My Adventures Serving in Africa: Weeks 3, 4 & 5

Week 3

Last week in the MTC was boring really but it went by quick so yea.

South Africa MTC in Johannesburg

Johannesburg Temple Grounds

Johannesburg Temple

Elder Maurerman & Elder Brady

Elder Mauerman & Elder Brady

Elder Mauerman, Elder Kirkpatrick, Elder Bratsman, Elder Brady

Elder Bratsman & Elder Brady

MTC Group

Week 4

Monday: Travel Day we woke up at 4:30 am to get ready and we left the MTC at 5:30 am. Left Joburg at 9:30 am flew for 4 hours and got picked up by President Collings and it was awesome then we drove to the mission home and had pizza for dinner so good.

Elder Kaluluma, Elder Brady, Sister & Pres. Collings, Sister ?, Elder Bratsman, Elder Kirkpatrick

Tuesday: We went on a 3 mile run with President Collings actually really good to run. Left the mission home at 2pm drove to Walubuka my new area and met my trainer Elder Johnson he is only 2 transfers older than me. He is from Sandy Utah.

Running with President Collings

Elder Bratsman, Elder Brady, Pres. Collings, Elder Kirkpatrick, Elder Kaluluma

Wednesday: It was my first day being actually in the field so it was actually really good but long. And I figured out that this is the Lord's mission not mine. We were on exchanges because Elder Johnson is new to the area as well, so we basically went tracting.

Thursday: So we went as a district and did service for a sister in the branch. I actually got homesick very bad I was crying, but Elder Johnson helped me out, so it was okay. We taught 4 lessons today, they were all really good. We also met George who is an RM from South Africa. He has an iPad so we asked him if we could use it to Skype home and he said yes, it was amazing.

Friday: We had weekly planning and we were able to figure out the rest of the week which was awesome. We went and taught Frank who has a baptismal date for January 14th. We also found Danson who is a practicing nurse, he has a wife and baby in Kampala. He is very interested in the Gospel and when we asked him to pray at the end of the lesson, he asked "how?" Then we taught Anet who is another investigator and is progressing very well.

Saturday: We found another person her name is Sandra and she has 3 kids and her husband works in Kampala. We went and taught Anet again and we were able to see a Catholic baptism; it was actually really weird, but it was another good day.

Sunday: At church today it was missionary Sunday so the missionaries do everything in church haha it was actually really fun. And after church every Sunday we have district lunch, so that's always fun. After that we went caroling because it was Christmas Eve. I never thought I would say this, but I miss the snow! I want snow please.

Week 5:

Monday: Merry Christmas! So for P-Day we were fed and we figured out calling home and such, it was so crazy that it took all day, but I was able to see and talk to my family so it was an amazing best day on the mission.

Tuesday: More service today which is good because it was keeping me busy. So we got bounced all day long so it was kinda crappy, but we had dinner at George's house so it turned out to be good.

Wednesday: The day started out bad because no one was answering our calls, but it turned into a good day we taught 3 lessons and all 3 are really strong investigators so hopefully it turns into baptisms.

Thursday: The day went by extremely fast so we did more service...Remember when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God. Also our district grew by 1, Elder Barber got emergency transferred so now we are 7.

Friday: The day was amazing because Elder Johnson bought a brown old ripped satchel from a guy on the street for 2,000 shillings which is about 75 cents in US money. We asked Sandra to be baptized on January 21st and she said yes. Afterwards she told us about a dream she had of a man in white clothes telling her that the Mormon church was the true church which was amazing.

Saturday: We didn't leave the house till like 12:30 pm because it was raining and the people here are afraid of the rain. It was a hard day because we got bounced 4 times, but we taught 3 lessons which were amazing and the Spirit was so strong in those lessons. I love the rain because it turns the red dust into red mud so much better haha. Also Elder Johnson got his Christmas package so he was super excited. The missionary life is becoming more natural as I am still finishing adjusting.

Sunday: Church was awesome today, we had 2 investigators come to church. After district lunch we went tracting and found 4 new investigators. It is an amazing way to end the year 2017. We live right in front of a Born Again Church and they were blasting music all night, so it was hard to sleep but we fell asleep eventually which was good.