May 29, 2017

Hey everyone!

KwaMagxaki is the Best! But time is flying right by...

This week has been powerful with a lot of appointments. But we started out by having a giant braai as a zone. We bought tons of chicken, beef, boerewors, cool drink, and chips. Man was it good. After we just went and threw around a frisbee and kicked around a soccer and rugby ball. It was pretty nice for a P-Day.

But for the work it's been a lot of member visits and working with investigators. We're trying to get a family mission plan started in each family so the members can get more involved with the work. It will hopefully help them catch the vision of missionary work and not only help them, but help us.

The best part of the week was Zuko, Aphelele, and Yolanda's baptism! It's been great to work with these people and see the conversion and have them come unto Christ. It was really cool because Yolanda's mom came from Joburg to support and she isn't a member but we were able to leave her with materials and a way to contact the missionaries that side. Pretty fun stuff. Zuko had his uncle (Bishop) baptize him, and Aphelele wanted Vusi (one of our awesome fellowshippers) to baptize her, and Yolanda wanted me to baptize her. So there was a lot of cold wet people haha. It'll be great next week to have them recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost and for Zuko to be able to receive the Priesthood. 

Two more weeks here in KwaMagxaki! 

Elder Smith

Elder Smith, Bishop (Baptizing Zuko), Aphelele, Zuko, Yolanda, Vusi (Baptizing Aphelele), and Elder Reedy

May 28, 2018

Hey everyone, 

This week has been quite busy

Monday was nice, finished learning Clair de Lune by Debussy. On to Chopin haha

Tuesday and Wednesday were busy days. We've been able to find some more fathers to teach. Hopefully someday they'll progress toward baptism. 

Thursday we went to the airport but the back road there were protests and burning tires so we had to take the long way through town. But I got to the airport and was on my way to Cape Town. The flight was decent but we've changed airlines so no free snacks... that's quite sad... 

Anyway got to cape town with Elder Reedy. We had some nice appointments in the evening. It was fun to be in Cape Town again and Mowbray is a cool area because it encompasses all of the city all around table mountain. 

Friday was nice, we were busy, more so fighting traffic but we had some nice appointments. Good food too at our DA. We also had district meeting and I got to see elder Palavi again. Fun stuff. 

Saturday we mowed a guys lawn and then got to the airport and I was on my way back to East London. Saturday we had some great appointments... 

Sunday was a day of mixed emotions, Church was nice and we got to speak in Ward 4, after church we watched a portion of the YSA devotional with Elder Kearon. We found out as well that one of the brothers in the ward, Brother Gadlela, had passed away from a stroke in the hospital just then so we visited his sister. We also had a great DA with the Makekes

Well for the last week of the transfer, I'll find out transfer news this coming Saturday.

Until next week

Elder Smith

May 22, 2017

Time really flies, especially in KwaMagxaki. 9 months this week Thursday, pretty crazy stuff, where has the time gone??

Monday we went back to Baywest Mall and did some more bowling as a district but our scores were worse, oh well. We also did some skee-ball and air hockey and arcade games so it was a fun P-Day.

Transfer news came on Saturday in regards to the special 3 week transfer in preparation for President Merrill's leave, 

Good News! I'll be here at least another three weeks!!! Elder Reedy and I are super happy to have these next three weeks. 

We actually got a ward mission leader now who's a returned missionary and actually served at Elder Macamo's (our Zone Leader) house haha in Joburg, but he and ourselves have a great vision for the ward and I think we're going to ramp up the work even more! 

One of the best things is our baptismal candidates passed their interviews and one of them, Zuko, is awesome. He's 24 and a super hard working guy and he'll be a powerful priesthood holder. I can't wait for the 3 baptisms this upcoming Sunday!! 

It's amazing how fruitful this area has become and we hope to get it up even more! Elder Reedy and I have figured it all works best when we're equally yoked and as we both pull the same we can really push ourselves.

I went on exchanges with Elder Lillback and we had a great time and watched a funny brawl between two drunk guys. On the exchange though I found I have some relatives here in SA, the Du Toit family! It was a pretty funny to have dinner with family lol. It's great because we'll be working together on our family history and our pooled efforts will help with not only the genealogy but the temple work! We are both related to the same about 10th great grandfather, the first Du Toit's in South Africa. 

Exciting stuff happening! Until next week!

Elder Smith

Elder Smith shares a little Xhosa

May 15, 2017

This week has been powerful, well the past two weeks in general. Elder Reedy and I have really been working on our goal setting and planning and obedience. It's really proved amazing. 

We've been able to take our investigator pool and now it is almost all males over 12 and one father led family with 4 sons. It's pretty amazing. 

As we've worked with the members our relationship with them and their motive to do missionary work has slowly grown. The only side effect is getting fed too much. It's being quite detrimental to how we feel. We got fed 4 unplanned D.A's in one day and it's been like that most of the days... 

But aside, the work here is amazing and I would wish I could stay for a few more months but who knows what the Lord has in store, but there's too much good work going on to leave... 

We've been able to take our RC Sive out fellowshipping and he's loving it. We take him quite often now and he wants to serve a mission so bad. He'd be an awesome missionary and he, our other recent converts Jr, and Khanyiso received the priesthood yesterday which was awesome as well. It's exciting to see how well the work is. 

Elder Ondracek and I had a nice exchange last Thursday and I had my first experience teaching coloured people which was much different because they are Afrikaans speaking. 

Calling home was nice, it was interesting to see how people changed though... two years is a long time but it is flying waay too fast. Well, besides staying busy with appointments, the work is awesome here in KwaMagxaki so until next week!

Elder Smith

May 8, 2017

This week has flown by! 

We started out the week with a slower P-Day, but my district checked out the beautiful super tiny little Afrikaner town of Redhouse in our area next to KwaMagxaki. It has a beautiful ocean inlet and very beautiful houses. 

The rest of the week was packed full of things! Elder Reedy and myself have been focused on our planning and goals and we've really seen the blessings of it! We had 47 lessons total and it was definitely because of our planning. It's exciting to see the progress of the area!

Aside from being busy busy not much crazy things have happened. Tuesday we had 4 dinner appointments which was very spiritually and physically filling haha. On Saturday we went to the Relief Society's birthday party they held for the 175th year. It's awesome the programs the church has. Without the Relief Society the church would not be what it is today. It has done so much good in the world and continues it all areas of the world. 

Sunday we confirmed Jr and it was awesome. He's a great kid and there's so much in store, Sive will get confirmed next Sunday. Another cool thing is Khanyiso may be called to be the ward mission leader which would be awesome! It's cool to see these guys growing in the gospel.

We also found a massive snail before district meeting in Uitenhage, (snails here are big but this one was titan) and we named our car the Jolly Afrikaner.

Well I get to skype this sunday! I'm excited for that! Until next week

Elder Smith

May 1, 2017

This week was a fun and busy week.

Monday we went into PE for P-Day and went to the mega-mall Baywest. It's a gigantic mall here and has everything from Ice Skating to Bowling and Imax (can't do until after mission). We had a great time and Elder Ondracek broke the high score for the day so he won a free bowling pass... we might have to go back haha. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Merrill in Uitenhage and then had a bunch of appointments afterwards and we got a bunch of work done. 

Wednesday we had an awesome Zone Conference with President Merrill and had a good time learning soooo much from him. I'm going to miss him when he leaves in July but I'm excited for what's in store. We learned a lot about goals, forgiveness, and everything in between. It was an awesome conference. We came back from PE and had the baptismal interviews for Sive, Jr. and Zuko, and Zuko wasn't ready to interview so we'll catch this week or next which will be awesome, but Sive and Jr. passed! We were really excited.

Thursday and Friday we were busy with a lot of appointments but also a lot of dropped appointments. Oh well, such is the work. 

On Saturday the ward had organised a Mormon Helping Hands project at our recent convert's house. We tore down one of the rooms and the doors and built a new room and put in new doors. We worked for about 8 hours, but the ward continued long after which was awesome. It was a good face for the church in the community and Sinovuyo's family is actually open to the gospel now so we'll be seeing them this week and they promised to come to church so hopefully we'll see them this coming Sunday. We also ate Smiley and Uluso (sheep head and intestines), it wasn't bad.... but it was what it was haha, nothing too special. 

Sunday was an awesome day! Sive and Jr. were baptized! They were so excited and it's exciting to see what their future in the church holds! They're going to be powerful priesthood holders someday! Well that's the week for now, a lot of work this coming!

Until next

Elder Smith

***Elder Smith also added: Thanks for working on the temple names, I know it's helping the work in white areas, the mission is doing really good right now, and it's fun living in Despatch and Uitenhage because most of the people/street names are those surnames so it's cool to wonder if they're related.

Baywest Bowling

Elder Reedy and the Mamas

Mormon Helping Hands

Sive and Jr.'s Baptism

Smiley (Boiled sheep's head)

The Mama's

The Young Men

The Young Women