Elder Mikel North: Life in South Africa

Saying goodbye to my mission president.

Date: June 21, 2016
Area: Mseru, Lesotho
Companion: Elder Lenard
Week 52
(He left June 23, 2015 so a couple more days and it is HUMP day, which is halfway mark)

This week was an interesting one.

We had our final interview with our mission president, he goes home in under two weeks now. It was quite weird to say the least. Said our good byes and he talked a bit about the changes he has seen in me since the beginning of my mission, that was probably the highlight of my week.

Mission Coin!!!

The work was okay this week. We also went to the mountains for a service project to help dig holes for sister lineo. She needs us to dig 3000 holes to plant trees..... its rough.... but its also good service and a good back work out. So we headed the 45 min drive to find that she bunked us! she said she was worried about snow and didnt want to do it that day. well we just drove almost an hour and we werent about to waste that time. so we drove a little bit further down the road to get to some

mountains with snow! yes snow in Africa!!! We parked on the side of the road and started our journey up the frosty slope. of course this is the day I forgot my camera so I didnt get a ton of great pictures..... eish..... but onward.... We were about 30 minutes behind the first group of elders. The mountain we decided to climb didnt have a path or trail by any means so luckily since we were behind the first group we were able to follow their foot prints in the snow. None of us were quite expecting to take an expedition through the snow but hey, adventure is out there! there were parts along the mountain where the snow got fairly deep. When we got to the top we took some cool pictures and then built a snow man. some of the Elders were to cold and left early but we toughed it out and froze our fingers to do something that none of you will ever get the chance to do in your life. and that is build an amazing snowman in the mountains of Africa.... worth it! After the snowman needless to say we were all frozen and ready to go home..... but unfortunately we had a snowy slope to get down and home seemed far far away. we decided the best approach would be to run! I still don't know how no one broke any bones as we were sliding down the mountain as fast as we could, slipping and falling along the way. Elder Adlard did get a nice gash in the leg and filled a nice circle of blood in his jeans. we then found it to be to dangerous to run down so I then sat down on my butt and scooted down creating a nice slide for the others to freely follow. now we were cold and soaking wet head to toe from sliding, rolling and falling in the snow. but finally we made it to the bottom. it twas quite the adventure.