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