B.O.M. dictionaries and cow bones!

Howsit going? This week went by pretty quickly! Good week though. We had a lot of cool lessons.

One was with a less active girl named Meladi (pronounced Melody).  She's 24 and less active. We've been teaching her sister but her sister is out of town so we just spent some time with Meladi. We felt like we should just read from the Book of Mormon with her so we read 2 Nephi 1 and she was having a difficult time.  She is not the best reader.  We found out that the Book of Mormon is the reason she's less active. She has a really hard time reading/understanding it, so she doesn't really want to come to church and Satan works on her and makes her feel insecure.  So that is why she doesn't come to church. We're having her write down every single word she doesn't understand and she's making her own Book of Mormon dictionary so she can look back on it and understand what she reads! It was cool that we finally found out her concern.

Another progressing investigator is Nthombifuthe (have fun trying to pronounce that). She's a teacher and is 29.  We went and taught her about prophets and how they've been in every dispensation and she asked, “How can I know if a prophet is true?”  So we read a scripture in Matthew 7 about by their fruits ye shall know them.  Then we dropped a bomb that is Micah 3:10-11 which basically says anyone who teaches religion/divines for money is not of God.  It just blew her mind because the LDS church is basically the only church here where no one gets paid, so everyone is just used to paying their pastor or whatever.  When we read that scripture she realized that all the churches she's ever been to are false. We stopped the lesson after that because her mind was so blown haha.  We decided to give her some time to ponder on that, but we'll see her again tomorrow so it should be good! She is educated and she knows the Bible so she always has good questions, which is nice.

On Friday an AP came on splits with us since I'm training, and it was super fun. I always like exchanges because it's nice to teach with a new person and see their teaching style. We stopped at this less active’s house and she opened the door and there was another lady in a chair sort of breathing heavily.  We said, “Hi, how are you?" and she said that she was busy and that she had a patient. So the AP was like "Are you pregnant?" The lady nodded her head. "Are you giving birth?" She smiled and nodded again. I was like "...Okay well good luck, we'll stop by later” haha.  We got in the car and I was just like "I was not about to ask if they needed help" hahaha. It was pretty funny.

But yeah, it was a fun week and went well.  I ate this weird meal that was just cow bones and then the slimy stuff around the bones, but it wasn't filling at all.  It was interesting I guess.

Love you all! Thanks for the emails.  Talk to you next week!
Elder Savage

Greenies and birthdays!

What's up! How are you guys? This week was awesome!

Monday afternoon we drove up to the mission office for my trainer meeting, and my comp ate dinner at the Mission President's home since it was his last night. So I stayed the night in Roodepoort, where the MTC is, with another missionary. We went to a member's house for FHE and they fed us. It's still weird for me to teach white people though haha. I'm not used to the Afrikaaners' accents at all, but it was cool.

On Tuesday morning we went to transfer meeting where I met my greenie. His name is Elder Mpiyakhe (mm-pee-ah-kay).  He’s from South Africa, and he's Xhosa, which is powerful! I've had two Utahn companions and two Xhosan companions so far! South Africans are super chill, so we've been having a good time! We went for Roman's pizza afterwards with a bunch of other Elders, so it was cool. And then we just shopped and drove back to our area.  Then we got there at like 5pm and I was just like my son needs to learn how to get things done.  So the first thing we did in the area was go street contacting for like 45 minutes hahaha. I'm not about easing into missionary work, so we just dove right into it!  It was a good experience though.  He didn't really know what to do at first and I was just like yeah, I remember that feeling! But he got the hang of it pretty well. And then we were able to teach a couple of lessons as well.  We taught about the Book of Mormon so it was a lesson that he was familiar with.  He was able to participate which was sweet! It's pretty fun training, because I know exactly what he's feeling and how everything is new and weird, but we're having fun with it.

Then on Thursday it was my birthday! What what, turned 19. Still feel 12 though :) We celebrated by going to a pizza joint called Panarotti's, and on Thursday nights they have this special where they keep on bringing out different pizzas and you can eat as much as you want. I ate 10 slices. It was pretty hard to stand up hahaha, but it was awesome.

And Friday we got to go to the temple! And we got lost driving through Joburg, so we missed the 9am session but we just chilled and waited for the 10am one, so it went well. But yeah, I'm driving 100% of the time because I'm with a South African, a Ghanan, and a Malouian (no idea how to spell those) and they can all drive but none of them have a license, and yo it's rough. I'm tired of driving the car, it has no power at all haha.  But I'm better at driving stick now, which is good. And then we got McDonalds again, which tastes so flipping good! So much better than America. Or maybe it's just because I haven't had a good burger and shake in 7 months, who knows. And then we got lost on the way back as well! So yeah, I know the city of Johannesburg very well now hahaha.

On Sunday there weren't that many people because the power was out in parts of Sebokeng, but the two kids who just got baptized were confirmed! I talked to one of them later that night and he was like "when I went back to my seat, I was expecting to see the Holy Ghost” hahaha.  Kids are so innocent. But it was nice though.

So yeah, that's about it for this week! We really didn't spend much time in our area just because there was always somewhere else we had to be, but the work in Sebokeng is going well! Progressing like crazy!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and everything.  Talk to you all later!
Elder Savage

Stephen & his new “greenie,” Elder Mpiyakhe

 Whoo!  California!

 Panarotti’s!  (The employee taking the picture took it at a weird angle haha, but I guess it’s alright.)

Monkeys and funerals!

Hey fam! Howzit going? It's going pretty well here, but it was a hectic week. To start, last P-day we were playing sports at our complex and we saw monkeys! Just like 3 of them on the tennis court and jumping in trees. So yeah, that was pretty dope.

But yeah the week was great! Since my companion is going home we got fed a lot haha, I hardly had to cook at all this week. And I have leftovers because like 4 people gave us food yesterday, so I'm set!

Our lessons were a little slower this week because we had to drive to the office a couple of times for Elder Neu, but it was still nice. On Friday we went to the mission home for his final interview, and I printed that Marshall McDonald hymns book that Nat sent me, so while he was in there I just played through that on the mission president's piano, and it was so nice! I haven't played on a real piano in a little while, so it felt amazing!

On Tuesday I went on exchanges and got fed 3 times, which was powerful. We don't get fed too often. I'm not sure what it's like in other missions, but I appreciate food whenever I get it haha.
And I'd say my favorite lesson this week was with the Mqwati family. They've been having trouble reading from the Book of Mormon because it's not that easy to understand the first time reading it, so instead of just going straight to the lesson we read 1 Nephi chapter 1 with them and explained it as we went along. It was pretty cool. I think they felt the spirit, because afterwards their 19 year old son was just like "are we just gonna read, or is there gonna be a lesson too." We had already been there for like 45 minutes, but they wanted to learn more! So we taught them about tithing and fasting, and they were really interested and were asking a lot of questions about it, it was sweet. They're coming along pretty well. The mother is ready to be baptized but she wants to wait for other family members, so we're continuing to teach them every week!

On Saturday we went to a funeral of a member and it was....yeah it was interesting. :) Funerals here are very different from funerals in America haha, but it was cool. It was in the chapel and there were a lot of nonmembers, and when people cry at funerals, they really cry haha, like very loudly. But when someone is speaking and they start crying everyone just starts singing in Sotho, and the speaker sits down and just lets it all out, and then when they're ready they stand up again and everyone stops singing simultaneously, and the speech continues. So it was neat. And we got fed afterwards. But the family is handling it very well, they have solid testimonies so they know they'll see their mom again.
And then yesterday we had two baptisms! Lunga and Mohou, two 10 year olds who got baptized by their grandfather, and it was awesome! I'll send a picture.

And this Sunday I also celebrated Father's Day, because I'm gonna be a father! AKA I'm training. Not sure who yet, but I know it's either gonna be a South African or a Ugandan, so I'm pumped!

Yup, that's it for this week, it went by pretty quickly! Thanks for everything you do and the prayers, talk to you soon!

The two boys in the front are Lunga and Mohou, and their grandfather is on the very right next to me. He was just baptized in October so it was a cool experience for him!

I was walking at night and saw this in the middle of a township. Someone made some sort of meal with I think a cow and then just sort of threw the remains in a field of dirt. Mzanzi fo sho.

Chocolate shakes, birthday packages, and the temple!

What's up! Long time no see. Things are going great here, it was a pretty cool week! To start, I woke up one morning to my birthday package! Thank you so much! It felt like Christmas! I already made chocolate chip pancakes :) it was powerful.

But yeah not too much happened this week. One of the investigators that's progressing a lot is Nonhlanhla. We taught her again and she's doing really well. She has the gospel principles and teachings of the prophet book, and she's reading from those and the Book of Mormon and just learning more and more every day! And she's even fellowshipping other investigators hahaha, the other day she went to these two sisters Sibulelo and Puleng and was talking to them about church and was just like "You need to come again!" even though we've been teaching them for longer than Nonhlanhla haha. She'll make a great member.

 

The cool thing about our branch is that even the investigators fellowship each other, because the veterans remember what it was like to come to church for the first time so they always talk to the new people and make them feel welcome! The branch has really turned around in the last 6 months, so it's cool to see the members becoming more enthusiastic about the work!

 

And because my companion is going home next week, he and some others from his group all got to go to the temple, so that's what we did on Saturday! It was super nice, I hadn't been in like five months so it felt good to get inside again! I'm really lucky to be by one of the 2 temples in Africa! And I got to talk with the Elders who are in my last area, and they updated me on everything which made me super happy! We had a baptism in Daveyton, and a few days after we saw the recent convert (Sipho) talking to his friend so we went and were talking to him, and he seemed like a pretty big joker, but we still taught him twice before I left, and now apparently now he's getting baptized this Sunday! So it's pretty cool to see the fruits of labors that happened a long time ago. 

 

On the way home from the temple we got McDonalds and it was the best meal ever hahaha, I haven't had a chocolate shake the entire time I've been here, so we went and dropped rand and I had a double cheese burger and a shake and was dipping the fries in the shake, yo it tasted like In-N-Out! It was pretty tight.

 

So yeah, all in all a great week! Thanks again for the b-day package, those chocolate chips will last me till the end of time hahaha.

 

Love you all! Talk to you soon

 

 Eating chocolate chip pancakes and driving to the temple ;)

 

 Driving through Joberg to go to the temple.

 Aw snap, it's mah birthday

 

Teaching less actives and a road trip!

What's up! Good to talk to everyone again!

Things are going pretty well here. To start, we haven't had roaches in our flat since our extermination last week!  So that's nice. But we've also gotten lazier with dishes, so they might come back soon :/ Hopefully not though.

Honestly, not too much happened this week.  It went by super quickly, which is what happens once you've been in an area for 3 months! Time starts flying.

One unique thing was we had to drive to the mission office in Roodepoort to pick up something for Elder Neu (that's what he goes by because no one can say Neuenschwander).  It's an hour away, so after weekly planning we bought a fat pizza and went for a road trip. We got back just in time for our first appointment too, which was interesting. It was with a 25 year old less active guy named Thabo.  His house is really far from the chapel, maybe an hour and a half walk. There are 5 less active guys on his street who all fellowshipped each other back in the day.  They would always walk to church with each other and go teaching with the missionaries, but now they've all gone less active. So we're working with them, but it's hard when you stop living the gospel for such a long time. Some of them work on Sundays and one does crack, but they still have testimonies. At the end of the lesson with Thabo, he prayed and ended his prayer by saying "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen." And then he was like "Even though I haven't been to church in a long time I still remember how to pray!" and I agreed but on the inside I was like...."Are you sure about that?" haha.  But he'll remember soon enough.

Another less active mother on his same street had forgotten the nature of the Godhead too, so we've just started teaching her everything from the beginning. In just a short amount of time you can forget a lot of the things you once knew. Crazy.

We had another lesson with a guy we met at Sedibeng College, which was funny. He didn't understand English too well, so we won't teach him again (people have to speak English in order to get baptized) but we were in his house and then these random little chickens came in and just start crawling on our feet.  He said, "Yeah I raise them and slaughter them." And I was just like "Why do you let them in your house?" hahaha. I wish I took a picture of it. Kind of hard to concentrate with little raptors climbing on you, but we managed :)

Church was awesome yesterday! There were like 12 investigators at church, which is the most Sebokeng has had in a long time!  We're working hard and should be able to see some baptisms this coming month!

Thanks for everything you all do! I love reading your emails.  Keep me updated on life! Talk to you later.

Elder Savage

Eating pizza on the road trip.

Picture from our roadtrip overlooking part of Soweto, the largest township in South Africa.

Cockroaches and Cow Feet!

So how's everyone doing! It's been pretty good here in Sebokeng this past week. It's cooling down a little because it's autumn now, so I've been wearing sweaters a lot. Because it's humid, it'll be like 50 degrees but it feels like 25, so every morning and night it's freezing haha. We'll see how it feels in the winter!

But yeah this week was nice, I got fed some interesting food! We were eating our lunch at a member's house and the grandma asked if we wanted some food she had made the night before and she brought it out and it was cow foot! I guess it would be the hoof, I'm not really sure what to call it, it has an actual name in Zulu, but it was pretty good! Haha she mixed it with some other stuff, it was pretty slimy but it honestly wasn't half bad.  My companion tried to hide it in his tupperware but the member was like... so I guess you don't like it too much haha. So I bit the bullet and ate his too. So yeah that was one of the more authentic "African" foods I've had. I should've taken a pic of it, that's alright though, you'll just half to imagine it! They basically eat like 95% of the cow here, so I'm sure I'll have intestine, stomach, and even cow head in the future! Should be fun.

Then on Wednesday I was with the zone leader Elder Tukia from Tonga and that was super fun! His area is a town, aka white people, so it was interesting. We met some really cool people though, my favorite was this Afrikaaner family, a husband, wife and two children. The husband was baptized into the church but has been less active for 8+ years now, and his wife is not a member. So he was going to his wife's church for awhile, and even though he was inactive he never really lost his testimony, so sometimes he would argue with his wife's pastor because he would be like "That's false doctrine, what you're teaching is wrong", and the pastor finally just said "What church are you basing your doctrines on", and he was like "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints", and the pastor said "Don't ever go there!" So he was like "Hey don't tell me what to do" and then the next Sunday he went back to the LDS church! Hahaha and him and his wife have been attending ever since. So the missionaries have been teaching his wife and she really loves the Book of Mormon, and even though the husband has been less active and forgotten a lot of the doctrine, his testimony is still powerful. Just shows that if the Spirit has confirmed the truth to you, you can't just forget it. You might forget certain aspects or facts, but you never really lose a testimony. So that was cool.

And yeah besides that we just did some service at an orphanage, it reminded me a little of Mexico, so that was fun.

And church was good too! We have a new investigator named Nonhlanhla (kind of hard to pronounce) and she's really powerful. She found us on the street, and said that she wanted to learn more about the gospel, so we taught her this week and she came to church and says she already wants to be a member haha. She's super nice. We taught her about the plan of salvation because she had her 1 year old child pass away, so she liked that a lot, it gave her a lot of comfort and peace.

But yeah, a great week all around, I've just been making pancakes and french toast like crazy haha. Oh yeah and every night we come home and find a cockroach or two on the counter and we've just been like "Where are these coming from?", and I had a feeling that maybe it was from behind the fridge, but I was just too tired during the week haha, so we got home last night and I was like "Elder, I have a fear that they're coming from behind the fridge", so we checked and sure enough there were like 20 behind there. So that sucked. But we went ham, killed them all, I'll show you a picture of the battle ;)

 Thanks for the emails and for all you do though! Love you, talk to you next week!

College students are very receptive to the gospel!

What's up everyone!

It was super fun skyping with you last week.  It feels like a month ago haha. This week was pretty chill though, not too much happened. First we went to Roodepoort for transfers because some guys in our district were leaving and not everyone has licenses, which was sweet. Transfers are always fun! I was able to talk to all my “homies" from the MTC.

This week was pretty normal. We had some free time on one of the days, ( Ican't remember which day it was, such is mission life) so we went to a local college called Sedibeng. We were just sort of walking around scoping out the area around 3:00 pm, so there weren't too many students there, but we were just seeing what it was like. We were looking for a restroom. and I went in as my companion started talking to a guy outside about the Book of Mormon, and then when I walked out of the bathroom (like a minute later), there was this huge group of people around him! There were about 12 college students just listening and asking questions, so we taught them a mini lesson on the Book of Mormon haha.  I was just like where did these people come from?! But the students here are so eager to learn, they're receptive to anything, and they were wondering why two white guys were on their campus.  We gave them all cards with our numbers and told them to call if they wanted a free Book of Mormon. And then they took pictures with us haha.  It was pretty funny. College students are the best, because they're educated and they understand English, so they're super nice to teach!

So that was fun!  We'll probably go back there again this week. And I think I told you on Skype about one of our investigators, his name is Lebohang. We talked to him on the street and invited him to church, which is what we do with thousands of people, but he actually came to church! We didn't even remember talking to him because he was just so normal, and didn't seem extra interested or anything, so it was super surprising hahaha! We have been teaching him -- he's 19 but is still in 11th grade (which isn't that uncommon here) and he's super cool. The day after our first lesson with him he prayed and felt the Spirit, which is the fastest I've ever seen someone get an answer! He's really prepared, and he has come to church 3 times in a row now, and last night he asked when he can get baptized! So we're really excited for that, he's just super prepared to hear the gospel.

We had 9 investigators at church yesterday! That is the most Sebokeng has had in a long time, so the members are getting super into missionary work because they're seeing results from it! There's a lady, Sister Moziboku, and she gave us a couple of referrals the other day from people at her work. While she's on shift at the hospital she talks to co-workers about the gospel, and she's already placed like 4 Book of Mormons, haha!  She's way powerful! We just dropped off 10 more Book of Mormons at her house haha.  The Sebokeng branch is doing pretty well!
I'm happy I'm here, I know there's many reasons for it, and I know that I'm very blessed!

Thanks for everything, love you all, and talk to you next week!
Elder Savage