First Zone Conference

Dear Everyone,

This week really did fly past. It was our first zone conference, which was an awesome experience. President Wood is such a kind man, and he had some really good things to teach us about prayer. We pray a lot as missionaries, but both me and Elder Bangerter felt that we could be better with our prayers, and what we pray for. We also received training on working with members and in-actives, both things me and Elder Bangerter want to get better at. We have found that our teaching pool has kinda over-expanded, we have too many investigators and not enough time!  Because we don’t have enough time to spend on each investigator, many aren’t progressing super well, so that is something we plan to change this coming week. We are also planning on trying to do a lot of reactivating, cause like only a 1/5 of the people on the Church rolls really come to church regularly. So that is the mission for this week.

We have also been lucky enough to receive some special training cause I am a greenie. After the zone conference we went on a short exchange with the APs. I went with Elder Thole, from Zambia. He knows Aaron Na’gambi! small world. [Aaron is a friend from Africa that Kaleb met at BYU Hawaii] Anyway it was a great learning experience, as I felt he was an awesome teacher, and really connected with the people we met with. It was a good experience. Me and Elder Bangerter also get to travel to the mission home for a day this week to receive some more training. I am excited to see the rest of the missionaries I was with in the MTC again.

Stake conference was this week. It was really interesting to hear from Granddad Martin about how Port Elizabeth was kinda of just a lonely branch, far from other missionaries when he served here.  Now its a stake, and there are two zones, one for Port Elizabeth and another for Kwanabucle, a big township area a little ways off. Stake conference was really good, but also a little bit of a disruption, because we pretty much were not able to do any proselyting on Saturday because of it, and then it’s hard to get investigators to come to a strange chapel in Walmer, like a 20 min drive from Cleary. Not a lot of people have cars, and the members that do are already full. Elder Bangerter was so happy though, because Kwanabucle was his first area on his mission, and he got to see some of his friends and converts from the area. He was so happy, and the members from his area where so excited to see him. I hope I can leave that kind of an impression on this area.

This week was really good, we have had some awesome lessons, especially with this lady Sinobia, who we think we need to commit to baptism. She was telling us about how she feels something is missing in her life. She has been reading a ton of the Book of Mormon, which is great. She has had some confusion between the Book of Mormon and the Bible, cause she keeps trying to draw parallels between it and the bible. Like she thought that Lehi was Abraham. But I think that we have cleared that up.

Another thing that me and Elder Bangerter are really excited about is Lynette. Lynette is the girlfriend to a less active member named Justin (they have a child together). We met with her, and in our first appointment committed her to baptism. She is a really sweet girl, and we can tell that she really loves Justin. Our hope is that we can activate Justin along with converting her. We talked to Justin last night about being worthy to baptize Lynette when that time comes. He seemed to like that idea, so we are really excited about that.

Another good experience that I think actually happened last week was when we met with this lady named Angeline. We had kinda contacted and taught her husband, who was this ‘perma-fried rasta’ we just walked up to. I don’t think Elder Bangerter realized he was kind of not all there, so he made a return appointment. We both felt it was kind of a dead end, but showed up to the appointment  to find his wife, a very devout christian, so happy that we came. She prayed for us at the end and said that she knew that we where son’s of God because we showed up. It was very humbling. We have had a couple of appointments where I thought they were kinda a waste of time and not a serious investigator and then find that the person does have a lot of potential.

So hardships this week. The only one that is really on my mind is the fact that our boarding has fleas. That kinda sucks. We are working on getting a new vacuum, but in the meantime I have kinda been eaten alive. Not a big hardship, but an annoying one.

Funny stories. Man, things I would talk about for months back home happen every day on the mission. We talk to some pretty ‘out there’ people. Two incidents come to mind this week. One, we had a visit with this crazy lady who sang all these songs for us and then wanted us to bring a written prayer to Obama. When we explained that wasn't really something we could do, she wanted his email or home address, like that was something we just had. It was funny. Then her brother was talking all about the rapture and called me out for looking impatient cause it was way past time to go. But now I know who believed in the rapture. Another thing that happened this week was my first “brown bottle” experience. Apparently breast feeding in front of people isn’t really taboo here. Awkward.

One highlight of this week is I got not one, not two, but SIX letters. Two weekly letters from Granddad and Grandma, three from Debbie, and one from Elder Fife. In true Andrew form, his was inexplicably written on neon notecards. But it made me so happy to get all that mail, and I think made some Elders jealous. Anyway, it was a great week and thank you all for the love and support.

Love,

Elder Martin

Note to Mom:

I am glad to hear that you have felt peace about me as a missionary. It makes me glad to hear you are not worrying. I am really enjoying my work out here, and I have been having a lot of really good experiences and some fun as well. My companion is really awesome, and is always doing nice things for me, which can kinda be annoying sometimes, cause he is always like making my bed and ironing my shirts. I have been trying to find ways to return the favor, but I fear I am not doing a great job. Also, thank you for always having cheese for me growing up, I have found that cheese is very expensive, at least here in SA. I love you and I am excited to get your letters and package.

Note to Dad:

Its really not that scary here. There is one area called Helenvale or Katanga, which is like a squatter camp that apparently gets pretty crazy, but we don’t go there. It was nice to hear from Elder Thole that colored areas are the worst in terms of drinking cause they have just enough money to ruin their lives with alcohol. Apparently Xhosa areas are a lot better. As for things to pray for, just pray for our safety, and that we will be guided by the spirit, and that I will experience the growth I need to.

Elders Martin & Bangerter at zone conference.

The outside and inside of the “email shop”