September 28, 2008

Dear family, It sounds like things are going good around home. That is sad news about Sister Bell though. I'm sorry to cause a disagreement about the year mark thing but you count from the day you entered the MTC. It is just the way things go, but the big 5 have a big shirt burning celebration planned and all of us will be there except for Elder Clark; Swazi is too far away. Well I have some big news from my side, transfers were on Thursday, and some big changes happened. I have a new companion. I am training again. My sons name is Elder Mills form Las Vegas. He's a really nice guy and big into weight lifting so he got the right companion. I am also a District leader now which was a little bit of a surprise. Things are going good here in Phoenix though, I think it might be my favorite area. I love being with the Indians. Its really cool to teach Hindus because I get a chance to teach things like the atonement and purpose of Jesus Christ, almost like one of the original apostles. Anyways, we are doing well so its really exciting. The baptism went well on Sunday, except that the font was only filled up to about my knees so it was tough, I got it on the first try though. I received a letter from Aunt Julie, she is so diligent about writing to me, I really appreciate it. Today for Pday we are going to the beach and throwing a Frisbee around and having a braai, so I am looking forward to that. Dad, did you find a lot of people who were against the Church on your mission? I think I have had it a little easy here in Africa. The Church has done well by being known by its proper name and not by Mormons which is nice. I do bash from time to time, but usually just with J-dubs, they put up a good fight. Well I hope everything goes well this week, I will hear from you next Monday.

September 21, 2008

Dear family,

Sounds like things are going good around home. Sounds like your getting pretty big there Spencer. I am trying to lose weight myself, it's hard though when your fed a giant plate of rice, mutton curry, and a glass of Coke every night for dinner. Advice mission wise, the only thing I would do differently is bring a better camera, and music, but not a music player, just buy one when you get there because its too much of a hassle to deal with power converters. Other than that everything has worked out great for me. I think that I will have around six areas on my mission too, and I am keeping a journal. That is interesting to know that Thabo Mbeki stepped down. I knew that he was getting a lot of criticism from the ANC, but sounds like they got him out. I will give you a brief on politics over here. The political party called the ANC has a presidential candidate called Jacob Zuma. The Zulu people have said they will do anything to get him into office because he is Zulu. The problem is he has committed a lot of crimes including rape, and is supposed to be in jail by the time of elections so its a bad situation. Politics here are so terrible because of the tribes and things, but I don't think there will be a big difference from day to day life until next year. On a lighter note we are having a baptism on Sunday so that will be nice. It's a lady that was taught by previous missionaries so I haven't been that involved in the conversion process. Our other investigators are doing well too. Two zones of missionaries came on the trip to the mosque. We went into the mosque and a IPCI (Islam Propoganda Centre International) told us about some of their beliefs and things and answered some questions. They let us take pics in the mosque and stuff. After that they took us up to an office room and tried to engage in a bible bash with us and tried to show us anti Mormon material. I was surprised about the whole thing. I guess they did that because we were so young and felt we had been mislead into going on missions, and they hate westerners. I was sitting with Elder Katende the Elder from Uganda who I used to run on the beach with in my old area, and he is very familiar with Muslims and their beliefs. He told me the only Muslims that aren't radical are the ones who don't understand their religion. So my perception of Muslims has changed a lot, for the worse.

Well I think a camera for christmas sounds good, but I will be happy with anything you decide to send. I will try and get these pics online as soon as possible. I realised something this morning, my year mark on mission is a weak from Saturday; its hard to believe. Anyways have a good week and I will talk to you later, and I didn't get your email spencer.

September 14, 2008

Dear Family,

Sounds like things are going good around home. I wish I could have been able to go to Kyle Burke's farewell. I heard a lot of other good news too. Spencer congratulations on your find. I have had a good week myself. We had interviews and training on Friday with President and that went really well. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting and we had 73 people at church which was awesome. We also brought an investigator to church and found out he can play the church hymns so the branch presidency really liked that since we don't have anyone who can do that right now. Sorry I haven't put any pictures up for a while, my cable isn't working for some reason, but I will get them up soon. I am in a district of four elders, but the other two elders live out in the boonies about an hour away from us and anyone else, so we only see them once a week, on that subject, how many different areas did you have on your mission? Well Im really enjoying things here in phoenix, I'm getting fed at least once a day and sometimes three times, I really love the hot curries and breanni. Today Im going to visit the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere and then some of the other elders and I are going to have an open discussion with members of Islam about religion and things. I am really excited about that. I have been able to keep in touch with all of the big 5 I usually just talk with them through facebook. Elder Richey, of the big five, lives in Phoenix and his area is a township right next to us so I see him every Pday. I'm going to the mosque with elder Parry today. His area is not many kilometers away. He is in a rich area near downtown Durban. I just message Clark now and then, but Im hoping to see him at transfers. I see Elder Potter now and then. He is a zone leader in Petermeritzberg now so he is a little ways away from phoenix. I went on exchanges with my zone leaders this week. I went to their area with Elder Wolmerans. He is a pure Dutch Afrikaaner and a really nice guy. Their area is The City of Durban so its pretty tough but we had a good time. Well I hope things go well for you this week and I will talk to you on Monday.

A Letter of Support

Hey I just wanted to send an email separately for Ryan so this is for him specifically,
Ryan I just wanted to let you know you are doing to right thing about avoiding Connor and those guys. As you get older some of your friends are going to chose to do things that you know you shouldn't be doing but you have to remember that the only one you can control is yourself. Don't worry about it when they call you things or give you a hard time, they are the gay ones and they know it, that's why they call you stuff, anyways Jordan Spencer and I will be your friends much longer than anyone else so don't ever worry about not having friends or losing ones that aren't good. I'm sure you can handle this yourself so just remember the things I've said and do whats right.

September 9, 2008

Dear family, Sounds like things are going really well around home except for Louie, and Ryan's old friends. That story about fighting with swords at castle park is really funny, I received and email from Gardner and he is doing really well. He told me to tell you thanks mom for the emails. That's also great to hear about Brett's call to New Hampshire. Its exciting to hear about everyone getting calls and going on missions.
I, myself, am doing well and have had a good week. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed everything in my last email. Alan our investigator came to church this week, but it was fast and testimony meeting so we had to explain what that is and everything. We have been working hard and my companion has been good about getting up on time. To be honest though, I really hope that he gets transferred this transfer, which will probably happen because there are a lot of greenies coming in next transfer and I am a prime candidate for training again, but we will see what happens. We have been spending a lot of time working the walkabout which is coming along nicely. We have also been trying to visit inactive families and invite them back to church. This morning The Hafens came down from Richards Bay, they are a missionary couple there near my first area. So I met up with them and we had lunch. They came down for a missionaries couple conference in Durban so that was nice.
I can't think of anything to put in my package so just surprise me. I hope that everything goes well this week and I will talk to you next week.

August 31.2008

Dear Family, It's good to hear from you again. It sounds like things around home are going well and everyone is doing fine. I like the sounds of the political news. I have really had to bite my tongue on the politics down here because everyone worships Obama. He is the only American political figure they know of and they are all convinced he is going to be President.
I'm sorry that I have been vague on my new area but I will be very comprehensive in my description of it today. I live in my area and it is the city of Phoenix. The population is almost completely Indian. Indians came to South Africa in the late 1800's as indentured servants to work in the cane fields. They are really racist against Black people and in turn the white population doesn't like them. Most of Phoenix is Hindu, or Muslim, but there are a lot of Christians. Most of the Christians belong to Full-Gospel churches. There is a branch here of about 170 people but usually we only get around 50 or so to church. I don't get to speak what little Zulu I know, but many of the Indians know Hindi, Tammel, or Arabic. The branch doesn't have a building so we meet in a high school for church. It's a lot harder to find people to teach here but it is a whole lot easier to communicate with people because the language barrier isn't there. I am actually liking it a lot more than I thought I would, and I really love the members and the people in general.
President Mann has a new method of finding people to teach and it is called the walk about program. How it works is we walk around members homes with them and as we go we are introduced to the neightbors and we offer service, or church resources they may be interested in. Things like Strength of youth, geaneology, info about the word of wisdom, The Family Proclamation to the World and anything else you can think of. So I'm really excited about it. On that same subject we have a progressing investigator named Alan Govender, we contacted him when I first arrived to the area and since then we have gone through a seven day stop smoking program and it worked out great for him. Now that we have built a relationship of trust with him, he has committed to read the Book of Mormon, and come to church next week with his family, so that is really exciting. So that is the news for my area.
Its really good to hear about Spencer getting geared up for his mission, sounds like things are going well. I wish I could be there but thats no big deal. Thats funny about Brayden, I have been keeping in touch with him by email a little bit. I hope this email was thorough enough, I really appreciate your emails. Thanks for everything, I'll hear from you next week.

August 25, 2008

Its really good to hear from you as always. This has been a busy week so far and time has gone by really fast. Thanks so much for the packages and everything. I got a nice email from the Toone family and I really enjoyed it, I also got Grandma Dorathy's and Grandpa Ron's ecard. So Spencer is going to Argentina huh? That is awesome. I'm really excited that he gets to leave the US and experience a completely new culture and learn Spanish. Spencer I didn't get the email from you, I am sorry to say. I am really excited to have Spencer out on his mission at the same time as me. Well things sound like they are going to be really different around home now.
Well things are going good for me, I am getting settled in my new area now. Being with an English companion makes me feel like I'm in a Harry Potter movie, but I'm getting used to it. We have been working hard and he has been getting up on time so far so things are not too bad. Reading Nick's email was interesting, this place sounds a little similar, the Hindus don't want to talk to you, and we are not allowed to teach Muslims, so that narrows things down a lot. The key is going through the members, so we are working on earning their trust and things. This area is a lot different than other places. I get fed almost every night, and Indian food is hot! they also use a gallon of cooking oil for everything. I really like the members though. On my birthday the second councilor in the bishopric invited my companion and I over for a braai and we had a really good time. His family is really nice and they are converts to the church. I will have to get a picture of them sometime for you to see. I will put a bunch of pics on facebook next week. Well thanks for the prayers support and everything else, I will hear from you next week.