Molweni Everyone! 

This week has been a pretty solid week! We were able to get Lutho's Baptism interview done and we are now planning on having his baptism on the 14th. We had his baptism announced today at church. Also, speaking of Church, now that we are covering two wards we are going to 6 hours of church! By the end of the day my brain is so fried, ha-ha. 

This week we had a lot of lessons with a lot of new people (Oh yeah, they are called new people now not investigators) which was really nice. But, on Monday while we were at the Sakati house for FHE where we met two of Mama Sakati's nieces (Danai and Lutho) that are now living with them because their mom died. Which is super sad. But out of the blue they just said that they wanted to get Baptized which was super cool so we have started to teach them. But, in that first lesson we had with them while we were talking about the Priesthood, Danai asked if we could give her a priesthood blessing because she had been having a lot of terrible night mares about her mom and stuff. And so, of course we gave her one. It was a really awesome experience because the next time we came she said that that night she had a dream that she was with all of her classmates and she was teaching them the things that we had taught her, and she said she slept super good. And she said that it was an answer to her prayers. Super cool right!?

This week we also had the opportunity to do some service for a lady in our ward.(Sister Deliwe) We painted her house which was a first for me. Elder Allred said that it is a pretty common thing to paint peoples houses as a missionary. But, It was also nice because she fed us afterwards, ha-ha. 

They give us a copy of the Liahona each month so that has been really nice to be able to read whenever I have down time in the Boarding. 

The money actually lasts pretty good. They give us 900 rand twice a month ($63.72). On the 15th and on the 30th. It has also been nice to have a DA almost every night so that definitely helps with the money. Our P-Days are pretty busy. We usually wake up, do our usual morning routine, clean the boarding and then go email at a mall about 15 minutes from the boarding. We also do all our shopping at the mall at a store called Pick n Pay. Then, we will go eat somewhere and then go do something in the area or go play soccer with the kids in our ward. 

But again, thank you for the pictures and thank you for  sending me the family history story. I will have to try and print it off to read it or something. Also, you are the best! Thank you for your support. Sure love ya!

Elder Boyer

Hello Everyone! 


Its been great to hear from everyone! I don't have a lot to share this week but here it is.

So on Saturday we were supposed to have the baptismal interview for Lutho but we got the wrong address for where he was going to be and he wasn't answering his  phone so now hopefully we will be able to have the interview this week and he will still be able to be baptized on the 30th. 

And then Nosipiwo the other person we had on date has not been answering my phone calls or texts and has not been coming to church. We tried stopping by and when we got there the door was wide open but then all of a sudden it was shut really fast and was locked. And when we knocked nobody answered. So that has been kinda weird. 

Now that my companion is gone it has been a little stressful because I am now in charge of the MD 2 area. But it has also been good because it is making me learn faster and I am starting learn the area more. We have also been doing lots of knocking doors because a lot of our lessons fell through. 

(In the following note, Brett answers some questions I asked him)

Hey Mamma! 

Its good to hear from you too!   

Since they want us to walk around more, everyone kinda just stares at us, Ha-Ha!!  And then we start talking a little bit of Xhosa and then they smile and laugh, but sometimes they think we are fluent in Xhosa so they just start talking to us in Xhosa and we have to explain that we only speak a little. Yeah, they have everything for the most part in the grocery stores just different brands

So we live in a place called Cambridge and it is like a 30 minute drive to our area called Mdantsane. Right now, Elder Sovereign is the only one who can drive the car. Elder Allred can't because he got in an accident and they took his driving privileges. But I am going to be taking my driving test with the Zone leaders on Wednesday and then I will be able to drive. 

Yes,  I moved into their boarding when my companion left. I will have to send pictures.

The members here in Mdantsane are awesome they feed us a lot. But, Elder Allred cooks and we do the dishes for dinner. 

LITTLE BOY AT MIJIAS HOUSE

PRETTY SUNSET

A TYPICAL  XHOSA MEAL. MEAT, MORE MEAT, BREAD AND COKE

KIDS PLAYHOUSES

What a HECTIC week!

So, I guess I will start out with the big news. My companion ended up going home and 
so now I am in a tri-panionship with the other Elders that are in my District, 
Elder Soverereign and Elder Allred. Its pretty funny because this is Elder Allred's last 
transfer and he is training two missionaries now ha-ha. 
Also, now that my companion is gone it means that I am leading my Area after being 
here only three weeks. 


This change will also hurt the area a little bit because we will have to cover two areas. 
Also, they want us to start walking again as soon as we have our schedule worked out. 
Which means we will drive into the area and then have to park the car at the 
chapel and then taxi and walk around. I feel like it is going to be pretty difficult to do this 
while covering 2 areas. But we will figure it out. :) 

It was so good to hear about the win for BYU!  Wish I could have watched it ha-ha. 

Spiritual note for the week:
This last Sunday was Stake Conference and it was a really cool experience. 
It was crazy how big of a deal it was for the members here. Me and my companions joined 
the choir which was cool, but the talks were so powerful. This Stake Conference was 
mainly about ministering. And where we can start and why this change actually happened.  
Quick side note, my companion told me that our stake president told him that 
(in like a training he had with Elder Holland), Elder Holland said that if you thought 
the changes that were made last conference were big just wait for this next one. 
Pretty crazy right? But they also said that it is important to minister to your family before 
you minister to others. It is important that your family is strong and unified. 


Sure love you guys,
Elder Boyer

THE NEW THREESOME!

TO MY PEOPLE BACK HOME

Where do I start? Probably one of the coolest things about this week was we put 3 people on date to be baptized and are hoping to put another one on date this week. The first one is Lutho, he is 16 and lives at home with his Mom. He is a really cool kid that is so genuine and has a real desire to do good. The other 2 is a lady named Nosipiwa and her daughter. They have been progressing nicely and have been coming to church the past few weeks. And then we will be putting Mike on date sometime this week. He is a really humble man. one of the things I have noticed while being on mission is that its the people that have been humbled by life that will actually talk to us.

Another thing I have been trying to wrap my head around is that my companion has had some really bad back problems and he might be going home early. This sucks but I know that everything will work itself out. 

Spiritual experience of the week: 

So earlier this week me and my companion gave Brother Mike a blessing because he has been having these epilepsy attacks and hasn't been able to come to church.  It has been amazing because he hasn't had an attack since and was able to come to church this last week. I know that priesthood blessings really do increase our quality of life. And my suggestion to all of you is that if you haven't had a blessing in a while please get one. 

Anyway I love you all, and I'll talk to you next week! :)

I don't have a lot of pictures this week but here they are.

1. Picture one is of my District that I just barely took on our way to the mall to email haha.

(The other tall Elder is Elder Sovereign. The one that Chad and Kristin know from Arizona.)

2. Picture 2 is my companion and I with one of our fellowshippers on our way to one of our investigators. 

 DSC01956.JPG

 DSC01955.JPG

So first, my P-days will be on Mondays. And also, like many of you noticed The MTC took all of my, hair ha-ha.  

I guess I will start with leaving the MTC. We had to wake up at 4:30 to leave to the airport. The flight was about 2 hours long to Cape Town. The AP's picked us all up and took us to the mission home where we met President and his wife and then ate lunch. Then they took us to this mountaintop called signal point and I guess its where they take all the missionaries when they first get there. That was pretty cool. We then split up with other missionaries and did some finding.

The next morning we received our first assignment and first areas. My new companion is Elder Shelembe. He is from Johannesburg and goes home in January, so he has been on the mission for a while. My first Are is called Mdantsane. Its a Township outside of East London. It is so different here than it is in America. There are people everywhere on the sides of the road. And there are just these tiny houses everywhere. It's funny because I am literally the only white guy here and so everyone stares at me and all of the kids just yell molungu! which means the white guy in Xosa. That is another thing I have noticed. Everyone speaks Xosa here which is one of the click languages. My Companion knows how to speak it a little so he has started teaching me.

The Members here are amazing! They are so kind and are always feeding us even though it is hard financially for them. They are always giving us referrals for new investigators we could teach. Mission life is not what I expected it to be like. At first, I was just so shocked that I was actually here. I still am haha but I am starting to feel more comfortable and used to my surroundings.

Spiritual Note of the week:

Me and my companion went and visited a less active lady and her family and she told us that she missed the church music. So we told her that we were going to go get one of the families in our ward that lived down the street to come help us sing to her. As we started to sing the Mama began crying and it was such a cool experience. This has been my first experience on my mission where I saw for myself the spirit doing its job and testifying to her.

Man, I love you guys and I'm sorry if I didn't answer all of your questions. If you have more questions email them to me. I am trying to upload all of my pictures to google drive so that you guys can just look at them that way. I will have mom try and share it with all of you.

STARTING OUT WITH SERVICE

MY COMPANION

HAVING FUN WITH THE KIDS