First Baptism

Hello everyone!

Well, first things first. It seems that I have misplaced my visa travel credit card ; ) yes I am still Kaleb. And for the record, Elder Bangerter left the keys in Gugulathu, not me.  And we haven’t gotten them back, but we got a spare from our land lord, so we are not sneaking through windows anymore.

I got your letter this week, as well as two from Debbie, three from Granddad and Grandma, and one from Elder Boydston! Matt had some great advice for me and I was really surprised and pleased to hear from him. Hopefully I can send him a letter back, although he probably has like one transfer left so I’m not sure if he would get it.

Alright, so this week we had my first baptism! Xabisa was baptized by the branch president, President Barendse. She is really awesome and it was a joyful day. The other Elders had three baptisms, two little girls in a part member family, and Aphiwe, another Xhosa girl about Xabisa’s age. We think that they will be able to support each other in the church. We also had some investigators able to attend the service as well as church (they were baptized right after priesthood meeting). Dwayne came and stayed for the whole time; he is super golden. I am really excited about him. Also, Clive, the crazy guy who kissed our feet that one time, showed up to church, so that was interesting. I guess he used to be really smart and then had a nervous breakdown, so that’s kinda sad. Everyone in the church welcomes him though, and it is evident they he knows the church is true, but it’s also clear he is kind of out of his mind.

Church is good, but it is clear that the branch is very much still developing. I have really seen how blessed I was to grow up in a very strong ward with so many great priesthood leaders. The branch president is excellent here when acting as branch president. We sat in on a branch council meeting and I was impressed how he handled some of the other auxiliaries presidents.

Anyway, so to answer your questions: the food is good, for the most part very much like the states. One unfortunate thing has been the lack of boneless chicken breasts. They have them, and I have bought them, but getting that in a dinner appointment is kinda unheard of. But thats all right. I have been cooking a little, but sometimes preparation time is short. As for food I have tried, nothing too crazy yet, some of the dinner appointment food has been a little different, but not really of note. I have had some nice curry a couple of times. I guess in like Xhosa townships you can get some pretty gnarly stuff though. Cow heads and stomachs I guess. We kinda eat out a lot for lunch because our boarding is about 15-20 min away from the area and its either pack a lunch or buy food in the area. There is a big mall near the chapel that has some like pretty normal fast food and pizza type food. We also sometimes go to these little shops and get ‘Quarters of Bunny Chows.’ A Quarter is like a small loaf of bread, with the center cut out, kinda like a bread bowl, but it is filled with usually like a hamburger patty and chips (fries) and your choice of sauce. They have this sweet chili sauce here that is very nice. A bunny chow is like the same thing but it is filled with curry. Unfortunately it usually has bones in it which kinda turned me off to that particular dish. We also had braai [South African BBQ] for P-day last week and played football, it was a lot of fun. The other days we have either gone golfing, of played games at the Walmer chapel. I think we are going golfing today. And yeah, the other Elders usually just drop us off in the morning and then we walk around our area until usually around 8 when they pick us up and take us home. I haven’t run, but I need to get better at exercising in the morning cause I haven’t been doing a good job of that. And no, I have not been sick.

Anyway, well I can’t think of much else to say. This week was my first Exchange,  Elder Vernon made me some nice Crepes. I hope you guys have a great week!

Love you all!

Elder Martin 

Elder Martin, Xabisa, Elder Bangerter

Some P-day golf

Braai