Well we left on Monday for our second trip. Fortunately no sheep where harmed this time. We drove up to PE to take a car to the zone leaders in Kwano who had wrecked their car last transfer. We drove to George on Monday, about a 4 hour drive out of Cape Town. Elder Hale and Elder Ndlovu are both in George, so I was pretty excited to see them. We ended up having a sleep over with all 4 of the Elders there. I got in some hot water with the senior couple there, some of us stayed up pretty late that night and I guess Elder Ndlovu and his companion Elder Cathamer were dragging a little the next day after we left (we all got up at 6:30 though), and they found out we had stayed up late and were not happy with me. So that was kinda a bummer, on one hand I definitely see how I should have been a better example but on the other hand it really wasn’t that big of a deal.
So we drove from George to PE the next day, another trip of about 4 hours. We did some exchanges with trainers and trainees on Tuesday, then started our exchange with the Kwano zone leaders.
Thursday we were with another greenie and his trainer, the greenie was supposed to go to Kenya but is having visa problems. I think he will leave soon because the other guy who was supposed to go to Kenya that came with him is leaving for Nairobi on Tuesday. It was a good exchange though, I was with the greenie, and all our appointments dropped. The area that they are in is one that I think is one of the more difficult in the mission, lots of gated communities so finding is a little challenging. However with some prayer and effort on our part, we found a few place where we were able to talk with some people and schedule some return appointments. We found one guy in particular who was pretty interested in what we had to say, he said he has been meaning to come back to church for a while. Elder Ellingson was pretty happy about how the exchange went and I hope I was able to teach him some tracting skills I have picked up, just knowing kinda where to tract.
Friday we were with the Port Elizabeth ZLs and I got to see all my recent converts. A guy named Luvuyo who I started teaching has gotten baptized since I left so it was cool to see him. It was also great to see the Bell’s and Apollonia. I also saw Candice and Devryn (the boyfriend who is now living in PE) who are planning on getting married sometimes next year. Devryn is supposed to get baptized early next month. It was good to see all the people.
Coming back on Saturday was a little bit of an adventure. We flew back, did some work in the office and talked with President, then we went to out flat. Elder Ndlovu threw some laundry into the wash and we left to go get some groceries. The washing machines drain house is supposed to get hooked into the sink but it had been taken out and Elder Ndlovu didn’t notice. We take about an hour to shop, and on our way back to the flat we get a call from Elder Hixon asking us if we are doing laundry cause the caretaker called him saying someone’s flat was flooding. We get to the flat (we live on the second story) and the stairs are a waterfall. We get into our kitchen and there is like and inch or more of standing water. So the caretaker, who really was pretty nice, firmly encouraged us to take care of the problem right then. We start using whatever we can find to start bailing the water out of our kitchen while Elders Hixon and Barney try to track down a wet vac. I emptied like 5 or 6 big buckets of water out of the kitchen. We discover that the mission home has a wet vac (the Woods didn’t even really know that) and we start using that. Wet vacs are so cool! It saved our butts! We were working on it for a long time though. Fortunately it looks like the damage to our flat was minimal and non existent to the surrounding flats. Also fun fact about a flat and the water, is that our geyser (hot water heater) is broken, so the last two days showers have been ice cold. Fun. I have been joking about how we have baptized our flat with fire and water because a couple weeks ago I tried to cook something, but couldn’t get the stove to turn on, finally realizing the power was out. So then we left, but I had left all the units on on full, so when the power came back... yeah. But no damage, just the upstairs neighbor called Elder Hixon cause the floor was hot.
Brother Zizi passed his baptismal interview with flying colours on Saturday. He will be baptized next week. We taught him with President yesterday. President was impressed with him and the change he saw, he went and taught him a transfer or two ago and he said the whole home feels different. He will be a great asset to the ward. We are having an FHE with his family and the Scheepers family tonight, one of the best families in our ward.
Anyway, so that’s been the week. Oh and on Saturday we got to go over for thanksgiving dinner to the Knightons, an American family who works in the US Consulate in Cape Town. It was pretty good, I got some pumpkin pie. I am hoping we get invited to the couples conference but I am not sure we are. Fingers crossed.
This week we have some office work we need to do, getting ramped up for Christmas Zone Conference, and some exchanges. Next week we will be working on transfers, and I will know where my last area will be! Anyway, well love you all!
-Elder Martin
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