AND HE IS OFF AND DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!

 

 

Hello Everyone!!! I hope that you are all doing well this week!

 

It is quite windy here in South Africa and I hope that I can stay on the ground!

 

So this past week was a pretty good one, nothing huge is happening yet.  This area that I work in still needs some work before there is a steady teaching pool,but I'm working my hardest to spread the message!   This week is considered the "7th week of one transfer and the 1st of the next" so I'm in between transfers you could say.  Elder Devenney leaves me on Thursday morning, I will most likely stay in East London because I know the area.  Tomorrow I will find out who my next companion will be, in which I am a little nervous about because I am confertable with how things are at the moment...but I guess that's mission life, always changing!

 

So yesterday I got the OK and now I am on probation for driving!  I get to drive one hour during daylight for a month and then I'm able to drive all the time!  Wish me luck! My driving is already  imparred because I haven't drivin in two months and plus it's all going to be oppisite to what I'm used to.  With some practice and time, I will conqure the streets of South Africa....then I'll come home and have to relearn everything.

 

I'm really excited for the day when I'm an older missionary because I don't like being a "greenie", I feel so young and naive. My time will come when I get to see new missionaries come in and I'll look  at them and laugh because I was once at that stage. 

 

This past week the Senior couple missionaries,Elder and Sister Jones, had my zone over for a lunch.  Sister Jones made a homemade  chili and it was sooooo good!!! I could have ate it all day long!  Too bad not many people here make chili or other america style food. 

 

Yesterday for Sacrement, we were expecting like 8 investigators to come to church and I was way excited beecause we haven't had much success with them coming to church (the church is kinda far from our area).  Sadly though, none of the ones we thought would come showed up...we had one girl that has a member friend that came but she doesn't speak english so we can't teach her and another showed up during sunday school, an investigator we hadn't seen in while.  But all the other ones that we really wanted there failed to show up.  I was quite sad. So yesterday after church we went around to them all and "rebuked" them (more like stopped by and visited with them and asked them why they didn't come). 

 

As I look back at the week, it has been a not so hot week...nothing big has happened, but I'm not going to let that get me down and I'll keep trying my hardest to keep moving the work forward.  There is some great potential in my area and I plan on working off that....

 

So that's all for the week, hope all is well back home.  Enjoy fall and winter, summer is just beginning here!

 

 

 

Well have a wonderful week and hope to hear from you all in a letter soon!

 

Love you!

 

Elder Naylor

 2 months already

 

Well here I am, another Monday in South Africa...time is going by pretty quick here.  This week starts the last week of my first transfer, only 16 more to go!  So I hope that everything is going well back home and that everyone is fine.  This past week has been a pretty good week for me.  The only downside to the week is that Elder Devenney was sick starting Tuesday and still isn't feeling 100%.  Wednesday we stayed inside because he needed his rest, so he slept most of the day and I just did the normal morning routine and I even was able to send some letters off.  So that day was pretty slow and we have been taking it easy the rest of the week as his health comes back.  Thursday was my first Zone Conference (they used to be each transfer but now they are switching to quaterly so instead of having 17 of them during my mission, I will only have like 8).  It went really well and it was nice to see President and Sister Probst.  The Zone Conference was pretty much all day, it got out about 4 in the afternoon. 

 

So besides that, my week has been uneventful.  We did have two really good Dinner Appointments, one was with the Bishop of the ward and the other was with a member of the Bishopric...The bishop is named Van Heerden and the other was Brother Masetti.  Both are really great people and they made fantastic food.  I ate so much meat at Brother Masetti's home, it was crazy.  I'm really enjoying these Braai's.

 

I don't think that there is much more to write.  This is the start of Elder Devenney's last full week and it is a little hard because I just barely came from the place that he's going to, but my time will come soon enough.  Hopefully we can work hard this week and get more investigators to teach.  I'm really enjoying my mission and I can't believe that next week will mark my 2 month mark and by the end of this next transfer, I will be reaching the four month mark.

 

Well, sorry that this is a little short this week.  The pictures this week are of one of Elder Devenney and I by the beach with some masks that a vendor was selling and the other is us in our area just taking pictures.  Today we are going to do some shopping because E. Devenney wants some clothes to take home.  Keep telling everyone to write me because I really do enjoy getting post!

 

Keep well,

 

Elder Naylor

 THIS WEEK BOAR LEG

 

Hello everyone! How was everyone's week?  My week has been pretty good, nothing too big happened. I had my first exchange last tuesday with Elder Fozard and that went pretty well.  Except for one thing: his area doesn't have a car, so I had to walk all day long!  Besides that, it was a good experiance and I was able to get to know East London a little better.  Tonight I have exchanges with Elder Aires, but this time he comes to my area. Wish me luck as I navigate around the neighborhoods of East London without any help! I'm having a hard time remembering where houses are and how to get to them, I need to learn quickly because once Elder Devenney is gone, I have to show the next guy around....Ahhh!  This past week, Elder Denenney bought a new bag and was walking around like he was the hottest on the planet....we go up to an investigators house and we are talking to him between the gate when his dog jumps halfway through the gate, grabs his new bag and rips it to pieces!  Haha, we got back to the car and I just burst out laughing.  He did glue it back together, but still, it's not the same.  Um, what else....Saturday, we went to a member's house for dinner and boy did I eat well!  He cooked us boar leg, so good. We put apple sauce on it and it tasted just like pork.  They fed us like kings!  Oh! On Friday night, our ward had a talent show and I Guess everytime, the elders do something in it.  Five minutes before they wanted us on stage, we talked about a skit and roughly planned it.  Let's just say we had the crowd laughing their heads off...I really enjoyed it.  I had someone film it on my camera so you guys can try to watch it once you get my card (reason why I say try to is because you can hardly hear it).  I wish that I had more awesome stories this week, but it's been pretty slow.  Still working with the Williams family(mentioned them in last email) and I really have hope for them.  Right now they are having some family issues so I feel good to help them get through hard times.  It's getting warmer everyday, starting to feel like spring in Utah.  The only thing I'm not a fan of is the wind, which always seems to be there. 

 

I'm doing very well everyone, don't worry about me.  It is kinda scary that in two weeks, I'm getting a new companion.  Elder Devenney and I are working really well together.  It is weird to think that in two weeks, he'll go home and I'll still have 22 months haha...

 

Everyone: Send post, lots....it makes my week when I get a letter. 

 

Stay well and happy

 

With love,

 

Elder Naylor

 

PS...the pictures are that of Elder Devenney's...I left my camera at the flat, but we take pretty much the same photos...the first one is in front of the church on sunday and the second is with a member family after dinner....nice family, little girl is one and named Serenity and is so darling

Brian tries the food of the land * 

Family,

 

How is everyone? I hope that your day is going well and that all is well.  So this week has gone by pretty quick and there was some pretty good experiance.  So some hightlights are that we had Zone training on wednesday and thursday where President Probst taught us a new way to teach. Something that we are instructed to do now is to invite someone to baptism on the first visit....the first!  It sounds crazy and boy did it scare me!  After the first day of training on wednesday, Elder Devenney and I went out to our area to some appointments.  Pretty much all of them fell through and we weren't able to see anyone. We did have this referral that we kept trying to see but they were never home, but we fianally did get to see them on Wednesday and it was one of the best teaching experiances in my life!  It was a family by the name of Williams, a mom with her three girls, and we started discussing baptism and we asked a lot of questions and finally near the end, Elder Devenney asked them if they would be baptized...I was so scared that they would think we were crazy and that they would say no.  But they said yes! The first visit!  We went back the next day and talked about prayer and at the end gave them a date that they could work towards (October 3) as a family and be baptized. They are really great and I can tell that the Lord prepared them and that they will come to know of the truthfullness of the message we have. It was an amazing teaching experiance and my testimony grew so much.  The mother was able to come to church on sunday and that made me even more happier!  We don't see them again until Wednesday and that's all I think about is going and teaching them again. So that's my wonderful teaching expericance for this week.  We also taught this mother and daughter, but I had a hard time because they have three cats and the whole time I was just sneezing and I said like maybe 6 sentences....haha oh cats! 

 

So want to know a crazy experiance?  So every friday we go and have dinner at Sister Unathi's house and since I'm new, she deceided to make something for me to try.  I included a picture, so I'm not sure it you have seen it yet or not...hopefull not.  In fact I'll just send this without it and send another with the picture. Read this first.  Ok, so this wonderful lady made something by the name of Smiley...know what that is? Want me to tell you?

 

Ok I will

 

 

It's sheep head.  That's right, the head of a sheep.

 

And guess what I did?

 

Ate some! To be more specific, I ate part of the nose!

Haha, I almost threw it up but I wanted to be brave so I ate it.

Sister Unathi was laughing so hard at my face!

I got it on film so when you get my card, you can watch me eat it.

 

So now I can say that I have ate sheep head...the nose.

 

Besides that, my week has been normal, Elder Devenney and I are getting along pretty well and I can tell that he is ready to go home,but he is also staying focused and teaching me everything I need  to know to be a good missionary. 

 

Oh and I miss Longboarding so much! there is so many good spots here and great hills...oh well.  Elder Devenney says that I might be able to find a small board to just have to ride on P-days, so  I'll keep my eyes open.

 

Well I'm not sure what else to add...everything is just fine(oh we have full hot water at our flat now)

 

Hope you guys are staying well!

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Naylor

 

So I only have one interesting picture this week, sorry.  It's a good one though!  And yes, I ate the nose!