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
No comments:
Post a Comment