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| Elder North at a Flamingo Lake |
Date: July 27, 2015
Area: Kimberley
Comp: Elder Jena
Week: 5
Well what a week! We
have some good days, and some bad. I’ve come to see that mission is a bit of a
roller coaster of ups and downs. The ups come when your investigators keep the
commitments you give them and you can see that they have felt something and the
downs come from when they don’t keep their commitments because you know how
important the message you are sharing is. You know that it can bless their
lives more than they could possibly imagine! So like I said it’s been a roller
coaster with some investigators improving and progressing and others not so
much
I am amazed by the sacrifice
the members here make. A lot of them don’t own a vehicle and don’t have money
for a taxi so they walk to church which for some is a couple miles. But they
still come with loving hearts and open arms. They also have like 6 families
each that they have for home teaching and they strive to visit all of them,
then on top they have even more callings but they push forward.
This week I also saw a
lot of shanties that were smaller than my room back home, some of the nicest
caring people and their whole house is smaller than my room, what a humbling
experience for me to see and meet these people.
I probably don’t drink
enough water but that’s because it doesn’t taste good, it taste like a fish
filled lake... so I have to force myself to drink water haha. It could be worse
so I’m not complaining.
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| Cool shrubs at the hosptial |
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| Elders need hugs too |
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| What can I say they are still boys! Also that seems a strange shrub art. |
Tswana and Afrikaans are the
biggest in Kimberley so in Tswana hello is dumelang (do me long).
But I like Zulu and
that’s sawubona (s-ow-bone-a) which means hello then how are you is unjani
(une- ja- nay)
then I’m good is
ngiyaphila (ng-uh-pee-la)
I can only great in Zulu,
Tswana and that’s it. Afrikaans is the same as English haha.
So like I mentioned
the weekends here suck for missionary work because everyone has family over or
they are getting drunk and high. The people drink and smoke sooo much I don’t
know how some of them are alive! But it explains why they don’t have any
teeth... As we were driving to an appointment this week there was a guy just on
the side of the road but naked taking all his clothes off. I don’t know why but
it was a little funny haha... weekends in Kimberley.
I saw an ostrich on
our drive back from our zone training in Bloem, so that was cool. I also went
to a lake full of flamingos but we went allowed to get close but it was cool
seeing so many
So a gogo died this
past week and we had the funeral. Funerals are a bit different here, especially
in the kasi (township) they put a huge canopy tent up over the front yard and
then you go and sing songs and give talks for like three days to comfort the family.
You manly sing so we went to sing and it was good but the next day when we went
to sing again another church came and pretty much stole the scene. It was the
kind of praise the Lord Hallelujah black people praising singing with bells and
all. They also sing a lot of native songs but I can’t understand them but they
do sound very African. At the grave yard after they lower the casket then they
actually bury the person so that was different too, doing the burring while you
are still there. It’s nice having the knowledge and understanding of the Plan
of Salvation knowing that families are forever though, I find so much comfort
in that :)
I had the chance to go
to a couple good soccer matches, there was a tournament going on for teams to
get promoted to the first division so that was a lot of fun! The crowds cheer a
lot more this side than back home. Again I was the only white guy so people
look at me kinda weird but I don’t mind.
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| Nelson Mandela Sign |
So you all know the
songs from lion king and hakuna matata. Turns out that in the opening song the
circle of life when they are speaking some crazy African language it’s actually
Zulu!!! So that was way cool and hakuna matata means no problem actually so
that was cool to find out!
I’ve learned a lot
about honoring the priesthood which I hold. I had the opportunity to give three
blessings this week, two of comfort for an audition and one for healing. It’s
cool being a missionary because people come to you with their problems and seek
comfort from you. I have always like being someone people can go to for help
and now they do and I love being able to help in whatever way possible.
I didn’t get any mail this week and won’t till
the end of the transfer in 3 weeks because I’m so far from the mission home but
you can still write me!
I love you all and
love to hear from you! Write me!!!
God is good, all the
time
Love
Elder North
All of Elder North’s
letters and pictures are on his blog at eldermikelnorth.blogspot.com, as well
as his address.
It costs $1.20 to send a
letter to Africa. You can do this by
buying international stamps or just using three regular stamps.
Elder Mikel North
South Africa Durban
Mission
PO Box 1741
Wandsbeck 3631
South Africa
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