First Baptism

Hello friends and family!!

 

Another fantastic week on the lovely coast of Margate, South Africa. This week we had our first baptism in a really long time here in Margate! C____________ was baptized and everything went very smoothly. The branch is really struggling to have more priesthood holders so it is a blessing to have C_________ as a member now. The branch President baptized him and C_________has asked me to confirm him next Sunday. Kind of a little bit nervous to confirm someone for the first time but really humbled to have the opportunity to confirm him a member of the church.

 

Today for p-day we had a great day. We had the chance to visit this park (game reserve) known as Lake Eland. It's absolutely beautiful and we had a lot of fun. We went with the branch president here and had the chance to see a bunch of different animals! I got to chase some giraffes around which was pretty cool haha! Hopefully you enjoy the pictures. The suspension bridge was kind of freaky but really awesome!

 

The work is moving great here and we're continuing to make progress. We had the chance to teach a pastor this past week which was interesting. The first time we tracted into him we figured he would want to Bible bash, but after meeting with him a couple of times he is a very humble man. He was willing to listen to us and didn't even argue, that is until we got up to Joseph Smith. He said he doesn't believe there can be a Prophet on the earth today. We emphasized that "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." -Amos 3:7 and really tried to help him understand that God is the same yesterday, today and forever so surely there must be one true Prophet on the earth. He respected our views and invited us to come back. After teaching him about Joseph Smith at the end of our lesson I bore my testimony to him because I knew we wouldn't be coming back. I felt the Spirit so strong, Joseph Smith really did receive that divine call. Honestly the most difficult thing about the mission is that people are so close to the truth but yet so far. Of course we can only do the best we can and that's all the Lord requires.

 

There is an example given in zone conference that really helped me. It's the rule of 7's. All of us our somewhere different on the scale of 7's. Some of us are 7's and are fully converted to the gospel, while others we may find are only 1's or 2's. Sometimes those we teach will not accept, but often times as missionaries we are slowly moving them higher on the scale for future missionaries. We are simply planting the seed most times and it's important to remember that. We must always move forward in faith with an eye single to the glory!!

 

Real quick just a funny note. I have had 3 completely different people tell me I look like someone from TV but none of them know who! Just really odd that keeps happening, hopefully that guy is good looking and I'll take it as a compliment!

 

I love you guys!

 

Elder Summers

The Work Moves Forward

I'm so very blessed to be a servant in the Lord's hands at this time. I feel as though the Heaven's are raining down blessings upon us here in Margate. I'll just catch you up on a few things that happened.

On Thursday our district leader Elder Jenks came from Amazamtoti to Margate to interview C for baptism. Elder Jallah went to Amazamtoti so I was left to take the lead in all of our appointments on Thursday! We had some fantastic lessons and C is ready for baptism! He will be getting baptized this Sunday, we are so excited for him. His wife and two kids are members, they are a great family and so very humble, I love meeting with them. It will be such a boost to the branch to have another worthy Priesthood holder.

One cool story from this past week. We have an investigator named L, he is currently preparing to be baptized next month. He has been meeting with missionaries for a long time and wants to be baptized but his family wouldn't allow it. He finally as permission from his family but won't really have any support once he is baptized. We have been worried and thinking a lot about how he will be able to have support after his baptism. We have been praying as a companionship that we might be led to how we can help him stay active after his baptism, we don't want to burden the already struggling branch with an inactive teenager. Well we received an answer to our prayers, the Lord works in many ways and nothing happens by coincidence.

The answer to our prayers came through a kid named N. (I say kid but he's only a year younger then me haha) He recently moved to Margate for school, he will be here for about a year and half. We were referred to him by L. After talking with N briefly, we found out his Uncle in an RM who served his mission in England! N doesn't know much about the church but he's extremely interested an even had a triple combination given to him by his Uncle. When asked why he hasn't met with missionaries he told us he has never been given the chance but has always had the desire to meet. Well the next day we taught N the restoration and it was a great lesson, he is extremely humble and willing to learn. We invited him to pray about the B.O.M. and Joseph Smith. He wanted to meet almost everyday this past week! We had the chance to meet him 4 times, he said he was praying (I can tell very sincerely and with that real intent as Moroni tells us) but hadn't received an answer yet. He said he knows the Lord doesn't always answer immediately.

Well... the Lord really does answer! Yesterday N and L came to church together. N told us afterwards that he really enjoyed Sunday school and learning about the B.O.M., I was shocked by how much he understood when he explained what he enjoyed. Anyways, later that Sunday afternoon we were driving to an appointment when we saw N and L walking on the side of the road. We stopped briefly and rolled our window down, N came up to our car and told us: "Hey guys, I received an answer to my prayers. I had all of those feelings you explained to me. I'm ready to be baptized" We had told him of the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 the day before and that's how we often receive answers. Wow! That's the first and probably the last time I'll have an investigator tell me they received an answer to their prayer while sitting in the drivers seat of our car haha. He is going to be baptized the same day as his friend L, September 23rd! The Lord answered our prayers, L now has that support and it's amazing to see his renewed desire to come to church and be baptized.

Missionary work is divine and we are guided by the Lord in all things. I only hope to be an instrument in His hands in all that I do. I have come to learn that it is through the spirit that God's children are truly converted. It has nothing to do with me, I am simply the Lord's mouthpiece. It is so important to stay worthy and obedient in order to have the spirit penetrate the hearts of those we teach. There is a quote I heard from Elder Holland that I love. "When we teach by the spirit, the lesson ceases to be our own and becomes our Heavenly Father's." This is so true. When the spirit truly touches the lives of these people, it leads to action. As President Uchtdorf said in a talk I recently read, "A sermon without action is like a fire without heat." All that we say MUST lead to action or it is of no use.

Thank you so much for all of the letters I received this past week!! Letters for a missionary are seriously like Christmas morning for a child haha. They are such a boost! I love you all and pray for you often. All the best from South Africa!!

Elder Summers

Summers, Jenks, N and L

First package from home with Y gear and candy

Jallah and Summers apparently flashing South African gang signs?

Collage in Brandon's Apt. 

Krypton and Lou Lou...Official Missionary Mascots who live on the property

Time Moves Fast

Hello everyone! 

An up and down week but it's amazing how fast time moves when you’re having fun and working hard. Mission work really is fun if you work hard and have fun while doing it. I get to teach people the truth, grow closer to my Savior and eat great food every day! I'm doing my best not to gain weight haha, so far so good! On Tuesday and Wednesday it was raining like crazy, when it rains it pours here. I have never seen so much rain in my life, I literally felt like I was in a hurricane for two days. As I mentioned, this past week had it's up and downs. I was feeling great after emailing home last week and we had a great day on Tuesday, but then boom I started getting sick on Wednesday. The flu and colds have been going around here. I started to get a cold on Wednesday and felt completely exhausted, it was really hard to stay motivated and keep moving forward.

Thursday I was really struggling and didn't even feel like talking to people. We had a lot of appointments fall through on top of being sick (5 of our 7 fell through that day). My companion and I went back to our apartment so I could take some medicine, I told him that I wasn't feeling to great so I asked if we could get on our knees and pray. The power of prayer is such a real thing, the rest of our day completely turned around. I have been feeling a lot better the last two days, I'm so grateful for the strength the Lord gives us as missionaries.

I'm so grateful for the trials and challenges we face as missionaries. It is in the furnace of affliction when we truly develop the attributes of Godliness which will enable us to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I've come to appreciate how central the atonement is to missionary work. When we feel the atonement in our life and truly understand its significance, we cannot help but care for those we teach each day. A great indicator of whether we've been truly converted and developed that testimony of the Savior is our desire to share the gospel with others. We cannot truly understand the atonement and the need for Christ until we fully comprehend and accept the fall of Adam and Eve. I've come to really learn more about the doctrine of the fall, the more I understand the fall, the more I come to learn of the atonement and it's great significance to mankind. There is a quote from President Benson which I love that I found the other day: "Just as man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ." The atonement is so real and I'm grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior.

I mentioned in my last letter that there was a sister we tracted into and started teaching. Her name is P……and we have a scheduled baptismal date for September 23rd! She has attended church every week since we met with her. The other day we went to meet with her but she wasn't home which was a little bit strange because she has been really excited each time we go to meet with her. Well as we were driving away, we saw her on the street walking home. We spoke with her for a few minutes and we could tell she was distraught. She was almost crying, she told us she had no money for food for her and her little 7 year old son. We felt heart broken and didn't know what to do, she said she couldn't meet until the next day. After talking with her the two of us felt so humbled and thankful for all that we have.

We decided that night to make her muffins and brought her some other food the next day when we met with her. She was very grateful and our lesson with her went amazing. She said that we are an answer to her prayers and she has been searching for a church for a long time. Many of the churches she had attended she didn't "feel" anything. She says she feels happy each time she meets with us and goes to our church. She called us after we left and she said we left her in tears because she was so grateful we came into her life. We're really excited and can't wait to prepare her further for her baptism.

This past week I came across something that told me to pray as a missionary for unplanned opportunities to serve others. We began to do this as a companionship, wow it's amazing how the Lord gives us those opportunities. We had about 3 or 4 people we ran into and started to help them with different chores, they were willing to listen to us and we gave them some pamphlets. I'll give a quick story about one lady who was more than willing to listen. We were tracting when we found these two ladies doing some digging around the house. We offered to help, they were a little confused but then we took their shovels (in our white clothes) and started doing their work for them. We found out they were hired hands to do some work for that home. Well the owner of that home, saw us doing that work for them and was shocked! She came out after we had been there for about 15 minutes and invited us to come in. She gave us some drinks and some food, we had to go so we didn't have time to teach her but we set a return appointment. We returned two days later and sat down with her, we found out she had been visited by missionaries 15 years ago! She still had the B.O.M. in her home on the book shelf. We started to clarify some of her questions about the B.O.M and taught her the restoration. She has deep roots in the Anglican religion but it was a good lesson and we'll be returning next week.

Currently we still have 6 investigators with baptismal dates. One of them, his name is C, is getting baptized on the 26th of this month. He is a champion and has a strong testimony. His wife and kids are members so he has a lot of support. The biggest struggle is that he has had to learn English the past year, but he has finally learned enough and developed a testimony for himself. It will be a huge support to have a father led family in the branch. There are not very many priesthood holders here (only about 6 that I can count besides us).

Honestly I don't feel like the mission is much of a sacrifice, I feel as though the blessings of heaven are being poured upon me and this area. We are finding a lot of success and really moving the work forward here. I love the people, it's disappointing when people reject our message but I know that everyone has been given agency and they don't know what they are missing!

Thanks for the letters that I have received from you guys, getting a letter in the mail is a HUGE support and really gives me a boost as a missionary.

Love you guys!

Elder Summers

Exchanges Again!

Hello everyone!

Easily one of the best weeks in the mission so far, time moves so far here. I just got back from bowling in Toti for p-day with our district, I don't have very much time to email unfortunately. This past week I had my first zone conference! So on Wednesday we had exchanges with our DL's from Toti (about an hour from Margate). The next day we had zone conference in Durban which was a great experience. It was awesome to meet a lot of the other Elder's and to see President Von Stetten again. I was really motivated after coming out of zone conference. President talked a lot about effort and attitude as a missionary. Our mission equation is hard work + faith + obedience = miracles. Missionary work is hard but I have found that when we do these 3 things nothing can stop us. A positive attitude plus positive effort will bring about miracles if we exercise faith in the Lord, this is not just in missionary work but in everyday life. We need to make faith become a real power in our lives.

There was a question posed in zone conference which I really spent a lot of time reflecting on. Are we simple masquerading as a missionary or are we true disciples of Christ? As it talks about in John 21, we must leave our nets behind as Peter and never look back- always looking forward to Christ. I have really felt the difference in how intune I am with the spirit when I really am focused on following Christ.

Besides zone conference Elder Jallah and I had a fantastic week here in Margate. At church we had 8 of our 11 progressing investigators come to church which is phenominal. Each week since I have been here church attendance has slowly increased and we are really making progress with our investigators. One sister we tracted into about a week and a half ago is literally a "golden investigator." After teaching her the plan of salvation, we invited her to church last Sunday (not yesterday but the week before). Well we weren't really that surprised that she didn't show up to church that next day after inviting her. Well we go to meet her last Tuesday and find out that she walked all the way down by our chapel but she couldn't find it! So we gave her better directions and she was able to make it yesterday. We extended a baptismal invite and she accepted! We currently have 6 investigators with baptismal dates and we are planning on extending a couple more invites to some investigators this week. We're really excited and making a lot of progress here.

I have a couple of other stories but unfortunately I'm running short on time. A couple of quick thoughts:

1. Chocolate and soda here is delicious and super cheap. I'm seriously going to load my suitcase when I come back home. (50cents for a snickers bar!!)

2. Rain storms here are insane, nothing compared to back home. So intense.

3. Taught a Muslim this past week which was very interesting, I feel sorry for my buddy going to serve in Turkey haha. They are tough to teach! He was asking me if I believe Muslims all blow up people, my thoughts on 9/11 and the Iraq war?! He invited us to his Mosque also but as missionaries we had to decline of course.

Anyways, the work is moving forward and we are very blessed as missionaries! I have never felt the influence of the Savior more in my life and felt more in tune with the Spirit. What a blessing to be serving the Lord.

Love you all,

Elder Summers

Exchanges!

Sowubona friends and family!

 

A great and busy week here in Margate. This past week I had the chance to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I'm not going to lie, being a new missionary I was a little nervous to go and teach with the ZL's but it ended up being a great experience. So my comp and I are about an hour and half away from the closest missionaries, we're the only companionship here in Margate. My comp stayed in Margate and I went to Umlazi for exchange. Umlazi is a massive township divided into different sections, about 10 missionaries cover the township of Umlazi. It was entirely different from Margate. Houses don't have gates, there is much more poverty and surprinsgly enough people speak English much better there and are WAY more willing to meet with you. Everyone was incredibly friendly and humble, the gospel is growing rapidly there. For the two days I was there we had an appointment every single hour, we didn't even doing an tracting. It was a great learning experience and I took a lot from my two days there.

 

When I got back to Margate I felt like a new missionary and felt very motivated once again. My companion and I have really been thinking about how we can find success in Margate. Missionaries have come in and gone out of this area with minimal success, we don't want to do that. The power of prayer and fasting is a real thing, it made a huge difference this week. We felt prompted to look at former investigators in this area and we have started tracting in entirely new areas. We are also getting the members much more involved. We are already seeing a profound difference in just a few days. We met with multiple former investigators and they were extremely excited to see us, hopefully some of them will be able to progress. Tracting in new areas has brought results. The 5 investigators we have with baptismal dates right now are making progress and will be a great strength to the branch.

 

This past week we got a lot of crazy questions, the things you hear or face as missionaries are nuts! I feel like I'm making some of these up.

1. "Why did God give us lust if Christ said lust is a sin?" Uhh, I think you got lust and love mixed up buddy. Haha.

2. "Are you two saved? Because our house is saved."

3. "Oh your the mormons, the one's who don't believe in the bible!"

4. "Do you believe in the devil?"

5. "Why can bad people perform miracles if they don't hold your priesthood?"

6. "Do you two have girlfriends?" Hmm... how to answer that one haha.

7. "Where are these gold plates? Is there a picture or some evidence I can see of these gold plates?" Why yes, yes there is.(I point to the Book of Mormon in his hands)

 

Yeah we had even more then that but you get the idea, weird situations as a missionary!

 

Saturday we had car problems AGAIN. We go to our car for our first appointment when sure enough our car doesn't start. I can tell the battery isn't dead so I couldn't figure out the problem, it sounded like something was wrong with the ignition. We had a bunch of appointments that day so this was terrible timing. My comp and I said a prayer, after we prayed I had a thought come to my mind. The past week we had replaced the old key which was slightly bent, I decided to pull out the old bent key and try it in the ignition. Well after wiggling it into the ignition, sure enough the car starts up! The power of prayer is a real thing! It's a good thing because the closest church mechnanic is TWO hours away in Durban.

 

 

I have been reflecting a lot this past week on how we can recognize promptings of the spirit in our lives. How do we know when it's really the spirit prompting us? Overpowering spiritual experiences do not happen often, how do we recognize the spirit in our daily lives? Well there is a scripture that we use a lot as missionaries that directly answered my question when I thought about it. Ephesians 5:22 tells us the feelings of the spirit: Peace, love, temperance, etc. I have seen the difference as a missionary as I have dilligently searched the scriptures and earnestly prayed to the Lord for guidance. I constantly feel at peace, even at times of discouragment (which happens quite often as missionary). I always feel like doing good and I've seen such a profound difference since I have come on my mission. When people slam doors in your face, tell you they are not interested or don't accept your teaching, I think normally I would be upset but honestly I just feel sorrow. I feel sorry for that person that they don't know what they are missing and I keep moving forward in faith at all times.

 

A lot of times as a missionary you can feel discouraged or overwhelemed, but there was something I read the other day from Elder Holland that hit me really hard. "Don't hyperventilate about something that happened in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you in the evening-" We have a lot of appointments that fall through here (all 7 of our appointments Sunday feel through) but often times I find that the Lord blesses us later on. We cannot be so caught up on the disappointments in missionary work that we lose focus on what really matters. No matter how much we may be struggling, no one can sink lower than the light of the Savior's atonement. The atonment is a real thing and our Heavenly Father will always be there for us.

 

Love you guys.

 

Salakhle!

Elder Summers

 

Latest from Margate, SA

Family and friends!

Another week in the life of a missionary is complete, it was a pretty tough week. Had some difficulties with the car this week, they are such a blessing but a hinderance sometimes! We spent our entire P-day getting the car serviced and fixed up today. So here's what happened... Last P-day after emaling we went to Port Shepstone (about 25 minutes from here) to get the car key fixed, it was sort of bent. We take it to the dealership and it seriously took about 2 hours to get a new key after jumping through a ton of hoops. After getting the new key, they take a look at our service log and the car hasn't been serviced in a REALLY long time, they said that it's dangerous to even be driving it haha. We couldn't get it serviced that day though because they were about to close so we scheduled an appointment for this morning. Well during this past week the car battery died and we had to get the branch President to come give our car a jump. Anyways, today we brought it in and it took about 5 hours to get it serviced and the battery replaced. After it all got fixed, our credit card wasn't working so that took a while to get it all sorted out. So what did I learn from this if anything? Patience truly is a virtue and more specifically a Christ like attribute. I had been studying Preach My Gospel this morning and reading through the Christ Like Attributes section, I read over the section on being patient for a while. I'm glad I read over that and we definietly had to exercise patience with the car this past week haha.

Okay so now that I'm done complaining about the car, onto what matters most: Forwarding God's Kingdom on the earth today! On Wednesday we drove down to Durban for Zone Training Meeting. One of the goals my comp and I came out with was to weed out our teaching pool and to focus more on proselyting around the chapel. We have a couple of investigators who we would consider "Eternal Investigators." One of those investigators is a lady who has been meeting with missionaries since Feburary of 2011! I was shocked when I was told this. The only commitment she keeps is that she reads the B.O.M. each time. She never attends church and doesn't have a baptismal date. While we met with her on Tuesday, I felt prompted at the end of our lesson to ask her why she has met with the missionaries for so long and what she expects each time we visit. This lady doesn't like questions and I didn't want to ask the wrong question, but I felt prompted to ask. She responded by telling us that she expects us to preach our message and eventually once were all done to leave and she will continue to attend her church. Wow, I was stunned. Basically somewhere a long the line the missionaries failed to help her understand our purpose. Well after she said that my companion and I bore powerful testimony and made it VERY clear what our purpose is, the spirit was really strong. So if she wants to meet with us in the future she has our number and hopefully we'll be able to go back sometime and help her take that next step towards baptism. In addition to not meeting with this sister anymore, we also had to drop some of our investigators out in Gomilocki. It's just too far away from the township and the people that live there can't get to church so unfortunately we're not utilizing the Lord's time effectively by continuing to teach them. It's sad to have to discontinue teaching some of them because they are so humble and willing to listen. The other problem with teaching people in the township is that they don't understand English very well. I've come to believe that for the church to really expand exponentially in Africa there will have to be missionaries who speak the native languages here. Many of the poorer Africans don't know English well enough and aren't as willing to meet with you. Unfortunately I only know Zulu for basic conversations, not teaching the gospel!

We also did a lot of proselyting around the chapel this week and man is that tough. I almost feel like I'm in Europe with some of the difficulties we face when it comes to people wanting to meet with us. Around the chapel here are the rich homes, these people have huge fences and pretty scary dogs. So most people aren't very willing to meet with us but we did make some good contact. I know the Lord is preparing people for us to meet, I firmly believe that if we continue to exercise faith, obedience and dilligence we will be blessed and be led to those in need of the gospel.

Besides that everything is going well. My companion is awesome and has an amazing testimony. I've seen the hand of the Lord through my short time here on the mission and I have come to really appreciate the power of prayer. It's amazing what a prayer in the morning will do for your day and the difference it makes when you really listen after you pray. The Lord truly is mindful of each and every one of us as it says in Alma 26:37. I've grown to appreciate the B.O.M. so much, there is so much to learn from its teachings. I love the people here and want so badly for them to reap the blessings of the gospel. It's sometimes disappoting when they aren't willing to listen but I know that everything happens for a reason and some people just aren't prepared yet. Each time we talk to someone or hand out a pamphlet, I know that we are planting a seed for future missionaries. The church is so true and missionary work is truly divine!

Love you guys!

Hamba salhe!

Elder Summers

First Week in New Area

Sowubona family and friends!!

Yebo!! What a crazy first week in the mission field! Eesh, I don't even know where to begin. Well I've been assigned to serve in Margate as my first area. Funny story in regards to getting assigned here. Two days before I flew to Durban my teacher in the MTC (He served in Durban) was giving us a lesson about having a positive attitude on the mission even in difficult areas. He said that every mission has an area that no one wants to serve in and for the Durban mission that area is Margate. Sure enough two days later I'm meeting with my mission President and he tells me I will be serving in Margate! That lesson my teacher gave was just for me and honestly I'm really excited to be here! My companion, Elder Jallah, is from Liberia and he has been on the mission for about 7 months. He is awesome! Very hardworker, obedient and humble. I'm excited to be serving with him and we're going to find success if we continue to trust in the Lord.

I'll rewind a little bit and talk about my past week. My last Sunday in the MTC I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting, I spoke on restitution and it went well. The last day in the MTC (Monday) we had a powerful testimony meeting, the spirit was so strong and the missionaries coming out of the MTC there are going to change lives. The next morning we headed to the airport, we had to get up at 4AM!! I was so tired but we got to the airport and took off for Durban. The flight was so short compared to getting to South Africa which took like 50 hours. Flying into Durban was amazing, so green and the beaches looked incredible. The President, his wife and the AP's met us at the airport. I rode back with the President and while we were driving he said to me: "Elder Summers, pay attention to the roads because you will be driving today!" Uhhh... what? It's my first day here and your already sticking me in a car! They drive on the left side so I was kind of scared honestly. When we got to the President's home he told us he needed to interview with me and another Elder first because we are being sent to places which are further away. Well he called me in and told me I was assigned to go to Margate which is about 3 hours away from Durban. After interviewing with him I had to go out on a test drive to make sure I would be alright on the roads, they told me I passed with flying colors. Aren't I good? Haha just messing, it's really not too bad at all. You just have to watch out for all the crazy taxi drivers here!! Since I have been driving my companion has only had to yell at me once for accidentally driving on the right side haha.

The President and his wife are just great. They're both very friendly, love the missionaries and are very dedicated. When we were at their house the first thing I noticed were all the monkeys flying around in the trees! We were having lunch and there were monkeys coming within feet of us. One of the monkeys even tried to steal some of our food but he ended up dropping it haha. Another one of the monkeys ran into the house and we had to chase it out! Welcome to Africa! Definietly don't see that at home.

Well after that I met my companion and we headed straight for Margate. It was about a 3 hour drive and we arrived at around 4pm. First we unpacked in our boarding and I got settled in a little bit. Our boarding is on the property of the Branch President here, his property is pretty big. The Branch President here is a great guy and he is really trying to strengthen the branch here. Our 2 appointments that night got bunked so I met with the 1st counselor and we had dinner with him and his wife. Their house overlooks the beach and it's absolutely spectacular.

A little bit about Margate. It's a "holiday community" which means that during the holiday season (which is when school is out, it just ended today) this town is busy! Margate is located right on the coast and it's absolutely beautiful! It reminds me a lot of Alpine because the homes here are extremely nice, it's very green, there aren't many businesses and it's pretty small. The area we cover though is quite large and there is a vast wealth gap. One minute you will see mansions and the next you will see extreme poverty, we see both ends of the spectrum. The poverty is terrible in some areas and it really hurts me to see it. One area we went to the other day, Gomilocki (probably butchered that name), is a township. Townships are pretty run down areas with a lot of poverty and crime. We had a couple of appointments there and all the people were shocked to see a white guy walking around. There are never any white people that go there, not all of them are too friendly towards whites for various reasons but for the most part everyone was pretty friendly.

This past week has had it's up's and downs when it comes to meeting with people. A lot of our appointments get bunked so we did quite a bit of tracting. We got quite a few new investigators this week and taught some great lessons. Last night we had one of our best lessons together as a companionship. About 4 days ago we were tracting and found a house with kids out front. They told us their mom wasn't home because she was in Durban arranging funeral plans for their dad who had just died. So tough to see those 3 kids there and realize they don't have a dad now. We left them with a plan of salvation packet and told them we would come back. We tried 3 times to come back but each time their mom was gone. We finally met here and arranged an appointment for last night. We taught her the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong. She seemed to be getting kind of emotional and she was very interested in our message. The entire time we taught the lesson I could just see them together as a family going through the temple and being sealed to their dad, I want so badly for them to know of the truthfulness of what we are teaching. I have come to love the people so much already, it pains me when people aren't willing to accept the message. I'm not disappointed but saddened that they don't know what they could have with the gospel.

On Thursday I got a call from the first counselor asking me if I could speak in sacrament on Sunday for 20 or more minutes. I was actually pretty excited to speak. I spoke on faith and hope in times of adversity, I felt like the talk went pretty well. It was a good way to introduce myself to the branch and bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. So the last 2 Suday's I have had the chance to speak! I should be pretty good at this by the end of my mission haha. The branch here is pretty small, only about 30 to 35 members each week. The huge challenges with forwarding the church in this area are poverty, the culture and transportation. The rich here aren't willing to listen to us and the impoverished just can't make it to church. A lot of the poorer communities live far away from the chapel and they don't have cars, they only way to come to church is by taxi. While there are difficulties we are already finding success as a companionship. The branch hasn't had a baptism since Feburary, that's a pretty long time. The Durban mission is growing rapidly but this area in paticular struggles. Despite the struggles, we have 5 investigators with baptismal dates right now! The second day I was here I was able to set a baptismal date with a young man who has been wanting to be baptized so that was exciting. Hopefully we'll be able to continue to find new investigators and strengthen the branch here.

I'm very excited to be in Margate. People are very friendly here and for the most part willing to listen to your message. The weather has been surprisingly cold but hopefully it starts to warm up! A couple of things I've learned about South Africa and Margate since I've been here:

1. They love KFC, no joke they are everywhere!

2. There are speed bumps everywhere in Margate, not really sure why but it's kind of annoying haha

3. It's really really dark at night and kind of sketchy. Now I understand why they don't want us tracting at night.

Overall I'm loving my time here! The people are amazing, my testimony has never been stronger and I know we will find success if we stay obedient and work hard. This is the true church on the earth today and I have never been more sure of it. It has blessed my life so much. It's not a sacrifice to be on my mission, it's a tremendous blessing. I only hope I can bring the message of the gospel to families so they can reap the blessings of being apart of this church. Time is flying by, I can't believe I have already been here a month.

Keep moving forward in faith. I love you guys and hope everything is going well in the states!

-Elder Summers