south africa elephants

south africa elephants

Monday, September 15, 2014

Week 52 - September 15, 14 ONE YEAR OUT!!


Dear Mom and Dad

It is wonderful to hear you are home safe. It sounds like it was a very fun trip, but I am sure you are super tired from all the traveling. I know you don't sleep too well on planes, so I am sure you are exhausted. I hope that you and dad will be able to recover in just one day from your sleep loss. I am sure it will take a couple days though. Just as you said as your returned home. The place we live is a very beautiful place. I just miss the beauty and the cleanliness of it. The fresh mountain air, and just the clear beautiful sky. I am so grateful for where I come from, and I know I am truly blessed. . It seems like you always get back from trips and are right back to work. You are still hard at work with the church, and you are still giving all your time. I am so glad to have you in my life. I am grateful for all you have done for me. It means a lot that you are proud of me, and I hope I can keep working hard and making you proud. What I am doing is not easy, I see that everyday, but I know i am growing and learning in ways I couldn't anywhere else.

 The new area is awesome. I really love it. I love the ward, and the members. It is really just a great area too. We are teaching some great people. I have adjusted pretty well, I am just having a hard time learning peoples names. The names are always different in every area, so I have to learn how to say them, and spell them. Most of them speak sotho, and zulu. So there are a lot of different sotho names. Elder Zebe has been very patient with me to help me learn the names and the area's. I have adjusted very well to Elder Zebe. He is probably one of my favorite companions so far. We have so much fun together. We are working out a lot, and dieting very well, so I hope I can get back in shape. The members here in Vosloorus are awesome. I am really loving working with them, and it is nice to have reliable members again. I am still adjusting to Elder Zebe teaching style, but it will work out.

We have some really cool investigators. There are a group of guys we are teaching that is like in there 20's, and they are great. There is Kgagelo, Manthole, and sometimes Linda. They come to church, and meet with us like twice a week. They will probably be baptized next month. We also have this old guy we are teaching. We go to the like old folks home and teach him twice a week. His name is Brother Herbert. He is also working towards being baptized next month. A big problem a lot of our investigators have is smoking.  A lot of people smoke here, and the cigarettes are cheap, so that doesn't help. We are working with a lot of them to help them quite. As long as we keep working with our investigators and helping them to progress. I hope this isn't just the same old news you hear every week from me. It seems like my emails are all very similar. I seem to do the same thing every week, so that is probably why. I am grateful for the new things I experience every day though.


Well my new flat(apartment) is super small. Like the kitchen is a third of the size of my last flat. It is really crammed. But we are able to get around and do things either way. We built a sweet fort in our bedroom; I will have to send you a picture of that. It is pretty sweet!! haha.. But the flat is kind of dirty, and I have been trying to slowly clean and straighten things up. Our flat complex is huge though; it is like a small city. There are like 8 companionships that live in the same complex, but you have to like drive to get to their places. Of course as it is getting really hot there is no AC in this flat either.

It has really started to heat up this last week. Like from 11-3 it is really hot, but then it cools down a bit so it is bearable.

As you said we are so lucky to have all we have. I guess I have adjusted to the lifestyle here, but I am sure if you saw it it would be crazy. Like When I think about how things were back home it is really weird to think about it.

Sorry I didn't take many pictures this week, but I will try to take more this week.
I am building my testimony every single day. It is crazy the experiences that I go through every day make my testimony to grow. Just seeing the experiences that others go through makes me see the whole purpose of the gospel in our lives. I am so grateful for the comfort of the gospel in my life, and all the peace it brings me.

This past Friday I got to go to the temple again. It is nice to go more often. I am so grateful for the temple, and the feelings of peace I receive as I am there.  Also this week I had a zone Conference. It was so grate to be instructed by the Dunn's. They are great people. They have a great fire, and they have brought a lot of new things to the mission that I really like. The Zone conference was a lot different than the past ones I had with President Omer. They were a lot more relaxed, and it felt more like a classroom, not a formal meeting. We learned a lot about working with members, so I hope we can implement that in our area.

I hope that I am able to get your package with the mail on strike. I hit my year mark this Wednesday the 17th, at least that is the day I left home. I think September 19 was my MTC entry day.  Also that is Randall's birthday, so you will have to tell him I said happy birthday.

Well I love you and I hope you have a great week. Tell everyone hello, and that I love them.

Love
Your son

Elder Brown

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