Week 4: HELLO from Protea Glen South Africa

Hello Friends and family!
Unjani?(how are you) I'm not going to talk about my last week in the MTC because it was a repeat of the first. My first week in the field has been awesome! I am in Soweto Zone but in the Protea Glen area. It is so diverse here! It's a township and has some pretty nice homes with walls around them, decent a little rundown homes, and shacks. It's crazy.

My trainer is Elder Thompson from Mt. Pleasant Utah. We don't have much in common, he likes music and other stuff like that. His background is a little crazy. He has 18 siblings. You might wonder how. Well he comes from an FLDS family and his mom is still a polygamist. He told me he grew up with the gospel but wasn't a member but always thought he was. He says this FLDS group isn't as crazy and far off the path as those in Colorado City and places like that that you see on the TV shows. He says they lived the law of consecration and polygamy but everything else was the same as the LDS church. Apparently they say the LDS church is the true church but the prophet is just the president of the church and doesn't hold all the keys. It's a weird story that I don't have time for. So he was confused and didn't know if what he was living was true so he searched and came to find out that he wasn't living the gospel and that that was all wrong and so he was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had thought he was a member all along but wasn't baptized with the proper authority and priesthood. So he's 24 and a convert.

Our area is awesome. The first day we went shopping and I gave a Book of Mormon to someone in a matter of minutes. Right now we have 2 investigators on date for baptism for the 30th of October and they are amazing. We have 5 more potential ones that should be on date very soon. One is Thapelo. He is a 15 year old boy who loves the gospel. He's been taking the lessons for 3 months. The reason he isn't baptized yet is because since he's under 16 he has to go to church consistently for 6 months. As soon as I met him I knew he was ready for baptism. We talked to President Dunn and asked if we could set a baptismal date and he said yes if we think he's ready. He came to watch General Conference and had so many of his questions answered by the end. When we asked him if he felt ready for baptism he said he didn't feel worthy. Our hearts sank and the way he was describing it, he made it sound like it was a serious situation and we kind of hinted to it and tried to help him without actually coming out and asking if it was a morality problem and then we finally asked him what it was and he said it's because he gets angry easy! That's how ready he is! He's so righteous that he thought getting angry would make him unworthy. So one of the talks in General Conference answered that question and concern for him. So we went ahead and he was going to pray for the 23 of Oct. to be baptized. He was so excited and then the next day told us that his mom wasn't against him getting baptized but wanted him to wait till the end of the year so he knows for sure he wants to get baptized and won't leave the church. I could see this kid being an apostle one day that's how amazing he is. He read the Book of Mormon cover to cover in 1 week of getting it. He carries it with him everywhere! We're going to work with his mom to see if he can get baptized earlier.

The food here is good. We eat a lot of chicken and rice. We get fed about 4-6 times a week. My favorite thing is dumbolo. It's like a homemade bread but is steamed. It's weird and hard to explain but is so good!

I love the kids here!!! They flock around us everywhere we go. I love playing soccer with them and doing the African handshake with them. I'm starting to learn Zulu and know a few phrases. One of the members is a Zulu teacher and is determined to teach me.

I love this gospel and this work so much. I've never been more tired in my life but it's worth it. I'll talk to you all on Monday.

Love you! Elder Rash

Questions and Answers

1. Tell us about your companion/trainer?
He is from Mt. Pleasant Utah. Use to be FLDS.
2. Tell us about the MTC experience?
The MTC was good but about a week to long. It got tiring and repetitive
3. Tell us what you know so far about your area?
I am in Protea Glen. It's actually about a 20 min drive from our flat so we drive to our area. Oh yeah i forgot to tell you guys I've been driving!!! it's crazy!!!! But Protea Glen is within Soweto
4. What is South Africa like?
I love South Africa. It's so diverse. You'll see nice houses and then 1 min you'll see squatter camps which are a bunch of tin shacks clumped together
5. Are you experiencing culture shock?
Eh. Not really. I did but I'm over it.
6. Tell us about your MTC companion?
I had 2 companions. The first was from Botswana we got on each other's nerves kind of and then we ended up getting transferred within our district. My second one was Elder Griffin from Utah. Senator Flakes son was in my district so that was kind of cool but he was annoying. He went to Botswanna
7. Did he go to Johannesburg or somewhere else?
Both went to Bots
8. Tell us about your District in the MTC?
it was the best district. Elder Cox from Austrilia, who I love, went to Joburg and he's in my zone so that's awesome
9. Did you have a zone leader in the MTC?
Yeah. One went to Durban and one went to Bots
10. Give us an idea of what your daily routine has been in the mission field?
wake up study leave about 11 for our area then go to appointments and if we don't have any then we contact