Elder Kaden Smith: December 28, 2016

Hello Everyone and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Time is Flying in Mthatha and I hit 4 months on Christmas Day! Here's been the week...

This past week and a half have been interesting.

The week of the 19-24 was quite slow because many of the people we teach were on holiday with family either to East London, Durban, the Rurals, or elsewhere. We ended up teaching a lot with members and less actives which kept us busy. We've been working especially with Brother Madlala to get him back to church. We've gotten to know him well and he loves meat. He's a butcher at Spar Grocery Store and it's his passion. He always likes to talk about it. We've been trying the past few weeks on inviting him to come to church and we're still working but soon I think he'll be back. His wife and kid's come so we need your prayers and so does his family so that they may all be able to attend church together!

Sunday was Christmas and it was a very fun Sunday! We only had sacrament meeting at 9:00 and then everyone chatted and visited with each other for about another hour taking pictures and enjoying the day! It was a wonderful service too but I'll miss the Christmas hymns we've been singing since November :(

Brother Albert also brought his daughter and grandson to church who were here visiting from Pretoria. It was a great Sunday for them to attend and his daughter expressed genuine interest in learning more about the church so we'll be visiting them before they go back today and we'll help her find the church in Pretoria so she can hopefully one day be taught and baptized. Brother Albert is the best and did a great job blessing the sacrament again, it's fun to see him progress as he continues learning and loving the gospel.

Sunday was exciting and different because after church we went home and ate a great meal that Mama Mbilase prepared for us to take back to our boarding with chicken, beef, and traditional Xhosa salads and dishes- and even a cake.

4:00 we headed over to Makhulu (grandma or old lady) Jafta's house for a Christmas dinner with her family and it was another wonderful Xhosa meal and she even made home made ginger (drink) which was the best! We sung Feliz Navidad (courtesy of Elder Hernandez) for them, and just when I couldn't eat more we headed over to the Mbonyanas.

6:00 I called my family at the Mbonyanas and had a nice chat with them for an hour and then went inside to eat peanut butter soup and hard pap that President Boateng made. Peanut Butter Soup is the BEST and hopefully I can learn how to make it so I can eat it when I'm home haha.

We got home by curfew and were stuffed to the brim so we enjoyed the night by retiring to our beds.

Monday we were planning on emailing but unfortunately it was Day of Goodwill (SA public holiday) so the email shop was closed, but fortunately that meant we got to leave for coffee bay sooner!

Coffee Bay is the most beautiful place on this earth (maybe, I still havent seen everything in SA yet....) The Indian Ocean is so clear and blue and because it's summer in was soo much more green than the first time I went. We really enjoyed our time hiking around and seeing hole in the rock.

Tuesday we had the annual Deep Cleaning for the boardings in the mission so we spent all day cleaning and I must admit it was a lot of work but it is done!!! Hopefully it stays that way for the next year haha!

On to this week now and until next!

Elder Smith