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