10.26.15 New Adventures

Well Family,

As a missionary when the day comes you get a message from President that you are getting transferred, it usually comes with feelings such as sadness, anticipation, and maybe a little happiness if you don't get a long with your companion. This Friday, the message came through and I was pretty stunned. Elder Clegg and I have just been together for one transfer and  there are some exciting baptisms and families that we have found and begun teaching. There are so many great things happening here so it was definitely bittersweet to say goodbye to the families this week.  I have only known them for a little amount of time but they are amazing people that I will miss. But whatever lies ahead will be what God wants and is his plan for me! I’ll find out Tuesday where my new adventure will take me.

I'll share 3 sweet and interesting experiences that happened this week.

#1  We started teaching a family . . . . Interestingly,   the Dad found the Book of Mormon in an alley and he started reading it, later we met him while we were doing service at the Methodist soup kitchen. Coincidence? I don’t think so. We had a great first lesson with them. They are pretty glued to their church, but as we testified of the Book of Mormon, as we did there was special spirit filled the air, bearing testimony is so powerful. They are going to continue to read and pray about it!!

#2 Our most progressing investigator William, toughed out 6 hours of conference this weekend (Yes we got to watch conference! It was so awesome!!), I only caught him sleeping through 1 talk lol. He will be baptized in about 2 weeks and things are just going so well for him. He sees a lot of positive changes in his life and wants to bring his family (who lives 4 hours away) to church as well. I'm jealous of Elder Clegg, his baptism will be a hard one to miss!!!

Taxi Ride. . . No need to explain.

#3

This week I also had the chance to go on exchanges with the missionaries in Etwa-twa. They are trying out taking taxi's to get around, which I would compare to the bus on Harry Potter that goes a billion miles an hour and screeches to a stop. Anyway it was awesome and an adventure to experience Africa in a tight Toyota Quantum that smelled like Pap (An African food that definitely should not be used as an air freshener).. 

Another area down and another adventure to go! 

Love you all,

Elder Broadhead

10/5/15 The blessing of a long sunday walk!

October 5, 2015

                                                                             Dear Family,

You can see why we are always happy to see Sis Dunn

Another week in the spring time paradise of Springs, things are really heating up here and it has been another amazing and humbling week. This week, we had a lot of traveling to the mission office and back, but we were able to take some time out and see some of our devout members and investigators in the remote parts of our area. I'll share the stories of 3 of these people.

Nelson is in the sun glasses.

#1  Nelson  This guy is about 100 pounds, about 5 foot flat and 100% Malawian. He lives about 25 kms from the church and works at a farm earning a very little amount of money each day. He was baptized in Malawi about 2 years ago and moved to this sided to support his family. He is an awesome guy, so we went out and drove through the middle of nowhere and finally managed to find him. He invited all of his friends to join and we taught them the first lesson and handed out a ton of Books of Mormon. Who knows maybe this little place will one day be a stake !? Jk

#2 Notokozo (don't know her last name yet). Even Crazier, Notokozo lives about 45 kms from the chapel out in a place called Devon. There aren’t any units out there so the closest ward is Springs so she hops in a taxi and it takes about 45 minutes to get the chapel. She is the girlfriend of a member who stays in Soweto and has been taught by at least 8 sets of missionaries and every time she is about to be baptized she moves. So the challenge now for  Elder Clegg and I to see it through. She is super prepared, just needs to stay in the same place long enough to be baptized and make good friends.

#3 Geraldine . Possibly the coolest story so far of my mission. She is a pioneer of the church here in Springs. She is an incredible lady who is in her mid-fifties and joined the church agessssssssss ago. She lives on a plot (farm)that is far from the chapel. She doesn't drive so she gets up at 6 every Sunday and begins walking on the main road back to town with her thumb to the sky looking to hitch hike it to church. We are starting to teach her brother who hitchhikes with her now,  at least she has company which I feel better about! but I am humbled by her faith in  our Savior and dedication to do all that she can to help the church.

When I came to Africa, I was thinking that I would be see such acts of faith in walking long distances to hear the gospel. I feel so blessed to witness them, and there is no way that I am going to complain about having to drive 5 minutes to church or 10 minutes to the temple #countyourblessings. #longsundaywalks

Love you all!

Elder bhead

9/29/15 #Kony2015

Sept 29,2015

Hey fam,

This week has been an interesting one, with the Rugby World Cup and mixed in with a South African holiday of "Heritage Day" it has been a pretty hectic week with appointments dropping, people leaving, and straight up crazy stories. Hence the title of the email this week because of a lot of FINDING. Elder Clegg and I have made it a goal to at least place 6 copies of the BOM every day, and it has been going really well. We are blessed to be in a place that hasn't yet BOM'd :), so we are doing are best to accomplish that.

We had the opportunity to do some service, we painted this less-active guys house, I got paint all over his patio on accident :0.   I never claimed to be a good painter . . . . but he was still happy that we were there to help him paint his house. After that we had a powerful lesson with our investigators Naledi and Deon. Naledi's dad is the Elders Quorum Pres in Germiston, but she lives with her mom and goes to her mom’s church. We watched the Restoration DVD and it was awesome to sit back and let the spirit work with her. She said really needs to pray about it. So that is awesome!

We stopped at one of our last appointments on Sunday after a long week of lots of finding. Both Elder Clegg and I were pretty tired and we get this awesome SMS on our phone saying. Elders, this is Notokozo. I was wondering if you could help prepare me for baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We both looked at each other like we had seen Canyon View win a football game hahaha just kidding but we both were surprised. Crazy thing is she lives 50 kilometers from the chapel, but she said she will be coming to church!

“Joy” of the week

 Early Saturday morning we were driving on the road and we saw a broken down car. So we pulled over and pushed it to the top of the hill. As we pushed it down we hopped on the back for a little joy ride. . . THEN we asked the girl inside if she knew the where the ebrake was. She kept saying ebrake???  ebrake???  with her Zulu accent. Panic briefly struck Elder Clegg and myself but luckily  Elder Clegg hopped off and got in the passenger side  and stopped the car before we took it off some sweet jumps. We will be seeing them next Saturday (hopefully not on the side of the road)

All is well here in Springs!!!

Love Elder Broadhead