Christmas!

Boom another week!  Can't believe how fast these weeks are going!  

Elder Dutson and I on Christmas Eve

Christmas day at the Mahara's House!

 Gift from a member!  1/10th Gold Kruger Rand!

We have bikes!  Whoohoo!

Some of the other missionaries wanted to trade bikes for our car and we agreed.  Time to ride on these crazy hills and get super fit.  Christmas went very well and we had a great time.  I loved talking to the family, but it went by way to fast. Only four and a half months until Mother's Day!  It was pretty weird having no snow and having 70 degree weather instead.  I prefer the snow much more.  I can't believe my next post will be in 2014.  Pretty crazy to think about.  Well I hope you all have a great New Years and I will see you next year.

Cheers!

Elder Segil 

Baptism, Hit by a car, and Miss a guy getting shot!

Well another good week here in Bedforview and lots happened, so I got a lot to talk about.  First as you can see below, we had a baptism.  His name is Dhiril Kilulwe Mulumba! (Dir-il Kil-loo-way Moo-loom-buh).  A little easier to say it when you look at it this way.  It took a while and many times saying it in my head to get it right and when the moment came for baptism, I nailed it!  He is a very smart kid and I was honored to be the one to baptize him!  I taped this program in my Journal and as you can see on the top right, it was my 97th day, but hey who's counting!

We did lots of tracting this week because most people are gone for the holidays.  South Africa shuts down for the whole month of December.  Most don't work and there is no school.  Their school starts in January and goes until November, I think.  They find it weird how our school year works and if you think about it, it is kinda weird that we start in the middle of the year.  Anyways, below are some pictures tracting!  Oh and while we were tracting, I was standing on the left side of the road because some places don't have sidewalks and a guy hits me with the side view mirror of his car while driving.  He stops, gets out and starts fixing his mirror.  Doesn't ask if I am alright, just tries to fix his shattered mirror.  I'm fine by the way!

This is someones Front door!

Catch Lizards on the way!

So we were at a members home earlier on Friday and they invited us back for Family Home Evening, but somehow we didn't get the message and never went.  We go to this family's house all the time.  During family home evening on Friday, they heard six loud shots and thought it was just fireworks.  About 30 minutes later they went outside and there was a dead man laying in the road with five bullet holes in him.  They were the first people to call it in to the police and the police said they are a little busy and didn't show up until a half hour later.  Good old Africa!

The next Morning!

We made smores instead!

Well it was a good week and can't believe Christmas is just two days away.  I hope you all have a good one and hope the spirit of Christmas is with you.

Cheers, Elder Segil

Three Months!!!

Greetings all to another great Monday.  It is crazy how fast this last week went.  I was just noticing that my blog from last week is missing half the stuff I originally put on it, so I will start with that.

So Mandela's death has been interesting and it has been pretty cool to be apart of history.  His house is in my area, so it was really cool to be able to go there, as you can see in the pictures from last week.  There were thousands of people there, even four days after his death.  It's really sad that his time has come, but being here and seeing how people have reacted to it is really amazing.  He was in jail for 27 years and to be a great person as he was after that is amazing.

 Nelson Mandela wanted the blacks and the whites to get along and have equality and that is just what he accomplished.  We as missionaries were warned the day of his death to be careful of riots and anything that could potentially go wrong.  Going to his house and seeing people united in all colors was amazing. I know he would be proud!

Now all I hear about is how Obama had this amazing speech that he apparently prepared himself.  It is really interesting to hear the different views of Obama.  White people say he is amazing and it is so great that America has come this far to elect a black President.  On another occasion while serving in a township, I met a black guy and he asked me where you from?  I said, "America."  The guy said, "Obama, yeah he's a good guy, but a horrible President."    I thought that was pretty funny.

I can't believe tomorrow marks the 3rd month that I left America.  It is amazing how fast time goes by and it will only continue to go by faster.  So last week another attempt was made on my card at the ATM.  Here's the story.  Elder Dutson and I go to the ATM and wait in line.  The guy using the ATM leaves acting like he was on his phone and insists that we go.  I go up to the machine and notice that it is not right, so I exit out of everything on the screen.  Then a big black guy comes on my right and says no here you have to do this.  I said, "No thanks man, I think I can handle this on my own."  He persisted and then another big guy comes on my left and tries to tell me how to work the ATM.  There I am trying to use the ATM with these two guys on both sides telling me how to work it.  What I didn't know was the guy who was using it earlier rigged the machine, so that when you put your card in it rejects it and spits it back out.  I put my card in and looked away and didn't see it come back out.  After about 5 seconds, I was like alright guys where is my card?  The guy on my right says you just have enter in your pin.  Then I got a strong feeling to grab the guys arm and that he had the card.  I grabbed his arm and ripped the card out of his hand.  Thank you big forearms.  The guys ran away after that and we chased after them and told a security guy.  He said we need to go upstairs and tell the guys up there.  Yeah OK thanks for the help man.  Well at least I still have my card.  Team Missionaries 1 and Team Bad Guys 1.  It's all tied up folks.

We met lots or great people this week including a family who says they are going to investigate the church as a whole, so the whole family has the same views.  This was really exciting and we had a great first lesson with them and they came to church.  Can't wait to see them on Wednesday.  Other then that we will be Baptizing a young boy on Sunday and then a man named Edward that we met about two months ago on the 29th of this month.  Pretty exciting stuff.

I would just like to leave you with my testimony, that I know without a doubt and as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that God lives.  He has a plan for all of us and we can know that plan by reading the Book of Mormon.  He has great blessings in store for all of His children and this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Segil

Death of Nelson Mandela

Well with the death of Nelson Mandela, this week has been pretty crazy. We went over to his house and there were people and news cameras everywhere.  I made it on live South African TV.  No big deal.  This week was pretty awesome though.  We met lots of cool people and had lots of good lessons.  

 

Good Old tracting!

Thankgiving!

Well this week went very well and my computer is freezing, so I can't write much, but my week went good and hope you enjoy the pictures.

21st Birthday!

Thinking back, I would have never thought that I would be in Africa on my 21st Birthday or really at any point in my life.  It was an awesome birthday as you can see.

Elder Dutson and I having Buffalo Jerky.  Thank you Dalonda 

 Started my Birthday in Alexandra.

Yes!

Crazy Kids!

No Mom and Grandma, It is not as good as yours!

The Mahara family.  This is the first family I met in the field.  They made me a cake and are the best.  We will be going to their home on Christmas, if I am still here in Bedfordview.

Good stuff!

As you can see it gets a little crazy around here.  Well as I mentioned before my Birthday was a blast and I want to thank all of you for the Birthday wishes.  I sorry I have not written you back, but I will make sure to next week, when I have a little more time.

 YUMMY, YUMMY

Ok, so I had to take a picture of this bug because I have never seen anything like it.  It is hard to see how big it is, but just think of the size of a Tarantula then you will get the idea.  I know what you are all thinking and no I did not eat it.  Yet!

I guess South Africa does have everything!

Wow this week flew by and so much happened.  We met lots a new and exciting people.  The day I went  to Alexandra was crazy.  First I was the only white person around and I kept looking at my skin thinking, wow I'm white.  I went on companion exchanges, so my companion was black as well.   It is so funny, some of the kids here have never seen a white person before, so they surround me and start grabbing my skin.  They call me Mlungu, which means white man.  I drove that day because no one else could and holy crap, the streets in Alexandra are crazy and there are people everywhere, not to mention the crazy taxi drivers.  Well, that is all the time I have, so have a great Thanksgiving everyone and remember try not to waste food, there are people starving in Africa.

Cheers!

Good Monday everybody.  This was another great and quick week here in Bedfordview.  Sorry if I scared you with last weeks post.  I can't scare you in person, so I have to figure out another way to it.  This week was full of hot weather, crazy hail, and lightning storms.  Johannesburg is called lightning capital of the world and I took a couple of pictures just to show you.

                                      

As you can see we get lightning here like no other.  What is even more scary is this lightning will come over top of us and when you hear the thunder, it feels like a bomb just went off above you and taking cover happens involuntarily.  The hail we get here is amazing.  I was talking to some members and they said they got hail stones the size of golf balls.  We were unfortunately not that lucky and got ones that were slightly larger then marbles.  Our car is messed up with dents from hail storms.

 We have a new member of the household.  We found this little guy trying to climb our wall, when we got home.  Elder Dutson and I put him in a jar and fed him some lettuce and eventually let him go free.  They grow up so fast, don't they!

Well as my Dad reminded me, only 95 more weeks to go.  It is crazy to think that two months ago yesterday I left little old Bozeman airport and after many flying hours, landed in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The culture and the people here are amazing.  Don't tell my family this, but I could live here one day.  I just finished my first missionary planner, which is about a six week period.  Only sixteen more planners to go.

This Thanksgiving will be the first time that I will not be with the family in Arizona.  It is going to be hard, but it will be for the better.  The way I think about it is I  will be gone for two Thanksgivings, so when this one is done, only one more to go.

We had five of the people we are teaching come to church this week, which was awesome.  Four of them have baptismal dates coming up on the 8th of December, so that should be pretty sweet.  There names are Hazwell, Fiona, Happy and Vincent.  All very nice and sweet people that Elder Dutson and I have come to love.

I am running out of time, but I want all to know who may read this that God lives and loves you.  I know that this is the true Gospel and you can know it to.

Have a spectacular week everybody.

Elder Segil

Wow is it Monday already.  This week has flown by. This week was crazy we were in a families home and all of the sudden we heard a loud noise outside.  We came out and our car was on fire.  Some guys had thrown some cocktail bombs at it.  We ran and got some water to try and put it out. It ended up burning the whole inside of the car.  The car was towed to a lot, where we took some pictures a couple of days later.

 Shes a beauty!

 Front Windshield

 The Books of Mormon made it

 Backseats/Trunk

 Steering wheel/Front

 Steering wheel

 Front Seats

Haha got ya.  This happened to some Elders about three months ago.  We had to get our breaks replaced at the warehouse and this car was there.

 We saw an Ostrich on the way there.   

 Sun shining through the clouds

Oh yeah

Squatter camp on the way.

Well this week was another great week.  We had lots of people come to church and the gospel is touching millions of lives around the world.  I hope you all have a great week and I will see you very soon.

Elder Segil