October 3 That's the South Africa I'm talking about!

Happy Birthday Mom! I'm so sorry for forgeting to tell that last week. I didn't forget your birthday, but with my first week emailing, I was overwhelmed with all the new stuff. I realized that I forgot to tell you about 30 minutes after I finished emailing. Great news: There's going to be a temple in Durban! I really hope that it's completed before I leave here, but temples usually take about 3 years to build from what I understand, so I'll probably miss it.

I bought a pocket hymn book in the MTC, so I'm set there. There are about 6 people, including the 4 missionaries, who can bless the sacrament each week, and only one or two aaronic priesthood holders. The music is played through the branch president's mp3 player, so that business you were giving me about learning how to play the piano is totally irrelevant because we don't even have a piano to play. PLEASE SEND ME AN ENSIGN OF GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! We won't be able to see it until something like the 30th, but I can read the conference talks when I have time. Highlight your favorite and the mos powerful talks in the table of contents, so I can be sure to read those.

I'm eating fine. That pup stuff I told you about is very filling. Fruit here is dirt cheap so I buy it whenever I can. Ariel is done for if she relies on buddy for entertainment; buddy's an old person's dog, but okay nonetheless. I got your letter on tuesday--the one you sent on the 14th of september. So that's about how fast the mailing system is, but I have a feeling that going from south africa to the states is even slower.

Speaking of food: One of our investigators, Mswazi, owns chickens. My comp (he's from malawi) knows how to butcher chickens, and he talked me into buying 7 chickens from Mswazi with him. So on saturday night, we slew 7 chickens. That's the south africa I'm talking about. It was the strangest thing I've ever done. Those rats with wings made so much noise, and it was like 9 at night when we were slaying them. I'll send pictures because they're great. I haven't taken my camera out because it's really dangerous to and I'm not totally comfortable with taking it out yet, but south africa is gorgeous. We'll be going to a lion park as a zone activity sometime soon for our zone activity. I'll definitely take pictures of that and send them. Enjoy the picutres. (Did my first email scare you?) I love you so much!

Elder Steed