! We show up to her house and she's made like 290374923 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Best Sunday lunch ever!!!

....do I talk about food too much? Eish...

Hmmm... And this is kinda funny. So for priesthood and relief society this Sunday, it was combined... And for some reason we ended up watching a movie called One Good Man. It's one of those movies that's church themed, but not produced by the Church... Kind of like the Best Two Years! It was super nice and had a good message, but we couldn't figure out why in the world Bishop Magaqa decided to show it as a priesthood lesson... But! We didn't complain! We just enjoyed.

The work goes on... And Christmas is just around the corner! So I'm super duper stoked to share some Christmas messages with people. Share the gift right? Something like that...

Sala kahle, stay positive, and love yo lives my friends.

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Shared 12/1/14 - Thanksgiving ribs at Spur, wedding, baptism, and the Indian Ocean

 Beautiful views of the Indian Ocean….

 Soccer...

 Double rainbow….

All you can eat ribs at Spur…on Thanksgiving

Mission accomplished…all you can eat ribs, check.

 The Christmas tree is up!

Wedding

Driving on the right side of the car in South Africa

 Baptisms

"Missionary work is a work of love and trust, and it has to be done on that basis." --President Hinckley

Sanbonani!

On mission, you can spend lots of time whining and complaing that "Wah wah wahhh... Thanksgiving without a turkey is gonna be lame!" and stuff like that... Or! You can improvise! So my idea of Nando's with full chickens didn't happen... But! On Thursday nights, Spur has an all-you-can-eat ribs special! So we invited whoever in the zone wanted to come, with the promise that whoever could pound down the most plates of ribs would receive a hug from Elder Paige... And man, did everyone try hard! Proud to say that I put down four plates (and yoh... I was dying afterwards! NO ONE slept that night!), but came in third place after Elder Rowley who managed 4 and a half, and Elder Peterson who put away a whopping 5 and a half plates of ribs! So, he was our grand champion. And because it was Thanksgiving, we all decided as a group the next day that we are thankful for our toilets.

Oh boy... Hectic week! Exchanges up the wazoo, finding, getting bunked, and to end it all off... A missionary farewell, a fireside, three baptisms, one confirmation, one ward council meeting, and a partridge in a pear tree. Where to begin…

Oh! So this is kinda funny. Pamela's been hearing some negative stuff about the Church from a co-worker. There's the typical stuff like we worship Joseph Smith, we don't believe in the Bible, and so on and so forth... But then she also heard we don't wear wedding rings, which... I've never heard before, but it's ok. So she's kinda shying away from wanting us to continue teaching them, but! Njabulo...is power as ever! We were helping them chop down a mango tree on Thursday, and afterwards we were saying goodbye and that we'd see them at our Tuesday appointment, and Njabulo was like, "No! We'll see you Sunday! We're coming to church Sunday! Right, Pam? We went to your dad's church last week, we can go to theirs this week!" He kinda caught her super off guard, which... If you were there was pretty comical. They're like... Man they're just the coolest young couple out there! Once we hit them with eternal families and stuff... We're hoping Pamela will be a little more receptive :)

I was with Elder Moyake on Wednesday in another section of Umlazi... And what a joy it is to work with him! He's one of the most diligent elders out there. We were walking the whole day since their area isn't a driving area, and that was something good... I forget how many people you can talk to when you're not moving around in a car the whole day!

Let's see... Friday we were supposed to see Baba Mkhize, but we got to his home and found out he was working late... Now, remember what I was saying about lobola last week? His wife-to-be isn't too keen on bypassing the Zulu tradtions and signing the marriage papers until he's paid lobola... Which is the only thing really keeping him from being baptized. So we've always kinda been intimidated by his wife, but she invited us in and we were able to have a lesson with her. We taught her the Restoration, and she committed to pray and find out if it's true. So... Progress! Let's hear it for the Spirit!

Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Sarai, which was kinda funny... We're both serving in the BB ward, so it was exchanges like... A couple neighborhoods over! And all of us were invited to the wedding of the son of a member... So we ended up all of us at the same place a good chunk of the day. Hard to really call it an exchange, but...we roll with it!

Ah man, so the week culminated in three baptisms! The one from our area was Sister Lungile Sithole, and she's as prepared as they come. Crazy enough, she's been investigating and coming to Church for about four years now... So long that everyone's just assumed she's a member! When we told people she was getting baptized, they were like, "...again?" But she decided now she's ready, and her testimony... Man, it was power! Brother Lufuno was baptized from Elder Rowley and Elder Paige's area, and him too... Power. Ziggy Magaqa's one of his buddies at church, and he was the one to baptize him. Seeing someone bring a friend into the gospel... There's not much that's greater to see than that!

We got some crazy news yesterday... Big Z called us after our lunch appointment and asked for Elder Okeng. They talked in the car for a good long while, and come to find out... His mom passed away this weekend. Man... I can't even imagine. But he's a trooper. He's been telling me he's been studying the post-mortal life like crazy lately. Something's been driving him towards that. He's been saying what a blessing it is to know about the Plan of Salvation. It becomes so much more real when you lose someone that close to you. His mom was able to go to the temple last year as well. He knows she's somewhere where she's happy.

So this next week will be something else. President told Elder Okeng if he needs to take a rest for a couple days, that's no problem at all. Lots of love will be heading his way this week. Please keep him in your prayers... I'm sure he'll really appreciate it.

The work moves forward. The gospel is real. The healing power of the Atonement... The Plan of Salvation... It's all fo' real.

Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Shared 11/24/14 - Margate, South Africa!

 With Elder Ncube

A taste of Hawaii and the Aloha spirit……..

 With companion, Elder Okeng!

"Must we always do things the standard way?" --President Uchtdorf

Sanbonani!

Man... President Uchtdorf's the man, isn't he? Durban Stake had stake conference this weekend and he was here speaking to us!... Well, in a broadcast anyway, but that's ok. Him, Elder Bednar, Elder Gay, and Sister Stevens. There's something in the air about creativity... Hastening the Lord's work in ways other than the ways that have been done for years and years and years. Thinking outside the box. Putting the Mormons on the map. Can you feel it? So that was a thing, and lobola... Haha lobola got shambocked hard by the brethren, and inevitably there was some major tension in the room. Lobola, for you Americanos, is something similar to the bride price Johnny Lingo had to pay for Mahana (you ugly!), and while the idea behind lobola is noble (in order for a man to marry a woman, he must show that he can work and will be able to provide for her by paying a certain number of cows to the family of the bride), the practice has been corrupted by the vanity of the world. It ends up being about money, drinking, and what and what... And it makes it especially difficult for young Latter-day Saints seeking temple marriage, who end up having to work for years and years to save up for their bride before they can even get married. So the brethren have encouraged many African nations to give it up. But eh... It's hard giving up traditions. Especially as a Zulu. The Zulu people LOVE their culture and traditions. The gospel... As Brother Jubber always told Elder Mphaka and I in Stanger, "It ain't for sissies!" The Lord asks a lot, but in return, promises blessings and eternal life and stuff, which is pretty neat.

Ah man... Great week! Busy week... I guess I'll just share a few highlights!

Elder Okeng and I got to teach ZTM this week, which I think ended up going really well. I don't know that it was necessarily the plan from the beginning, but the direction the meeting kind of took was one of Christ-like love as a part of missionary work, creativity, and working towards goals. I was talking with Elder Okeng a little while ago... We decided that no matter how well you may be living the other commandments, if you're living the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, the Ten Commandments...everything else, but you're not living Christ's second great commandment to love your neighbour as yourself, you won't find yourself in the Celestial Kingdom. President Bricknell gave a great talk at stake conference, speaking about the Sermon on the Mount. He said that the most difficult commandment Christ has ever given us is to love our enemies. Christ-like love... Much easier said than done. But hey... One step at a time! Sometimes all it takes is a simple, "I appreciate you!" to someone who needs it. "By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass."

After ZTM I went on exchanges with Elder Ncube in Margate. Man, Elder Ncube's the bomb. He's from JoBurg, and he has kind of a crazy conversion story (or sometimes he calls it a reactivation story...lemme explain). So he was baptized when he was 8 years old, and I think somewhere around high school went inactive for a time... But ultimately ended up returning about a year ago! So he was working with the missionaries a bit, and they came to realize that his records at the church had been lost... So! He had to be retaught and rebaptized! Never heard anything like that before... But man, he's a great guy. Our plan was to set up a media stand outside the Pick N Pay there, but we had left the table and banner in the car that was in uMlazi, so... That didn't happen. But! We ended up getting to go street contacting which is always a jolly good time. And Margate... Is a flipping resort town. Elder Gold had served there last year, and he always told me it's the Newport Beach of South Africa. And that's true. It's kind of a tough area to talk to people... But it's beautiful. And there was a Hibiscus Mall and a sign with a big Aloha on it, so it was kind of like Hawaii too.

There was one night we were trying to find a referral Elder Rowley and Elder Paige had given us. They had met some guy on the street named Jon Anthony Bhengu...so he said. He gave them his address and told them he'd be home after six on weekdays. His address fell under our area, so we went searching for his house for what seemed like forever... The way addresses work in a township is basically you'll get a section letter and a number. Not a street. So you basically have to just search the whole section until you find the right number. But! We finally found the right house, and uh... It turned out to be a tavern! And no one there had heard of this Jon Anthony fellow... So that was a downer. But the bigger downer kinda came when the guys there asked what we needed him for. I told them we wanted to share a message about Jesus Christ with him. And the response? "Jesus Christ? I hate that guy! He was a liar!" And uh... That's not really one they prepare you for at the MTC! We just kinda stood there for a second and carried on our merry way. Yoh... I'd never heard anyone so blatantly deny Christ like that! We were a little shaken, but ended up having a good lesson with Sister Lungile afterwards, who's getting baptized this Sunday! Woop woop!

What else... The Rowberrys had a meeting with us and the Durban Zone Leaders yesterday, and the theme was, again, thinking outside the box to achieve our goals. One thing we've noticed is that the babas and father-led families that we want to be teaching are usually working during the day, and a lot of the time they're in downtown Durban. So that gives us incentive to go contacting that side. And for the Durban ZLs, whose area is downtown Durban, they can do lots of contacting there, but most of the people they'll talk to aren't in their areas, so they end up having to send referral after referral to us in the townships... So! We're exploring having the missionaries from Umlazi, kwaMashu, and a couple of the other townships take turns doing some contacting in their area so that we can find people from our own areas that way. So more on that in the future! The other thing we were focusing on is having unity between the members and missionaries in the sense of goals... What we're each working towards. President Bricknell gave the challenge to every unit in the stake to prepare to split in the future, and to start working together with the missionaries to see what we all need to do to make that happen. Priesthood holders is going to be the big player... Driving all our efforts towards that end. Exciting stuff.

Lots of good things happening this last week. Good missionaries. Good people. Got to see the Stanger crew at Stake conference. And you're not gonna believe who was able to make it... Bright! Him and Octavia have one thing to take care of before their baptism, but man... They're doing great! So it was good to see them, Elder Mphaka, the Singhs, Benny and Nalin, Vincent, Sister Moodley... I guess they all got to go to the temple this weekend! The Topodzis were sealed, lots of work for the dead happened... Ah, so cool! One of the most rewarding parts of mission is the friendship you gain with the people you meet, and getting to see them progress in the gospel. Great, great stuff.

So what's coming up this week... Two exchanges in Umlazi, Thanksgiving on Thursday, and other than that... Some time in our own area! Woo, that'll be good. As of yet, we don't have plans for Thanksgiving, but uh... I'm feeling Nando's. They don't have turkey (kinda hard to come by here...) but you can buy a full chicken for R99...which is about $10. So... It's still a bird, right? Something like that. Hopefully it happens. Either way, it'll mean that we're setting up the Christmas tree next Monday and we'll queue the Christmas music! Hurrah for Israel!

Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives madoda.

Much love,

Umdala Johnson

Mission home, boarding, and South Africa's Bafana Bafana vs Sudan in soccer!

Cooking at the President's home...

 Some ping pong

My boarding….

South Africa's Bafana Bafana playing Sudan at the Moses Mabhida Stadium

First game since South Africa's keeper and captain Senzo Meyiwa passed away a couple weeks ago.  The whole team played for him.

 Love the atmosphere at African soccer games.  Walking into the stadium, you hear the steady hum of the vuvuzela.  And the roar of the crowd for 90 minutes while the players play their li'l hearts.  Bafana Bafana ended up winning 2-1! What up!

 Great seats!

 Selfie!

 Playing the vuvuzela!