Getting up on time

Dear Family,

Ever since the leadership training I have been trying to reevaluate some aspects of my personal conduct and that of my district. One personal change I am been really trying to make this week is making sure I am out of bed by 6:30. I have never been super bad about getting up, but I have occasionally found myself getting up 15 minutes late. Another thing is helping my district be more obedient as well. Nothing major, just some screws that need tightening. I have taken a better look at the music rules and I have also recognized that some of my music is not approved either. I guess the rule is pretty much hymns, EFY music, and religious music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and classical. I think this is kinda a lame rule because I have heard some “EFY” music that sounded a lot like normal music and there is music that by these rules are not approved that I think is very good. I understand the need though to make a really concrete rules regarding music to prevent missionaries from pushing the boundaries. I am telling you this so you know what you can send me.  

Our district stayed the exact same during transfers this week. So we did not get to go eat cookies and sandwiches in the mission home on Wednesday. Our losses were made up though when all the Cape Town elders were invited to come for the Saturday session of Stake Conference. Elder Bricknell was the General Authority assigned to the conference. He is a native of South Africa but was a mission president in Pocatello some years back. The conference was very good, in the leadership training he really kinda got on the Bishop and Branch presidents about missionary work, which was kinda nice to hear. Hopefully we can get the ward more involved in the work here. A lot of people expected the stake to split but not quite. It was good to see a lot of missionaries including Elder Gillespie who is now training out in Mitchell's Plain a kid from Elko Nevada. 

We had a weird experience on Wednesday. We were tracting in Ocean View and this guy pulled up to us in something akin to a Geo Metro and started telling us, with a huge smile on his face things like “I hope no ones there!” and “What you are telling people isn’t true” and “Leave Ocean View.” He then got out of the car and started telling people that they shouldn’t listen to us (ok he told like one person that). Both me and Elder Hale were kinda taken aback, especially by the passive aggressive nature of this assault. We tried to talk to him for a second, at least to better understand why he was disrupting our tracting. He was also an American, from Chicago, and told us to read some scripture in Ephesians 2, about being saved by grace. Anyway, he was like a rival missionary I guess. I did my best to bear my testimony about the message we share, but I think both me and Elder Hale were both pretty confused about what was going on. But for the next two days, all we thought about is what we could have said, so we kinda hope we run into him again. His name was Mike. He is now a companionship joke. 

We had some nice lessons this week. We are teaching one family, a guy named Warren and his wife Rene, who I guess there marriage is really kinda on the rocks, and they are having problems with their 13 year old daughter getting into trouble and we have been trying to use the Book of Mormon to help them answer some of their concerns about their family. It is a little uncomfortable to be trying to give some advice about marriage and parenting when I have yet to experience either. Any Advice? 

To answer Mom’s question: Yeah, the 58 new missions is effecting SACTM. They are creating a new Botswana Mission (Botswana was part of Joburg) and Namibia will be part of it. It won’t be a huge change, cause like only half the time I have been here has their been missionaries in Namibia. The chances that I will ever set foot on the blessed soil of Namibia is pretty unlikely.

Anyway, I am out of time, but I love all of you!

Love, Elder Martin