Hows it!

Hows it!  Another great week here in Bedfordview.  This week went by so fast that I am having a hard time remembering what happened.  Good thing I have my planner!  Elder Dutson and I started off the week with family home evening at the Baird's home.  They ordered pizza and we taught the whole family about how important it is to follow the Prophet because he knows the way!  It is really hard to eat healthy on a mission because members like to have you over for a meal and they usually have dessert with it.  But hey, I'm not complaining, they have the best dessert I have ever had here in South Africa, besides the dessert my Mother and Grandmother make of course.

We had a series of lessons with investigators and members throughout the rest of the week and we are getting super fit on the bikes.  Boy are there some steep hills here.  It's all worth it on the way down, except when the brakes go out.  That has happened a few times.

Some random things that have happened this week.  On our way back from an appointment there was a dead body laying in front of a gas station that police we just getting to.  I thought I would never get used to that, but sadly I have.  Next, I don't know what's going on here and I have never seen this before, but as Elder Dutson and I tract we see a lot of dogs.  On this one street we saw a dog with bloody ears and thought, oh this dog has been abused.  Then the next dog had the same thing, but there were flies around the wound.  As we saw more and more dogs, we came to see that the flies were eating the dogs ears.  Probably one of the grossest things I have ever seen.  I would hit the dogs ears and the flies would just go right back!  Poor doggies!

We went to a member's home and they were watching the weather channel and we watched a little bit of it.  It was so weird to see the weather forecast for Cairo, Egypt and then for Baghdad and all the way down to South Africa.  It was like wow, I really am in Africa.  Another thing they have here that I have never seen before in an electric lawnmower.  Pretty cool stuff.  They also call a Doctor's appointment a Surgery and a surgery in America is called a Operation.

Well enough about that.   The work is really moving forward here and people are starting to soften their hearts to the gospel.  This is really the greatest job on earth.  Nothing brings me more happiness then to see these people accept the gospel and change their lives for the better.  I know that this gospel brings true happiness to those who are ready to receive it.  I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Segil.

Happy New Year and already six days in!?

Wow is it really 2014 already?  Before you know it, it will be 2015!

This is one of the Soccer balls they brought in for the World Cup a few years ago!

We had a New Years Day Braai with the zone and played some sports.  It was a lot of fun and had some good meat.  I can't say it is as good as meat from Montana, but it is still pretty good!

I didn't take any pictures this week because nothing really happened.  We had to stay in doors for most of New Years Eve and day do to safety reasons.  We went to a few member's homes and had the traditional chicken with white rice.  I have never had so much rice or chicken in my life.

We are on the bikes and I am getting super fit.  There are a lot of steep hills here, so it is a very good workout and of course the hottest days come when we have bikes.

The work was pretty slow in the month of December because everyone leaves and goes down to Capetown!  It is slowly picking back up, so that is good!

Oh I also got a haircut!  Thank you Elder Dutson!

Well have a great week everybody!

Cheers, Elder Segil

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.