Week #33 Hooping With Shaq

Dumela Borra le Bomma. I hope you’re all doing well. This was another good week, with minimal problems so that was nice… unfortunately that also means no crazy stories.

Tuesday:

We had a brief zone council meeting this morning over zoom and talked about how our area is doing. Afterwards, I did our weekly planning. There were some people who showed up at our flat and cleaned out all of the overgrown grass and shrubs in our compound which was very nice.

We grabbed some lunch, fat cakes with mince and a ginger beer, then we headed to our first lesson with Gift (baptized a couple weeks ago). We went finding for about 30 minutes and didn't find anyone. Our next lesson was with the friend (12 years old) of a member family and it went really well. We taught one of our friends who claims that he is 50/50 muslim/Christian. He couldn’t believe that as missionaries we put aside making money and “finding girlfriends” for 2 years. We argued for about 90 minutes.

We taught a few more nice lessons today and then dropped the branch elders at their flat since they couldn't find a taxi.

Wednesday:

We picked up the branch elders at 9am and went to Brother Peters and slashed/trimmed his tree. we took down like half the tree and Kivuva was up in the tree cutting like whole branches but I think it looked better after. We went home and changed and then taught our friend Ontlametse who is progressing great. 

We went to Joseph's and walked with him, Jessica, and Sheeba to two of their friends, it was a 40 minute walk and it was crazy hot. They’re such troopers, and they’re 16, 13, and 11! 

We taught like 5 more lessons after that and a few contacts that all went well for the most part.

Thursday:

I got up at 5:30am today to drive to Gabs to finish my visa work but the office elders postponed it until 11 and then later postponed it again until Monday smh.

We ended up having our district council which wasn’t planned since we were expecting to drive to Gabs but it turned out well. Elder Havea is so funny, especially when he completely improvs his 15 minute training every zone conference. The closing hymn we sang was horrific and we were all dying laughing.

We only got 6 lessons today unfortunately but they all went pretty well. We ended up having to go between the other two flat complexes returning elders to their own flats since they were having exchanges.

Friday:

We met a FB referral at the shell petrol station very briefly and introduced ourselves. I went to shake her hand before we left and she grabbed both of us and gave us a very awkward hug.

We went to Joseph's after and their whole family/ extended family were outside slaughtering, plucking, and preparing chickens since they sell them. We helped them for about an hour and then went and got lunch. (I will include photos and videos of the chicken that they gave us. From Kivuva taking care of it all the way to our slow cooker right now).

We taught a lot of great lessons today and somewhere in between we played Mmhele (game described in my last email) at Tapiwa and Juniors. Kivuva lost to me and then to Talent and was furious but he redeemed himself against Tapiwa. 

After I made dinner Kivuva plopped a homemade Mmhele board on the table and insisted he got his revenge against me… he got wiped again. 

Saturday:

We walked with Joseph, Sheeba, and Jessica again today. It seems we’re there every day but they’re such great missionaries. We tried to see a few people but they were all “Hio”. We dropped them at home and went to teach a member's younger brother and then get lunch. We came back to Joseph's and walked with them to their friends who live very far. 

Once we got back we went straight to the chapel for our BOM class. No one ended up showing this week which was abnormal. Joseph and them were the only ones there so we played a little Mmhele and then played some BOM games. 

Our next 2 lessons canceled and then our third lesson was with the 12 year old friend of the member family. They were just running around for 30 minutes so we ended up just leaving… problems of teaching children.

We taught a few more lessons tonight which all went really well. One of them was especially strong as we taught the restoration and the power of finding the truth for oneself through prayer and study.

After one of the lessons they were having a birthday party behind the house so we went to quickly say hi and they were saying some crazy stuff in Setswana and standing in a circle around some very drunk guy praying on his knees and bowing down. We said happy birthday and dipped real quick haha.

Sunday:

We had a good fast and testimony meeting today and then we had branch council for 3 hours! After discussing nothing involving missionary work we finally left. Us four missionaries were starving so badly and wanted to break our fast. We rushed home and crushed some burgers. 

We drove to Moshupa after lunch which is about 40 minutes away. Two of the lessons here fell through but we managed to meet with one of them and give them a BOM! Hopefully we can continue to help them even though they stay so far away.

When we got back to Kanye we taught a few more lessons which were all great but we were wiped by the end of the day.

Monday:

I drove to Gabs today with Elders Wutkee and Adolphson. I had to go for visa work but that wasn’t until 2. We got to the ball courts at 10 but the other missionaries were all at the stake center. We played ball with some crazy guy that pulled up named shaq. I’m not sure if he was drunk, high, crazy or most likely a mixture of all three but it was pretty lit.

We went to the stake center and played rugby in the parking lot and then played chair soccer which was a lot of fun surprisingly. Soccer is probably the only sport that I don't really enjoy playing.

Adolphson, Wutkee, Debrie and I all went to a Chinese restaurant that was pretty good and then we went and completed my visa work. 

After we got back to Kanye we did our grocery shopping all together. We were late getting back to Kanye so Elder Kivuva and I only got to contact a couple of people tonight but today was a fun day!

PS. We walked into a huge sefalana that felt like Costco today and it was boss. It's the little things.

Spiritual Thought:

Mosiah 3: 41  - And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

True and pure joy and happiness come as we keep the commandments of God. When we keep them he is able to bless and assist us as we move along the path that he is preparing for us. The path that ultimately leads us back to him as well as our eternal families.

The commandments are there to bring us freedom, not the contrary. They allow us to avoid the traps and prisons of worldly addictions and desires.

I promise each of you that as you keep the commandments you will be able to see and feel the joy enter your life that comes with obedience to the commandments.

Conclusion:

I’m glad you were all able to make it to the end of my email. We had a pretty good week this week and crushed all of our goals so that always feels great!

I hope you’re all doing well and hope you’ll have a phenomenal week! I'd love to hear from you.

I love and pray for you all,

Elder Miller

The Mmhele board - someone said this game might be on the app store. Maybe you can find it.

My home gym that I've been building.

Kivuva pruining the tree

Zone conference

Our baby chicken