Week 8: Playing basketball FINALLY with Africans!

Well this week has been great! We had exchanges again this week. I bet you can guess what I'm going to say about it... Yup I loved it! I went with Elder Wardle because he is our district leader and he had to interview Masesi for baptism. So Masesi will be baptized this Sunday. She is so powerful and has such a strong testimony.

This week I was finally able to play basketball!!!! We drove by some basketball courts in our area which normally no one is using but this time there were AFRICANS playing basketball! We went to our appointment and then I forced Elder Thompson to pull over so I could go play and talk to them. It turns out 1 of them use to go to our church but stopped. After playing for 30 minutes and torturing Elder Thompson I invited them all to come play basketball at the Chapel on Friday. Since I've gotten to South Africa I have played so much soccer, which I love, but I was finally able to play some basketball. I learned I am so out of shape.

Thursday we had interviews with Pres Dunn which was really good. It was good to be able to sit down with him and get a little 1 on 1 time with him. I told him how Ryland is serving in Mozambique and he told me that he and Sis. Dunn will see Pres. and Sis. Koch in a few weeks so they will talk to them about Ryland and I. He gave me a lot of good advice and praise.

Friday about 4 of the guys I invited to play basketball showed up. I got changed into some p-day clothes and walked out thinking I would school these guys but man am I out of shape and was one of these guys good!!! It was a lot of fun and an awesome opportunity to get to these guys and talk about the gospel with them.

On Sunday it was my first Fast and Testimony meeting here in South Africa. It was amazing to see and feel of their simple yet powerful testimonies. I can honestly say I've never felt the spirit more in a fast and testimony meeting. It was amazing to see these members get up and thank us, the missionaries, for all we do and the sacrifices we make to bring them the gospel. It made me so happy and reminded me how worth serving a mission is.

So the government here is very corrupt, especially the police. They conduct random traffic stops so they can find the randomest thing to say they can give you a fine for and then try and bribe you. So Sunday we got stopped and the cop started asking a ton of questions to try and find something to fine us for but instead it turned into us talking about the gospel with her. It was quite funny. She let us go.

So the holiday they celebrated here is called Guyfox day. Man some of these kids went all out! it was so funny to see. There were little boys wearing these tight dresses, heels, and wigs.

This week has been great. We had quite a few investigators attend church. It was great to see them there and they loved it.

We have a zone activity today so we're going to the Apartheid museum today. Hopefully I'll have some pictures for you next week.

Love you! Elder Rash