October 17

E. Sincreah is used to eating anything and everything. He tells me that Africa's like that: If it grows, eat it, and eat it we do. Major religions: Shembe, 12 apostles church, Jehovah witness, and 7th day adventist church. It's always in zulu, so I don't understand much of it. We sat in on a birthday party, and it was really different. People would scream their sermons, and when people "felt the spirit," they would stand up and start singing some song about Jesus, and everyone else would start singing too.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just makes sense. The Bible was evidence of the prophets in the old world, so there would need to be evidence of the prophets in the new world. Hence, the Book of Mormon. The bible is only accepted by so many people because people jump on the bandwagon and don't bother to question its authority, but the Book of Mormon isn't as well known, so it's harder for people to believe it. But guess what? We have a way to know if it's true or not! And you can find out for yourself as you pray to God to know if it's true. Tell me that's not the perfect plan. And it gets better: not only can we receive personal revelation from God to know if it's true, we can use that same gift of revelation for the rest of our lives to guide us and protect us. The list goes on forever.

Zulu people worship their ancestors by slaughtering goats (excellent animal choice), and they can speak to them somehow. I'm not really sure how people make a living here. I know it's difficult. Everyone I've talked to is extremely grateful for what they have, even though it isn't much. Sometimes people ask what it's like in the states, and I don't have the heart to tell them. I just brush it off by saying something like it's really hot there, or I'll tell them about something that doesn't really matter. The houses in the townships have over head power lines that are run into every house through a single box on a wall inside their house. The lines that get run into the houses are a little larger than an industrial extension cord. Not much power.

That's a great story by bishop Hendrickson. Tell justin madsen that I met one of his companions on his mission, Elder Tominaga. He taught a class or two of mine in the mtc. We had our zone activity today, and it was great. We went to a lion park, and it was really, really cool. Before the park, I had about 50 pictures on my camera card, and after I had about 200, so there are plenty of pictures to go around. I'll send as many as I can today, but there won't be 200 to send. Sorry. A lot of the pictures I took were repetitive meaning that they were many pictures of the same lions. In the lion park, we drove around this track that was really long and we didn't see much wildlife. We saw a few springboks, but they ran away quickly. The lions were kept in an area about the size of a soccer field, and there was a small track that we drove around to take pictures. It was really neat because the lions could walk right up to the cars and lick the windows if they felt like it. If you stay in the same spot near a lion for too long, it gets curious and decides to bite the car, so you have to keep moving. I got some awesome shots though. 

If I sent you pictures of the townships, you would think they are interesting, but you would not like them. Townships have tons and tons of animals just walking around. Dogs, goats, chickens, pigs, and sometimes cows. The pigs are very amusing to watch because they do the stupidest things. One time, we were contacting a person outside their home, and we heard this loud rumbling noise. We looked over and there was a small wall of tin sheets through which the piglets were piling through. Why? I don't think the piglets even know. It was absolutely hilarious though. A pig stampede through a wall. They didn't knock the wall down, but they just piled through the space in between the sheets. Stupid pigs. Chickens are really strange though. They do some weird stuff. One time, we were waiting for an investigator at their house, and we saw one chicken chasing another across the road. The first chicken escaped and left the other one feeling stupid in the middle of the road. Just then, a taxi driver (who wouldn't stop for a human being, never mind a chicken) comes flying down the road. The chicken realizes that its life is in danger, and it decides to fly away, but a little too late. The chicken smacked off the taxi's windshield and was sent flying about twenty feet off to the side. The chicken landed, re-oriented itself, and began looking for something else to chase. Stupid chicken. This is one of the many funny things that I've seen since arriving in South Africa. Weird things happen in townships, and I can't help but laugh. But when we're teaching, I have to somehow hold it in.

I got to see some conference this weekend. I watched the saturday morning, sunday morning, and sunday afternoon sessions. The sunday morning was my favorite. I loved Pres. Eyring's and Pres. Monson's talks. The Spirit was almost tangible in those talks. I heard the priesthood session was really good too. I always love the priesthood session because the first presidency always speaks. It's so wonderful. I love you all so much, and I hope everything is going well. School seems long in the moment, but I can hardly remember sitting in class in the MTC, never mind high school.

We went to a lion park for our zone activity this week, and these are the fruits of the journey. Enjoy!

Elder Steed

Buddy, I wish I could say that you look cute, but I can't. There's a word in zulu to describe that picture of pink soccer players: Ayibo. It means "weird" but also "whoa." Thanks for the pics! I enjoy them muchly.

Love,

Elder Steed

(the soccer players were from Marcus-mission football)