Elder Kaleb Martin in Cape Town: Where in Africa is Elder Martin...

NAMIBIA!!

Just kidding, I have not been called to the land of promise, nor has any missionaries for three months. Where I really am is Fish Hoek (pronounced Fish Hook), a community a little outside of Cape Town, on the Cape Peninsula. My area is pretty big and covers a couple of little towns all pretty close to each other, the biggest being Simons Town and Fish Hoek. It is a very beautiful area. Look some pictures up on the internet, it is a popular holiday destination. I was pretty stoked to find out I was coming here because Elder Bangerter and Elder Nielson both served here and talked about how awesome it was, and it was a place I had hoped to serve. My new companion is Elder Krieger, from Draper Utah. He is in the same transfer as Elder Gillespie, me and his trainer just kinda swapped, Elder Tekulve, his trainer, is now in East London.

Fish Hoek is a branch which will probably be made a Ward in the next few weeks. The Branch President is the former Stake President of the Cape Town stake, so the branch leadership is very good, and the branch mission leader is an older guy who truly magnifies his calling, something I have not experienced from a mission leader yet. He even reads some of our stats out in Elder Quorum, something that is a little intimidating. So the leadership is good.

Now the downside. LOTS OF WHITE PEOPLE! The work is a little slower here. There is a Township, Masiphumele, but another companionship covers it (its kinda an area that comes and goes, like Elder Kriegers first transfer here there were only 1 companionship here), which leaves us all the town areas and a colored area that reminds me a lot of Cleary except nicer. So we really don’t have many people in our teaching pool now. It kinda a lot different than my previous areas where you could at least make a lot of appointments tracting, they might not hold, but people seemed willing to meet with you. Where as here its a lot more of a struggle. We have talked to a lot of very courteous, very uninterested white people. But I am excited for the growth it will bring, the opportunity to serve in such a beautiful place, and for the small handful of investigators we do have.

My new companion is a really nice guy, pretty funny. I can tell his is a little uncomfortable in making decisions in the area, the first few days have been a little interesting because he would often ask me what I thought we should do, as if I somehow knew what to do or where to go after being here for like a day. But we are starting to get moving.

I am still a district leader, over me and the other guys here in Fish Hoek, and then the Meadowridge elders on the other side of the mountain. Also, the Assistants to the President moved areas and are now in Meadowridge as well, so technically I am district leader over a small zone of 8, but I doubt I will see much of the APs as they travel a lot. It was funny to get their stats though. We got some interesting elders in my district, but despite some of their quirkiness all seem to have a strong desire to serve God and to work hard, which is what really matters. One of the other elders here in Fish Hoek is Elder Nkosi, from Joburg, who is a really nice guy, I am glad to be serving around him.

Our Christmas Zone Conference was on Saturday in the Mowbray Chapel. It was an all day event, starting at 8 and ending at 8. We started by having some nice training from the Assistants about being a perfect missionary, not robot or a flaky-just-wants-to-chill with-members missionary. It was a good training because I think sometimes I find myself on both extremes (not to say not working and hanging with members, but maybe not always having the most missionary work oriented relationship with members, a fine line). Then president gave a great training about Christ-like attributes, one challenge he gave us was to spend a whole week not asking for anything in our prayers, just thanking. I have been doing it and it is interesting, I have began to realize how much I ask for things when I pray. After the training, we had lunch and played White Elephant. I got a POP, something like fake PSP an Elder bought at a china shop. Its kinda funny, I need to take a picture of it. We also got some goodies from the mission and some ties with a SACTM patch somehow imbedded in the bottom. We then watched Courageous, a movie made by the same people as Fireproof. It was pretty cheesy I think but cause I have been a missionary for 10 months now I liked it a lot. Its good, maybe watch it as a family.

As for the money, I withdrew 400 rand to try to buy a fake Rolex, but we couldn’t find one in my price range, so I will keep searching.

Anyway, lets see, this was a pretty eventful week. Got an SMS passed on from East London, Sinazo finally had her baby this last week. She had a girl, which dashed my dreams that it would be a future apostle, but hopefully she will be able to get baptized when she comes back from the villages after the holidays.

Anyway, love you all, excited to talk to all of you on Christmas, I am sure I can find someone with Skype here.

Love, Elder Martin