Amanzimtoti

Last week Mikel got transferred, so I didn't get to hear from him until this Monday. But he sent lots of pictures and awesome emails, so that made me happy :) I'm going to start with his group email because it was super long.

A soccer ball in Bloem

So he got transferred from Kimberly, which is in the middle of South Africa, to Amanzimtoti, which is on the coast just south of Durban. He said they call it Toti for short. He gave a little background of his new area:
"So a little bit about Toti. the word Amanzim means weather, and Toti means sweet so when the Zulu King Shaka came to this place and tasted to water he exclaimed Amanzimtoti saying that the water her was sweet to the taste. They speak Zulu here a lot so I am trying to learn, the only sentences I can remember is greeting people, goodbye, I love my girlfriend (he always used to say that to me in spanish, so it made me laugh that he learned that in Zulu :), nice to see you and see you later, sorry, thank you, my name is, what is your name?, and other stuff along those lines, I hope to pick up the language because you meet quite a lot of people who cant speak English. Toti is full of hills, its crazy green and beautiful! it reminds me of the pictures my brother in Guatemala has sent. our car is broken so this week we walked baba! we walked and walked and walked as the famous primary song sings. I don't know how many miles but we would walk an hour to an appointment going up these crazy hills that are just shy of being called mountains and then walk an hour back to another so its been hectic but good for my health. Always a bright side."
His companion is Elder Sibeko and he is Xhosa (he said the X makes a click noise). He is 26 years old like his last companion and has been serving for 20 months. He said he loves to work and work hard which is awesome! He was sad to leave Kimberly because he left home for his mission and Kimberly was his first area so it became like home for him. There are a lot of people who he will miss but he is excited to be in his new area to spread the gospel!

Funny story of the week: "Found a giant cockroach in our boarding around 11 at night, we were up till about 12 I think trying to catch it. Me and Elder Dean spent our time that night on the hunt to capture and kill this pest and we would not rest until our mission was complete, after long minutes of struggle, disappointment, close calls and attacks and defense we finally won the battle against the mighty roach and were able to pronounce victory across the lands of our boarding! At one point the roach climb on the sealing and fell right on Elder Dean and started crawling around him, needless to say we screamed like school girls, um I mean he did... ya I was there standing manly with my mop in hand that I was using as a spear. haha. We eventually caught it and put it in Tupperware and poured bleach in it. It died within a minute and then within the next 48 hours the acidic bleach disintegrated all of the roach. There was nothing left, quite cool actually. We left it in the middle of the room so we could watch it die."

When he was transferred he took a bus on Monday night at 8 and arrived at 5 the next morning. He went straight to work with his new companion and was exhausted afterwards. It is more humid in his new area, but they have had some rain which has kept it managable. 

Bus ride

View from their apartment! So pretty.

"The people here have seemed to be very nice and especially when I try and fail to speak Zulu to them, they like that a lot. It really shows your love for the people just trying to immerse yourself in their culture instead of bringing in your own. 

Didn't get the privilege yet of trying chicken head or feet but hopefully soon.  We do see monkeys in the street every now and again."

There are ship containers everywhere that are converted into little shops. 

"I forgot to mention about the baptism I had. So my last Sunday in Kimberley I had the amazing opportunity to baptize Sis Philda Williams. We have been teaching her for only a month or two but she has really been prepared for us. She was awesome to teach. When the day of baptism came the water was really low which made it quite difficult to actually put her in the water but it all turned out fine. The font was full but but the plug was not tight and we didn't know so when we went in after church to do the baptism we found the water just to my knees. haha I had to leave her in the water a bit long because her jump suit filled with air and didn't want to go all the way down. It is such an amazing experience to see someone make so many changes in their life to follow the example that Christ gave us. I am truly blessed to be able to see these changes take place in the hearts of so many people. We get rejected by a lot of people but the few, the elect, make it all worth it!!!"

Just some good stuff from him :) "My ponderize this week was Alma 37:6

It talks about how you may think it is foolish that by small and simple things are great things brought to pas, but in many instances small means confounds the wise. I later after studying and thinking replaced the words small with the words Book of Mormon. it reads something like this. (off of memory so if there are any discrepancy please forgive)

"You may think it is foolishness in me, but behold by the book of Mormon and simple things are great things brought to pass, and in many instances does the book of Mormon confound the wise. well compared to the bible the book of Mormon is a relatively small and simple thing. Yet it does confound the wise scholars and priest. yet simple for a child to understand, truly divine!!!"

Mission friends!

Ngiya Xolisa (sorry) I wasn't more descriptive on whats been going on, its just been hectic haha. sizoku bona ntambama (spelling may be wrong but it means ill see you later this afternoon. but not true, I just don't know how to say in the future so I say this instead haha)

Ngubani igama lakho (N-gu-bon-E e-gah-mah la-koo) what is your name?

Anyways Zulu is cool and I love the clicks, they call white people qoqe whis is just two clicks and awesome haha.

Answers to some questions from mom:

Um I have ripped two of my shirts already haha but I am getting them sewn up, they wont look all to nice but they get the job done which is all I need.  One ripped on the sleeve it got caught on the door handle and another ripped in the back as I left a members house and a wire from the gate caught it. My shoes seem pretty good, I am going to start polishing them more oft to try and keep the leather happy.

We get to do service just about every week, usually making gardens or weeding, its a bit different than back home, how you make gardens here is you use a pitch fork like thing and pull up the ground or if there are plants already you pull up the ground around it and I guess it helps it grow. Weeding you get a shovel and you slice under the roots and then you rake them up, its pretty labor intensive though and there is usually a ton of weeds, I climbed on top of a house one day and helped nail the roof down, we do painting pretty often as well. Now that I am in a new area I don't know how service goes this side so we will find out!

In Kimberley we were staying in like an apartment attached to the main house where some Afrikaners (white people) lived and they were our land lords. Now in Toti we live in a flat so just a big apartment building.

My sleeping in Kimberley wasn't to bad the bed was nice and I had extra pillows for my back problems but I don't have pillows here so my back is starting to act up but we have been walking a lot so I have been exhausted every day which causes me to sleep well.

For breakfast I will eat maybe eggs and toast or cereal, sometimes I eat yogurt and sometimes french toast but not often. I also have started eating an apple in the morning to try and be healthy.

Where do you email?  Seems like you have a lot of time each week?  I have been lucky in Kimberley we email in the chapel so it doesn't cost and same with in Toti so that's really cool. We usually get about two hours. 

How are the people different there then in Kimberly?  The people are very different because they are Zulu people so their culture is not the same at all compared to the Stwanna people. The white people here are usually English instead of Afrikans like in Kimberley but they are amazing people and I love trying to get into the language.

What have been the biggest challenges thus far in your mission?  The biggest challenge is actually getting investigators to come to church, they will progress and keep commitments and will really feel the spirit and wont show up which is sad but work is work.

It seems like there are a lot older missionaries there.  Is that true or have you just been paired with the exceptions?  If they are older why is that?  Most African missionaries are in their twenties or twenty when they leave. I think its because of trying to finish their highschool before mission and most people don't graduate when they are 18 they have to redo a couple years. There are also a lot of converts, but most missionaries are probably 20 I have gotten the two oldest in the entire mission. A little odd but good experience I guess :)

What are  the languages spoken in new area?  I am in the Kwal Zulu Natal so its only Zulu and English, you find a lot of people who don't speak English especially the older ones.

How are the houses?  Do you go into any tribal areas?  The houses arn't that bad here, I work in town which is pretty nice and township isn't too bad but there are shacks and we do teach in some very small houses. There isn't much of what you would picture tribe wise through anywhere is south Africa, they do have their traditions and a lot of them worship their ancestors. They believe that your ancestors carry the message to God on your behalf. So we meet them a lot this side.

Is it hard being so close to the water and not being able to go in it?  I do want to go surfing and canoeing and deep sea fishing but can't which does kind of suck haha.

The Rand

 Pictures of his new apartment:

Selfies.. hahaha

It's so crazy that next week he will be out 5 months! The hardest thing for me probably is just feeling like I don't really know what's going on with him. I get emails, I read stories, and occassionally (when he isn't emailing at 3 am) I actually get to email back and forth with him but I still don't really feel that I get to communicate with him. It makes me sad because we always used to talk about everything and we knew what each other was feeling and what was going on. It's so crazy because with my injury, he will never truly know what I went through when we gets home, which is similar to how I won't really know what he experienced on his mission. For both of us this is a time that we are to rely on the Lord and overcome adversity without each other so that we can become who we need to be. Although it's hard I know that this is how it's supposed to be. 

"Wow babe, I would almost say youve been to hell and back with this trial, something I learned is that everyone has there own Gethsemane weather it be now or later we will go through something that will push us to the edge, and then a little more. Before Joseph smith saw the light when Heavenly Father and Christ apeared to him, He was first overcome by darkness to the point he thought he was doomed and could do no more but cry out for help from his father and even then the words chocked as he tried to utter what he must of thought would be his final prayer. The light did come, the witness always comes after the trial of faith :) as I always say life is tough, but its good and meant to be. It sucks that I wont ever really know what you are going through and its hard for me to accept that fact and just accept that I am not with you, even today I talk about you daily to people I meet to investigators, members, missionaries. If they ask any question boy do I talk and talk and talk, There is just so much I want to tell them and let them know how lucky I am and how amazing you are and how much I love you! You have been a big strength to me which as you say, you will never know just how much you have helped me through the hard times. I cant wait to be with you forever.

primary programs are my favorite I love them and I just love little kids, I like just playing with them when I go to members or in the street giving them sweets or somthing. I love the kids here, the call me umlungo or qoqe, it means white person in a sorta racist way but its funny. usually you just say sharp to the kids and you do this thing where you put your thumbs together with them its pretty cool.

I love you babe and sorry my emails always suck haha I am surprisingly busy even on mondays, its really weird, I have some letters to send you and I found one I wrote two months ago... ;/ eish I really got to get my crap together haha. thank you so much! I got your letters with the 3 and 4 month pictures, made me tear a little, I love you so much!

Love

Elder Mookie"

Mid-Week Email

So I actually didn't hear from him until Thursday of last week, so I have more of an excuse for why I'm so behind on this post ;) He was in Bloemfontein for a zone activity which they got to play soccer and rugby, which he said was a lot of fun! South Africa actually has one of the best rugby teams in the world so it's a pretty big sport there.

"This is Elder Chapmen, He is awesome. He is from Ccali but is Tongan so he is obviously huge so he lifted us up like we were a bag of feathers."

He had an awesome story about being put in the right place at the right time for the Lord's purpose that I want to share: " I had an awesome tender mercy this week. My companion and I were looking for this women named Louise but we couldn't find her house. It was number 15 and no where to be found. We found number 14, number 16 but no house number 15. the struggle was real and it was around 95 degrees and we were walking around this neighborhood trying to find a seemingly nonexistent house. Well we never found the place but not all was lost. We met a wonderful ma named Claudette. She makes these things called koeksisters which are like twisted donuts. They are delicious! We started talking to her and she all the sudden opened up to us and told us about how her mother just passed away and how she has been struggling with that and all the other things going on in her life as she struggles to raise and maintain her family. We were able to share part of the plan of salvation and how we are able to see our loved ones again. You could tell that she was touched by what we said and we were able to sit and teach and talk for a bit. It was an amazing experience because we may not have found who we were looking for but I know we weren't there by mistake, the Lord places us in places and specific times for his purpose. We need to find out why we are there and what he wants us to do, I am thankful we were able to find this amazing woman that was definitively who we were supposed to find."  There are a lot of times in our lives where we are placed somewhere or put through something and we may not understand why, but there is always a purpose and it will bless you and someone else because it is the Lord's planning!

"The toilet seat is in the Bloemfontein elders boarding. it says Aim High... so the previous elder their got a Dear John by his girlfriend so they put her picture on the seat and wrote aim high!! haha too funny. Other elders will burn pictures and make a grave to bury them but this one is top class."

"I shared in my mass email but I want you to do your own ponderizing about it. 1nephi21:15-16

He has graven you upon his hands and your walls are continually before him...." I was having a hard week (again, haha) and he sent this to me in a personal email after he had talked about it in the mass email, and this is what he said: "So I finally got to watch conference and although I don't have a lot of time to talk about it this week I did want to share my ponderize scripture of the week is from 2 Nephi21:15-16 which read "For can a women forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb; yea they may forget, yet will I not forget thee o house of Israel. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

As I read and re read this scripture I have found new insight and understanding going beyond my first instinct. I first thought on it is for a mother to forget her child and then how Christ will not forget us. Then I thought of how we are graven on his hands. Every time that Chrsit looks at his hands and sees those marks left by the nails he was hung by, He remembers us, they were for us. We are literally  engraved upon His palms. I looked at what was ment by "forget" I came across the word forsake which was tied to it in another verse. so I re read again this time replacing the word forget with forsake. He will not forsake us. He will never forsake or abandon us but yet he says thy walls are continually before him. What does that mean? I thought of what kind of wall they were talking about. We all have walls in our lives that hinder us from going down the paths we desire, these are the walls I think Christ was talking about. Our emotional, physical walls, our trials and hardship, or sadness and grief. These things we don't have to face by ourselves, our walls are continually before the Lord and He will help us climb over each and every single one of them." As I was thinking about his interpretation of it and how I was feeling, I just had an overwhelming feeling of peace come over me. I am not going through this alone! Christ truly felt this physical and emotional pain and sadness that I am feeling. It's an incredible thing to know that no matter what, we are not alone.

"So this is just a super cute baby that I fed and got to hold a bit, cool guy named Quinton. :) I like babies, until they start to cry or stink then I am not a big fan...."

"Just a picture after church of sister dah and her boyfriend spho"

"I hate how little time I have to talk to you and I can only reply shortly :( but its better than nothing so I cant really complain. I know things have been really hard this past week and that you are struggling. even though I am not there I know that you are trying to make everyone see that you are okay but the second you are behind close doors you start to cry. Babe I dont know what to say to help or what to do, there are only two things that I know for sure. First I know that God does love you, even when He seems to be punishing us or putting us through challenges we dont deserve, He does love us. and Second I love you. In this life those are the two things that I can say I know 100 percent with all my heart. I know I love you I dont know how things will work out, I dont know so much but that I do know. 

When you feel empty, maybe we can fill it with something? Dont ever give up, I have never seen you give up on anything and you never gave up on me so dont give up on yourself, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually dont give up on yourself, its not who you are. I know you can do anything you put your mind to! I know you arnt what I think you are. You are so much more than I could ever comprehend at least not now. You are a daughter of God, do you know what that means!?!? its incredible that the most supreme being in the entire universe has you as His child and you being His child are entitled to divine worth value and confidence! so yo are so much more than what I think you are because you are truly brilliant and authentic and unique and ah I cant put it into words but you are so great and I wish the world could see it, I wish we all could see for just a second the kind of person we are in the eyes of our eternal Father.

with all the love humanly possible, Yours

Elder North"

"Past a sign, welcome to faith city. The Ironic part is this sign is at the boarder, which is a colored area, (coloreds are people who are half and half, like one black parent and one white so they are tan I guess) its the most dangerous place in Kimberley I think and so its kind of funny. Maybe its you need faith to enter I don't know."

"This is Gratitude, she stays with Liberty who is less active. Gratitude isn't a member but we have shared some lessons with her as we meet with Liberty. I put on her headband and posed like we were bffs."

Peace in Your Life

Sorry I'm slow to getting around to this... again.

When you live with Christ you will have peace in your life! :)

He said this last week was one of a lot of work but not a lot to show for it. They met with a guy named Christopher for the last time because he was moving back to his home in west cape. He told them of his struggles and addictions and desire to quit, and while they were reading scriptures with him he said that he had gotten his answer. He had read a quote the day before with the same message that the scripture had said and he felt that this was God reaffirming the answer he had already gotten. It's so cool to see the different ways that prayers are answered for different people! Mikel and his companion then told the story of the two wolves, one good and one bad, that are inside of each of us. A young boy asked his elder which wolf was going to win the fight. The good wolf represents our good desires, and the bad wolf represents worldly desires. The elder explained that the wolf that would win would be the wolf you feed. If you feed negativity, envy, lust or anger then the bad wolf will win. Feed only the wolf that you want to control you :)

Cool story from this week that I wanted to share: "My companion Elder Mashava and I were planning for a young women who has been having a really tough time. We were both at a stupor of thought when it came to planning what would best help her, what she needed to know. We racked our brains and came up with nothing. Elder Mashava then said, I know what to do. I instantly felt relieved and asked him to further explain what we were to do. He looked at me and said pray.... We then bowed our heads and prayed for guidance in what we are to teach her, we definitely lacked knowledge and as the scriptures council we had to ask of God. (James 1:5) after we sat and tried think of what we were supposed to teach, The plan of salvation, which is the plan God has for each of us and the knowledge of where we are from and why we are here, kept coming to my mind but I wasn't sure if this was just me thinking. when I mentioned that that thought continued to pop in my mind Elder Mashava said that he had been thinking the same thing and even had in his hand a pamphlet about how the plan of salvation can help you be happy, he said he didn't know why he picked it up but he was just looking at it. We knew then that, that is what we were to talk about.  God answers prayers!!! not always in an immediate effect, usually it takes time and more time then we would necessarily like but I do know he does always answer.  If you have struggled with feeling like you don't receive answers to your prayers read Moroni 10:3-5 then pray again with the council given and I can promise you that you will receive an answer from God.  I wouldn't be out here in South Africa missing my mom, college, friends, girlfriend and anything else the world has to offer if I didn't know God lives and answers prayers. He does! but from the old show reading rainbow, 'don't just take my word for it, read for yourself'"

He had his first rejection this week. They had a powerful investigator named Fafa and were heading to his home for an appointment with him that they were excited for. They knocked on the door and someone inside asked who was there and they replied happily, "The missionaries!" Then the voice said to go away, don't come back and don't call again. They stood there, kind of confused for a minute until the voice said that again. They were sad as they walked away because they had had some cool experiences with this family, but they did all they could and planted a seed.

I've had a hard week because of surgery and not being able to play and adjusting to that, and I've gone back to read his email to me a few times which has really helped on the hard days. It's so crazy because I'll be back to normal and playing again by next summer and when he gets home the summer after that it will be like I had never gotten hurt. He will hear stories of what I'm going through, but he will never really know what I'll go through. I guess it's the same concept with him being on his mission, I'll never truly know all that he went through. And while I wish we could both be together in these pivotal and life changing moments and experiences, I know that these are things we need to experience alone. They will shape and mold us into who we need to be and we will learn to be better companions for each other, and I think that is so cool.

"All of me loves all of you!

Im sorry this week was ruff but I am thankful you talked to me! I know how strong you are being and that you dont want people to see that you hurt and you especially dont want anyone to think you need help. I know you dont want anyone to feel like they need to go out of their way for you and you dont want others to worry about you. I know that you want to do this on your own but I also know that there is nothing wrong in being human. :) Probably the thing I say most is "life is tough" and you know that better than most people. You are going to have a day where you feel good and like you can handle things and then the next day out of no where you will have a break down and feel like the world has completely stopped. I hope though that you always feel my love for you knowing that no matter what happens I will always be there for you and with you no matter what. and more important than me, You do have your Father in Heaven who you can open up to when there seems to be no one else to do so. I have spent so many nights on my knees in tears because of my lack, my hurt and pain. Always after spending a good while pouring my entire soul out, all my anguish, all my fears, and all my questions and concerns,  I feel better. I would lie if I said the pain or worries were gone, because they arnt and wont be, but they are settled, and I get the feeling that I will go on for tomorrow and at the end of the day as I pray all over again I get the strength for one more day. I know the prayers are answered I know that He loves me. He dosnt take away the pain but puts his yoke upon us to make it easier for us to lift.

I Love you so much and of course I never want to see you sad or hurt, but if I didnt I would worry thinking that im not seeing everything. It is okay to cry, to scream a little and to throw a fit, but just for a little while. After we pick our selves up, dust ourselves off and go back to work. we slip we fall and mess up but always pick ourselves back up. I know how hard it is for you to open up to someone, we are a lot alike in that aspect, we both absolutely hate letting people see that we need help, we feel as if we have to do it all on our own. I dont know why we are like that but I know its not always a good thing. It is hard to open up in the first place, and now to do so to someone you arnt that close with, eish thats a whole new stroy and I dont think I could ever, but you have always been stronger than me so I know you will find a way to get through the hard days that you feel like have no end and you will find a way to eventually smile throughout the tears.

I have missed you a lot lately as well. Elder Mashava and I dont really get along as well as I would hope which just makes my heart ache as I think of how perfect to me you were. How I always could talk to you, how you understood what I said, how I felt and everything. So you arnt alone in this lonely bit haha, ah its hard... I talk more about him in a letter I wrote you but by the time you get it I will have a new companion because I am most likely leaving Kimberley in two weeks.

Hailey I love you, I know you will get through this, you will be stronger, and you will grow. I know that God loves you, I know your parents love you and I pray you know and always know and never forget not even for a second that I ALWAYS  will love you. Not only to the day I die but forever more.

eternally yours

Elder Mookie💕😍😍💕😁😁😁😁😁😁😘😘😘😘😘😜🙌💟💞💝💘💖💗💕❤💙"