Week #18-18.5 Bones, Dead Seals, Saved A Life, And Camels

Hello everyone! I'm glad I get to write about my last week and a half. A little preface as to why I'm writing on Thursday as opposed to the usual Monday is that because of zone conference tomorrow, we are taking p-day today. Everyone here for zone conference wanted to have a p-day in Swakopmund so we swapped our pday to today.

It's been a week and a half so I can get right into the email in hopes that I won't drag it out for too long.

Tuesday:

I had a new experience today on the mission so that was fun… Today we taught a lesson over google translate! This sister speaks portuguese, oshiherrero, oshiwambo, and one other language I can't remember. We had an in person translator and and also google translate. At some points Elder Were couldn't remember a word in English so he put in translate from Swahili into portuguese. So between all of these factors we used Oshivambo, Swahili, English, and portuguese in the lesson which was very interesting to say the least. 

We had another bone delivery today but it was much smaller than usual so that was nice.

My legs were sore all day from exercising my legs for the first time on the mission the day prior.

me and Tolbert called tonight as we always do and this time we had a push-up contest over the phone which was fun!

While I was journalling today I saw two girls right outside my window start peeing in the middle of the street so that was very interesting.

Wednesday:

we dropped the car off at the mechanic shop this morning to get the battery charged and then we went out for the day. We taught like six lessons today which was nice and we had three of them where a member joined us so that was good. We were quite tired from walking today so we treated ourselves with some voetkoeks (fatcakes) and they were fresh and hot so you can assume I ate them all in two seconds! (video attached in the link)

Thursday:

We got the car alternator checked out today and it looks like that is the real problem with the car so we’ll have to deal with that soon. we had 5 lessons today which were nice. One of them was a member's friend who wants to learn more and he's been coming to church. He seems very awesome and I can tell that eventually he’ll be baptized, he’s very cool.

Friday:

We had 7 lessons today which was very fun, although one of them was a girl just trying to argue with us the whole time. They were taught their 10 commandments completely wrong and said we were wrong and that the Book of Mormon taught them wrong. We politely invited them to read in the book of Exodus chapter 20 to verify what we said. While we were trying to talk with one of them, the other opened her bible, read the verses, realized she was wrong, and then closed it without saying anything. We didn’t say anything but politely closed our lesson and decided we won’t be returning. I learned the valuable lesson that wherever the Spirit of contention is, you can't feel the Spirit of the Lord and this was certainly the case.

We did not feel good after this lesson but that quickly dissipated once we had a nice lesson about temples with our friend Julia. This was followed by an amazing lesson over the phone with a brother who responded to a Facebook ad about a Book of Mormon!

Saturday:

We taught Naftali today, he has learned everything now and is ready for his baptism on the 10th, I’m so excited for him! We had a handful of other nice lessons today and almost set a baptismal date for another one of our friends but I think we will next time we meet with them. 

We ended the night by playing pool on the mini pool table we have in our flat. 

Sunday:

Today we had 14 of our friends attend church!!! It was so awesome to see all of them there and they’re all growing so much. Naftali asked us to teach him right after church, if we had time he’d have us teach him every day which is really impressive that he has so much desire. Especially because he's only like 12 years old!

We went around to a bunch of members' houses today and I got them to record some birthday videos for Tolbert's birthday which is on Wednesday. (I'll attach a few of them in the link so you can see the beautiful people here)

Monday:

Today we had nine lessons which kept us very busy! We taught a temple lesson today and the sister we taught was very interested in the temple and really wants to go one day. I really felt the Spirit as I testified of the temples and how they are the house of the Lord. As well as the special covenants that we get to make inside of them.

Elder Were and I have been doing a lot of singing and dancing lately even though I am very below average at both of these things. It had been fun nonetheless.

Tuesday:

We started our morning by weekly planning and cleaning the flat in preparation for our flat inspections at zone conference this Friday. This was interrupted by a call saying we NEED to go pick up the bones RIGHT NOW. To be completely candid I’m getting a little tired of the car wreaking of bones but it helps people so we left the flat nice and early to pick them up. As we were about to drop them off we got a call saying the tire we ordered for our car had arrived so we went and got that changed while we had a trunkload of bones. I don’t think I’ll ever have to experience that again! 

We taught Ishuna and Naftali today who are both on date for the 10th! They’re both soooo cool and really want to learn and be baptized, I’m so excited for them to make this covenant with God!

Also, today we saw a girl dying for 40 minutes in the middle of the dirt road. She was rolling in pain and no one could speak Damara to communicate with her. We called the ambulance and they said they were all in the capital (Windhoek). Eventually, we were told that an ambulance came and she is now fine but wow! She was very lucky.

Wednesday:

Tolbert's Birthday! I sent him that birthday video today and he appreciated it a lot so I’m glad Swakopmund could give him a happy birthday! It was also a recent convert, Laimi’s, birthday. She turned 10, so we brought her some snacks and sang for her. She is very funny.

I brought Elder Were to Fork N’ Nice for his first time since he’s been here and he approved. We saw two dead seals on the beach that were very bloated while we waited for our food, so that was a little unnerving.

The Ongwediva elders got here today so we showed them to their flat and then headed to the Katjojo’s home for a nice dinner, pap, fish, and beans. 

Thursday:

P-Day, finally! All of the Elders arrived today for Zone conference tomorrow! We had an awesome day today. We started by going to the “jetty”(pier) for donuts. We also saw a seal (alive) at the end of the pier swimming around.

Then we went around and did some shopping, I got a nice African pendant. 

Then we went and rode some camels which was sick! My camel's name was Raphix. The others were Abraham, Moses, Alaska, and Mohammed. It was very fun!

Then we went to the dunes and hiked a bit, played on the beach, and got some nice pics!

After that we went to get some food from a food truck. I got a pork gyro wrap with tzatziki. If any of you know anything about me it's that I love love love Greek food- especially tzatziki. So I devoured that and will be returning. It's been right beside fork n nice this whole time, they have some serious competition for my business now.

I'm writing this right now and everyone else is dead asleep, I’m a little jealous but I don't want to type this tonight. I’m about to go to dinner but I’ll finish this email tonight…

All right, I’m back from dinner! We went and ate at The Tug. It was so fun and the Walkers paid for it which was so kind of them. outside there was a rasta man singing Bob Marley while the sun was setting. 

Conclusion:

This week was an amazing week. We were able to teach a lot of lessons and we had a lot of fun. Between the bones, the lessons, the p-day and everything that happened this week, we had a good time!

Spiritual thought/ Scripture:

2 Nephi 2:23 - …having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

In life we are all going to have good and bad days, months, years, tests, experiences, etc. But these are all here to strengthen us. These tough times that we may have are here to strengthen us and help us appreciate the miracles and blessings that the Lord places in our lives. And the good times are here to help us get through those tough times. To help us push forward. I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us, and that he always remembers us. He knows what we are going through and he's with us every step of the way.

I hope you all had an amazing week and I love all of you so much and pray for you continually. Please let me know if I can ever include you or anyone in my prayers.

All my love and best wishes,

Elder Miller

PS I'll message again on Monday so only a few days!

Last pic, People do this here because it makes the shape of Namibia with their hand.