First of all, I'm sorry that I cannot send any pictures. I think my sd card has picked up a virus from hooking it into some of these sketchy computers that we email on. I will send more as soon as I get a chance to.
This week was an interesting one, even though not much really happened. It was kind of sad to start off with though. Being in township is fun because you see so much interesting stuff, but you also see some of the saddest things that you've ever seen. Just to name a couple, at the beginning of the week as we were coming out of our branch mission leaders shack we saw a drunk man carrying his newly born child and yelling curse words at what I think was a girlfriend of his or something. When he saw us he asked us to pray for him, and as we were following him and his child back to his shack we happened across the drunken mother of his newborn little girl (who we found out is still breast feeding the baby while she is drinking and taking who knows what). And keep in mind that I said mother and not wife. As you can guess some unkind words were exchanged as we passed. I have never been so confused as to how to handle a situation before. After we left the shack we came across another crying woman asking us to pray for her because her boyfriend has been beating her. It is so sad to see all of the dysfunction here. I know that it could all be healed if these people would just listen to what we have to say. I've seen some incredible changes in people's lives because of the gospel, but a lot of these people just don't seem to care that their life could be better. All that they care about is their next drink, hit, or sexual encounter.
The other day we saw another man drinking with his child in hand and his girlfriend right next to him so we thought that it would be a good change to possibly heal a broken family. As we talked to him, however, we found out that the child he was holding was one of five, with several different mothers. The strangest part of the whole situation is that he was listening to gospel music while doing all of this and found the entire situation funny. I'm trying to use these situations as motivation to work hard and heal families by sharing with them the gospel, but it's really hard not to be dragged down by all of these things that we see.
On a happier note, President Omer invited all of the missionaries to watch a presentation by the BYU Young Amassators called Harmony. They're touring all through the southern tip of Africa for a while and it was quite refreshing to take a break from proselyting and talk to some Americans after the show.
Other than that however, not much has happened this week. I don't know how many hours we've spent walking, but at least my legs don't get sore any more. I wouldn't mind though if we could get some of our appointments to stick. I think that out of like 26 appointments that we've scheduled this week like 8 of them actually kept. The ones that kept though were awesome. We've been teaching a couple of father led families that are keeping commitments and seem to be progressing. The first family is made up of a father named Kambani, a mother named Parten and a little girl. The second is a father named Gonny, a mother named Rachel and two sons. We've only met with them a couple of times but I already love them and our meetings with them make all of the walking and ditched appointments worth it.
I love you all and am so grateful for all of the letters. You're always in my prayers, and I hope that you are all doing all that you can to be better and grow to love the Savior and understand his Atonement. It's something that I have to work on continuously, and am still nowhere close to where I need to be. But I promise each of you, that as you try, you will see blessings.
Peace out,
Elder Balmforth
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