Week 17-Nhlangano

Monday: First P-day in Swazi. Still somewhat recovering from yesterday but I was able to leave the boarding today so that was cool. We drove up to Manzini today to meet with the other Elders in our district (Manzini is 1.5 hours from Nhlangano). The Elders in our district are me, Elder Maaboi (My companion and DL), Elder Blackburn, Elder Pitcher, Elder Ramanlal, and Elder Millett. I was in the MTC with Elder Blackburn and Millett, so it’s pretty awesome to see them again. We were able to go to the market and see what they had. Thay have a bunch of cool african things here, but I was dumb and didn’t bring any cash with me. Luckily Elder Blackburn lended me 20 rand, so I could get these cool beaded rings, but I’ll have to make sure to bring money next week.


Tuesday: First actual day in the area. We started off by tracting and found some people who knew about the church, they seem genuinely interested so I hope that goes well in the future. We also learned that the dogs in this area aren’t super nice… we had one attack us (Elder Maaboi kicked it and we bolted) and one almost got us but it was on a chain and we were abl to just barely notice it and get out of the way.


Wednesday: We had district council this morning, since we are so far away from our district we join via video call, which is ok I guess, at least when it works. after that we did some tracting and went to the pharmacy to get Elder Maaboi some medication for his knee. While we were there, we ran into our branch president, President Mkhonta. We were able to go back to the chapel with him and discuss some of the ways we can help the branch.


Thursday: It was very wet today, we did some mud riding on the way to our appointments due to how rainy it was. Nothing super exciting happened, most of our lessons today fell through, but we met with a man named Christopher and his family, and they’re super powerful. They will definitely be going on date soon and we’re super excited for it. 


Friday: Weather could not make up it’s mind today. It went from hot to sprinkling to hot to pouring to lightly cloudy. We got to see a super cool rainbow though. We also met with the relief society president to discuss the relief society and met with President Mkhonta again to discuss the Christmas party. Me and Elder Maaboi are thinking about having a class for upcoming Melchizedek Priesthood holders to prepare them, so we’ll have to talk to President Mkhonta about that as well


Saturday: Decent day today. We dropped off some food at a members house, they lived in a poorer part of town and it was pretty sad to see their living conditions, but we were able to drop off some food for them, which was nice. We also got to see Christopher’s family today and showed them the Restoration movie, and the spirit was so palpable in the room I’m sure that everybody felt it. Overall a pretty good day.


Sunday: Church was a lot better than last Sunday, mostly because I was alive for it. We had Seminary graduation during sacrament meeting, and after that we had a self reliance course. It was good information, but I think the members of the branch didn’t understand what it was for. I think a large issue that we’re facing with the branch is that the members aren’t super motivated to do anything. We are working to get the district to turn into a Stake, but we need the help of the members to do it. We met with the EQP and the Branch President again. I think we can do it, but it will take a lot of work on both of our parts.


That’s all everyone, Gospel is true, have a wonderful week!!!


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