Cow Liver and Less Actives!

Hey everybody!

Ok... so I wrote down some notes on things to email about this week.  I wrote "Ate cow liver, 8 inv's to 2, service, LA members, talked to guy." I know what I was referring to for those, but in case you don't I'll explain haha.

So the week was pretty good, we had a baptism yesterday! If the picture doesn't send it's because the computer just decided to not recognize my camera.  Sorry.  But yeah, so that was really cool.  We have been working with her for awhile.  Her name is Tanya, and she was the one who had a dream that she should get baptized in January instead of November, and it all worked out.  So for still unknown reasons it was inspired!

Building up a teaching pool in this area has taken a little while, and as of last week we had 8 investigators.  Now we are down to 2, so it's a little rough but we're working with it. Basically we're just calling everyone on the ward list, since there's a lot of less actives, and we've gotten an investigator from doing that in the past.  So we're praying we find more people to teach! 

We started doing service for a guy-- we're teaching him how to read and write in English, so maybe something will come from that!

Yesterday we got fed cow liver with mashed potatoes and peas for lunch. It was pretty good, and I ate seconds. Woke up this morning two pounds heavier haha. I should eat liver more often!

And just another cool experience before I go.  This morning we were leaving our complex to email and I saw this guy working on his car, and I just felt like I should go and talk with him.  So I did and I asked him "you fixing your car?" A pretty stupid question haha, but he was like yeah and then started talking for 25 minutes about his cars.  Basically he's not really interested in religion, and he thinks most people are hypocrites, but he's a super cool guy.  We at least built a relationship with one of our neighbors. And he was like "if you ever need anything, just let me know. And if you ever want to come check out my other cars, I have about 30 BMW's in a warehouse in town, just let me know." So not completely sure why I felt I had to talk to him so strongly, but we'll see.

Anyway, gotta go.  Peace out! Love you!

Elder Savage

Baptismal Interview Confirmation and Other News!

Hey fam! 

This week was pretty good. I'm always trying to use different resources from the church with investigators we have. Previously we found a lot of church magazines in our flat that we gave out to people, and this week we've watched a lot of the D&C videos with people. There are some pretty awesome ones in there like Zion's Camp and the John Tanner story, and people usually find comparisons to their own lives, so we've enjoyed watching those. And yes, I do have them all memorized hahaha.

We also have been working with a less active member, and he loves the scriptures but he just hasn't been coming to church.  After meeting with him 4 or 5 times he said that he had a friend who wanted to learn more about our church, so we had a meeting with them and shared a message on faith. His friend, Matthew, is from Malawi, and he loved the lesson. And Luke is super into it as well.  Matthew wasn't able to attend church but Luke came again! It's nice because Luke isn't just getting more involved for himself, but also for his friend, so he'll be an amazing fellowshipper for him.

And yeah, I also had a cool experience on Friday.  I did my first baptismal interview and it was awesome. At the end of it the Spirit confirmed to me that the man really was prepared for baptism, and it was nice to have that confirmation. I prayed for it beforehand, and the Lord blessed me with it.

So yeah, definitely a week of ups and downs.  It’s always rough when an investigator drops you, but I know that no effort goes wasted, so we'll just keep working and finding new people!

Love you all and talk to you soon!

Elder Savage

Zoo Day in Africa!

Hey!  This week went well.  We went to the Johannesburg Zoo last week which was fun. 

Friday we went to the temple which is always awesome. We only had a few appointments set for the day, and our 4 o'clock cancelled, but I'll come back to that.

So Saturday was tight.  All the priest-aged young men in the stake had a two day mini mission.  On Friday they were at the chapel getting trained by recently returned missionaries from the Stake.  Then Saturday was the day that they went with the full-time missionaries for a full day of proselyting. We walked in the chapel around 7:00 am on Saturday morning, and I see this kid I didn't know and I started talking to him.  Then he ended up being our tag-along for the day and he was sweet!  He lives in downtown Johannesburg.  We were having an alright day, but our battery in the car died so we had to jump start it like twelve times during the day.  That’s good though because I'll never forget how to jumpstart a car now!  Anyway, so in the planning session we told Gilbert (that was the kid's name) that we were going to see a guy named Philemon, a member, and his family.  It was the guy that cancelled the appointment on Friday.  When we got to Philemon's house Gilbert's like "that's my uncle!” haha.  We were just like no ways man, but he was like no seriously these are my cousins we're seeing. And even though Gilbert lives like 30 minutes from them he hasn't seen them in years, so it was pretty cool. Things worked how they were supposed to I guess.

But yeah, it was a cool day, and all the young men loved it and felt the Spirit super strong.   I just realized that I think I am used to having the Spirit let me know what to say in lessons, and I probably take it for granted, but I try to thank God for it.  It's pretty cool being a missionary.

I'm still loving the Jozi mission and love being an Elder.  I’ll talk to you again soon!

Elder Savage

In Africa they don't say "zee-bruh" they say "zeh-bruh", apparently we (americans) can't change the pronunciation because we don't have them.  :)

Mmmm . . . big boy.

Took this picture a split second after the bird pecked my camera.  haha.

Zoo python

The elephant was sick! (cool) We threw sticks to it and it ate them and then threw it’s trunk up and spit on us as a thank you haha.

“Monkey, hold me!"

Giraffe.  I have a sweet video of the elephant, but I can’t send it on myldsmail, buuut I guess it’s just a few more months before you’ll see it.  :)

I was trying to take a picture of the crocodile, but then the camera focused on the plant, but it looks cool so I’ll pretend like I did it on purpose.