Letter from Michael 7-28-2014- Robie Ridge 1

Letter from Michael 7-28-2014  Robie Ridge 1

It was sad to leave Protea Glen so soon but my new area seems pretty great. My new area is Robie Ridge.At transfers all I heard about Robie Ridge was great things. People rave about it. Elder Ruekert, my zone leader in Polokwane, had served there too. He went home back to Utah on Tuesday. Robie ridge is a township that some would call very very ghetto. Most people live in tiny tin shacks. It makes Protea Glen look like town. Anyway,  the people are nice I love the ward here. There are so many people to teach here and we have quite a few investigators being baptized soon.

My new companion is Elder Harris. He is almost a year old on mission, district leader, and is from Utah. He is the funniest companion I've had. It is good serving with him. I finally live in a 2 man flat now which is nice. It is not so noisy, more privacy, and easier for cleaning. We even each get our own bathrooms. The only bad part is that the walls are paper thin so we can hear people in rooms around us. My first night here we ate at a members house. We ate "Walkie Talkie" and a ton of pop it was hard to finish but I muscled it all down. I thought I had eaten everything off the bones. Then I see them finding more to eat on my plate. They really finished it off. They eat fat, tendon, bones and all in this country. They never waste. By the way, "Walkie Talkie" is chicken head and chicken feet.  That reminds me of when Elder Harris and I tried a new kota shop on Tuesday. It didn't taste very good and it made me sick for a couple days. I have bad stomach pains and body aches. I am good now but I don't think I will be eating any more kotas anytime soon. If you don't know what a kota is it is a quarter loaf of bread with fries, different kinds of cheap meat, sauce and cheese.

On Transfers on Tuesday it was good to see Elder Haynes and other missionaries I know. Elder Haynes is now a district leader. Elder Dutson went to Orange Farm which is a good township I hear. That was my week in my new area. So far so good.

- Elder Johnson

Part of letter to his mom:

For Transfers we all meet at the office, church, where the MTC is. We gather together in the chapel and find out who our companions are. There are a couple speakers and then the turn on the projector. They project the picture and names of the new companionship and then the name of the assigned area.

Harris is from a little town that no one knows about. "Erda."

Part of letter from his dad:

The transfer was like a meeting instead of just looking at a paper on the wall. The greeny Elders shared their testimonies.

A little bit more:

My companion has been here 1 transfer (6 weeks). Introduce myself at church. I made a funny joke about Utah to begin with that made them laugh. Of course I bore testimony too. The investigators are powerful. They walk a long way to get to church. They have a lot of faith. Funny African names are hard to remember. Blessing, Tiamo (Recent Convert), and Tumi are guys that help us with the work a ton. Every day we take one of them out to teach with us.

Today we are playing basketball with the district. I am so stoked! This will be my 2nd time playing basketball in Africa. The other 2 times were in Protea glen