July 29.2013

Thobela,

Hello everyone, I hope you each had an awesome week. It was pretty slow, but ended well this side of the world.

We were supposed to have a baptism on Sunday, but the chapel is undergoing some renovations so we had to meet in the Community centre which meant that we didn't have access to the baptismal font. Also, at the rate the construction workers are going it wont be finished for several weeks, so we're not quite sure when the baptism will be. I suppose we could just do it in the river that runs through our area, but I believe that the ratio of water to sewage has shifted in favour of the sewage, and I'm scared enough of the HIV as it is. So we'll wait.

Work was pretty slow going this week, but it ended well. We had a bunch of investigators at church again this week which was awesome. All have a lot of potential for baptism in the upcoming months. It was really cool. Heavenly Father has been blessing Elder Pedersen and I a lot this last little while. We have done something to please the referral gods. We've been getting referrals like crazy.

This week we're half way through the transfer which means I only have 2.5 left which equates to 15 weeks. Crazy right. It has been going by slow and fast all at the same time. I am super excited to come home though.

I love and miss you all.

Peace out.

Elder Balmforth

July 22. 2013

Everyone,

This week was actually a really good one. I'm still happy that it's Monday though. We didn't do anything cool last Monday, nor do we have anything really cool planned for this one, but the work was pretty good.

Yesterday we had two father led families at church that loved it and are planning on coming back next week. One of the we committed to baptism on the 29th of March. Elder Pedersen and I have a lot of hope for them.

We've basically given up tracting. We acquired a copy of the branch's membership list and have been going through and trying to locate part member families and less actives. We've also been visiting weekly each of the main active families in our area to teach them how to have family home evening and to try and squeeze some referrals out of them. It's been working to our benefit so far. And we're only on page 4 out of 21 total. So wish us luck.

We have a baptism planned for next week. A boy named Joel, who has a brother who is a member already. He's a cool kid. I like him a lot. We'll keep you updated as far as that goes.

It has been pretty awesome this week. Heavenly Father has blessed us a lot. I hope it has been the same for you all. I love you.

Elder Balmforth

June 15. 2013

Howdy,

This week went by super slowly, but at least it's over now. I wish that I could say that something interesting happened, but alas, nothing did.

Just the standard finding, teaching, sleeping. We tried to put some people on date, but it didn't work. We're still going though.

My temple recommend expired so President Omer is going to come and interview me for a new one tomorrow. That should be fun.

I'm studying the old testament right now. 1 Samuel. It's cool. A lot cooler than anything Moses wrote anyway. That's about it. Sorry. 

I love and miss you all.

Elder Balmforth

Christmas at the Drassen's Photos

June 8. 2013

Hello,

We have reached the end of another transfer this week. Everyone around me is staying put though. I'm happy to be with Elder Pedersen though.

It was a good week this week. Not terribly interesting though. Elder Pedersen became really sick on Wednesday this week so we spend all day at home. I did a lot of reading.

We had dinner at Elder and Sister Smith's on Friday. They are a senior couple from California that work in Tzaneen. They made awesome American food. I miss food from home. I've been thinking of restaurants all week that I want to eat at when I get home. I am so sick of KFC. When we are in black areas it's all they have though. It's a little ridiculous. But when you gotta eat you gotta eat. Although I don't think I'll eat there ever again once I'm back.

One of the African Elders that we live with and I had a pretty big argument. It was silly but it was really making me mad that they spend all of our prep time in the morning to shower themselves leaving my companion and I nothing so we end up getting to our study late. I may have yelled. But I apologized and our relationship with the other missionaries has actually been a lot better since my little blow up. Funny how that works sometimes.

We also had the confirmation of Kenny, the man we baptised last week. It went very smoothly. He's a really good guy.

Other than that we've just been tracting and trying not to bash with people. People around here are just looking for a fight sometimes. They hear weird things, like that we drink blood and eat children and they actually believe it. It's hard for me to believe how stupid people can be sometimes. But whatever.

I fished the new testament and now am getting back into the old. Should be an adventure. 

I love and miss you all. Happy 4th.

Elder Balmforth

July 1. 2013

People,

This is now the last week of the transfer. I think everyone is staying where they are though. That means only three left though.

This week was an interesting one. We began by seeing the only tame wild hippo in the world. We were able to touch it, feed in and I even kissed it. And it was a girl hippo. I kissed a girl on mission. Look at that.

This week we did a ton of finding this week. Not a whole lot of fruit, but what fruit there is, is sweet. We'll see this week though if all of our labors paid off. I sure hope so. 

We've been trying to do a lot of service to escape from the world of tracting and we've had some interesting experiences because of it. We've been helping this recently converted woman whose name is Sister Violet to clear a field so she can plant some crops. Elder Pedersen have cleared almost an acre and created furrows and everything by hand with just a couple of broken garden tools. It's fun though. 

We also tried to find some community service ideas by going to the magistrate court and the police station and speaking to the higher ups that didn't lead us anywhere. One of the police captains told us to come the following day and help with something they were doing at the community hall, so we showed up and just ended up listening to a bunch of people from other churches rant for almost two hours about rape in a language I didn't understand. I understood the motions they were making though which were a little disturbing.

We did have a baptism this Sunday. A man named Kenny and the confirmation of the girl we baptized last week. The week was really long. I thought it would never end, but looking back it was a good one.

I love and miss you all and hope all is well at home. See you all in 19 weeks.

Elder Balmforth