Week 25 (about)

What is up everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the snow, oh Idaho is the best. Suid Afrika has been great, super great. The work here is insane! definitely a celestial area, with hard work haha. we found out this is the biggest area in the mission, which means we have a lot of pressure form zone leaders, Assistants, and President. However, pressure is good, it keeps us from getting lazy. This week has been so busy! every day has been nonstop. We had appointment basically every hour. People are really progressing also, which makes me so happy! I know I haven't written a letter in a couple weeks, Askies, I am trying to improve! 

To fill you in on the last few weeks, things have been smooth. My companion and I both caught the flu, which slowed us down a little bit, but eish, we pushed through because it sucks cancelling appointments. I feel like it is part of missionary work, to push through and work hard!

   We had a baptism last week for our friend Zefa. He is so powerful. He basically taught himself, and wants to come out with us every friday and be a missionary. He is new here to South Afrika, he is from The Congo, so we have been trying to find him some friends. 

    One thing I realised this week is that the friends you surround yourself with can have a huge effect on you. He said if his friends come over, or want him to go out, then they will buy alcohol for him, and pressure him. We heard the same thing from our friend Sipho. Zefa has been strong and completely stopped hanging out with these friends after he told them he is trying to change his life. And wow, what a change we have seen in him! South Africans are wild, they will pay for their friends beer, but will NEVER buy food for them! its crazy, but hey, it is Africa.

The highlight of this week was Sunday. We a busy day! we had Zefas' confirmation, and then had to rush over to the other chapel to meet the people we are teaching. This week we had 17 people at sacrament, which was great. we are hoping to give many of them a baptismal date this upcoming week. All in all, this place is doing really great, even though most of it is a town, not a township. I look forward to the next few weeks, and see what the Lord has in store for us. Ngiyathanda all of you! 

Elder High

Pictures:

1) Zefas' baptism, with most of the youth in Rabie Ridge

2) my comp and I, living life smiling.

3) first "hot dog" in South Africa! It was too good

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Rhinos - The mythical beings

I might write a letter later, but too lazy right now. Here are some pictures from our adventure today. We went to a different park, which was about 50 rand but we were able to drive through it all, and couldn't get out of the car due to dangerous animals. We saw so many zebras there, they are like horses. We saw some other antelope things, ostriches, water buffalo, but no Rhinos!! I swear we drove everywhere searching for them, but they are a myth. Rhinos are not real animals I promise you. It was still really fun, and a nice relaxing P-day activity. These are pictures with the new camera, so I hope they are good quality!

Zebras and giraffes

Hola! Well, hope everyone had a great christmas! Let me tell ya, christmas was sooo weird on mission! Not only am I in a new area and dont know many people yet, but there's no snow here! It's actually just sunny and really hot! For christmas we had a braai and just relaxed. There was a ton of people there. Some went swimming and we were about to but...  oh yeah we are missionaries! Oh well, we went to play some rugby with some of the guys there instead. It was really fun, I always enjoy playing some rugby. But yeah, wow it doesn't feel like christmas without snow, so appreciate it! 

    As for missionary work, it has been a slow week because of christmas and the rules we have to follow. However, we were able to find 6 new people and give 2 people baptism dates which was very unexpected but led by the spirit! We saw miracles performed this week in so many small ways. God works in some weird ways sometimes! From actually going to talk to what we thought were 'drunk guys trying to waste our time' to us deciding to talk to these ones, and finding out they are members. And one wants us to teach his wife, which delayed us 10 minutes and as we are driving off we see a member from the ward doing missionary work!! So many things this week that strengthened my testimony. I know God plans everything, even the details in life, and we should always listen to the spirit to help guide us.

Anyways, that's my week, it was great. We also some some wildlife which was pretty neat! 

Have a great new year!

Elder High

Midrand

Hola! well, I survived transfer day which was super crazy and am now in Midrand! Transfer day was so crazy because a) we had transfers. duh. b) we had a zone conference with all the mission except like 10 elders in Eswatini. and c) we had the christmas program immediately after zone conference!! there were so many people there, but I was able to see many friends that I have made on mission. Well, midrand. A very interesting place. There are not many houses here, mainly huge apartment buildings which are on complete lockdown. It is super hard to actually do missionary work because of this. to enter into them you have to show them your ID and they scan it, they scan a barcode on our car, take down the license plate number, and we have to give them a number that a person that we are visiting sends to us. THEN they will call the flat of the person and ask if we can come in. then we are in!!! I've never been in a more secure place in my life. Even for our complex we have a fingerprint scanner at the gate to enter and to leave. LUCKILY, we have 3 wards and a branch, including three other areas of the mission. Centurion 1 and 2, and part of Rabie Ridge which is a township!! it is super nice to have town, and township in our area. it's the best. 

We taught some powerful people this week. One is a part member family of a member who has been less active for 10 years. he still has his testimony but got "Too Busy". anyways he wants to start coming back to church after running into one of our missionaries who is a doctor and spends most of his time at the hospital. This member has a son who has severe Epilepsy, and has spent more than half of his life in the hospital. He is 18 months old and is now home with them, with a nurse there 24/7. He has had many trials in his life, but has not given up. even after being told multiple times that his son will pass away, he never gave up. His wife is not a member and she has been very interested in the church. They are a sweet, kind, loving family. Wish I could share more about my week but I don't have too much time! Love you all, keep fighting and trusting the Lord!!

Love, Elder High

Week 19 - 1st transfer

Hello everybody! hope everything is going well. Let me tell you, this has been a crazy week. It has been my last week here in Kwa-Thema :( I kind of expected it but wasn't 100% sure. Anyhow, we found 11 new people this week. We also had an end of year party for institute. We had cold drink and kotas! it is truly amazing how institute has changed recently. a couple months ago there would only be 3-5 people that would attend. this wednesday we had 22 people who came! it was great. We had fun, and a spiritual time.

Now, the crazy part of the week. So, I was expecting transfer calls this saturday! Usually our Mission President calls us on Saturday night and lets us know if we are leaving, where to, and who our new companion is. well, This was a huge transfer, and the President had to think really hard where to put me ;). So he said the transfer news would be sunday morning. To me it didn't matter when i knew, as long as it was before church on Sunday. I knew this would be the last time I would see the people here in Kwa-Thema. And wow. After being around these people for almost 6 months, this is my family. I genuinely love these people. Well, we got another message saying transfer news will be postponed to Sunday night! at this point I'm freaking out haha. I don't know if I am staying or leaving! I didn't know if i should say goodbyes or not! well, I decided to say goodbye, I bore my testimony, and took pictures with everyone. It was very sad, but I was pretty sure I was leaving. 

Well, come Sunday night: We are just playing some board games with Kwa-Thema 2, and they get a call from President, Elder Mathenjwa is getting transferred! Well, I wait..and I wait... and WAIT MORE. Nothing. I got no call. Ohhh no. I said goodbye, got mentally prepared to leave and I stay!! happy and sad at the same time lolol. well, Late that night the Assistants to President send pictures of the transfer news. I check Kwa-Thema, and my name is not there!!!! what?? I was so confused. I look for my name and.....it is under Midrand!! the emotions for that 4 hours were all over the place, let me tell you. 

I am happy to know where I am going, Midrand is a super rich town. But, We have three wards in our area!! which is crazy. I'm super excited to be serving in a new area and to experience new things. I love you all and the support that you have shown me. Happy holidays!!

With love, Elder High

Week 18

This whole keeping up with writing emails is more difficult than you may think! I am so sorry that I haven't written one in a couple weeks or so. I wrote one out for last week and forgot to send it...:) so here is two letters in one. Hope you enjoy!

Hello everybody, and happy late Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great time and are lots of food :) Here in South Africa we don't celebrate Thanksgiving (which makes sense) and we don't have anything quite like it. But it's all good! I'm so glad that we are able to facetime our families on holidays. It was great to see everyone. I miss you all but eish I'm glad I'm here where it is warm! 

    My Thanksgiving was really great. I ate some food and played some games with the other elders, which is always a great time. Right now we have a super close district which makes everything better. The work is great, and they are like best friends to me. But yeah that was thanksgiving! 

    This has been a really, really great week. We have been so busy with appointments that we didn't have time set apart for finding, which truly is a blessing. With the weather right now it is super exhausting to be finding in mid day. This week we also planned an activity for the ysa on Saturday which was super fun! we put it together to do something fun for the YSA, and to help the less-actives to return back to church! I would call it a success. the YSA said they had a ton of fun, and we had a few less-actives come to church!! I'll try to find some pictures of the activity to send.  

Well, here's the next letter about this last week, which was super great. This week we had a lot of ups, and a lot of downs. a lot. Tuesday started super strong. we had a super packed day of appointments that all went through! Wednesday rolled around and we had another packed day. We were leaving at 9am to get to an early appt. and got to the car, tried to start it and it wouldn't! not a surprise (it's a chevy, american car in SA) We jumped it 4 other times last week, so we tried to jump it. It wouldn't. so we called a tow truck, which was great. We got towed to a battery centre and they said its a starter. long story short, we were stranded in the wrong locations for hours, couldn't reach insurance because of weather, and a waste of a busy day. We finally got it to another shop and got it fixed! Here in South Afrika it has been raining for the past week, nonstop. No joke, it hasn't stopped! 

     

Besides the rain and the car we had a lot of ups. One was a wedding! we planned a wedding, which for future reference to hire me to plan a wedding... Wow haha. We had like 1 day notice to get everything planned, which might be the quickest wedding in history. But, everything went really smooth! So that was friday, and then she ( Thobeka) asked if she could get baptized Saturday morning because she leaves town sunday. Ok sure!! so we planned it, again with short notice and had a great baptism Saturday. They are a great family. Sunday they got confirmed and left for Eastern Cape. 

I am so grateful for everyone, and my Saviour Jesus Christ. Right now is such a special time. Those who usually aren't religious are able to feel the holy spirit that surrounds Christmas time. It is such a great time to touch other peoples lives. Light the World that the Church is putting on is so simple, and can literally change someone's life. I invite you all to Light the World this Christmas season by remembering why we celebrate Christmas. We can all be missionaries, invite your friends to church services, be a friend. Even less-active members, remind them of Christ by serving, it will make a difference. I look forward to the next week, maybe my last week here in Kwa-Thema, but we will see :)

Love you all, Elder High

Week 17

Hello everybody!!! hope y'all are enjoying the cold weather in the states! it has been raining this whole week which is super surprising. A lot of people think that South Africa doesn't get rain... well, they do. Quite a bit! I love the rain, because all of the plants and grass that was brown is now becoming green! 

     This week has been one of the best weeks of my life. It all started on Sunday when we had a Multi-stake conference in Midrand with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was amazing. there were over 7,000 people in attendance, when they were only expecting 5,000. Just to put into perspective the church growth here in South Africa, In 1980, almost 40 years ago, there were less than 8,000 people part of the church here. Now the member number is almost to 70,000! just in South Africa. how crazy.

What was super cool about this conference was a guest speaker. Her name is Judith Mahglangu From.... KWA-THEMA. she is a returned missionary part of our ward here. She did amazing, so amazing that Elder Holland Called her up to talk to her, and kissed her on the forehead. One thing she spoke about was her mission in Uganda. She said that every night she would write in her journal, and on hard days she would finish it by saying \, " I have not come this far to come this far." This applies to life. we have not put in this much effort to just turn around and give up. For example, a job. we all have bad days. But, have we gone to school, worked our way up the ranks to just give up? or church. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the gospel, feeling like we know nothing or that others are better than us. It could even be the calling you have, and how much stress it gives you. However, you have not put in that much effort, had those experiences to just turn around and give up on God. That is NOT His plan. We are all different, and God knows that. It is ok!! He will never give us a trial that we can overcome. 

On monday, Elder Holland met with the whole mission and part of the Botswana mission. What an incredible experience. I will never forget that day. I wish I could share the things that he spoke to us about, but they really are too sacred to speak of them. I will Share some of my feelings I had. Elder Holland shared his testimony of the Church being the true church of Jesus Christ. I felt as though Elder Holland used every single word, every phrase he could use to help us know that these things are true. I have never heard an apostle plea for us to believe in Jesus Christ and the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like he did. And I will tell you after hearing him speak I do not have a doubt in my mind that this is Jesus Christs' church, that he leads it and that the apostles and prophets truly do receive revelation from Him. These are smart, educated, successful people who have devoted their WHOLE LIVES to help us follow Jesus. It is not a joke, and it is real. 

The rest of the week was amazing. We are still working with many people who are progressing. We had 2 people confirmed members and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. we are also hoping to have 2 more this upcoming Sunday. I love this area. Yo, I love this world God created, its super cool to think about everything he made. I know Jesus Christ lives, and guides his church in these Latter-Days. Enjoy your week!

Elder High

Pics: 

1) Picture of Joburg while heading to the temple. We got lost and it was pretty crazy :)

2) Banele who was just baptized. He comes to the chapel every time he sees us there, because he lives right across the street from it.