Nov 28

MANA ONAAAAAAA!!!! That means good morning in malagasy and I still remember that from the mtc when elder Malala taught us.

But good morning Family!! :) 

I hope that you had a wonderful thanksgiving.../my birthday ;) 

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! It means the world to me! And thank you for the package! It contained some much needed sweets <3 I might have opened it a lil early...tehee i couldn't wait for those cosmic brownies.

Our thanksgiving was actually really good! Usually people don't celebrate it here buuuut there is this family in the other missionaries area called the Reise family, we always go over there every monday night for family home evening, but they invited us over for a huuuuuge thanksgiving feast! There were like 5 turkeys....They even had jello! (it wasn't nearly as good as our 7 layer jello though...don't tell them) They even had apple pie! (again wasn't nearly as good as ours buuut nobodys is soooo) I was really missin the pumpkin pie...next year ;) But all in all it was really good! Felt a little taste of home. 

I have waaaaaayyy too many things that i'm thankful for. (however i'm not thankful for this huuuuge bug buzzing in the curtains right next to me though....) But I am just soooooooo lucky to have such an amazing family. Some people don't have the blessing of having such a close and loving family to support them and be with them forever. But I do :) and i will be grateful for that for the rest of eternity! I'm grateful for all of the amazing friends that I have as well! You guys are also my family! I'm grateful to be in this beautiful country of South Africa, serving some of the most amazing people on planet earth. And i'm grateful for Heavenly Father. His love for me, his patience for me, and his wonderful plan of happiness. That we can all live together for ETERNITY in eternal happiness. And i'm grateful for Jesus Chirst. For him to do what he did, it just truely amazes me. I Stand All Amazed has become my favorite hymn on mission. And it just perfectly sums up my feelings about Jesus Christ and his atonement! 

Weeeelllll now that thanksgiving is over, it's begining to look a lot like CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!! We set up all of the christmas decorations that you sent me (thank you so much) The boarding is looking very festive! The christmas lights were a perfect touch! Pick & Pay (our local grocery store) has had their christmas decor up since like october...seems a lot like home...Now the only thing that i'm missing is some snow... I doubt that we are going to get any of that....maybe a light drizzle or something... We've been screaming "MERRY CHRISTMAS" Out the car windows at people walking by. I think it really gets people in the christmas spirit ;)

On Wednesday we had a meeting as a zone and our mission president has some new goals for us! First of all he says that on the 1st of December that everyone should contact 40 people and give them pass along cards! So everyone is just going to be running around EVERYWHERE talking to EVERYONE! I think it's actually gonna be pretty fun! And then another goal he set for us is by the end of this year the mission needs to have 300 baptisms! That's a huuuge goal! It ends up being around 6 baptisms per companionship. It's not going to be easy but I think that we can do it! We might have 3 coming up on the 17th of December! So pray for that! I'll tell you about them!

The first one is Nomphilo who you already know! We didn't see her all last week. She was suuuper busy and then she got sick and couldn't come to church! But we saw her this week and taught her about the word of wisdom. She says that she really likes her coffee but she is completely willing to stop! So that was really really awesome! She is progressing so well and I hope that she continues! 

The next one is a 10 year old boy named Wandile. He has been taught the lessons before and we are working on helping his father stop smoking. We were going to wait to baptize the whole family all at once but it's taking to long and I think that we are just going to baptize Wandile so that he can be a good example for his father! When we asked him if he was ready to be baptized do you know what he said to us??? He said and I quote, "I'm damn ready" Hahahaha....we are gonna have to work on that ;)

Then the last one is a brother's daughter in the ward. So the brother is brother Nelsen. He's a really good guy and he walks soooo far to church every week! He even crosses a river! He's really power and his daughter is like 9 or 10 and he's started to bring her. We are teaching her after church every sunday so hopefully that we can get her ready in time as well! 

So if you can pray for them I think that would help them soooo much! That would mean the world to me! :)

Well I love you guys soooo much! Thanks for just being the coolest family of all time <3 Until next week, Be safe, hug your mom, and only get into a little bit of trouble. ;)

_Elder_Eastmond_