"Howzit!"

Hey fam, how's it going! 

This week has gone by crazy fast, so hopefully I can remember some of the stuff that happened haha. 

So like I said last week, my area I serve in is Daveyton, but I live in a four man flat in a place called Farramer. When I first got to the flat it was pretty nasty, not gonna lie haha, but over the past week during cracks of free time I've cleaned a bunch of it! You'd be proud of me mom, my room is super clean, I even vacuum it :) 

So things here are a lot cheaper than America, my allotment to live off each month (not including rent/utilities) is 1400 rand, which is only $130 haha. So I'm learning how to budget my money pretty well, because $130 can go pretty fast! For breakfast I usually have cereal, granola, or pancakes (which are tight), and then lunch is a grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwich, and dinner is something like noodles, hamburger and cheese. I'm getting pretty good at making simple meals haha. My comp and I usually don't get dinner, because people in townships don't have that much money, but it's all good. People still give us coke and biscuits all the time, even though they're literally living in a tin shack. They're crazy nice.  I also ate this thing called Kota, which like originated in Daveyton, it's basically a loaf of bread with the middle taken out, and then it's stuffed with fries, bologna stuff, and a hamburger. It's basically just a heart attack in a bread loaf haha, but it's tastes awesome! 

Kota

Elder Clegg and I also got bikes this week! Because we share the car with two other missionaries, and our areas are like fifteen kilometers from our apartment, we switch off between using the car and bikes. But I like the bikes more, it lets us ride around and just talk to the people on the street. Probably a couple of times a day a little kid will point at us and yell "Mulungu!" which just means white person haha. There's no white people in Daveyton, it's awesome.

Elder Savage on his bike in Daveyton

Another thing about Daveyton is they consume more alcohol than any other town in South Africa! And since it's December, it's everyones' Summer vacation, and it's the Holiday season, so people just drink that much more. Like 10 different people came up to me on Saturday and asked to shake my hand. No idea why drunk people want to shake my hand, but it's whatever :). My comp and I were riding our bikes to a investigators house and then I saw this old guy leaning up against a wall, and his briefcase was on the ground and he was trying to pick it up so I ran over to help him. When I got to him he just kept on saying "I couldn't hold it, I couldn't hold it," and I thought, are you talking about your briefcase? Because I can carry that for you. But then Elder Clegg came up and was like "Elder, look at his feet," and I realized the old guy was standing in a puddle of his own urine. "I couldn't hold it." hahahaha I was just like ohhhhhh now I get it, he didn't need help holding his briefcase, he was just insanely drunk. Good times.

The teaching is going super well too! My favorite guy is named David, and he has a daughter Lesego and they're both super tight. He's been investigating the church for like 9 months, which is crazy! He comes to church, pays tithing, and keeps the commandments, he just still hasn't been baptized, so we're working on him. But the discussions we have with him are awesome, he asks super good questions and really wants to know more about the gospel.

One of the member's homes

Yesterday's fast sunday was very cool, too. We have this investigator named Pule, and he has this growth on the side of his face, and he's always super sick when we see him, and he can hardly talk or eat, so I prayed and fasted a lot for him. Then in the afternoon we dropped by his house and he was sitting in a chair (he usually lies down inside because he's in too much pain) on his front lawn and he was just like yeah I'm feeling a lot better. I didn't even realize until that night that we had fasted for him, and then he was totally blessed for it! So that was a cool experience.

A new cluster/church in Daveyton

Well the days are already flying by, it's nuts! I'll keep sending you some pictures that I've taken, I made a ghetto ping pong table in our flat hahaha it's tight. Love you all, talk to you next week! Peace

Ping pong table Elder Savage made in his flat

... Including paddles!