Elder Hamilton of the Seventy tags along on a lesson!

Hey Everyone! Howsit?  It's going pretty well over here. There is sort of a drought here, but it's raining most nights now, so it's better.

Tuesday and Saturday were the best days of the week-- the others were a little rough, but the two days made up for it. On Tuesday we saw Jade again, who we first met about 10 weeks ago and have only had a couple of lessons with because she was finishing up her school. We were able to see her again, and we took the Herberts (Lee and Matt), the couple that she knows super well, and it was a good lesson.  We were talking about more of the plan of salvation. We basically just talked about the spirit world and that was it, because she had a lot of questions and Jade's mom (who grew up JW so she has very different views from ours) kept interupting and she talked a lot haha.  It was late so we had to go. But we could tell that Jade's concerns weren't really resolved, (she's had the same questions for months now), which is basically, “ If I die tomorrow what's going to happen?", and “Am I going to go to hell if I don't fully repent?" So we could tell those questions were still bothering her, and we set up a time to see her again on Saturday. She went to a YSA dance on Friday night with Sister Lee, which was awesome because she got to know some more members, and then she spent the night at the Herberts. So we went there Saturday morning and Matt was there but his wife wasn't, and Sister Lee is awesome but she can talk like nobody else haha. So Matt was just like okay, I'm gonna play videogames on the computer, but you can still teach Jade. So we did, and it was nice because no one was interrupting her.  It was just us listening and teaching the rest of the plan of salvation, and it was cool because when we finished explaining the kingdoms of glory she let out a sigh of relief and just said "That's fair." We were praying that her concern would be resolved, and that the Spirit could teach her, and it definitely did. So that made us pretty happy.

On Monday, we got a call from the AP's saying that Elder Hamilton of the Seventy (he's in the Africa South East Area Presidency) was going to come with us to a lesson in our area on Saturday at 3:30pm. So they told us to meet him at 3:00 and meet with an investigator and stress the importance of the lesson, since it's not every day a General Authority goes out with missionaries. So we kept it in mind the whole week, but it just wasn't happening. We had been praying the whole week that it would be a good lesson, that it could be worth Elder Hamilton's limited time, but every investigator wasn't available at that time. So we were like okay, it's going to have to be a recent convert.  But Saturday morning came and the only one available was Oarabile, the 16 year old who comes teaching with us all the time, and we had just taught him recently, but there was no other option. The plan was to take Oarabile to a lesson with another recent convert at 1:30, and then go meet Elder Hamilton and take him to see Oarabile with us. But we got a call at 1:15 from Elder Hamilton and he says "I'm at the McDonald's!" And in my mind I was thinking...you're two hours early, but actually this works out perfectly! So I said okay, give us 5 minutes, and we picked him up and then drove and picked up Oarabile and taught a lesson to Sister Welhemina. She and her 19 year old daughter were baptized earlier this year, but the daughter is sort of on the path of apostasy. The daughter wasn't at home, so Welhemina was talking about it and asking what she can do about Esther. She was crying and Elder Hamilton was able to help a ton! He has raised 6 kids so obviously he could relate to her much more than we could, and the Spirit was with him so strong! (It kind of inspired me to be better) and so we listened.  He gave some counsel, even Oarabile was able to pitch in, and we read a little from the scriptures and comforted Sister Welhemina. At the end Elder Hamilton gave her a really cool blessing and blessed her with knowledge that Esther would be alright, and that even Welhemina's other son would be taught the gospel and have the opportunity to accept it.  So overall it was just an awesome lesson. I learned a lot from him and his example.  He is the nicest coolest guy ever! So yeah, it was an awesome day haha.

Ok well, I'm out of time.  But I'll just leave with my testimony that I know the Spirit is the greatest gift we can receive in this life, that it helps in every aspect of our lives, and it's fundamental in missionary work.  Thanks for the emails and encouraging words.  Love you all! 

Talk to you soon.

Elder Savage

You can submit this to Sports Illustrated if you want.  :)

We were waiting for Elders for District meeting so we decided to play some basketball and hacky sack (thanks again for that!).

Botanical Gardens and Mount Everest!

Hey fam! What's up. 

This week was sweet! I went on exchanges which is always fun.  Elder Tima from the Marshall Islands came with me to Randburg, and it was fun. We had a plumber come to the flat for like 6 hours though to fix our shower and sink, so after companionship study we were just like...we can't leave these guys here alone, so we just played chess, checkers, sillyhead, and then we kicked a soccerball around in the big workout room.  Afterwards, we watched some Old Testament videos. It was pretty boring.  It’s weird--when I don't do missionary work time goes by super slow. But it was alright because the shower doesn't leak anymore, so I guess it was worth it! 

Then later in the day we were trying to find some less-active members that the ward hasn't been able to get a hold of, which was interesting. One guy left the church and is attending another church like 40 minutes away, another's "address" was a hotel, and the others we couldn't get a hold of because they have huge gates with electric fences, so we couldn't really go up to their door. So not too exciting of a day, but we still got some good work done.

Wednesday was tight, though. We had a zone conference, but it was for the whole mission. The theme was “Overcoming the summits of our mission." We met at this place called the Botanical Gardens.  It is a big area, like a sanctuary, and they have a cool hiking trail with a waterfall and stuff. Anyway, we had normal talks like any other zone conference from President and Sister Dunn, but they had a guest speaker, and she is the third South African woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest! So she talked about it, showed pictures, and it was super cool. Basically, I would never ever climb Mount Everest haha.  After having her explain how many people die, and the physical challenges they face, it's just crazy! She showed a picture she took of a helicopter taking away a dead body, and was explaining how near the top is the "death zone," because the elevation is so high that your organs can shut down, and your eyes will bleed and all this crazy stuff. And you can't just hike Mount Everest, it costs thousands and thousands of dollars (I think she said it was around $40,000), and it takes two months to climb! And she said even if you get to the top, that doesn't count as summiting it, because people so often die on the way down, so in order to say you've summited Everest you have to get up and back down. Just nuts, but it was really cool.  They gave us lunch during her presentation, and then afterwards we went on our own summit! Just up a really big hill and down at the base of a waterfall, so it wasn't as dificult as Mount Everest, but it was still super hot :)  It was a sweet day though.

Lots of cool stuff this week, so because of it we didn't have as many lessons, but the ones we had were pretty quality. We have a new investigator named Prince. Last week is when I had that super strong prompting to talk to the guy who was a former investigator, and Prince is his roommate and we finally had a lesson with him on Saturday. I'm still not sure why the prompting was so strong because I made the mistake of ignoring it and driving away, but it just didn't go away-- it just got stronger until we drove back and spoke with him. So yeah, whatever it is, we have a really important reason to be there. Maybe for Prince, maybe for Kebar (the former investigator), who knows, but we're happy about it, and it was a good lesson. Prince basically said he used to be religious but he's lost his faith and he wants to know how he can get that back. So we talked with him a while about that and told him that that is our purpose, to help people develop their faith in Christ, so it was nice. He wasn't able to come to church though, neither were any of our investigators because they had this huge bike race with thousands of people, and basically in order to get to the church you had to take this crazy detour on the freeway that took like 30 minutes. Luckily it was Stake Conference, because it started at 10:00, but we didn’t get there until 11:20...so not sure what was said, but at least we made it!

So yeah, pretty awesome week. We also went to pick up a member on Friday night but he stepped on a bee and he's allergic, and then the appointment basically cancelled anyway, so we just chilled with him and his dad bought Domino's pizza and Mug root beer, so I was in heaven haha.  It was a complete American meal.

Anyway, love you all. Stay well and talk to you soon!

Elder Savage

The waterfall at the Botanical Gardens in Krugersdoorp, not too far from the mission office.

The view from the top.

Reunited with my son! 

He was pretty tired by the end haha, as you can see.

ONE YEAR MARK!

Hey! 

Wow, this week was fast! At church I said to this lady "How have you been since Wednesday?" and she was like "...you came to my house last Sunday." Time is going by so quick, something that happened a week ago feels like 2 days!  It is insane, but cool.

So yeah, I'm a year out now, so that's also cool.  :)

It was an awesome week! There were some questions that I had for President Dunn that I was worried about.  One was for an investigator who lives like a kilometer outside our area, and he gave us permission to still teach her because she's progressing like crazy and her good friend is in our ward.  Then the other one was for an investigator who was supposed to be baptized last month. When we were at her house, preparing her for her baptismal interview, we realized that she was still living with her boyfriend. Well they were in the same house but in different rooms, and someone else also lives with them. So we told her that she would have to move out on her own, and she was pretty sad.  I was pretty sure that that's what needed to be done. But last week she said that she felt like she should still get baptized, and so I was like okay, I don't know everything-- I'm not going to be prideful, and I'll ask the mission President.  So I did.  Basically he said, “Has she committed to live the law of chastity? If she has, then she can get baptized.”  Since they weren't in the same room, and due to some other unique circumstances, she'll be getting baptized at the end of the month!  She is so happy and so are we!

We had a lot of cool lessons.  The Spirit was with us strong this week. Probably my favorite was with this recent convert, Esther. She stayed the weekend with a friend in a nearby township called Alexandra, which is a dodgy place. She was pretty upset because there were 3 different people who got murdered during the weekend around where she was staying, so she was just like the people in Alexandra could never accept the gospel-- they're just too wicked. So we listened and then used the scriptures to show different examples of people who were (you know, past the point of no return like the Lamanites and especially the story of Jonah), and how they changed, and by the end she was happy and not discouraged anymore. It strengthened my testimony of the scriptures because the same things that happened back then still happen now.  We taught her how there have always been Alexandras, and there always will be, but prophets have never ceased preaching to them because people can always change. So it was a cool lesson.

Then on Saturday we fasted because we forgot last Sunday (not sure how, but we forgot) and what I felt prompted to fast for was the area. When I first got here we had a good amount of investigators for a town, but they have been baptized and we dropped a couple so the list has gotten pretty small. I fasted and prayed that we could get some new investigators, and after Sacrament meeting a lady brought in these two people and was just like "they're looking for you--I found them outside." It was a boyfriend and girlfriend, in their mid 20s, basically the girl’s mom just got baptized in a nearby city called Pretoria, and now she's like "I want you to come to my house today and teach us, and I want to get baptized!" It was a complete miracle and answer to my prayers!!! They don't currently live in Randburg, but they move here at the end of the month, so they'll be taught by other elders until then. It was awesome!

I visited an inactive member yesterday who was baptized and then the Bishop asked him to teach the Sunbeams during the second hour, so he was offended and his family hasn’t been to church since.  He is a Freemason and offered for us to play video games with his sons and told us to do all these disobedient things because the church doesn’t know what they are talking about.  I was pretty angry.  Fortunately, I bridled my tongue, but it was lame.  Then afterward we went to a member’s house and the 15 year old son was playing a cool arrangement of “O Come O Come Immanuel” on his violin.  I played the accompaniment on the piano and it brought the Spirit right back.  Cool experience.

Tell Brother Martella that I love him!  It was super nice having him prepare me for the temple, and especially attending the session where we got to go through together.  It’s a really good memory I will always have of the temple. Hope he's doing alright. Tell him thanks! His emails are always inspiring.

Yeah, that's about it for this week.  It was pretty cool. 

Love you all and talk to you soon!

January Baptism and Ice Skating!

This week was sweet! All the other missionaries were busy doing stuff on Monday so we went ice skating.  It kind of weird, but the good news is that I didn't die! By the end of the 2 hours I was skating all around the rink like 3 times, no wall no falls, so it felt pretty good. And that night we got fed waffles and ice cream by a member.  So yeah, P-day is always baller.

Sorry, I think my emails are progressively getting shorter. I'm just not as sure what to write anymore because most of the experiences that happen are so normal to me now, so it's hard to think of unique things.  Just know that I'm trying my best! :)

There was one unique thing that happened with an investigator, Tanya, who's on date to be baptized this month. As we were teaching her last week she brought up that she's going to be baptized in January now, and we were kind of skeptical, but she said that that is when she is supposed to get baptized. We weren't really convinced, so two days later we saw her again, and we talked about it.  We were trying to just listen, and not jump in since she's pretty quiet. She explained that she's been having a dream for a little while now about her baptism and it's always the same dream… she is in white and a man is in white about to baptize her, and she talks to someone in the dream who lets her know that the month is January. So after her story we asked her if it is a good dream or more like a nightmare.  She said it's good and she feels good about it, and we asked if she's prayed about it and she said she did pray about it and then she had the same dream again.  So we were just like okay, we'll respect that decision.  Maybe there's wisdom in it that we don't understand. So we'll continue to meet with her until then, which will probably be good because she's from Zimbabwe and her English isn't the best.  Maybe it'll be an opportunity for her to understand the doctrine more before her baptism.

Then on Saturday we went to an investigator’s house, but he wasn't there.  I had a prompting to speak to a guy but he looked a little drunk so I just shrugged it off, but a feeling of guilt swept over me so I though we should go back to that guy, and my comp said he felt the same way. So we went and spoke with him and it turns out he is a former investigator! He was actually progressing very well with missionaries in another area but then something happened and he moved here.  He has hardened his heart a little, but we talked with his friend that he lives with and we're going to see them next Tuesday. We're still not sure what will come out of it, but we both know that we need to go there for whatever reason, so we'll see the fruits in a while I'm sure!

Anyway, it was a great week.  Gotta go.  Talk to you soon!

Elder Savage

This picture is from the beginning of the session.  If I weren’t holding on to my companion, I would have fallen down haha.

Me & Natalie’s friend from her Salt Lake City Temple Square mission, Sister Rakotovao from Madagascar.

I made cookies.  :)

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.