August 24, 14

Week 48 - August 25, 14

Dear Mom and Dad

I have had a pretty good week. I do not mind getting long email, but once I leave this area I won't be able to respond because we may be back to limited time to answer.  That is sad to hear about missionaries dying. I feel safe, and I'm doing all I can to stay safe. Your prayers are heard, and I appreciate them. 

That is crazy to hear Casey Maurer is home!! I need to get his email. If you go see him I would appreciate you getting his email. That is too bad to hear he isn't doing well and has had bad health. It makes me feel good that I am taking care if myself pretty well. I have cut out a few of my own ingrown toenails! Ha Ha , don’t worry they are not infected. 

Thank you for taking care of the Gunter family. I hope Heidi is doing better after her surgery. 

As Marrisa said we as missionaries you don't always see the good in what I am doing, but no effort is wasted. I can see we are doing great work here, especially in Emba. I know once a group or cluster is formed the work there will explode, so I am just preparing it for that. As missionaries we move so often that we don't always see the fruit of our efforts, but the fruits still come. 

I am glad you read about the clusters, this will be a wonderful thing if we can get this in Emba.

A new innovative idea is to bring the church to the people instead of the people to the church.  The Area President proposed this idea and it is being piloted in SE Africa for the entire church.

 The general idea is this:

Have a branch president and his counselors have stewardship over their regular branch and then also an added cluster that meets in another area. The counselors and branch president will divide and conquer and attempt to help two groups grow and become stronger as separate, yet connected units.

All of these meetings are taking place in a preschool the church has made arrangements to use each Sunday.  Stay tuned...there will be more clusters to come in our mission boundaries.  It is an exciting new concept and these pictures are being shared with the First Presidency in their weekly meetings this week.  This is big news for the church to get this innovative new approach piloted in the South East Africa Areas of the church.

I haven't been told the story if president Dunn's bear attack yet. They said they are going to tell us at zone conference. I will read the story though because it will probably be very interesting. Thank you for passing that on.  President Dunn's are very into fitness! But we have been going to the gym Monday- Fridays. It has been great, and they have way nice facilities. Look up sasol Secunda gym online and you can see what it looks like. It is way nicer than the golds gym in cedar. 

I am getting a long with Elder Johnson very well. 

He is from Kaysville, Utah. His dad is an Endodontist. He graduated in 2012, so he is a year older than me, 20. He played ice hockey in high school. He has been on his mission now for 18 months. He had 2 older brothers, and a younger sister. 

This week has been awesome with teaching. We taught like 23 lessons. 20 of those were investigator lessons. I felt very productive about this week. We are still doing the same thing everyday though, so not a lot if new stuff to share. I guess our best investigators right now are Steve, Lorraine and her grandmother, and the Van Roii Family. The Van Roii's are coloreds, so they look kind of Hispanic. They are moving to Secunda this week though, so we won't teach them anymore. We will send the other missionaries to teach them. We put Lorraine and her grandmother on date to be baptized in October. We are still trying to find a way to them to church. The senior couple that comes to our sacrament meeting has volunteered to get them next week, so that is awesome. 

At church we had Steve and Lindo. It is awesome when investigators come. I think I told you about Lindo a long time ago. We have been teaching her for a long time, but we haven't seen her in a long time until this week. She talked to us about all her problems, and we are trying to help her. She really likes to drink, and she normally goes out and parties on Fridays. We are going to try and go every Friday to see her and try and strengthen her. Her grandparents are inactive members, so that doesn't help. Even the grandfather drinks, so she is around alcohol a lot. Alcohol is a big problem in the township. 

The weather is not getting much hotter yet. It has actually been colder the last 3 or 4 days. I have had to wear a sweater. It has only rained like once this week. 

That is good the boys are back into school well. Happy Carson playing football and hope he can enjoy.  Tell Calvin good job on starting to swim again and glad he is doing drivers education.  That is way exciting that Blaire had a little boy! You'll have to tell him I said congrats. I am sure the vacation will be nice, Labor Day.  I wish I could take a vacation. The lake will be fun if you can make it. I hope that you can get all packed for Scotland, and not be stressed mom.  

I hope that Blake can really get into school. Tell him good luck.  I hope he can get into his classes and be positive. He really needs to rely on his Heavenly Fathers help. 

I guess a funny and cool experience was elder Johnson hitting 18 months this last week. So some missionaries when they hit 6 months burn a tie, 12 months a shirt, and 18 a pair of pants. We burned a pair of elder Johnson's pants on Friday after district meeting. 

On Thursday we went out to eat at Happy Hong a Chinese restaurant. 

I guess another cool experience I told you about a bit was with Lindo. She is really struggling with drinking and smoking. We met her on Thursday and Friday. One sad think is she went out and drank Thursday night after we saw her. She felt really bad. But the good thing is she came to church, and Elder Kyle who is one of the senior missionaries gave her a priesthood blessing. I hope we can keep working with her and help her change.

So this will most likely be my last week in Secunda. Transfers are one week from Tuesday. I have been her for 4 transfers now, so I am pretty sure I will leave this time. We get transfer news on Saturday, so I will let you know what is happening next Monday. I am going to miss this place. I really wouldn't mind staying here one more transfer, but I don't think it will happen. 

I hope you have a good week.  I love and miss you.

Love

Your Son

Mitchell

Johannesburg Temple Grounds - August 2014

Temple grounds - Johannesburg Temple August 14, 2014

sunset in Secunda South Africa 

Elder Johnson - companion

Streets of Emba South Africa - 2014

Week 47 - August 17,14

Dear Mom,

It has been a pretty good morning for me. I have had a pretty good week so far. I am so relieved it is another Monday, and I get to read your email. Hearing from home is always fun, and it is a relief to know all is well on that side of the world. I  am sure you really enjoyed not being in primary. I bet dad is really relieved to have his talk over with. That would be great having him send me his talk. I would love to read it. I am glad to hear you made I through the stake conference

 I am getting your letters. This last week I got like 3 letters. So I am getting all your letters I think. I read through all of them, and they were great. Thank you for sending letters. It is exciting to get mail. 

I'm glad you are still reading through SA history book, and learning more about the culture of South Africa. 

Now the culture is different from during Apartheid. The blacks live amongst the whites quiet often. It does seems like there is still a lot of tension between some of the whites and blacks, but it seems for the most part they get a long. The blacks are pretty much equal now, but at the same time they are still behind. There are still townships that only the blacks live in, but in the towns now that used to be only white now have blacks living in them. I guess one of the sad things is the areas that were very nice when only whites lived there have been kind of trashed by the blacks. 

Evander is a town that used to be only whites during Apartheid.  It now has a lot of blacks and coloreds. Like I said some places have been trashed when Apartheid ended. I can tell Evander used to be a super nice town, but now it is run down more, and kind of trashed. So I work in Emba which is a township, and Evander which is considered a town. There are missionaries in Secunda. That is the other set of missionaries that are out here. They also work in Kinross, it is a mix between town and township. 

I will try to take pictures of my surroundings. But pictures don't really give justice. 

I guess in Emba the blacks actually love seeing us there. They always talk to us and the little kids just freak out when they see white people. 

Also with learning Zulu it is way funny to greet the blacks in Zulu because they just freak out. The old ladies especially love when you greet them in Zulu. I hope I can keep learning Zulu, I don't know much. 

You asked if I felt safe.  I am not too scared. I am pretty used to it now. It is just normal to walk in the street here, then just move when a car is coming. The sewage isn't too bad, they keep it pretty clean. There are some guys that kind of sketch is out as we are walking toward them, but then normally they are cool and they just talk to us. 

You asked about music, and if we had people to play the piano. when elder dye was here he played the piano for us. But all the pianos here are like player electric keyboards that have all the hymns programmed in, so we have music every week and we sing hymns. I have lead a few times, but not a bunch. 

 I guess I don't really have a ton of spiritual experiences, but I know the spirit is with me always, comforting me.  I feel like as teaching the spirit directs me through my thoughts. Like I will think to say something. I do feel mi testimony has grown a lot. Especially as I have kind of argued with people about other beliefs or bible bashing. It just shows me how true our church is. I know that without a doubt that our church is the only true church on the earth, and that we do have the priesthood, or permission to do things in Christ’s name. 

That is scary Steve Pickett had a heart attach. He seems very young and healthy. I hope he is doing alright. 

That is good Evans house is coming along. That's also good that Robert and his family got a place to stay. Hopefully they can find a house or lot soon. 

It sounds like it has been a fun yet busy week. 

 Yanni and Heidi the investigates that told us not to return have kind of been listening to there family and friends that told them the Book of Mormon was evil. They were feeling the spirit every time we came, and they even told us we would answer questions about problems in there lives that we didn't even know about. I guess they just gave into the things people were telling them. They just called and told us they had decided they didn't want is to come back. 

I guess we have had pretty good success this week. We taught like 17 lessons. We have a lot of cool investigators right now. I guess the biggest disappointment is all the people that cancel, or aren't home for there appointments. We probably have like over 30 lessons planned each week, then only teach like half of them. Another disappointment is church attendance. Especially from Evander. There are no taxis from Evander to Secunda on Sunday, so people can't get to church. This is very frustrating. We have people there that would be progressing toward baptism, but they don't come to church. 

We are teaching a cool family in Evander that is colored, so they look Mexican kinda. The Van Roii's. They are a young couple, and she is pregnant with there first child. They are really liking the gospel. She is eating up everything we teach. Yesterday she loved how we read about Adam and Eve from 2nephi 2 and how the church's view on Adam and Eve is different. I think they will keep progressing quick. The only problem is she is going home to the northern cape to have her baby next month... So we will see what happens with that. 

The lake in my pictures is a lake in Evander, or more like a tiny reservoir. Like I said Evander used to be a way nice town. There were two little reservoirs together that were just trashed. You couldn't really tell by the pictures. The pictures in a cement room is Frans' house. I will take pictures of outside so you can see. But it is just thin cement walls with a tin roof. It is like a room he is renting in Emba. I think he only pays like 500 rand a month, so like 50 dollars. 

Today I put on some pictures of me at the temple just standing by a little steam they have outside. The temple was great this week. It was nice to finally go there after 4 months.

I am glad you are still hearing from President Dunn. They are great, and they seem very ambitious. I am still doing great with elder Johnson. He is a great missionary, and a really fun kid to be around. We laugh and have a lot of fun together.

I love you and thank you for your email. I am always thinking about you and praying for you. Have a good week. thank you for your prayers, and thinking about me.  I have already seen that it gets easier as time goes on it gets easier. I know when I get on the downhill slope it will get a lot easier. I hit 11 months yesterday, so that is good.  I love you.

Love

Your Son

Elder Brown

Aug, 11, 14 - Walking with Elder Johnson

Companion - Elder Johnson

Week 46 - Aug. 11, 14

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know it is easy to feel disheartened or discouraged.  I too doubt myself and feel I am floating along un-noticed, just a soul among many not really being seen and not really doing anything note worthy.  I have felt this in missionary work a lot, wondering if I made a difference or if my service was noticed.  It seems like people don’t appreciate the work we are doing.   I agree it is important to notice others and as they serve us and show our appreciation.   I hope that I am telling people thank you enough and making them feel recognized. I know it is not important that we are getting praise, or that our work is detected.  It is not important that others are aware of our good doings or that we get recognition.    

 The leadership is lacking a bit here in our small branch. There aren't many members to feel all the auxiliary positions. Our branch president, President Soko is pretty good. Our first councilor moved about a month ago, and he was also the branch mission leader. He hasn't been replaced yet. The second councilor I guess is now the first councilor as of yesterday. Our Elders quorum president is less active and only comes like once a month. We really help do a lot here in the branch as the missionaries. We had branch council yesterday, and it was just frustrating. They aren't very good at organizing stuff. We can't really just jump in as missionaries either. We need more priesthood holders to support the branch. I guess we have been baptizing a lot of men. 

 I am doing very well with elder Johnson. I think we are getting a long very well, and teaching well together as well. We have a lot of fun together. So I am enjoying him a lot. 

I am glad you enjoyed my story about Meshak, the sick boy.  It was a pretty cool experience. I will try to send more pictures today because I took some random ones. 

We saw Meshak mom last week on Sunday afternoon. We set a time to go back and see them yesterday, but they weren't there. She didn't seem upset, but very grateful when we saw her last week. We saw Meshak yesterday and he is still pretty sad. He is still sick I think. But he enjoys seeing us. He can't hear very well because something with his sickness. It is pretty hard to communicate with him. 

Thanks for all the details in your emails. I enjoy hearing about everything that is going on. I am sorry that school is starting again and you have to get back into strict schedule. It is crazy to think school is starting again already!! I hope that dad is able to prepare his talk for stake conference, and does not stress too much. I am sure he will do just fine. I hope he can get the presentation done to show at the first.

I'm glad you are getting some rain. That is great that the sheep pond actually got some rain as well. Tell Carson I am sorry he got braces, they are no fun. I guess just make sure you get him a good mouth guard for football.  I also hope his thumb will heal. 

That would be sweet if you could sell the boat and get a sweet one for next season. Also hopefully the ranger will sell. Thanks for the pictures up at Panguitch. I haven't seen the new bathroom yet, so that was fun to see. Glad you had fun fishing.  Hopefully Calvin had fun with Tyler. I am glad he is hanging out with him. He is a good kid. 

I'm glad President Dunn let you know all is well.  There has been some concerns about the missionaries transferred from Sierra Leonne and Libera missions, four native South African Elders serving there have been reassigned to our mission to complete their assignments here in Johannesburg. President Dunn said, all served in areas not affected by the outbreak of Ebola and were quarantined as an extra safeguard. They are all in good health and have been integrated into our mission.

Well again it was a pretty dang normal week. We traveled to Springs and had a zone meeting. I guess that was a change up from the norm. I guess something sad is Yanni and Heidi told us they didn't want us to come back. It is hard because we have had such powerful lessons with them. I taught about 14 lessons this week, so it was a pretty good week that way. Still on P-days we don't really do anything. There is nothing to do in Secunda. I guess today we will go to he gym. 

A new rule that has really excited me is we are now allowed to get gym memberships and work out at the gym. We bought memberships this last week, but only got to go once. We are planning on going every day, so I am pretty excited about that. 

I guess this week also we went to the Mnisi's and washes their cars for service. Only two if the kids are members, so it was good to do this service. I think Fortune was going to put pictures on Facebook and tag me, so you can look for those. They fed us after which was very kind of them. 

I think my feelings are generally pretty happy. I normally have a pretty good attitude about things. I do struggle sometimes to be motivated. The whole gym thing though has given me more motivation. I do not feel homesick really ever. I guess at certain times I miss things from home, but then I get over it pretty quick.  I am enjoying what I am doing.  I really like teaching and just talking to people. 

That's too bad that Blake lost his phone. It seems like he is pretty stressed with life and everything. I hope that he will figure things out even if it means moving back in. I hope starting school isn't too stressful. That is a bit sad to hear Alex is signed up for another semester. Last I heard from him he said he was working on his papers. I hope that he will leave after this semester. I am so glad I just came out and didn't do school. If I would have started I would have just wanted to finish because I would be scared of forgetting everything going on a mission. 

I love you and hope you have a good week. Good luck getting the kids back in school. Love you and miss you

Love

Elder Brown

Pictures - August 4, 14

Wanted a picture with an American- I spook Zulu to him. He was surprised. 

Children of an investegator

Feeding Meshack - a sick kid we gave a blessing to. Elder Johnson new companion

August 4, 14 - Week 45

Dear Mom and Dad,

That is great to hear about the rain. It really sounds like you need it. It also sounds like the lake trip was a success. Dad sent a video of Calvin cliff jumping, but I haven't yet looked at the other pictures and videos on drop box. You told me earlier this summer that they dug out the pass by castle rock. That is good they made it deep enough to get through even if water goes down. I wonder if that effect the business at antelope? But i am glad that you had a good time at the lake even though it was a short trip. I know how much you love to be at the lake. I am glad that Ashley and Blake were able to go with you. To bad Randall and Katrina couldn't make it over. 

That is cool that Ashley bought her charger! She sent me pictures of one she test drove. It is a pretty sweet looking car!! You guys are just pimping out my car now!! It looks pretty cool. 

You will have to wish grandma, Toni and Danielle a happy birthday for me. Maybe I can send grandma a card even if it is late, because she has been writing. 

I am sorry about your garden. I am glad Calvin and Carson are helping mow the "field" still. Poor suckers haha!! It sounds like you are still busy keeping your house immaculate. I hope you didn't get sours on your knees like before from steaming the floor this time. 

You asked how my companion and me do on cleaning.  We are normally pretty good at keeping things clean. We don't do much deep cleaning. I squeegee the shower walls and stuff ever day so we don't really have to clean the shower very often. We normally just put cleaner in the toilet and scrub it like once a week. I am pretty good at keeping stuff clean with my somewhat OCD. My companions have all been pretty good at cleaning and stuff. I have been blessed with American companions that clean. Most black missionaries are pretty gross. 

Our weather is still in the dry season. It will start raining the end of this month or first of September. It has started to warm up more during days. It is even getting a little hot some days. It still gets cold at night and in morning. It is like desert weather. Everything is still dead. I am glad I am walking because it also makes me feel good. 

We has 30 lessons planned, and we only taught 11 lessons. It is frustrating to have this many people cancel after we have made appointments with them. It is ok though, we will improve this week.

We had yet another road trip from Secunda in to Roodeport. It is about 170 kilometers one way. I ended up driving both ways. I guess I just like the drive. I still speed a lot, which isn't good haha!! 

 had interviews with president Dunn. He is such an awesome guy. He is very relaxed, and I really like that. As we were waiting for interviews, sister Dunn had activities for us. We talked a lot about exercise. They are very into being healthy, and they plan on improving the health of the mission. 

 Elder Johnson is a great guy. I have gotten to know him a lot better this past week. He isn't as quiet as he was. He has opened up a lot more. We have a lot of fun together. I have come to like him a lot. He is still a pretty straight missionary, so that is hard. I do obey the rules, but some of them I just see as guidelines that we can interpret our own way to best help us. But I have tried to adjust to make elder Johnson comfortable. 

I am glad you got to go to the temple. I have not been since my birthday. We are supposed to go in 2 weeks. I heard there was a new video, so I hope I get to see it. We are scheduled to go on August 15th. I hope it doesn't get canceled because last transfer it got cancelled. The temple here is so small. The session can only fit like 30 maybe. And they have to bring in a temple worker couple to be the witness couple with the missionaries. Poor new missionaries going through temple for the first time. I remember I was pretty scared going through for the first time. I really love going to the temple now. I am so glad I am in a mission with a Temple. 

I think that is at least the 2nd time the dogs have been sprayed by a skunk. That is crazy you still can't get 22 ammunition. Good thing Mike had some. Garrett is still working for mike, and he said they aren't staying very busy with business.

 I am still getting your written letters. I do get them through the zone leaders. We only see them like 2 times a transfer, so like every three weeks. But this transfer we are seeing them a lot more. I think the mail is slow, last week I got one from May. I think the zone leaders are a bit unorganized as well and loose some mail. We got one new zone leader this past transfer. I don't know him very well yet. 

As I said the Dunn's are great. I think they will bring a lot of new things into the mission. I wouldn't have been in any of the pictures. I didn't stay at the mission home before transfers or anything. That us cool they had the departing missionaries do stuff with the new guys. They didn't do that when I came in. 

Hopefully Carson will like football. I really enjoyed it when I played! Carson looks like he has gotten really tall, so he could be a good player. That is good that you got the ranger all fixed up! Tell dad to sell the ranger and buy a razer!

That is cool you are reading a book about South Africa. The Afrikaans people are still rude and looks down on everyone. I don't like the Afrikaans language at all. Mostly because if we don't speak it as whites they don't want anything to do with us. When we knock on gates and white people come out my stomach just drops. They are very prideful and rude people, but yet they are all like white trash and nasty. 

I am about 3/4 through the Henry Lunt book. I am still reading, and enjoying. You don't need to send anymore right now. Like you said I have been studying scriptures a lot more. I am studying the New Testament right now, and I really am loving it. I also have started to read Jesus the Christ book. In the New Testament I am just getting to the week of the atonement. It is really interesting to study about Christs life. 

 There haven't been many changes with new mission president.  Especially none in my area. To get groups organized that has to be done through the stake. They are working on it now, but they have to get approval from the area office, and salt lake. So that is in the works right now. President Dunn could possible change the number of times an investigator is requires to come to church, but that isn't likely. It is a good rule to make sure people will stay active after baptism. Also with our cars it is a world wide mission rule that we can't transport people in our cars. I wish we could go pick people up. 

When I met with president Dunn he just really uplifted me. I guess my spiritual experience was knowing that President Dunn was truly called of God, and that he holds the priesthood keys for this mission. He told me to always look at the horizon and prepare for it. Meaning life is still coming fast, and that mission is where you prepare. I know that my mission has already prepared me so much for life, and there are still so many more experiences I will have. Also in my study of Christ I know we should always be trying to shape our lives after the way he lived. One if his purposes here on earth was to be an example of how to live. 

I guess a funny experience this week they happened in Emba. These guys saw us white guys drive by in Emba, and there are never white guys there, so they followed us in their car. They got out and were like why are you white guys here in the ghetto? We then talked to them. They said you are from America aren't you? They love meeting Americans, so they took pictures with us! It was pretty funny. But the black love to see use. I have learned some Zulu, so I always greet them in Zulu and they freak out because I am white speaking Zulu, it is really fun. 

We have been trying to teach this lady names Gugu for a couple weeks now. She has a son that is like 12, and he has been really sick. The way we met her is she saw us on the street and asked us to come pray for her son. We normally don't give priesthood blessings, but in this instance we decided to. This happened like a month ago. So this little boys name is Meshack like from the bible. He just looks really sick. He is so freakin skinny. Like his legs are smaller around than my wrists. 

We went to see them and Gugu wasn't home yet, but Meshack was home. He said he was really hungry. Elder Johnson and I decided to take him to eat. We went up to the Engen gas station that has a bakery in the back. We bought him a pizza and a sandwich and just talked. He had lost most of his hearing from the sickness, so it was hard to talk to him. He only ate one piece of the pizza, so we could tell he was pretty sick still. We helped him take all the food home for later. It was just an awesome experience to take him out to get some food. I put some pictures on Dropbox that we tried to take with it. I also put some pictures on with other members

I did get the Dropbox pictures and videos. Thank you for putting them in. I will try to put some stuff in today. Well I love you, and have a good week!! 

Love

Your Son

Elder Brown