Happy New Year!!!

Wow what an awesome week and year this has been.  I have spent the entire year of 2014 laboring is this beautiful vineyard of South Africa.  I have been very fortunate to have traveled around to many parts and seen many different cultures.  I made a goal at the end of 2013 to bare my testimony every fast Sunday and I am happy to say I did it and will continue to do so.  I have stood in front of wards, branches and groups and testified of so many great things.  The most important is that God lives and loves each one of us.  His son Jesus Christ did come to this earth to perform the Atonement so that all of us could return to our Father in Heaven.  I think the best part was hearing each and every one of the members, whether they be young or old, bare their testimony about this true church.  It is quite an amazing sight.

As you can see I have posted many pictures and I hope you will all enjoy them.  The first ones are from a place called Sun City, which is located way up in the Northwest part of South Africa.  It is very beautiful and I look forward to taking the family here one day.

Sweet maze that of course we got lost in, but managed to overcome.  As with all things, no matter how lost you may feel, you can always overcome and why not ask for a little help along the way from someone who only wants what's best for you.

The bridge to the maze!

The Great Sun City!

Two weeks ago we had lunch with the Ntiso family. I made stuffed burgers and Elder Mead made his special pancakes.  It was a lot of fun and the best part was the food the members made for us.  Scroll down for some delicious food shots!

Stuffed burgers!!!!

Mead's Pancake Galore!

For the Finale we had chicken hearts, pap and achar (made with rotten mangoes).  Yummy yummy eh?

 This last week we went to Nonofo and Shato's home.  They are a brother and sister in our ward that are a lot of fun.  They help us so much with missionary work and are two awesome people.  I love them so much.  We decided to have a mexican night, so Elder Mead and I made enchiladas and they made hard shell tacos.  It was so nice.  It has been a while since I have had Mexican food.

Ready to bake!

Ready to eat!

Ok, so this is the first dishwasher I have seen since I have been in South Africa and I had to take  a picture of it.  It made me so trunky!

Excellent, so this week we had the baptisms of Maili and Kelebogile.  They both went super well and this is such a sweet way to start off the year 2015!

 Well last, but not least.  This is the Elders car in Phokeng after a member pulled the emergency brake and they skidded on the dirt road into a pole.  It was not a pretty sight as you can see, but thankfully no one was was hurt and everyone walked away.  Now we have one car vs. two all the way up here, so this will be an interesting few weeks until the car is fixed.  Other then that Life is awesome.

Well everyone, I hope you all had a sweet year of 2014 and I hope you will make 2015 even better.  I love you all and will talk to you next week.

Cheers, Elder Segil

Last Post of 2014

Wow, my last Christmas week away from home.  I look forward to the next one when I am back in America.  This week was so much fun and I can't even believe how fast it went.  On Monday, we went to a members home and they fed us a nice Mexican dinner.  We had enchiladas with some nice bread.  From there we had an unlimited amount of dessert.  When I was done, I didn't dare eat more for fear of seriouly hurting myself.  It was with the Smith family from the Rustenburg Ward.  The Phokeng Elders joined us and it was lots of fun.

Tuesday we had a solid day in the area and then headed to Joburg later on.  We stayed at my old flat in Protea Glen with the Elders.  We stopped by Dominos along the way, which is always nice.  On Christmas day, we had a huge gathering of Missionaries at the mission home and celebrated Christmas as a mission.  We had a sweet breakfast prepared by the senior couples and then received a present from the members in our mission area.  They all joined together with mission and family members of missionaries to allow each missionary to have a present.  It was so nice and I am grateful to all those who helped,  Thank you!  Later on we gathered in the chapel to have a special surprise.  We got to watch the new movie, "Meet the Mormons".  It was so good and hope you will all get a chance to see it.  From there we played sports with the whole mission.  We had dodgeball, soccer, rugby, basketball and volleyball.  It was a lot of fun and unfortunately I got a little sunburned.  Happens eh?

Well the best part of the day was being able to skype home to the family.  I had a great chat with them and can't believe it had been almost eight months since the last skype.  Only eight months to go!  Time is flying!!

The rest of the week went super well.  On Saturday, we went to a member's house and made some American food for them.  I made stuffed burgers and Elder Mead made his own pancakes.  The Ntiso family made us Chicken hearts with some pap and achar.  The chicken hearts were surprisingly really good and I might buy some myself for this week. You don't know how good it is until you try it.  It has an interesting texture that when you bite into it, it feels tough, but becomes soft.  I guess you guys will have to try it for yourselves.  I would post a picture, but my camera is acting weird.

Ok last, but not least we went to Sun City today up in northern Northwest.  It was so beautiful and a lot of fun.  I will try and post some pictures next week.  I love you all and hope you have a Happy New Year.

Cheers, Elder Segil

Christmas Time!

Well it has been another awesome week in South Africa.  A lot of work is getting done, but it has been slow since people are getting ready for the holidays.  They are all doing their last minute shopping and preparing for the big day.  As soon as next year comes, the work will be back in full force.  

We went down to Joburg on Thursday for interviews with President Dunn.  The drive is so pretty and green.  Interviews went super well!  Ha we also headed down to Joburg on Friday for Zone meetings with the whole Zone.  It was a lot of fun and a great learning experince.  Everything is going great and I can't wait to skype the family on Christmas day.

Northwest Zone with Elder and Sister Cook and President and Sister Dunn!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all and I hope you have a great, spectacular week.  May the Spirit of Christmas be with you all, and may we all remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

Love you all. 

Cheers, Elder Segil

So much to do So little time!

I have made so many new friends while e-mailing they're called cockroaches and they keep coming up to me and stare at me like I'm this crazy human being that might kill them. Luckily for them, they are impossible to kill, so I don't even try. If you can't beat em, join em. On the downside, it gets really hot in these e-mail shops down here in Africa and sweat runs down my face as I type and sometimes it feels like one of my new friends is trying to get a closer look. Most of the time it isn't. Thank goodness.

This past week was just so awesome and this week is starting off equally great. Yesterday after lunch and seeing a few investigators, we were not sure what to do, so we pondered on it and decided to go visit a Family we haven't seen for a while. We saw them and had a very powerful lesson. As we were leaving, a little girl knocked on the door of our car and says, "My Mom wants you to come and pray with her." We of course said yes and followed her to the house. Her mother and father greeted us and we sat down at their table. They gave us cold drink and we began to tell them about who we were. The mother said she had seen us a few times and always wanted us to come. She was just going to give us cold drink to take if we were to busy to stay. We opened with a prayer and shared the whole Restoration with them. We asked them half way through if they would like us to stop, but they insisted we keep going. The Spirit was so strong, I know our Father in Heaven has been preparing this family. The father and the mother loved everything and can't wait for us to come back. All I can say is I LOVE MY JOB! 

Last Tuesday we went down to Joburg for something called the mission tour. It was Presided over by Elder Carl B. Cook of the Seventy. It was a great learning experience and was so cool to learn from Elder Cook. Since it is such a long drive, we stayed at my last flat with my last companion. It was a lot of fun and the best part was getting Domino's Pizza. You guys don't know how good you have it. I haven't had real pizza in so long and it was simply amazing. 

We are teaching lots of great people and life is going so well. It's scary to me to think how long I have left on my mission, it is going by so fast and I am running out of time. Elder Mead and I are working hard and making sure to finish strong. I love this work and will forever. How can you not love bring joy and peace to people that have never felt it. This message gives them hope and strength to keep going and not to give up. There is life beyond this one, I know it. Let me leave you with some food for thought. If there is no life after death, then we die and never know. If there is life, then that means the scriptures were telling the truth. If they were telling the truth about life after death, then you can be sure they were telling the truth about everything else. President Hinckley once said, “You have not failed until you quit trying.”

Love you all and have a great week.

Elder Segil

Fruits of Our Labors

Well it has been another great week here in Rustenburg.  It is so

beautiful and green.  The people are so nice and I am really enjoying
my misson.  The only downside is the heat.  It seems to be 80 degrees no
matter what time of day it is.  My blood is turning cold again and
when the time comes to return home, I will have to fill my closet with
winter clothing!

So last week I wanted to post this picture, but the current computers
we are using are so bad that it takes an hour to write one e-mail and
I only get 90 minutes a week.  

This was on Thankgiving night.  We went
to Burger King and to the store to get as much American food as we
could find.  All four of us together spent a total of sixty dollars.
Not bad considering all the food you see before you, not to mention it
is from America.  I look forward to being back home next year and
having a turkey for Thanksgiving!

Elders Mead, Rizk, Segil and Kafusi on top!

The story I wanted to tell last week was something that has happened
to me before, but this time definitely tops them all.  The day before
we went tracting and met these five women that were preparing for a party the
next day.  One of their children was being confirmed into their church
and they were having a huge celebration.  They invited us back the
next day for food.  We came back the next day and they treated us like
kings.  We sat at a table and they dished up a lot of food for us.
While eating they would check up on us and bring us more cold drinks.  During this time there is a huge party going on all around us.  The music is
blaring and people are everywhere and somehow they manage to focus on
us.  The host introduced us to all her friends and said great things
about us after we had just met her.  She then told us that she will
soon turn off the music and she wants us to share our message to
everyone.  Talk about a short notice.  This reminds me of the story of
Alma and Amulek in the Book of Mormon when preaching to the Zoramites.
First I got up to preach about our message and then I sat down and
Elder Mead got up to testify of our message.  It was a sweet
experience and I know the Lord prepared a way for us to share His
message with those hundred or so people.  Good things will come of it.

More Baptisms, the fruits of our labors!

In other news we had some Baptisms this week as you can see. They went
really well and it is always a very spiritual experience helping
people take that first step to follow our Lord and Savoir Jesus
Christ.  This Church of Jesus Christ is true and I know this without a
single doubt in my heart.  I love the work I am doing and know it is
the greatest work on this earth.  I love you all and may you have a
wonderful week and month this holiday season.  May the spirit of our
God be with you in abundance.

Elder Segil

Rustenburg, Northwest!

Hey hey hey everybody! I only have ten minutes this week, so I have to make this quick.  My new area of Rustenburg is really nice and so green.  I love being here, but sure do miss Protea Glen.  We have lots of good things happening and I look forward to the future.  I have pictures that I will post next week and a great story to tell, so look for that.  I love you all and thank you so much for the Birthday wishes last week!  And last of all Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Have a great week, Elder Segil

November, The Month of Surprises!

 Well it has been a crazy week this week between having a Birthday and finding out that I will be transferred to another area.  I was sad at first because I really love Protea Glen and the people here, but I know I am needed somewhere else.  I have an idea of where I will be going, but I am not sure, so I will let you know next week.  I am getting good at saying goodbyes, but it always seems to get harder as time goes on!

These are a few pictures of the people I have come to love and know in Protea Glen!

The best and most loving family!

 Schubert, Donna, me and Sister V

Zikalala Family

 Me, Monica, Evidence, Malabo and the Twins!  

Soon to be baptized!

Malahane family with Tumi!

Pretorious Family!

Have a fantastic week!

Elder Segil