"Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words"

Dear Family,

Thank you for all the updates this week. There is so much that goes on around the world and it is good to be updated occasionally. Well because today is quite crazy, mixed with the short time I have left to email I will not comment on all the updates, but I do appreciate being updated on what is going on back home.

Well to be very honest it has been a pretty crazy last couple of days. Just as a side note though I realized this week that PriceWaterHouse has a branch here in Nelspruit, so dad, I was wondering if this is the one you came on your business trip around the world a few years back. On a less important note I also saw my second Rolls Royce (my favorite car) this week, so I have added riding in a Rolls Royce at least once to the list of things to do before I die (along will marriage in the temple...I should probably add to this official list of goals before I die).

Sunday morning we came downstairs to go to church and we realized that someone smashed out the window to the other Elders Truck. For the zone that takes us to one totaled car, and a smashed in window for the week. Welcome to Africa. Elder Fisher left his camera and wallet (including home cards and copy of passport/visa), Elder Onsongo left his scriptures in the truck. All stolen. In Botswana we had smash and grab proof windows on all of our cars, so this would not have happened there, but its alright, just as long as everyone is safe. Mom must still be praying hard for me because I have been in Africa for 13 months and I have not been robbed!

The rest of the day Sunday was kind of rough. We only had 15 members at church, and one of our two people to be baptized decided while she was looking at the water that she has changed her mind on being baptized.
I arranged a game park visit for the district this week so this morning at 5 am we headed out and went to a very very large game park. Kruger Park,It turned out to be more expensive than I thought because I did not have proof of South Africa residency, but we payed it none the less. So this game park is like a legit slice of Africa with Lions and all. We took about a 6 hour drive through the park and it was pretty amusing because 30 second into the visit Elder Molai was like "Well this is sweet...all I see is grass and trees" ha ha. About five min later.."OH!....I saw a bird...". We eventually ran into this pond and we saw a lot of hippos chilling in the water....but apparently they didn't want to put on a show for us, so we could not see them too well. It picked up though and we were having fun for a couple hours. We saw Elephants, monkeys, Tons of Spring bock, zebras, giraffes, and a couple other things, but no lions! Elder Molai was like "I don't know how Afrikaners (white Africans) can do this as a hobby, it is so boring!" Don't listen to him though, it was pretty fun, but I am not going to appreciate a zoo much more when you know you will see what you want to see at a zoo.  Here you never know what you will see.

In other news I just got a phone call that Elder Fisher is being Emergency transferred tomorrow morning. A missionaries visa is up so he has to go home a couple weeks early, so Elder Fisher is going to fill in there. To be honest I am pretty glad. Elder Fisher and Elder Onsongo are like teenage women, best friends one day and then some how not getting along at all the next? I have had to get involved a lot more than I would have liked to, so I am glad that I will have a break from that for a bit.

I will have to drive them down to Johannesburg tomorrow and then I will be back to Johannesburg next Tuesday also. 4 hours of driving each way! So I will check for my package tomorrow. Hope I get it! Mail would be sweet as well.

Well time is up, but quote of the week "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words" -it was in President Uchtdorf's talk.

Thanks for everything family!
Love you

Elder Blake Williams