March 27, 2017

45.5 C (114 F) Hot Hot Hot, the next day was cold and rainy

Brother Mgagula's Birthday!!

Donkey carts we see all the time

Elder and Sister Stubbs from Paragonah

Our recent convert's friends she's been inviting to lessons

P Day township recording with Elder Greengrass

Hello everyone,

Well 7 months is by and by now so times just flying. Elder Milne and myself only have about two more weeks together we predict so we're trying to make the most of what we have left. 

Monday I was with Elder Greengrass helping him record a song he wrote the lyrics to and I helped write the lyrics. Hopefully we'll be able to send that home sometime if it sounds decent.... we recorded it in one of his less active's home recording studios. 

Tuesday-Friday we were busy with the work, trying to find and making sure those we are teaching are progressing and keeping the commitments we give them. This week we took another one of our recent converts fellowshipping named Phillip. He is such a stud and actually walked with some of our investigators to church which was awesome! We hope he'll be able to serve mission because he'd be an awesome missionary. 

We were teaching one of our best investigators Sive and he invited his friend Carl to join us. Carl is very interested in the gospel and with these two guys they're really struggling with peer pressure and the influence of the world during teenage years. I really liked when Carl said, "I feel like the world is getting so bad and I think I was born to stand out." it was awesome. We talked that the gospel and light of Christ really helps one stand out among the crowd and how when we follow god's commandments he will shape us into who we want to become. The gospel allows us to stand out. Further in the lesson we were talking about repentance and he had another comment, he had asked if he can repent everyday and we said "of course!" He was super excited and was yelling "Yes Jesus I never knew that!!!" haha, oh it was funny but very true. It's awesome he realized he can repent anytime of day if he has a sincere heart and wants that change to take place in his life. We taught that repentance is a daily thing and as we confess our sins to god with a willing heart and real intent to change, God will be able to forgive us. 

Saturday we had Zone Conference with President Merrill and it was a very wonderful conference and we also watched 2016 and 17 worldwide broadcast's for missionaries. The 2017 one is very awesome because we learn from the Apostles and church leaders in one of their weekly meetings in the church office building and it's a very awesome setting for the training. What was amazing is because it was just one of their meetings, Elder Bednar opened with a prayer and it's amazing to hear the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ pray because that is something we so rarely have the chance to see. Many times we just hear their words in General Conference. 

Speaking of General Conference because our chapel has a satellite receiver I'm excited to watch some of the sessions live! 

Sunday we had our interviews with President Merrill and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet with him. He is an amazing guy and I'm going to miss him when he leaves in July but I'm excited to learn from the new president. 

Sunday evening we celebrated Brother Mgagula's birthday and we had a wonderful dinner and cake! Wohoo!

Unfortunately though Zwide area will be shut down for a time so Elder Allred is flying out today to his new area, Fish Hoek, and Elder Lane will be driving to his new area later this week, Knysna. It's sad they'll be leaving but we're all young so we'll probably be together again at some point. 

All in all a very good week and we're excited to see what this week has in store! Hopefully not 114 F heat again followed by a day of cold cold rain. Port Elizabeth is very bipolar with it's weather. It keeps us on our toes though! 

Until Next Week!

Elder Smith