A Real African Braai!

These weeks just fly by, don't they!?   Especially when you are having fun.  Elder Rakotomalala and I serve in two different areas, so we have lots of work to do.  Our main area in Modjadji, which is a huge area.  We are the farthest area away possible for this mission, so that is pretty sweet.  Another area we serve in is called Matupa, which is a village up in the mountains.  The branch consists of about thirty people that meet in this really small 20 by 10 foot building.  It is really awesome being here.  You know those pictures in magazines you always see with little African kids and then there are white people there helping.  It feels so weird, but awesome to be that white person.

We had a Braai with the Matupa branch, which was lots of fun.  They brought nine live chickens, which we all killed, prepared and ate.  I don't think I have ever had chicken as fresh as this!

One down!

Nothing beats the smell of fresh chicken!

Gotta have Pap!

We made cookies for the Braai

Our living quarters are alright I guess.  I just came from a super nice flat in Bedfordview, so nothing will every be as good as that.  It is pretty much like living in the jungle here.  I look out my window and its like I'm looking outside my tent when I was camping in Montana.  Good stuff.

 My sweet Bockie.  She is in the shop now getting fix.  The last missionary wrecked her as you can see on the lower right hand corner.

MODJADJI!!!

Well that was my week.  Hope you all have a great one.  Happy early Valentines Day!

Cheers, Elder Segil

Modjadji, Northeastern South Africa-My new home!!!

Wow what a crazy two days!  It feels like a week since I'm been on here!  Lots of stuff to talk about, so I will first start off with Monday night at Carnivore.  It was so much fun and the meat was amazing.  The three meats I had besides the normal pork and beef were Crocodile, Zebra and Kudu.  Crocodile was my favourite because it was very tender and had great flavour.  There was a lot of fat and bone to it, so not too much meat to every chunk.  Zebra was very tough, chewy and spicy.  It was pretty good, but really more cool just saying that I ate some Zebra.  The last was Kudu which was in the middle of Crocodile and Zebra.  Not to chewy or Tender, but still very good.   The waiters would go around with slabs of meat or huge skewers and keep giving it to you, until you have had enough and boy did I.  I think the cost of the meal was 200 Rand, not sure because the members treated us.  They are so awesome.  Well that was my Monday night.

Carnivore with Elder Dutson

Crocodile on a skewer

Crocodile

Zebra

The Menu

The next day was Tuesday, transfer day.  I got all done packing in the morning and man have I accumulated a bunch of stuff.  I don't know how I will get in all home.  Oh well too far away to even think about.  Elder Dutson and I headed to the Mission Offices and met up with all the other missionaries in the mission.  After signing journals and talking for a bit, we got the news.  I am going up to the Northeast with my new companion Elder Rakotomalala, Rako for short.  He is from Madagascar and learned English here in South Africa over the 17 months he has been here.  Pretty cool stuff.

Elder Rakotomalala and I

The Northeast is about a six hour drive from central Johannesburg and we had to drive a manual bockie truck all the way there and guess who had to do it.  Me, the one person who doesn't know how to drive a manual but the only one with a license.  It was actually a lot of fun, but man my legs were sore afterwards.  We made it safely and those were my last two days.

Have a great week everybody!

Cheers, Elder Segil

Goodbye Bedforview! :(

Well Transfer News has arrived and I will be leaving Bedforview tomorrow morning.  I will find out what part of South Africa I will be going  tomorrow, so I will make sure to let you all know next Monday.

Other then that, it was a great week here in Bedfordview, except for Elder Dutson and I wrecking on our bikes.  We still don't know what happened, but all of the sudden we ran into each other and were stopped by a concrete wall.  A few scrapes, but we are all good.  I'm glad to say I'm done with bikes, for now at least.  I hope to have a car in my next area.

Tonight some members are taking us to a place called Carnivore.  It is a very nice restaurant that sells all types of meat.  It is a buffet of different kinds of animal meat.  I am going to try some Crocodile, Zebra, Lamb and some Kudu.  It should be a lot of fun and I will be sure to post pictures next week.

I am sad to leave Bedfordview because we have some really awesome people that we are teaching and they are progressing very well.  Sometimes we have to do the ground work and let someone else finish what we started.  Sometimes we get to finish the work that others started.  It does not matter what happens as long as we are doing our best to serve our fellow man.

Hope you all have a great week.

Cheers, Elder Segil

Temple Trip!

Good Monday everybody!  It was a really great week here in Bedfordview.  We have lots of new, solid investigators.  The boundaries where we do our work are a little hard to stay inside of and some missionaires from Joburg have been working in our area.  This last week they referred us to six people that they found, so that was pretty sweet.  They are all very nice and educated people.   I am excited to see what happens with them.  Transfers are a week from tomorrow, so either Elder Dutson or I will be leaving.  We have both been here for four months, so we will see what happens!

We went to the Temple this last week, which is always awesome!  I always learn so many new things.  The Johannesburg Temple is my favorite out of all of the Temples.  

 

After we went to the Temple, we went to the distribution center and we got some sweet keyboards.  We have been playing them every night before bed and I am getting better and better everyday.  I still have a ways to go until I am as good as Elder Dutson, but someday I will be!

I love the different kinds of people we meet here in South Africa.  We met a guy last week that has a pet anaconda, pet crocodile and parriot.  He treats them as we do cats and dogs.  Next time we go I am going to put the anaconda on my shoulders and I will be sure to take a picture! 

Well this week was great and went by super fast.  The work is moving forward and I don't know if I ever want to come home.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Segil  

Vier Maande!!!

Good Monday everybody.  It was another quick week here in Bedfordview.  Elder Dutson and I have been studying a lot of Afrikaans.  It is a really interesting language that derives from the Dutch.  A lot of words come from English as well, but they have a different way of saying them.  The hardest part about this language is the pronunciation, as it is with most languages, but this one is different.

We are on bikes still and the weather is still pretty hot.  Nothing too exciting except Taxi cars brushing your side as they go past you.  Riding bikes gets pretty intense down here.  There are also a lot of what are called learner drivers, so yeah crazy stuff.

So last week I hit my four month mark as you can read from the title, if you speak Afrikaans that is.  It is really amazing how fast time goes by when you're having a good time. 

We have been working with our new Bishop and work is really starting to move forward.  We met a new family this week and they seem to be really cool and excited to hear about the gospel.  It is really amazing how the Lord prepares different people throughout their lives.

Sien julle almal volgende week!

Cheers, Elder Segil

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