Monday, April 20, 2009

April 20 2009

Thank you for the pictures that you sent to me. It sounds like it has been a busy week. The week that I had was ok for the most part. This week I realized just how small our area really is Elder Smith and I can walk across it in just a half an hour but there are more than a thousand small houses in that area and also how supportive the youth are for the missionaries. We have two of the youth from the ward that really set the example for others in the ward they are brothers, Mlibo and Luntu they are always willing to come out with Elder Smith and I when our evenings are filled with appointments. We are able to learn quite a bit of xhosa from them. There is no one near to baptism at the moment but on Sundays we usually have quite a few at the investigator class. The one that we are particularly working with the most is Vuyolethu he is about 25 but we first met him when we went the investigator class last week and he is really improving. We gave him a Book of Mormon this past week and he has been present to all the commitments that we have given him. Thanks for the words when you said Ryan would give people blessings who was trying to stop smoking, and how that desire would be relieved, that is truly a miracle. I will remember that, a lot of the people here who drink and smoke don't want to quit and just say it make them happy and feel good. This week though is really going to be interesting. It is elections this week and for two days we aren't going to be allowed to go out and go proselyting. Election day is on the 22nd and it will be a commotion day especially in Mdantsane. The Anc is the main political party and has been in for the past 14 years or ever since the Apartate but from the sounds of things the people here really want a change especially the Africaans people with the Anc. The president running for the Anc is Jacob Zuma, he is hated or loved by the people of South Africa. I hope with the elections it will not effect the work here to much or affect most of the week but during the waiting we will have plenty to do at the boardings with catching up on area files and the books. This past week I've been trying to learn a little bit of xhosa but it is definitely not easy since the most of the time they speak english and not fluent xhosa, I have got down all the clicks but I want to learn how to bear my testimony in xhosa by the time I leave the xhosa people. I really admire the people how accepting they are to us as missionaries in almost all homes you are invited in and usually given a cool drink or food. I think the biggest insult that you could do to them is not eat all the food that they give to you because it is truly a gift from them to us. The food that they give is worth so much of there daily living it is truly humbling to see how much they give in the circumstances that they are living in. Anyways with the questions that you ask dad the bubble is just talking about the area that we have to stay in on p days to shop and email since there is nothing to do in Mdantsane. Where we live now we only have one place to do our laundry and one place to shop in since it is not very commercialized. Thanks for the emails and picture I love you all very much.

Elder Tyler Hansen

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