Adventures in South Africa!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRANDI! MY DEAR SISTER THAT HASN’T EMAILED ME…YOU STINKIN PUNK THAT I LOVE SO VERY MUCH!! Haha. Brandi’s birthday is on my favorite holiday here. HERITAGE DAY!! :)

Kayaking sounds fun!! I’m glad you and dad were able to go; can we do it in two years?

Soooooo this week we were suppose to have baptisms but we did not…SUPRISE! They have moved away or their parents have disagreed.....We have some solid ones coming up though!

Tracting here is very effective cause everyone wants to hear you. Ok...I need to clarify something. People always think that baptisms are crazy here!!! It is because these people all want to be baptized. If I met someone on the street right now I guarantee I could have him baptized in a month. The PROBLEM is some missionaries do this, and these people aren't really converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ...that's why we have to try and (re)convert them!!!!! When we baptize people we make sure their testimonies of Jesus Christ are strong. We do not want to baptize people just so our numbers are high, we want to help them learn about, love, and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so they can receive the many blessings awaiting them! The problem is the church is small here and members don’t take them under their wing cause they are struggling to stay active themselves...so much worldly pressures here…yep. TIA; This is Africa. So we baptize people that are ready.

Man, I love Brother Ritchey. I miss that guy! I need his email. How is sister Overton?? I wanted to talk to her about the mission if I could! That would be sweet cause I could talk to some old members about her if I knew who she taught!!

 I'm learning how to make all the African dishes I like, :) which means all the greasy fatty delicious ones :) I made chili beans for my boarding this week! I made really good beans and everything tasted great until I got to the chili! The chili powder here is made by Indians so it tastes like flippin curry! I was soooo angry cause I wanted chili beans!! I don't want to make them again.... too much work for failure :( And the tomato sauce sucks too: P No El Pato!

So I was teaching the youth this week every day after metric because they were doing a stake sing off competition. Elder Zsembery and I taught them the songs and rehearsed the crap out of them until they finally sounded great haha. We got a text from them during an appointment Friday night and they had won!!!! Woop! Even the boys won! I took a video of their singing. It's pretty cool. None of them paid any attention at first and I had to get them to sing!!! They finally did with much begging and pleading ha. Youth are still the same here.... I have so much more respect for Mrs. Ubrig and I feel so bad for all the pranks I did during choir......kinda. haha :)

So these drunk guys tried to talk to me the other day cause I was the only white guy around. Some are nice and some say "don't mess with me or I'll kill you!" I usually just say Ngiyezwa baba and walk away laughing haha. It means I understand. Then they think that we're friends and start talking to me right next to my ear, and the spit when they talk, haha. It's pretty fun when that happens ;) My companion was laughing the whole time too haha. Silly Africans.

Ok well I love you all and I love it here in the great Republic of South Africa! Love you!

Thanda,

Elder Petrie