How's it wena?

Area - Sunnyside, Pretoria
Companion - Elder Foote
Letter #18

PRETORIA— Gas is $4.50 a gallon?? man, I guess it's close here. R10.30 a liter. Not exactly sure what the conversion is... Dad, you can't get a lame prius though cause then I can't tell people about the sweet truck my dad has! ha. Wish I could be skating with you guys! But I showed a kid how to ollie on the skateboard the other day in my missionary attire. I will be honest, I think it's against mission rules to ride skateboards :/

Yes we did have transfers and so I have a new companion! His name is Elder Foote and he is from Reno, Nevada. He has been out 9 months and this is his 3rd area. We are having a great time and are already super good friends. I was expecting to get a black companion since that's how most companionships are unless you are training but I got Elder Foote which was surprising ha. I think that we are going to do some good missionary work together and we are going to be able to have fun at the same time. I'm excited.

Every transfer meeting there is a musical performance of some kind by whoever wants to and so Elder Clarke (zone leader last transfer, currently in Utah and probably already proposed to his gf) did a cool thing. One guy started with one o those shaker things (yes my vocabulary is terrible) and then C man started his beat on the djembe and then 2 guys started playing the guitar and then 2 other guys started singing. They did the song Armies of Helaman or whatever it is called but you should check to see if it got posted to Youtube by parents some time this week cause it was super cool!

This week, because we had to go to Joburg for transfers we had to limit our k's that we used on the car the rest of the week so we just stayed in Pretoria central and walked everywhere which I have never done before. I felt like a missionary from The Best Two Years since they are in the city too. It was cool just saying hi to everyone and talking to so many people. Usually in the past we would just drive everywhere but I say forget that! Elder Foote is fun to be around cause of how happy he is and his ability to talk to people and be friendly. I was always scared and never really got the chance yet but now I enjoy it, and talking to people on the street, no matter who it is, is just fun. Nothin better than having fun doing missionary work!

 The other day we were at a street corner and some guy behind us says "hey do you get high??" Of course we said no and he kept asking us random questions along the lines of that one and he just couldn't believe it. "You're from California and you don't do drugs??" He was just a regular teenager. Well he was probs like 24 cause I always think they are younger than they really are. I always think the blacks are younger than they are and they always think I'm older than I am. One time a guy thought I was 26! Anyway, it's just crazy how normal these things are and you can't be normal unless you smoke, drink, whatever. I'm glad I know better.

Another event from the week. There is a lady, Aida, that has come to church a few times with her kids and she has been wanting us to come teach her. Uno problemo. She only speaks Portuguese and some other African language so we haven't been able to teach her. A guy who speaks her language moved into our ward last week so we set up a time to go see her on weds. Sfiso helped us by translating and then he just got carried away and taught her stuff since he was a missionary before ha. So we didn't do too much talking. We were able to teach a little bit about God and Jesus Christ and also about prayer and then we gave her a chapter to read in the portuguese Book of Mormon that she already had. The next time we went her husband was home but Sfiso couldn't come and so we had to go without him. It was pretty difficult but the good thing was that if we gave her something to read she always understands it very well. Her husband can speak ok english and so he could kind of translate. It's weird having to have a translator and I kind of know what it must be like to be greenie in a mission where you have to speak a diff language! ha. They are a good family though, three grown up kids who are members in a diff ward and three more kids at home all under 10 yrs.

I have had a super week and I'm glad that I got Elder Foote as my new companion. We will have a great time together! I honestly had more fun as a missionary this week than I have the whole time. Not fun like doing things that we are not allowed just making the best of every situation, laughing about things, putting smiles on others faces and teaching the gospel by the spirit!

Love you family and I hope that you have another fantastic week! So much is happening there and it sounds realy exciting from this end! I hope my e-mails sound like I am having a good time as well. Cause I am! ha.

Oh, and nope I don't know Dave's pals but they could be in the Pretoria East ward.


-Elder Dirkmaat :D