December 16, 2013

             
 

Hey Guys!

It is good to hear from all of you! I just got some of your letters and packages this week. Thank you guys so much for the Christmas tree and the Cd's. They are great, except the arrows are weird haha and not okay for mission and the lower lights cd doesn't work unfortunately (maybe send me another one?). Madi thanks so much for all of your letters I save all of them, and thanks for the play mobiles they are on my desk too. Hopefully you guys will get your package before Christmas, I am not sure though. You can just open it when it gets there haha. I love you guys, tell mom that the South African Postal Service is just interesting (corrupt/sketchy) and is incredibly slow haha they also charge sometimes, I am not entirely sure why but it is always very cheap so no worries. I love the pictures of the girl"s and the dance looked fun, great job Madi and Abby! And Pim too!

So my week was interesting this week. It was my first transfer, and two of my favorite elders are now in different areas. I can't remember if i told you about that last week or not, but Elder Hansen and Elder Neunschwander are gone. I am here in Rynfield until at least February, but most likely even longer after that. It is a great area, a little slow, but a great area. The ward here has been incredibly kind to us and so many of the members have already given us Christmas presents filled with food. I thought i would lose weight in South Africa, but not in Rynfield. We have been teaching a fair amount of lessons, December is a slow time for us though. Everyone is on Holiday, but those that are still here are a little more receptive to hearing a message centered around our Savior this time of year. We usually teach at least one or two investigator lessons per day, as well as a recent convert or less active member lesson. To finish each day we usually have dinner appointment at a member's home, and after that we head back to the flat to plan and go to bed. So generally we teach about 4-5 lessons a day, which is good-ish but it some areas they will almost double that. Things have been going well, we are working with quite a few investigators and some are progressing very well. We have two baptisms scheduled for next month, but we are still working with them (Simon and Telmor). I really love the people here and Simon and Telmor are both great guys. I honestly really hope that we can continue to help them move forward towards the covenants of baptism and the blessings that come along with it. We are also teaching the grandchildren of my favorite Recent Convert, I am amazed by how much they know and I always look forward to getting to visit Duma and Dumelo.

I have a few funny stories from this week. We were stuck without the bikes for part of the week, the Benoni Elder's that we share the bikes with (Elder Stephens and Elder Mcallister) accidentally popped the tire on one of them and we had no way of fixing it. So we walked our area for a good part of the week. We have a fairly large area and sometimes our appointments are spread out. This week while we were walking we had a lot of our scheduled appointments cancel, which means a lot more walking and a lot more tracking. Tracting is always interesting because you never know who you will meet and we get to have some crazy conversations haha. This week when our appointments cancelled we had to walk back all the way across our area, We thought we knew a shortcut though and we followed htis trail through a field. We ended up walking through mud up to my knees in some spots...The pictures I am sending are only of my shoes. We are also teaching this woman named Mamike, she is a very sweet lady but her kids are insane. They just climb all over us throughout the whole time that we are there. There are like six of them, so picture Elder Wheatley and I trying to teach about the restoration while we have these kids on our backs and taking my tie off and stealing my name tag and bag haha it is actually pretty fun.

This week was a little rough on the mission as a whole, we have had a few car accidents in the mission. I knew three of the elders involved in a fairly serious rollover accident, and one is actually a very good friend of mine. We held a mission wide fast for their healing, so if you could remember the Kempton Park Elders and their families in your prayers it would be nice. Kempton park borders my area so I know them fairly well. The other elders in our flat actually got into a car accident yesterday, but it was only a fender bender nothing serious.

It was great to hear from you guys, I can't wait to be able to Skype you guys. I will be able to email you the day before (23rd) to finalize everything. I love you all and miss you so much.

Elder Malloy

Mom-I love you mom, thanks for the packages and the notes! :)

Dad-I will buy stuff then haha

Logan-Miss you brother, hope everything is going good for you

Taylor-What are you holding in that picture? I miss you too

Abby-I am sad to hear that you aren't learning about gibuses anymore, here is my fact for you, did you know it snowed in Egypt for the first time in over 100 years?

Madi-Hey Moose! I sent you a letter today so you will have to tell me when it gets to you!

Lindsey-Only 10 more days until you can have my skateboard, love you pim!

Sydney- You look so much bigger! I love you squib.

Dec 9, 2013

Hey Guys!

 

I love the Pictures of the snow you guys all look like you are having fun haha I especially like the redneck kayaking pictures. It is crazy that is snowed like that and especially the fact that they cancelled church haha that does have to be a first. Sidney is awesome, I love that she barks at the nativity. It is weird that Christmas is coming up, it is so hot here. It is the wet season here too, so it honestly rains every day. It will be hot until about 4 or 5 o'clock and then it will storm. Yesterday Elder Wheatley and I got caught out in a rainstorm while we were on our bikes, I will attach some pictures but they don't come close to showing how muddy and drenched we were. Madi thank you for all of your letters, I got three of them this week! It is honestly really nice to get letters, I love them haha I have all of them in a crate under my desk.

 

 

This week was actually a pretty slow week. On Tuesday I had to go to a New Missionary Orientation Meeting, it was actually nice because they give you a little bit of time out in the field to see how things are and then they call you back in and tell you how they should be. The meeting was nice, I actually learned a lot about South Africa and a lot about the kind of work we need to focus and how to carry myself as a Missionary. Following the meeting though my companion and I were stranded at the mission office for about 2 and half hours. We need to bring in one of the mission cars to be taken for a tune up and to have the battery checked (it had trouble starting) and they took it to the shop while we were in the meeting. After we finished they told us it would be a while before they got the car back to the office so we could drive home, we ended up just doing odd jobs for the senior couples until the car came back. Then we got lost driving around Johannesburg for a while trying to find our way home haha. It was an interesting day and it kind of sums up how the whole week went. I did get to spend some more time out of my area this week though. I was in a Township called Etwatwa, it is where I had my first Kota, but I can't remember if I had told you all about it. I love the area, I told you guys about the kids there and how funny they are. It is always a humbling experience to get to go into some of the homes in the area. We honestly are so blessed to have all the thing we do. I am touched by the kindness and generosity of the people towards us when they have so little. The best thing about Etwatwa is that you just always get to see something weird. To be honest there are a ton of drunks in the Area and they always love to come and talk to the missionaries. I had this one guy who was probably about 90 years old kiss my hand about ten times while I was shaking his, I have had kids try to steal my shoes haha, I have seen rats bigger than squeaker (Love you Grandma), and I have met some of the most genuinely friendly and happy people in the world. I am blessed to be in South Africa and I am here for a reason.

 

So there are a few more things that I forgot to mention about South Africa in my previous emails. They Love KFC here haha, like seriously there are more KFC's in South Africa than I have ever seen. It is dang good though haha, and really cheap here. Also not very many people have washers and dryers (in certain areas), but we at least have a washer but we hang dry all of our clothes. I think you guys would like the keys here, I will send pictures, they are really old fashioned (South Africa has an interesting mix of old and new). I am still adjusting to everything but I really do love the people here, I wish that you all could see the things I get to see on a daily basis. The few pictures that I send just don't do it justice, I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again.

 

Elder Malloy

 

Dad-So I am sending home Christmas Presents today, sorry it is probably going to be expensive don't hate me. I got to see part of the Houston Texans vs Jaguars game this week haha, it was on at a members house that we has to swing buy to pick up something.

 

Mom-I love you, thank you for the gratitude journal and the scripture marker...You're the best

 

Logan- Nice picture of you in the Kayak...Love you brother

 

Taylor-Also nice picture of you in the Kayak, and thanks so much for your email, Africa has been pretty good to me so far. How are you and the rest of the family?

 

Abby-I love you Abby! Write me a letter!

 

Madi-I hung your picture of the family up on my wall by my desk. I love you moose!

 

Pim-You are still awesome, I bet you had so much fun in the snow. I hung up one of your letters on my wall too. I love you.

 

Sidney-I love you Squib, I wish I could see you barking at the Nativity.

 

Tara- Thank you so much for the email, I love hearing from the family! Letters are great and so are emails. I love letters because I can keep them, but email is faster and easier on your end. I am glad that you guys enjoy the blog, sorry this week is a little lame haha

 

Mom+Dad- I forgot to mention this is my last letter, if you get the chance can you please send me my brown glasses, my nike sunglasses and my nike pro-combat sleeves? I know those sound like weird requests and no rush on them. Thank you guys, I love you. 

 

 

Dec 2, 2013

It is good to here from you guys! I am glad you all had a good Thanksgiving, funny story none of us knew it was Thanksgiving...we all thought it was last week. Thank you for the email to Sister Hugo, it was actually a really nice Thanksgiving dinner. We did have pumpkin pie, Elder Wheatley and I made it before dinner at the Hugo's. We ended up having Chicken instead of Turkey because it is expensive down here. You can literally buy like 5 chickens for the price of one turkey. Like I said it was a really nice dinner, the Elders from Benoni joined us for the dinner as well which was nice because they are my favourite elders in the area (Elders Mcallister and Neunschwander). I am glad that the snowman thing is still going on haha. Fast Sunday was a little funny actually. We ended up having to just walk our area because we didn't have the car and the other elders brought the bikes back with a flat tire that we couldn't fix without buying a new tube. It is crazy hot down here, but then at night it will turn into a thunderstorm (not like St. George Thunderstorms, like crazy, almost scary thunderstorms). As we were walking our area we ended up helping this guy push his car a couple of blocks to a petrol station (if you say gas station no one knows what you are talking about) and we got a potential investigator out of it so it was worth it haha.

 It was actually a pretty relaxed week, time is weird on missions though. It goes by really slow in the moment, but when you look back it seems fast I guess. I don't know I am still adjusting to everything here so it is interesting. There is a little bit of culture shock, like I said I see some weird stuff haha. I will send you guys some pictures of some of the areas we go to soon, and the reason I haven't taken a picture of squatter camps is because I am too afraid to take my camera out, just kidding it is totally safe we just don't spend much time in them. The mission and really the church here is at an interesting point, we are still building it. We are "strongly encouraged" to find Father-led-Families and individuals who are in a position to not only receive the gospel, but also help to build the church here.

I got to spend some time in Etwatwa this week, it is a fairly large township. The people there were great, they were very humble and for the most part friendly. I said this last email I think but I love the kids, they are just fun and do funny stuff. I goof around with them and so lots of times they will follow me and my companion. It is funny to see us, the only two white guys leading around this group of kids as we go from house to house. It is pretty awkward though when we knock on a door with maybe 20 kids behind us and ask if we can share a message with them haha. Etwatwa was really interesting though, it is probably the biggest township I have been in thus far and we taught quite a few lessons that day. I should mention that I was on an exchange with Elder Hansen, not Elder Wheatley. We had this one guy that was really adamant that if we would buy him a beer he would understand our message and let us come back haha we saw him a couple of times throughout the day which was interesting. I also got to have my first Kota this week (Dad that is the weird bread, French fry and meat thing...I will attach a picture). They are actually super good, but have to be so unhealthy especially if you could see the shops that sell them haha. I really like being in townships though, it just feels more productive than the town in my area of Rynfield.

We also got to go to the Temple this week as a Zone which was powerful. We missed our session though because of traffic so we just had to go to a later one. It had stormed the night before and part of the highway was flooded (like it turned into a river, you wouldn't have been able to tell it was a road if not for the tips of the signs and robots-what they call Stoplights) so the traffic which is already insane was almost at a stand still. I loved them temple though, I am developing more of an appreciation for it. The temple also gave me a chance to drop buy the Distribution Center and pick up some Christmas presents so I will be sending those out this week.

Real quick I will give you a little bit of an update on my companion. He is a super good guy and we get along okay haha. We are just very different but we make it work so no real worries there. I will only share two weird things about him haha he never wears his shoes and he talks in his sleep...like a lot. He will honestly just be mumbling and or yelling throughout the night about the phone or other stuff haha at first it weirded me out but now it is kind of just whatever haha.

I love and miss all of you guys. It was great to hear from you all. Be good and be safe. Merry Christmas Everybody.

Elder Malloy

Dad-Money is good, sorry I feel like I spent a lot this week...I bought a soccer jersey of one of the teams down here and I bought presents.

Mom- I love you mommy :)

Logan- You would die here brother, they don't have capri suns. Actually though you might love it because they drink so much juice.

Taylor- Be good and make sure Logan gets to school.

Abby- Thank you for the email, you're the best

Madi- I am glad you still like to be the fixer-upper, I got you and Lindsey some special presents.

Pim- Way to go on your First cheer performance! You look cute, and I am proud of you!

Squib- You look so big in that picture! What words can you say?