Elder Swindle In Africa

Man what a week! This week was been something else let me tell you! CHRISTMAS WAS EXCELLENT! So maybe i will just down run down of the week so we can fill you all in! We started the week off super packed. Me and Elder Thusi made it a goal to see as many people as we possibly could on Tuesday and Wednesday because we knew that not many investigators will be available for Christmas. We saw like 7 people each day and had district meeting late at night because of how hectic the day was. It was great to see everyone right before the holidays, sad to say everyone in the villages didn't really care, just another day for them to lounge around. But on Christmas eve we went and saw member's in Modjiodji and Lenyenye and what a great time it was. The member's in modjiodji are some of the most incredible and favorite people I've ever met in my life! On Christmas eve morning we helped a member named benitt get water, his legs are crippled and he lives on top of a hill in a shac...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! (almost) Well it is quite hard to belive that Christmas is coming this week and man let me tell you it does not feel like Christmas even to the smallest amount!! 90-100 degrees every day just really won't cut it! It feels like i am in southern Utah and its Mid Summer in June. Hard to belive that there is snow back home and people are throwing snow balls at eachother. But it will definitely be a interesting Christmas with our little family here in Limpopo! We probaly have the smallest district in the whole mission but we enjoy it! Everyone else never got their package so it looks like what ever is in mine will be split into 4, they said if they dont have it by now they will get it in Febuary. We are going to have Christmas Eve dinner at the cambels and the same on Christmas day when we call home! Very Excited! Cant wait to see all my brothers and my parents, my dog.... oh yeah my sisters too! Should be great! This week we were able to make it to modjodji and saw...

Christmas is right around the corner! Well this week has been great and i cant help but to be extremely excited for Christmas! Just 11 more days! Time has flown and it honestly doesn't really feel like Christmas when its a constant 90 degrees and no Christmas lights on any house kinda sad but that's kinda how it goes here. I ask every person we teach about Christmas coming up and if they are excited, but they just say meh not really just another day, or if they manage to say they are excited it takes quite a bit of effort. Sad but hey! I'm Excited! haha This week has been great we have had Zone meeting and it was hilarious to see all the new greenies and their reactions super funny! Was i but tis not i. Crazy to think i was in their same position just 6 months ago. This week we saw a fair amount of investigators and it was great to see the progress they made from last time we saw them. We have a investigator named Symoucius that is a Representative for a political group he...

Its December already?? Well you could easily say that this week has been the craziest week of my mission by far! So much has happened, so much traveling it was quite unreal.  Literally  this whole week was spent driving to Poloqani and to Pretoria! So this week our flat got broken into and they took all my allotment money for the month!(looks like im going to be eating rice for another month haha) Honestly not the greatest feeling when you know  you've  been robbed twice from the same drawer in my desk. We found that it was a member sadly, and to keep the story short, Elder hunt got transferred early and i have a new companion! His name is Elder Thusi from Durban SA, first African comp, super humble guy and the future looks bright for us! We are excited to start working in the area after so long! We were finally able to get into the area yesterday and was almost overwhelmed with the work we put on pause! But yesterday was probably the best Sunday we of t...

25 more days til Christmas!! Wow what a week it has been for us! Lots of things have happened and its the holiday season! We first off had a spectacular Thanksgiving feast at the cambells! We had a feast of the typical foods except no turkey sadly, The turkey here is extremely expensive, like 400 Rand for a little turkey like as big as the Costco Chickens, but that doesn't mean me and Elder Hunt didn't stuff ourselves! Fist time that Elder hunt has ever been full, this guy has got a black hole for a stomach, or maybe its just his extremely fast metabolism. But this week he wasn't so crazy because we had no food! Our bokki got robbed and they stole me and hunts money and my camera! So we literally just survived on thanksgiving left overs and rice... hahaha a little malnourished this week but hey me made it!  What a blessing the holidays are! haha But other than that me and hunt are rocking the christmas music and are pretty excited! This week we attended the sisters fun...

I hope everyone is well and is getting ready for Thanks giving! We are planning to have a feast as well (without a turkey) at the campbells all the elders are pretty excited for that.  We have had a excellent week this week and have had a lot of success with are teaching. We have several new investigators and they are all progressing so far all of them have amazing potential! We taught this guy named david from zimbob and last week we taught him the godhead/BRT with his friend and when we came back this week he read all the way to 2 nephi in the BoM! Very humble guy and his friend, Nomane are both great. We also taught a guy named daniel that is about 23 which is a rarity because no one in that age group ever wants to listen to us, but hes hungry to know more and always wants us to come back. Also we taught a brother that we gave blessing to in the hospital in the ICU and he wants to know more because the missionaries left the area when he was just getting interested, it wa...

Hey everyone! This week has been excellent! Lots of work done and lots of success! This week we have seen a lot of new investigators which means a lot of BRT, and to be honest i have enjoyed the change from always working with less actives the majority of the time. We have 4 new investigators and they were all found through lessons with members or other LA's. We have been blessed to have this new opportunity before us and i know for a fact they have been prepared by the lord to get to this point. What a sacred opportunity it is to help my fellow brothers and sisters understand about this gospel and the pure joy it can bring into their lives, what a opportunity to help someone understand where they are going after this life and to see the smile that spreads across their face as the spirit tells their heart it is true? I cant describe the happiness it brings to me and my comp its amazing. One new investigor we are teaching doesnt know english very well so we have to have a member fe...

Hey! Hey! Awesome week! Me and elder Hunt have been pumping a lot of lessons out this week and we have been able to get in contact with a lot of people that haven't been seen for awhile. The spirit has been strongly involved with assisting us with the work this week and people are learning and acting- missionary's greatest pay off! This week we met with a investigator that is married to a RM and we taught her the plan of happiness and she was touched deeply and was so happy to know this amazing plan set before us! At the end of the lesson she said she said that she honestly never prayed because she didn't think there was life after death and she said she could now pray with meaning! and true intent! We committed her to baptism and she came to church the following day! Awesome! We also got the chance to teach some less actives that live wayyyy out there in place called sunnyside and we taught them the same lesson, and they said that they have never been taught it before and...

Happy Halloween!! Crazy week!! This week so much has happened i would hardly have time to tell you all about it! But mainly transfers happened and Elder Stomps went to momaliodi and will finish the rest of his mission there. And my new comps name is Elder Hunt!! He is 110% somoan and man hes a laka guy!! Hes been out for about a year now and this is only his second area! Though we have only been together for a couple days we have had a great time and man have we got some work done already! Interesting facts about my new comp: he sleeps with a GIANT blue teddy bear named Moses haha and he has enough energy to power all of limpopo haha But hes a great guy his English is very limited and the only thing he can do during a lesson is bear his testimony and laugh and laugh! Super funny guy. It is different now that i teach most of the lesson by myself but Elder hunt can ALWAYS back up what i said with his testimony, an its powerful! Your testimony is something that no one on earth can argu...

heyti! heyti! Man this week was great! Was at times pretty slow but for the most part rolled by pretty fast! Well to start off Frank, Hazel, and Winnie were confirmed a couple days ago and it was awesome to see all their big smiles and the joy that they received instantly from the spirit! Love them and know they will help uplift our small little branch. This week at church was great because we had a lot of less actives come despite the hurricane weather we've had, and the best part is that they brought friends with them as well so we have gained a lot of potential investigators and some solid ones too! The amazing thing about this place is that there is no end to the amount of work that needs to be done here, there are always less actives to see and members to strengthen! One of my investigators Eddy invited me to play some basketball with him and his boyz and to no surprise they were just the same as the ballers in Mafikeng! We are trying to build a good relationship and trust ...

Hey yall! This week was great i have enjoyed this week so much! This week was yet again extremely hot, and its not even summer yet! I will be teaching in a lesson and sweat will be dripping from every pore but thank goodness for A/C's! We have had a lot of commotion this week many things happening here and there, i went on exchanges almost 3 times this week and learned a lot! On tuesday this week Me and Elder Dazousa from SA went on exchanges because his comp couldn't walk due to a twisted ankle, but we had a great time tracking and meeting a lot of new faces, it was interesting to serve in a city (almost like american fork) instead of a straight up village! We both learned a lot from each other. Next i went out with ELder Lylbe a Zone leader for almost two days and man we had the best of time, he is amazingly obedient so we meshed together quite well. We worked from 10 til 9:30 each night and gave it all we got. Loved it! And then of course this week we had 3 baptisms! Fr...

Hows it going everyone? This week has been excellent! This week seemed to fly by extremely fast unlike last week. It's crazy on a mission how the days can go by kind of slow but when you look up and blink a whole month has gone by! Makes you cherish the valuable time we have as missionaries. This week the work has been good, we have had a lot of lessons and are always busy. If we are not teaching a investigator or a recent convert we can ALWAYS find a less active! But as of yesterday one of our investigators; Frank passed his baptismal interview!! This means he will be baptized next week.This was great news to us because he has a difficult time with English, but man is he a faithful saint. Frank only has one leg and has to pay 70 rand just to get to church (70 rand is about 5 bucks) and it is very difficult for him to come up with that much money. To my great delight he came to church this week proudly with his nicely pressed blue suit. What a blessing it was! As for our other i...

Howizit! Hey everyone, i hope everyone is well and enjoying good old Utah! Africa is lakaa as always and i am enjoying my new area a lot! It is a great place and there is a lot of work that is needed to be done here! There are a lot more members here but they are all less-active! We have about 60 people come to church and about roughly 400 less actives! Great ratio isn't it?! So here we can always count on having a busy day not just inviting people to follow Christ but to also strengthen there relationship or to help them find it again! Most people here are less active because they have no car and would have to walk at least a hour to church from the mountains. All but like 10 members walk to church pretty impressive! So we have a lot of investigators right now we have a lot of teenagers because most of the older people can hardly speak english, we have about 5 people on date for the 11th of October so its coming pretty close and i think the majority of them with follow through...

Hey everyone! This week has been something else! I finished up training finally and had my first transfer! I am now in the limpopo, lenyenye area and man its is so different from Mafikeng!! The area is all tropical and is all huge rolling green hills and mountains! Its is pretty much as opposite of flat dry maf-town. Tee area is amazing and the people are all spaidee much more different from setswana's in all honestly they are not quite as happy and don't like to talk much! The people here believe we are Satan worshipers and when ever they see us they run away or they yell FIRE! FIRE! The area has a big church here called zcc's and the minster taught them to say that to cast the demons (us) away. haha so it is all pretty interesting here! My new comp Elder Stomps is from the Netherlands and he has about 2 months left and is ready to go! haha  It is extremely different here and feels like i am starting my mission over! But anyways we had a baptism this sunday with one of...

Hey everyone! Wow what a crazy week let me tell you! So much has happened and time keeps flying by! This week has been great and very enjoyable! Last p day we played rugby and man Africans love it, it got pretty tense and man was i sore after! Right after that we went out to eat on the street and we got a call from the security company that some one broke into our chapel! So you have to realize that are chapel looks like a prison/fortress so these thing don't happen...But we got there and in the back they broke through a window and stole all of the huge chapel speakers! And the window they busted though is ridiculously small! No one knows how they did it but they are African so i know at least they didn't use magic. But we went to Botswana and had zone conference and got to see some of the new guys! Love them all they are great! And right after we went to a place called the BDF camp for a zone activity, which is a huge army base and right in the middle of it the keep a bunc...

Etah!!  Hey everyone i hope you are all doing well and loving life as much as i am! This week as been simply amazing, the fruits of our labors are finally paying off and it was great actually being in our area for a whole week! I love Botswana but i enjoy being with my investigators and seeing them grow on a weekly basis! This week was awesome because we have gotten so many new investigators from the open house last week and some from church head quarters so we have done a lot of contacting and our pool of investigators has grown quite large! Now that we have more people to work with we are going to start building our relationships with them so we can begin to gain their trust and lead them to their eternal salvation!! This week has been really rainy and man you think it rains with thunder and lightning in Utah??? Man i thought that the shacks we were teaching in were going to blow down!! But during a thunderstorm with all this rain coming down we found a new inves...

Hello everyone! Just in case y'all didn't know i love you all! This week was definitely interesting and could be considered more of a service week than anything. To our GREAT SURPRISE we found ourselves in Botswana again for the most of the week helping move a flat in Molipoloi (the worlds biggest village) Pretty much out in the middle of no where and we were all covered in dirt from head to toe all week, there is no water up there too so a shower wasn't even close to possibility. But other than that we worked all day everyday moving furniture super fun! haha But after we got back from bots we came back right in time for Mafikengs first open house!! Man what a amazing experience!! We were all expecting not much of a turn out but at one point there were almost a hundred people there! We got so man referrals it was awesome. All of the elders went out into the streets and invited everyone we saw and the members gave the tours and loaded them with info about th...

ola ola ola!! Hey everyone! Its great to hear from you all just like always! This week has been quite insane! We were litterally in botswana the whole week with the G-west elders! Man they are great and we enjoyed our time together! While in gabs we went to a convention where hundreds of churches and businesses were there showing off their stuff, the church had a booth there and we had a bunch of posters and jazz up so people could easily understand how our church runs. But it was awesome because everyone walked up to us and it was probably the easiest kind of contacting you could do on a mission! Lots of bible bashing and lots of heated debates but it was well worth our time! When i wasn't at the convention i was on exchanges with the zone leader-elder Bassima who serves in the exact same stake from which he was born and raised! The elders up in bots are powerful they sacrifice so much and most of them go straight off to the field and don't even go to the MTC...

Hey ya'll!! I hope everyone is doing well, and i am glad to hear from everyone and to see all the smiles! But otherwise the work is good here in Mofikeng and its finally starting to warm up and to actually feel like Africa!! The mornings here are freezing but they are finally warming up and the windy season is on the way before the heat arrives! This week me and Elder Williams have been cracking down on the area and really trying to learn it for ourselves because we usually have a member that's my age tag along with us each day, he literally like lives with us, he's hilarious! Too much Zulu in my life haha. But this week we have done a bunch of service and we helped with a Mormon Helping Hands at a orphanage and clean the yards and such. So one thing you have to understand about Africa is they have a house and they have a wall or a fence and dirt for a yard. Literally every house has a fence or a wall that has spikes on the top of it, every house is like a ...

Hello ladies and gents! I am sorry for the inconvenience and not being able to email yesterday! It's ok mom i am still alive! Yesterday was national women's day and literally nothing was open except for the grocery store thank goodness. Well if you couldn't guess this week we traveled even more and i picked up my new comp up in bots and then we had zone conference so lets just say my passport is being well used! But Elder Williams is like the coolest guy i have ever met! He has a voice exactly like Easton's and every African within a half a mile marvels at his height! (elder Lawson looks like a small child when he stands next to him) Hes exactly like me and also did dh biking back at home so of course we are instant brothers! Elder Autry got transferred to go train an greenie in mojimiji in Pretoria in the new addition to our mission. I will definitely miss the monkey. But on my way back from bots me and elder Williams got lost in gabs and finally made...

Hello everyone!! Well this week is transfers! Just when i start to learn something new i swear that something new pops up and my mind is racing once again!! So this week i will be brief so i can add a lot of pictures!! This week Elder Hunt and Elder Lawson were out doing official AP stuff in Lampopo(the witch craft city) and me and elder Autry have been all alone this week serving all of Mofikeng!! We have had a great time and have worked hard. But i swear just as soon as i got Elder Autry as a trainer he is getting transferred to Pretoria (the Capital of SA) sad to see him go, he is leaving tomorrow sad day, but a excuse to eat at KFC! :) My new comp is coming from Pretoria, his name is Elder Williams and he is going home in October. And they say he is 6'7 tall! He seems like a chill guy from talking to him on the phone. Its going to be extremely difficult though because now i am expected to know the whole area and show Elder Williams everything. Thank you for keeping me in yo...

Demula senche jan'g?? Wow so much has happened this week its been crazy!! This week has been hard on me but there has been a lot of new changes and a lot of things thrown at me! This week the lord has truly shown me all of my weaknesses, and pretty much from the first day i left on a mission! From day one i have had struggles with my visa and health issues and i almost got transferred to another mission or sent home multiple times due to heath and visa issues, but!!! the lord has given me all these struggles and issues to only make me stronger. This week i have had some pretty bad digestive issues and thought i was going to die!! BUT things are getting better and i can now start to focus more fully again! This week Elder Lawson got his new comp from Australia and he is like 300 pounds of muscle from the joberg mission. He is super tight and added to the amount of monkeys staying at our flat! So we split the area and we have a large amount of Mof town and me and E...

Howizit every one? Truly the first thing i have learned on a mission is that my family is my most prized possession! But this week has been great, we started it off traveling to Botswana and went up to Francis town to go on exchanges with Elder Cole and Elder Rantikia and they are both great!! They are great missionaries that work their butts off. They are 2 of the 4 elders in all of Botswana so they have a great responsibility on each of their heads!! But after the 14 hour drive there and back we finally were able to get back into our normal pace and get to work! I think that Mof-town is the coolest still. This week Elder Lawson is getting a AP companion from the new area we received into our mission, he is very thankful to get a new comp because he has to do call ins moring and night. But that means that me and Elder Autry will be comps and we can have a normal companionship finally. It was good having three elders in one place but it was sometimes difficult with...

Delmua!!! Like i say every week, what a week!! The last couple of weeks have been stressful and completely different from anything i could have ever imagined, but this week has been much better and i am feeling much better and am pushing the stress to the side and am focusing on my responsibility and the work at hand!! I have had to learn how to drive all over again and i can happily say i can drive like a 15 year old now!! They drive on the left side of the road and we drive a manual boki, and to make everything better everyone drives like they out for blood, and the endless amount of goats and cows that run everywhere!! But it has been great. The fundamentals of the language are finally coming and people are more open when you can speak even just a little setswana to them! And the food just keeps getting better and better!! Me and my companions eat TONS of meat and a large part of it is stuffed goat intestines and pap. Its amazing and at the G families i got to eat ...

Gosh what a crazy week, everything has gone really fast and yet slow at the same time. So i just found this out: This guy contacted me randomly on Facebook from Kenya before my mission and i had no idea who this guy is, but i talked to him about the church and the book of Mormon and he was really excited about it. I got his name and his address (haha Africans don't have addresses) and referred him to lds.org and while i was in the MTC i talked to the referral service HQ and they figured out how to locate him so the missionaries could find him and teach him some lessons, and to my great surprise he emailed me just now and said that he was finally able to find the missionaries and is taking the lessons and is on date for baptism!!!! Wow the lord works in amazing ways. Even for a random guy in Africa that lived out in the bush!! Totally made my day!!:)  But this last week has been very cold and we have been covering a lot of ground. But it has been good, I've met ...

Hello everyone!!! Holy hannah!! That's all i can say right now. It literally feels like i got picked up by a space ship from the MTC and dropped off on Mars. That is the only way to explain how i feel right now!! It is truly a completely different world. But starting from the beginning at the MTC, it was amazing!! The spirit can only be continually felt in few places on this earth but the MTC is one of them. I was at first disappointed about getting transferred to Provo from Joberg, but now i see why i am here and have come to the conclusion that i have no freaking idea what is going to happen next and just do what ever the lord needs! I think that the typical person would of died at this point haha. But the MTC was great but our whole district was ready to move on and change the world! what a great district so many amazing Elders and Sisters in one place it was incredible. But after that i had my 23 hours of flying and that was just dandy (honestly it was...