Sugar canes and scripture study!

Hey what's up family! This week was pretty good, super hot, but it's alright. We went miniature golfing, and then later that day a member took us out to a restaurant, which was rad! So it was a regular P-day, and today I guess we're going ice skating.  You will not be getting any pictures because they would just be of me falling down haha. Remember that one time we went ice skating? That one time? Haha. Yes, I've tried to forget. So we'll see how it goes.

It was an interesting week though. I went on exchanges, so I was back in a township! Not gonna lie, it's pretty nice to be in a town for a little. I mean I love townships and the people, but I was getting tired of people answering all of my questions with "Okay, alright,” haha.  They're great though. One guy after teaching a lesson went in his yard and cut down like a 5 foot sugarcane and handed it to us. I was thinking, “What are we supposed to do with this?” Haha. . . we could've just taken a little bag of sugar, but it was funny.

We had some good lessons with an investigator named Matias.  He’s from Zambia and he is awesome! His wife and kid were members but they died in a fire a year ago, so he's trying to find some direction in his life. The cool thing is that it has really brought him closer to God, and he really does believe that the Book of Mormon is true.  He came to church for the first time.  He loves watching movies, so every church video we give him he watches right away.  So overall, he's just a cool guy. And we're focusing on befriending him with other members, so it's going well!

The three boys who were baptized last week were confirmed on Sunday! Pretty cool stuff.

Dad, I’ve been thinking about doing personal scripture study when I’m at home, and it’s definitely something I always want to do after my mission.  I was talking to a RM and I asked what he misses most about his mission.  He said the full hour of personal study every morning, because now he is married and working, he rarely gets a full hour of study in.  I remember you telling me once that members need scripture study, prayer and church.  Without one of those, your testimony will fall, and it’s so true.  Every less active member I speak with tell me how they were offended or whatever, and I ask them if they study from their scriptures every day, and they always say no.  If they did, then it would invite the Spirit into their life, which brings long suffering, so they probably wouldn’t have even been offended in the first place. 

So yeah, pretty awesome week. I’m still getting fed (still not fat yet), but that's okay.  It will come.  Love you all! Talk to you soon!

Elder Savage

Trampolines and good food!

Hey! This week was sweet.

So last Monday for P-day we went to this trampoline place called Bounce and it was awesome! Funnest P-day ever!  It's just a place with a bunch of trampolines and you can jump into a sort of foam pit and play basketball and dodgeball! I felt like a kid again haha being able to do spins and double front flips! It was so sick. If I go there again I'll take pictures/videos, for sure.

And then that night we went to a member's house for a DA but they had an emergency so they left before we got there.  They told us to still eat in their house, so we did.  It was kind of weird haha.  It was just my companion and I sitting in this huge house, but it was cool, I guess.

And on Tuesday we had interviews at the mission home which is always awesome. While missionaries were with President, Sister Dunn made us homemade bread with honey butter. Best thing ever!  I had like 4 huge slices. And we watched Meet the Mormons. So it was the coolest morning I've ever had on my mission haha.

This week we had sushi again.  A member took us to a sushi place, and we also found a sweet Philly Cheese steak place. We eat pretty well in Randburg haha.

We have some new investigators we're working with right now.  One has been taught for months and finally came to church on Sunday! Normally he goes to Zambia on the weekends but he's not doing that anymore. And there's this cute old English lady in the ward who tried to tell us that she wasn't coming to church anymore because she didn't like certain things about how the church runs.  She is about 80 years old and has been a member since long before I was born. We had a nice lesson with her and read the Book of Mormon with her and I guess it sort of reminded her of her testimony.  Sure enough, she was at church on Sunday! And we also had 3 baptisms on Sunday! Two young brothers whose father is less-active, and a 16 year old kid whose mom and sister were recently baptized. So overall, a pretty awesome Sunday!  The ward is super great and the members are the best.

That's about it for this week.  Talk to you soon!

Elder Savage

The Lord of the Swords.

At the old folks home that we sing at on Wednesdays they have a lot of animals and there are these weird monkey things-- not sure what they are, but they're dope.

I put a stick in there and they jumped on it.

So Oarabile (oar-oh-bee-lay) is on the left, my comp to his right, and then kabello and kamohelo mosoeunanye and their father. I also took a picture with them but the person taking the picture didn't actually take it.  Soooo yeah, that's alright though.  I'm over it :)

Soweto Towers, Phantom of the Opera, and Chocolate chip cookies!

Crazy week!  Well, it just went by super fast. And good news ... I have a lot of pictures to send! 

Last p-day we went to what is called the Soweto Towers.  It is an abandoned nuclear power plant in Soweto (the biggest township in the world) and they've retrofitted it to be a bungee jumping place. Unfortunately, we couldn't jump off, but we still took a lift to the top and took some sick pictures!  That night we ate dinner with another American family, which was cool. When we first walked in they had just gotten their son from soccer so they still had to prepare a lot of the food, and they said we could chill in their living room.  And, like most families in our area, they had a piano!  So I was looking through their sheet music and they had Phantom of the Opera. I just stared at it for like a minute and then asked, “Can I play?" They said sure so I just sat and played through the entire book haha. I haven't played it in 11 months (crazy that I've been out that long) so it was sweet.  It felt so good to play again haha.

On Wednesday we did service for this kid Orobile, who is 16 and his mom and his sister are already members. (And, by the way, he passed his baptismal interview so he'll get baptized next Sunday!)  He made us waffles and we helped him clean up his yard.  It was fun.

On Thursday we ate dinner at this part-member family’s house.  The mom is a member but her daughter and husband are not.  She is inactive, and they were a sweet family! It was fun being there, but kind of sad, because she basically feels that Heavenly Father is pleased with her, even though she's not keeping the Word of Wisdom and like 12 other commandments.  So we're trying our best to work with them and get one of them interested in church, so the others can also tag along. But anyway, they fed us an awesome dinner, and right after that we went to another member’s house who also fed us dinner!  Basically, I felt like I was going to explode, and I didn't even eat breakfast the next morning because I was still full from the night before haha.

And then Friday was cool.  We were able to go to the temple, and then I went on exchanges afterwards with a zone leader. We ate dinner at a member's house and they had a ping pong table, so it was tight.

Saturday was conference! This was definitely my favorite General Conference I've ever listened to! I got a lot more out of it then before. It was the first time that I really took notes, which is awesome, because previously I would just remember a story or two, but now I can look back at all the cool things I liked in all of the talks. I'm not sure what my favorites were, but I definitely loved Elder Holland's talk about mothers, and how he referenced our Heavenly Mother as well. Pretty sweet. I also really liked the lady from the South and someone else who challenged us all to ask "What lack I yet?" in our prayers. Overall, I just got a lot out of it and saw ways to change myself more, which is really the reason for General Conference. Anyway, it was just awesome.

Then on Satuday we got 2 dinners in a row...again. Can't wait till I get fat! (Speaking of getting fat … on Sunday morning I didn't make breakfast because we had to hustle to the chapel.  The American family that we ate with on Monday sat next to us at church and were like “Elders, we made you some chocolate chip cookies!" And so I ate 4 in about 10 seconds.  I was about to eat the other 5 cookies, but I was like, no, I should probably share with my companion. :)  But it was the first time I've had chocolate chip cooks in months so I was going hard hahaha).

So yeah, that was the week.  Because of conference and my companion being sick, we didn't teach as much, just a lot of member lessons, which are still cool. And one of our recent converts brought a friend to conference and she loved it! The members are super good about giving referrals here, which is the best way for missionary work to be done. So I'm loving it here in Randburg.  This is definitely the place I need to be.  The Church is true!

Thanks for everything.  Talk to you all soon!

Elder Savage

Soweto Towers.

Inside the dome.

The lift going up was scary. It was basically a rollercoaster, except the floor was just plywood and I honestly thought we were gonna die haha.