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