Heres a sunset from an apartment building

And a cool african stairway

Hello Family, friends, and turtles.

Howzit bru's???

Okay so a lot of stuff happened this week but i just want to tell you about this lady that we met yesterday!

Her name is Nompilo

So we were at church, and after sacrament meeting we went to the gospel principles class and on my way there i saw Nompilo. I introduced myself and then told her to come into our class. I was teaching and we had a lesson on the word of wisdom. It was a really really good lesson. Honestly i hardly had to talk at all. Everyone was putting in their views and everything and Nompilo was saying a lot of good points! It was cool! So after the class we went up to her and asked her if we could come and visit her and tell her more about our church and everything. So we got her details and everything. Later we went to her house. She let us in and i asked who she stayed with and she told us her story. So in that house she used to stay with her husband and her two little girls. But she told us that on the 17th of this month her husband passed away unexpectedly.... Her girls were having a really hard time with it as well so they had to go stay with their grandma...so now it's just her in that house and she's having a really really hard time. She was crying a little bit as she was talking to us but i was impressed with how strong she was being. She's such a sweet lady and she was so nice to us. She said that she hadn't gone to church ever since she was really really young and she though that now she really realized how important church and god was. She was telling us how important praying has become to her and she jsut keeps praying and praying. It was really really touching. So we told her a little bit about the plan of salvation and gave her a book of mormon and we are going to go over there and visit her a lot this week if we can! But please pray for Nompilo and her family as she is going through this hard time! That would be awesome :)

That was the biggest thing this week! But everything is going so well and i'm having the time of my life! thank you all for being the best family and friends and turtles i could ever ask for! :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Eastmond

Four of the craziest women I've ever met in my life.

This is us braaing with a member from Toti. 

My view from our boarding.

My nasty black blister on one of my toes after playing indoor soccer....wahooooo

Hallelujah Oct 10, 2016

My wonderful Freinds. My wonderful Family. I capitalized Friends and Family cause that's important you are to me. Actually let me start over.

My wonderful FRIENDS. My wonderful FAMILY.

My wonderful FRIENDS. My wonderful FAMILY.

There we go that's more like it.

HOW ARE YOU?????

Conference was just dandy doncha think??? I actually got to see all of it this week! Except priesthood session....did Elder Holland speak during priesthood session......???? Now i know why Mom would always get so mad when Holland spoke during priesthood session cause i just want to hear him speakkkk!!!!!

All of the talks were so so so good though! I heard so much about Repentance and the plan of salvation! It seems like they are really focusing on that! And those topics just go hand in hand! Literally the only way that the plan of happiness works is BECAUSE of the atonement and repentance! Pretty cool! I really like Elder Uchdorfs talk and obviously Elder Nelsons and okay honestly i liked all of them so i can't do this...but yeah. Awesome!

So i have set up camp in my new home. I am serving in Illovo. (ill-o-vew) It's like 30 minutes away from durban and our boarding is like right on the beach!!! So sick! every morning i just look out the window and watch the water. I love the beach way too much. My companion is elder Gehlbach. He's from california! He's a pretty quiet guy but when you get him talking he's suuuper duper funny! He's 3 months on mission and he's really good at teaching and we've had a lot of fun already. This area is a lot like Molweni (my second area) Just a small branch. An average of like 30 people come to church and we meet in a school. BUT i don't think that other church meet in this school like in molweni so that's a blessing. It's not easy to feel the spirit when you can hear "HALLELULIAHHHHHH!!!!" and drums banging ;)

But i think we can have some fun and do some good work here. Everyone seems to be really nice here on the streets and everyone says hi. 

That's about it for now buuuut I love you guys all so much!!!

In fact

I love you guys sooooooooooooooo much! <3 

_elder_eastmond_

Sorry I've been so slow to post. I will do better.

Becky

Cinnamon Rolls

Oct 3

DID YOU HEAR PRESIDENT NEISLENS TALK IN GENERAL CONFERENCE ABOUT JOY AND HOW WE CAN FEEL IT NO MATTER WHAT!!!

That was a really cool talk. Especiially when he said "joy isn't dependent upon the state of our lives but upon the focus of our lives.

Really cool

That talk really applied to me this week.

Also that waas like the only talk that i was able to hear and i hope that i can hear the rest of them.

Also back home we would always get cinnamon rolls for conference so i had cinnamon rolls this week....actually i get them like every week but...yeah.

But this week has been full of a lot of trials. 

First of all Skhiba (the young man we baptized last week) Literally 2 days after his baptism had to go to the hospital. He was having stomach pains. Turns out that he needed to have his appendix removed... And the hospital that he was admitted too was...for lack of a better word...sketchy. I won't tell you the details but he wasn't being taken care of the way that he should have. But what was really cool was that through all of it, he was still Skhiba. He would smile and make jokes and he kept talking about prayer and he next lost faith. It really made my testimony so much stronger and it was sooooo cool to see that! He was supposed to stay at the hospital for 2 weeks. My branch president came and gave hime a blessing and skhiba was able to leave the hospital on saturday. Three days after the surgery. It was reeeaaaally cool! And something else, on sunday Skhiiba walked alll the way from his home to the church and we were able to confirm him a member and give him the gift of the holy ghost! Really really cool!

Something else that happened is there is this boy in our branch named Re. He's about 17 or 18. He's the coooolest kid and he's so nice. I've never heard him say a mean thing about anybody!  and last sunday his mom passed away unexpectedly... It was really hard for all of us. Me and my companion were able to speak at the funeral and as i was talking i really did feel the words just coming to my mouth and i could tell that we were able to touch the hearts of the people that were there. And Re is being strong. The gospel really helps us to be strong during hard times and just as president nelsen said, we can find joy no matter what is going on in our lives. That's the kind of joy that the Savior offers us. A constant never ending joy.

Last sad thing is that it is transfers this week and I will be leaving Ezakheni...This crazy place honestly feels like home to me now. I know every street, every shop, every cool little place, sooooooo many different people and it's just really hard for me to say goodbye. me and my companions have helped 15 people be baptized and i love every single one of them dearly. This area as helped me grow so much as a missionary, but also as a person. Really sad to say goodbye. 

I'll be going to Illovo in Durban. I'm going to be with Elder Gelbak...not sure how to spell his name yet but we'll find out... But he's 3 months on mission and just got done training with one of my best friends Elder Hoopes so that's pretty cool. I think that it will be good!

 I love you all and i thank you for all of your prayers and support and i hope that you are all happy and feeling joyyyyy!

Spo with a sparkly shirt over his head. He really wanted me to delete this picture but I refused. He reads my blog so I hope that he sees this.

Me and Re

The Zwane Family