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

Our final squad picture of our district before transfers. 

I'm holding a very nice stick with Elder Baumgardener.

Me and elder Gumbo emptying our font with buckets for like the 50th time...

you can see how much fun I was having. 

The tender last moment with the father and the son and....

a random drunk Zulu. hahaha

THE BUG OF THE WEEEK! 

A FREAKY HUGE BEETLE...

Again this is a smaller one...I've seen them 2 or 3 times this size...

THIS CONCLUDES ANOTHER BUG OF THE WEEK

Bitten by a snake, June 1, 2016

Hahahahahahahaha did that title scare you???? I just wanted a cool excuse for emailing soooo late but to be honest it was just because it was transfers and we spent all our time driving all over Africa trying to get people to their assigned kingdoms....HECTIC.

So transfer news: Drumroll please drumdrumdrumdrumdrudmasdl;gakg;dlfkgjad;fgklajd;fgklasjdf;avdofivnavna;dflgkja;dofgaidfjga;sdlfkgjadf;lgkj

ME AND GUMBO ARE STAYING!!!! This is honestly a miracle. Nobody called us staying together because Elder Gumbo has been in this area for a pretty long time buuuuuuuuuut Miracles do happen <3 hahahaha we were soooo nervous on Saturdaynight (the night of transfer news) waiting for the zone leaders to call us. I was rolling around on the floor like an armadillo or a rolly polly or something that rolls...kinda like the day that I got my mission call waiting to open it! hahaha

Speaking of mission calls: Senzo, a kid in our branch just got him mission call! We had the pleasure of delivering it to him and filming it and I wish soooo bad that I could send you the video cause it's hilarious but alas email is bogus. But he's going to Angola. A small country on the west coast of Africa. They speak Portuguese so Gumbo was pretty excited seeing as that's his language.

In other news Elder Racotomalala (for those of you who don't remember this was the Elder In the mtc with me who is from Madagascar who I love to death) Just got called as my Zone leader!! So cool! We are only 8 1/2 months and he's already a zone leader! And remember how in the mtc he really couldn't speak English that well??? Well let me just tell you that the gift of tounges is the most real thing in the whole world. He speaks SOOOO well now it's insane! And his personality has really come out now and he just makes me die laughing! So that's gonna be really awesome to have him in my zone now!

Hahahaha so something funny that happened with these transfers is the AP's Messed up this Elder Mear's logistics soooo bad! So he is leaving this zone and he needed to get on a bus to leave. So We had to take him to the bus at 2:30 am (horrible) and when we get there he wasn't even on the list.....so we had to come back to our boarding and call the ap's to figure it out and they said to put him on another bus at 1:30pm the next day...so we drive all the way out to the bus station again and ....he wasn't on the list....hahahahahaha so we called the ap's again and they said okay put him on a bus at9:30 tonight so AGAIN we drive all the way out to the bus station and wait and wait and wait...no bus comes....THEY TOLD US THE WRONG BUS STATION!!!! Hahahahaha so finally the Zone leaders just said okay enough we are just going to drive you there...so they have to drive 3 hours to his area to drop him off and then 3 hours back....HECTIC.

Ummm so I had to do like the saddest thing ever on Friday...I HAD TO SAY GOOD BYE TO MY BABA ELDER AYGEMAN!!! He's home now! He flew to Ghana yesterday! Crazy right??? I'm an orphan...I'm like Bruce wayne...or peter parker....Elder Wayne? Elder Parker?? But yeah we had to put him on a bus and literally this guy is the toughest guy I've ever met in my entire life. He literally doesn't cry about anything...like he dislocated his arm whilst playing soccer and didn't freak out at all... just sat there.... BUT HE ALMOST CRIED WHEN WE WERE SAYING GOODBYE!! He had to go into the bus to cover it up and I was like, "Oh my gosh the patriarch of the mission almost just cried" You would probably have more luck finding a mermaid holding a 4 leaf clover than see him cry...so that really showed me how sad it is to leave mission. This place is HOME. Cray cray.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCCCCCCHHHHHHHH!!!! Make someone smile today, tell someone that you love them, and do something that scares you once a day. That's how you grow!

Loves,

Elder Eastmond

Abe Ngesonto Omkhulu (Have a great week!)  

Zulu's are so gnarly. May 23, 2016

Helloooooo one and all to the Weekly email. <3

How are all of you???

I hope you are swell!

I'm the swellest of the swellest! :)

So we had 3 More baptisms this week!! That was awesome! It went really well! They were all sisters under the age of 15 that we have been teaching for a while! It was soooo good to see them be baptized! We were supposed to baptize 5 of them but 2 were out of town so we will just have to do them next week!!

Our investigator class was packed more than it ever has been!!! Like 6 of them had to go to another class because we didn't have enough room in there. We will have to move to a bigger room or something next week or maybe just go outside! hahaha but it was really cool and Nobuhle, the girl that we baptized my...second week here I think, has been called to teach that class and she did SO well! She is teaching like she has been in the church for years and she's asking such amazing questions and it's so so cool! :)

So the Senior couples in our area is the Taylors and they are just about to go home so our branch threw them a farewell party and it was sooooo amazing!! They had traditional Zulu dancers there (pictures included below) Who were doing some amazing crazy chants and dances and at the very end they even dabbed. (for those of you who don't know a "dab" Is just some weird pop culture dance move) but I freaking laughed soooo hard! So that was really really cool To see that!

I don't have a lot of time so i'll just have to end it here buuuuuut I love you all and I just want you all to know that I don't want to be anywhere else in the world  except for right here serving the people of Africa and most importantly serving my heavenly father who has already served me so much! :)

I love you allllll!!!

 Stay blessed!

Elder Eastmond

May 16

This week was flipping awesome as usual!!! :) At church yesterday my branch president came up to us and he's like "Elders is the church still true?" And we were like "Yes of course" And he said "well then why is the font not filled up today?" hahaha you know you are in an amazing branch when the branch president wants the font to be filled every single week! 

Next Week we will most likely be having a baptism! It will be this 16 year old girl named Sne and her 3 younger siblings! They just have to pass the interview and then everything will be set!

Last week we went to the bottom of a MASSIVE waterfall and it was one of the most beautiful places that i've ever been to in my entire life! I'll add some pictures! Way too cool! 

We found 2 more investigators the other day and we taught them lesson one and it went really really well! they are both boys in the 12th grade! Really cool!

But the best lesson that i had this week was when we were teaching Muhle's aunt. So muhle is the girl that we baptized the first week that I got here. So now we are teaching her lesson one about the restoration and that's probably my favorite lesson. It always makes me feel the spirit like crazy when I talk about joseph smith in the sacred grove! But it was just such a spiritual lesson and we had 2 members there that also bore their testimonies and it was jsut waaaayy cool! We are going to baptize here aunt in no time! She's insanely interested! 

Anyways that's really all i have to say today but I love you all so much and thank you all for your support and love! <3

Love,

Your friendly neighborhood missionary, Elder Eastmond