Mitchell's Zone - Zone Conference March 11, 15

Mitchell at Hard Rock Cafe Johannesburg- March 2015

Wonderful Letter from Investigator in Johannesburg - March 11, 15

To the Brown Family. Hello!!! My name is Jackie Chabour. I am a single mom and I am investigating the Church of Jesus Christ. My son is a member, through the grace of God. I am just writing to you to thank you for the most amazing job that you have done raising your son, Elder Brown. Elder Brown is and has been the missionary in our ward (area) for the last few months. First and foremost, I need you to know that Elder Brown is good. He is so loved. He is being fed and he is just soooooo soooooo soooooo soooooo loved by everyone in the community. I think that my son Nathan and I love him more than anyone else.......simply because he has been the most powerful and most beautiful missionary that I / we have ever come into contact with. He is so "normal". He is so "down to earth". His ability to invite the Spirit into our presence is 'taken for granted' (not meant in an expectant way). We love him as if he were a part of our own family.....and we just want to give you the thanks. Please do not worry at all about him. He is larger, more beautiful and more powerful than what you could ever imagine. He is the most exceptional Missionary. With our gratitude to you and your family for the child you have raised. Jackie and Nathan Chabour

Pictures from March 1-8,2015

Hanging out with Sister Maters

Headed to the Mall

Looking over the City - Rain clouds

Elder Brown

Elder Peterson

Made Chicken pot pie

Self 

Mitchell and companion

Elder Peterson and Elder Brown Eating at a members home and they snapped this picture and sent to us.  

Week 77- March 9, 2015

Dear Mom,

It has been a good week. It has been a bit slow, but we still taught some great productive lessons. The week has been pretty nice. We have really been trying to work more with members to get referrals. Referrals are so much more effective than knocking doors. We don't have a lot of investigators right now, and we are trying to work on that. It is really hard to get motivation to go and tract, knock doors. I really don't like doing this, and I feel like it is just a waste of time. I think we will have to end up doing it this next week though. We have had a lot of free time this last week.  The good thing is we have really been moving forward with Willamina and Ester.

It sounds like you have had a crazy week/weekend, especially with all the cello stuff. I am sure you are relived to have festival over! I hope that all your students did good, because I know how much you think it reflects on you. I am sure they all did great though. That is good that Carson memorized his pieces last minute! good for him. 

Well I am glad that Blake is still surviving school. It sounds pretty tough. I am not too excited to get back into school, I know it will be pretty hard. That is great that Ashley is at her new practice, and enjoying it. 

I am glad you are making dad take a break and doing something fun for his birthday. I think that would be fun as well to take the family up skiing as well. I miss that.

I am also grateful for the members here. I am so glad that they are sending you pictures and they are so great to us. They have been really good to feed us and take care of us. It really does make it feel more like a family ward with more love. 

 Well we are still teaching mostly blacks. Our only white investigator is Jackie.  I do miss being around the black culture in a way, but really I don't miss township at all. I like nice towns better. 

I do miss learning the African Languages, it was fun to be learning Zulu, but I can now learn a bit of Afrikaans, the white language. 

The few investigators we have are doing well. It has been hard not to have a lot of people to teach. We have been struggling to find new people to teach.

Monday we went to Bruma African Market on our P-Day.  It was fun, and Elder Peterson just wanted to get some souvenirs. This is right by the eastgate mall that I would go to every week when I was in Vosloorus. WE then saw the Taim family that sent you some pictures. 

Tuesday was a good day. We taught a few investigator lessons. We teach a recent convert named Prince, and he is a cool guy. We then taught Willamina and Ester. They are great. We put them on date to be baptized on my birthday, April 19th. It would be sweet if they are ready by then, and I can have some baptisms on my birthday. They are coming along well. Willamina had a concern with her husband. He lives back "home" in Limpopo. he is a pretty worthless guy it sounds like. He just sits home and does nothing. He just relies on Willamina to provide for him. She is wondering if she can get baptized when she doesn't like her husband. But we got that shorted out, and she is still up for baptism. We then saw another one of our investigators named Nurse. She is doing all right, but she has trouble understanding. We finished Tuesday night with sister Masters. She fed us a nice dinner of chicken and vegetables! 

Wednesday was just normal. WE went singing in the morning at Abby Cross old folks home. That is getting kind of boring because the senile people just want to sing the same songs every week!!  Sound familiar mom.  We then chilled there and talked to the other missionaries for a long time. Elder Robins actually got in a crazy car accident, but he is fine. Some girl came whipping around a corner when they were stopped at a stop sign, and she just hit them head on and crushed the front of their car. So we talked about that for a while. We then taught Jackie that night. Jackie is doing good, and we have now finished all the lessons with her. She is still struggling with smoking, so I don't know if she will make the end of this month for her baptism. We are really pushing her though. 

Thursday we served Jackie at her tuck shop for a couple hours. We also saw Willamina again. We then finished the night with a less active family that is cool. They are black, but they have been struggling. The wife is a recent convert/less active. She hasn't been befriended by members, so that has pretty much made them go less active. They did come to church this last week though!! 

Friday was a good day. WE had our district meeting. WE then ate at Subway for lunch. Elder Peterson had an appointment with the Doctor at the Area office, so we drove there and I hung out with Sister Peterson, the doctors wife, and she is really fun. They are from Richfield. He is the Area doctor, like psychiatrist. Elder Peterson has been doing a lot better with his depression, and it is great.  I am proud of him  WE also went to Sandton city on Friday night to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was really fun, but it felt weird with all the loud music as a missionary. But I will send you the pictures I got from there. It was just fun to find a Hard Rock here in Africa haha!!! 

Saturday and Sunday were pretty slow. We did go see sister Masters and just hung out. We busted out some of her old records, and I fixed up her record machine for her. It was a lot of fun, and she was happy I fixed the record player. 

Elder Peterson and I are doing great. He did just open up to me this week and told me everything he hated about me, it helped, and we get a long better now. So I am happy for that actually. I am glad we are running as well. I guess the only bad thing is I think I have gotten a shin splint. It has gotten pretty painful. I have been icing it, and I actually bought a compression sock to try and help. Do you have any other advice where Randall used to get shin splints??

The month of miracles was good. I guess I did feel a bit restricted, as we where challenged to follow every mission rule,  obedience is good. I have done ok with it throughout my misison, but I will admit there are a few rules I would like to not follow. I have been trying harder though! I guess it was a good thing for the mission. WE are still just trying to continue the obedience into this month as well. 

You asked about mail.   Other Elders have been getting mail and packages. I think that the mail is getting through great now. I have not seen any of your letters though. I will keep watching, and i will let you know when they get here. I think you can send a package now though. Today we are supposed to go to some cool gardens for our P-day. They are called the botanical gardens. I guess they are really cool, so I will get some good pictures there.

I guess I am doing well though. I am still enjoying the work. It is just hard though when it gets slow. I have been loosing motivation some days, and I just don't want to do anything. I am sure you have days like this that you don't want to work or anything, but you just have to push through. 

 I am sorry you cried seeing grandma leave, and the plane. It really is not easy, and I know it is pretty hard on you to have me gone. I am not going to lie it is still pretty hard for me too, but I have just gotten used to it. Some days I really do just want to come home. I guess I just keep pushing on though. It is such a relief though to only have 5 months left!! I really is cool to think I will be back that soon. I hope that you can keep feeling the comfort of the spirit. I know what I am doing is right, even though it is hard. I have learned so much, and especially gained a great testimony of the gospel. I really have learned to do hard things. I love you and hope you have a good week. 

Love

Your son

Week 76 - March 2, 15

Dear Mum,

Well another week has come and gone!! I guess it is nice to have the time passing though. It sounds like it has been a pretty good week for you. 

Last Monday we went to hang out with the missionaries in Ridgeway. That is where Elder Robins is serving. So it was really fun to just hang out with him. We didn't do anything too fun though. P-days are pretty boring sometimes! 

On Tuesday we just had a normal day of teaching. One of our regulars is Willamina and Ester. They are doing good, but just learning really slow. We have been teaching them for a while, and haven't got too far in the lessons. We still have a lot to teach them. We are planning to put them on date for baptism this week. They will hopefully be baptized the first of April if they keep coming to church. 

Wednesday we just had another normal day. We met a new girl named Keke. We just met her at the mall with a member because she works at the mall. We met during her break. She goes to some weird church that believes in prayer warriors and intercessors. It is just weird all the different believes that people have. It is cool though that we are able to teach people the truth. 

Thursday we were pretty busy teaching. We had Willamina and Ester again. One of our members was supposed to feed us that night, but she couldn't, so she sent us with some money. So we made a chicken pot pie with her money. It is like the size of a normal pie!! It was fun to do that. 

Friday was fun. We did our weekly service to Jackie. She is so much fun, and it is so fun to just go and serve her. It is fun to work in the little concession stand. I am always running around getting stuff for people. She just has me man the counter while her and elder Peterson do other stuff. 

Saturday morning we were invited to go with Jackie and Nathan to a function at Nathans school. It was a fun run thing. There were just a ton of people there. We just went with jackie and had a good time. We had a lot of snacks and stuff. The PTA had taken over her little shop. We had to help pack all the stuff into the shop on Friday. On Saturday though I had to help make popcorn for people. The popcorn machine kept tripping the power, so that was an adventure. It was just like any school event back home. It just reminded me of all the PTA stuff you do, and how busy you always were. We got a pretty big rain storm on Saturday as well. We then went and taught Jackie later that night after we went to sister masters and watched a church movie!! Sister Masters is awesome!! But Jackie is doing well. She really is progressing, and it is so great to see her get better. She has been decreasing the number of cigarettes she is smoking. I really love Jackie. I can't wait tell she is baptized. She is so ready, the only thing holding her back is her smoking. She has gone from 18 a day to 8 though!! So I know that she can quite and get baptized. 

Saturday night there was a Stake talent show! It was fun to go and watch the different talents!! It is so weird the diversity in this country!! You have all these proper rich white people, and then pretty much ghetto township people. Like the white people all got up and sang nice songs and played the piano, and even the violin. Then the blacks would get up and dance to hip hop or rap that probably shouldn't be playing in a church building haha!! But it is all the south African experience I guess haha!! 

Our Sunday was pretty good. we went and Ate at a really cool family right after church. The Adams Family ha!! They have boys that swim and play water polo. I think I told you about them about a month ago when they fed us last! We then taught a few people. We taught Nurse. She really isn't learning too fast thought. She hasn't been reading or anything. I guess we will keep working with here thought. We then ended the night by going to a YSA fireside. It was a great fireside. The topic was mostly what are you going to do to guarantee you will stay in the church the rest of you life. It was a great fireside. President Pieenar was the one conducting the whole discussion. His wife is the one that sent you pictures with the little red head boy. they have two boys on a mission. 

Elder Peterson and I are doing great together. We get a long pretty well. He really loves to bake like deserts, and I love to eat them, so that is what we have in common hahah!!! He made some peanut butter cookies last night that were really good!! He is just a little baker! I guess we don't do a lot of fun stuff together. WE just do our normal work, but we joke a lot, and that keeps stuff interesting. I am glad he is my companion though. I have learned a lot from him, and being with him. I guess some are forced lessons ha. 

It sounds like your week has gone great, and that is good to hear. I put a few random pictures in dropbox. Like some from a cool look out up on a huge hill, and some selfies of myself :) I will also put some in of our pot pie that we made!! Just let me know about registration for school. I guess i probably need to choose some classes, so just let me know. I am staying pretty healthy! I have started slacking on my working out, like weight lifting, but I am still running with Elder Peterson every other morning. My bite has fully healed pretty much, so that is good!! It doesn't look nearly as bad as my first one! I am glad that you are getting more snow!! I hope that you keep getting more moisture. It sounds like you really need it!! Well I love you, and I am glad you are doing well. I am sorry if this email is boring. We aren't doing too much fun today. We are just going to the office to pick something up for Elder Peterson, then probably go to the mall or something. well have a good week. 

Love

Your son