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! :)
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