August 26. 2013

Family,

this will be brief. Sorry. This week was slow, but good. We had a bunch of investigators at church though which was cool.

We had our District Conference this week. It was pretty ridiculous. We had it in the same community hall we were having Sacrament meeting in a few weeks ago. There was a ton of people but the sound set up was horrible and the way the church members decorated the hall was super ridiculous. I couldn't understand basically anything that was said, but our investigators said they liked it, so whatever.

I've had some crazy African version of the flu for the last few days too which has sucked. If our toilet was capable of feelings, it would hate me.

Anyway, that's about it. I hope you all have a good week though.

Elder Balmforth

August 19. 2013

Family,

We've finally reached the end of another transfer. Only two left now. That means twelve weeks, crazy right?

I love my new companion, he's probably one of my very favorites that I've had thus far. Actually, he'll probably be my last unless something strange happens. We get along really well though. And, Elder Kavindja, from the other companionship that lives with us is leaving, and we're not exactly sad to see him go. So, all in all, it was a good week.

Our turnout at church this week wasn't anything special, but it was still good. We are still very blessed, and the area is many times better than when I first arrived. It was also good to be back to a normal church schedule again, now that the roof of the chapel is finished.

We did our Mormon helping hands project on Saturday. It was actually a lot of fun to get out and do some service. Nice not to wear Sunday clothes for once. Elder Dalton and I did work, the other two missionaries are some of the laziest guys I've seen though. But it's OK, we're having a change tomorrow.

Next week we have our district conference, and since we live in a mission dependent district, President Omer is like the Stake President, so I get to see him again this week. I like that guy a lot.

Anyway, I love and miss you all. See you soon.

Elder Balmforth

August 13. 2013

Family,

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. It was really fun. In fact the reason that I couldn't write yesterday is because we had the chance to go to Kruger National Park. It was awesome. It was like a safari where we were able to see wild buffalo, zebra, deer, wart hogs, a leopard, giraffe, and a ton of elephants and hippos. In fact we ended up in the middle of this whole herd of elephants, big and small. Our truck made one of the elephants that we came across mad and it started to make a big scene about our presence. It was really cool. I'll try to send the pictures next week as I don't have a lot of time today.

We had a zone conference in Johannesburg where we watched the new mission president seminar the work of salvation. It was really cool. I loved it. I'm so glad that the presidency decided to show it to the whole church. If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

I was also able to meet my new companion Elder Dalton when I went down. He's from Monroe, UT, is twenty years old and is about six months on mission so far. He's a really cool guy though and I like him a lot. He might be my last, how crazy is that? And, as of today I have only thirteen weeks left. Ninety-two days. One week left of the transfer, and only two more transfers. It feels so weird. Good, but weird.

We also had a good week at church. We're meeting in our chapel again finally, although we can only have sacrament meeting because the entire building isn't finished yet. It was good though. We had the confirmation of Joel who was baptised last week which was cool, and a bunch of our investigators showed up again, even some new ones.

I love and miss you all so very much. I hope your week was as good as mine was. 

Elder Balmforth

August 5.2013

Family,

This week was a good one. We had a baptism for a boy that we've been teaching named Joel yesterday. He's from a part member family. He showed up late and freaked us out though. Punk. The actual baptism and program went smoothly though.

We also had a lot of investigators at church again. The ones we have are coming quite consistently now and most of them are scheduled for baptism at the end of September. It should be good. And all the investigators that came to church stayed afterward to attend the baptism which was really cool.

On Saturday we received a call from President Omer informing us that my companion Elder Pedersen is being transferred early. Apparently some of the missionaries that are supposed to be going to Zimbabwe are having problems obtaining visas, so our mission is temporarily absorbing them until the problem can be sorted out. So they have to shift us around to make it all happen. My new companion's name is Elder Dalton, and yes it's a different Dalton from my second companion. I'll meet him on Thursday when we are going down to Johannesburg for a Zone Conference. He's from the same group as Elder Pedersen, and he tells me that he's a really cool guy. From what I understand though, he's huge.

Other news, Elder Bednar is coming to visit my mission in October so odds are that I'll meet another Apostle. Crazy right?.

That's all folks. I love and miss you all.

Peace out.

Elder Balmforth