Letter from Michael 9-14-2015- Transfer Confusion & Baptism

Fortunately Immaculate was baptized on Sunday and it went well. We managed to last minute print up a program for her baptism. Renato, Dell, and Thendi were also there. Our lesson with Renato went well. He wants us to start coming every Wednesday night. We are getting to know him a bit better now. I forgot to tell you that last Sunday I got to teach the Elders quorum class. It actually went well and there was good participation. The lesson was about the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. It was my first time teaching in that class.  

On Friday we went to the Hospital for Elder Hughes. Unfortunately the staples have to stay in longer which means a longer time with out a shower. He uses a lot of deodorant spray, "shower in a can." He has to go again this Friday. 

On Friday night we got the transfer news which shocked us all. Elder Hughes was leaving even though he has only been here for 6 weeks. The members quickly noticed a pattern that all of my companions are English, they get injured, and they only stay 1 transfer. Just today we received a phone call from the AP, Elder Warton, saying that he was sorry but there was a mistake when the news came out. So actually Elder Hughes and I are staying together. 

We had a great lesson with one of our less actives. We brought an active member over to fellowship Musa. She seemed to enjoyed that. We had a great discussion about the light of Christ and showed a video of Elder Bednar speaking about the light of Christ. We have been using many Mormon messages in our teaching lately. After the lesson since Musa has a 10 year old son we played Uno. So it was like a family home evening for them.

There is a Catholic church in our area that has a huge statue of the virgin Mary. Lightning has struck it 3 times fairly recently in some of the storms. It damages the statue each time and they even put metal conductors around it to try to stop the lightning from hitting it. It seems a bit strange... quite a coincident.

- Elder Johnson

Quote: "No man knows how much he can endure until he must. Strength, patience and ability increase with necessity."

- Rchard L. Evans 

Part of his letter to his dad:

Hey, thanks for the BYU update. It sounds like a great game. Those are some very long passes. They just have to get the running game started. So Hill is out for the season then? 

It was nice of Dan to give you the tickets!

Part of his letter to his mom:

Ya, Hughes's pain is wearing off. 

That is funny, I am trying to imagine you yelling or cheering like Dad for the game!

When asked: So did you get to baptize Immaculate? Yes I did.

Letter from Michael 9-7-2015  - Beginning September

This was an interesting week. On Monday we spent all day in the hospital to get Elder Hughes 2nd set of x-rays. Lo and behold there was no difference in the new x-rays. It was no shocker to us but they ended up deciding to do the surgery on Elder Hughes's collarbone. On Tuesday night we went back up to the mission home to stay overnight. Elder Hughes left at 5:30am to go down the street to the hospital. I ended up staying the day with the Florida Elders. I was with Elder Smalley who is training Elder Ete from Samoa. It was fun serving with them and I was surprised that I even spent the night at the Florida flat. Elder Hughes didn't come out of the hospital until Thursday. Poor guy... he was in so much pain. He can't shower until Friday when he gets the stitches out. At the Florida Elders' flat we made chocolate muffins and then at the end of the day we took it to the Gallant family. They are actually members in our area. We go to the Gallant's every Wednesday night for a dinner appointment.

Immaculate had another interview on Thursday night. Fortunately she passed and is able to be baptized this coming Sunday. She changed her mind and wants me to baptize her instead of her husband, Nicki. He will baptize their kids later on. Shane and Renato came to church. We Had another less active come to church. Her name is Kirsten. She hasn't been to church in the longest time! I never have seen her there until yesterday. We had a great lesson with her and encouraged her to talk with the bishop on Sunday. Thankfully it help and she started meeting with bishop on Sunday to get her life in order. One less active, Giselle, came back to church a few weeks ago. She has not missed a week since then. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! Love you!

Quote: 

"Coming together is the beginning;

keeping together is progress.

Working together is success."

Part of his letter to his mom:

Transfers are next week Tuesday. I am so excited for BYU football! My visa and one other Elder's visas got extended to December. I think today we will sit in the flat. Elder Hughes can't do anything.

13 weeks left. Doesn't sound like much, eh?

Part of his letter to his dad:

(After opening his dad’s email and finding nothing but an attached photo, he wrote: Must have been some play. Tell me the details... just like Mom always asking for details about my mission.")  When his dad finally sent the correct email he wrote: So far I saw the BYU pics. Looks cool.

Sounds like an awesome game and ending especially. Poor Taysom Hill can't ever catch a break. He gets injured the beginning of every season. Shame. It sounds like the back up quarterback is doing well though

.

(When he saw a photo of his mom opening presents, he wrote: Is Mom opening present or is it the kids... I can't tell. 

Letter from Michael 9-1-2015- Broken Collar-Bone

For P-day last week we played rugby! T'was fun! Not long after we began Elder Hughes dove over someone scoring. His shoulder went straight into the ground and he heard a crackling sound. One of our zone leaders, Elder Larson, came with us to the hospital. We got the x-rays and the break in Elder Hughes's collar-bone is prety bad. It is broken in two places with a bone floating in the middle. There is a huge bulge in his shoulder now. I wish I had the x-rays. One of the surgeons tried to send me he x-rays through email but it never made it through. 

Today we are going in for more x-rays and they will see if he needs surgery or no. I'm no Doctor but I would say he definitely needs a surgery. It is messed up! I seems as though all of my English companions are getting hurt. The members jokingly say they think I have a curse. 

Anyway, Renato, Immaculate, Vusi, Thendi, Dell, and Dell's mother came to church. Immaculate is having a another interview for baptism this Thursday. She is doing well. We had another less active member come to church. We have been able to set up some appointments with some members I don't know yet. We plan on dropping some non-progressing investigators and we will fine new ones.

Quote: "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly." - Thomas Paine

Part of his letter to his mom:

No. I did not do anything concerning EMT. There wasn't anything to do. We have a car now full time!

We started teaching Basil's girlfriend. Basil is a less active member. She is a nice lady and has been through a lot. We began teaching about the nature of our Heavenly Father and lightly touched on the Restoration. We started teaching Dell's mother about the Restoration and she enjoyed it. She left her church because she didn't think the pastor had the priesthood or was worthy of it. She enjoyed church the past couple of Sundays. She is going back to Zimbabwe this week. She is trying to find the LDS church up there where she lives. I think she will eventually be baptized too. Renato Lopes is beginning to understand how he feels about the church and is now recognizing now when he feels the Holy Spirit testify of truth to him.

(When asked how Elder Hughes is doing):  Yeah, it hurts especially when he moves it it is excruciating. He doesn't complain much though. Actually he doesn't complain. The skin is turning yellow around the injury. So the bruising has finally come through. I used to put the ties on him everyday but now he has a sling. I also have to help him with his shirts and I wash the dishes for him.

There was a dinner at the mission home for a missionary couple leaving and a new one arriving when...Right in the middle of the gathering we were treated by a visit of 4 Elders due to an injury sustained by Elder Hughes, (below). While playing Rugby on P-day, he broke his collar bone and ended up at the Flora Clinic for X-rays. We invited them over to have a quick dinner with us, while we consulted with the area doctor about possible purgers! never a dull moment in the mission home!- Sister Dunn 8-24-2015

Elder Allred giving Elder Hughes some advice about dealing with a broken collarbone. Notice the ties tying back his clavicle until he gets a brace.
*Note: he is going in for surgery in the morning- Sister Dunn 8-24-2015

Michael and the Bedfordview Zone- Michael in the back row 8-25-2015

b

Michael eating with his zone at zone conference 8-25-2015

2nd photo eating with zone

Letter from Michael 8-24-2015 –Member Missionary Work

This week went well. Thanks to Brother Lerious we had many member present lessons. He helped out a ton with us last week. He gave a a couple referrals from part member families in the ward. We are now teaching Stacy and also Renato Lopes. Renato is a Roman Catholic who married an lds woman. They have been married for a few years and Renato is thinking about being baptized into the church so he wants us to come over every other week. 

The Meet the Mormons movie and braai activity was a success. There was free dinner and the young women sold snacks for a fund raiser. Unfortunately no recent converts or investigators came to it. But many members came and really enjoyed being together for the activity. 

On Sunday Shane, Immaculate, Kudzo, Renato, and Dell came to church. We did not get to teach Shane this week because when we scheduled an appointment with him and Kim there was a death in the family. We will meet with them next weekend. Also, a less active named Basil finally came to church. I had never seen him there before. Hopefully he will come next week as well. 

- Elder Johnson 

Part of his letter from his mom:

Immaculate's scheduled baptism is before the new transfer. The district is doing very well. Hughes has not taught me to cook anything. He is cooking at a member's house on Friday though. We couldn't get to Dell's place last week because we were on bikes. 

(Writing about the members helping this week: Perhaps it was because of the talk the Sunday before.)

This Tuesday is zone conference, by the way.

Letter from Michael 8-17-2015

This week started out rough with many cancellations but the 2nd half of the week went quite well. We started teaching Dell and his wife, Thendi. I am not quite sure how to spell her name. They both came to church as well as Kudzi and Shane who is Kim's boyfriend. The first lesson with Shane went pretty well. He asked many questions. His brother told him about a ton of anti-Mormon literature on the internet. I am happy he didn't want to believe that stuff and he came to us for clarification instead of just avoiding us. He already told us that he wants to be baptized and he would like me to baptize him. This was his 2nd time at church. On Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting about missionary work.

The Meet the Mormons event is still going to happen this Saturday. It is going to be combined with a young women fundraiser which involves food. On Saturday we had a service project at a cat and dog pound. It was a "Helping Hands" service project. We painted the walls at the pound and there were many members there to help. Elder Hughes and I repainted the surgery room. There was tons of stuff that we had to move around out of the way. The service went well and was much appreciated. We got to know a couple of the members better now. 

I learned that Elder Hughes is from Derby, England. He is the only one in his family who is a member and he was converted 4 years ago when he was 20. Also he was a chef before mission at a fine dining restaurant. A couple members discovered this and want us to come more often and will supply the ingredients for Elder Hughes to do his masterful work. 

- Elder Johnson

QUOTE: "Work smarter. Believe more. Listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Trust your own judgment." - Gordon B. Hinckley  

Part of his letter from his mom:

We were only sick for a few days but we still worked every day. Yes, we were on bikes. We are still teaching Immaculate. She is on date for baptism on September 13th. Glad you got the letter. I got your Yellow Stone postcard. Thanks! 

Part of his letter for his dad:

Yep! We had the car. It was nice to have someone else drive half of the time. Elder Hughes has a license. Next week we have a zone conference on Tuesday. Happy birthday to Debora! Thanks for everything. Stay well! No more falling over each other at family gatherings! Haha (His dad tripped over his mom and the birthday party.)

Letter from Michael 8-10-2015- Fun P-Day and new Companion

On Monday we went to Germiston with the Elders there. There is a BMX bike racing course that we had fun riding on. I have quite a few pictures. Elder Rouse came down one of the jumps with his wheel turned. He crashed and bloodied up his arm, leg, and face! I also have some pictures of him after the crash. His upper lip was cut in such a way that it looked like a Hitler mustache. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Today we went to a theme park called Gold Reef City. It was fun and the first time I have been on a ride in about 2 years.

Tuesday was the transfer and I have a new Englishman companion. His name is Elder Hughes and he is from Derby, England. He is a good guy. I knew him when I served in Wibank. We were in the same district and went on exchanges a few times together. We get along well so far. We were both sick last week on bikes. We had many bike problems and we dropped some investigators who seemed like they have been taught for a long time but never progressed. We did much finding last week. We started teach a couple new people who we found last week. One of them is Pearlene and her nephew, Devon.

This Sunday we had stake conference which was in Bedfordview. It is the biggest and nicest chapel in the mission. We had one investigator come to that. His name is Shane. He is the Boyfriend of one of the members in South Hills. He is interested in learning more about the church. His girlfriend Kim is a recently activate member who is preparing to go to the temple.
On Saturday night while riding home I saw a man laying in the gutter. I wondered if he was dead. I turned around to see if I could help. It looked like he had fallen because his hat and glasses were scattered. We soon realized that he was drunk. We helped him back up and pick up his possessions for him. A middle-aged couple drove up to us in a van and asked if we were okay. We arranged a ride home for the man with the couple in the car. Even though he was drunk and it was probably his fault that he was where he was it is not our place to judge. We should not refuse help for others just because their sins are different from ours.

Part of his letter to his mom:

We have 3 new Elders in the district. The district meetings are held on Fridays at the Germiston Chapel. I go on exchanges with everyone in the district once a transfer. Yes, I started writing in my journal. I found an interesting way of doing it. In our flat there is a book of scriptures that missionaries in Alberton have recorded. They even use the proper scriptural language. It is quite hilarious! So this morning I started to write in my journal in that way. It is more entertaining and I am more motivated to write now. 

Below are photos of Michael at last week's transfers:

Elders getting in place for the mission photo

Elders trying to get in place for a mission photo

Michael in the middle of the group

The Transfer board with Michael on the left side

Michael behind Elder on the Left

Michael on front row

Letter from Michael 8-3-2015-Wedding and Transfers

Verily verily I say unto thee behold, the hour is come of the great and glorious transfer. Elder Rouse is leaving and I was correct in every detail when we did the transfer predictions at district meeting. Before every transfer in every district we make predictions as a tradition to see who can guess what happens in the district. Anyway it will be good to lead the area.

On Saturday I attended the first wedding I have ever been to. It was the wedding of our investigator, Dell. He had Brother O'friel, who is the member we live with, marry Dell and his wife. It was nice to be there to support them. Nicky and Immaculate also came for fellowship to Dell and his new wife. It wasn't long and we obviously did not have time to waste at the reception. 

The investigators who attended church were Immaculate, Blessing, Janie, Mphatso, Vusi, and another person whose name escapes me. We discovered that Janie and Mphatso live in another area so we can no longer visit them. They got lost on the way to church but eventually made it. They were surprised how far it was. One of the members gave them a ride to a taxi rank and Blessing gave them money to take a taxi home. The taxi took them to the wrong place. It took them to somewhere in Soweto. Shame.

I heard some great news from Witbank! Pat who Elder Oldroyd and I were teaching got baptized this Sunday! Also, Sharon who is a cousin of the Dzeka family is being baptized in 1 or 2 weeks. I was so excited to hear such good news! Elder Oldroyd is doing well. He is about to get a new companion this new transfer. 

- Elder Johnson

Part of his letter to his mom:

No, they kind of already had a traditional marriage. This was just a civil marriage recognized by the law which was held in our chapel.

Yes, there is a scouting program here. My flat in Witbank is between the scout house and the chapel. Branch President Nish is one of the scout masters there.

(When asked what he would be doing after this transfer, he replied: Regular companion but still district leader.)

Part of his letter to his dad:

 District meetings have been going well. By the way, a family in Bedfordview moved into our ward. Also a
lady from England moved here and is now in our ward.
Happy Birthday to Simon!
It sounds like your success in fishing has improved since I have gone.

Our ride to South Hills that we do 3 times a week!