July 6, 2008

Dear family
Its good to hear from you as always, and I'm glad that you got my email last week. It sounds like you had a great 4th of July week end. That is something that I wish I could have been around for. I can't imagine all the changes that are going on around home. I hope the garage sale turns out and well. I am doing well and things are going good. This week we had transfers and an all zone conference. It was really good and I got to catch up with a lot of the missionaries I haven't seen in a while.
My companions is form Nyrobi Kenya, he is doing well but I really miss having an American compaion. He good but sometimes he really tests my patience. I think that I will be getting transferred to a new area next transfer. The mission is changing a lot in the next few months. A lot of the old missionaries are going home and a lot of new ones are coming all at once. The missionary work is going well. We have a baptism coming up on the 20th and we have had a lot of members working with us lately which is a huge help. The ward I serve in is nice. The Bishopric is very old and struggles sometimes, in Zulu culture. You can't tell someone older than you what to do, so its hard for us to show them correct ways to run certain things. The strength of the ward is in the younger adults. Usually there are about 100 or so people at church, but there are over 5 hundred names on our records, that gives you and idea of the less active work we have to do.
This week I had a pretty cool experience. In Zulu culture they slaughter cows and goats and stuff on special occasions, and this week the first councilor in the bishopric slaughtered a cow at his house and we got to go and help, after we killed it we skinned it and as soon as we cut the meet off they would throw it on a grill, but they also eat the organs too. I ate intestines, and stomach, it was pretty gross. I have some pictures I'm putting on photobucket so check those out. It was a pretty fun experience.
For my birthday maybe it would be the easiest to put some cash in my home account. I think I want to by some shoes, and maybe a few other things. I have written Reily back but I don't think it made it. I hope that you guys enjoy your week. I'm glad you got my email, I will make sure you get this one. I'll talk to you next week.