Monday, March 31, 2014

Happy 19th Birthday- March 31,2014



This week nothing too exciting really happened honestly. Just kind of a normal week of work.


Last Monday for P day we went to a University lecture. Hahaha, that should tell you a lot about how boring it is here in Grahamstown for p-days..... We went to Rhodes for a lecture on journalism, and that wasthat.....p day over and then out for our appointments that night!

Tuesday was my 8 month mark! Haha, pretty boring day, but 1/3 mark was cool to think about!


So Thursday I got a few of the packages that you sent to me :) the ones from the distribution center finally came, and wow did I get alot of DVD's to hand out to people! Thank you so much mom! And those Book of Mormon stories book will be good for recent converts even! Sothank you :) I am now fully equipped ;) haha. Also my St Patrick's day package came! Thank you :) I love the card, Ramosoeu laughed all day about it, haha, and the snacks and crackers are great :) thank you so much :) aaaand the package you sent for Shanice's baby, Casey, came too! Wow did you hook her up with baby clothes! Shanice was happy and she told me to tell you thanks a few times :) it was cute too, cause
when we walked with her on Sunday Casey was in that white dress you sent :)


So those new people, Esme and Aldeen, who work at Mrs. Duiker's place,well on Friday when we went to see them Aldeen made cake for my birthday :) so our visit was just eating and chatting, which was super nice of them :)


Sunday was a pretty good day too. President and Sister Wood were in Grahamstown for church, so I got to see them at church yesterday. It's always great to hear Pres. Wood speak! We had 5 investigators at church,  we were expecting more, but 5is a good number ;) haha. Leticia and Diego, the Sinama kids, and Sandiswa who got everything sorted for her baptism clothing wise and is excited for Saturday!
After church we had some appointments with new people! We ended up getting 3 new investigators yesterday, and one of them is a younger guy. Daaaang our appointment with him.......he's super smart, and asked tough questions that I've never thought of before! He had skimmed the pamphlet we left him when we found him walking, and Wikipedia searched the Book of Mormon and stuff! So we had to try and clarify.....but he's smart, and wants to know the truth, so we are hoping he turns out to be really good!
Then like every Sunday we finished at the Chases home where they cooked dinner for us :) and since it was my birthday they made a nice chocolate cake as well :) it was super nice of them :)


Like I said, pretty boring week....we did lots of tracting and trying to find people when appointments dropped, but I'm sure some of them when we follow up will be good! Personally I'm just looking forward to Sandiswa's baptism this coming Saturday :)


I love you and miss you so much!

Love,

Elder Truscott

Monday, March 24, 2014

Birthday Week starts today

Elder Truscott at the Mpongo game reserve in East London, SA


Elder Truscott and Elder Ramosoeu with Emerald, Kaylin and Keisha
This week seemed long....haha, it seems like it's been a long time since I emailed last! But I'm literally melting right now....just as I thought it was getting to cool down and be winter, the last like 4 days have been HOT.....I'm dying.
But last Monday like you know I was in east London for P Day, so that was really cool to get to go to that game park and see the animals :) I will say, the lions are pretty cool, and I have a cool video on my camera of one scaring the crap out of me....haha.
Then Tuesday we had the zone conference. The whole reason we were in East London. It was nice, we had to be at the chapel at 8:15, and we didn't leave until past 5.....so you could say my butt was tired of sitting, but it was still good. Pres. Wood is good to listen to, plus they always feed us well ;) ha ha.
So I guess cause Ramosoeu is going home at the end of this transfer he has to fill out some forms and send them in to the office, so Thursday morning we went out to get the envelopes and stuff, and walking out of the post office we saw Isabelle....I don't know if you'll remember her, she was our investigator a while back, her and Sharon, I think Isabelle is Sharon's mom......and she was carrying 2 heavy shopping bags. So we went up and were like "hey can we help you carry those?" So we walked all the way to the taxi place carrying her groceries (which were super heavy) and she was really happy :) it was kinda cool. Haha.
I'll tell you about this funny thing that happened too, haha, I thought it was funny anyways. So we have been sitting with this lady named Esme, and we just recently met her, so she told us that if we
come Friday and bring juice then she'll bake for us! So I brought juice on Friday duh! But we showed up and she wasn't there....she had left earlier, but Mrs. Duiker, the lady who owns the house, invited us in. Well she's super nice, and made us sandwiches and everything :) She has a daughter who is like 15ish I think, and when she got home and saw that her mom made us food she was like "what, do they not have food at the monastery?" Hahahaha, I started laughing :)
Sunday,  wasn't too bad, besides the fact that it was scorching hot.  We had 4 investigators at church this Sunday: Mbongheni, Leticia and Diego, and Sandiswa :) Sandiswa was supposed to be baptized on the 30th (next Sunday) but the Branch President is going to be out of town next weekend, so he moved it to the 5th :) we will baptize her on that Saturday and then confirm her on Sunday. Sandiswa is still super excited though and she and President Budaza (the Branch President) talked for a long time after church yesterday. It should be good! I'm still super excited for it too :) the drought of baptisms in Grahamstown looks like it's about to end :)
Leticia won't be long either. She has prayed and said that she knows baptism is what she needs to do! I think after she sees Sandiswa get baptized and realizes it's not scary (her biggest concern is the water itself) she will be good to go :) and that will be a great one too :)
We always like to pop in and see Emerald on Sunday afternoons, so we did. She had already told us that she was going to go to her church this week, but then she said she'll come to ours next week. She's super cool, and I'm hoping the more she comes to ours the more she loves it and wants to join and feels the spirit. The Sinama's are great too....the mom was out of town this weekend, but I think we need to just teach the lessons again and commit them to do things to really start progressing.........
We also found some new people to start teaching this week! We have an appointment on Tuesday with a guy named Denzel who we found while walking, and he's super cool. Used to be a gangster until some life problems forced him to start praying, and now he's a really nice and religious guy!
Well I'm going to go outside and do my rain dance after this, and hopefully it works cause my mlungu (white boy in Xhosa) skin can't handle this....haha, I'm counting down until winter ;)
Love,

Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patty's Day 3-17-14



I don't have much time today we today but it has been super cool so far. We drove to east London and went to Mpongo game reserve :) it's super sweet, we got to see lions up pretty close (not out in the park, they have them in cages as you drive in), warthogs, a bunch of deer things, and lots of giraffes! It was tons of fun, and i got to pet another giraffe! This one was either a child or a midget :)

Things were a bit hectic beginning of the week...and some bad news for me! Haha.

Last Monday we just hung out, all 4 of us and it was the first real p-day of the transfer, well that night we get a call from Elder Olsen (AP) and he's like, oh sorry, are you with elder Bell by chance? And I was like ya here he is.....and then Elder Olsen told Bell that he was getting transferred and that he was leaving tomorrow morning. Totally sucks! Apparently someone had to leave their area, they were having some problems, so Elder Bell was moved there to cover that gap, and in his place Elder Howe came here to be with Elder Manda.
So Tuesday Manda came with us while the Chases drove Bell to P.E. and picked up Howe. Well then my day got a bit worse....cause Howe has a drivers license.....(the car is originally in the other Elders area).....but luckily, still not great, but luckily, we are going to be sharing the car for the time being. Like we get it some days, they get it some days.


So Wednesday was my first day as a walking missionary....and I'm not a big fan. You can't see nearly as many people as before just walking from one appt. to the next!

Grant and Shanice wanted to do a waffle and ice cream thing a while ago, when they found out I had a waffle iron, but we never got around to it, so Thursday night we had a lesson and I brought all the stuff, and after we had the lesson we had waffles and ice cream :) then we had to get back cause we had an unexpected and pretty sudden  exchange with the zone leaders.

Saturday we were back to walking..... We saw a few people, but walking needs careful planning....ha ha,  so that we don't walk from one end of town to the other and then back again....so we were pretty much moving all day.....but we were doing lots of going around and inviting the people to church.

It worked though, cause we had 8 investigators there on Sunday! Leticia and Diego, Emerald and Kaylin, the Sinama kids (the mom was at work), a new guy named Mbongheni who is super cool, and we walked to church with Grant. It was a good turn out, I was super happy!

We met with Sandiswa earlier this week and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ, and asked her to be baptized and it was great, she said yes and we told her March 30, but I'm starting to think that will be
too soon, and we might have to push it back a week or so, but we will see! The important thing is that she said yes :) haha.


Emerald and Kaylin have come to church two weeks in a row now, so that is super good, they just leave after sacrament but I'm really glad they are coming. I'm hoping that them coming will ignite more of an interest in becoming members, and if they start to love it and feel the spirit there it will be great :)
Leticia is the other one who is still doing great! She's been off the smokes for a while now, and her only thing is that she's super scared that she'll make the promise and be baptized and then make a mistake and slip up. So we just have to show her how faithful she is and how she can do it and then it will be good to go with Leticia :)
The new guy we saw this week, well one of them, is named Mbongheni. He's a super cool guy, came to church with one of our recent converts a few weeks ago and we just got to have an appt with him. He said he's looking for a better relationship with God and stuff, and he's a smart guy and it should be really good! I'm excited to start teaching him cause he came to church again!


The only thing I'm worried about is how we're going to see all these people with no car half the week....but we will figure something out  ;)

Sorry, I don't have much time today....................But I love you and miss you!
Love,
Elder Truscott

Monday, March 10, 2014

March 10, 2014

Elder Truscott and his Comp. Elder Ramosoeu
Driving was pretty much the motto for this week! I did LOTS of driving around! Ha ha

Monday night we got our transfer news, and Ramoshaba was the only one from Grahamstown who was leaving. Ramosoeu and I were staying the same, and Elder Bell was getting Elder Manda as his new companion.

 So Tuesday since I'm the only one who can drive I had to drive Ramoshaba down to P.E. so we could pick up Manda and Ramoshaba could get on his bus. Well we had to find a place to stay on Tuesday night, so we stayed in Kwano with Elder Hlophe and Kuhmalo :) it was cool to see them and chill for the night, and we were supposed to be at the bus stop at 6 Wednesday morning.

We woke up and got ready and headed out to go pick up Manda from his boarding in a place called Despatch. We picked him up, and it was already past 6, and headed into P.E .for the bus stop, but
boy was traffic bad.....so it goes without saying that Ramoshaba missed his bus....ha.ha.
So from there we had Manda and his companion at the time, and we had to take his companion to the airport to get his new comp, and then we had to figure out what to do with Ramoshaba! The plan was that we would take him back to GT and the Chase's would drive him to East London, but talking with President Boyce, we decided that if we could get to GT before the bus got here he could just hop on it and go.....so we drove BACK to GT trying to beat the bus that left quite a while before at this point..... We drove pretty quickly back to GT where we found a bus going to East London! It was a different bus....but Ramoshaba just hopped on and the Chase's paid for the trip! So it worked out :) except Manda didn't have his stuff cause he was planning on grabbing it after we dropped Ramoshaba at the bus stop.....hahahaha. So we had to drive BACK to P.E. and get his stuff together and then BACK to GT that night....it was a long day of driving! Bro. Alan had all of us for dinner that night and I was dead tired....ha ha ha.

Then the driving continued on Friday....we got news Thursday that we had Zone Training on Friday morning, so we woke up Friday morning and drove to East London for the training by our Zone Leaders, Elder Swenson......and guess who......Gertzen. So after that little training we went back to GT and continued on for the day with appointments.

I was surprised at the turnout on Sunday to be honest with you! I was thinking that there wasn't going to be anyone there cause it was a really rainy day. It rained all day and when it rains people don't come out, especially not to walk to church! But we had 7 investigators in sacrament meeting! And it was awesome because Emerald and her daughter Kaylin came for the first time! The Sinama kids came again, Nandile, and Leticia and Diego walked in the pouring rain to church, and I was so happy to see them :) it's so cool, Leticia is super dedicated! And after church she cancelled our appointment cause she "had wet feet" and was going to bed :) haha. So after church we visited Emerald and asked her how she liked church and everything, she said she enjoyed it and so did Kaylin, so that was good :)

The Sinama's are great :) I love them! After church we went there Sunday night and they fed us a huge dinner and desert before we read from the BOM :) and they love us coming and they always love church :) it's really cool, I just wish the mom would realize the need to be baptized into this church, you know? But we're just reading through the BOM with them and asking them to always pray about it.

 Leticia is great, she reads by herself and comes by herself to church....and she's still not smoking! We're pushing that promise thing with her so she can get ready to be baptized :)

Nandile is another awesome lady. You know that the investigator is sweet when she SMS's you and reminds you of their appointment and that she's feeding us :) but we teach her and hopefully she'll SMS about another appointment this week cause she said she didn't know her schedule.

Sandiswa is another perfect investigator that we're teaching :) we are looking to extend a baptism invitation this week! So hopefully all goes well :) it should be good though :)

 The work is going alright! The students are back and we're teaching a few of them mixed with the GT locals :) it's been alright though! Kind of a crazy week, but not a bad one :)

Love,
Elder Truscott

Monday, March 3, 2014

March is here!

Elder Truscott in Grahamstown, SA
This week was an interesting one for sure.

Tuesday was my 7 month mark! I can't believe that I've already been out for 7 months, time keeps on ticking by! And this month will be 8 and then my 19th birthday. It will be cool :)

Wednesday was a good day, I got to know the 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency better. His name is Bro. Solomon and he's super cool! He invited  us to come to his place Wednesday night. It was really cool and he's a super cool guy.

Thursday we had quite a few dropped appointments, kind of a slow day, but we had our home teaching with Bro. Alan that night. We go with Solomon and a recent convert named Lonwabo and visit Bro. Alan.

Friday we had a really big district meeting. The Port Alfred Elders came, we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so they were there, and the Boyce's came from East London! It was a good District meeting, and then afterwards we had a nice lunch and went out for the day. I was with Elder Gillespie for the exchange, and we had a super interesting day of appointments....from blessing people to rebuke spirits.

Saturday Bro. Solomon had us over for a braai cause transfers are this week, and we figure at least one of us is leaving, so he had us over and braaid and it was a nice dinner appointment :)

The students in Rhodes are all back now, so church is actually really full, and the cool thing is that the member students are starting to bring some friends with them to church and they are in our area! We had a big turn up at church this Sunday :) 9 investigators! Leticia and her son Diego, the Sinama's kids, Sandiswa, a lady named Nandile, and 2 new students from Rhodes :) it was great to see them come, we were expecting Emerald and her daughter Kaylin, but we can't complain with 9 ;) The people are doing really well. Nandile and Sandiswa, they are really great :) they accept what we say, keep their commitments, and are doing awesome. It's cool to see an area that hasn't had much success have people who are really progressing.

Emerald and her daughter, Kaylin, are great. They are lots of fun to sit with. We see them every Monday and Thursday and read the Book of Mormon with them. Trying to get them a testimony of it and then lead that into the church, cause the only problem right now is that they have their church....I hate that problem.

And of course the Sinama's are awesome :) that goes without saying. It's cool, Sokhana, the oldest daughter, prayed to close our meeting yesterday and prayed that I would stay in Grahamstown :) it's cool to have people really like you! Ha ha ha ha.

Transfer news is tonight! I imagine I'm staying, but you never know, it's all subject to change! We will see!

I love you guys and miss you like crazy!

Love,

Elder Truscott