July 17, 2017

So something interesting about South Africa, people just light fields on fire so the green grass will grow next season. They end up burning like a whole mountain and the fire brigade here does nothing and they respond like an hour later. haha Its kinda funny.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every animal but an elephant now. i want to ride an elephant haha. My mission is huge geography wise so we have to fly everywhere sooo only 3 zones met president. He’s kinda on a tour.

I love driving here hahaha its like your always driving on an autobon or whatever its called but we have a driving speed limit at 100 ks but i think that’s like 70mph maybe 60.

I got my birthday package this week and it was amazing!!! i loved the ties and the candy. Thank tiffany as well! it was only like 100 rand which is around 7 dollars so not bad at all! i love packages, whenever you get bored you can always send e some! hahaha thank you sooo much!

I got to play with monkeys last week and i attached some pictures. Hopefully they work but oh man they’re super fun to play with! They were just climbing all over me and it stole my planner and started to eat it. haha They are really smart like really smart its weird!

The most spiritual experience this week was awesome. It’s one that i wont forget. So the other day we were driving and we drove past this house with a guy outside on crutches with one leg trying to rake his dirt. It was kinda funny seeing this guy hoping around trying to rake his dirt but at the same time i felt bad cause he was struggling. Anyways we turned around and helped him out and when we were done it seemed like his son came home (looked like he was 40s) anyways we talked to him cause the dad didn’t know English super well. We started talking and set up a time to come meet his family...turned out he wasn’t even related to that older man. Fast forward to when we go to meet the 40 year old. He gave us his address to meet him at his house but he didn’t have a phone. In South Africa the addresses are so messed up and they don’t even have street names. The signs are like buried on the ground cause people hit them with there cars, don’t ask hahaha. Anyways it took us a super long time to find his house and we almost gave up but we found it! Well we taught his whole family which consisted of his wife and 3 kids, the oldest being 14. They were having problems in their marriage and we just testified about families and taught about Lehi and his family and gave them a Book of Mormon to read as a family. During the lesson i remembered that at our stake conference, president hamilton said the gospel can fix any problem whether it be family, social, or government and it is totally true!!! It was a super spiritual lessons and i can’t wait to go back and teach them and see how their faith has grown reading the Book of Mormon!!

We met our new president this week and it was awesome!!! From the start everybody loves him! He is such a great guy. i love president lebethoa! He and his wife are from Johannesburg and they have 4 kids that he brought along to cape town. He is a young dad, he just has so much energy and always happy.  He’s the best. i cant wait to work with him and get to know him more.

love you all elder shaw