(No photos due to slow internet)
Hello again from Mthatha!
This past week has been pretty good.
Monday we started again at the mountain exploring some more. On our drive up the other elders tried to stop us and we didn't see them stop- but they had just seen a bunch of baboons (yes there are baboons in the forests and trees so unfortunately I missed them
:( but if I see them sometime I'll take pictures for you all.
This week we had been praying for new investigators and people to teach and we were able to get some new ones these past two weeks which has been wonderful. Much thanks to the Majezi family. They are a wonderful member family and they are some of the best member missionaries I know! We're teaching about 10 new people and 6 seem to be progressing towards baptism and they have baptismal dates in December so that'll be nice if they all are prepared.
Yesterday we confirmed one of the Bikitsha boys and I ordained Albert to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. It's wonderful to see how he is progressing and growing in the gospel. Hopefully he'll have a calling soon and it'll be nice to see him continue growing and growing.
We also did a fun finding activity in the Afrikaner town of Ugie, it's a ways outside of Mthatha up on top of a beautiful mountain (where I took my "kingdom" pic) look it up on google earth or something. It's interesting tracting and being around Afrikaners because they are much different than the Xhosa people. Many we met with were friendly, but when it came to talking about the gospel they were quite frank, short, and blunt with their rejections haha but it was nice. We started about 12:00 and got done about 5:00. We gave away about 30 restoration pamphlets and 2 book of mormons as a district. We were on splits part of the time so I was with Elder Hernandez and our fellowshipper for the day Misouli.
I've been studying all over the scriptures but I've really fallen in love with the book of Proverbs and Leviticus, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. I've read/studied Isaiah twice now and there are many wonderful teachings and lessons we can learn. I really like his use of parables and his poetic form on how he teaches. It's all thanks to my wonderful seminary teacher Brother Manis. I've also been studying the New Testament and BoM simultaneously. In the new testament I started at Matthew and I've now reached the Book of Mark. It's wonderful to read about the saviour's life and his teachings. I really love the parables he teaches because there is so much to learn, like the parable of the dirty cup as he's teaching the Pharisees and the parable of the husbandsmen and the sower etc etc. His teachings are wonderful and I like how the book of mark is another account of these teachings. The book of mormon I've been studying now in the 2nd book of Nephi and it's great to also read the parallels Nephi uses with Isaiah.
One thing I've realized here in Mthatha is the lord really does protect and care for his missionaries and it wouldn't be the same without all of the prayers from back home. It's wonderful to see how all of your prayers have helped not only our safety but the amount of investigators we've been able to find and helping them progress towards baptism.
Our sacrament attendance yesterday was 100!!!!!!!! that's more than the branch has ever had so if that continues the likelihood that the branch could become a ward next year is very high!
Keep the prayers coming and I thank you all for them. The work is going forward splendidly.
Until next time!
Elder Smith
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