weekly letter 3

Hey everyone! This week was pretty busy. We ended up teaching prob roughly over 25 lessons this week which is a pretty busy week in the mission field because usually you will have people dropping appointments because they are not home and things like that. It was nice being super busy all day every day but then at the same time it is really draining and I struggle to stay completely awake. My area is awesome though. I am so blessed to have this area be my first because our boarding (Housing) is connected to 5 other elders and then our Zone Leaders are in a small house right next to that so that really helps with not getting home sick and things like that. It seriously helps so much that there are 8 other elders around me that I get to hang out with. They are so awesome and we get along really well which is great. At 6:30 we all wake up and go into the middle housing between us, because it is the biggest, and all come together to get lil workouts in. These elders are from Utah, California, Tanzania, and also South Africa. Being the new guy isn't too bad either. They always tell me that i don't act like a new guy which is nice. It seriously feels like we have been together for months but really I have been in Uitenhage for a total of 9 days. That is crazy! We all have been taking turns reading this book called Visions Of Glory. It seriously is such an interesting book about a man having visions about the second coming and things like that. I really think you all should give it a go and read it! 

I love these people though. They are so kind and loving and they seriously always bring up how big I am. Since I always tell them that I came from Provo, Utah, They are always like "You look like New Zealand Neh?" Then I explain to them everything and then they get it but yea I love them so much. It is a really humbling experience teaching these people. I will show you all the houses and things like that next week because I didn't take any pictures of the houses yet but yea. It seriously feels like I have been here for so long though. Also the money exchange over here blows my mind. You get around 12 Rand per US Dollar which is insane. You can go to KFC and get a piece of chicken and some Pop (like mash) for 15 Rand. And people say that is expensive but freak that's like a little over $1 of our money. We get 715 Rand every two weeks which is equivalent to around $65 US dollars which is alright. Usually I just find myself eating hot dogs and rice or just cereal haha. The cereal here sucks compared to back home. Me and all the US Elders just bag on it all of the time. I have been really craving Pop Tarts and Toaster Strudels too haha they dont have anything like that over here. The members if were lucky will feed us a meal every Sunday but that's if we are lucky. I am super grateful when they feed us but if they don't its not that big of a deal because I understand how much work it is for them to get and make food. People are working here literally for like 2 rand an hour. Seriously If you lived here and were getting paid in US money you would be instarich over here. So Mum n Dad any money is much appreciated to me and my fellow elders. I'm really loving the wheatbix and Meat Pies over here. Prob not as good as back in NZ but still they are good. The other day I went to this bakery and I bought a Meat Pie and it was 17 Rand which blew my mind. That is less than $1.50... yea the US Dollar exchange continues to blow my mind but still we don't really get that much because we get 715 Rand to work with for two weeks but its ok. Hot Dogs and Cereal for life. The mission life has been kind of rough getting used to but I am progressively getting used to it. We went and taught this recent convert named Busi Aka Juicy. She is awesome haha I treat her like my little sister. We went over to her house and her and her little siblings were watching High School Musical and she loves to sing so me and her were singing all the songs haha. I seriously am so thankful for little short moments like this cause it helps a lot. Little moments of what I call "Civilian Life" to help keep me sane and transition smoother into it. 

I gave a talk in church on sunday which was nice. I have a feeling that I will be giving a lot of talks during Sacrament which I am excited for. I just gave the same talk as my farewell talk. Oh and surprise! I HAD MY FIRST TWO BAPTISMS ON SUNDAY! It was cool. It made me so happy to see how happy the two girls where after the baptism.The first was a woman named Nwabisa. She is 26 and has a cute little boy. She is so awesome and I am so excited to see her progress in the church and grow closer to Christ and God. The other girls name is Valentine Xangati. She is 14 and she is a super sweet girl. Her story is awesome. So one Sunday morning, Her and 2 others were walking on the street and they passed our chapel. They said that they all had a strong urge to go inside or that they felt like that they really needed to go inside. So they did. They just walked in to check it out and they walked in during sacrament meeting and sat down. From then on they wanted to learn more and started taking lessons. Our Mission Prez always tells us that the best thing we can do for someone when teaching is the power of Curiosity. We have to make them curious about what we are teaching because then they have a desire to really actually learn about it for themselves. This is a perfect example because along with that strong urge to come inside, they were curious as to why they felt like they needed to go inside and the only way to truly find out and to feed that curiosity is to go and do it. We like to teach a lot of our investigators like that.

That is all for now though! Everyone send me pictures of them cause love and miss you all! Also all the elders want to see pictures of all friends and stuff so that they can put a face to all the stories that I tell from back home. That phrase is crazy too. I think its so cool that I have gotten into the habit of saying "Back Home..." Also it takes maybe 2 months for packages to get here so family if you are thinking of sending one start ASAP and also letters may take a couple days but letters are awesome! But yea... Bye I'm also trying to learn Xhosa which is like a click language but yea I am excited k for real bye

Elder Nivah Greening

P.O Box 181 

Observatory 7935

Cape Town, South Africa