My first Christmas away from home!

Well my first Christmas away from home.....so obviously that was my main focus this week ;)

Monday was our PDay and we didn't really do anything at all.....just emailed and then did some shopping. There isn't much to do when we are here in Grahamstown!

Tuesday was Christmas Eve so I was kinda checked out a bit. I didn't really want to do anything but we had a few appointments. I was just excited/dreading Christmas in S.A.

Wednesday was Christmas :) I woke up, opened up the packages that you sent me, and then we had to go to the chapel to get the Skype set up for a branch member to Skype her brother. Well after that we were invited over to a less active members house for lunch. Buuut she wanted us to prepare the food too. Haha. Well I've never BBQ'd.....especially over a camp fire thing....so we started the fire  and they got the meat on there....but we couldn't stay there to eat with them because Sibu invited us up to his place for Christmas lunch :) we had to be there at 2 so we left Amanda's place  and went to Sibu!

It was so cool to be able to spend Christmas with that dude! I'm super glad he was here, haha. So we ate at his house, and chilled with him for a bit. Then, at 4 we had another family to go to....to eat. Haha. So we drove to the Johnson's place in town and ate there too.

After that it was time to go to the chapel and Skype home :) I had a plan.....it didn't work....but I had planned that I was going to Skype home last so that nobody was waiting on me. Well it would have been great except the Internet at the chapel went out after 2 people skyped! Haha. So we sat there trying hard to get the Internet going....ya it's safe to say none of us are  technology wizards. Haha, so that's when I had to call and say not to wait by the computer....and that I was going to go home and sleep, and come back in the morning to Skype. Well we did just that....but of course in the morning the Internet still wasn't working. Luckily the Senior couple, the Chase's, let me go to their place and Skype off of their stuff :) I actually ended up skyping Thursday morning! But it was amazing :) I loved chatting, made me pretty homesick afterwards.....haha.

After that on Thursday we had just a normal day of appointments, which most of them dropped....shocker ;)

Friday around 3 we drove up to a members house....and she lives FAR. Like 45 minutes out of Grahamstown! They live on a farm type place, and they are called the Thomas's. They wanted it to be like our Christmas dinner from them, so all 4 of us and the Chase's went up there and they had a Brie (BBQ) for us! Well it was super good. The husband isn't a member and is a super funny guy! He said that he feeds people's animals and stuff, like buffalo, kudu, and that kind of stuff! It would be pretty cool! He said that buffalo sell for millions of Rand. Like one that is on the farm was sold for something like 45 million! What the heck!? But it's cool, I didn't know you could buy them!
Well he bried for us, and he made us warthog. Haha. It was actually delicious! He made warthog sausage, warthog steaks, and then chicken and sausage and stuff! It was super good! We came home stuffed and started exchanges :)

I got to be with Elder Ramoshaba on Saturday. It was a nice day, just changing things up a bit! He's a really funny kid, and we get along really well so it was a nice day :)

Sunday was just church and appointments as usual. The best thing though was that we had investigators at sacrament for the first time since I've been here! It was a lady named Sharon and another lady named Isabelle. We found them like late in week 1 of the transfer, and we have just been seeing them, and Sharon came to church with Isabelle this week, and enjoyed it! We asked her her thoughts and she just said that she needs to read the Book of Mormon, so we read the introduction
of it with her and answered any questions that she had :)

Nothing too exciting. Grahamstown is a pretty boring place to be honest with you.
I love you so, so much. Seeing you was the BEST thing ever :) and I miss you like crazy....almost 1/4 through! Jan. 25 is my quarter mark and then I have to burn a tie!!!
(Tradition ;) )
Love you and miss you more than you can even imagine :)

Love,

Elder Truscott

Christmas Week

Elder Truscott and Elder Graydon (His new Comp)

Elder Erickson and Elder Truscott at the Christmas Zone Conference

Elder Ndlovu and Elder Truscott at the Christmas Zone Conference

 

My week this week, I will tell you all about it :)

Monday we decided to drive to East London in the morning because on Tuesday we had our Christmas Zone Conference there. We thought we would just go a bit earlier and spend our P Day there. Well we just ended up chilling with other Elders, playing some sport, and messing around. Then we stayed with other Elders for the night!

Tuesday we had to be at the chapel at 8 in the morning, and the beginning was just a normal Zone Conference. We had training from the AP's and President Wood, then had everyone bear their testimony. We had a nice lunch that all the senior couples made, and then had our Zone Reports.  Then we had our little white elephant present exchange (it's white elephant because you can only spend 20 rand, this is equal to $2.00) After that we watched our movie, we watched Ephraim's Rescue. The conference was a good time, it was just fun to see a bunch of  Elders. Especially to see Elder Erickson again, haha. It felt good :)
We had a good time there, and then we drove back to Grahamstown Wednesday morning. Boy was I tired on Wednesday! I had a headache after the drive and we still had to go out and do work.....

Thursday was alright :) since Sibu is here, even though he's in the other Elders area we decided we would go teach him :) I pushed for that cause he's awesome and I wanted to! So we went up to his
place in the township and read the BOM with him a bit, and it was super cool to have a lesson with him again!

Well Friday we just had a pretty basic day. It was HOT here....like  sweating all day long HOT....which I hate. But we went about our day, and we had an appointment at like 6 with this guy named Malachi. Well we were there and we met his sister and her ex husband. The guys name
is Douglas and he was from Scotland,  His ex wife named Sharon said she was looking for a
church, so we invited them in on our lesson. We were just teaching the Restoration. Well they sat in, and Douglas was telling us that we were "about 45 degrees off"....haha. Well he sat in on the lesson and was  great until we got to the part about Jesus. He flipped out and disagreed that Jesus was perfect and sinless....he stormed out cause he didn't agree....kinda confused the lesson a bit! Well we just continued and taught Malachi and Sharon, and about 15 minutes later in comes Douglas, he apologized, and said that "I think I'm the one that's 45 degrees off". He then proceeded to listen to the restoration through Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and requested that he got a Book of Mormon, because he was more than interested. Pretty cool turn around! We invited them all to come to church and.....they didn't show up. But we will follow up, and it was still kinda cool :)

Sunday was decent. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting, on the Spirit of Christmas and how we can be in it. Sibu said it was good. Haha. After church we sat with Sibu and read, and then he fellowshipped with us all day! We just visited a few people cause our appointments dropped, but just being with Sibu was awesome :)

Apparently everyone is out of town right now for holiday, and that is why it's been so slow....I hope so cause so far Grahamstown has more dropped appointments and non scheduled time than Gugs.

But that is my week for you!! :) I love you so so much!!

Transfer week :)

Map showing the location of Grahamstown, SA

Ok I will tell you all about my transfer week :) I'm officially in Grahamstown now!!

Last Monday I got my call that I'd  be going to Grahamstown with Elder Graydon as my new companion! I'll  take you through the week of getting here and everything :)

 

So Tuesday was packing and saying goodbyes. I took my member journal around to the members who I wanted to write in it. We had already planned with Bro. Unam and Sis. Renee that we were going to see Zodwa on Tuesday night, and they would take us out as a goodbye thing after :) so around 6:30  we met them at their place and followed them to the hospital again to see Zodwa and find out how she was doing, plus to say my goodbye. It still sucked and she still didn't look very good, but she was doing better than before. After the visit they took Hlophe and I to a mall to eat some pizza and hang out! It was super awesome, and I honestly miss Gugulethu and those people so much.

Wednesday was transfer day, so I had to be at the mission home around 9:30 to get out of there.
I am in the actual town of Grahamstown, and there is a small part of township in my area. 

Grahamstown is just a little old town, and it actually reminds me a lot of the little towns in England! There hasn't been a baptism here for a long long time.....like almost 2 years in my area, and from that I hear the work is super hard, so that sucks. Hahaha. And it's a little bit colder here than it was in Cape Town, at least the last few days have been. The chapel here is just a nice house that they rent out! Ha ha,it has a swimming pool in the middle of it where we do the baptisms if we get any! But the branch is small small small! Even smaller than Gugs!

Something cool did happen though! So Sibu is here in Grahamstown for the holidays, and I gave him a call Saturday night telling him to come to church....we walked in, and there he was :) ohhh I was so happy to see that kid! It was awesome having him there :) Made me realize how much I miss Gugs.....like I would go back so quickly if I could.

Elder Truscott with Sibu at his baptism in Gug's

We visited a few people here this week, but to be honest I can't really report on too much cause I don't know them yet. We just taught about the restoration a few times and stuff like that, but the work is slower than Gugs! I never thought I'd say this my first month out, but boy do I miss Gugulethu!

Love and miss you so so much!

Love,

Elder Truscott

December 9, 2013 - I get my transfer news tonight!!

Elder Truscott with Akhona

Elder Truscott with Elder Hlophe



Elder Truscott, Elder Cobabe , Elder Hlophe, Elder Makombe

Elder Truscott with the Nono's recently baptized Sisanda and Anelisa
 

I get my transfer news tonight!!! Speculation is that I'm definitely leaving....so this was my last week here!
Well my last week in gugs! Boy was it a crazy week. A crazy ending at least!

I'll start just from the beginning of the week though! That way you have to read the whole thing to get to the crazy part ;)
So Tuesday morning we didn't have anything to do, so we decided to go do something since I'm leaving! Well there is this huge memorial thing called Rhodes Memorial on the side of the mountain, and I had never been there, so us 4 decided to go up there and look around! It was actually pretty cool!!

Wednesday we went to visit Nwabisa Plaatjie's mom. Her name is Pamela, and we had an appt. with her. Well we get there and she is in bed and some guy in the house tells us that she isn't feeling well. We ask her and stuff, and she says that she hasn't eaten in 2 days, and that she just feels weak and her "nerves hurt". We gave her a blessing and left. Well that night we had an appt. with the Plaatjie's also, so we go there and we find out that Nwabisa is at her moms house and they are taking her to the clinic (they have public "clinics" that are free)! We take Langa there and follow to the clinic and just gave our support. Later in the week, on Friday, we get a call from Langa Plaatjie and he was like "Hey Elders, we need your help" they needed us to take Pamela back to the clinic cause she was feeling really weak again. We rescheduled our appointment and shot over there and took her to the clinic. Nwabisa was super freaked out and you could tell she was exhausted and worried, I felt super bad!

Friday, before the Nwabisas mom incident, we went and saw Zuko for his "going to the bush" ceremony! They had big like bush trees in his yard in kind of like a circle and he was sitting inside them naked with just his blanket on! Haha, they were slaughtering sheep and everything! It was pretty crazy! We didn't stay for the night time part cause we had appts. To get to, but it was pretty cool to see him!

Alright so Saturday was the branch Christmas party. It was a pretty fun time and then elder Hlophe and I left. We had an awesome day, and then that night it was my last appt with the Plaatjie's! I wanted to do something cool for them, so I told them that we would get dinner :) well there are like 3 burger kings in S.A., and they are the rage! The Plaatjie's had never had it and they had told us how they wanted it! So we drove to town on Saturday and I bought Burger King for everyone for our last appointment :) they were so happy! Hahaha, and afterwards they said how grateful they are that we love them, and how they can feel the genuine love we have for their family. It was pretty cool!

Ok Sunday is where things get totally INSANE! So first of all there is this young woman in the branch named Zodwa. She is like 16 or 17  and is Unam's little sister.  Well we are driving to church Sunday morning and sis. Renee calls us and tells us that Sanele won't be at church to be confirmed because Zodwa was shot 4 TIMES the night before!! We were like WHAAAT!!?? And they told us to come right after church! We drove there after church and found that family mourning like crazy! Unam was super distressed, oh my gosh it was terrible! Unam told us the story, and in short she was warned against going to this party by her family, but she went and came home, and about an hour later she went back out. The story goes that she got in a fight with her girlfriends and went to this guy in a car. Apparently she knew the guy so she got in the back seat, and like 3 minutes later there were 3 gunmen that opened fire at the guy driving. They pretty much missed him and shot Zodwa 4 times! One in each leg, one in the side, and one in the head!! So Unam and Renee invited us to the hospital to go and see Zodwa, so we drove up there following them, and went to the trauma unit. Right
as we got there she was going in for a scan to see if anything was damaged by the bullet to the head! Oh my gosh seeing this girl being wheeled out and down the hall like crying/mumbling with blood and bandages on her head....I can't even describe how bad I felt. After the scan she went back to the trauma unit and in there only one person at a time can go and see her. Unam took my oil and gave her a blessing, Renee went in and then they were like okay Elder Truscott you can go in and see her. I walked into the room and found Zodwa like perched up and she said she couldn't talk very much and had a headache. (She didn't know she was shot in the head, she only thought it was in her legs)! We talked a little bit. And it was the worst! Oh my gosh it was like the worst thing I've seen on mission, she had this wound on her head that I caught a glimpse of and I just felt so bad for her!! We spent lots of the day just with the family and talking, and I think they really appreciated our love and support.

So my week was a crazy one that just ended terribly! As far as the people here go I started handing out my member journal to people so they could write little messages in it or whatever and put their contact info so I can stay in touch :)

Zuko is off to the bush now, and it sucks that I won't be here to see how he is when he gets out! I will have to email him and stuff :) The Nono's are doing great :) Sisanda and Anelisa were confirmed
yesterday by Elder Hlophe, and then Sisanda gave the closing prayer at sacrament meeting.

Oh, and Mandela died this week too....but nothing really changed except its all we heard about for the week.

Love and miss you, Thanks again for everything that you do for me :)

Elder Truscott

December 2, 2013

Elder Truscott at the top of Table Mountain

Elder Truscott with the Plaatjie Family

Well I will tell you all about my week this week :)

You might notice I'm on a bit later than usual...I'm sorry! This
morning we woke up early and hiked table mountain :) it was my second
time hiking it, and it was kind of a killer cause it was a lot hotter
than last time! It is Summer time now so the sun is out early ;) hahaha,
Elder Cobabe didn't make it up.....and Makombe and I sat at the top
and drank water for a bit waiting for Elder Hlophe. But it was a fun
time this morning!

I gave Sis. Eunice the rest of the candy and goodies that you sent as
well :) worked out great cause of course she cooked for us again :) it
was funny, they have never heard of s'mores here....and that is the
flavor of the pop tarts that I took this time! I told them to try them
and tell me about them.  We came to church yesterday and we saw
Sis. Eunice giving little pieces of pop tarts to the Relief Society
women who were going crazy over the pop tarts!! Hahaha. Apparently
Africans love s'mores :)

Thursday was Thanksgiving.....it wasn't anything special this year! It
kinda sucked to be honest. Just a normal day here in South Africa and
then I made the food that you sent me for dinner :) Hlophe and I had
some potatoes and gravy :)

As for the people here in Gugs :)
The Nono mom and daughter have officially been baptized :) it was a
pretty nice baptism!! I did both of them too :) I was super happy, I
love being the one who gets to baptize the people....I think it's
cause I'm new on my mission still and it's fun for me :)
It was a great baptism though. They were so excited. And they even
surprised us and brought brother Nkosana! That was his first time ever
coming to church and he was there to see his wife and kid be baptized
:) I was so happy when I saw him there! It was awesome!

The Plaatjie family....dang it was a tough week for them! Nwabisa's
CAT scan was this week, and the good news was that they couldn't find
anything wrong :) that was a HUGE relief for them, and I was super
happy. BUT for Nwabisa it was a tough week. She works at a bank and
early this week some guys came in and robbed the bank at gunpoint! It
was super scary for her and everyone at the bank was scared of course.
To make things worse, like 2 days later she was in the same complex as
the bank is in, and she was shopping at a place called Ackermans. Well
guess what, 5 guys with guns ran in, blocked the doorway, and aimed
the guns at everyone telling them to get down and don't say anything
or they will shoot them! Apparently Nwabisa had a gun pointed right at
her! They took the money and booked it out, but MAN was Nwabisa
terrified. She is still having a tough time emotionally cause she was
so terrified! So we have been visiting her and making sure that the
family is doing well.
 
Tons of our appointments dropped this week, which sucks. Like the
Gova's maid, who's name is Sandy I found out. We weren't able to teach
her this week cause Bro. Gova was at the temple in Joburg. I'm
thinking next week will be better for appointments sticking though!
That's about it on my end for this week :) just a couple of baptisms!

I will get working on those pics of the baptism but the computer that I'm on SUCKS! and wont even let me get the pics off my camera...Hopefully I can load them next week.

I love you so so much! I love and miss you like crazy!

Love,

Elder Truscott

TODAY IS MY 4 MO. MARK!! Exactly 4 months :)

Elder Truscott with the  Unam Family at Sanele's Baptism

Elder Truscott with Sanele at her Baptism

 

 

Well this week was a good one! No complaints from me, except that the transfer is slowly coming to an end :(
Last Monday we had an awesome P Day :)  Abonghile, a less active young guy, wanted to go hiking, he had mentioned it the other day! We texted him saying that we would love to tag along if he was still planning on going! So we met up with him after the interview for Sanele's baptism and we went with him and his siblings who are members and hiked Lions Head Mountain a bit :) It was SUPER cool cause it was getting dark at that point so we were overlooking Cape Town and it was all lit up and the moon was out and everything, it was super nice :)

Sanele's baptism was this Sunday! It was super cool :) she decided that she wanted me to do it too! We just asked her who she wanted, and said that Bro. Unam, her Uncle, could do it, but she still said Elder Truscott :) hahaha, she picked me over her Uncle!  She is super cute and the baptism was great! Unam's WHOLE family came to support her, and Sanele's mom came as well! Apparently (I was changing when she did it) when Sanele bore her testimony after the baptism she started crying. She's cute and I'm happy for her!

As usual I'll give you an update of the people that we're seeing here in Gugs!
Zuko is going to the bush, so pretty much same old same old with him....but we still love to go see and teach him cause he's an awesome kid...so nothing much there.

 The Nono's are awesome and they are excited for their baptism coming up! We have to meet with them this week and have the interview, so they should be good! We will just run through the law of chastity and the word of wisdom with them and they should be good to go! We are pushing Bro. Nkosana cause obviously we want him baptized soon. So we said he needed to be baptized and live the gospel so that he can baptize his son. Ha ha, hopefully he really starts progressing!

We started teaching Bro. Gova's house maid this week, and she is pretty much golden. We went and ate at the Gova's house and afterward taught the maid the restoration. She has been going to church with the Gova's for a few weeks now too. She told us that she has been to many churches, but something about ours is different and she wants to be a member! So we will keep teaching her, plus every time we go there the Gova's feed us ;)

 Besides our main investigators we are still meeting with our pool of less actives. There are plenty, but the main ones we have weekly appointments with are the Plaatjie family, Bro. Belle, and  Abonghile. The others drop appointments so we have to kinda "pop" in ;) but the work is going well! I can't complain! Plus I have a cool companion so that always helps ;)

That is about it for this week's updates mom :)

 

Love,

 

Elder Truscott

 

 

As far as my week goes.... this week was good :)

Elder Truscott with two Primary kids from the Branch (Zuko is in the red pants to the side of him)

Elder Truscott with investigator Sanele

Elder Truscott with his Thanksgiving package

Elder Truscott with his new companion Elder Hlope at the internet cafe

As far as my week goes.... this week was good :) last Monday after emailing we went back to the boarding and just chilled and hung out...

Sunday was a pretty eventful day though!  So at church, we got a new Branch President. President Sibortoborto doesn't live within the boundaries anymore....so he couldn't really stay Branch President. But he was released and they put in Brother Ngokwana (sp?) as his replacement. It sucks though, cause now the Sibortobortos have to start attending the ward which they now live in, so they have like 4 more Sundays in Gugs I think! 

 

 After church we went over to Mama Joyce's for lunch and then out to see people. We stopped by Bro. Unam and Sis. Renee's place to get everything figured out with Sanele and see how they were doing. They had some family party thing going on at their house all weekend. We got there, we all started talking and joking, and next thing I know they bring out smiley for me to eat....which is a cooked goats head....they said that I had to eat a little of it. Haha, Hlophe and Renee video recorded it on my camera. You just pull the meat right off the skull!! Oh it's nasty! Haha. It's honestly like an alien looking head that you are just eating! I ate some, Hlophe ate some, and then the Africans came in and devoured it!
We visited a few other people, and then came back for dinner because the senior couple here (the Frances) had us over for dinner :)

As far as people go it's coming right along!
Brother Skumbuzo gave a talk this week..... He pretty much gave a nice talk on missionary work, and then started yelling/preaching to us that the light of Christ is in us and stuff....haha. It was intense ;)
Sanele, we got all the permission we need (I think) to be able to baptize this little girl  :) we are planning on baptizing her next week! Nov. 24th, and we have the branch presidents permission, Sanele's moms permission, and now we just have to call President Wood and tell him that the branch president approved it :) but she's an adorable little girl so that will be next week hopefully!

 We aren't going to baptize Zuko....he is going to the bush at the beginning of next month, and apparently when the boys go there they teach them some crazy things. Oh, I don't know if you know what the bush is? But ya, it's pretty crazy. So we decided we are just going to keep teaching him, but not baptize cause he'll be gone in December and when he gets back if he still wants to he can sit with the missionaries.

 The Nono family! Well we sat with bro. Madaza for correlation meeting and talked about how the mom and daughter want to be baptized. He told us that it's really our call, whether we do it without the husband or not, so we figured we should progress the progressing and go ahead and baptize Sisanda and Analisa. We still need to sit with them and give them a date and let them know, but we should baptize both of them before the end of the transfer. So that will be good :)

 Stone is just kinda cruising right along. Nothing really happens with him cause we only see him once a week. He just listens, But we teach him, and he is learning. We need to teach him how to pray though, cause I've never heard someone pray saying "father Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit" so many times! Haha.
Besides those main investigators, it's just a bit of less active work and recent convert lessons! But no complaints from me, I'm enjoying life with elder Hlophe!

 

Love and miss you more than you know!

 

Love, Elder Truscott

November 11, 2013

Elder Truscott with Lawrence

Alrighty, as far as my week goes This week has been really good
actually :) I got the card that Alex wrote me with the picture in
it....and I loved it, you were right when you told him I like the
written things too! Oh and I got a letter from Tom!

Nothing really exciting happened this week actually....

Last Monday for P Day, we went to waterfront, all 4 of us. It was
cool. I'd been there ya know, but it was a good time!

On Tuesday we had Sis. Renee's sons birthday party! Haha, I told her I
would show her how this missionary bakes, and that I'd bring the
cake....well she thought I was actually going to bake ;) I went to the
store and bought this big chocolate cake with strawberries on top and
everything, then took off the cover and stuck in a candle and me and
Hlophe walk in like we baked it. Hahaha, they were confused, cause we
just said we made it....I'm sure they figured it out though ;)
Tuesday was a good day overall too, cause we taught 6 lessons that day.

 Elder Hlophe actually can't drive, so I do all the driving this
transfer, and he's never driven stick before, so this week we had our
last appt. drop one night so we just came back to Pinelands where we
live, and we ended up going to these neighborhoods where there wasn't
much traffic and I taught Hlophe how to drive manual! Haha, it's
pretty funny that I'M teaching him since I still kill it occasionally
;) I'm actually not too bad now....just a few engine revving moments
;) but lets just say he doesn't drive for a reason ;) hahaha, it was
super funny though, and we had a good time :)

  Oh, and it only took me 3 and a half months, but I finished the Book
of Mormon from start to finish:) 

 

Well that's pretty much the whole weeks highlights for you :) like I
said, nothing too exciting went on this week, hopefully next week
something crazy will happen ;) haha!

Nov. 4, 2013 TRANSFERS!!! My new comp. is Elder Hlophe!

Elder Truscott at the Cape Town Castle

TRANSFERS!! Elder Gertzen was transferred to George, and I'm still here! Elder Hlophe is my new companion. He's from Mafiking SA..... This kid is awesome! He's super chilled and cool, and I'm excited for this transfer :) The boarding is a LOT different now, Erickson was replaced by Elder Cobabe.

 As for the people here in Gugs....

Sibusiso Malumbazo is now officially confirmed a member and has the  Holy Ghost! It was cool, he showed up to church and I started talking to him about his confirmation, and asked who he wanted to do it....I was kind of pushing for the Branch President to do it since I was nervous to, haha, but he was like, well I'd want you to do it.....so I baptized Sibu and confirmed him :) I just thought it was awesome that he wanted ME to do everything :)

Elder Hlophe got a Bro. Skumbuzo experience pretty quickly. Ha ha ha. We went to his place this week with Bro. Allie cause he had heard Skumbuzo wasn't doing well, and we found him pretty sick. He said his chest was really giving him problems and he didn't feel as "spiritually charged" as he used to. We talked for a bit and then ended up giving the guy a blessing. After the blessing he was like
"I'm fully charged with the spirit, I can feel something is going to happen!".....and broke out speaking in tongues and shaking.....ha ha ha, welcome to Gugs Elder Hlophe!

We WERE trying for Nov. 10th for Zuko to be baptized, but he's not ready for next week...So hopefully soon :)

The Nono family is pretty much the exact same. The mom and daughter want to be baptized BADLY and the dad doesn't really care, he's just drinking and blowing off our appointments, so it's difficult. Analisa loves the necklace you sent her though :) she wrote me a little card and gave it to me when we went there this week! We just have to decide how long we wait for the husband I guess before we just move the mom and kid along to baptism.

 

The Pluckey family :) I seriously love these people! We sat with them on Tuesday with Gertzen as a farewell, and then again on Sat. Night.  They are super funny. They joked on Sat. That the food we were going to be having was tripe. Google that. Oh I was disgusted, and Langa just laughed and put it back in the freezer, and then pulled out cheese burgers. Ha ha ha. 

Another little girl that we are teaching is named Sanele. She's 11 and totally adorable :) she is Bro. Unam's niece.  He asked us a while ago to start teaching her, so we have been! Before we can really get her baptized though we need her parents approvals and stuff like that....so we will have to
figure that out. But we were at Unam's place yesterday cause he and his wife didn't come to church, so we were just making sure everything was alright. We stayed there for a while just chatting with his wife. Sister Renee is super awesome, and she invited us to her sons birthday party on Tuesday. Ha ha, I told her that I would show her how this missionary bakes cake, so I have to go buy a birthday cake on Tuesday ;) and in turn we get to teach Sanele that night and then get fed by Renee and have a good time :)

That was my insane week...lots of changes, but good ones, and I'm
looking forward to the transfer :)

 

I love you so so much, and miss you like crazy :)

Love,

Elder Truscott

 

I BAPTIZED SIBUSISO MALUMBAZO on Sunday :)

Elder Truscott, Sibusiso Malumbazo, Elder Gertzen

Well as of Friday I am officially 3 months in!! Dang....it feels like
a life time ago that I was at the airport with you guys!

 I BAPTIZED SIBUSISO MALUMBAZO on Sunday :)
 We saw him twice this week in prep
for his baptism, and we just asked him how the interview went, gave
him a few scriptures on the core earth life cause he asked for them,
and just chatted. Elder Gertzen was telling Sibu he got to choose who
 would baptize him....and the next time we went there Gertzen
asked if he'd made a decision. Well Sibu was like "yes, I made a
decision, my main man Elder Truscott, been here since day one with
me!" Oh man I was excited!!

 Tuesday was Sandiswa's birthday, and she invited us over for her
birthday dinner! It was pretty fun I guess....everyone here has the
exact same things to eat....pap and gravy, and then some meat. It was
still good though, and free ;) haha. We were the only ones there who
didn't speak Xhosa obviously.....so when the mom was talking to the
girls (Sandiswa is a twin) people would translate for us! Haha.

  That recent convert I talked about, Bantu, well he's in a REALLY dark
place :( We saw him earlier this week and he was just at home on the
couch when we got there. He is SO DOWN cause he had his hopes up on
this job at a chip factory...and nothing has pulled through yet. It's
been almost a year since he's had a job, and he just broke down crying
on the couch saying he has no hope, and that he didn't have anything
to eat the day before, only water. I gave him the only 20 rand I had
on me and told him never to go a whole day without eating.  I was so
sad for this guy! He even mentioned he felt like killing himself :( We
tried our best to get his hopes up, and we decided that he needed to
take his CV (like the equivalent of a résumé) to places and start
looking! Well we took him out on Thursday and drove all around
dropping off his CV to a bunch of different places, and hopefully
something comes out of it

Zuko is doing really good. He has kept away from all word of wisdom
problems and is keeping the law of chastity like a champ! We asked him
why he wants to be baptized....cause we don't want him to just do it
cause he likes us....and he told us that this makes him a better
person and that's what he wants to be, so pretty much perfect ;)

This week with the Pluckeys I gave the little girl the stuff you sent,
  they were super happy and appreciative! But Nwabisa is
terrified. She is going in for a CAT scan on Wed. because the doctor
they went to said that he thinks she might have a tumor and that is
what's causing all this stuff to happen to her....so I will keep you
updated but boy am I scared too! They are awesome people and I hope
things go well with her appt.

  My second transfer is officially over though now! Got my third planner
;) In all...last transfer we had 2 baptisms and we got fed 22
times....that might be a record ;) ha ha.

 

Love you and miss you...

Elder Truscott

 

 

Oct. 21, 2013

My week wasnt too bad actually!

Another solid week in terms of food....hahaha...its the first thing I write about cause its success ;) From Sunday to Sunday...we set another new record! in 8 days....8 times were we fed :) hahaha, we could have even gotten more!! Yesterday we had an appt. after church and we had a HUGE meal, and then our very next appt. said we should stay for lunch....and we had to deny them because not only had we just eaten...but we had an appt. in an hour :( haha, but the mom came out and insisted we had something...so we ate a slice of chocolate cake and left!

Last Monday we went to Family Home Evening with the Sibortoborto's, and like she requested, I didnt do my hair for the appointment ;) hahaha. It went really well though, just had a nice night with them...they are super cool, and then I used those BOM cards that Tom gave me as the activity and we played the matching game with the little kids :)
Well on Wednesday I was on exchanges with Erickson....it was a nice break! We had a nice day......ending up with us making a bag of the chili you sent me and each having one of those desserts :) so THANK YOU! :) it was a nice kind of "goodbye Erickson" day!

More in terms of investigators and people...hmm...

Oh I was so scared this week! hahaha. We have an activity that we do on Friday nights with the youth, and we usually end up taking kids home. Well Mzuko likes to come to the activities, and we gave him a ride home afterwards! He likes to be funny and jump in the front seat so I sit in the back, and when we got to his house he jumped out and walked to the gate, and then I threw on my backpack to take it up with me and got out to jump in the front seat. OUT OF NOWHERE out of the corner of my eye I see this like 20ish year old kid sprinting at me! I just had this burst of adrenaline and he clipped my backpack! Mzuko yelled....I just froze....and it turns out that Mzuko and this kid are friends!! Boy did it scare the crap out of me though! Even Gertzen thought for a second I could have been getting mugged! hahaha.

Sibusiso Malumbazo's baptismal interview was yesterday!! He passed with flying colors, and next week it looks like I will get to baptize him! I'm super excited for him! He's a super cool kid that I FOUND! haha. So next week I should have some pics of that :)

Less Active work is just moving along....a few of the members are getting more and more involved in it, so on Thursday nights we always go and do LA work with the members and try to reactivate a few of the people! We went with Bro. Allie one time this week and visited a few people he knows from a long time ago in the branch. We went into this one place....and we opened the door, flies EVERYWHERE! dead on the ground, flying in the air....Oh my gosh it was nasty! haha. Newspapers and crap all over the floor, food that was just moldy and rotten on the floor....stagnant water with seriously MOSS or mold growing on it...it was the nastiest place i've been in! the dude is in a wheelchair and smokes and drinks...the ceiling was turned black from the smoke! Well we talked about what happened...and then Bro. Allie offered our assistance in cleaning the house. We wheeled him out and then cleaned the place as best we could...but it was SO NASTY!

Yesterday at church something kinda cool happened too :) We walked in...and none of our investigators had made it to church...so we just sat down and whatever. Well there was this guy there who we had never seen before. I started talking to him and he said that he lived in our area....and used to be a church goer. Turns out this guy said we could call him "Stone", and he has been in Prison for 5 years...just got out on Tuesday! hahaha. He was a nice guy for all I could see....and we are going to see him this coming week :)

Thank you so much :) I love you :) I miss you guys so badly....and I love getting the letters and packages. Just reminds me how much you love me :)

Love,

Elder Truscott

Oct. 14, 2013 - Chicken Anyone?

 

This week wasn't too bad! Last Monday we hiked table mountain like I said last week, and then just went to eastern food bizarre for dinner! Haha, it's this eastern place that has like over 100 things on the menu! I went there back when I was on exchanges with Chikara, and showed these guys, and now it's the go-to! Everything is only like 35 Rand....so like 4 bucks :)
Tuesday we had lots of appointments drop :( we went over to Xolani's place cause we had an appt set with him, and apparently he was at a disability grant thing. But guess who was there....WASTED as ever Lawrence, his drunk uncle :) he called us in the house, and then babbled for a bit about Jesus. Hahahaha. Then he wanted to introduce us to his friends at the bar....so he walked us over to where he drinks, and introduced us! He WOULD NOT leave us, and we were walking to meet up with this guy named Sandi who we had given a pamphlet to read....well Lawrence followed! Hahahaha, the first ever drunk fellowshipper ;) so we got to Sandi's place, and turns out Lawrence and Sandi don't really like each other....so after having Lawrence tell him to F.O. We decided to set a return appt and leave ;) hahahahaha

 

 I think this one might make G-Pa Chase proud......but I'll tell you the whole story :) so the other week we were walking around by mama Joyce's place, and met this lady named Porche.....well we set an appt and left. We went back to teach her and she pretty much blew us off, but we met her "business partner" in the chicken game. We got talking, and she said they slaughter the chickens, and then sell them! Well thinking I've heard G-Pa talk about it and stuff I figured I'd offer my assistance! Not thinking anything would come of it I was like "oh ya I've killed chickens before, you ought to call us next time!" And we left! Well Wednesday guess what happened....SHE CALLED!! We spent Wednesday morning slaughtering chickens! Hahahaha, I was on exchanges with Makombe, so all 4 of us went over there and helped them! We helped them slaughter them and feather them......haha, gross.....but the coolest thing I've done on my mission probably ;) who needs Ag College when you come to SA ;) so that killed Wednesday morning, and then Makombe and I went out for appointments, and ended the day with eastern food. 

 

 Bro. Madaza's, who is one of the members in the branch, sister passed away the other week, so Thursday afternoon we went to the memorial service that they had at the church. It was super sad, she was only 17, so her school and stuff came to the church for the service. Apparently she had asthma and at the same time as her tonsils were having problems her kidney died. I was sitting in the front cause I gave the closing prayer, and while the people were speaking I started thinking of bro. Madaza, which led to what if this was Alex or Kaitlyn's memorial?! I started getting emotional!

 

Investigators....hmm....well Mzuko is moving right along towards baptism in Nov....we are just trying to make sure that he keeps living the Word of Wisdom and LOC. So that would be the thing that keeps him from being baptized while I'm in Gugs. He is doing really well though...per my suggestion, he has swapped in Hot chocolate for coffee :)

Sibusiso Malumbazo is awesome....he came to church this week and his baptism was announced in Priesthood class! And he said that he loved feeling so accepted and like he's already part of the group. He is excited for his baptism, and we are just meeting with him multiple times a week so that we can get him taught everything before his interview next week! :) It is going to be really cool to see him be baptized....October 27th looks like the day :)

Xolani admitted to us that he smoked last week....which sucks, but at the same time we already knew, so it's good that he just told us so that we could start helping him and show our support. He's been taught everything already obviously, and so now we are just re rounding, and we will have even more time to do that now....but we will push it back another 3 months and shoot for that! They just treat him like a normal investigator even though he was baptized....unfortunately he relapsed before he could be confirmed.

Less active work is carrying on as usual....it sucks but we do it a lot. We get commitment after commitment from people who then don't end up going to church. Like we visited a Bro. Matthew and he said if we called him at 8 on Sunday morning and woke him up then he would come to church....well I called and woke him up, and then what do you know? he never showed up! It gets annoying....but whatever, that's what we do ;)

We are still just doing our regular meetings with the Pluckey's every week, and they go great! I love that family! They are feeding us this coming week when we go over there, or that's the plan anyways, cause our appt. is a bit later. We taught them a lesson on service this week, and it went really well, but anything that we share with them goes great.....they just like having us there I think, which I won't complain, because they are really great people :)
Sunday we just went to church as usual....did a little bit of work in the area...and then came back! Elder Erickson and I made chocolate covered pretzels with the Hershey's kisses, snickers bars, and the pretzels that you sent me....I attached a picture of it for you :)

 

That's pretty much it for this week! A good week in all though...we did some fun stuff, which makes it better :)

October 7, 2013

 Today we hiked Table Mountain....that is what is in the picture :) It was really good, and it took a long time. We went with 4 other elders, it was good! Took most the day!

 

 

They have these guys here called "rasta's". They ride those things around the streets and collect scrap metal and garbage and then go and sell it! They are really crazy dudes!

 

Here is the weekly update!

 

So this week wasn't very exciting.....nothing much happened that is crazy or cool to talk about! The best thing about this week was the fact that, from last Sunday to this Sunday we were fed 7 times, which is pretty dang good!

Today, just barely, we hiked Table Mountain....that is what is in the picture :) It was really good, took a long time. We went with 4 other Elders. It was good! Took most the day! It's definitely somewhere where I want to take you guys when you come and pick me up :)

On Tuesday we had zone conference....it was so long!! It took from 8 in the morning until 5! Just sitting there listening to missionaries give talks! But I got to see lots of super cool Elders and talk with other kids, so it was a good break!
Our mornings are REALLY boring, cause our first appts. Are around 2, so until then Gertz just makes up work to do that always results with nothing productive done at all. Once our first appt hits though the days go by a lot faster :)

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Mholo in an area called Langa. It was a decent day. We even got fed on exchanges! But that day we got a call from the mission office telling us to come in. We did, and there were 3 guys from Ghana that just walked up to the mission office and asked about our church! Mholo and I went in and taught them, and left them with a BOM and stuff. They were pretty cool guys, and I called them on Sunday to check in and see if anyone has contacted them yet, and the 2 I got a hold of said nobody had, so I need to get someone on that ;)

With the focus in the branch on less actives we are still doing a bunch of that work. The Pluckey family, whose little girl will love the stuff you are sending, is one we sit with every week as you can probably tell. Our lessons always go great, and they are starting to come back to church now! The mom was even at conference, but the dad had work!

Every Thursday night we go with the Branch Leaders, sometimes on splits, and do less active work. This week we went with Bro. Gova to visit some people, and then afterward.....you guessed it, he fed us ;) haha.

Our main investigators right now are Sibu and Mzuko. The Nono's are great too, but the dad is just really hard to teach. Our lessons with them are always SUPER short so he can understand them.
Sibu is seriously doing amazing!! He is being baptized on Oct. 27th as it sits right now, and I think I'll be doing the honors! We are meeting with him 3 times a week so that we will have everything taught, but he's super strong and accepts everything we say! It's actually really cool to see someone that I met go through the process and be so close to baptism :)
Mzuko is good still too. He is just kinda going with the flow I think....but he says that he is doing well with the no smoking and no drinking and law of chastity stuff, so we will cross our fingers that he gets baptized in November, which is what we're shooting for!
Xolani.....man. He wasn't there on Sunday for conference, so we went by his place during one of the breaks. We saw him coming out of the gate and so we stopped and said hi, asked him what's up and stuff. He just said that he forgot it was Sunday and that he had spent the day with his friend. We shook his hand good-bye....smelt our hands....and he'd most definitely been smoking. It totally sucks because he was SO strong and SO into our lessons and stuff! He'd been coming to everything! Major let down on that one....so we will have to figure all that out this week.

Saturday night and Sunday were conference....wow. Sunday was a pretty long day. hahaha. We just sat at the church building for most of the day, except going to see why people didn't show up. But the session was good. For the majority of the day I was playing with Pres. Sibortoborto's kid named Zanokhanyo. He's a pretty funny kid, so we just doodled and played tic tac toe for a long time! haha. But I'm not really sure how the sessions lined up to be honest.....We watched one Sat. night, and then we had 3 on Sunday, one at 11, one at 3, and one at 6. I have no idea...I just sat down and watched. haha.
That's the weekly report for you :) Like I said, nothing too crazy this week...no running into shabins or anything ;)

 

Love,

Elder Truscott

The first 2 months went by both quick and painfully long....its hard to explain.

 

(They said they had a surprise for me after the lesson, and they pulled out a big bowl of bried chicken feet! Apparently those are a "delicacy" here)

Another month down! I am officially a little over 2 on mission, ha ha.  I am moving into the warmer weather here. Today is really nice, and it's starting to get sunny here, the rain is cooling down a bit :)

Well last Monday we went to waterfront and walked around. That place is pretty neat! Lots of nice big hotels, and a really nice mall. There's tons to do, like fishing trips to sign up for, dinner cruises, and there's even a boat you can take out into the bay and shoot clay pigeons off of! Ha ha, I wish! It was the funnest p day in terms of activity that I've done so far though, even though we just walked around....no cool activities really.
Tuesday was their national heritage day, but they call it national brie day.... So everyone just barbeques. We had a branch brie, and it was actually a pretty good time. There wasn't tons and tons of people, but it killed all Tuesday so we didn't do much afterwards! My pasty white skin got sunburned a bit though.... Ha ha.

More in terms of the people and stories :)
We have been sitting with the Pluckey family, a less active family. They are super funny and nice people, and we met with them again this week to talk about what they learned from their reading from the BOM. They said they had a surprise for me after the lesson, and they pulled out a big bowl of bried chicken feet! Apparently those are a "delicacy" here, and they just bite onto them, with the claws and everything, and suck off the meat and spit out the bones! Ugh they are weird to look at, but I tried one! Even though I couldn't completely clean the bone like they did, and I wasn't really a fan, I ate one...
We are focusing big time on less actives, so we have tons of less active lessons, we had 11 this week. One of the guys were focusing on is named Kholiselay. He's  President Sibotoboto's younger brother. We went to see him later on in the week, and he was super down. I asked him how he was doing and he was like "not alright".....we asked him how come and he told us how his little like 1 week old baby died. Ya, I didn't know what to say past that.....we just kinda empathized with him and said we were there for him, then bowed out gracefully.
Nothing insane going on with Mzuko and Sandiswa. We are just still teaching them, but our main focus is still Mzuko cause he said he wanted to be baptized. He is trying to live the law of chastity and word of wisdom, and we are still pushing towards November for baptism, but we will see how that goes! He's a cool kid, but I don't really know how well Sandiswa is helping him along this path....if you know what I mean.
Sibu is still awesome. We are teaching him, trying for twice a week, and he has no problems at all! Its rare around here for someone in college to not smoke or drink, but he doesn't have any issues, and said he isn't addicted to coffee, so that shouldn't be a problem! He's just going to talk to his girlfriend about the law of chastity stuff and he should be good to be dunked! Its pretty cool since I'm the one who initiated all this with him, so he will probably be the first guy that I'm with all the way through :)
On Saturday we went to the Nono's to invite the dad, brother Nkosana, to his daughters talk she was giving in church ( it was the primary program this week ). We got there and Sisanda told us that he was at the shabin, which is like a little bar that's on every street here. Haha, we actually went in and got him out of there! 2 white kids walked into this garage full of drunk black guys....and we found Nkosana just sitting there WASTED! haha, he saw us and was like "sit down! sit down with me!", and then went on about how he disappointed us....haha, he started crying on my shoulder! We took him home, and he drunkenly committed to come to church...ya he didn't come. haha, better luck next week!

We had Xolani, The Nono Mom and children, and Skumbuzo (who was confirmed this week), at sacrament meeting this week. It was the primary program. 

 

OH! did I tell you I met an Elder from Ephraim?! Ya! His name is Elder Lund! He is in my Zone....but I'm not sure where he's at for sure. He's been out 6 mo. I met him at the Zone thing that we are doing for Zone Conference tomorrow.   

 

Dad said that the Zone Conferences are fun, it will give me a break, and plus I will meet a lot of new missionaries that came in from the eastern cape!  I have that this week, and then exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Friday, the ZL's now are both African kids that I haven't heard anything about...so we will see!

 

 I love you and miss you a ton. Be safe :)

 

Love you

 

Elder Truscott

 

 

Monday we went to waterfront and walked around