Week 16: Meeting new friends and running into old ones

Hello friends and family!

Looking back on this week it has flown by and we were so busy.

So last Monday we went to the home of a member in our stake and our whole zone had a braai. That giant steak you see was mine and Elder Blows. It was nice! This member is quite wealthy and has two giant rooms of old vintage cars! They gave us a tour of them. He also had another giant building full of hot wheels in their packages still. That was a lot of fun.

Also this week we had interviews on Wednesday. It was so good to see Pres. and Sis. Leavitt and get to talk with President Leavitt one on one. He truly loves all of the missionaries individually and gets to know each and every one of us.

We also had a temple trip this week on Friday. I knew the Koch's lived in the same compound as the temple so I brought along with me Ryland and Raelee's wedding invitation. Following the session we headed over to the other buildings within the compound where area offices, the distribution center, cafeteria, and many other offices are found. We had lunch and district meeting. While we were there Sis. Radebe, a member from Protea Glen who works at the temple, walked in. I ran over to greet her. It was so good to see her. She had a very shocked and happy look on her face. Elder Blow had mentioned to me that Elder Broadbent, the one who helped me get here sooner, that he knew where his office was. It was in a building that required an electronic key to get in the building and in and out of every door within the building. I almost just said oh well and left to go to our area but we decided to ask a worker to let us in. She did and we went to Elder Broadbent's office. He wasn't there... A Sister asked us who we were looking for so we told her and she proceeded to tell us that Sis. Broadbent was upstairs. As she began to take us up there I asked if she knew where Pres. Koch's office was as well. It happened to be upstairs as well. Pres. and Sis. Koch weren't there so Sis. Broadbent tried their home phone but no luck. However she told us that Elder Broadbent was back. We ran back downstairs to his office. When I walked in he gave me the biggest hug. He then grabbed me by the side of the head with both hands like a father or grandfather would and told me he was so happy to have me back. I thanked him so much for helping me get back as soon as possible and he just told me that I did the right thing and that it was time for me to come back. After we talked for a bit I asked him if he had Pres. Koch's personal number, thinking he could call it for me and see where they might be, instead he wrote it down for me and told me I could call him. I did and it turned out they were only 10 mins away. We met them outside the white house, the home where the Area seventy live, Pres. Koch then invited Elder Blow and I into the home to visit with Sis. Koch and him for a bit. It was wonderful being able to talk to them and talk about the differences between here and Mozambique and talk about our families. Yes, I gave them the announcement mom. After taking some pictures, as we were leaving Sis. Koch said she had something for us. She came back out with 2 big chocolate Santa's!!! Let me tell you. Chocolate to missionaries is like gold!! It's kind of expensive for missionary budgets so we rarely get it. It was so nice to be able to meet them and get to know them. We will probably be seeing them more often now.

Also this week we had a few activities at the malls in our zone. Saturday we had a booth set up at the mall and we handed out calendars for Light the World. It was pretty successful. Following our shift we ran over to the chapel to start setting up for our movie night for Light the World. We popped popcorn and watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. I forgot how short the movie was so following a spiritual thought after the movie we played Cokeville Miracle for everyone. We had a pretty good turnout considering it was Reconciliation Day, a holiday for South Africans where people usually have work off and go out and party/drink. Also the biggest pub/club in our district is right next to our chapel so our small little speaker had to compete with the loud party going on next door. It was pretty hard to hear the movie but oh well. WE had about 50 people there and got about 5 referrals from it.

That night I got a message from bishop asking me to speak the next day. I used to freak out when I would have to give a talk and I'd stress out the entire time but being a missionary talks are easy. The next morning I prepared a talk and gave a 15-20 min talk on Jesus Christ and his gospel.

After church we went to another mall where our stake choir was singing. As they sang in the middle of the mall, us missionaries talked to people and handed out more calendars. This activity was a huge success. Got many referrals for our zone.

Well I heard a lot has happened back at home. Congratulations Caleb and Brittany. Also I heard dad is now in the Bishopric. You're going to do great dad. Just think, Bishop Sandstrom has been bishop for a while now... Maybe you'll be bishop when I come home.

Also about skyping. We talked with our bishop and he said that we could come to his home to Skype but his Wi-Fi is currently down but he's hoping it'll be back up this week. He will let us know. If we do Skype at his home it'll probably be around 4 or 5 pm on Sunday/Christmas eve our time so Sunday morning your time. If his Wi-Fi isn't up then we'll be skyping with a senior couples laptops Monday morning so Sunday night really late your time. Like 12 or 1 am your time. We got permission from our mission president to email you during the week to inform you of the exact plan when we find out.

Well I believe I covered everything. I love you all. This week was a little slow when it comes to lessons and people being at church because everyone goes away for the holidays and we were just so busy with all of our activities.

I love you all. Talk to you "face to face" on Sunday or Monday. Love you all.