Elder Kaleb Martin in Cape Town: Leap of Faith

Well its been an interesting last couple of days. Never a dull moment as an Assistant. So I think my last email was on Thursday. So Thursday we saw off the the departing Elders. It was kinda awkward. We had dinner with the Woods and Elder Browning at Mugg and Bean in the airport. Elder Browning was really quite the whole time and only ordered a cup cake and didn’t even eat all of it. Its interesting, I am not sure why we needed to be there, but getting fed is always nice.

So then Friday we did some more office work after district meeting and then headed to our area. Our area has got some pretty ghetto Coloured hoods in it, a lot like my last area. I have been a little surprised by how many Coloured people live in Cape Town, they might be the majority.

Saturday also some office work, we have been working in studies on our training for Zone Conference about working with members, but most of the days we spent in our area. Not a lot is happening in our area, but we have a good relationship with the members and a few investigators who have come to church a few times. President really wants us to have a baptism soon, since he has been here the Assistants have not baptized.

Sunday was a pretty awesome day. We left Priesthood meeting early to go to Fish Hoek for Sipho and Nomsa’s baptism. It wasn’t only them being baptized, it was also Thomas, a Zimbabwean guy that we found when I was there and a sister from Masi. I got to baptize Sipho and Nomsa. Sipho and Thomas shared some very sincere testimonies after the Baptism. I think Sipho will really be able to help the church there progress. They are planning on making an Ocean View/Masi Branch. At the baptism I was reflecting about how we found Sipho and Nomsa. I think I knocked on their door at the end of my first transfer in Fish Hoek, but it wasn’t till about a month into the next one that we started teaching them. I remember that they kept dropping appointments but we kept going back. It wasn’t till we met Sipho that things really took off (we contacted Nomsa first). Sipho in his testimony shared how grateful he was that we knocked on his door and how he had wanted to get baptised since 2008 but hadn’t found the right church. I was also remembering one of my first days in Fish Hoek, feeling pretty overwhelmed at the lack of investigators or really anything to do, and as we were driving around Ocean View I was praying for direction, and I remember feeling impressed just to start somewhere and take that leap of faith. I parked that car and we started tracting a few streets down from Sipho and Nomsa. I know that we were led to them by the spirit.

So after the Baptism we had lunch at a members house, and then we headed to the Stake Center. President invited us to come with him to a special leadership training for the stake leadership and bishoprics. Elder Cook from the Area Presidency has been going around and talking to stakes about some alternative options for housing the saints. I guess the area office’s projection does not see them being able to build as many new meetinghouses as required because of the growth of the church. It was a really interesting meeting and we were pretty happy to get to tag along with President to see a General Authority. Afterwards we had dinner with the Woods, and then came back and I spent 2 hours on the phone taking reports from the zones.

Today was a pretty awesome P-day. We went to Eastern Foods Bizarre again, I got this awesome like desert Naan bread, hit up Green Market Square and bought some souvenir stuff, then we went to the Aquarium, then we went to the Aston Martin Dealership (both the Aquarium and the Aston Martin dealership are at the V&A Waterfront). It was a pretty good day. The salesman at Aston Martin was the same guy who was at Ferrari like 5 months ago, and he totally remembered me. He must be pretty good at his job.

Anyway, well tomorrow we head off to PE for Zone Conferences and exchanges. This will be one of three trips out of Cape Town for us this transfer. I am excited to go back and see people in PE, and I’ll get to see Tina and other people in East London. That’s like the only area I’ve been able to go back too. I’ll also get to go on exchanges with Elder Nkosi! I do have to say, it ain’t bad being an Assistant ; )

Love,

Elder Martin