Stellenbosch Week 7

What up guys!  This week wasn't bad, it was the start of transfer 2.  We have been doing a lot of street contacting and tracking trying to find the people who are actually elect. 

We did start teaching this man named Leandro and his family.  We found him through a media referral.  He's awesome he takes notes of what we talk about during lessons.  He aways has the best questions too.  And after our lessons he always tells us “You must come again; I wish to know more" which is funny because of his accent but also cool. 

There's a ton of crazy homeless people here in Stellenbosch and they always come up to us and ask for money, help, food, etc.  We try to help them, but most of them are too crazy to actually help.  This one guy who won’t tell us his name but we named him " 5 Rand guy" because he just sits on the ground and pretty much yells at people for “5 Rand”.  It's funny, but also sad, because we talked to him and he's only 25 but he looks 40.  Which is another reason you shouldn't do drugs.  The saddest part is the kids though because they were just born into the situation and those are the ones that we try to help out more.  There is this sweet old homeless lady who always talks to us about Jesus and how much she loves him.  Which is really sweet because her life honestly sucks, but still, she's so humble and loves Jesus so much.  Every time we say bye to her, she always says "God bless you darling, you are an angel” which makes my day.  She's awesome.   

We started tracking in Tenetville, which is just a suburb of Stellenbosch.  Apparently, it's pretty dangerous.  We were talking to this guy whose door we knocked on and he was telling us about all the gangs around Tenetville.  The gangs have weird names like "26", "27", and "28" he told us it's based off what they went to jail for, I guess. 26 is thieves, 27 is the murders, and 28 is the very bad people … I'll just say that, lol.  That was good to know though.  Every person we've talked to in that neighborhood tells us that we need to be careful, and that we shouldn't be there when it's dark.  But honestly, I feel completely safe, but we're being careful anyways.   

We got to do a service project for President Holmes and his family.  They're putting Astro turf in their backyard so we had to dig up all the grass and make the backyard level so they can lay the turf.  It was actually fun.  We had to move a lot of dirt though.  I’m definitely grateful that my dad made me do a lot of yardwork growing up because I knew exactly what I was doing and how to do It.  My companion Elders Haas said he's never done any actual yard work in his life.  Which was sad he had no idea what he was doing and it was obvious.  Luckily another companionship was working with us so I had some help hahaha.  After we were done working President Holmes made us some homemade pizza and it was honestly some of the best pizza I have ever had.  He made this Mexican type pizza: oh my gosh it was amazing! I had to take a pic of it. 

The more I look to serve people the happier that I’ve found myself. Because I want these people to feel the Saviors love as I do.  Our purpose as missionaries is to find, teach, and baptize.  But we are also representatives of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior Jesus Christ.  And the way I've been looking at it is we wear the Saviors name on our chests so we should try our very best to be like him in every action we do.  And a way I’ve been trying to do that is by serving people.  Because I know that the Savior would serve anyone that he saw that was in need of service.  It doesn't matter if it's small or big, I know he would go out of his way to serve that person and to make them feel loved.  So, what I've been doing this last week, and something that I will continue to do is every time I find someone who is in need of help or service, I try my best to serve them and to help them feel the Saviors love as I do.  And sometimes it's something small like a simple conversation or just leaving them with a smile on their face.  Because not all the people we talk to are going to get baptized, but people never forget the way you make them feel.  And the more I've tried to serve and love people as the Savior would the happier I have found myself.  So, I invite whoever reads this to go out of your way and serve someone this week.  Could be small or big doesn't matter. :) 

Anyways, we've been finding and teaching a lot and I'm starting to really love talking to people about the gospel.  I'm getting a little more settled in for sure. We also got to meet with the awesome family from Kayamandi which is the township. They are the family that I always send pics of. They make my day 10× better lol.  

Weird things South Africans say: 

1. "Cheers" 

2. "Sharpe" but the way they say it sounds like "shop" which means like great but also means bye. It's weird. 

3. "Bru" which is like Bruh but the way they say it sounds like "Brew". 

4. "Leca Oak" which basically means cool guy lol. Idk if I am spelling it right but that's the way it sounds lol. 

I love and miss you all!!

-Elder Quick 

Mason.quick@missionary.org