Dear
Mom,
It has
been a good week. I am now
adjusted to Elder Maraetefau.
I guess
one funny thing about Elder Maraetefau is his English. He still doesn't know it
super well. I guess he can speak just fine, but he uses the wrong words a lot. He
speaks French (From Tahiti) . So I guess I am trying to teach him more English.
His family is all members. He has 3 siblings. An older sister and brother, and
a younger sister. He has been on his mission for 5 months, and this is his
second area. He is still kind of learning how to teach, so I am teaching a lot
of the lessons, but trying to include him.
Elder Thompson from Utah who is a Nephew
to Dave Terry, and Mike Thompson of Cedar, was the district leader, and was
over the 4 of us in Vosloorus. Elder Puis that replaced him was just called on
the spot as a district leader, and didn't go to the training meeting at all.
Elder Brown and Elder Puis are the other missionaries in Vosloorus 1. They are
a bit hard to get a long with. Puis is from Kenya, and Brown from Ghana. It is
always hard to get a long with the African missionaries, especially from west
Africa. We are doing all right though. Neither of them can drive, so Elder
Maraetefau and I have the car every day, which is super nice!!
We had our birthday celebration
for a member. That is when I baked
the chocolate cake. It was for the
Tsese family have told you a bit about. They are like our family that we go
hang out with. So it was the two twins birthday, and they were turning 16. I
tell you every time our daily schedule is about the same, it is pretty boring.
We try to make as many appointments as we can on each day. We have an
appointment on the hour every hour from 11-7. If we don't have an appointment
we will normally go check on people we haven't seen in a while, or that
cancelled on us the days before. Also when we don't have appointments we go
finding, this is my least favorite thing to do. To find we walk around the
streets stopping people and talking to them. We try to set up appointments with
them as we are talking to them for later in the week. This really isn't the
best way to find good solid investigators. The best way to have solid
investigators is to have them referred to us by a member. Like Mbali that we plan to baptize soon, was given to us by a member,
and we teach her at that members house.
This
week we taught a lot of lessons I guess. Like 14 investigator lessons, and more
member and recent convert lessons. We had over 20 lessons this week, which is
good, but really for our area we should be teaching a lot more.
Mbali is
still on to be baptized this next Sunday. We taught here about tithing this
last week, and watched the John Tanner story with her, not sure if you have
seen that. It was wonderful, and she is super ready. All she has left is her
baptismal interview and that will happen this week.
Kgaugelo
that was supposed to be baptized this upcoming Sunday as well but didn't feel ready, so we pushed his
date back to the end of this month on the 30th.
Manthole
also will be pushed back because he hasn't been ready, so we aren't seeing him
until he reads and attends sacrament meeting.
I guess
all our other investigators are progressing well. We had 10 people at church.
Not all the people that we have on date to be baptized were at church, and that
is very disappointing.
It
sounds like Halloween was super fun. I will take a look at all the pictures. I
am sure you were happy being able to dress up and give out candy. I hope the
boys enjoyed. I think you asked last week if the people here celebrate
Halloween. They don't at all. I guess they have like big parties because they
say it is Halloween. But no one dresses up, and they don't have like trick or
treating.
As you
said the postal strike goes into its 14th week, and no end in sight
until the first of the year. I
miss your weekly mail.
That is
cool you might be able to send a package for Christmas through a different delivery
service. I just hope it won't cost
and arm and a leg. If it is going to be super expensive then really I will be
fine without one. I can get everything I need here. But if it would make you
happier to send a package then I would be very grateful to get one. You will
just have to let me know what you find out.
You will
have to tell grandma thank you for the effort of writing letters. She has been
wonderful to write me throughout my mission. I didn't receive an email from her
this week.
That is
fun to have Evan and Carol so close to being all the way moved in. Hopefully
the rest of the process moving in will go smooth.
Well I
guess I have seen through my mission it is really up to the missionary whether
they go home a few weeks early for school. I was planning though on asking President Dunn about it next
month during our interview. I guess one thing is my visa expires in August. I'm
not sure if it can be renewed, but i think it would be easier to just come home
then and start school. I guess my thinking is to just start more with general
classes to get back into it, then start harder classes in January. I guess I
will keep praying and thinking, and also seek President Dunn's advice.
Well
thank you for all the updated today in the email. It is always fun to just hear
random little things that are happening back home. It sounds like all is well,
and that makes me happy. I hope that you can be happy with the colder weather,
especially the shorter days. I know you don't like them. I am enjoying it
staying light longer now. It gets dark now around 6:30-7. I guess it still gets
dark early, but not as early as normal. I hope that you have a good week. Know
I am always thinking about you, and constantly grateful for your support. I get to go to the temple this Friday, so that is pretty exciting. I always look forward to going to the temple. I hope you still get to go every once and a while to the temple. I have learned so much since I have been out. I know I will continue to learn
more that will prepare me for my life. Have a good week. I love you
Love
Your Son
Elder
Brown
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