Nozibusiso, one of the coolest members in this branch, got her mission call! 

She is going to Uganda! So that's way cool!

June 27 This email shop is always like -1 degrees celcius and it's like soooo hot outside but in here I'm still freezing to death...

Soooooooo yesterday we baptized 3 of our lovely investigators! So the first person was Sister Zanele Mhlongo (Muhle's Aunt) She's the sweetest lady ever and her 3 daughters came to see her be baptized and it was awesome. Then we baptized 2 of the boys that we have been teaching. One of them is named Sbo well that's what I call him cause his name is too long but he's a freaking funny guy and he's always laughing and cracking jokes and then the other kid is Amasweet. That's not his real name but all these kids have nick names so that's what he goes by. (one of the kid's nicknames is Skipper and he's just the craziest kid in the whole world) But these guys are both 17 and they are soooo cool and it's nice to be able to baptize some priesthood holders and maybe they will end up going on mission so that would be freaking cool! Also we had 102 people at church yesterday which is the most that I've ever had sooooo cool :) 

Also a really sweet gogo member passed away this week. Me and Elder Gumbo gave her a blessing like 2 weeks ago and she is just the cutest old lady. But the members were soooo supportive and we had the funeral at our chapel and literally we didn't have enough chairs for all of the people that came! The whole time we were running around trying to find seats for people and finding room and stuff it was hectic but awesome! Also a bunch of the members when over to the families house during the week and president had me and my companion say a few words and I was able to bear my testimony about the plan of salvation and I talked a little bit about how this life isn't always easy but it was designed that way to test us and that all of the good memories that they made with her would always be with them and that they were going to be able to make more with her for eternity and that was just really cool! I really do have such a strong testimony about the plan of salvation. I know that we used to live with our father in heaven and I know that we are literally his children and that he loves us more than anything. And I know that after we die we will be taken home to our father and live together again forever in perfect happiness! :) Nothing can take that testimony away from me!

President Thompson our new mission president will be on African Soiltomorrow! That's soooo crazy! It will be cool to meet him!

I love you all soooooo much. Each and everyone of you and you have all made such a difference in my life and helped shape me into the man that I am today! I LOVE YOU

Elder Eastmond

Sala Kahle

Stay Well

June 20, 2016 We had a youth activity and it was waaaaayyyy fun and my team lost at tug of war but it's okay because i still got a candy.

 This week was really really good and it flewwww by. 

So the best part of this week was on thursday. It was a holiday so our branch had a huuuuge youth activity at the chapel. The branch president basically had me and Gumbo plan the entire thing so that was pretty fun! There are soooo many freaking kids there and that's why i love this branch so much! But we didn't have our car for awhile this week so we had to take Taxi's everywhere and that was insane....if you think of a yellow cab when i say taxi then you couldn't be any more wrong.....It's like this big white van thing that they PACK full of people and they are just crazy and the place where they all park is called a taxi rank and basically if you want to go to the sketchiest place in the entire world, go to a taxi rank in South Africa. hahaha but it all went smoothly and i have my beautiful bakki back now so it's all good! :)

We are going to most likely baptize Muhle's aunt, Sister Nomusa and some of the boys this week so pray that everything will go well! haha :)

Also i can't remember if i talked about this last week but when we were riding with some elders to a zone training meeting the bumper of their car just popped off and was just dragging across the road so we pulled over and had to rip it off and instead of helping i was filming and laughing my head off...i'll send pictures! hahaha

Also the power went out in our boarding a couple nights ago right when we were all cooking so i ate half cooked pasta with freezing cold sauce and gumbo ate a half cooked chicken (so gross) and right when we were done the power came back on....someone is playing games with us! ;)

I love you all so much and i couldn't do this work without all of you support! :)

Loves, Elder Eastmond

Right now my fingers are so cold that they are about to fall off because i'm wearing those gloves with the fingers cut off becuase i can type with them but i'm basically not wearing gloves at all because the reason a person wears gloves is to warm their fingers and if the fingers are cut off then what's the point??? June 13, 2016

HELLOOOOOO FROM THE FROSTY LAND OF "A RANDOM INTERNET CAFE IN LADYSMITH THAT HAS NO HEATING"

I can see my breath right now...they don't really get snow here but it definitely feels like it should be snowing outside. And silly old me thought Africa could never ever get cold.....

Last night i slept on my neck really bogusly and it hurts real bad and so i'm sitting at my computer with my head resting on my left shoulder becuase it hurts to lift it up like a normal human being.

Currently my voice is also like completely gone because yesterday was insane. Let me explain.

So this thursday the branch is having a huge youth activity and the branch president put me and elder gumbo on a committee of other youths to come up with some games and stuff that we could play. So after church a ton of us went to the Zwane house (THE BEST HOUSE EVER) and we basically just played a bunch of crazy games together. And let me tell you...playing games in africa is not the same as playing games in America....hahahaha if you don't have a thick skin then playing in africa isn't for you...hahahaha it was so funny if a person messes up in a game people just go crazzzzyyy laughing and screaming and jumping around the room like maniacs so that's what my entire day consisted of yesterday. It was way too much fun! I taught them signs if any of you know what that is but they freaking loved it and we played it for hours! 

Sooooo we are preparing a lot of our investigators for baptism on not this sunday but the next sunday...i don't know what date that is.... but yeah! and a lot of them seem to be on track!

So there is Sister Nomusa. She's like 30 something and a really sweet lady. She wasn't coming to church for a long time but then me and elder gumbo gave a fire lesson about the sabbath day and gave her some tough love and she's been coming ever since! 

Then there is Muhle's Aunt. Muhle is the 25 year old girl that we baptized my first week in ezakheni and now her aunt is super interested and is suuuper powerful! She's so smart and does everything that we ask her to do!

Then there are soooooo many 12 to 16 year old boys that we are teaching. This ones kinda tough cause we teach them all together and sometimes some of them don't show up and sometimes they do...so we don't know exactly who knows what but we know at least 3 of them are almost ready to be baptized! 

But yeah it's awesome!!! 

The water demon is still possessing our chapel...it's something new every single time we come. I'm going to be a master plumber when i get back home ;) We are having some "goodbye" interviews with president Zackrison tomorrow! He is leaving at the end of this month. So crazy that he is leaving! It will be interesting to see how the mission changes when the new President gets here. 

I love you all so much! You should know that! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! I know that this church is true with all of my heart and i'm serving with all my heart mind might and strength!

Smile more!

Love Elder Eastmond

Water Demons, June 6, 2016

HOWZIT MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS AND FAMILY????

Alllll the way on the other side of the world it's getting chilly but everything is just swell! 

So the top story of this week is that i think our chapel is possed by a water demon or something.....Soooo for the past 3 baptisms the font won't drain by itself so we have had to empty it with buckets which is sooooooo cold! (btw that means that out of all the baptisms that i've had on mission, i haven't had to drain the font with buckets only a total of 2 times....) hahaha And then we have these huuuuge tanks that store all the water outside in front of the chapel and one has been pouring water out of a little hole in the top and it's definitely not supposed to do that and it's liike flooding all the grass in front of the chapel, and then the sprinklers all are turning on randomly and flooding everywhere AND THEN  all of the water in the chapel isn't working.....AND THEN (this wasnt the water demons fault it was just this funny members fault named Senzo) Last sacrament meeting i guess that Senzo heard that the water wasn't working in the chapel so he wanted to test it...but instead of going to a drinking fountain or something like that, he went to the huuuuge fire hose that we have in a closet near the chapel...soooo he turned it on like full blast and the hose is whipping around in the hallway and he's getting sOAKED and trying to turn it off with no luck and the rest of us are just sitting in the chapel singing a hymn having noooo idea what is going on outside of those doors until water starts to seap into the chapel...hahaha so we all run out into the hall and the branch president grabs the hose and runs it out the front door while we turn it off...then we spent the rest of sacrament meeting cleaning up the mess...hahahaha sooo water has been kinda an issue lately! But on saturday me and elder gumbo spent a couple of hours at the chapel fixing all of the sprinklers, fixing the big tank, and making water run into the chapel again. We need a plumber to fix the font but the area manager is being super weird about it soooo we may be emptying fonts with buckets for the rest of our lives! ;)

Also we did service this week for a lady in the ladysmith branch and we were chopping down little trees and whilst the missionaries were there we broke one axe, one hedge trimmer, and Elder Knudsen (Knoodles now thanks to me) completely swung and missed the tree and sliced through one of the poles in her fence.... i will never call the elders to do service at my house....hahaha

Anyways that's the stories that i wanted to tell you today! I love you all so much! The work is really moving forward and i'm sure that it's all thanks to your prayers and your love that you are showing to me! I couldn't do it without all of you! :)

Love youuuuu

Elder Eastmond