My last email in the mission field

This is certainly something that is very weird. The weirdest thing I think is that I have been looking forward to this moment yet it feels really normal!! Ha ha

I'm not really feeling anything. Most of the emotions about coming home have been in the past 3 transfers! ha ha, I feel pretty good at the minute

Yesterday was quite interesting, I was sitting in sacrament meeting, looking at the clock (I was sitting on the stand) and just for a bit of fun I calculated the time that I had left in hours! ha ha, so right now I have less than 50 hours! he he.
This week has definitely been long, although not the longest of my mission, it's still been pretty long! ha ha.
Lot's of saying goodbye, and running around quite a bit, trying to see everyone.

In terms of teaching, it has been a little slow this week. Lots of things going on but we have been able to get people moving!

The biggest thing this week was that Tumi got baptized!! Finally after a lot of effort and gaining as much trust as we could, she finally made it! Which is a big relief for us, now that she has got to that stage!
Juniour Ledikele also passed his interview! So he is getting baptized next week
And then we also managed to get Shaun to agree to get baptized on the 10th as well! So his interview is this week! He's been coming to church now for the better part of a year! So we are hoping that after he gets baptized, his brother will follow also which seems to be having an effect because he came to church this week!

On Tuesday, brother Jake, who is the first counselor in the bishopric had a braai for me!! It was really nice, it was pretty cool!
Had some nice food and talked with them.

Wednesday we had the MTC experience which was pretty nice. me and the Elder that I was with went tracting, we knocked on 3 doors, and on all 3 doors we managed to teach a lesson! Ha ha, tracting is actually pretty successful here!
On Wednesday we also had a lesson with Lebogang. A powerful referral. We scheduled for 7:30, but she was delayed coming home and she thought that we weren't coming! ha ha, but we just waited there for her. And she came, and we ended up having a really good lesson.

Then also on Friday we had our temple trip! My last time in the Jo'Burg temple, it was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves.

I've been pretty sick this week and it all culminated on Saturday, when we ended up at a members house and I practically lay on the sofa because I had such a big headache! The members were really nice though, they went and bought some painkillers for me and now I feel okay! Africa is trying to spite me one more time before I go!

The week was full of goodbyes and pictures, but mostly on Saturday and Sunday. All went well, and I think this was my easiest round of saying goodbye, mainly because I knew that I was going! A lot of people were sad for me going. 
And on Sunday I gave a talk. I was given freedom to choose what I wanted to talk about.
I talked about some of the things that I had learned on my mission, I still have it so I'll share it with you when I get home, but it was a really good talk, the spirit was very strong while I was giving it and several people came up to me and commented that it was a good talk! So I am happy about that.

Then on Sunday I had my final interview with President Leavitt. A great interview, we talked about my mission and some of my plans for going home! It was a great interview and while reflecting on my mission, I feel that I have been very successful!! Mission Complete!!
There was also a face to face broadcast that they showed in the chapel, which was very nice, and I learned a lot from it!!

All in all I feel that my mission is complete and that all is finished! Look forward to coming home!

It was raining a lot this week and rained the whole day on Saturday! But it is still warm, not sure what I am thinking about the cold weather :3

That's it.

Oh yeah, my companion is training a new missionary already after I have now completed training him ha ha, 3 months out and training!

One week left, saying my goodbyes

This week I feel is the really awkward one, the 2nd last one right before I go home. I will try to remember all the things that happened.

So on Monday, we had a really powerful lesson with Thabang, out investigator who we are really excited about.
Well, we had a really powerful lesson where we talked about baptism and the need for it and linked in the restoration and the Book of Mormon. Thabang is a really great investigator, she keeps all of her commitments and has a lot of potential.
Then on Friday, we had a really good lesson. The best thing is that we committed her to be baptized and she accepted! We have her on date for the 24th of December! We hope that she will make it, but we don't know. She is struggling to come to church for the first time and keeps giving us excuses. So we need to sort out a way to help her
But we have high hopes for her.

We put a lot of people on date this week, Nathi, who is doing really well, we taught him the plan of salvation and hes says it just makes a lot of sense. He is so powerful and really going well, hopefully also be baptized on

December 24th!
We also put Shaun on date too. Shaun is a 17 year old that has been coming to church for like a year!! The reason he hasn't be baptized is because his brother wasn't, and still isn't ready. So we've decided to move forward with him and just baptize him.

The best news this week though was that Tumi, a 10-year-old kid, passed her baptismal interview!! We were a little worried about her because she struggles with English. But we have been having some really great lessons with her because we have built a really strong relationship of trust with her!

Thursday was the highlight of the week. With some dedication, prayers and some real last minute planning, we managed to pull off our Recent Convert Temple trip!! We managed to get about 9 people to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead, 2 of them were going for the first time!! IT was really successful and quite enjoyable. It was weird because it was the first time that I had gone while being one of the people performing the ordinances, (I was helping with confirmations) rather than the one being a proxy. But we really enjoyed it!

That's about it for this week, not much more going on, all is going well and I am psyching up to go home! I have 'started' sorting things to take home and pack, but it's pretty tough, although I've figured that I only have a few days left :P

I am getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, we had a leaving party organized by Sister Matiti, one of the members, it was pretty good, we only really had lunch but it was very nice. Sister Matiti said some nice things and a couple of the Elders gave some good remarks, it's really funny because we as guys I feel aren't really suited for that sort of thing, it felt almost weird and out of place

A man with a big knife calls but I just walked away

The main event of this week was nothing!! This was the week that I was dreading because we had no event planned for this week! But looking back it actually went pretty well! The week went kinda slow, and I think they are going to keep slowing down the closer I get.

Actually, a couple of things did happen.
So I went on exchanges this week. I went to Dobsonville with Elder Nelsen, while Elder Daniels, the district leader, went with my companion in our area.

This reminded me (for the last time) that I love my own space, in this case my own area. As I know what is going on and I have control over things

The exchange with Elder Nelsen went pretty good! It was his birthday last week Sunday. We had a good time, he got quite lost a couple of times and a few of their appointments fell through, but we made it through the day.
A couple of the highlights was that we taught a really powerful lesson to an investigator, who invited her friend to listen and we managed to teach them both a great lesson!
The other was at out dinner appointment. The mother fed us, but then went and did something else, so it was us in the living room with the member present and with her 13 yr old daughter. The daughter was complaining that she was bored, so we managed to cheer her up by simply playing a couple of games of Uno.

I forgot!! On Monday night we went to an investigator, Thabang. She is a really powerful investigator referral who is very interested in the message. We went and we'd left her with a commitment to read the plan of salvation pamphlet and also to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon, and she'd done both!! It was amazing and we had a great lesson with her. We invited her to come to church, but sadly she canceled at the last minute to come :/ but this week we will get her to come!!

Wednesday we managed to get back into contact with another one of our investigators, Katlego. He is interesting. He was all about getting baptized, but when he realized that baptism is not as it is in other churches, he kinda faded out. He stopped coming because he got a job. So when we saw him we asked what was going on, and he said a couple of things. What is always really interesting is that people, when they have challenges, do the exact opposite of what they should do to get their answers! They stop coming to church and reading the scriptures!
We also had Nathi on Wednesday. He's super powerful, and we finally managed to have a lesson with him! We taught both the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Even though he struggles with both he committed fully to live both of them! It wasn't so much of a commitment, more of an encouragement. Which he needed because he says that he's going to have to break up with his girlfriend.
Honestly, Nathi is one of the most powerful investigators that I have had on my mission!

On Thursday we had a great lesson with a couple of new investigators. Elder Harris had contacted them on the street, and when we went, both the husband and the wife had read the pamphlet and were quite open to listening to our message, so we are really excited for them
Again on Sunday, we found a family in the Hostel who we contacted a couple of weeks ago, the oldest daughter was asking questions that the restoration answers completely! We are finding some really powerful new investigators now, a move on from all the kids!
It's just a shame that I won't be here much longer, but I am okay with that!

One funny thing happened. When we were walking into the hostel, which is where the miners used to live (it's the poorest part of Soweto, apart from the shacks) we were walking in (we park the car at the petrol station just at the entrance to keep it safe) a guy calls out, he was sitting about 10 meters away, we look and as we do he flicks out a BIG knife. I just look then act uninterested and keep walking. Ha ha, thinking back it was quite funny. He was just trying to scare us but it didn't really work! ha ha.

We are trying to get the last of the kids baptized. We are struggling on with Tumi. A wonderful 10 yr old. She is opening up a lot more now with us, but we are having problems as she says that she doesn't remember, so we got a little impatient and I basically said to her that if she doesn't improve she can't be baptized. I think it shocked her a little but we think it worked. It is her interview this week so we shall see how it goes. Not sure if she is going to pass, but we are just going to see.

It is getting really hot here!! ha ha

That is about it for my week!

"Ah here's a white guy, let's rob him"

The first thing that was happening was that last Sunday the bishop told us of this sister, that was less active, that had been kicked out of her house and was living in a half built shack (it wasn't too bad in reality)

So we went on Tuesday to help out some of the brethren to help her fix up her flat.
We were there for 7 hours!! And we left early!! It was a lot of work! Cementing her shack to the ground, demolishing and transporting the materials from an old shack of hers to the new place, about a 5-10 minute walk.
It was hot too! I was wearing my sunscreen! he he.

But all in all it turned out pretty good, we went back on Wednesday again but couldn't stay too long, but all in all it turned out well. It was great to see how the ward pulled together to help her, even though in total there was only about 7 of us there!

The funniest part was when we got out of the car, transporting sand at her place, and these 3 boys (about 15) walk past, one of them says (in Zulu) "Ah here's a white guy, let's rob him"

Yo, the members that were with us just start going off on this kid, shouting at him and rebuking him! (It was all in Zulu so we only found out after)
Apparently, they scared him quite a bit because he got really nervous and almost ran away. Apparently one of the members was saying that if he did he'd kill him and his family. It was quite intense :')

The other thing was on Wednesday we had the MTC experience, so we got to go with the MTC missionaries for a couple of hours. This time I only got one. So me and Elder Wheeler (from Idaho) went tracting and contacting, and we had some really powerful experiences! We contacted a couple of people that were really interested, gave them Book of Mormons, and actually one of them lives in our area, so weare going to try and see him.
Went tracting, first door that answered, apparently none of the kids spoke English, ha ha so we left. The next door, we taught a really powerful lesson! So hopefully the missionaries in Protea Glen follow up there. They were really prepared for the message and they understood it really well

The best part though was we were walking down the street that we were tracting on and it so happened to be the street where one of the recent converts in the ward lives. She was actually found by me and Hosmer, and was one of the best investigators I've had on my mission, I think I may have mentioned her before, Vuyo is her name
Anyway, we go in, her younger brother recognizes me and is a little excited, he goes and calls her, she was studying, anyway when she comes out she sees me and just stops, and pretty much almost cries! She got very emotional and was so happy to see me, and I was so happy to see her too! It was a great moment. The funniest part was when she came over, then she stopped, and then we shook hands. I could tell that she wanted to hug me but she knew she couldn't, ah the restrictions of mission! he he, but it was great

Fast and testimony meeting this Sunday was also very good, The funniest part was when one member got up and bore his testimony about how he joined the church, he said "I was baptized but I didn't believe it was true!" 
We all laughed about this he he!!

I bore my testimony too, specifically about something that I have learned on mission, it is this:

The gospel is simple. It's very simple. It's not long or hard or complicated, it's plain and straightforward, especially with the help of the Book of Mormon. We don't need to think too hard, but understanding comes as we live the principles of the gospel. As we live the principles first, we learn and understand why we are to keep the commandments, the Holy Ghost reveals to us the ties and connections within the gospel.The way to live the gospel is to live it! As we live it we begin to love it. Not because we are brain washed or because it becomes habit, but because we come to understand why.The reason that this is so hard for us is because the world works the other way around. We need to see the benefits first and be assured of success before we begin. Whereas the gospel requires faith!

I love mission, I am looking forward to coming home, but I will miss doing missionary work! Although I know I can't stay here forever!

Baptism in freezing water

I guess that the biggest thing this week was our baptism on Sunday!!

Khethani got baptized, and the water was freezing!! She wanted me to baptize her, and it was really cold, but she took it really well adn we managed to do it first time!

I love the family (it's a member family, she's 9) they are so kind and hospitable, and we have a great relationship with them, we just gotta make sure that their other kid gets baptized before he turns 9 in April and becomes our problem! ha ha!

We also had Zone Conference this week, my last one!! There are a lot of "lasts" going around at the minute for me. Last Zone Conference, last transfer, last interviews this week! I'm not too, bad, the one thing that is helping is that we have something major planned for every week until I got home. So I don't just have to look forward to the end of the transfer, but I have something to look forward to every week!
The biggest thing is we are having a temple trip on the 16th for our Recent Converts! I am so excited for it, especially because now we have set a firm date and booked it we can get to organizing, and to be honest it hasn't been too hard, the bishop is really on board with it, and is actually going to come along to help. So we are very much looking forward to it!

Zone Conference was really good. They introduced the Christmas iniative, and I have to try and stop myself from being bored by using the excuse that i'll be gone. Although it's true, I still need to keep working hard, which is going pretty well.

I also gave my final departing testimony, which was really weird to give, I didn't really know what to say, so I just bore my testimony, as expected! ha ha. But it was a strange feeling.
To be honest, I'm all mixed up about feelings of coming home. I really love my mission, but I am also excited.

My companion is doing great, we are getting along very well, and things are working out. One of the good things is that we are able to talk about the problems that we have, but also he doesn't hold grudges, which is very nice, as I am not (yet) perfect!!
The problem is as with all new missionaries, they don't really talk too much about it!

Got a great new investigator this week. her name is Thabang, she is a friend of an investigator, who was there when we came to visit. We had our first proper visit with her last week and we are seeing her again today! She seem like she has a lot of potential!!

The other powerful experience that we had is we went teaching with one of the YSA sisters, she is preparing to go on mission so we took her with us for a couple of appointments, and she said that she really enjoyed it! So it's good to see that she will like a mission!

Not much else to mention really, apart from all is going well!

I try not to think about home too much, and I'm pretty good at it. One of the things that I think helps is the fact that I've accepted that I'm going home, and I have a short time left, and I've kinda accepted that I'm not going to be here for everyone's baptisms and that's okay, I still keep doing the best that I can and not going to rush them just so I can be there for it.
Interestingly while writing this a thought came to my head! For at least 2 baptisms, I was transferred out of the area before they got baptized, the first one I wasn't too happy, tried to go back but didn't get permission, and the second one I just kinda accepted it. So now that has prepared me for now! So I still get to keep working hard

About to drive through a small riot

So this week has been slow, I always find that the first week of the transfer goes slow, especially if you have changed areas or companions! Luckily for me, none such, although it has been slower. I am finally using my last planner!! How exciting!!
This week is a busy week, service, and we are also having my last Zone Conference!! Which is exciting

One of the things that we did this week was to fast with a couple of our investigators, Ivan and Shona, they are both young (21 and 17) and are wanting to get baptized. So we decided to fast with them to help them prepare!

Well we did, but unfortunately, we had service the next day! Spent like 2 hours in the sun, it was really tough!! But we made it through!! ha ha.
One of the things that I didn't like is that when I fast I can't eat breakfast! And I had bought myself coco pops!! So I had to wait another day before I could eat them! Ha ha! But it was okay.

On Wednesday we had a little trouble, most of the roads out of Diepkloof were closed, because some of the people decided to have a small riot. They put stones on the road and were burning tires, we were going to drive through but then someone told us that they were throwing stones at cars, so we decided to turn back, thankfully our member present knew another way out so we got home safe!

Talking about being safe, Madagascar has been evacuated of all missionaries because there has been an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague! And lots of people are dying! So they have all been reassigned. 7 of them are

coming to our mission and are going to serve in Swaziland, until it dies down, which they expect will be sometime next APRIL!!!
So we had one of the missionaries with us, Elder Jordan! He was cool, and we had him for a couple of hours!

We had another miracle, we were waiting in an investigators house, while they were doing something, and then this guy walks in the house, (he was invited in) turns out he's actually a member!!! And he wants to come back to church and for us to visit him and teach his nephew!! The lord is truly preparing people!

I love this work and looking forward to this last transfer!!

Done service every day this week

So this week has been pretty busy

We have done service every day this week except Sunday and Monday!
Smashing bricks, planting grass, helping with homework and helping someone move

The last one was the most interesting
So we were helping the Xalabile's move house, literally 5 mins down the road, but we were the only one's there, and it took 6 hours!!! We were exhausted by the end!! Back and forth driving with their stuff!
But the miracle was is that we needed a member present to be with us in the car as we couldn't take the sisters alone with us. So we called up our ward mission leader and he was available, then when we were going

to get him, we realized that he is their home teacher!! It was like a general conference talk!!

The other miracle that we had this week was an investigator that we found
So Thabang is the friend of an investigator, Rosalia. We decided to just pass by to see if she was home, and when we first knocked, the kids tried to send us away, saying that no one was home, well we manage to get in, and talk to her, and she is very interested in religion and more so in the book of mormon!
Well turns out that she has seen it before! She came across it on the internet, but didn't want to get confused, and then we come and force it into her hands! She seems very interested and sound very promising! 
Another miracle was that Noxolo came to church! We haven't even visited her this week but she was there! So we will have to go see her. I think she knows that it is true, but is afraid to change

The best thing of the week was the baptism of Mpumi! a 10 year old niece of a member! I baptized her, it comes after a lot of hard work and patience in trying to get her to understand the gospel!
THe rest of our kids are doing well, and hopefully we'll have a couple of baptisms by the end of the transfer! 

That's about it for this week!