He started his mass email with asking where November went... and I was thinking the same thing because wow that flew by! My first semester of college is officially over! Crazy crazy. But with December comes Christmas!! I liked in his email how he said that in Spanish mas means more so when we read Christmas it means more Christ! How perfect that is for this time of the year. Christ is truly the reason for the season. He shared a short testimony about this: "I know with all my heart that the son of God, Jesus Christ, the way of truth and light, came to earth, just as you and I have. Unlike you and I He did something extraordinary. He gave us this incredible gift I have hinted to. He suffered, bleed and died for us. through Him we may return to Heaven with Him. I know it to be true! Guess what, SO CAN YOU!!! I encourage you during this time of Christ-mas to find out who He is to you."
This is Jude the crab we caught. We like catching crabs... he is so cute :) I tried to feed him my cheerios.
Elder Sibeko thought that the crab looked quite tasty.
"Mission life has been pretty great here in Amanzimtoti. Love is the key, they are the door. If you want them to open up to you, Love them. You need to key to open the door. When you love the people you meet on mission your mission becomes something else entirely. When you gain a love for the people you serve your whole attitude changes, you begin to have a new found source of strength and energy to get you out knocking doors, talking to people. You love them and want the best for them. We know that the gospel truly is the best thing for everyone and that's what pushes us to go from door to door, gate to gate, after rejection again and again. If you dont love the people you will not love your mission I can promise you that. I am thankful that the people her in Toti have made it so easy for me to fall in love with them. Loving them makes every day a good day!"
drawing and picture from his sister Taylynne. He always made weird faces in his yearbook pictures so she wanted to keep the tradition going :)
His lessons have been going well, they have a baptism scheduled for next week! It is for a 16 year old boy named Cebo (the c is a click sound). He has loved seeing his understanding and testimony grow as they have taught him the gospel.
He doesn't really like his companion all that much but he has learned to deal with it and to be happy regardless. It's sad because even the members of their ward don't like his companion :( But he sounds like he's doing well otherwise and is happy!
Went to a less-active members house that was actually abandoned and found this cool little mermaid painting.
I wish I could say that things have gotten better for me, but they haven't really so I was venting to him about it in my email last week about feeling lonely and sad. he was so sweet and I loved what he said in response:
"being lonely is the worst thing ever. That is why I got into that whole shenanigans with bre, I missed being in a relationship I missed the feeling of thinking I wasn't alone, the feeling of someone telling me they were there constantly and just enjoying doing stuff, but the feeling of loneliness led me into a huge mistake where me and Bre really didn't have real feelings for eachother, I cant really say it was a mistake because its what led us to be best friends. but anyways it sucked being lonely, but sometimes we need to endure. sometimes life sucks and is tough, we just need to be tougher. and I know you are. I think back of the fault in our stars, I am on a roller coaster that only goes up. I think we past that part of the roller coaster and we are on that down hill. but you need that down hill to enjoy the rest of the ride. does that make any sense? on a roller coaster we go up up up for a long time then everything seemingly all at once just goes down hill and seems like its going to crash but just at the last second and the brink of it all we are raised up and then begin to enjoy the rest of the ride. Life i think is similar, we had our up and maybe this is the down so that we can get trough the rest of the ride together. If a roller coaster never had its down you would never gain the speed (strength) to make it through the rest of the ride. Its essential but sucks. as I always say Life is tough but its meant to be and when we step back and thank God we realize what we have to be happy about. I love you babe and we will get through this together, no matter how alone you feel, You are not! I am here, always and always."
It really has been a rollercoaster since I got hurt. So many ups and downs, not just recovery wise but socially and in school as well. But if we don't have the hard times we can never truly enjoy the good ones :)
"We are having a nice Braai my killer pork chops are to die for"
Elder Kaitoo
I decided that I wanted to start asking him questions every week that both of us would answer so that our emails would be more interesting and we would still be learning things about each other :) So this weeks question was: What are your short term goals, in the coming weeks and months? What are your long term goals, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?
"Eish babe haha well goals have never been my thing, I am starting to try and be a more goal oriented person because I have seen the effects there of and it is something I really admire and love about you is how goal driven you are. so short term goals, right now I am trying to be more patient and not get upset and argue over little things, You know how I am and if I have an opinion on something I say it, I am not very patient when it comes to that kind of stuff so I will be working on that. 1 yr, well I hope to be able look back and see a change in myself, right now yes I have learned a lot and changed a little but not much, I am still the same guy with the same faults and I hope to be able to feel like I have grown not just in intellect and understanding but in who I am. I also have a goal to find my reason for being in each area I serve, who I am there to find or what it may be. I also have a goal to Love everyone I meet, which is difficult, I am not a nice guy so hopefully that can change a bit. I do love the people here, but I want to love every single one of them. I want to in a years time have read D&C, pearl of great price, JSH, and have a better understanding of the new testament. I would like to become a better teacher by asking more questions in my lessons. haha I dont really know what else my goals are for the next year.
the next 5 years would be to come home from mish and to get married haha go to school, be financially independent, have a job, know for surety my career pathway. and I may want a child by then. ah man this is hard I am not sure. maybe Ill know more next week. be in my last year of schooling or something like that. Revisit my mission with you my wife.
10 years, Have a family, have a solid career, have a cute little home, to continue with soccer in some aspect, I dont really know besides that, I know I want to be able to provide for a family and I want a family and those are the two most important things to me, anything else is just sugar on top."
Welcome Home Elder North!
Mikel's little brother Zane :)
His older brother, Jered, came home from his mission in Guatemala last week. So naturally, they made a sign of Mikel's face and I got to keep it hahah.
"sometimes I wish dreams were reality. not seeing you is so hard. I miss you so much, just last night I was talking a bout you telling my companion about some of the dates we have gone on and just how much fun we had and how we went to the temple together and how we grew together and just how I would love to be with you forever and how weird it is to think that and I am so young but how true it is and just how much I love you and never want to let you go again and how much I cant wait to see you and how hard it was at first and still is and we just talked and talked, well, I just talked and talked haha also about you being just so amazing at soccer and the work you had to put in to get to where you are at today and how incredible that is and how much of an insperation that is to me and well everyone and ah I just love you okay! haha reading emails from amber makes me miss you because she is just falling in love with this boy and it reminds me of us and how we used to be and how giddly we used to get over everything and I just miss cuddling and holding your hand but most of all just being able to hear you and look into your eyes and see you and feel the pain you are going trough and be able to atleast be physically there for support and now I am so far and it sucks and is hard and I dont know what to do to make things better ever and I wish I was better and emails and letters and being interesting but anyways wow that was a lot and I havnt reread any of it to make sure it makes sense haha so oh well. anyways ya sounds like a great dream, I love you!!!!!! haha.
Love,
Elder North"
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