November 28

It's really good. I've been studying a lot this morning. The only thing better is teaching. How are you doing?

I'm in an internet cafe. There's an indian guy that owns the shop, and it's pretty cool.

I'm getting fat. Just a little. There's this stuff here called pap. It's made from maize flower and water. Not very healthy. I try to eat fruit as much as I can because it's dirt cheap and dang good here. I don't exercise every morning because I have no motivation to. We play soccer about twice a week though, and that helps. Everything is fine though. I think you told me you were sending me a bunch of recipes. That would be very useful. I'm getting sick of eating chicken, pap, and rice. That's not all I eat of course, but a large portion. Everyone plays football. It's pretty cool. I can always impress kids as they pass me the ball to see if I can juggle. They freak out that I can keep the ball up, and they lose their minds when I do some tricks. It's very entertaining.

Oranges are delicious and dirt cheap. Honestly, like 40 oranges for R20, which is about 3 bucks in the States. I'm not sure what oranges cost back in the states. How much are they roughly?

E. Sincreah and his brother are the only members of his family. He's got a cool conversion story. He met the missionaries and was baptized 2 weeks later. Now he's here. I've heard a lot about Decembers in townships, but I won't spread rumors until I can confirm them myself. By the way, church was yesterday. Just saying. I didn't speak in church, but the Elder Henson and Elder Mokoena had a baptism yesterday and I spoke there. Not too bad.

I need to write the rest of my thank you letters though. I probably won't send too many letters in the mail though because it's slow, not super reliable, and somewhat expensive. I need to go now. I love you so much mom.  I love you. Get some sleep, and kick buddy off the bed.

Elder Henson is from Richfield, Idaho. There were like 40 people at church. The school we meet in is a challenge. On saturdays, we normally go and set up chairs, so that it's ready when we come on sunday, but the school was closed. We got there sunday morning to find the classroom we meet in really, really dirty. So we started at about 9:30 instead of 9:00, even though we started cleaning at about 8:00. We're looking for a place that we could build our own building, but land is in short supply in the area that we need to build it in. Mail comes through the zone leaders who live about 40 Km away, so they only come every other week. We're supposed to send mail by giving it to the zone leaders who give it to the office, and they send it back in the pouch.

I’ve got to go now. I love you so much mom! Take care of dad!

November 21

Shoot. I'm so sorry. I'm almost out of time, so I can't read it all, but I wrote a good little story to dad and Jessica, so you'll have to read those. I love you so much. It was stake conference this week, so he wasn't confirmed, but next week he will be. If you start sending me greek words, I'll write all of my emails in zulu, and you'll have a dandy time translating those. Shoulder surgery? ouch. I'll keep him in my prayers. I hope everything else is going great. I know how frustrating nightly scripture study can be and probably is, but keep doing it. Just ten minutes every night because everyone is so busy and their attention span is in single digits anyway. Buddy, you want to go for a walk? I'll take you in two years, maybe. I'm so sorry that it's short to you. I love you so much.

Elder Steed

I got the package from nana with chocolate, soup, and habanero peppes in it.  It's really good.

Transfers will be on Dec 14th. Elder Sincreah has been out for about a year and 5 months. He'll go home in July.

That's just how the new program is. 3 months with your trainer, then out.

I'm out of time. I love you so, so much mom! Good luck with your homework. I love you!

November 14

That last line is the biggest lie in the world: "Don't stress about emailing me specifically." You know you'd shoot me if I didn't email you. Yeah success academy is a struggle. Use the forget me stick multiple times. I hope her class isn't too bad. When I took one class, the teacher had one of the most monotonous voices I have ever heard. I got some of the best sleep of my life in that class. I could use that sleep here. My bed is right up against an east facing window, so I wake up at about 5:30 every morning because the sun shines on me. Oh well. School will end someday. I'm sure everyone at home would agree that the sooner it ends, the better.

We confirmed 4 of the 5 that were baptized this week in church. The one that wasn't, his sister was getting married, so he apparently got stuck at the wedding. Weddings are a huge thing here because for a man to marry a woman, he has to pay labola to the family. Labola means that he has to give the family 12 cows. Yes, 12. So every wife is a 12 cow wife, never mind 8. 12 cows would cost something like R140,000. Many people struggle getting to and from town which costs about 16 rand never mind saving up 140,000 to buy a wife. That's one of the many reasons why hardly anyone gets married here. Sometimes, labola can be more that 12 cows depending on the beauty of the woman, education of the woman, and if she has kids or not.

Being able to serve a mission such a blessing in my life for the past 2.5 months. I've had so many wonderful experiences with the Spirit, investigators, and drunk people. Experiences with drunk people are so funny. Yesterday, this old baba walked up to us as just started saying something like "you guys are doing the right stuff. Keep it up." That's not unusual, but this guy kept making this sound with his mouth that was unbearably funny. The best way I can describe it is to liken it to the sound that magnets make when you throw them up in the air together, or like scraping two marbles together. We had a pair of black, elliptical magnets, which seemed to have no purpose other than to make that sound, that always somewhere around the house. If you know what I'm talking about, then try to find those magnets and make that sound. Then try to figure out how this guy was making that sound with his mouth. He didn't think anything about it. That was the best part. I know that the Lord places those people in our path to give us joy, and I am extremely grateful for it. There are a lot of funny people in the world.

Anyway, the wonderful experiences with the Spirit and with investigators are the real reason I came on mission. Sometimes our investigators say things that absolutely astonish me, in a good way. The Spirit guides us to those who are prepared to hear the gospel no matter what their appearance/situation in life may be. I love you all so much! I am very, very pleased to hear that you read Helaman 5. Now read Helaman 6 and keep going. Take care family.

Elder Steed

November 7

Yep, we had five baptisms yesterday: They're all great people. The youngest ones will be in the strong in the church because they are all 11 years old and they're really good friends. Their family members and closest friends are also members, so that'll be good.

That's so cool with Stevon Thomas. I haven't seen him in years, and it's really nice to know that he made it on a mission too. I knew he would. Thank you letters are on their way. I'm glad to hear that a package is on the way, and I'll do my best to eat the peppers as fast as possible. Maybe Elder Henson and I will have some sort of contest in eating them. That's way cool that Steve buckholz is in Africa too. Zambia is a great place I'm sure.That's great with teaching primary. I sure miss having a ton of members in the ward that can step up and do something like that. Pretty much if there's something extra that needs to be done, the missionaries will do it. Out of the Melchizedek priesthood holders, there's the branch president and his counselors, the elder's quorom pres, the branch mission leader and the four missionaries. We have one of us speak in church almost every week, but it's not so bad. Being a missionary prepares one to teach anything as needed because it happens all the time with questions that investigators ask. Talking in church to a bunch of members is not difficult.

Happy Birthday Crystal! I hope it was all fine and dandy. Even though Jessica will deny it, she loves her homework and wishes she had more.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!! I hope it's grand! The Spirit that comes with being a missionary is truly unique. There's just nothing like it. Being called as a missionary brings the power and authority to teach and have the Spirit. When that calling is over, so is that power and authority. Of course, we can still have the Spirit with us and be able to teach with power and authority, but it is much more difficult because our schedule and work is different from that of a missionary. The older missionaries in my zone will sometimes give me rubbish about being a greenie, and they'll say stuff like "when you've been on mission as long as I have, you'll know that..." To be honest, I feel sorry for them because being out on mission longer means being closer to going home and ending that calling. In short, while they're back home wasting their time doing whatever, I'm still working hard as a missionary. Given that we both serve for the same amount of time, but they view the time they have left as a countdown to something good instead of time running out that a good thing will be with them. I'd rather be in my shoes than theirs.

I love you all so much! Take care and keep the faith!

Elder Steed

October 31

Only one catournament since I've left? Blasphemy. Okay, I'll do that turkey bowl thing, but it'll be things like paved roads, fabric softener, and socks. I'm sure it'll be a dandy list by the end of the month. I'm glad to hear that everyone is working to letter in seminary. I severely underestimated the importance of seminary. Regretably, seminary was my least favorite class in high school. Given, I didn't like any of them except that one where we went bowling every monday and I had dayvin, ethan martin, and brown in my class. That one was way sick. I'm sorry that I can't send more pictures. I didn't take my camera out at all this week. Walking is a great blessing. I really enjoy it.

Yeah we had transfers this week too. Two from our district are leaving, not me or my comp though. Apparently, everyone's transfers line up.  I love you so very much: Dad, mom, Ariel, Jessica, Crystal, and Mary. Buddy's okay too. Happy birthday Crystal and Nana! Crystal: your birthday will be a very special day for five people here in South Africa so be grateful. Thank you so much mom! I always appreciate your love and support. I'll write a letter and send it to you through the mail, so you can see just how bad it is.

Love,   Elder Steed

Goodness knows what brown can do for me. An recent convert (he's 16) ordered a soccer ball quite a while ago, and it just got here a few days ago. By the way, the ball was delivered in a private car. Why? nobody knows.

Love,

Elder Steed