December is here! - DEC. 1, 2014

The Miselo family.

Elder's eating Thanksgiving dinner. All you can eat ribs at the Spur restraunt

Elder Truscott reading the Liahona

Sada Ward baptisms

This week was an alright one I guess. The tripanionship is over since Swacina is going home about a week early for family stuff, so it’s only Elder Chaparadza and I right now.

Last Monday we just played sports, it was the usual....rugby. It wasn’t bad though....it’s good for me to get some exercise, cause I can feel it big time while running. Ha ha ha.

Tuesday was a really good day in terms of teaching and stuff. We had lots of appointments scheduled (and at this point it was still the tripanionship), so Elder Chaparadza and Elder Swacina went to teach, and me and Bonga went and taught people, and we just did that most of the day until we met back up for an FHE that night. Bonga is growing on me a lot. He's a cool guy. He and our ward mission leader, Sechaba, are pretty cool.

So Thursday was Thanksgiving! We didn’t really have any plans....and nobody invited us over for dinner or anything....so the three of us, Kaufusi and Mariner, and 4 of the Elders working in Queenstown, went to a restaurant called Spur on Thursday night after our appts. For Thanksgiving dinner :) ha ha. On Thursdays they have an all you can eat ribs and wings special....so we did that and it was lots of fun! Not quite the traditional turkey, and no family again this year, but we made the most of it.

Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Mariner in an area called Ilinge. It was a nice exchange! We just had district meeting in the morning, had lunch, and then went to his area and taught a few lessons. Ilinge is pretty rural as well. I met one of their members who claims to have a "Spirit husband" so that is pretty wierd. But it was a nice day.
Then Friday night Sada Ward had a "funeral" for Elder Swacina since it was his last day in the area. It was a really cool thing for them to do for him actually. They surprised him with a big celebration, and drinks and snacks and it was lots of fun :) Elder Mariner and I went there after our appts were done in Ilinge, so we were a bit late, but we still made it for some and it was a good time. A cool thing for the ward to do for him for sure.

Saturday morning Elder Swacina had a career workshop in Queenstown since he's going home, so Elder Chaparadza and I dropped him off at that, and then went out to Sada, and boom....Swacina is gone. From that workshop he went to East London, and then I think he's flying to Cape Town today, then back home tomorrow..... I get a bed now so it’s better....ha ha ha. But we went out to the area after dropping him, and the young men and young women had a fundraiser on Sat. morning to save up for the FSY camp (EFY). They did like a talent show thing and we could buy food for 10 Rand, so we did that for lunch and had a nice time, and then went out to teach. I find teaching lots better now that it’s down to the two of us....for some reason the teaching didn’t quite "click" like it did with my tripanionship with Kupka and Carnieletto.

Sunday was a good day as well. We had two baptisms....again I didn’t really teach them much so I don’t really feel too involved....but it was for a 16 year old boy named Mihlale, who is a stud. And a 19 year old girl named Nokuthula. She's cool too but more quiet. So that was right after church, and also that one kid that we baptized my first week here, Umpho, was confirmed....so that was good for him too. After church and the baptisms, we went out teaching after eating lunch at Bishop Xalabile's. We went with our ward mission leader Sechaba and two young women, Nosipho and Aphelele, so we brought the army to people. We taught a few lessons, and it was good.
In all, this week wasn’t too bad. Not my favorite Thanksgiving week ever of course, I missed you guys like crazy....but its better this year since I know it’s my last one away :) ha ha.

Today is Elder Arthur's Birthday, so the Stapleys made a cake for him and we surprised him before  emailing....and it was really nice. It was nice for them to remember. Arthur is from New Zealand, and is a really cool guy, I like him!
I love you so much and miss you like crazy :)
Love,
Elder Truscott

Happy Thanksgiving 11-24-14

One of our main fellowshippers, Bonga, got his mission call this week!  He is going to the England London South Mission

Elder Truscott with Bonga

As for me this week.....nothing new really. Life in Sada is honestly pretty boring. We just go out there and work/teach lessons...most of which are translated by our fellowshippers, and then come home for dinner after our day....and there were no exchanges this week to break things up.

Last P Day we ended up playing sports with the Queenstown Elders. It was pretty fun, we just played football with them, like 5 on 5, and had a nice time.....everyone says that sports is pretty much what they do here since there isn’t much around....so I'm guessing in my stay here you'll hear that I played sports a few times. Ha ha.

Well this week I was really focusing on learning my area....we learned this week that Elder Swacina is going to be leaving a week or two early so he can be home for family things, so he'll leave maybe this Saturday, and I'm guessing that Elder Chaparadza will leave at the end of this transfer, so I'm really just trying to learn the area. Not super easy since the streets don’t have names and are all dirt so they look close to the same. Ha ha. But I’m getting there for sure.

The tripanionship is alright I guess....but It’s still not too fun sleeping on the floor....but at least it’s only for about a week more.

This week on Tuesday we did have a really powerful lesson ....we saw a guy named Akhona, and he is one of their progressing investigators. Well we got there and we were teaching him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we taught faith and repentance, and really talked about repentance and stuff, and then asked him to make the changes in his life to help him be more like the Savior. He started crying and told us that he is trying but the one thing holding him back is smoking weed, and that he wants our help to quit. It was pretty cool, we bore testimony that he can stop and that as he lives the gospel he'll be happy. We told him we would be there for him and if he ever needed anything, or got tempted, to send us a message and we'd call him to give him stuff to do or just talk until he felt stronger. Well Thursday we were supposed to see him, and we got a please call from him, I thought he was going to reschedule; Chapradza called and it was him saying he was being tempted and wanted to smoke and wanted help. So we gave him a chapter from the BOM to read and told him to do that and pray, and he said that it helped and he didn’t smoke that day! Pretty cool. We still need to see him to make another appt. for this week though.

Every Wednesday here we go to a place called "the village". It’s like a rural part outside of the rural area. Ha ha. And it’s super far from everything....but there is a member family that stays there so we go there Wednesdays. They are a nice family as well, and it is a good appt every Wednesday it seems like.

I guess another thing I can report on this week was that one of our main fellowshippers, Bonga, got his mission call this week! he was super pumped about that. The Stake President gave it to the Bishop, who brought it to Sada and Bonga opened it on Friday. He is going to the England London South Mission. Pretty cool for him! he's excited and it will be a big change from living in and seeing Sada every day.

This Sunday it was a special Stake Conference...so church was in Queenstown. Sada brought a bus down, and we heard from the Stake President that was broadcast from East London, and then a special DVD with Elder Bednar, President Uchtdorf, some other guy, and a lady that always speaks in conference. They pretty much just cracked down hard on Labola, which is the bride price culture here....Uchtdorf just straight up said "discontinue this practice" and the people were like laughing a bit,  It’s a huge tradition here....but the First Presidency and the Apostles frown upon it I would say.
We had a good turnout...and we had 2 baptism interviews, one for a girl named Nokotula, and one for a 16 year old boy named Mihlale, who is a stud. He's really cool and they are both ready! Again, I didn’t teach them that much, so it’s kinda like I'm just here for them, but it’s still cool for them :)

This week is Thanksgiving! I don’t know what I'll do...since neither of my comps are American...hahaha. But I haven’t really heard anything either, so we will see how the plans turn out!

I love you so much and miss you like crazy. Honestly more than you even know.

Love,

Elder Truscott

November 17, 2014

Elder Truscott and Elder Welsh with the Kumaria Family

Eldridge and Elder Truscott

The Beast, Elder Truscott and Mama Frans

Loading onto the bus on transfer day. Elder Truscott is headed to  East London
Elder Kupa, Elder Truscott, Elder Welsh and Elder Decebal Cuza

Elder Chaparadza, Elder Truscott and Elder Swacina in a tripanionship in Sada 

So let’s see...this week was a tougher one.....
I had to say all my goodbyes in Uitenhage,which seems like a long time ago now....this week dragged.

Saying goodbyes was pretty tough. It sucked saying goodbye to Beast (I won’t ever have a cooler fellow shipper/ward mission leader I'm pretty sure) and Mamma Frans. I printed some pics of us and gave them to them when I said goodbye. It’s amazing to me how much I just grow to LOVE the people, and it’s a weird kind of love too...it’s hard to explain. I'll tell you what, the hardest goodbye to say was to the Big 5.  I printed out their baptism pics and they really loved them. Honestly seeing their excitement about the gospel and their baptism is still so amazing to me. So we showed them those, and then I started saying goodbye and thank you for all they've done for me, and it wasn’t too bad....they were saying how much they are going to miss me and everything, the usual....and started getting a bit emotional. Then they asked me to say one last prayer before I left, and as I prayed I just heard them start crying. I still get emotional thinking about it. It was tough. But their confirmation went well I heard and I'm excited for them.
Then I said goodbye to Mamma Frans she cried, the Mendu's made us a dinner and was really nice. And then I packed until late......

I woke up early and we were off to PE, where I got on a bus to East London...pretty long but whatever...and then from East London I got to hang out there with Carnieletto for a bit! It was cool to see him again and talk about things! Then we all met up at the chapel, the new Elders came, and me, and 3 other Elders serving in Queenstown drove to Queenstown where when we got there (like 8) the senior couple had dinner for us.
Sada is a pretty weird place. Super rural....nobody speaks English and so far honestly it’s been tough. Of course I miss Uitenhage so that doesn’t help...and since it’s a Tripanionship, I’m sleeping on the floor. But this is only a 4 week transfer.  All of our lessons so far have had to be translated.....and church is done in lots of Xhosa....which is fine except I can’t understand it.
But I guess things will get better.
But I’m here in Sada now! Serving here, and it should be alright, they have a few baptism dates so at least the work seems to be going good!
Love,
Elder Truscott

November 10, 2014 -The highlight of the week was obviously the baptisms this Sunday!!

Elder Welsh, Elder Decebal Cuza, Elder Truscott and Elder Kupka in front of the home of
Claudia, Zandi, Phelicia, Princess

Elder Kupka, Elder Truscott and Elder Decebal Cuza

Elder Welsh, Elder Truscott, Claudia, Zandi, Phelicia, Princess, Elder Decabal Cuza and Elder Kupka

Well my last week here in Uitenhage is over! Already been here 4 ½ months! Time flies. But now, according to the missionary board that was sent out....I am going to Sada to be with Elder Swacina and Elder Chaparadza in a tripanionship.
It was a decent week this week, just a completely average one. No exchanges, no conferences, just Elder Welsh and I doing missionary work!  We had a nice week of missionary work.
We moved boardings this week on Thursday....which is a huge pain to be honest. Our new boarding is a big house with us in the back, the Kwano guys in the front of the house, and the zone leaders on a side house. It is fun to be with others, but boy was it a huge pain to move, and our new flat isn’t very big or nice...kind of a pain.
The highlight of the week was obviously the baptisms this Sunday!! Claudia and Phelicia were baptized and it was a great service :) I got to baptize both of them, and it was a great way to end my time here in Uitenhage! They were so excited and happy! It was awesome to see! Especially Claudia, she didn't stop smiling the whole week and on Sunday she was totally excited! Phelicia too, but for some reason she seemed down after the baptism a bit. We still have to figure out why. Their family, for the most part, came to see them get baptized at church, and it was really nice. Total highlight of my time here. Sacrament meeting was good, we had a nice turnout! There were 8 people there from our side, and 8 from the other guys as well, so we had a total of 16 investigators at sacrament meeting this week! We had Claudia, Phelicia (who are still investigators until they are confirmed next week), Christina, Mama Juda's granddaughter, Busi, Motlalepula, a member named Lebo's little sister, and a new investigator named Babalwa. It was a nice way to end the week. It was a super hot week....with a nice ending :)
Now i'm going to have to get all ready for transfers, going off to Sada, so still in the Eastern Cape....
Love,
Elder Truscott

November 3, 2014

Elder Kupka and Elder Welsh

Elder Decebal Cuza (Kupka's son) with Elder Truscott

This week wasn't as bad as last week, that's for sure....it was just an average week. Not too great and not too bad I guess. Just a normal week of doing missionary work.
So guess what.... Last Monday was one year since I baptized Sibu! That's crazy huh!? I was looking through some of my old planners and saw that, it's pretty cool!

This week Tuesday pretty much sucked. Ha ha. I don't know why but people just drop our appointments and it's making me mad! Out of the 7 appts we had scheduled (which would have been an awesome day).....we taught 2 lessons. Super frustrating.

Wednesday was a bit better, and Thursday wasn't too bad either. Friday was actually a great day. I was on exchanges with Elder Kupka, and since neither of the other Elders can drive we were in my area. We had a super good day! Brother Effenaar had given us a referral, and we went and saw him. He's a 20 year old guy who is super interested in the gospel and wants to get his life back on track. Kupka and I had a great lesson with him and he accepted baptism when he comes to find out if it's true, so it was good!! Kupka is a super cool guy and we get along great. So it was a powerful exchange, besides that guy we taught other lessons that were great as well.

Saturday was a weird day. We had correlation with Beast in the morning, where we talk about the missionary work going on and stuff for him to report, and then we went out for our day. We stopped by Eldridge cause he wasn't home for our appt on Friday, and he was there.....but he was acting strange, so I don't know what's going on there.....then we had a kinda frustrating lesson with some new people we started teaching. We've been going through the lists of people missionaries used to visit, seeing if they still want to sit with us and stuff, and we found this family named the Ndyaneli family. Well they wanted us to come back and we tried teaching the restoration, but the dad was just dwelling on the fact that "we think the bible is wrong" and I was getting heated cause he wasn't listening when we said "no we don't".....ha ha. It was tough. I think when he UNDERSTANDS the Book of Mormon he'll be better, it's just hard trying to explain it. Teaching the born again Christian type people is hard..... But we left them with a restoration pamphlet and they said to come back next Saturday.

So that afternoon Kupka sent an SMS asking what President wanted, and apparently he called them looking for me. So I called him back and he asked me questions to see if I'm able to be a district leader, and pretty much told me I'm leaving. I just don't know where to. So that is exciting as well.

Sunday was an alright day. It was drizzling and sorta stormy.....so our turnout at sacrament wasn't good at all. Phelicia came, and the KwaMagkaki Elders told me Motlalepula was there.....so only 2 people in sacrament meeting. It's just getting me down that the people here don't have much commitment. After church we gave Bro. Booyens a blessing. He's super sick. And then we had lunch at mama Hilda's home. She doesn't speak English very well so it's always funny, but it was really nice of her. Then we sat with that referral from Effenaar, taught the restoration and it was great, then saw why Claudia wasn't at church, and had a DA at the Tschibos! So we were pretty much stuffed full of food. We came back and started packing up our boarding, cause we were supposed to move boardings today, but this morning the zone leaders told us that we aren't actually moving until next week now.....
Most likely my last week here in Uitenhage! Hopefully it's a good one full of progressing people and the baptism of Claudia and Phelicia next week! The interviews still need to be done but right now we're planning on them! Should be a good one....hopefully. Ha ha.
Love, Elder Truscott

October 27, 2014 - 9 months to go

Elder Creech, Elder Truscott, Elder Welsh, Elder Decebal Cuza, Elder Kupka,
 Valentine in the sweater, Arthur in the orange shirt,
Nadia in the striped skirt, Elder Tennant, and then kneeling down is
Phiphi in the black dress (that is a nickname, not sure her real name)
and then her daughter mini Phiphi. haha.

Mini Phiphi

This week has been a really hard one for me. I've been waiting for it to end. Ha ha. It just felt like nothing was working out this week! Like I felt I wasn't teaching well, people were dropping....it was just a bad one.

We taught a decent amount of lessons this week, but for some reason I was just super hard on myself all week long. We averaged about 2 or 3 lessons a day, which wouldn't be so bad except on every day we had like 5 or 6 scheduled! People were dropping appointments telling us that "they'll call us when they are free" which basically usually means we'll never hear from them again.

Like the Hendricksa family, that father led family that said they received an answer about Joseph Smith.....they don't really want to sit with us anymore it seems like. The Christofel family, that other father led family that we were excited about, we showed up there for our appt and they were in PE for family things, which we understood, so we went back the next day to see if they were back, and the old lady who was there told us apparently they said we shouldn't come back cause they don't understand that religion of ours.  So we have to go and see what is up with that. Eldridge didn't hold either of his appointments, Melvin (that super sweet guy that works at McDonalds) is being transferred to King Williams Town for sure next month.....things weren't working out for us this week!!

I guess on the bright side the big 5 are still progressing. We talked with Claudia and Phelicia about tithing and fast offerings, and they were excited to pay them! Christina made it 6 days without smoking on her first try, which is good, and now we'll keep building on that. We talked to Claudia and Phelicia about their baptism date. Asked whether they want it moved back to be baptized as a group when Christina is ready, or if they just want to go ahead for the 9th.....they haven't told us yet, but they are cool. Probably the best thing about this week was our one appt with them. We were talking about the 10 commandments, and then in the middle of the lesson Claudia just stopped us and was like "umm guys, we are ready to be baptized". It was pretty cool.

Friday I was on exchanges with elder Decebal-Cuza, Kupka's son. It was a good exchange. We had a nice district meeting, and then had lunch and went out for the day! We taught a few lessons that day and not too much dropped. Decebal-Cuza is a really nice guy too. I like him. He's pretty funny.

This Sunday was a special conference as well. The Presiding Bishop, Gary E. Stevenson was here and spoke to us. So it was a special thing in the PE stake. It was nice, we met at the chapel and then transport took everyone down. We drove ourselves, but we had 5 people come to the conference! Christina, Claudia , Phelicia, Natasha, and Motlalepula all came and it was cool to see them make the effort since we had to be early at the chapel, around 7:30 for the transport. After the conference we had a nice lunch at the big 5 who stay in the other guys area, and then taught some good lessons.....so Sunday was the best day of the week I would say.

I am really hoping for a better week this week.

I can’t wait to hear from you guys.

I love you and miss you,

Elder Truscott

October 20, 2014

Elder Truscott, Elder Welsh, Mampho and,Motlalepula 

Elder Truscott with Bro. Ramano

Elder Welsh, Bro. Ramano, Elder Truscott

Elder Truscott petting a Cheetah

This week went by really fast....even though it was really slow. Ha ha. Lots of our appointments dropped this week, it seemed to be a trend after Tuesday.
But Tuesday was a powerful day! We taught a good amount of lessons and with some really exciting people. We saw that guy Jonathan, who is progressing well. We found out he's living with his girlfriend, so that will have to be addressed at a later date, but besides that he has a strong desire to learn and hear the gospel, so it's cool! Also we sat with a new family that we recently found, it's the Christophel (sp?) family. We were introduced to the mom a few weeks back, then we went and only found the husband home last week and then this week we went and the whole family was there. It's a really nice father led family, and during the lesson they were reading through the pamphlet and looked really interested! Were excited to see if they start progressing, cause were seeing them again tomorrow.
Then Tuesday night started a 24 hour appointment dropping spree. Our 6 and 7 dropped, and then all day Wednesday our appointments dropped until 6 and 7. We did some tracting through town and all that good stuff, but nobody that looks really promising came from it.

Thursday and Friday things got a bit better. We taught a few lessons. We’re still teaching the big 5. Claudia wants to be baptized really badly, and so does Phelicia I think, Claudia is just more vocal about it. Christina is quitting smoking so it will take a little more time. We are just going to ask them what they want, if they want to be baptized together and wait, or go as they are ready.  It was cool, on Friday night we got an SMS from Phelicia saying how we are such great Elders and that she invited all her friends from school to church! It was super nice :)  They are awesome.

Saturday was another slow one....we got to see Melvin though finally! That guy that works at Mcdonalds. Man, he's worked to the bone. He's a manager there and works constantly....and they said that they are going to move him to King Williams Town to open a new McD's store. It sucks and he looked like he was about to cry. Told us that he hasn't spent Christmas with his family for 5 years. I feel really bad for him, he wants to come to church and be baptized so badly but every weekend he gets   called into work. The good thing though is that there are missionaries in King that could continue to sit with him.

Sunday was really hot. It sucked. But we had a nice turnout in sacrament meeting! Christina, Claudia, and Phelicia came, and they brought Natasha, who's their cousin. Also Ramano, a member we've been working with, brought his child's mother Davidene, and Motlalepula went to church, but she attends in a different ward that's closer to her , so as soon as the boundaries change she'll be baptized there! So a total of 6 people, which is pretty good! Jonathan had to go get money for supper so he wasn't able to make it, and Melvin worked, and we’re hoping this week we get some of those people we've met really progressing.... It seems like were just in a slump of sorts. But it's been alright! The week wasn't too bad.
I love you and miss you guys!
Love, Elder Truscott