Alright, just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Hope your holidays were as good as ours were. I am sorry that it's been a while since I have posted a letter, but I am sure you all know how crazy it is during the holidays! Anyway, I put all the letters that I have missed into one post along with the pictures that Justin has sent home. We didn't get a letter the day after Christmas because we were able to talk to him Christmas Day. This time it was fun because we were able to skype with him. It was really good to see Justin and I think he enjoyed seeing all of us. Anyway, Happy Holidays!!!
Love Tara
November 21, 2011
Hey dad,
So I did not get the email from mom but its all good there is always next week. Ha ha don't worry about the guards they just like to show that they have power over us...(even tho they don't) But its all good its just Africa. Every time something happens that's just weird or bazar we as missionaries just say T.I.A (This Is Africa) or T.I.N.A (This Is Not America) and after we say that everything is okay. I have actually thought about starting a T.I.A journal just specifically for T.I.A moments because everyday you see something here that is just like, what in the heck?? Like the other day me and my companion just saw some dude completely naked just strolling through the main shopping center in Francistown with not a care in the world and everyone around seemed not to care....T.I.A, see it just makes you feel better. Anyway enough on that.
Glad the package got sent hopefully I will be able to get it before Christmas, did you send it to the address I gave you guys? Because that was right to Francistown. I have no idea who the heck you talked to but they had no idea what they were talking about. The zone leaders and francistown never go down to Joburg. No one in Francistown ever goes down there unless we absolutely have to. But don't worry I'm sure I will get it soon. But right now I am actually back in Gabs city in my last area we just barely got down here because there is a mission tour so elder cook of the seventy is coming down to talk with us here tomorrow so that should be pretty sweet. Coming down here tho was not as awesome. We got a flat tire! i don't know what the heck it is with me and flat freaking tires but we took of the tire me and my Africa's man, put on the spare, realized that the spare was flat as well, had to hitch hike a ride to the nearest town which was far away with the sick tire, fill up the tire in ghost town, hitch hike i ride back just realize once we get back to the car one of the senior couples are there by are car and could have saved us all that adventure. But funny story on are ride back to the car it was a white man who first of all spoke Setswanna which is the national language of like all the black people which really rare to find that and he was also listening to Joseph and the amazing dream coat soundtrack....i was like what in the heck. I have no idea where he got that soundtrack from. I told him that the guy singing is a member of are church, but ya that was are awesome day today. After this we are heading to dinner for elder Copans b-day so I'm looking forward to that.
Another funny thing that happened this week i has interviewing one of the sisters investigators for baptism, who is preparing to be baptized this Saturday. so we sat down and i started to just ask the normal questions, then the question came where i asked if she had ever been in a homosexual relationship, just kinda used to the fact that everyone answers no to that question she just very casually said "Yes" like no big deal, i looked at her and asked her if she knew what that meant. then she begin to tell me that that is when a man and a woman are in a relationship.... ha ha i about died but held it in since i was conducting an interview i explained to here what i homosexual relationship is and she was very embarrassed but we just kinda laughed about it and went on with the interview. Which went really well.
Ha ha i think that's a good idea tho with the bike..man we have such bad luck with that stupid thing. We actually ended up just having to walk because the bikes were so messed up and just ended up taking taxis which was actually really nice, just kinda expensive because there is like 2 types of taxis here, 1 is like a big van type thing which when you enter upon you are basically signing up for getting killed in a terrible accident because it is drunk men that are mentally unstable that probably to not have a license in the first place. Then the 2nd type is a private "nice" taxi...i guess which we ended up taking.
I'm glad everything is going well that home, i don't mean to sound like i am always worrying about you guys but i just get the feeling sometimes that you guys don't sometimes tell me everything. But i promise you my thoughts are on the work. But it is good to hear everything is good. I just don't want you guys to feel like you cant tell me things because you think it will get my mind off the work. But love you a lot dad, I'm lucky to have parents that email me every single week. Love you guys a lot and talk to you soon.
Love, Justin
November 28, 2011
Hey
So I'm going to try to answer your questions first so i don't
forget, I sent you guys the address in francistown a few emails ago so you can
use that address its the address to the senior couples home so its not very
long. Second i totally forgot to get the address again I'm really sorry, i will
really try to remember next week. if it helps tho we live next to like the only
hill in francistown i think that has like a red tower on the top and we live in
a gated community in some apartment complexes....i realize that will be very
difficult to follow but ill try to get the address. And i do not have that book
that you were talking about mom to answer that question. But the week has been good, the conference was awesome. elder cook talked alot about changing the mission, when pres Poulsen was here the concentration was alot on getting as many baptisms as possible. Now elder Cook said we are going to change our outlook and instead of baptising as much as possible we are going to try and baptise people that our going to help the church grow. Making sure that we are baptising people who are truly converted to the gospel, because right now the goal for bots is to be its own stake. right now its under Roodeports stake in SA and so we need people that are going to make that happen. He mentioned that like 50% of members are going less active and not coming to church anymore in the church which was kinda a depressing thing to hear. So he said bap could go down quite a bit but that does not matter. you don't need high numbers of people to build things you need people who are dedicated and converted. So it looks like the mission is going to be changing quite a bit. But it was sweet he also talked about lots of other sweet things but that was the main thing. I don't know if you guys know who elder cook is but he is in the seventy and last con he gave the talk where he told the story about walking into the elevator with his head down then pres Monson told him its always better to look up. anyway it was a sweet talk and an awesome zone conference. He is a really cool guy.
But it was awesome to get your guys pictures i love getting pictures. The house looks different tho? did you guys do something different? i don't know why. Maybe I'm going crazy. And dad you look very upset in that one photo ha ha i need pictures of you guys smiling...especially dad. Logan is freaking huge! and Harper too, its so crazy how big they are I'm excited to see all them when i get home. Did Tara and Jared get ride of there kids? i did not see them in any of the pictures. just making sure.
The week has been good tho, we were able to have 2 baptisms on Saturday, i guess they baptise on Saturdays here so they can confirm them on Sunday which i believe is the same way they do it in the states if i can remember. But everything has been pretty sweet i guess not to much excitement we have just been doing some trackting. I thought it might be a good idea because i don't believe it has really ever been done in f town but we had a pretty good time doing that. We met like 10 ladies over the age of 40 just drinking it up in there back yard sitting on lawn chairs. it was pretty exciting talking to them. there was also like a mentally crazy guy there as well who sicked the dogs on us and we eventually had to run out. We also had a game where we each had to take turns randomly asking people what there favourite part of the chicken is. Its just funny because people in Africa love there chicken and they just take that question so seriously so we get a pretty good kick out of that when we ask it then the people just instantly turn serious and tell us what there favorite part of the chicken is and why....the things that entertain a missionary. We are teaching some great people tho one of which is the Freddy family. they are the ones who stay in the bdf camp with the racist guards. And we went there again yesterday and there was like a line of cars and the guards are just like waving everyone threw then all of a sudden its like aaaa stop the car two white guys. we were the only car that they stopped out of like 4 cars..its okay tho ill get over it. But i hope everything is going well back there and thanks again for the pictures ill try to send some today. Love you guys.
Love Justin
December 5, 2011
Hello,
And before i say anything, yes, i got the address for you dad but I'm not sure if it will help you to much the address is Plot 16109 Francistown...and that's it. Something else that might help there is a prison kinda close to us, and also the BDF camp if you keep going straight on that road with those things on your left you take you next right. There will also be a soccer pitch before you turn right. Then you go on that road and it curves a little bit and there is just like a little community right there. And also the "big" hill next to us. Hope that helps we just live in some apartment complexes.
I also have good news on the package, i got a call the other day saying that i got a package at the office, which was really weird because no one ever gets calls that they have a package so that was weird. But transfers is next week so people will be going down and i told elder hill to personally grab it for me and put it in the francistown car. So its all depending on elder hill. so hopefully ill be getting it next week sometime.
Ha ha dang its kinda early to be talking about the call on Christmas isn't it? I feel like that still kinda far away. I don't really have any details on that one we have not really talked about it yet. But i am excited. 2nd to last time ill be calling home before i come home. Kinda crazy. But we got some sick news today that my companion got his residency permit in which means we will be together another transfer...or more. It was good news we were hoping that he would get it and he was also fasting for it to happen. It has not happened that fast for someone to residency in a long time so it was pretty lucky. The week has been good tho we were able to get awesome stats, we got 13 father led lessons this week. that probably means nothing to you guys but that pretty high. Its the highest iv ever got on my mission so it was awesome to get that. We also had a sweet family come to church yesterday, The Freddy family the ones that stay in the bdf camp. They are awesome. Me and elder van tho are going to try to brake the baptism record in francistown of 15 bap in a month. So that's one of the reasons we were excited that he was staying because we wanted to try to brake it. that would be so sweet if we would be able to pull that off.
Everything else is going really good tho i don't really have to much to say about the week just besides that its good. i realized this week that my skills in talking to white children are very low. we went to this food place called spur and there was a white family next to us and they had to white little girls and i honestly could like not speak to them or make them laugh or anything...it was really weird. I'm so used to little black kids and things that make them laugh and stuff. I don't know it was kinda just a weird experience for me. Elder van was laughing at me because he could tell i was like trying to communicate with them but it was just not working out. And of course i remember the beginning of my mission when i was missing all the little things about home. I still miss those things. It seems like i go threw fazes when like one week ill be like totally into missionary work then another week i kinda think about home a little bit more. I don't know if it was the same for you dad but its not like home sickness or anything its just sometimes you miss home more then other times.
But me and my companion have been trying to do like random acts of service lately and there is this Indian guy that lives next to us and so we went over there one night to ask him if we could wash his car and the morning and you would think that he would be like a little surprised considering that i have never even spoken a word to this guy ever besides just a wave, but no when we asked him he was just like ya, sure, that fine. like not with any excitement or surprised anything at all. so we just said okay and washed his car in the morning. It was funny it was just like he acted like it was just something that we are supposed to do like every morning it was kinda funny. I also met like the smartest 10 year old kid iv ever met on my mission. So we like always give people pamphlets to read and we gave this new family we met the message of the restoration one and we asked them if they would read it and they all said yes like people always do but they never end up reading it anyways, and we went back the next day expecting that no one read anything and we started out by asking if anyone had any questions. And the kid was just like yes, did Joseph smith really see heavenly father and Jesus Christ in the forest? and we were just like what?? we were so surprised i don't think anyone has ever read that much of the pamphlet before. And then elder van said well How do you think you can know if that is true for your self, Then he answered...i think i have to pray alot. ha ha and we were just like yes...that is exactly what you need to do smart child. It was a pretty amazing experience considering most the people we teach are not that educated and cant even read or understand English that well and just some random ten year old kid comes in and understands the message of the restoration without us even teaching anything. It was sweet. But Its good to hear from you guys again love you all alot and hopefully ill have the package before i talk to you guys again.
Love, Justin
December 12, 2011
Hey,
Good to hear from you guys, hope you got some good sleep dad
and hope everything is still going well with work and everything. Remember if
you guys need help with anything let me know. I know I’m half way across the
world but I’ll do my best to help. Were you guys able to find our place on
google earth? This week went really well though. Just found out yesterday that I get to head to Joburg tomorrow which is sweet! I have not seen that place for so long. Normally I would not be able to go down there but they are having a meeting for all the district leaders. I’m pretty pumped. I love Joburg...probably because I have not been there too much. But that also means that I should be able to get my package personally, so I can be sure to get it when I get there on Wed.
Everything is going really well though. We have been doing a lot of work in a village outside of Francistown called Boralong. We have a recent convert named Salani...and he is like so powerful. His conversion story is really sweet. He was able to go to the states for a while to do some work in Florida and Disney World and he first ran into missionaries there, and then moved back to Gabs and also found missionaries there but he was never too interested. Then he finally went back to Francistown and ran into them again here and was eventually baptized. I just got here when he was confirmed. He is a sweet guy and has just been taking us to lots of families in Boralong. So yesterday we went and taught two sweet families, one of which the father is like super hard headed and basically told us straight to our faces that we are just boys and don’t know anything. But as we went through the lesson and started to teach he found a lot more respect for us and it just ended up being a super powerful lesson with Salani's powerful testimony at the end. It was just a crazy lesson that started out so out of control because that father just wanted to bash with us the whole time. But at the end the spirit truly testified to him the things that we were saying were true. And both family's excepted a baptism date for the 28th of Jan. So we are hoping that should be an awesome day.
We also like ride bikes 2 times a week, and I can’t remember if I told you guys but the bike I have has no brakes on it because they just don’t work. And so I have been riding a bike with no brakes for over a month now. But this week on one of the days with the bikes I went outside and the brakes were totally fixed so I thought that Elder Copans had fixed them. When we came back at night I thanked him for fixing the bike and he told me he did not do anything and did not even know that they had been fixed. I just thought it was a pretty sweet miracle. Who knows maybe angles fixed the bikes because we might have got in a bad crash or something. So I just thought that was pretty cool. It’s also been raining a TON over here. It’s the rainy season now and when it comes down it freaking comes down. But it’s also nice because everything is getting super green and its starting to get kinda pretty. The week ended good though, we all said bye to elder Copans who is going back home to Washington DC. He is a pretty cool guy and we have had some good times.
Last night as we were waiting for them to get home so they could open the gate for us, my stomach just started to kill for some reason. I was like just lying on the pavement in agony, ha-ha. It was really random but we could not get to the house because we were outside the gate. So elder Van started to hop over the gate with the electric fence so he could open it from the inside. But as he got one leg over and the other leg on the other side of the electric fence it started to shock him right between his legs and he is just like screaming for me to turn off the electricity while I’m lying on the ground screaming as well. Ha-ha, it probably looked so stupid if someone was looking at us. We could not find out where the box was so I had to hop up as well and help him get over....anyway it was pretty pathetic. But I’m all good now. It’s really good to hear from you guys though thanks for the updates and I’ll try to send some pictures. Love you guys a lot and hope the week goes well. Take care!
Love, Justin
December 19, 2011
Hi mom and dad,
Well the week was pretty good, a loooot of driving tho.
Joburg was sweet, it was so sweet to be there again. Its kinda weird i feel
like alot closer to home when i go there I'm not sure why but i just love going
there. Hopefully my next area will be somewhere in joburg to end my mission.
Most likely my next area will be my last so that would be kinda nice if i ended
there but if not its cool to. And i also got my package!! it was sweet thanks
alot i really needed alot of the things in it. I forgot how comfortable those
shoes are that you sent and the shirts are really nice as well. thanks alot for
everything. Decembers are really hard on mission because everyone leaves for there home villages. we had 0 invest at church so that was a huge bummer. Selani would be an awesome missionary the only problem is that he is to old but we told him when he gets married he is able to do that so he is looking forward to that. But there is really honestly not to much to talk about the week its really just been driving. Left for joburg on Tuesday got there on wed, drove back same day. got to ftown Thursday night. then on Friday we had to drive half way to gabs to trade cars...so it was pretty sweet i guess. The meeting was pretty good. talked alot about not being with the opposite sex, bap interviews. The nicest part of the meeting was just seeing old companions and people from my group that i came up with, that was really nice talking to all them. They where all asking me when i was coming back down since i have been gone for so long.
That's really cool dad that you went and helped. I cant believe my old work pants fit you? that's cool. How did it feel being out in the field again? In ways i sometimes miss working out there, it was a pretty nice job.
And about Christmas that time frame should work good. If anything goes wrong and I'm not getting a call i will call you guys and just let it ring one time so you can have the number. Hope it all works, I'm excited to talk to you guys it feels like it was not to long ago i was just talking to all of you. But love you all and hear from you guys soon.
Love, Justin
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