Blessings!

Well, maybe now that the season is over I'll be a little more on top of posting... No promises, though. :)

November 14th

New Companion!

"So I got my new companion!  Elder Thorsen is my new comp!!!  Now those of you who read my e-mails or look at my pictures should recognize that name. He was in the same district as me in Toti, we were in the same district in Lesotho, and we were in the same zone last transfer and now he is my comp.  He is about 14 months out on mission so he is one group behind me. He is from Arlington Texas and loves golf and badmitten. He studdied for a year at BYU-I before he came on mission. Power dude, I have looked up to this guy my whole mission, he has always been a fantastic missionary and has always set a great example to me so I am excited to get to work and learn by his side for the next while.

Richards Bay is going well, last week I was in a threesome with Elder Reed, and Waeni. It was interesting but good. We spent a lot of time in their area and then the transfer ended on Thursday so we said goodbyes and started the process of recieving the new elders in the zone.

I currently stay in a boarding with four americans, I dont think I have been in a boarding like that before. The other elders are, Elder Reed from Utah, and Elder Bateman from North Dakota.  It's werid..... I learned this week from Elder Reed and a few others that I don't have an American accent, now I purposefully change the way I speak to be better understood. I pronounce all of my T's and talk slower, but I guess even when I try to speak in my normal American accent it still dosnt sound quite right. We will see if that is the case after living with four Americans and having an American companion 24/7.

I am still learing Zulu, my companion Elder Thorsen also wants to learn the language well, so our goal is to be able to teach the whole first lesson in Zulu by the end of the transfer.... wish us luck. It would be way cool if we could though!

Some awesome experiences this week, we had a few investigators come to church, but we had never met them. a family brought another family to church nad this was now two weeks in a row, like what!!! ya crazy!!!!  That never happens so that made us super excited. Also one of our investigators named Ntokazi when we saw her on the street walking by told us that she needed another book of mormon because she gave hers to a friend, we gave her two more and were smiling ear to ear because we hadnt been able to see her in about a week and a half and she is still powerful!

Oh ya I also forgot to say that I got a tick bite last week. That was terrible. I got tick bite fever. Tick bite fever has the same symptoms of maleria and it sucks. Luckily I caught it early, inflamed lymphnoids, so the doctor was able to give me some medication and we were able to stop it from getting any worse. I just experienced some headaches, tiredness, achee knees and was sore but thats all. Luckily I was able to keep working.

Well anyways I am super excited for this new transfer and know that it is going to be great! Elder Thorsen is such a great guy!

sorry for the short email but eish... time is of the essnese now of days. Love you all!!!
Elder North"

November 21st

"We met a family about a week ago and have started teaching them, this week we had a very touching moment as we sat with a women named Ntombi Futhi. She had just recently been involved in a big traffic accident where many lives where lost and she lost part of the mobility of her hand. She shared with us the pain and trouble she went through and her feeling of being lost and without purpose. We came to the lesson ready to teach her about the restoration and then very quickly found that the message she needed was the plan of salvation. We then decided to proceed with lesson two. As we began we again were shown that it was not the time yet. We sat and listened, and listened some more, then testified of the love of Christ. We followed that pattern the remainder of our meeting. We were able to feel the spirit guide us in how we should bring what she was saying to what God wanted her to know. She was able to start seeing the big picture of Gods plan for her. We sang a song with her and were able to give her a blessing. The spirit was strong and we all felt it. We left that appointment simply buzzing. the feeling didn't go away for the rest of the night. It's moments like that, that make me love being a missionary more than anything else. These really are the best two years!

After leaving Ntombi Futhi's home we didn't have anymore appointments and we were trying to think what to do. It was dark and late so we couldn't go to a random peoples houses, we just started driving when we got a call from the Vezi family. She asked if we could come over and give her daughter a blessing. She was having some serious pains that have gotten worse and worse over the past few weeks. The doctors can't seem to find a cause. We of course were honored at the opportunity to give a priesthood blessing."

"We were able to meet with Londeka again this week. Londeka or Londi for short is a young girl I have been meeting with for a while now. She has been off and on when it comes to being serious about our discussions. We went to go see her this week and her whole family was present. Her father is a reverend at another church and we have had short occasions to pass some vesres by but this was great chance to teach a discussion with him and his family. I really hope he will read and pray sincerely about the book of Mormon so that he gets a testimony, he has a bakkie and would be able to bring a lot of people to church. It was a pretty good, and bold lesson that we taught about the true church, and the authority of God being present today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

We are trying to ingrain our purpose of inviting ALL to come unto Christ by looking for opportunities to speak everywhere, do service for everyone and to get out of our comfort bubble. Even when we are in a hurry, we can stop and share a brief lesson with those by standards or passing by.  It's amazing how you really can just talk to everyone. It's a great feeling to do so as well.

We are currently in the process of starting a relationship with a youth center in the Mzingazi Township. This youth center hosts a lot of kids and is a non profit organization all headed and managed by one incredible woman. We will hopefully begin teaching the youth their next week and helping them gain a perspective of the value of a morally clean and centered life. Elder Thorsen and I were able to go to the center this week to do some service for a little bit. We helped make and clean a garden, and we will be going back to finish the job. After that we shared a story with about 40 little kids around the ages of 3 or 5, they dont speak english but it was still fun."

Richard's Bay Scenery

African Headdress...

Brother Chiliza

"I am thankful for my new companion Elder Thorsen, he has been awesome. This week we were able to work out our teaching some more as we learn more about each other and build in unity. He has always been a missionary who I respect and admire a lot and now I am thankful that I get to learn from him. He loves the scriptures and loves to really have meaningful study, boy do I need that! We have had some amazing companionship studies together where we have learned so much and felt the spirit teach us. We are also trying to learn the first lesson in Zulu so that we can teach more people, plus it would be pretty rad. He is such a loving and charitable companion and I look forward to our time together.

We are heading down to Durban tonight to go to MLC tomorrow. We are stoked to be able to go for some extra training. Heaven knows I need all the help I can get. It is always good to be around the mission president, he is so energetic and loves to work hard and always seems to boost my spirit when I am around him.

We have also started running in the mornings, most of my mission I havn't exercised... like at all... I am so out of shape it is not even funny.... it just hurts.... and now I am always sore..... getting in shape sucks...... eish.....

haha  We run to the beach and run down the peir every morning and then on our way to our boarding we have to run up this hill that loves to kill me every time so that sucks but at the same time its good. I just dont know how I feel about working out anymore. we are trying to find a place where we can play squash, almost like racquetball, but havn't had any luck yet :("

We got Mexican food!!!!

"We got to celebrate Thanksgiving this week which is awesome. Last year I didnt even know it was Thanksgiving until I got home that night and saw other missionaries eating chicken because it was the closest thing they could get to turky. We went over to the Colton family, american family but they live in SA working for Rio Tinto. They were celebrating thanksgiving becasue they would be out of town the next week. That was a tender mercy for sure! cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! oh my days and nights! It was fantastic.

Friday was a super rough day, we got fed three times... I wanted to die.... Usually we don't get fed but I dont know what happened this week all of the sudden people wanted us to get fat. On Friday we went to a less active members house and she gave us food. it was nice, then we went to a braai with the missionaries in Nseleni with one of their new investigators (Elder Bateman, and Reed) and we stuffed ourselves with some fantastic meat, borewores, mutton steak. not to mention the sweet corn, potato salad, and curry beans! We were stuffed. then we headed to our last appointment of the night with a member who heaped a mound of pasta and chicken our our plates. All of these were back to back and in that last appointment Elder Thorsen and I exchanged glances of impending doom and pain as we chowed. I didn't feel like eating for the rest of my life. This was on Friday and I still don't have an apatite to eat any food as of today Monday.

One other awesome thing we have been doing a lot this week is singing. We sing in most of our lessons now which is awesome. Singing hymns is an awesome way to invite the spirit in a very strong way. Although we may not be the best singers it's still a wonderful experience every time. The cool thing is that most of the Zulu people know the song Come Come Ye Saints because a popular radio station Ukhozi fm had a dj who would play the Motab choir singing come come ye saints all the time. This was years ago and the presenter who did this has since died, the station still from midnight till like 3 they play it on Sunday. The church actually brought the crew to utah and gave them a tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pdu3YRm16k We have an official video we use sometimes here in contacting but its not online. but this gives you an idea."

Now just a little bit from his email to me last week :)

"But now I am with an american comp and two other american Elders so I think its coming back, I kind of don't want my accent to be normal haha. it depends on who I am talking to a lot though, If I am talking to a white person its more normal, but if its a zulu its very slow and everything is enunciated.

I get chills by reading your emails, wow you made history babe, you are incredible. You should already know that though ;) Dang it, I prayed so hard that you guys would win the whole thing haha, I guess I didnt pray hard enough... :)

I am so proud of you though, this season was incredible, from coming back and scoring in your first game back. scoring consistently through the season, most goals, most points. sweet sixteen. all of it is just incredible. I brag about you a lot, like a lot a lot. Elder thorsen is prob super annoyed, for some reason I have just talked about you so much. everyday I remember something that makes me think of you or makes me smile and so I just mention your name and then I am like of fetch here I go again, this guy prob dosnt want to hear this haha. but anyways what I am trying to say is that I couldnt be any happier to see how great you did this season, and not just in soccer but with school and teaching at the elementary and all of your growth, it is truly incredible babe. I love you!!!!!"

Monday was a rough day after our season ending on Sunday, so I was super thankful for his email this week. He's been the best supporter from a distance but I'm so excited to have him on the sidelines cheering next fall! :)

"No-tract November"

He didn't send any pictures this week so this is all we got. Since his companion went home he's been bounced around a little but it sounds like now he'll be with two other Elders in a nearby area.

"Oh boy oh boy this week was grand!

So as many of you know my companion finished his mission and went home but the six week transfer cycle is still not over so I worked with a mini missionary. His name is Thobane Chiliza he is a return missionary from Enseleni, and he served in Zambia. It was so awesome to work with him and it helped a lot that he spoke Zulu. I am still trying to learn as much Zulu as I can, I get better each week but still have a long way to go. Ngifuna ukukhuluma isizulu, kodwa ngiyazi ngikhaluma kancane. Ngiyafunda.

So this week we made a lot of progress in the area by walking around greeting people with members. We were able to find a potential family that I am really excited about. our teaching pool is growing a lot and we are becoming very very busy.

(From his letter to the mission president)
This week was so good, as you know I had brother Chiliza as my companion. We worked hard and saw so much growth in just one week!

Well to start off and answer on how I will be exercising faith in the Lord is by starting "notract November" we are going to go the whole month without tracting, instead we will be networking and finding everyone we teach through members, less actives and other investigators. So far its been working so well. Our teaching pool is building rapidly and also we are finding more males by finding this way. It is hard to come up with creative ideas that will be more productive and effective than tracting but I think its already blessed the area a lot and got members more in the spirit of missionary work.

We are also going to try doing area blitzing, where we set up a booth in one area and the zone all comes to that area for a few hours that day and we contact as many people in a heavy foot traffic area. We believe this will allow us to get a whole lot of contacts from more than one area, especially so we can teach people who live in town. I believe that this will bring energy to the zone and also make a great impact for the area. More people will see us and know who we are. Instead of knocking on doors that we have no clue whats behind them we can spend the rest of the time we would be tracting following up on potential investigators.

We have walked a lot more this week. we park our car in a centralized area and just walk so we cant contact on our way to appointments and be seen. We also have had a member walk with us through the township and introduce us to everyone she knows, all we did was greet the people and get to know their names and numbers and let the member tell them we are missionaries from church and thats about all. We would then be on our way. Now when we go back to those houses they already kind of know us and we have found great success in coming back to their homes. We have also founds this to be one of our most effective ways in finding families to teach.

Brother Chiliza got a job and so I will no longer be working with him, instead I will be in a threesome with the missionaries in Enseleni which is Elder Waeni and Elder Reed. It's going to be hard not being in my area as much but I am excited to see how their area is progressing and see what we can do to make it even better.

Love,
Elder North"

New Investigators and New Companion

Yeah, I don't really have a good reason for having three posts in one this time, haha. Seriously, this semester has been crazy and keeping up with school has been a struggle so unfortunately this has been pushed to the back burner. But here they are!

October 17
"Well fam, guess how this week was.

A) Good
B) ight
C) Cold and miserable
D) So fliping fantastic I want to jump up and down and sing all day long because I love it all so verry verry much even if it was super hot and humid some days!!!!!!!

If you said D, you were almost correct because it was even better than that! :)

Why may you ask!?
Because we found a way awesome family! Ya that's right a family, and not just a family with a mom and some children like we usually find but one with a father, and no not just a father who isn't too interested in his family like the rest of them, this guy was different, this guy was power! He has six children, ya I know right. sooooo many. At least this side that's a lot of kids to come from the same mother and father.  (It is a lot this side too, it is just we have tweaked our children by having nine) He loves his family. We went to follow up with him and he didn't read the pamphlet... boo.... buuuuutttt, I aint given up on him, not by a long shot. This guy is future bishop I can see it. All we gotta do is just get him started, if he reads the book of Mormon, He will know it is true and then its easy from there. If they read, it all just goes so smooth, the struggle is to get them to really read and pray. anyways I am super stoked for them and hope and pray that they progress.

On another note, I feel like I am changing... not in a 12 year old boy kind a way, but in a spiritual, emotional, what what kind of way! I don't know, I have thought a lot about what if I come home and haven't changed at all, what if I am the same me, still making the same mistakes, and doing the same stupid things. then did I really do everything I could? well I feel like I am now starting to notice changes in myself, in my desire to serve and all that good stuff. I guess I am still learning how to be a good missionary after 16 months but hey. Maybe one day Ill get there. (it may take a few more missions in my senior years to get their ;) )  But I guess what I am saying is that I feel like I am learning and growing which is super sweetness! And makes me happy about serving a mission. I mean that's part of the reason we are here. So goes the famous saying you can't convert anyone beyond your own conversion and that you will have at least one convert on your mission, being yourself, because we do come to to become more like the Savior and try to encourage others to do the same all along the way. You learn from sharing and you grow by teaching. its super cool. :)

Well I look forward to another great week in the bay as the heat starts to come in.... hope I don't melt."

Then our personal email from that week:
"I cant believe its been a year, I remember actually tearing up when I heard about your acl, I have never felt such a sinking feeling inside my gut before. but I remember just how I knew this would motivate you, how you would gain perspective, and apreciation and so much determintation and you did all that and more. just dont loose that feeling you had on the sideline for so long. the feeling that you would give up all just to be out on the field for 10, to make a difference in a game. How you would go through any pain and torture just to step foot on the grass on game day. that feeling cant leave you, that motivation will continue to propel you!

Oh when I heared about your goal I flipped, my companion might have gotten a bit scared, I dont know. but wow I mean ah, like fetch. haha I dont know I just dont have words. I cant even picture what my reactions will be like in real time. (grass angels like Jules dad haha)

My companion is awesome, he goes home in two weeks time which is going to be weird, especially since I will then be running the zone alone... hmmm... but Ill also have to work in the other missionaries area because the transfer still has four weeks left. thats gonna suck. He is about to go home but still working decently hard. I think this week we are going to really push ourselves though which will be good. because we didnt get that good of stats this week adn we are the ones who are suppose to lead the zone by example. so I am excited for the week to come and get down with the nitty gritty of missionary work... ie knocking on doors! woot woot! haha"

October 24

"This week was a pretty decent one. its getting hard to make sure we are staying dedicated because Elder Mupumha goes home next week but we are doing our best!

We met some new investigators this week so I am excited to see where they end up.

An awesome experience this week was this:

So I met this lady in a SupaQuick (car place like a jiffy lube) and she was also getting something fixed on her car, of course I started talking to her and we got her contacts and what not. Well, we tried calling for like two weeks and she would always be super bogus and say she was busy or this or that or what what. super lame right! Like who doesn't want to sit with the missionaries!?!? Well I decided I should try again, usually we just drop these types of bogus but for some reason we hadn't given up. So I dial, and give her a bit of a ring. She answered and we started going down the same old road, "Hey, this is the missionaries, We wanted to set a time when we can come and see you this week and share more about Jesus Christ and how His gospel can help bless our lives ect. ect." her reply " Oh.... Ya, well I have work this week and this and that and I am busy and eish theres this thing and ill get back to you" (they never get back to us.... its sad) Me "Well what time do you knock of work, we do this everyday from 9am to 9pm, so we can work around your schedule." her" okay I am just not really good company right now, I just lost a really close friend and I dont think we should visit." Me " Oh, I am so sorry. You know, one of the messages that we share is that we can be with our families forever, and that we can see our loved ones again. That death is not the end." I barely finished my sentence when she excitingly exclaimed "REALLY!" me "well YES, haha" her " when can I meet you"  the end.... so ya that was quite the phone call. its amazing to see how the gospel fits so perfectly into each of our lives. when great truths are brought to us in our time of need, it really is just exciting. We meet with her this week, I really hope she comes and we can have a good lesson. I know this gospel will help her to find peace and joy in life. and comfort beyond anything she has ever experienced.

We also had another great lesson this week with a new investigator. So we were on our way to see this guy names Vusi, we got to his house and saw a young women, we asked her, Ucon Uvusi? she replied ageko, (is vusi here? no he is gone) so we then started talking to her about  what we do. we sat down and began to get into teaching and then she started asking us if God will always forgive us. we spent the next hour talking about repentance and the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and how we can repent and recieve forgiveness from sin. it was a power lessons and she had so many great questions. It was stellar! look forward to seeing her again.

Then we walk into church on Sunday and I see a young women sitting down, 15 yrs old, I start talking to her and then come to see that its her first time at this church, she lives across the street and her parents go to separate churches so she usually goes to one down the street but today she decided to come and see what this church was all about. it was cool, she seemed so focused all throughout church and I hope she enjoyed it. we have a meeting with her this week as well and I hope we don't get bunked.

Well that's a bit of my week for ya! its was pretty good :) It's super hot some days and really humid  soo... eish..... but its also been rain quite a bit."

His email to me this week was exactly what I needed. I had been feeling a lot of stress and pressure to perform well and do well in school and he just said exactly what I needed to calm down and refocus. He's the best!

"babe... breathe, :) life is good right? relax, and just focus. not on all the things happening right now but on one thing, first think of something that makes you smile (I hope thats me) haha just focus till you see it in your minds eye. breath in and breath out. then look up. be determined. stand tall! babe nothing can keep you down, nothing is bigger than you, nothing, no one is bigger, better, or stronger than you are! You have got this, its all under control I promise. I love you! I am sorry to hear it was a rough week, I know that you've been having a lot of school work, and a lot of expectation and pressure put on you. remember your first game back and your first goal. the thrill. nothing else was going through your mind except to just play! You have been doing amazing! beyond amazing thus far and yes people are now looking at you, you got their attention but what does that change? Nothing It dosnt change a think. You are still just playing the game. dont forget that you love it and the love of the game is all the matters. You play because its who you are, its what you do. You score because its who you are, its what you do. You excel every expectation, limit, and barrier because its who you are. Not because its who others think you are or want you to be. Just do you. Just do you babe and let it work out, I know it will. Because when You are being yourself, and not trying to please or meet to anyone else, you always do it right. I dont know why I am saying any of this, maybe I am completely off topic and this has nothing to do with how you are feeling, or maybe it does. bottom line is no matter what, I love you. thats one thing I know for sure. I love you. Thats one thing that will never change. Love. And I know you love the game. sometimes we become blinded by all the politics and statistics attached to it, we begin focusing on that rather than the game its self. We dont fail because we fall, we fail because we dont get back up. so we had a bad week, we knew it would happen. it always does. that just means we have to get up, and smile through the pain. I know you may still feel like right now you dont have anyone to turn to, ya you have me but writing it out can be difficult especially when just wanting to get it all out quickly. but You do have me babe, youve had me since day one. when an awkward, super weird and messed up 16 year old boy fell in love with you. This boy still loves you :) dont forget it, okay...

I was just telling Kami that whenever I start to get really frustrated or upset about something which still happens a lot on mission, I just picture you. I can see you just looking me dead in the eyes and telling me its okay... calm down... And I do, I calm down and I gain perspective from the situation. after I calm down I can collect my thoughts and really look at whats happening, You help me so often and you dont even know it. You have gotten me through some hard times on my mission. Just because I know you love me, I know you are there and I can feel it. I guess what I mean is that I am here babe. always will be <3

wellllll enough about that :) again not sure if its relevant at all but just felt like it might be. also Ive never been good at the whole advice thing so eish...

haha at least you dont get black eyes as often as Kami haha and at least yours was from a fist instead of a ball. Really I love Kam though haha

Ya she is really into this nate guy. she sent me an email this week just talking about him and wow does is remind me of us... that scares me. Kami is like a little sister to me and if anyone hurts her... oh boy they will have it coming...

But it reminds me of how we fell in love and the adventures we went on and just our fun dates and talking and how you made any situation better or good or fun. I wanted to be with you through everything. you were and are my everything. it was just like a flash back to our temple trips and running around silliness, hike to donut falls and climbing the tree up the mountain side haha man... Those were great. there is an awesome quote I love. "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." I sometimes wish I did more, scratch that, I always wish I did more, luckily I will have eternity to make up for it ;)

I love you so much and I am trying to be better and do better every day. bear with me. we can do it, I know!

Elder Mookie"

October 31

"So my companion came to the end of his mission and has now left me.... eish.....

It was an awesome four weeks with Elder Mupumha I learned a lot from him. He is a powerful missionary, we did our best to "die" strong, not easy as I am sure many of you know what its like.

He has a strong testimony and will truly help the work continue in Zimbabwe. Now that he is gone I will most likely get a mini missionary, but we don't have any young men preparing to go on mission in any of the surrounding branches so we will be looking for a return missionary who is available to come and be my companion for the next two weeks. Well we will see what happens, we might have someone who can come work with me he is in his thirties and from Enseleni.

The Family we found a while ago sadly didn't go as we hoped and we have moved on but you know what they say. one door shut, another open. Sometimes we are just planting the seeds to be reaped later.

We were able to meet with Portia, the women who had concerns about a friend who recently passed, because of time we unable to share a lot with her but gave an overview of the plan of salvation, she brought a friend who was visiting from Umlazi who seemed pretty interested as well. I hope things will work out. we are planing a day to see her again soon.

Currently I will be working with Elder Waeni from Zim and Elder Reed from Utah. They were both companions in Lesotho when I first went that side.

An excerpt from my letter to president:

It was an interesting week having it be Elder Mupumhas last week, we tried our best to keep working hard and we did some tracting in town which is of course known to be the hard area and missionaries usually avoid it. I just cant help but think there are people there as well. Mupumha told me he had never worked town and didnt think we would find anyone willing to listen or even kind enough to say hi. We knocked and buzzed quite a bit and got the typical response of passive aggressive notions not interested in our delightful message. On the other hand we found about three people who were very kind hearted and one who became a new investigator. It was a great experience for both of us to see that there really is work to be done all over the place, no matter what the area is I know the Lord will prepare people.

I had the great opportunity to call each member in my zone and do sort of a get to know you, how are you, how do you feel about mission, what can we increase. I got some amazing feedback from the zone and wow, I was blown away by the extreme and dedicated effort they are producing. I am really pushing for the same exciting buzz we had in Lesotho here in the bay. I think our excitement for the work goes a lot further than we see. I think things will really pick up the next two weeks as we all pull together and increase in encouraging each other to aim even higher and be even better."

It's blowing my mind that we're coming up on 7 months to go! Time is flying. Regular season just finished up, the tournaments starts this weekend and we only have one more month of the semester. One more semester to go until he's home!!!