Cape Point National Park

So this week was pretty good, I think. I am pretty certain I will be transferred next week so this is the last week in Fish Hoek. I have really enjoyed my time here, its been a good experience. I am also kinda amazes me I have been here six months. 

For P-Day we went to Cape Point National Park, a little bit of a tourist trap. We thought we could avoid the excessive 90 Rand per head entrance fee [~$10] by getting this “Green Card” thing for Elder Ndlovu. It was 90 Rand and gave him and three guests entrance into Cape Point. It was one of those things where the more time and resources you sink into [a project] the more determined you are to get there, whatever the costs. So first, for the card we needed ID photos, we tried to get them in Simonstown, both places that did them had something wrong with their machine so we had to go to Fish Hoek, so that took like a half an hour. Then as we are pretty much walking out of the place we got the Green Card, the lady informed us that it actually only worked for South Africa citizens, but said we might be OK at the gate as long as we didn’t speak (cause we all have an interesting mixture of non-South African accents). Unfortunately two white guys and two black guys driving in the same car is maybe a little bit unusual (plus I don’t think any of us look SA, even Elder Kintu you can tell is foreign). So they asked if we were SA and obviously we are not, so we all ended up forking over 90 Rand. 

Anyway, the park itself is kinda lame, very pretty though. The best part we the lower lighthouse, the light house like right on the point, but I don’t think they really want people to go down there, it took some determination to get down to it (the razor wire only got me a little) but it was sweet. 

Lets see the rest of this week, what happened. We have had some challenges meeting with some of our better investigators. One has a really sick kid and one is apparently experiencing a family crisis. I think Lorraine and Andile were either scared off by a 60 year old man doing a solo latin dance at the talent show (yes, I have the video) or a well done explanation of family history work and temple work. We sent them an SMS this week and didn’t hear back from them, I guess we’ll have to try again. Sipho is doing well, he has been reading more in the Book of Mormon. We gave him a Family Proclamation that he also really enjoyed. They didn’t make it to church this Sunday, so that was kinda a bummer but I know they will get there. 

Our [talent show] song yielded some nice DAs this week. Brother Saul took us out to a nice restaurant on Wednesday. His family just adopted a 3 year old little Zulu girl, making that their 8th child. A really interesting family, but he does a lot to help, including feeding us just about every week. I might be Skyping from there this Sunday? We will see. 

We had Zone Meeting this week, which was interesting, we have an interesting pair of Zone Leaders. One tries really hard and is over dramatic and the other is a robot and completely lacks any emotion, which makes for a very entertaining zone meeting. There was some good bit, especially a discussion on an President Packer quote “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the Gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.” and how we can apply that in how we teach and plan for investigators.

That was about it. Love you all!

Elder Martin

Look up on the internetz Cape Point. The lighthouse on the tip it where we went. The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes thought to be the most southern point of Africa and there the Indian ocean and Atlantic ocean meet, but its not. Its the most South Western point of Africa!