We are now into 2014 :)

Sibu and Elder Truscott in Grahamstown

 

Elder Truscott at an Animal Reserve in Port Alfred

We are now into 2014 :)  I'll tell you about my week here, which by the way is SOOO hot right now....like sweating weather at 9 in the morning!

Monday we drove down to Port Alfred to do a giraffe park thing! I didn't know what to expect, but lots of missionaries that are around that area do it. So we went there and it was like a big animal park thing we could drive through. We saw some deer things, some zebra, and some giraffes :) the cool thing though was that one of the giraffes they have there has been raised around people I guess, so he is in this area you can go and pet him! :) it was super cool!! The thing is huge of course so you are just petting it's leg and then all of a sudden it will just bend it's neck down and be in your face! Haha, it was really fun though, and made for a nice PDay :)

Tuesday was New Year's Eve, but the rule came out that on New Year's Eve we had to be home at 6. Well we stopped working at 6, but we went to pick up the other guys and they said that they were hungry too, so we went to a nice place called Gino's and ate some Italian food for New Years :)

Wednesday was New Year's Day, and the rules on it were pretty strict. We couldn't go out unless we had an appointment, and we weren't able to go into the township at all, even if we had appointments. Well since most of our work is in the township we had no appointments in town! We sat at the boarding most the day, but the Chase's invited us to their place to make pizzas and relax for a bit, so we did that and then went back to the other guys place and played games, hahaha. It wasn't bad.

 The biggest highlight from Thursday was the terrible news that Sibu was leaving Grahamstown and going back to Gugs. He called and told us his travel plans, so Thursday at 2 we went and chilled with him, and hung out with him until he had to catch his bus at 3:30. It was so cool to be able to meet up with him here! I'm so glad how things worked out like that, it was awesome to be around him during the holidays :) so we saw Sibu off and then went out to work!

Friday we had exchanges with the zone leaders. They came in from east London, and I was with Elder Nkosi. 

But I realized I haven't talked tons about the people here in Grahamstown. So I will tell a bit about the ones that I'm getting to know better.

So first off there is Grant and Shanice. Grant is an investigator and Shanice is a member. We are seeing them all the time. It was funny kinda, when I first got here they weren't really lively to missionaries and stuff, but lately they have loved having us around and I've gotten to really like them
 

Sister Amanda Boesak  is Shanice's mom. We visit her a lot too, and we have been trying to walk with her and Shanice and Grant to church every week so that they will come!

 

We've been teaching Isabelle, Sharon, Sharon's daughter usually sits in, and trying to get Sharon's brother Malachi to join us too. They are doing good! This week was kinda crazy for appointments with New Years and stuff so we haven't seen them and had a lesson since last Sunday, but we will be seeing them this week.

Another family that we are teaching is a lady named Emerald. She lives with her boyfriend, which we've never met, but we were tracting an area and found her and her 2 daughters, Kaylin and Keisha. They have been doing super good too. Always listening in lessons and she even read part of the Book of Mormon when we left it, the introduction and the testimonies! It was pretty cool! So we've been seeing them and Kaylins boyfriend is usually there too.

We're teaching others, but those are the main ones right now that we are trying to focus on, cause like I said, there hasn't been a baptism here for a LONG time, and besides Grant and the Boesak's everyone I talked about we found this transfer, so we are hoping the new people progress! :)

 

But that's about it in terms of news from over here in S.A. And my week!

 

We are driving back to East London today for interviews and training which are tomorrow.

I love you!

 

Elder Truscott