Leaving Nelspruit...

Dear Family,
Glad to hear that my companions letter got to you. Did you ever get my letter with a recent convert letter and a couple pictures of recent converts at the temple? I sent it about 6 weeks ago and I would NOT want that one to be lost. If you did not get it please let me know asap so I can arrange more of those pictures before Elder Onsongo goes home (in 4 weeks).

Well this has been an interesting week. We got a call on Tuesday from President Omer saying that my companion and I had a meeting in Johannesburg Wednesday morning because he (Elder Molai) will be training starting this week (the 20th) and they wanted to give him some training. This obviously means that I am being transferred and Saturday President Omer called me to be a Zone Leader, so I will start that tomorrow.

For safety reasons President Omer is cutting down on night time driving over long distances so he had Elder Molai and I come down Wednesday afternoon and stay in the mission home instead of driving really early on Thursday. So, Wednesday the Zone leaders drove from 4 hours away to do 3 baptismal interviews for us (which all went very well) and then immediately after those we got in the car and started the drive to Johannesburg. It was pretty un-eventful except for the rhino and her baby that were just walking on the side of the road...TIA. (This is Africa)
When we got to the Mission home it was just the AP's, President and Sister Omer having some dinner, so we were able to join them for an American meal! We had taco soup. It was delicious and a rare treat. After dinner the AP's and President went into the other room to finish transfer news so Elder Molai and I just talked with sister Omer for a long time about how she is feeling about Africa. She is still missing the basic things from home (grand kids, certain foods, America, etc), but we helped her out. Just talked to her about our adjustment processes and how time flies after your first few months, etc. She really seemed to enjoy the time talking.

When President was done with transfer news we all just started talking, telling stories from the mission and of course I had to teach President and Sister Omer about TIA. It was funny because they already have a large bucket full of their own TIA experiences. We had fun, by the end of our chat president was pretty much crying he was laughing so hard.

But anyways, the only reason I even mention our stay over at their house is because it wasn't until that night that I realized just how busy a mission president is! At 11 o'clock his phone is still ringing, he is still in his suit, and still busy doing stuff. He said that he usually does not get to bed until 11 or 12 and sometimes he has so much on his mind that he can not sleep so he just gets up and works through the night. Then at 6:30 when our alarm went off we rolled out of bed and saw president already outside running up and down his driveway (I think Sister Omer is afraid of safety so she probably doesn't let him go outside the gate ). Then by 8 he is out the door working until about 11 or 12 that night! CRAZY!

The meeting on Thursday was the highlight of the week. The church is stepping it up world wide when it comes to missionaries... Right when I came out they launched what are refereed to as the 8 fundamentals which was geared to helping missionaries better use Preach My Gospel. I was very blessed to come out right when that was coming out, but now it is getting even better than that. Starting from the MTC missionaries will be trained differently so that they can be better prepared for their missions. It is kind of hard to explain but the program is geared to help the new missionary become experienced faster. Currently if a missionary has been out in the field for 7 months and is called to train, that is considered very impressive. But now the church wants to change that. Their goal is that by the end of this 3 month training program a missionary will already be ready to train a new missionary! That is so quick! During this meeting I was thinking a lot about Axel and the long wait he has had after his call. He will quickly see after getting into the MTC that the wait was worth it. This program is pretty impressive and I am anxious to see it get started.

I am a little anxious to see what happens though because in meeting they mentioned how the Zone leaders are going to be trained on how to help the trainers, so as a new Zone Lader I will probably have to help these trainers learn how to train even though I have never really officially trained.

This week we also got a new Baptism Fount. When you are In Africa you are usually not blessed to have a built in fount. Our last one was very poor quality. It was this metal cage circle with a tarp in the middle. The Church decided it was time to get us a new one so they got this huge fiberglass Jacuzzi looking thing. It has a pump, filter, heater, everything! It was pretty sweet. We were filling it during church on Sunday when all the sudden we started to see the carpet getting soaked! The New fount was leaking! I know it won't sound very epic but it was so crazy after that, even border line stressful. We had a record 9 investigators at church (including the happy clappy family!) and here the fount is leaking badly. Right when church ended we RUSHED to get everyone in their baptism clothes and then tried to relax as we had the talk and all that jazz to prepare for the actual baptism. I was able to baptize Purine and her 8 year old daughter Zama which was a wonderful opportunity. The other Baptism was the Branch clerks wife who has been taught by missionaries for years, but has just now decided to accept a baptism. After the Baptism we got 3 hoses to pump out the water and then the missionaries spent a couple hours cleaning up the mess.

I only have 2 min. so I will finish quick! It is going to be hard to leave Nelspruit! It has been my favorite area! I love it, and have grown to love the people very much!

Alright family that is all this week.
Love you all,

Elder Blake Williams