April 20, 2008

Dear family,
Its always good to hear from you. Sounds like things are going well at home. I received the package you sent me last Monday after I e-mailed you. Thanks a ton. I really enjoyed the tie, socks, candy and razor of course. I don't think I have too many questions about whats going on at home. Spencer, after listening to your description of St George and Prom it sounds like you have taken up the life of an English yuppy. I am going to laugh when you are on your mission in Zimbabwe and have to boil your water before you drink it, and take sponge baths. Anyways I appreciated the e-mail from g-ma Dorathy I hope she continues to improve. The idea to clean window wells was a pretty good one, don't complain too much Jordan and Ryan, once you are on your mission instead of dealing with crud in window wells you will have to deal with cleaning crud out of peoples lives, and that's a little harder to get rid of.
I will try to answer all of your questions I hope I get all of them. I am really close to Durban, I can see it from one part of my area. I live in a flat with three other elders, The elders in the other companionship are elder Katende, he is from Uganda, we go running in mornings on the beach. The other morning we brought a bucket with us and caught some crabs and now they are in our boarding. His companion is Elder Morril, he is from West Valley and used to work with Brett Cragun at the airport pushing wheel chairs, small world. Things with my comp are going good, I worked him really hard this last week and I was so tired last night. I have a car in my area so that's really nice but we have to be careful with it. I will describe Umlazi to you a little bit but you can't go call President Mann and tell me to be transferred. Umlazi is like the big city of townships and it has one of the worst crime rates in the world. I was reading in a Doctrine and Covenants manual and Joseph Smith once said the day will come where the only place people will find peace will be in Zion and her stakes. That is the case in Umlazi. The family unit is so broken down that kids are being raised by TV, and other children and when they are adults they don't know the difference from right and wrong. I guess that's how they can kill someone for their cell phone. But anyways I'm venting a little bit, there are good people here who are waiting for the gospel of healing and we are really careful so there is nothing to worry about. Its really nice to be in a ward. Its funny because the strength of the ward is in the Young Single Adults because that's where the return missionaries are. They fill most of the callings. Well next Monday is a holiday so I won't be able to email you till Tuesday just so you know. I forgot my camera but a have a bunch of photos to load onto photo bucket next week. I like the idea of the tie that gets passed around I will carefully ponder which tie that should be. I will talk to you next week, take care, thanks for everything.