December 15, 2014 - Elder Truscott has a son

Elder Chaparadza and Elder Truscott

Final District Pic before transfers

Elder Truscott with the golf ball sized hail

Elder Truscott helping clean up yards after the hail storm

Elder Truscott with his new son Elder Ratema 

Elder Truscott hiked up a mountain in Queenstown, 

As for my week here, it seems like a kind of long one!  Last Monday we went out and said some goodbyes after playing sports, and Chaparadza spent Tuesday packing and getting things ready to leave. So Tuesday was a really slow day, just here in Queenstown for the most part! So Elder Chaparadza, Elder Kaufusi, and Elder Arthur all left, so on Tuesday afternoon they drove to East London together and Elder Mariner, Elder Winebrenner, and I stayed behind and were together for that night and Wednesday.

Tuesday night after they left I had to go and do some baptism interviews for Elder Mariner. They had been teaching some kids whose Aunt was a member, so I interviewed them and they were baptized yesterday.

Then Wednesday was another kind of slow day.....we were up late on Monday and Tuesday night......so I wasn’t really feeling well at all...feeling like I had a cold, and my sinuses were all messed up and of course my ears started having problems again.....but we visited a person from Elder Winebrenners area, it was a members mom who was in the hospital from a heart attack. So we visited her, and gave her a blessing, and then went out to Sada for our appt. in the village. It was a nice time...and then afterwards we drove home and the zone leaders told me they were close to Queenstown with my son! We got here right after them, and I met my son! So my new comps name is Elder Ratema, he is from Klegsdorp SA, which is a few hours from Joburg, and he's 19 years old. He's a pretty cool guy, I like him so far....he's really comfortable with everyone and jokes around and it’s not been too bad. The first week of training wasn’t too tough, it just wasn’t the best week to start. Ha ha ha. it was pretty slow.

This week, since the first few days were spent saying goodbyes and not making appts., was pretty slow. We taught a few lessons, like maybe 2 each day, but it wasn’t that great. Luckily Elder Ratema really wants to do finding....got that greenie fire for it, ha ha, so we have been finding a lot, and if everything holds next week we will have 7 new investigators at least! So we are working hard!
So Thursday, Elder Ratema's first day in the field, we were out doing work, and it was super hot in the day, and then all of a sudden it started raining....so we were going to follow up on a referral from Sechaba, and we decided just to go in the rain, so we were at the door of the house around back, and then it started hailing HUGE pieces of hail....like golf balls! It was coming down SUPER hard, like they were just hitting everywhere, so we were running through the mud back to the car, and I had my backpack over my head to cover it, and it was coming down so hard that I knelt behind the back of the car to shelter myself, and I reached into my pocket to grab the keys and SMACK! A big piece of hail hit me square on the head and man it hurt....still hurts a bit, but the massive goose egg is gone down. Ha ha. Dang. It was a crazy storm though, it broke people’s windows all over Sada, even went through peoples roofs, and our car is super dented all over, ha ha. So from the storm peoples yards were really messed up, so we did some service in the afternoons this week. We helped Sis. Chipo clean her yard on Friday afternoon, like raking up all the fallen apples and apricots and leaves and stuff, and then on Saturday we did the same thing, only this time there were lots of weeds, at Sis. Mkoti's house. They were really appreciative, and both times they fed us lunch after helping them and it was nice.

So Elder Ratema is fitting right in, he's a great teacher. He went out with the missionaries tons at home so he is kinda used to it I think. Sunday was good as well....we had 7 investigators at sacrament meeting, which is more than I've had since  I came here....so I'm thinking that the Lord will speed up the work to help Elder Ratema have a great first experience! And then we had lunch with the Xalabile family, and then did some baptism records and had an FHE with the Tyatyeka's...kind of a lazy Sunday and we ate good!

Then This morning we went as a zone and hiked up a mountain in Queenstown, the zone leaders wanted to do it and talk about the goals we had for this transfer and for ourselves....and we woke up and it was kinda rainy and groggy, but we went anyways, and then half way up the mountain when we couldn’t see the top or the bottom we had our meeting and went down. Ha ha, but it was a nice  morning!

I’m looking forward to the transfer, hopefully things keep going well and hopefully I can keep helping Elder Ratema!

Love and Miss you guys,

Elder Truscott