Elder Earl

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

December 27, 2009

Hey everyone. Oh man it was great to hear from you all on Thursday. Calling is so awesome. IT helps me so much It makes me want to work harder. I get a little bit trunky but not to bad. Sure i miss you guys but as long as I'm working hard it's not too bad. Everything is going great. This week was both good and bad. Good because i got to talk to you guys, and bad because of a few things. Christmas was terrible. It was absolutely zero fun. We sat in the flat all day. Played cards and the other games that we had but to no avail. About 7 hours we were sitting around. The reason is that we didn't have a car. The zone leaders kept promising to bring it but they never came. Man it was boring. We also got transfer news on Saturday. My companion is leaving and I'm getting someone new. I have only been here six weeks and I don't know the area very well. Hopefully I will be okay. My new comp will be Elder Pania from Samoa. I'm pretty excited for that every one tells me that he is a pretty cool guy. I will miss Elder Rako though, We weren't together very long and we got along really well. The time is going by so fast. I have some kind of allergies here and its driving me crazy. I'm sneezing all the time. The other day we almost got struck by lighting. I've heard that Joburg and the surrounding areas is the worst place in the world for lighting. There are thunder storms all the time. But as we were walking to our flat behind us was this bright light, as I looked at it the sound hit us. Oh man it was so loud. Lighting struck a building right behind us. I stared right at the lightning it was so weird. It was cool too. We were walking around yesterday and started talking to this lady and i asked how here Christmas was, now these are her exact words. "Oh man it was great, I was so !@#$ing drunk like no body's business." Yeah it was terrible. Some of the people around here that's all they live for. Booze and breaking the law of chastity. Man its depressing. Anyway i love you all thanks for everything that you do. No i don't have my package yet hopefully i will get it today. Sala Kahla

December 20, 2009

Well my Christmas call is going to be a little different this year. I hope it is okay. I wont be calling on Christmas. It will be on Christmas Eve. I really hope that's okay. You will need to call in the morning about 10 am. I'm just really worried that something won't work like someone will have to work or something. I'll be praying. But other that that the week has been okay. On Thursday my comp Elder Rako crashed the car into one of the awnings ( i have no idea how to spell that.) Or the car port outside out flat. So we are without a car for a month. So now we have to get on bikes. We bike to the area at the beginning of the week and bike home at the end. Its about 15 miles away and its a heck of a ride. Our area is huge. So now on a bicycle it takes about 30 minutes to get to appointments instead of 5. Oh well maybe I'll lose some weight. Yesterday at after church we get fed lunch. And because we have no car we had to walk to our area. It took us an hour and a half and we even hitched a ride half the way so we are going to have a rough couple of weeks. On Christmas Eve and day as well as new years eve and day we aren't allowed to work past 6. We need to be in our flat. On Christmas day we are planning to go to a members house and watch all the church DVDs we have. That should be fun. Anyway that was my week glad that things are going so well. If i don't receive your call by 1015 your time i'll probably call from here if its okay. I sure hope everything works out. I love you all.

December 13, 2009

Hey everybody everything is going great. Sorry the emailing is a little bit late this week. We had our Christmas party Monday and half of today. It was pretty fun. We spent like 5 hours playing soccer and rugby. We also play soccer every morning. So I'm getting a lot of practice in, so I'll be able to beat anyone at home at soccer. haha. We just got out of a testimony meeting that was 4 hours long. Oh man it was good but too long. I have an update in my sotho name. I was telling people and I mentioned that i wish i had gotten a zulu name instead of a sotho name (I like zulu better) and they told me that the zulu version of Thabong is Jabulani. So that works even better I don't need to change my middle initial. lol Oh well it's still pretty cool. Last Saturday my bed broke because I'm too stuhla, fat, Oh well they say it happens all the time. Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon. Mom I was wondering if I could get your crepe recipe. sorry nothing that interesting going on this week. I love you all thanks for everything you do. I'll be sure to let you know when I get my package I'm pretty excited for it.

December 6, 2009

Hey how is everything going? things are great over here in the African jungle. The work is great we now have 16 people on date for baptism. Yesterday we went to a wedding. Oh man it was the coolest one i have ever been too. The Guy getting married dressed in traditional zulu clothes and did there dance. I will send pictures. It was such a cool wedding though. My wedding is going to be a lot like that one. Any way thinking about weddings gets me trunky so ill change the subject. Now my sotho name is thabong, Every missionary gets a zulu or sotho name when they come into the area. Its pretty much the first one they come up with that's what you get. And One of the young woman called me Thabong. I was hoping for a Zulu name where i would get to click like Nqobile but oh well. Thabong is pretty cool. Dads chili was a great success. It tasted exactly how i remember it. Oh man it was really good. The other missionaries loved it too. I try to cook. Mostly i cook rice and some African gravy Pap and chicken now I'll be cooking a lot of chili. I am trying my hardest to learn zulu I hope i will be able to speak it really well when i leave. Every time it rains in Katlehong it flash floods. We had parked our car in the street and went and taught a lesson by the time we came out. Our car was half way under the water. Amazingly it still worked no water got in the engine but water got inside and it smelled really bad. It still does. We play soccer every morning for exercise and i rolled my ankle pretty bad. But ever since i rolled it that one time. They have healed really quick. we were teaching a guy named Khaya and we asked him how he was doing, reading the BoM and praying. He said he got his answer. Then he continued to describe what happened. Oh man the spirit was so strong. He said he heard someone talking but he didn't hear any voices. Telling him that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord. Those were his words. That's what you call a golden investigator. He hasn't missed church yet. I love this work, Thanks for everything that you do. Have a good week. Benjamin

November 30, 2009

Hey everyone, This was a pretty good week. Of course it was my birthday; that was awesome. It was my companions birthday on Monday and we went to a buffet called boma. It was really good. Wednesday my birthday was really cool. Out of 7 appointments that we had none of them ditched. That is amazing. We have a little balcony at our flat so we decided to sleep outside it was really nice. At 1:45 in the morning Another elder that stayed close called us for a blessing, Elder Rako anointed and I blessed. He said that the pain in his ear immediately left. That was a really good feeling. That helped my faith i little bit more. I’m so grateful that i have the priesthood to bless others. There was nothing really interesting that happened on thanksgiving. We really didn’t do anything special. We did find out from a drunk lady that Jesus Christ was a criminal. HAHA Beer is the number one selling thing in this country. Every single weekend is bad. Friday was pretty interesting for companionship study we sang some songs in Zulu oh man your throat and mouth get really tired. But I love zulu. I’m going to learn as much of it as i can. Our ward had a Christmas party on Saturday and us 6 missionaries sang silent night in zulu, the people loved it. Especially when you get to click. Its the coolest language ever. Sunday we had baptism. It had been a long time since i have had one. Its about time. On January 10th we have like 10 people hopefully getting baptized. It has been a pretty good week. Oh and i asked for white cheddar cheeseitz. You know the little square crackers. they are also called cheese nips. Anyway the white cheddar ones are the best. Some movie soundtracks would be really awesome too. Like brave heart and gladiator. Any other ones that are cool. And a foot ball. Nice leather one. Well I love you all thanks for everything, se ya when I see ya.
Benjamin

Monday, November 16, 2009

November 15, 2009

Hey everybody everything is going really good over here. I have got a lot of interesting things this week. First of all I haven’t gotten any package yet but I will get them Wednesday if the are in Africa. I don’t know if you got it last time but I would like a nice leather football. That would be a really cool thing to have. I’m tired of rugby and cricket. Wednesday I went on exchanges with the zone leaders in Polokwane. That was a pretty good day. We taught a lot of lessons. One thing we did was we went to go give this less active ladies child a blessing, so elder Lane did that. After that she asked us to bless her home. So we opened our little handbooks and looked at dedicating a home. So I gave that prayer it was very interesting I had never dedicated a home before. Later that night we were teaching a guy and his mom. As we were teaching about the plan of salvation, He was very confused about a lot of things. He wanted to know the point of life if God knows where we go anyway. So I stared at him and asked, “What did Jesus do for us?” he replied he died for us. “What does that mean?” He didn’t answer for a few minutes and then finally said I don’t know can you tell me. So I taught the atonement. Probably the best I’ve ever taught it before. I spoke mostly about justice and mercy and what we had to do to obtain mercy. When I was finished and I bore my testimony. He sat there for a few more minutes and he told me,” you know I have been going to church for so long and no has ever told me that. I have always wondered why Jesus did that. They always say that he died and nothing else.” That was one of the best lessons that I’ve ever had. I’m probably going to never see that guys again. But that’s how it works sometimes. It is so hot up here you can’t even sleep. What ever you are doing you sweat so badly. All the time constantly the humidity kills you. On Saturday we had planned a branch activity and it rained the night before so it was canceled. We were planning on being there pretty much all day. But since it was canceled our day was blank than we had to find a lot of stuff to do. We also got transfer news this week. Turns out I’m leaving. We usually stay in one area for about 6 months, that is how long I’ve been here, but you never really know with president Poulsen. I’m going to Katlehong, in Roodeport. Back in township yahoooooo! No more stinkin' white people to deal with. My new companion will be someone from Madagascar. I’m really excited. Everything is good, Wednesday Ill be going to my new area with my new companion. I love you all. Thanks for everything.
Benjamin