February 24, 2014

Elder Ramosoeu and Elder Truscott with the Sinama's

Elder Truscott holding Shanices new baby girl



This week wasn't a bad one ;)

Tuesday was just a normal day of appointments, but in the afternoon we had to take Shanice up to the hospital so that she could have her baby! We dropped her off, and went out for the day, obviously.

Wednesday though we didn't have tons of appointments so whenever we didn't have anything we waited at the hospital with Amanda (Shanice's mom) for her to finally have the c section done and have the kid!

Finally late in the afternoon she went down with the doctor and had the baby :) it's a little baby girl :) we couldn't really stay cause we had appointments in the evening, but we saw the baby and Shanice :)

Then Thursday we went back up in the afternoon to visit and see how Shanice and the baby were doing, and she let me hold Casey ( the baby's name) and take some pics and stuff :) it was nice and Shanice was doing good :)

So on Friday we had to leave early and go to East London for the training by Elder Maynes. So we left Grahamstown by about 9:30 and made it to EL by the 12:30 time we were supposed to be at the chapel. We sat through the training and since no food was provided, we grabbed McDonalds and came home :) it was a nice day though to change it up and the training was good. It was about connecting ourselves to the missionary purpose.

The theme seemed to be slow afternoons this week, cause Saturday we had a few dropped appointments too. But that night we were making some visits, so we stopped by Emerald to invite her to church and see how she's doing. Well she agreed she wanted to come to church, so it was great and we left. Then later that night she calls and says that her car is having trouble again! (It happened last week and that's why she wasn't at church, ha ha). So we were like crap....and I thought about it and told her I'd get back to her. So I phoned a member who stays in township, and asked them to get a mechanic that I know she knows and we would go try and fix Emeralds car! Sooo we went up, picked up the mechanic and the member, and drove to Emerald. It was kinda late now, but Emerald said she'd wait. The mechanic looks at the car, and decided it was the fuel pump....which he couldn't fix right then, so then she cancelled church, ha ha . But at least she knows the problem now and she wants to come at least once :)

Sunday was nice....we did lots of visits to people since not many came to sacrament meeting. :)

For the others, Leticia is still doing well! Tomorrow will be 3 weeks of her not smoking! We reminded her that its only a week away from a whole month she's been off the cigs, and she was feeling good about it :) We are hoping that she keeps it up and I don't think that it will be long before she gets baptized....at least assuming she keeps off the smoking.

I love you and miss you!
Have a great week !
Love,
Elder Truscott
 



February 17, 2014

Elder Truscott giving "G Man" Garth a B-day Present

Well this week has a bit more to talk about than last week :)

Last Monday we went to Port Alfred for our P Day that we are allowed to have with them! We drove down there after emailing, and we just met up with Kreiger and Bohn at the Spur (pretty much missionaries go to this restaurant on Mondays). Then we didn't have anything to do after lunch really so we played around PA a bit and then went to play some basketball at some air school place they get access to. It was fun just to talk with Kreiger and stuff cause he's super funny, so even though we didn't do anything really exciting it was fun :)

That Monday night, after the FHE we went to, I got a phone call from a very excited Sibu back in Gugs! He was called to be the second counselor in the young men's presidency back in Gugs and it's super awesome for him!! We talked all about it, how excited he was and stuff. I'm so happy for that guy. Seriously he is the best! And he told me something else super cool! So you know the Gova's maid that we started teaching? Sandy? Well she got baptized too! Which is super cool!!

Well last week you jinxed the tire thing.....haha. Cause this week on Tuesday we went to the shop to get some stuff, and when we came out our tire was COMPLETELY flat. Which sucked tons cause our spare was flat too....so we had to call the Chases who had to come and take our tires to get fixed and then bring them back to us so we could go about our day!

Wednesday we went back up to the Thomas's farm to help them and do more work up there. We were up there pretty much the whole day, just cleaning their house, and moving a few boxes and stuff to where ever they needed them. Then we came back, and surprise, the AP's, who I like were passing by Grahamstown so they stopped by to say hi! It was cool, they are cool guys.

Friday was Valentines Day, so that was pretty much just a regular day for us. District meeting as usual, and then appointments with people, most of which didn't stick cause they were busy. BUT I did get the family calendar that grandma and grandpa chase sent me :)

Sunday was a super great day for us! At church we had a great turn out :) we had Grant, Leticia and her son Diego, and the Sinama's came!! It was so cool they even stayed for the whole 3 hours, and they loved it!! We walked in and the meeting was actually really full ( I waited for them outside cause I knew they were coming), and the mom, Sihle, and Sokhana were sitting behind and me and Kuhle were sitting in the row ahead. Just sitting there with them was one of those moments where I was just like "this is awesome, I kinda love this".... We saw them after church and the mom was saying how she knows it's true, and that she was jealous of our church and stuff! Plus the members welcomed them and they want to come again next week, they all agreed :)

Leticia is probably our most progressing investigator right now! This Tuesday, she will have quit smoking for 2 weeks now! I'm super happy for her and we just want her to keep going and keep the excitement and determination, but it has been cool that she is putting in so much effort and is quitting :) Hopefully it lasts!

But that is about it for my week this week!

I love you and miss you,

Elder Truscott

Happy Valentines Week 2-10-14

Elder Truscott teaching in the township in Grahamstown

Nothing too exciting happened this week to be honest. I think that's a trend here so far, nothing really exciting. Haha.
Well I guess the best thing about this week would be the bit of progress that Leticia has made! So I told you how the only thing stopping her from baptism is some word of wisdom trouble, but she's been coming to church every week. Well we saw her on Tuesday and really just set goals and plans to quit using the word of wisdom pamphlet, and then we said that instead of seeing her maybe twice a week, we want to see her every day or every other day. She agreed, so we saw her almost every day this week, and so far she hasn't smoked since last Tuesday when we made the goal! I know it's only a week, but still I'm happy about it :)

Thursday I was in exchanges with Ramoshaba, so that was a nice break

Friday morning before district meeting the Chases gave me the package of the journals and the book for Alan and the sprays and ointments :) thank you :) the ointments are good since I'm constantly getting bitten, hahaha. But that night we were having dinner with Brother Alan, so I took the book you sent for him to him! Ohhh boy did he love it :)

We average about 3 or 4 lessons every day, and just like it was in gugs, the real appointments don't start until around 2. Like I said, we've been focusing on Leticia a lot, so we've been seeing her almost every day to help her quit. The other one we are trying to help quit is Grant....

The Sinama's love us :) and the feeling is mutual. Haha. They had us on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this week, to go sit and have a lesson with them and chill :) the only thing that I want to happen is for them to start coming to church, so hopefully this week we can see about that :) One of our investigators, Elizabeth, is really confusing. She's been baptized twice, says that she knows the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true, but being baptized three times is "too much"....so she doesn't want to be baptized, its weird. She's another one that we need to get to church more. We've gone to walk with her (as she requested) but she always has an excuse on Sunday morning .

Another person we sat with this week was a recent convert named Lonwabo. So here is the story, I met Sibu in gugs, and followed him to Grahamstown....and Elder Ingram met Lonwabo here in Grahamstown and followed him to gugs! The guy was baptized in East London during his break, but he got to go sit with Hlophe and Ingram in gugs before coming back baptized. So now we are starting to sit with him and do the recent convert lessons, which will be good :)

But that's it for my week! Today were going to Port Alfred for P Day, but I don't know what we're doing, hopefully something to write about next week ;)
I Love you and I miss you,

Elder Truscott

Feb. 3, 2014

Elder Truscott with Sibu's sister Sihle Sinama

Elder Truscott proving he received his package

Another week down here in Grahamstown! Nothing too exciting. It was just a normal week, no exchanges or anything like that, just me and Ramosoeu. We just sat with our normal people and actually found a few new people to teach.

We saw the Sinama's like 3 times this week. Once with the mom and the other times just the kids, but the mom still wanted us to come and be with them. So we didn't really know what to do on Wednesday when we saw them because the mom was gone and we didn't want to teach anything new without her. We decided to just review the restoration. Well we were going through the beginning and I could see that they were super competitive about the answers and stuff, so I decided to make it a review game and whoever had their hand up first and answered got a point, you know? Well it was super fun and they really enjoyed it, so I thought that was a cool way to do that! When we sat with them again and the mom was there, on Friday, we asked if they had been praying about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. The middle daughter, Kuhle, said she "knows it's true" and just said that she "just does"....and the mom was funny. She was saying that she believes it's true because since we've been coming good things have been happening to her :)

On Thursday we were going to go see Emerald, and when we got there her car wasn't there. We decided to just go and knock a door or two while we wait, and the first house we walk up to, right across the street, invites us in, and it's this lady named Olwethu. She's just a younger lady and turns out that she had been sitting with missionaries a bit ago, like a few years, and she is super cool. So we have had an appointment with her, but we just talked the whole time, so it will be interesting what happens when we start to teach her!
Then we went back and saw Emerald. She is still going through a tough time, so sometimes when we get there she just says "let's just talk" and she doesn't want to talk about the lessons or anything, she just wants us to talk to her.

Saturday there was a HUGE storm here in GT. Like it was raining super hard, lightning and everything. We were at the Sinama's place, and they look after these puppies for some reason, so when the storm hit we had to go out and get them all and take them to their house. Then I guess a part of their house lets water in or something, so to help we propped up some tin thing against their door to block the wind and rain, just helping out, and when we got done we were DRENCHED. Haha, like my shoes were still kinda wet at church....haha.

For people, I've mentioned a few already, but I'd say the best investigator we have at the moment is Leticia. She keeps walking to church with her son Diego and she doesn't tell us to walk with her just in case she doesn't come, but she's come the last 3 weeks in a row! As soon as she gives up smoking she will be perfect for baptism :)

All in all it wasn't a bad week :)

Love,

Elder Truscott

January 27, 2014

Elder Truscott and his new Comp. Elder Ramosoeu at the Internet Cafe

Elder Truscott and a local township artist that told the Elders he's an Artist from Paris, France

Ok....so let me tell you about my week :)

Well geez, a couple things happened this week! For one thing though, I am officially 6 MONTHS out here in SA :) I burned a tie for the ceremony and everything :) AAAANNNDDDD it was transfer week, so I will tell you all about it.
So Monday we got the transfer news that Elder Graydon was going to East London, and that I would be staying in Grahamstown with a new Companion,  Elder Ramosoeu. Usually you leave on Wednesdays for transfers, but because we had to drive to Port Elizabeth (for Graydon to get the bus and me to pick up Ramosoeu from the airport) we had to drive to Port Elizabeth Tuesday night. That pretty much crammed everything into one day .....

So Tuesday Graydon said his goodbyes and packed, and we FINALLY got on the road to Port Elizabeth  at like 9:30. Hahaha. So we drove there and slept at the Zone Leaders boarding there, and in the morning EARLY Graydon had to be at the bus stop. Graydon would get on the bus at 6, and then my comp wasn't going to be there until 2:30 from the plane. So I was with other kids who were waiting for their new comp's.  It was kinda cool to see Elder Creech again :) I saw him at the bus stop! But anyways,  We had time to kill, so we went to a place called boardwalk. It's kind of like the Grand West place that I went to in Cape Town.....so that killed our time and then off to the airport to pick up companions :) I saw Hlophe and Cobabe at the airport and I was super happy to talk to them and catch up!

I am with Elder Ramosoeu, he is from a place called Bloemfontein, South Africa.

It was a pretty boring week besides transfers to be honest with you. Not tons of lessons and stuff....but Saturday was my 6 month mark!!! 1/4 of the way done with my mission! I went to the little china shop here, and bought a 35 Rand tie, and burnt it for the occasion :) haha.

As far as the people go, we have been spending lots of time with Grant and Shanice. We just go and read the Book of Mormon and hang out with them! Like Saturday we went and watched the neighborhood rugby game, bought some drinks, and chilled and then read some Book of Mormon, it is super cool. They are super cool people, and I think Grant is getting closer and closer to ready! He didn't come to church this week cause he had work, but we walked with Shanice.The Sinama's are still amazing! they are such cool people! Emerald we didn't get a chance to see this week.....she got held up at work or something for our appointment, so we are going to be seeing her tonight!

Things are moving right along here in Grahamstown though.

Love,

Elder Truscott

6 Months Down...But who's counting ???

Alright, so as far as my week goes, it was a decent week here in SA! I can't complain!
This morning we did another one of our "Nature Walks with Breakfast" with Bro. Alan, and we got out of there later than we thought, had to have our boarding inspection, and then the quest for internet
came.....

We have been getting so many flat tires! I told you that we got all of the tires fixed, but this week again the back tire went flat when we were driving home one night! Ha ha ha, it's the first tire that I've had to change personally though, cause usually people run up to help us! Not this time, so we have problems with tires here in township driving around ;)

Ok so since our transfers are over, we had to have our boarding inspection on Tuesday...well lets just say that we failed, so the Chases said that we needed to clean, and they would come back. We actually cleaned really well, and now we just had our re-inspection this morning, and we passed!
 
Wednesday, we went out to the Thomas's farm all day long to help and do service there. It was probably one of the hottest days I've experienced in SA so far...it was up to 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit)  so it was pretty hot. We helped them load and unload their buckey (what they call trucks over here) and take the stuff to a storage place they had. It was actually a really fun day, and I liked the little change it gave me :)

Yesterday was an interesting day! It was Sunday so we went to church of course, but after church we went to the Sinama's (Sibu's family) cause it was the moms birthday :) I already knew, so Saturday I bought a big cake, and we took it to them yesterday and sang, and sat and had a great lesson :)

So from there we went to Elizabeth, one of our investigators, cause Graydon had agreed to go to her church with her yesterday. We went to the Old Apostolic church, which was in ALL Afrikaans and was pretty weird for me. There were parts that were different, and strange.
 
We had a good amount of lessons and stuff to do this week! Grant is moving along. He wants to be baptized but there are some things that are stopping him from being able to. Smoking is one...but he wants to quit, and he's getting there, he has already quit drinking!

The Sinama's are amazing! I look forward to their lessons every time cause they are so much fun :) They are a great family!

Emerald is having a real tough time right now with things going on in her life. Her boyfriend had his ID stolen, and now they are in a real tough financial thing with the fraud going on, and its really wearing her down. But she keeps having appointments, and loves it when we are there, so I'm happy for that! :)

Now we are just waiting for transfer news tonight! I am thinking that Graydon is leaving, I'm staying, and Ramoshaba and Bell are staying the same....but we will see!

Love,

Elder Truscott

Well another week down!

Elder Truscott with Garth, or G-Man

Elder Truscott and Elder Graydon having a lesson with Grant and Shanice 

Alright so about my week!

Well another week down! This week was a long one for me....I don't know why. Monday we emailed and then started off for East London where our Zone training and interviews were! We were supposed to drive with Elder Ramoshaba and Elder Bell, but Elder Bell got food poisoning,
apparently from a chicken pie he bought at a gas station.....hahaha, ya that will do it! ;) so me and Graydon drove down there Monday afternoon and Bell and Ramoshaba came down with the Chase's on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday we had our training and interviews, and we were the morning session, so we had to be at the chapel there at about 8:30. We got there fine, and while the Zone Leaders were doing their training President Wood pulled us out and we all had our interviews, and then President Wood gave us a training and we ate some lunch :) It was alright I suppose! Nothing too exciting, just trainings on companionship study and stuff like that, apparently all over the world its a problem that Elders either aren't doing it, or doing it wrong....

Wednesday I had my exchanges with Elder Bell. He was still sick from his food poisoning...so he was pretty quiet and stuff, haha. We had a full day pretty much, from like 2 on, and ended with a dinner appointment with brother Alan's place.

This weekend, on Saturday, we were driving around, and we came out from something, and boom....flat tire. Our spare tire was flat too....so we went to the gas station, pumped it up, and then just drove to our next appointment, which was with Grant and Shanice. Of course it was flat within 30 minutes again....and Grahamstown, for some reason everything closes EARLY. So on Saturday at 5ish, everything is closed. Well good old township! Grant and Shanice knew a place in township that would do it....so me, Graydon, Grant, and a guy named Alex rolled the tires down to this place, and they fixed them, and then we rolled them back and stuck one on :) then Grant and I got up onto his roof with a bucket of cement and I helped him fix his roof cause when it rained it would leak. It was pretty cool :) Grant is a super cool guy, and they are all so nice.

So ya in terms of people....things kinda sucked and things went well this week, hahaha, if you can get that!

Sharon, pretty much the person we thought was progressing the most, we haven't been able to see. We went there, and her kid was like "my mom said you can take your book back", well of course we were like craaaap! So we called her at work and she told us that she's sorry for wasting our time, she's giving us back the Book of Mormon, and she doesn't believe what we have been saying but it's opened her eyes a bit. Dang it!! So we are trying to just catch her home one last time to talk about it....but that put a damper on things!

On the other hand, we started really teaching Sibu's family this week! Oh my gosh they are SOO cool! Like even his mom (his aunt) is super nice and funny. And they are really progressing! Like she said that after one of our lessons, they set time aside and read the Book of Mormon together and prayed about it...like wow. That's what we are constantly trying to get people to do! And they did it after our first lesson! And the mom said that she feels like she just wants to read more and more!

Also, a lady named Emerald that we met, we saw her a few times this week and she is super awesome! Like she was worried about us going to East London, and as we read with her she told us that she has no doubt that what we say is true, and that she will come to church when she feels
ready, so that was good!

So there's been good and bad this week I guess! But the transfer is almost over! This coming week is the last week of the transfer!

The time of the week has come, where I have to get off the computer now, but know that I love you, and I really appreciate everyone's love and support.

Love,

Elder Truscott