Elder Kaleb Martin in Cape Town: Mission Tour Part I

We had a good week last week. Most of it was spent going to Zone Conferences. The trip was pretty fun. Its really is pretty sweet, the whole Assistant thing. The Zone Conferences was really good, our training went really pretty well, it was about meeting and scheduling appointments with members and helping them do missionary work. Also our Mission Report was a hit (at least in PE). It was really nice to see all the Elders, especially Elder Hale and Elder Gillespie, I haven’t seen them since I left Fish Hoek. It was also great to see people in PE and EL. I saw sister Bell (and Junior, no Babalwa) and Candice in PE, Candice even got us Sushi. In EL I went on exchanges with Elder Nkosi, which was awesome. I wanted to see Tina, Sister Peggy, and Sinazo, the girl I taught who was preggers, but it only worked out that I got to see Tina. She is doing well, I am not sure if she is going to end up going on a mission, she is still finishing her degree and not sure what she wants to do. Regardless she is very active.

Because we could’t get a flight out of EL we spent Friday night in Port Alfred and went to one appointment with the Elders there. Port Alfred is a small town on the coast between EL and PE. There is one companionship there, with the Stumms, a senior couple. Elder Stumm serves as the Branch President. I didn’t really know them very well, but we stayed with them (awesome choice) they live in a huge 4 bedroom 3 bathroom condo right on the beach! We stayed in the Assistant sweet and they made us breakfast this morning! Super nice, Elder Stumm kinda reminds me of Grandpa Rick. I also found out they are from Spokane! They are actually going home in a few weeks.

Anyway, and then today we flew home and had a few appointments, pretty legit appointments too. There is a lot of potential baptisms in our area, we just need to work with these people. One exciting one is a guy named Zizi, who’s daughter and wife are returning less-actives. He was basically asking us what he needed to do to be baptized. Next week we are in Cape Town the whole week for the last zone conference and then a Mission Leadership Conference skype call on Wednesday, and I think we are doing 3 exchanges.

Yesterday we also had a great appointment with Zingiswa, a member, and her daughter, Mondekazi. Mondekazi is 11 and has not been baptized but wants to be, so we are going to be working with her as much as we can the next few weeks so she can get baptized this month.

Today we went Golfing with President. Its was pretty fun, there is a little 9 hole, all Par 3 course right next to the office. While we golfed we gave him the reports from the ZLs. He isn’t that great at Golf, but he was better then me.

Tomorrow is our last Zone Conference, here in Cape Town. Then Wednesday we have our MLC Skype Call, which we just finished (mostly) prepping for. Then General Conference this weekend! I am excited! And then after General Conference, Monday next week we take off again for EL and Queenstown and Mthatha for 5 days. I am pretty excited to get to go to Queenstown and Mthatha, both are pretty out there, both I haven’t seen, and both have a reputation of being about as African as you can get in our mission. Especially Mthatha, I hear its pretty wild. So I am excited about that.

Anyway, well that was week! Busy busy busy.

Love,

Elder Martin

Brandon Chimuti, a 16 year old kid we took fellowshiping a lot when I was in PE.
Its actually really sad, a week ago his families "house" (shack) was burned down,
probably on purpose. Xenophobia is a big problem in South Africa.
I think I have mentioned the Chimuti family before, they are like pioneers of the church
in Zhimbabwe, very nice family, who has kinda been forced to live in
South Africa because of economic reasons.