5 Months!! :)

I was on vacation last week so I didn't get the chance to write a post. So this week's post will include last week and this week's emails! :)

In last week's group email he mentioned how he feels much more like himself now and much happier! He seemed to be a little down in his last area for some reason, but now even just reading emails I can see his personality again and he does seem much happier. He feels like he is really settling in now and beginning to love the people. Loving the people is so important!

Sand art at Toti Beach

"I had the awesome chance to go on exchanges with Elder Knight in Margate which is further south from Toti. I had such a fun time with him, sadly my camera died at the beginning of the day so I didn't get to take many pictures of the beautiful are we were in. He is such a great guy our personality's just clicked and I had a super fun day! we got the chance to explore an abandoned house that was super creepy but cool, ended up finding two people that are living in this unfinished house. We taught a baba who lives two hours away from the chapel but he drove all the way to come and visit us and have a tour of the church, It was power!!!! Later I found out that Elder Knights grandpa is Elder Cook the apostle so that was cool too!"

Mikel with his companion, Elder Sibeko

It's water, don't worry. hahaha

"My companion be older was weird at first but no I am used it it and we get a long pretty well. I have now had the two oldest people in the entire mission as my companions so that cool. but He is a cool guy, everyone I have talked to dosnt like him but he is okay, I definitely like him a lot more than my previous comp, but I did learn a lot from mashava and definitely grew a lot as well. Well you say your life is repetitive but mine is more so haha thats why I love just hearing about your days they just seem so interesting. I am doing good, I am actaully the happiest I have  been in prob 2 or 3 months just because I feel like my goofy self again and get to laugh with the members, we meet a lot of less actives and that my goal is to work with the less actives not to baptize so you find that if you come to ttheir house and just say church church church they wont want you to come because you are just giving them fire and making them feel guilty and bad so I go and try and be their friend which means having fun and when I have fun with them I grow to love them and then when you see them come to church ah you just die you are so happy!!!!

Me and my current companion work so hard and we are super obedient to the rules, which causes for some hard and good work so we have been enjoying because I actually like working hard, even though I am lazy when it comes to getting out of the house into the area to teach, there isnt much better :)"

QUESTIONS from mom...
1. When was the last time you laughed with your companion and why? What makes you laugh in your area? How do you stay light hearted?  Um I think the last time me and my companion laughed we were at a member’s house and we were just talking and making jokes. I love just trying to make others laugh and so Ill dance my silly little dances and just have fun. Something that Elder Agyman would always say was no one will make your mission fun for you, you have to do it yourself. so I always just try going into people’s house to make them smile, if you get to actually love them then the work just comes naturally, this gospel is about love. Like Joseph smith says you could call our religion kindness.

2. What has your mission president been doing to inspire the mission? What do you love about your mission president?  I love our mission president, President Z! is the best he just encourages us to be a creative mission to think outside the box to get people to see the joy of the gospel, he encourages us to go forth with zeal and enthusiasm!!!

3. Are there any inside jokes in your mission? What is your current mission theme right now?  Um, Inside jokes about mission, Im not sure, we call those females that get missionaries in trouble snakes. you need to be careful... they bite

our them or mission vision is 2 Nephi 20:13

4. What was your favorite meal from members during the mission so far?  um back in Kimberley we had just some nice chicken it was cooked so good and we had the best mashed potatoes. we dont eat mashed potatoes much so it made me think of home which is why I loved it so much!

5. What is your favorite smell in your area right now? Least favorite?  my favorite smell haha um probably my deodorant haha but actually I like the smell of the ocean or if it rains. The worst smell is the burning of trash in the township, that smells terrible.

6. What are some of the local sayings and interesting things people say in your area?   well the best one is what they call white people if you are in the township. its gqongqa. thet q's are clicks and so its hard to say but its awesome haha Ill go to people and just say in zulu that my name is gqongqa, I have learned quite a bit of Zulu now and can ask a nice handful of questions, it will be cool to tell you some during Christmas!

Mutton and Curry!

In this week's email, he talked about how much he loves doing magic tricks for the little kids in his area. He was pretty good at a few card tricks in high school I remember, so I'm sure the kids there love it. He said he also does a coin trick for them that just makes them lose their mind haha. He is loving learning Zulu because it shows the native people that he came from the US to embrace, not to enforce. He loves the culture and the people so much.

:)

Monkeys!

"Since we have been working with a lot of less actives we have been doing fun activities like these to give them a spiritual thought and let them see that the gospel can be fun and they should come back to church. No one wants someone to come into their home and give them fire telling them they need to repent or they need to do 1,2,3 but rather just having them enjoy your company will make them want to come back. when you see a missionary your first thought is church, we dont have to mention it. but by constant visits and being a friend they usually gain the desire to come back again."

Rope Swing!

Mikel and Elder Kaitoo (K2). HE says that he is really cool and he enjoys being around him a lot!

Elder Kaitoo emailed his mom and said he just wished he could give her a hug, so she sent him this blanket :) haha!

QUESTIONS from mom:

1.     How has the atonement strengthened you as a missionary this week?  I love the atonement and it is the source of my testimony and love for this amazing gospel. I love that the atonement is for each of us and helps us repent and all that but its so much more, Christ literally felt our pain and struggles and sorrow, and doubt and grief and torment, but thats not all, he isnt just with us in times of deep sadness and trouble but almost more so he is there in the times of great joy and peace and love, he is all around us trough the good and not just the bad! when we smile, he smiles, when we cry He cries. It makes me think of Heavenly father and how He is just like any great parent. you find that as a parent you now find joy in the accomplishments of your children and I may be able to say you find more joy in theirs than in your own! so again, when we laugh, smile and jump for joy you better believe He is as well!!! :)

2.  How often do you do laundry?  Do you have a washer and dryer in your apartment?  

I have a washer in our boarding but its super small so you can only do a couple of shirts so I do laundry every week sometimes twice to thrice a week and then we have racks we hang them on to dry.

3.  Are there street vendors in your area?  If so do they offer good food?  Snacks?  

In the townships there are what they call tuck shops which usually can sell candy and that kind of stuff and then there are some that sell magwinya's which are like scones and they sell chips (frys) and you just put tomato sauce on it. That's the most common but at times they can sell other stuff but I've never bought anything besides sweets and gwinyas.

4.  Do you feel like you are an equal participant in the lessons that you teach?  Me and me companion do a pretty good job at switching off when to speak, our teaching styles are a little different but that's okay.

5.  How do you like your ward?  Do you get fed more member meals in this area then in Kimberly? My ward is nice, I love the people and the members feed us! its awesome to change from not getting fed before to now being fed just about every night!!! 

More pictures from his window... so pretty!

Right now, I'm having a hard time with this whole emailing thing. It was hard at first of course, because I was so used to talking to him every day, but it's especially hard right now. His emails to me are really short and not very descriptive. I'm not being critical of him at all because I know he has a limited time and other people to write, but our emails to each other are just kind of getting repetitive. I'm not sure how to fix that either, so it's making me sad :( 

It's crazy that he's been out for 5 months now when day one feels like it was just yesterday. Life has changed so much since then, it's like I've gone through different "stages". The before he left stage, the while he was leaving stage, the after he left stage, the soccer season stage, the injured stage, now I'm in the recovery stage. And each stage feels like a completely separate part of my life. I was a different person in each stage, I felt different things, there have been different people involved in my life in each stage. It really just feels like none of the "stages" are connected and I was changed by each one but as I've gone through another I've been changed again. My gosh there's been too much change in my life since June. Mikel left, all of my guy friends have left/are leaving, my girl friends left for college as well and are leaving on missions in the next 6 months or so. I moved out of my house, I haven't made a single friend outside of my soccer team in college. I can't play soccer for the time being. I know that change is good but I haven't felt like I've been in a comfortable situation where I felt that I could relax in months. I just don't feel like myself. I think part of that is because having him with me became a part of me, and it's good that I'm learning to be independent. But mostly I think that not having a friend group or someone to talk to constantly has made me put up a wall for other people. I don't talk about myself or share my feelings with anyone because I'm not comfortable enough with anyone yet. So for the most part, me not feeling like myself is my own fault because I haven't made friends yet and it always takes forever for me to open up to others. Ugh. I'll try again next semester.

19 months to go!

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"