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.