Visiting Malabar

Hello everyone!

Well this was a really good week. Wasn’t the most productive, because of transfers, and we were in a threesome with Elder Veronon for a couple days while Elder Nielson was picking up his green. Being in a threesome kinda poops on your normal schedule, but it was alright and Elder Vernon gave me a haircut. Anyway, the new missionaries name is Elder Davuke, a giant rugby player from Fiji. He is pretty cool and has had some pretty big trials just getting here, he kept getting denied a VISA and he apparently arrived at the SAMTC 4 days early and was lucky enough to find a member at the airport to take him to the MTC from the airport.

Me and Elder Bangerter felt inspired to go to Malabar this week, an area not often visited by missionaries. Its actually a really nice area, with a lot of Muslims and Hindus, which is probably why it is not visited a lot. Its also kinda far from everywhere else. But, there are a couple less-active families there we visited. We met a sister named Sister Kay, a blind Indian woman who joined the church way back in 1982! I guess her and her two sons were the first non-white members in Port Elizabeth. She is a sweet lady with a strong testimony who was very excited to see (well, I guess hear) us. She has been unable to attend church because she can’t get there, and branch members have not been able to give her rides. Anyway, we had a nice visit with her, and she told us to go visit her son, Rajan, who apparently has wanted to come back to church. We visited him and he told us how he has come to find the there is nothing like the mormon church (he and his family have been attending a Pentecostal church) and wants his daughter and wife to be baptized. Our work with less-actives has continued to pay off with others as well, as brother Connelly came to church for a second week in a row. His wife never joined the church, but seems pretty open, so we are going to start working on her as well. 

Dwayne is soooo solid. In our first lesson this week with him, it came out that that last Sunday he had been chastened by a pastor from his church (possibly Leville’s dad) for his interactions with us and for reading the Book of Mormon, and that really kinda upset him. The lesson was a little tense with president, who sometimes gets a little too excited. It was an interesting cat and mouse game between Elder Bangerter and him, cause he really wanted to read 2 Nephi 29 and Elder Bangerter really didn’t. But it worked out, and in the next lesson Dwayne said how his testimony has continued to grow, and said he really felt the spirit as he read the testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses. We got to watch the Sunday and Saturday morning sessions [of General Conference], and Dwayne came to the morning Saturday session and I think really enjoyed it. He also came to church for the third time and even bore his testimony in fast and testimony meeting. He is really really awesome. We are struggling to get Leville to come to church still. I think he will get there eventually. 

We also had a pretty cool experience with the Syse family, a half-active family. I know I have talked about Justin and Lynette. We watched Together Forever with them. I had never seen it, so we watched it during study that morning. I kinda thought it was a little tacky (cause it is), but we watched it with their family and the spirit was very very strong. I guess that was like the first thing that missionaries did with them. They were all in tears as we watched, and I think we helped at least some of them re commit to their goal to of going to the temple. Watching that movie made me very thankful for my wonderful family and also excited to one day have a family of my own.

I am excited to watch the rest of conference. I really have come to appreciate it more. I stayed awake through the entirety of both sessions I watched! I loved President Eyring’s and Uchtdorf’s talks, as well as Elder Hallstrom’s. I am excited to hear Elder Soares’ talk, he gave a devotional at the MTC. The pioneers in Africa movie is very touching. You should watch it. Anyway, well thanks so much for your prayers, love you all!

Love,

Elder Martin