Happy New Year! Eat Chicken Feet!

Well don't have much to say about this week because I talked on Skype...... so ill just send some pictures :) Love you all I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and have a happy new year :) 

We worked at this sisters house and we cleaned chicken feet and head..... that was pretty cool not going to lie :) 

The other pictures are on Christmas all the elders got together and we had a braii ;) ​

Merry Christmas from Lesotho!

We wish you all a merry Christmas here from Lesotho!! Not gonna lie I don't really feel the Christmas spirit I don't know if because its super hot outside and no snow, or the fact that there are not a lot of Christmas lights I don't know.... Its a little different but people are always saying merry Christmas so that's nice :) So MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Wow What an amazing week! A lot of fun and traveling :) Like I mentioned last week we had transfers last week :0 So after we emailed we went to Bloemfontein and we dropped off elder Sixaba (si..Click..aba) that's how you say it if you were wondering ;) haha and nyrienda and my BABA mears. They all left and then me and Elder Pentreath and Mphuma went to some other missionaries boarding for the night. The next morning it was just us three and we basically did nothing throughout the whole day. We went to the malls and walked around.... Went and had McDonalds a couple of times..... sorry mom I used my home card;)..... But then we went back and forth from mall to mall basically all day. So that day was pretty boring but later that night we picked up my companion as well as Pentreaths companion. 

My new companion is Elder ROWE from the UK. He is only a transfer older than me. He has a thick English accent, but he is a super cool guy. He like basketball more then soccer. He is pretty tall and..... well white haha:) He is a great missionary and im looking forward to serve with him. Elder Pentreath got a companion from Uganda. Elder Odama... NOT OBAMA.... And he is a cool guy as well. That night at like 4 in the morning elder Mphuma got his new companion.... Elder Reed! HE WENT TO WEBER HIGH!!!!!!! He knows some of my friends and I know his!! He like doesn't even live that far away from us!!! But yeah that was about it for the transfer news :)

So after we were in Bloem, We went back to our areas. But then a day later we had to drive back to Bloem because we had the mission Christmas party! So Thursday night we left Lesotho and went to stay in the rocklands boarding again. When we got there, We saw that there was about 16 other missionaries including us. Man That was a lot of fun. We stayed up till like 3 Am just talking and playing some card games!! Super fun! But then one of us brought up the question guys..... where are we all going to sleep... Because there was only four beds for the missionaries that stayed their.. and about three portable mattresses total. The greenies where the first to crash and they took up all of those mattresses.... Lucky them... Yeah I ended up sleeping on the kitchen countertop! That was not fun at all! On top of that we had a soccer match before the Christmas party at 7 am. So I probably got about 3 hours of sleep that night. BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT.... kinda :) haha

The Christmas party!! WAS SUPER FUN!! we did skits and songs and had amazing food! YOOOOO the food was super nice!! huge steak potatoes meat rice chicken anything really then on top of that a apple cobbler with some vanilla ice cream.... Ill always be a vanilla kinda guy :) At the party the president and his wife gave us all missionaries new ties :) and also a video of the year slide show! It was cool to see all the kids in my group in that slide show hopefully ill be able to serve with or around those guys soon. And after the party everyone got their Christmas cards and packages from home its crazy when they open the doors to the car its like little kids going for candy out of a piñata super funny to watch :) But all in all that Christmas party was great because I did feel the Christmas spirit!

So that was basically the whole week. Mostly in bloem and when we came back  and I introduced Elder Rowe to some people. That was great to kinda show him the area. But the best part of this week was Sunday.

Puseletso was finally able to be baptized she has been waiting and waiting and yesterday we finally got her in the water. I was the one to get in the water with her. And it went super smooth! She was very nervous when she walked in but then she held my wrist and she was suddenly calm. No mess ups nothing. When she came out she had the biggest smile ive ever seen! She put he hands in the air and just started to jump up and down she was so happy! That was such a great feeling to be part of that change in someones life! I loved it and I was very honored to be part of that change in her life! THIS GOSPEL IS SO POWERFULL words cant even describe it!!

I love serving where I'm and and who I'm with! I love the people they are the nicest most humble people I will probably ever meet! Even the Drunk ones :) hahah I miss you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!! Peace out From the Mountain Kingdom :)

TRANSFER NEWS!!

If you could have every single emotion happen in one day.... and times that by 7 that was what my week was like! Every day... every single day there was good and bad throughout the day. It’s crazy.. A mission is crazy!! hahah holly molly PEOPLE GO ON MISSIONS ha ha!! Any way hmmm how do I start this email. 

Well I didn’t almost get shot this week so that’s good :) So I guess you can say this week was much safer! I don’t have that much to really write about this week so I’m probably not going to go day by day. Sorry for those who like the day to day update :) 

Do you want the good or the bad first?? Hmmmm no one is answering me so I’ll just do the bad first lol :) Well first off i looked in my journal the other day and realized that i haven't wrote in it for more than a month.... sorry...... so this week i really tried to write in it every day and its getting easier. That’s not that bad i guess... at least not compared to what I’m about to tell you guys. 

Sunday was probably the worst day off them all...... Weird right... Well it all started when we woke up excited for the day because we were supposed to have a baptism. So we got up went to the church to start the water in the font... Well once again... NO WATER. So we had to postpone the baptism for the next week. Puseletso was in tears because she wanted elder mears to do the baptizing because he is leaving. She also has been waiting for about a month now. So hopefully i can baptize her next week if the water is on. That was all around really sad and frustrating.  So we went back to the boarding and when we got there the other elders ( Ikube and patterson ) started to accuse us of taking there things from out of their boarding. We told them over and over again that we didn’t take anything and that we have been in our boarding or at the church the whole time. Well it turn out that that previous night they had been robbed. The robbers broke in like ninjas! Both off the elders slept through it even though the robbers were right next to their heads getting into their cabinets. They got their cameras, money, flash drives, and backi keys taking from them. People think that they may have put a CD to keep them asleep i guess that’s what people do around here. But those two were dead asleep. So we are on high alert at our boarding. We have to block their backi from getting stolen by putting ours in front of theirs. So i guess you can say there is some danger :) Man a mission is legit :) 

K now some of the good stuff :) Well we had a opportunity to go to the parliament this week. We got to see where the king comes and where the government does their things :) That was a lot of fun and we got some cool pictures :) 

We also had a Christmas pre party I guess you could say:) all the missionaries in the area went to the Sr. couples boarding and we had banana splits.... Of course mine was the biggest hmhmhm :) But after that we went to the Christmas concert, it was a lot like a JR. High school performance TIMES 10! Wow, could those people sing!!!  And it was a lot of fun because the crowd got into it and everyone was singing. People here go nuts when there is good music hahah :) That was alot of fun but I was a little upset when we had to leave early because of curfew... Mission rules... Blaa :) But gotta be obedient :) This week we also went to a wedding.. probably one of the funnest things I have done so far on mission. Because there was a lot of good food and music. Also just the culture of a wedding here is so cool. Everyone dresses up in their culture stuff and just knows how to have a great time! We all were swagged out for the mission and we all bought some glasses haha. We also had a chance to set up the wedding so we had to wake up early and set up. So that wasn’t the best but it was still fun :) At the wedding there were a ton of kids!!! They go crazy when they see some white skin hahah! Me and elder mears were just attacked, carrying them on our legs and arms, being chased just all of the above!!! It was so much fun!! 

TRANSFER NEWS!!!! 

Well I’m going onto my third transfer now isn’t that crazy!!! Elder mears is leaving ;(...... I’m gonna miss him..... But it’s all good! He is going to the coast back to Durban. He is going to be a Zone Leader in the area called Cluff. There are three missionaries out of this Zone leaving Elder Mears, Nyrienda, and Sixaba. I’m not sure about who is coming in. All I know is that I am staying, and I’m getting elder Rowe he is still young on mission, Only a transfer older than me but he is my follow up trainer  I don’t know much about him yet we are going to Bloemfontein For three days for transfers and pickups. All I know is the he is from the UK and likes basketball more than soccer..... I think.... I’m pretty excited not gonna lie:) I’ll tell you more about him next week :) 

Well that’s about it for this week! I hope that everyone has an amazing week and doesn't get stressed out about Christmas coming up lol! Miss you guys talk to you next week!

PEACE OUT FROM THE MOUNTAIN KINGDOM!!!

I NEED FOOOOOD

What’s up everyone!!! What an amazing.... hard... rewarding.... challenging..... fun.....enjoyable...... just every word you can think about...... week I had :) There was some fun times and some hard times, every day is totally different! There is always something new that pops up! This was probably one of the most challenging weeks on mission though not going to lie... not any problems with like home sickness of mentally but physically!

WE DIDNT HAVE WATER OR FOOD!!!!! Ha ha if you know me those are the things that I NEED!! Well I guess everyone one need food and water but for me..... I NEED FOOOOOD and I need A HOT SHOWER!! and running water so I don't have to use a bucket to SHOWER out of.

I loved this week though because it brought out some fun into the mission and some challenges and helped me learn how to be more self-reliant like storing water and buying the correct food that will help me last until the next allotment the church gives us missionaries :) I had to go to the store and buy water so that I could do the dishes and cook food and brush my teeth and everything hahah. It was actually pretty cool I felt like I was living off the land.... kind of :) It’s crazy how much water controls your day or your week, but trust me right when that water came back on we all went crazy filling up buckets taking showers doing laundry hahah it was a mad house :)

I’ve started to learn how to make good meals..... Usually rice with some tomatoes and onions and some other spices with beans and meat mixed in... Then on the side some boiled chicken that has come curry powder seasoned on it :)....... oh yeah hey guys.... I LIKE TOMATOES NOW...... but I don't love them but I can eat them and they don't make me gag anymore haha:)

​There are a lot of crazy things going on around here. I don't know if it is because of the holidays but everyone is just so busy and always doing something. There are a lot of churches just popping up out of nowhere and those churches are pretty nuts! Like we walked by this one church and the pastors or whatever they were just beating the people getting the demons out or something...... Sketchy! But people have their agency :)

We almost got shot this week...... yes you read that right....... so what happened was me and elder mears go to the basketball courts after our last appointment on Tuesday... yes we still do mission work... some of our most powerful investigators come from the basketball court... anyways after we got done playing, the guards closed the gate of were we usually leave from. They told us that we would have to go around to get to our truck. So we ran to the other side because we were almost late to curfew. Well as we were running we had to go under some police rope to get to our truck. Well suddenly we heard this yell coming from this military guard. He told us to stop and go to them. They were yelling at us thinking that we were like thieves or something. they told us that it was restricted area... we soon found out that it was were the princess lived and was heavily guarded. We went over and explained ourselves. The gaurds were all holding AKs and they said that they shot or lock up those who trespass. So we explained that we were just trying to get to our truck and they were like you guys are lucky that we saw white skin or else they would of shot....... Yeah that was pretty intense but pretty legit and cool as well lol :)

We had exchanges this week and I was able to serve with elder ikube and nyirenda. That was super cool and fun. We found a lot of people and new investigators in my area and had super spiritual moments while we were teaching the lessons. One of those experiences was giving this 16 year old girl a blessing. She told us that she was just getting home from the hospital and that she might have cancer. I was the one that she wanted to give the blessing.. And that was one of the best feelings that I have had on mission. As I gave blessing I can’t even remember what I said all I know is that I was comforted and words were put in my mouth. Ive never felt those things before and those that have felt those feelings know what im talking about. This church is so true..... and the book is blue.... hahah :)

So update on the missionaries in the area. So elder mears has had stomach problems form awhile so we went to the hospital and he is now getting better and pooping normally now :) hahah I love that guy! Elder Patterson the new elder in the area ( ZL ) is having something going on with his belly button hahah. It like always bleeding.. probably one of the weirdest things ever but he is getting better :) I haven't gotten sick or had anything weird happen to me yet. ( knock on wood ) :) Elder mears is probably leaving me this transfer we get transfer news this Saturday. so next Monday I’ll tell you guys who my new companion is :) I’m nervous and excited because I’ll be taking over the area and have a new comp.  Elder mears is the District leader right now and as his last week he told me that I was going to teach DDM this week.... Yeah..... I teach all the missionaries... we will see how that goes ha ha:)

Our investigators are progressing greatly and I’m excited to see what happens in the future :) the less actives that we had are now fully active again and everything is going super well :) One of the kids makes his own music beats on his computer.... AND HE IS SUPER AMAZING! the beats are so sick.. I think we are going to try to make a missionary rap or something ha ha :)

I’m so excited for Christmas :) The Sr. couple bought us tickets to go to the local Christmas concert I guess there are going to be some big artists there so that should be fun :) we have the ward Christmas party coming up as well some with the mission Christmas party :) also I’m SOOOOO EXCITED To call home and Skype the family :) Dec 25 could not come sooner!!

OH yeah hey mom!! On DEC 26 it's national boxing day...  so could you send me Tyler’s black gloves ;) ha ha  just kidding but I’m serious about boxing day it’s a real thing. (not actual boxing, though)

Well that’s all for this week, I love serving and I know that this work is so important and powerful. Everyone GO TO THE TEMPLE! It is super needed and it is very important and there are no excuses not to go. People here sacrifice so much just to go to the temple that is 6 hours away. We are blessed to have a temple most of us 20 min. drive. SO GO DO IT DO IT!! The gospel of Jesus Christ is so true and is the only way back to our heavenly father!! Families are forever and I’m so grateful for that :) HAVE A GREAT WEEK YALL

Hello from Maseru!

How was everyone's week? Anything crazy happen? My week was pretty good, not much that happened but it was still very rewarding and fun! So my mom wants me to go day to day in my emails from now on :) so i guess I’ll try that if I can remember ha ha because all the days sort of just blend together:)

Monday-
After I got done emailing we went and got some food and the local grocery store (pick n pay) I got ummm I think I just got some bread and water. After that we went to this member’s house with the other elders, Mphuma and Narienda, we ended up painting their house and some rooms for about three hours, we had some amazing food though... just some meat and Pop and cool drink! IT WAS SO GOOD! Yes I love eating with my hands so I’ll probably do that for the rest of my life ;) After we painted and ate some food we went and got ready for the soccer match! Every Monday at five we play that team and this time there was a lot of people there watching us! I think all the kids go and tell their friends and rumors spread that white guys play against the team. So people come and watch it’s seriously pretty cool! WE WON THIS WEEK!!!! We beat them 2-1 but I have a feeling that today they are going to bring their A game!

Tuesday-
a fun day, we woke up and did our studies and training. I’m not the biggest fan of training but I’m almost done with it ha ha. We then had ZTM that is just a zone meeting and that was very fun, but the best part was after, we went to the SR. couple’s house and had Thanksgiving.... Ummm HALLLAAAA that food was so good it felt like I was eating back at home! After that we went to our appointments and they were good!

Wednesday-
Nothing special just a working day, we woke up did our studies and went out into the area. We ended up tracting, I’m not really good at that yet because I keep having bad experiences with that, not like danger bad or anything like that but I always seem to knock on the door where the person doesn't speak any English, elder Mears seems to find the door that has English speaking people so I don’t really like to tract but it is needed. We then had some powerful lessons with the Lady that is getting baptized soon, and also with this family that started to come back to church. So it was a solid day!
Thursday-
We had exchanges and elder Ikube was with us the whole day. He is leaving in two months so while we were tracting he wanted to take over, and it was nice because I got to learn from him and how he tracts. He is such a cool guy from Tanzania.

Friday-
Just a normal day nothing to great about it

Saturday-
We had soccer practice in the morning and everyone is getting better, after soccer we had some good food because it was elder Mphumas birthday. So we had cake chicken rice and vegies, we then just kind of celebrated his birthday with him and went to members houses and partied.
Yeah I eat chicken weird now.... like the bone and everything its actually not too bad you would be surprised  how much meat and food you can get off by just a small drum stick! So remind me to show you how I eat them when I get home in 21 months :)

Sunday-
Went to church and that was a great time. I love going to church and partaking of the sacrament I love running into all of the members and greeting everyone. The little kids are starting to trust me and a lot of them want to sit on my lap during the sacrament. I end up getting them in trouble by their parents because I pull faces at them and they start laughing.... whoops sorry.... kinda... that’s just me hahah :) I’m loving it here:)

So that was my week in a nut shell, We are always fighting the water some days it’s on some days its off, so some days I shower some days I don’t :) We had a lady that sent us a random txt saying that we need to find the true god and that we need to seek spiritual help from her pastor... LOL..... We found out that Malepa (recent kid who got baptized ) does poetry.... ummm like he is amazing!! He is 14 And he blew my mind when he read of some of his things!! He is going to go far in poetry alone! He is so good at it! We had problems this week with gossip in the church... I’ll just say that saying... the church is true the people are not.. But I love the people and the area so much! I learn more and more every day! The people are starting to open up to us missionaries and have been helping us so much. We have had people call us to play for their basketball team and for tournaments... I wish we could that would be a lot of fun. Elder Mears is probably going to be leaving me soon :( but it’s ok because we are enjoying the time that we have left.
I know that this work is true and that it truly does bless everyone's lives! I love working for the lord and serving the people... IT’S FUN!! I Hope that everyone works harder and harder every day to become spiritually and physically powerful for the last days. Which are soon.... like soon soon.... But I’m not a prophet so don’t ask me when lol :) I love it here and I love the support that I receive from back home you guys are the best!! Have an amazing week!

HEY CHRISTMAS IS SOON!! Service is the greatest gift of all!

How’s life in the real world?!

Hello everybody!! :)

How’s life in the real world lol! I feel like I’m just in one big bubble! This week I heard a new song that came out and I was like what the heck I feel like I was just home? But like I always say time is truly flying by I’m starting to have a hard time knowing what I should write about so this week I’m just going to tell you guys about some funny things that I really enjoy and stories and whatever I think of ok? OKAY! 

So some food that i supper enjoy here in Lesotho, MILK!! Oh my heck the milk here blows the winder dairy whole milk out of the water!! IT IS SO GOOD. So creamy and so sweet it’s like ice cream I truly think it might be melted ice cream! Lately all I have been eating is just granola and milk I’m addicted to those two! I’m also addicted to these canned peaches that a member has. They are just perfect, crunchy, soft, sweet man!!!! I really enjoy the food that members give us when they feed us. We usually have one DA a week. So I’m not gaining any weight i actually think I’m losing weight. Which is fine by me because that means I just get to eat more granola and milk right :) ha ha 

So last week i talked about that soccer match and here is a update on that. We lost... again... But we actually played a lot better than we did previously. I didn’t score but elder ikube did and when he did he took off his shirt and went crazy and ran to the car and just drove away it was the funniest thing ever!! We lost 2 to 1 and we play them today at 5. The coach of the other team told us that he wants us to play them every Monday at 5 it good practice for them and keeps us missionaries in shape so it’s a win win situation! I actually love soccer so sorry to those soccer player I gave crap to back home I take it all back haha ;) 

This week was crazy, it was super super hot then the next day ( Friday ) it was pouring rain i mean PORING RAIN. Within like 5 minutes everything was soaked and there was huge puddles everywhere! It was actually pretty sick. The lighting and thunder was crazy!! We had to drive to Bloemfontein for Zone conference and it was about a 2 hour drive. So we left. There was about 10 or 12 missionaries so we had to take multiple cars, yeah one of them crashed hahah!!! It was crazy me my car didn’t leave until all the other ones because we had to wait to close the gate. So we were behind, so we drove around the corner and Elder Wright, from Utah drove into a ditch... Yeah i don’t know how that happened but it was crazy!! hahah so we were standing in the rain for quite some time. No one was hurt and we soon were back on our way to zone conference.

We were sent to this sick hotel to stay the night. And There were so many missionaries at the hotel it was so much fun! We all stayed up for a while like 2 in the morning just talking and watching the soccer game that was on TV. We all got up and went to the buffet breakfast!! YES!! hahah it was super nice. I loved meeting new missionaries and i gained a lot of friends! We went to zone conference, it was at the local church, and it was so much fun. We did a lot of cool activities and learned a lot! It was a very powerful, spiritual meeting. Yeah then we had pizza for lunch! HALAAA 

After zone conference we drove back to Lesotho and we were all tired so we all got monsters...... MAN THOSE THINGS MAKE YOU CRAZY! we were jamming out to church music on the way back and just screaming the words!! Man it was so much fun!!

So last week was kind of a bogus week teaching-wise because we had so much going on. But this week elder mears and I are shooting for big numbers, even though numbers don’t count. We just are ready to work hard again. We have about 5 people on baptism date and in about 2 weeks will have 1 and a couple of weeks have the other 4. Elder mears will probably be leaving next transfer which it in a couple of weeks..... crazy!!.... But that means that I’ll be taking over the area..... YIKES!! But this mission is so much fun and spiritually rewarding! Everyone that is thinking about going on a mission..... GO!! It is so worth it!! 

Well i love you all thank you so much for the support from everyone!! I’m loving my mission, the people, the food, other missionaries, THIS GOSPEL!!

PEACE! 

Elder Grange

Fastest week on mission by far!!!

WOW this week went super-fast!! Fastest week on mission by far!!!

So I don't really know how to start this email so I’m just going to go by the bullet points I put down in my planner. So it’s going to be a little choppy and all over the place just a heads up!!

So earlier in the week I learned how to make the staple food here in Lesotho, mealia pap. It’s like creamed corn, called Maize porridge). And then on top they put spinach lettuce and sometimes alfalfa and they cut it all up and steam it until the greens are mushy. Not it doesn't sound that great but it is really really good at least for me! Plus around here they eat with their hands so that's always fun!!

We got some new elders with the transfer.  Elders sixnaba, mubusi, and Patterson. Patterson is the new ZL who replaced elder mulumba. And the other two are just replacements. Elders Mears my comp. is now the district leader, so he is stressed sometimes. But all in all I think that we have the best missionaries in Lesotho. They are all so much fun to be around!

So the people here have been saying that it is the hottest Lesotho has ever been. We are having a huge drought and so sometimes we don't even have water in the boarding. So yeah sometimes we don't get to shower. Yeah that isn't the greatest. Anyway it’s only going to get hotter because December and January are the hottest months. So yaaahooooo! We wear our suits every Sunday.... I don't know why but yeah.... I’m always sweating on Sunday.

So the work has been going really great. We have some fun new investigators and a lot of fun families!! We played a lot of fun little games this week like local games. I don't even know what they are called but they are hard and fun!

One of our investigators is going to be baptized in a few weeks and she told us a story about when her husband passed away and the relatives sent someone to murder her just so that they could get money or something she was stabbed 33 times and she knew that she was going to live because earlier she heard a voice that said you are going to get stabbed a lot but you are not going to die! She is probably one of the most powerful spiritual ladies I have ever met and she isn't even a member yet!! I love missionary work!!

So there were a lot of crazy insects that I saw this week!!! HUGE SPIDER AND CENTIPEDE the spider was at least the size of a small pancake and I was mad because I didn't have my camera! And the centipede was the size of a dart! Man I was sketched out for sure!!

I love my mission yes it is a sacrifice to be out here and leave behind home but it is so rewarding!! it changes people’s lives not only investigators but mine as well! A mission is meant for everyone! It prepares you for your future life, family, work, EVERYTHING! I know that this is truly the work of the lord and that he is preparing people for the last days... which are soon....! I know that if we fully invest our lives into the gospel the lord will pore us with blessings that we can’t even imagine and that our lives will be 100 times better even if we go through trials! The scriptures are legit!! So many cool things I have learned that I had no idea about! READ PRAY AND ENDURE!

I love you all have a great week!!

Lesotho is the furthest mission away from Utah!

Wow just like that my first transfer is done!! It’s like I was in the MTC yesterday, every day kind of blends together!! 

So last Monday I said that we were having a soccer match against the local team and we did. It was so much fun!! I ended up buying a soccer jersey and soccer cleats, and it was a great buy! We played them and we actually played really well. We scored first then they scored twice so we ended up losing but it’s all good. I played forward because I’m one of the fastest and I’m not too great at defense. I usually play goalie but this one elder wanted to play and he was actually really good! After we had a BBQ (braii) and the meat was super good!

We went to Bloemfontein this week to drop off elder Mulumba he went home and he was super sad and excited. He was always saying how fast the time went and how he wishes that he could stay out! But while we were there I got to run into some elders that were at the MTC with me. Elders Rakotumalala and my MTC comp., Elder Bateman. It was nice because they are just super cool guys!

With elder mulumba gone I got to serve a couple of days with elder Ikube so I guess you could say I was Zone leader 2 for a couple of days. I got to meet a lot of new people and it is really nice to finally understand what they are saying. Like in the movie FREETOWN where you can’t really understand what those African elders are saying, yeah that was what it was like at the beginning but now I can understand them. I am starting to learn some of the language and it’s fun to say funny things to people. Especially when I say it because all the little kids just laugh because I’m white hahah.

So I found of the Lesotho is the furthest mission possible away from Utah!! Crazy huh!!

So it’s pretty crazy what the church came out with!! At first I was like dang that's harsh but then I looked into it and it really is needed. Not only does it keep the children safe but it keeps the church safe to. We really are coming to the last days and it’s time to harvest out the true members of the church!

Saturday we got transfer news and Mears is still my companion, but he is now the district leader so we have a lot to do at nights! We are getting some new missionaries in the area and I’ll talk more about that when I figure out who they are.

Sunday the kid that we baptized last Sunday received the Holy Ghost. And while they were giving him that blessing on of the members of the circle totally passed out and everyone was so confused. He was out for a while actually. But he was fine and they just did the prayer over again. When he passed out a couple of people rushed to help him and the members just started to sing to keep the spirit it was powerful! They are true members!! Later that day Mears got into a wreck and we ran into the back of someone on our way to pick up tithing envelopes from the other church! That was crazy just like the drivers here!!

Not too much to say but still another adventurous week! This work is true and this gospel is so powerful!! I miss you all and love you all ill have more to say next week I promise!!

Ay mamushemani NGATE!

Sala Hantle (stay well)

Elder Grange

Baptism Week!

This week was a very fun week. We watched the world cup rugby tournament and everyone was going crazy when South Africa played New Zealand! We went to the local Burger restaurant and watched it! We also found a basketball court outside that everyone goes to, it’s a lot like Clinton courts except it’s more like a stadium but outside. Everyone thought that Elder Mears and I were in the NBA because we were the only ones that could shoot threes and dunk it that was a lot of fun! Today after I email is out District activity, Were are playing soccer against the Lesotho team , Missionaries Vs. a Legit team, Yeah we are going to get murdered but that's alright! I bought an Argentina Soccer Jersey and I’m buying some cleats just for the game, and the rest of my mission! Then we are having a big BBQ after the game and possibly might kill something to cook idk yet that is the Zone Leaders Decision.

So there isn't much to write about just a couple of stories.

Yesterday was the first baptism of mission. It was so cool. Me and Elder Mears taught this kid from lesson one. He was the first person I taught the restoration too. And He just progressed rapidly and was baptized. The whole family has been baptized except him, That was because his family went in active when he was 3. His family hasn't been to church since. His father was 2nd Counselor of the branch presidency then they just stopped. They All came for his baptism and it was amazing how the member welcomed them back and how much they opened back up in church. I know that they will be coming more often. Elder Mears was the one who got in the water. I was a witness. It was a great experience.

We have a lot of new investigators and have more people on B Date. The work is very fruitful right now. I know that Heavenly father has prepared these people for us young white missionaries. I have finally got use to everyone called me MAHOA (White guy) Its actually pretty cool!

We tracted a lot this week and found a lot of cool people. And we also found some families that I am very excited about.

We met a lady named Agustina and she is a single mother of 2. She loves the lessons especially the plan of salvation! During that lesson I prayed and said heavenly father please help me know what I should share with this lady. It was a little windy and I just let my pages in my book of Mormon turn. They stopped on the perfect verse that I should share with here. It tied in the kingdoms of glory with baptism. And I asked her to commit to baptism so that she can inherit the kingdoms of glory and be with her family for eternity. It was the best feeling ever. The spirit there was so strong. We then Had a prayer and at the end of that pray She was just crying. I know that the lord prepared her for missionaries and this gospel! I love this work and the people that I’m serving!

I miss home but I know that this is more important for me in my life to serve. Through this gospel anything is possible, even if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed! I know that if we pray and read the scriptures daily heavenly father will bless us with blessing even so many blessing that we won’t even know what to do with all of them!! I love Lesotho I have a feeling ill be here for a while.

Oh did you guys see that drawing of the little girl who was asked to draw what she saw at conference? So this little 5 year old was asked by her mother to draw what she saw at conference. She drew a picture of Thomas S. Monson talking and there were angels with wings next to him. When I saw this picture I got chills. I thought I wonder if President Monson saw those angels there with him. When he was struggling to stand I know that those angels where holding him up and giving him that strength. He is such a powerful guy and he is truly called of god to lead this church no doubt about that!

Miss you guys love you guys I’ll write you next week!!

Keep the people of Lesotho in your prayers please a lot of them are struggling.

--

Sala Hantle (stay well)

Elder Grange

Dumela!

So first off I’ll say sorry about last week. My comp. got sick on Monday so we had to email on Tuesday then suddenly we got a call from a member saying that this kid was deathly sick and had to go to the hospital so I didn’t have a chance to email my BIG email. The kid that was "Dying" was not even that bad he just had a high blood pressure and he seemed fine when we got there. So that's all good :)

So what happened last week? I kind of have a hard time remembering everything, it just blends all together. Time is going super fast! It’s been raining a lot lately because I guess we are in one of their rain seasons they have about 3 months where it just rains all the time.  And when I say it rains I mean IT RAINS! Remember that time a couple of months ago in Utah where is suddenly rained like crazy after the Weber county Fair? Yeah that was nothing compared to when it rains here!! I’ts windy and Everything gets sooooo drenched. I LOVE IT hahah!! Anyway though all that last week there was a member that had his roof blown off through that storm, his family was just about to fall asleep when it all of the sudden ripped off as if a tornado hit. His family was fine and his week old baby boy was ok as well so we rushed over and helped put the metal roof back on before it rained again. Luckily we got that roof back on before it started raining again. The whole village pitched in and helped out this member, the people here are so humble and willing to serve others.

We had a lot of fun moments during that week as well. Me and elder Mears had an Ice cream eating contest at KFC. We challenged each other who could each five ice cream cones the fastest..... I WON hahah. My comp. is like an older me! He could definitely be a Grange for sure. The missionaries in the boarding next to us are our zone leaders and they are soooooo funny! They don’t even try to be funny and they just make me laugh so hard every night! Elder Mulumba who leaves in a week and Elder Ikube who leaves in 3 months. They are both Power.

So our Backie (truck) broke down last week so we had to fix it, which meant we had to walk everywhere... Yeah that wasn’t too much fun. But I’m not getting fat. I’m actually still growing I think because my shirts are getting tighter... that or the washing machine is shrinking them... But I wanna think my muscles are just growing hahah :)

I have started to cook things lately like pasta, cakes, cookies etc. I actually enjoy cooking ha ha. I made no bake cookies and they were so good! It’s kind of hard to find the right ingredients around here though I don’t know if it’s because I don’t know where they are or if they are a different name :) But I’m not starving so don’t worry..... MOM...;)

We have had a lot of people come up to us that are wasted and want to talk to us. So that is always fun because for example last week there were these two guys that were super hammered and you could tell them anything and they you freak out! One guy was like What are those fluffy things in the clouds? IS it foam? and he asked me about the moon and i said it was Gods Fingernail and he started to freak out and was scared I guess hahah man messing with drunk people is the best ha ha!

Speaking about messing with things, there is this huge beehive on the outside of this guy’s house underneath the gutters. Yeah we messed with those. Splashed water threw rocks, in the end only Elder Muumba go stung no one else though haha. We would splash and dash we called it :)

So that all happened last week :)

This week wasn’t as exciting as last week. It kind of went slow because a lot of people canceled on us.. But that is just mission life :) hahah So we just found things to do :)

so this week it rained like crazy Once again! We found a lot of frogs and i put the frogs into a pot of water and put them on the stove in Mulumbas and Ikubes boarding... Don’t worry I didn’t turn on the heat. We went back into our boarding and waited and nothing happened. Right when we went back to check to see what was going on we noticed that elder mulumba was walking to the stove. So we just waited outside and watched. Suddenly he jumped and he yelled like a little school girl! hahaha He ran into his room and slammed the door hahahah it was the best thing ever! Just imagine this 28 Year old African man doing this hahah!! I guess around here they HATE Frogs!

We did some service this week and it reminded me or home, because we were working with pigs. We made a new pen for the pigs into the mountain side. So that was some fun service we did. We also did gardening at the Grandmas house (gogo, that’s what they call grandma and grandpas)

It once again rained but this time is was right during general conference so it was supper loud! The Lighting and thunder was crazy!! Then it started Hailing and that was crazy too!! The weather here is like Utah... Bipolar... one day it’s about 115 Degrees then within hours it raining and cold! I love it!

We played soccer against a bunch of kids on the really green nice field by the lake. I don’t have my camera with me at this time I left it in the backie so If I have time I’ll run out grab it then hopefully I can send some pictures but yeah that was a lot of fun!

So as we tracted this week we had some crazy things happen to us! We had a guy that we tried talking to and all he wanted to do was bible bash. He was like what can you tell me about Jesus Christ at your young age! Every time we tried to talk to him he would just cut us off haha. We then proved him wrong and he just sat there in silence for about 2 seconds then just started going off again. HAHA then we just said ok Entante have a good day and we did what it says in MARK 16 verse 13 If you wanna know go read that scripture hahah :) the next day we ran into a member and he was talking about how his dad was a witch doctor and that he had been struck by lighting by another witch doctor. I guess the witch doctors around here control the rain and lighting! He was telling us crazy stories about his dad and what he could do. He told us that one day his dad was telling him that something bad and life changing will happen in two hours. He then went outside and watched his dad crossing the street then got hit by a car. Man people here has crazy power but Not the True and Right power! And the guy telling the stories does not lie! He is like a very spiritual guy in the church. So yeah there answers your questions about witch doctors.

General conference for us was yesterday. Man its crazy how general conference is like the super bowl on a mission. I have never paid that much attention to general conference I love it!! It was so sick. Especially the bishop that got called to be in the 12 Man those guys are powerful! I love everyone’s talk especially Monson’s. Short easy to understand and powerful. That guy is a fighter for sure! He is getting old though. Spirit is willing and strong but his flesh is getting weak. I thought he was going down. That whole thing was crazy! A lot of family and Sabbath throughout the talks though.

I loved what Uchtdorf) "This gospel is so simple a child can grasp it, But it will take and eternity to understand it" Man that guy is Power!!

This gospel is so simple and it so powerful. It’s crazy how the church members have such an effect on this gospel. The members are the one who pushes this work forward. Without the members here we would not be having a baptism this week. I love what this gospel brings to my life and the people around me! I love my family and all my friends you guys are the best!! Have a great week!

Sala Hantle (stay well)

Elder Grange

Month 1!

Hi everyone so it’s been a month already!! Man time is going super fast!! Well this week has been crazy but this email won’t be very long because not much to say just the crazy stories!!

So this week we have met a lot of people and have a lot of new investigators, so it’s been a successful week. Don’t get me wrong it has been a very hard week because I did get very home sick and I wanted to come home. But I received some strength and managed to get past that sickness! We played baseball this week and that was also a lot of fun, we also played basketball and soccer so a lot of sports. We hiked a mountain and that view was amazing. Lesotho is like St. George in ways because it’s hot and there are red cliffs everywhere!!

So like I said we received a lot of new investigators, that was from tracting and we also set up a booth, and we also had the lord on our side. One day we got out of the car and suddenly there were a lot of people wanting to talk to us it was crazy!!! 

This week has been just a lot of craziness I guess you could say ha ha. We have to been into our apartments at 7 because there is a strike going against the government and it’s dangerous for us but everything is fine. MOM DON'T WORRY, there was also a high school kid that was killed by other high school kids from a different school. PEOPLE HERE ARE NUTS!! Now don’t get me wrong I love the people! They love the missionaries and all the little kids flock when they see our truck it’s the best! Just like the movies! Like I’ve said before the people here are so humble.

I had a lot of good food lately especially some chicken! EVERYTHING HERE IS SUPER CHEAP! So I have to start running or else I will start gaining some weight because I found food that I actually like!! :)

Church here is awesome, if people aren’t singing they will just stop and start over its pretty legit hahah. The primary program was yesterday and that was a highlight so far! The kids conduct the songs during the program. A kid is selected for a song and they go in front and sing the first sentence so that everyone is on key, then the little conductor says GO! hahah it’s so funny!! I Love church here!

We also had some Jehovah Witnesses come to our apartment haha, Elder Mears was like come in come in, then they came in and saw that there was 4 of us missionaries and they just froze hahah. They shared a lesson with us about saving our money wisely and we shared a lesson with them. I was like I have a question for you guys, "have you guys ever wondered why there are so many different churches on earth?" and they were like yeah.... Then I gave them a Pamphlet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ hahaha! It was great!!!

So that was my week I’m having fun and loving it! Also getting homesick once in a while but that’s normal! Peace out Wiggas!! :)