RYNFIELD WEEK 2

Thank you guys so much for all of the letters and emails, it is really nice to be able to hear from everyone. I got my birthday package on Friday, thanks so much everybody! I also got the letters from most of you guys at home. So the way mail works for us is a little weird, basically I won't get your letters and things when they arrive in South Africa. The way that is works is that it all gets sent to the mission office and then once a week the Area Presidents deliver the mail to the ZL's (Zone leaders) and then they give it out to the missionaries in their zones on Fridays. Also sometimes when you send packages the postage doesn't always cover the full amount so i have to pay the difference. Like the package i just got cost me 33 rand...which is like $3 USD so it isn't a big deal. But seriously thank you guys so much, I love the letters, I save all of them in my desk drawer, and I will work on getting some out to you guys at home. This Friday i will be picking up all of your Christmas presents and I will ship some letters home with them.

Last week I forgot to tell you guys that our neighbors have a pet pig, it is this little black thing that is just always running around in there back yard. I also forgot to tell you guys about some of the other Elders in our district that we hang out with. Elder Mcallister and Elder Neuenschwander are some of my favorite missionaries here. We share the care with them so we see them all the time. Mcallister is really goofy and fun, and me and Elder Neunschwander are basically the exact same person so we get along really well (He is from Provo, not germany but I think he did live there for a while).

This week I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I spent the night in Springs with Elder Tag (He is from Zimbabwe and i can't really say his name well so i just call him Elder Tag). Springs was really cool actually, but it is CRAZY. It basically has town, township and city all in the same area. We got to teach in township which was a nice experience, they are such humble and accepting people. We went tracting in Town and got chased by dogs and yelled at by angry Afrikaners (whites). And then in the city we got to teach these awesome guys names Mike, Freddy, Zabron and Lovejoy. Basically I was the only white guy in the whole apartment complex haha, the place was huge too. I haven't been in too many apartment complexes but the few i have been in remind me of what you would expect to see in New York i guess you could say. They are basically just huge mazes with tons of stairs and tons of people living there. They aren't all that clean either and that is all I will say for mom's sake haha. I also got to drive around the city and that was a weird experience too. The traffic is really heavy and there are just tons of people walking around. We ended up driving right through the middle of a taxi hub (i don't really know what to call it, it is just where all the taxis-15 passenger vans-are parked and leave from. Here I am driving on the left side of the road through heavy traffic, with taxis darting in and out everywhere (they drive however they want here haha) and then there are seriously probably hundreds of people just walking through traffic and everywhere else. It was fun though and i really like getting to see new areas.

I love you guys and miss you guys so much, hopefully everyone gets better. Last couple of things, basically everything mom read about people going to the bathroom everywhere is true it is really weird haha. Also i think it is possible for places to be uphill both ways in South Africa because we are honestly always riding our bikes uphill and sometimes through crazy traffic too haha. Overall though South Africa is awesome, honestly sometimes I forget that I am here but we will just be walking through a huge field or see crazy animals and it will hit me that I am not in the US anymore. The best part about South Africa so far has just been that on a daily basis I see something that leaves me thinking where the heck am I, like yesterday i saw this guy pushing another guy through the McDonalds drive-thru in a shopping cart with three wheels. Africa is crazy...love you guys.

Dad- We might actually get to go golfing soon, hopefully in Pretoria, it is way cheap there (like 200 rand for four people with carts). We actually have a golf course in our area and i wish you could see the animals that live on it, there are these crazy birds and almost like a mix of a deer and a gazelle (Springboks).

Mom-Love you mom :)

Logan- Congrats on the job and good job on the ACT man. Thanks for the birthday letter. Miss you bro.

Taylor- I kinda of already answered this, but they do have McDonald's here haha and i found out that Romans pizza (I think i told you about it last email) is actually Little Caesars. 

Abby-I hope everything is going good for you, I love your emails. You are my favorite dork haha miss you abby.

Madi- Thank you so much for your card and letter, I am keeping it forever. I love that you wrote the address yourself.

Lindsey- You are awesome! I can't believe that you can read in chinese!

Squib- Still the cutest, and I love that you bark at the Lizard haha