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?