"Pitbulls are the devil"

Yo fam! 

How's it living in the snow right now? Summer is heating up, and no one here has AC in their homes so it's like a sauna haha. But this week was sweet. 

New Years was tight! We had to be back in the flat by 6pm, so we picked up some meat on the way home and some elders came to our apartment to braai. We just hung out and ate amazing food, it was awesome. And then on New Years day we didn't work, so we just played tennis and risk! It was a nice mini vacation haha. New Year's was sooo fun, there was just like 10 elders in our flat, and i made the best dinner i've ever made haha. I spoiled myself and bought some doritos, sprite, and grapes! those with my cheeseburger yho it was good! and then new years day we woke up, i ate some top ramen and we played uno, then tennis, and then risk and chess that night! We play tennis now every pday, it's way better than golf haha. Some rich members gave the elders in our other flat 4 tennis rackets, because that's what it's like to serve in Benoni haha. The diversity is so insane.

Elder Savage & other Elders playing games on New Years 

But yeah not too much happened besides that. I've learned for myself that pitbulls are the devil haha. One of our investigators has an awesome medium sized black dog, and I always pet it for a minute before we go in and teach. So we were teaching and then we heard some noises outside. People were calling the guy's name and we ran outside, and this pitbull had his dog by the throat in the street! So the guy and his neighbor broke a freaking broom on the pitbulls back, so it let go of the dog for a second. The dog then ran near me and Elder Clegg in the courtyard, trying to get away, but the pitbull just ran after and started killing it again, so I was just like "nigga let's go" (the n word isn't inappropriate to say in Daveyton; they all call each other that haha) and I started kicking the pitbull as hard as I possibly could but it didn't even do anything. Then the mom took some boiling water from the kettle and poured it on the pitbull, which finally made it run away. But yeah, it was pretty crazy! Luckily the dog survived, but it's definitely got some problems now. So moral of the story, don't get a pitbull :) 

On Saturday all of our appointments ditched, so Elder Clegg and I started tracting right around of one of the clusters. We got in a few people's homes and just invited them to church since it was so close to them. And then we went in one house and they were watching Lord of the Rings haha. They turned it off after like three minutes, but during that time I have no idea what my companion was saying haha, I was flipping glued to the TV. Eish it was difficult (they say "eish" a lot as well). But yeah, that cluster has only been open for a few weeks, and the most people we've had attend was like 32, but yesterday there was 71! We had just found a lot of people from tracting during the week, and like all of them came! Even the people who were watching Lord of the Rings ;) So it was pretty cool to see some fruits from our labors. The week is gonna be packed with teaching all of those new investigators, which is awesome! 

We're also gonna go to the Johannesburg temple this Fr, so it's gonna be a pretty awesome week! Thanks for the emails and pictures! Talk to you next week. Elder Savage 

Joel 2:28

Hey family, howzit going! 

This email will be a little shorter because I just talked to you guys a few days ago, but that's alright! Skyping was rad! 

So for Pdays now we go golfing, because Daveyton has a free golf course. It's a little ghetto, but it's free so I can't complain! 

Golfing on P-day

The teaching this week has been pretty crazy! I've been reminded a lot of the verse in Joel 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." I'll explain why.

On Monday we were walking and this lady was in her front yard and called us over, and she was talking about how she wanted to learn more about our church, and she saw missionaries a couple of months ago from a distance but wasn't able to get to them. Before we left she said "You remind me of a dream I had. I'll tell you about it on Friday when you come to teach me," and I was just though "no, tell me now!" haha, but we went on Friday and taught her. Her name's Ulga and she's pretty powerful. She said that she stopped going to church because the preachers would talk about Jesus Christ, which she liked, but then they would just start talking about money and how the congregation needed to pay them. She was praying a lot to know which church to join, because she's been so confused about religion, and then one night she had a dream that a person dressed in white came to her and said he "would come and fetch her." She said that every time she see's the missionaries she's reminded of the dream that she had. Pretty cool stuff! We've only taught her one lesson but we just explained that the message we are teaching is what her dream was talking about. So hopefully she can gain a testimony of that!

And then on Saturday we taught the plan of salvation to a member, and she said that a couple of years ago she had a dream where her brother, who had died, came to her and asked her to take him out of the prison that he was in, and then a couple of nights later she had a dream where her dad came and said the same thing! She didn't even realize what they were talking about at first, but then she realized that she needed to go to the temple and be baptized for them! The 7th Article of Faith states "We believe in the gift of...prophecy, revelation, (and) visions," and I definitely know that's true! Hearing her tell the story just made me want to go do family history work haha, but unfortunately I can't. But you guys can! :) 

Thanks for all you do! Mom that Christmas package is seriously awesome, the chocolate is gonna last forever haha! Love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder Savage 

Here are a couple short videos of us Skypeing with Elder Savage. :) It was such an awesome experience! He is just glowing with the Spirit. 

Exchanges with Elder Otieno

What's happening! 

Things are going pretty well here in South Africa! Christmas time is nuts, it's weird because it's hot and people are just barbecuing every day, it doesn't feel like Christmas at all haha. I'm so excited for Thursday! For Christmas all of the Elders near the MTC are going there and we're just gonna do fun stuff and braai (that's what they call barbecue here) and play volleyball and stuff, it's gonna be awesome! And then afterwards Elder Clegg and I will go to a members house, and mission pres is awesome and he's letting us skype for an hour! It's gonna be sweet!

This is slice. Four pieces of bread, french fries, hot dog, and this amazing sauce! It's like 90 cents in american money and 4000 calories haha!

This week was awesome though. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with the zone leader Elder Otieno. He's Kenyan, and he's huge, and I sort of expected him to be serious because he only has a few more months on his mission, but he's like the goofiest guy I've ever met haha. After we went tracting at a mall for a little while, we went and taught some lessons and ate at a member's house, so it was a pretty good day. But then we went back to his flat and I spent the night there, and it was honestly like sleeping over at a friend's house. We were just laughing at all of the pranks he's done on companions haha. He was training this guy from America and they got in the car to go to there flat from the MTC, and Elder Otieno was just like "Elder, I can't drive, you're going to have to drive us to the flat." The new Elder said "I've never driven on the opposite side of the road before!" But Otieno was just like "I don't know how to drive Elder, it's up to you." So the elder had to drive them like 40 minutes back to their flat! Haha Otieno didn't even tell him until they got back, oh man so flipping funny. 

But yeah I'm not sure if I've explained the church situation here, so I'll just explain it really quick; so in Daveyton, we have a chapel, but people here don't really have cars, so they can't travel very far for church, so along with the chapel we have what are called clusters. They're like church branches, but smaller. There are only about 5 clusters in the world and two of them are in our area! Each cluster has like 30 members attending, and half of those are kids haha. So if I ever talk about clusters, now you know what I'm talking about. Elder Clegg and I have investigators that go to both clusters and the chapel, so Sundays are pretty hectic for us! We're just running around like chickens with our legs cut off (Sons of Provo quote). 

Elder Savage walking an old woman into the church cluster. So sweet! 

One thing that's difficult with the investigators here is they can be really nice, and they'll always let us in and say they want us to teach them, but they're really not that interested in the church. They'll agree with everything we teach them, but they won't make any of the commitments we give them, so we've had to drop a few this week. But it's good because it lets us see who's really serious about the gospel!

After the rain in Daveyton 

Well thanks for all the emails, they're awesome! Can't wait to skype on Thursday! Merry Christmas, talk to you all soon!

Elder Savage 

Stephen's caption for this photo: 

Scabbers! No but seriously, rats are everywhere here. I probably see like 2 or 3 squished rats on the street every day. But I can't complain, it's free food! ;)

Salani Kahle!

What's happening! 

This week has gone by pretty fast, but it was good though! I think I sent you those pics of me and Elder Clegg painting that lady's house and having to use her ghetto outhouse haha. She's like the nicest lady ever though. People here always give us yogurt or biscuits or something to eat even though they're living in super rough conditions, it's crazy. My goal for when I get home is to give the missionaries something every time they stop by, because I know how awesome it is to get free stuff haha. 

Some of their living conditions 

But yeah we had zone conference this week and it was awesome, we had Elder Cook from the seventy and he was way cool. He talked for a little on safety, because it's December so people go crazy, and for a few hours on just the conversion process and working hard. It was pretty motivating, Elder Clegg and I afterwords were just like "Let's go to work!" It's lame though because the government shuts off the power in Daveyton pretty frequently to save money, but they don't tell people when they're gonna do it, so sometimes we have to stop proselyting because it gets pretty sketchy at night with no electricity. But they usually do it during the day, which is good.

The outhouse Elder Savage had to use

We've had a lot of good lessons this past week! We got a referral from a member for this guy who owns his own little gym and he's pretty tight. He's flipping jacked, and he doesn't drink or smoke because he takes super good care of himself, but he's a spiritual guy too. He talks about praying and how his prayers get answered, so the lessons should go well with him! Member referrals are the best. 

Pretty sketchy! 

We also taught this less active kid named Jazz (his actual name has clicks in it and is freaking hard to pronounce) and we had a sweet conversation. He was asking a lot of really good questions about hell and the spirit prison. We teach him again this week and I'm super excited for it, because I've studied and learned about spirt world/prison for a few weeks and I feel like I understand it better than I have before. I honestly don't love lessons where you're just talking and they don't ask anything or have any comments, I'm not that good at giving those lessons because I can get through the restoration in like 5 minutes when they don't say anything. but I'm working on it!

I go on exchanges in another area with a zone leader on Tuesday, so wish me luck! Talk to you all next week, thanks for the emails, love you all!

Salani Kahle!

"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! 

Post from Stephen's Mission President

We received a few more pictures of Elder Savage from his Mission President's blog!

Stephen with his Mission President and wife, President and Sister Dunn. 

 Stephen with his trainer Elder Clegg. He's only been out since September!! 

Elder Savage's Transfer Board picture 

1st Week in the Mission Field!

Hey family! 

This week has been pretty nuts! The MTC went by super quick, which was nice, and on last Tuesday I got my new companion and area! So my comp is Elder Clegg, he's from Lehi, and Mom, he said his mom will probably try to find you haha. 

So my first area is a township, it's called Daveyton and it's tight! Quick lesson on South Africa, they have Cities, Towns, Townships, and villages. So some townships have small houses and are like made of bricks, and then others are straight up tin shacks, it's nuts! But yeah in being in Daveyton reminds me of the story Grandpa Savage told me about a missionary who went to SA and said the only white face he saw was his when he looked in the mirror haha. Besides the other Elders, I've only seen two white people, except one was an albino black person, which was straight up the weirdest thing i've ever seen haha. We tried teaching him in a person's house, but he wasn't very receptive of the gospel. 

The culture here is crazy different than America. They speak differently, like they say hows it, and all the black people either speak zulu or suto (no idea how to spell it) or swana, so there's like a thousand different greetings, they're kind of difficult to get used to haha. They have like three different handshakes, so I never know which one to give people. But one of the weirdest things is how easy it is to go into a random person's house and just start teaching about the gospel. We don't tract too much, but when we do we just walk in, and people tell us their phone numbers and they have like no problem trusting random strangers in their houses. 

But we have a lot of investigators, so the teaching is going great! My favorite lessons are the ones where they read the scriptures and just ask us questions, because that's when I feel the spirit the most, and it just helps me answer their questions. 

Anyway, I don't have as much time to email today, but thanks again for all the emails, they're awesome!

Talk to you next week!

Elder Savage 

 Elder Savage and his trainer Elder Clegg! 

 He's a real missionary now!!! 

Elder Savage with some investigators