Week 4 in Umlazi-October 2, 2017

The internet went out right before I sent this on Monday so here it is.

First off just wanted to give a shout out to my mom whose bday was yesterday! Happy birthday mom! It has been humbling to see how lucky I am to have a mom that is supportive, or even in my life.  Many here don’t have the support system that any of us in the United States are lucky enough to have. 

Another great week in Umlazi! This week was a quick and exciting one! On Wednesday we had Zone Conference which is just when like about 16 missionaries get together for a day with our mission president.  We learn all day about how to improve ourselves.  It was an awesome experience for me.  I love meeting other missionaries too.  They are all such great guys and fun to talk about life in the mission with them.  We talked about change and how what we do as missionaries is go around and ask people to repent, or to change.  WE teach them how to change and help them with it.  That is our job and it is awesome!

 The next day we had exchanges.  I was with a zone leader, Elder Dos Santos.  He is from Mozambique and a stud.  He taught me a lot and helped me understand a lot about my purpose here as a missionary.  Now skip to Sunday we had two baptisms.  One 13 year old girl named Ziyanda.  She is awesome.  She stays with here Grandma here because her parents are not around anymore.  Sad but she is always so happy and excited! The next girl is named Mouhle.  She is awesome as well.  She is only 10 so a bit more shy but another great example to us.  Her mom is not a member of the church but the girl comes with her grandma.  We forgot to fill up the font that we baptize in early so we were very stressed and trying to stall so that people didn’t get too upset. 

That night our power went out.  The way it works here is you pay for power then when you get low you pay again but my companion forgot it was low so it just went out.  Kind of sad but we just ended up going to sleep and you don’t need lights for that so it worked out. 

This week I have been studying about hope.  It is a Christ like attribute so I have been looking at scriptures on it.  My favorite is Ether 12:4 in the Book of Mormon.  Hope comes from faith in God that he will make sure everything in our life is alright.  We just need to trust him and keep a smile on our faces.  There will be trials but you just got to “saddle up,” as my MTC president said, and deal with it.  We all struggle with things for a reason and we just need to try our best and God will do the rest. 

I love you all and wish you the best of luck in everything you do this week! Count your blessings because believe it or not you are so lucky to have what you have. See you next week!

Pics: typical life in Umlazi with the trucks. and these are deep fried balls of goodness.  Called Amiguena or something like that.  Sooooo good and cheap but will give you diabetes. 

Week 3 in Umlazi-Sept. 25, 2017

Hello everyone! It sure was a great week.  I am starting to really like it here in Umlazi.  There has been some crazy rain and wind lately which makes missionary work a bit more interesting.  Today is heritage day in South Africa.  It sounds like one of those lame holidays that is just an excuse to have school and work off but it is actually legit.  We had a ward activity to celebrate today which was awesome.  A lot of people showed up.  We had boiled cow head and some other traditional Zulu dishes. Kind if gross tbh but I tried to enjoy it.  In case you are wondering, cow ear is not that good.  It may be tempting but you are not missing out.  It even has a little bit of hair on it that gets stuck in your teeth which just really tops it off.  hahaha it is rude not to finish your food here so I try my best to suffer through.  Pray for me hahahha.  Everyone was dressed in traditional clothing and there were some performances that were all in a different language but they were entertaining anyways.  

The missionary work here is awesome.  We struggle getting people to come to church though.  People dont have the money or cars to travel to the church.  We try to teach people that are close to the church but it can still be difficult.  We are working with one lady named Gugu (the names here make me laugh. Another lady is named Dudu). She is so awesome.  She struggles to come to church because of work but she is trying to get a new job so that she can go to church.  She lives in a section of the town that we cant go to because it is unsafe so we teach her at the chapel.  She walks like a mile just to meet with us which is awesome.  People sacrifice so much here to learn about Jesus Christ.  That is just one of the stories of the people that sacrifice.  

The kids in the picture below are very cute but also very frustrating.  They just run into our apartment and take our stuff! So annoying but they dont know any better.  Well I am doing well out here.  When times get tough I just think back to the fact that we live on an earth and breath the invisible air.  Pretty crazy if you think about it.  God loves you all.  He sent his son to suffer on our behalf.  He send his perfect son to suffer for us humans who are very stupid and always mess up.  That is just one of the ways he shows his love.  I love you all so much.  The pic of the goats is pretty representative of life here.  Goats and chickens just roam the streets and eat trash.  Also the gross stuff on the floor of that other pic is cow skin from the cow head we ate.  Nasty.  The pic of the little kids is just a fam that we eat dinner at.  The food we eat there is amazing.  Love you all and keep doing great things!

Week 2 in Umlazi-September 18, 2017

Well another week down in Umlazi! It was a very interesting one this week.  It was a pretty quick week and I can definitely feel myself settling in here.  It has been a rainy and windy week so that kind of stinks.  There is a ton of trash here in the streets so when it is windy it blows everywhere and is quite nasty. But besides the weather it has been a great and quick week! 

We are super lucky here in umlazi because we have dinner appointments every night.  On Sunday we literally ate 3 different dinners which killed me.  The food was amazing and all but it was just so much! The members are so willing to feed us which is awesome.  Everyone feeds us chicken and rice with some curry stuff.  It is all super tasty.  The soda here is great as well. It is very different but I try not to drink too much.  We stayed with some other elders in our are for the majority of this week which was fun. The elders we stayed with are hilarious and have really given me some great advice for the future.  

The poverty here continues to amaze me.  Such humble people with such an amazing belief in god and Jesus Christ. Church was great this week! It is supposed to be an english ward but most people still speak in Zulu so I just smile and nod most of the time.  It can be a struggle sometimes but I am trying to learn zulu.  It has clicks in the language which is nuts but I am practicing every morning.  

This mission so far has been a very humbling experience and I am loving it.  I am reminded every day that I do not know everything and I have so much to learn.  I am really focusing on faith this week.  Faith is an action word.  by that I mean that faith should make you want to act on something.  If it is a faith in God you should exercise that faith and try to come closer to him each day.  These next two years are not going to be easy but I have faith that I can get through it all! 

Thanks to everyone for the love and support this week.  It really means a lot and I can feel the love all the way from Africa.  Have a great week everyone! Love you! 

didnt take many pics this week.  More coming next week tho!