Another week in South Africa

Date:  November 30, 2015
Area:  Amanzimtoti, South Africa
Companion:  Elder Sibeko
Week 23

Well well well, Christmas is coming!!!!!!!!!

I forgot to mention last week that I got mail from: The Waits, a couple from ma and this week I got some from Gma Marry, Taryn, Taylynne (which helps me smile) Karoline and the kidos.  Thank you all for the letters! I have some to send home but I am waiting for some things that I need to get first so I hope soon.... 

Anyways what a great week, I have really got to laugh and smile a lot. The thing I have loved doing most is whenever we are in a home with little kids I pull out a deck of cards and do a magic trick or I make a coin disappear or something along those lines and they and myself love it!!!! 

Nothing really exciting happened this week, it was all just normal work, I haven't been doing a good job at writing interesting emails lately but I will start doing better!

A fun activity we have done with members is you tell everyone to tell the person next to them to do something. for example, I tell the guy next to me to jump up and down screaming like a monkey for a minute. and so forth... after everyone has been told something to do you read a scripture from the bible the pretty much says do unto others what you would like done unto you. so now you have to do what you told the others to do, its and awesome family home evening activity and gets people laughing and they will remember it for sure haha. 

Another activity is you pass a roll of toilet paper around the room and just tell each person to take as much as they would like. after everyone has taken their own amount of tp, you then expalin that for every square (the roll of tp is separated by perforated squares.) so every little square they have they have to say something they are thankful for, usually people take a decent amount which makes it funny because now they have to make a huge list of things they are grateful for. I dont know if that made sense or not, I hope it did.

Since we have been working with a lot of less actives we have been doing fun activities like these to give them a spiritual thought and let them see that the gospel can be fun and they should come back to church. No one wants someone to come into their home and give them fire telling them they need to repent or they need to do 1,2,3 but rather just having them enjoy your company will make them want to come back. when you see a missionary your first thought is church, we dont have to mention it. but by constant visits and being a friend they usually gain the desire to come back again.

I love Toti its awesome or (sweet) Toti means sweet in Zulu haha..... anyways love you all so bad!

Miss you, pray for you, but wouldn't want to be you because I am in Africa and you are not so who is really winning here? 

Nothing special happened for me for Thanksgiving except for some doors shut and rejection, you know, the good stuff :) jokes but not really haha

QUESTIONS from mom:

1.     How has the atonement strengthened you as a missionary this week?  I love the atonement and it is the source of my testimony and love for this amazing gospel. I love that the atonement is for each of us and helps us repent and all that but its so much more, Christ literally felt our pain and struggles and sorrow, and doubt and grief and torment, but thats not all, he isnt just with us in times of deep sadness and trouble but almost more so he is there in the times of great joy and peace and love, he is all around us trough the good and not just the bad! when we smile, he smiles, when we cry He cries. It makes me think of Heavenly father and how He is just like any great parent. you find that as a parent you now find joy in the accomplishments of your children and I may be able to say you find more joy in theirs than in your own! so again, when we laugh, smile and jump for joy you better believe He is as well!!! :)

2.  How often do you do laundry?  Do you have a washer and dryer in your apartment? 
I have a washer in our boarding but its super small so you can only do a couple of shirts so I do laundry every week sometimes twice to thrice a week and then we have racks we hang them on to dry.

3.  Are there street vendors in your area?  If so do they offer good food?  Snacks?  
In the townships there are what they call tuck shops which usually can sell candy and that kind of stuff and then there are some that sell magwinya's which are like scones and they sell chips (frys) and you just put tomato sauce on it. That's the most common but at times they can sell other stuff but I've never bought anything besides sweets and gwinyas.

4.  Do you feel like you are an equal participate in the lessons that you teach?  Me and me companion do a pretty good job at switching off when to speak, our teaching styles are a little different but that's okay.

5.  How do you like your ward?  Do you get fed more member meals in this area then in Kimberly? My ward is nice, I love the people and the members feed us! its awesome to change from not getting fed before to now being fed just about every night!!! 

About the bunny chow.  It was good, I got mutton, which is lamb meat, and so it was mutton and curry, it was nice, but I think I would prefer a burger. It was really nice though I am liking the food here in KZN (K-ZED-N) (kwal zulu natal) it is spicier so I hope when I come home me and dad can go for some real spicy food.  

Love Elder North