New Companion Week

My new companion is named Elder Vernon, he is from South Carolina, but his parents moved to England while he has been in the field. He is alot of fun and he is also the new District Leader. But he has never been in a walking, white area, so it is very boring for him to be walking everywhere and not having tons of members or investigators. It is really weird without Elder Barton, Elder Vernon has a completely diffrent approach to missionary work. Also Elder Barton is a legand in the mission, so some people are intimidated by me because he trained me so I have alot of his tendancys. I really miss Elder Barton though we became best friends. The week was alot of fun tons of finding time. Miss Cole is crazy, she is alot of fun but she isn't all there. I do not know anything about your other teachers, Austin. We have to be in at 9:00 so Elder Barton would have appointment or go tracking until then. But Elder Vernon is used to being in when it gets dark because he has only served in townships, so we are normal in by 8:00. Its a really different transition of companions. Its a pretty nice sized area, not that big though. It is more of a residental town, there are almost no stores or any thing. There is a placed call Retail Park, and it is a shopping center, kind of like the Walmart area on Greenfield and Mckellips. We get fast food every so often. Elder Barton and I never went out to eat except maybe on Monday. I have used all the Rand that you sent me but I don't need any more. We can drink soda if we want but some missionaries choose not to. They don't have diet Coke but they have regular Coke. I have not sent the card yet I am tring to find some time to do so. I don't need any goodies now, if I get transfered next transfer I would not be able to bring it with me because of weight. My ankle is doing fine, I do not really wear the brace to often only if it gets sore. I am still wearing my retainers somewhat often. I took my black suit to the Dry Cleaners, but I have not done the Blue suit because I only wear it at Zone Conferences. I iron every day. Two of my socks are getting holes in them, and one of my pants the metal clasp broke. I don't need any gravy or taco mixes. I did get the recipes that you sent and thank you very much for them, I can't make the Sweet Pork because we don't have any type of Mexican chillies. But we still can make salsa. Some books that you could send me are: The Great Apostacy by James E Talmage and also The Articles of Faith by James E Talmage. Both of those book use to be in the mission libary but got taken out. I know Elder Pauna, Elder Burridge,and Elder Cobia. I know about Elder Bond, Elder Hogg,and Elder Wild. I have lost at least twenty pounds. I need to remember to get you Elder Bartons Email address, when I do can you send him what you send to everyone else?

Love
Braden

What an amazing week!

Elder Barton went home today. He left for Cape Town this morning at 11:00. Today for p-day we are just going to hang out at the flat and play some games. I am feeling fine, I had the bug for about a week and a few days. Not bad at all. I did buy some pictures. Elder Pauna was in my MTC group, he served in mdanstane. I see him every once in a while. I am in the East London Zone. I get my new companion on Tuesday, his name is Elder Vernon. Elder Vernon trained my MTC companion. But I am still in Beacon Bay! We e-mail at an Internet cafe called Virtual Spot. We get one hour to e-mail. We are not supposed to have a video camera, but sometimes we can do it with our picture cameras. This week I got a letter from the family, and from Aunt Teddy. I don't need anything right now, and I still have some snacks left. The suit case is in the mission home. I only get a letter from them every other week. I met the new Mission President about 3 weeks ago. The weather down here is really humid and is pretty hot as well, but nothing is for sure the weather changes so fast that in three minutes it could be pouring rain.

This week was amazing. We had one investigator sms(text) us and say that she wants to repent and be baptised. We found another man who committed to live the word of wisdom in our first visit. Another guy found out that the Book of Mormon is true in one day. The down side to last week was we had to drop Papama Namba. Our star investigator, his girlfriend doesn't like us because one of the members offended her. I am really going to miss Elder Barton, we became best friends.
Love you all,
Braden

A New Week (aka July 14th)

This P-day we are just going sight seeing because it is Elder Bartons las p-day. Most of our appointments last week canceled on us, but it was still a good week. In our workshops we talk about how we can better the missionary work, and the interview is just to see how we are doing. Elder Barton and I get along very well, we are like best friends and its going to be sad to see him go. I am kind of nervous for transfers because I really want to stay in Beacon Bay but there is always the chance I can leave. I still get a little nervous when I teach but not to much, I enjoy it(a bit). Last p-day we played a dice game that Elder Dinkel and Elder Smith made up. It is alot of fun. We get 500 Rand for 2 weeks, it is about 80 usd. We get plenty of money to buy food, we spend about 150 Rand per person a week and it last the week with plenty of food. (Note: We ask Braden how much he receives because Elder Preston Smith is in South Africa, Johannesburg and they don't seem to be getting enough to pay for their food). We do have bikes, we don't use them every day because they make you really sore. Whats going on with Cory? Petrol is some where around 15 Rand per Liter. We have about 15 people that we teach constantly, but none of them are really progressing or coming to church.

Any way here are some questions for you. What bank just went out of business? How are my stocks doing? I know that everything has been going down lately. Did you keep my Daily Planner that I sent with the memory card? I will be sending home this memory card very soon. Also there is a charge that will be coming through on my card for about $11. I'm not positive the price but it will be from some pharmacy, I had a slight stomach bug but I am better now.
Love you all tons,
Braden

The New's on Braden for June 30th

Nondumiso and Moses wedding was on 18 June. We met President & Sister Probst on Friday, we had our missionary workshops and interviews. We only get new transferes every six weeks and I only met the few that serve in East London. Stanton was sent to Mdanstane, since it is a township and is very dangerous to live in he stays in East London still, but travels there every day. It is about a 30 minute drive. (Note: Stanton played soccer with Braden and lives on the other side of Lindsay in our Stake.) Last P-day we played RISK again, we didn't finsh so no one won. We are not sure what we are doing today. I did get my card, thank you so much for sending it. We had a Dinner Appoinment with Brother Timothy and Sister Nonie Canham last night. Brother Canham served in Jo-burg in 01. He is a very funny and quick witted guy. We had noddles, with white sause, mince(hamburger), Boerwours(sausage), and graded cheese.

One of our investigators that had a baptismal date, Papama Namba, is not doing very well. We took Brother Billy, our Ward Mission Leader, with us to teach him and we think that Brother Billy scared or affended Papame. Brother Billy is very straight forward and very bold. He affends alot of people. Other than that we are still just trying to find people to teach. We have alot of appointments this week, so hopefully something comes out of them.

The weather is very nice now. It hasn't rained for a while, and its been getting dark more towards 6:00 instead of at 4:30. Its has been very windy though. How bad are the gas prices now? Thats really fun about the TV. (Note: TV at home went dead with no warning, so of course Dennis had to go right out and get a new 32' TV) Is it bigger than the old one? Thats a good one about the Credit Card...You can trash it please ; ). Nope I am pretty sure I am not buying any property or looking for a job in Utah let alone anywhere else. (Note: Braden keeps getting phone calls about property in Utah and if he wants to become a realtor.)

Anything else that is new back there?

Love you lots,
Braden

June 29th

The e-mail I sent did end but my e-mail will not let me go back into them. It was one layer but then I put some small cupcake's on top of it. I put the same kind of frosting you make for cinnamine rolls on it, because that is the only kind I had a recipe for. Then I put crushed chocolate on the top. It was a chocolate cake, thats what she requested. I was really stressed about the baptism because I had to teach the Gospel Pricniples class and it was really last minute that we found out that we would be doing the baptisms. The other Elders in the picture are: Elder Barton, Elder Smith, and Elder Dinkel. The cubs were to big to hold but we got to play with them. We got to see big lions as well. I made the charge at Exclusive Books, it was for a book to learn how to speak Xhosa. The only time I got with President Egan was at Zone Confrences and the overnight stay we got we we first came out. We only see the President at Zone Confrences. There are a lot of new missionaries that just came in, most from the states. We don't hear anything about transferes until the last Saturday of the Transfer. Stanton is now in Mdanstane, and Elder Alestrom got transfered out of East London. When Elder Barton was sick I just stayed inside and studied and slept. I am still tring to find time to write a letter to the primary but I send out quite a few letters last week. We didn't get any post this last Friday, our Zone Leaders were in Grams town so no one picked up the mail... I think. We have two hours every morning to study, one our personal study and one hour companion study, then we prepare for the day.

This Sunday we (Elder Barton, Elder Dinkel, Elder Smith, and I) had all church to ourselves. Elder Dinkel and Elder Smith talked in sacrament, all of us did a puppet show in primary, and Elder Barton and I taught combined preisthood. We also had Nondumiso, and Asadumas confirmation.

Love Braden

Hottest Week So Far!

We ended up going to the Lion Park, but only for an hour. We got to play with the lion cubs and I got a nice claw mark on my calf now. hahaha. My week was great we had a very nice wedding and then two Baptisms on Sunday. I got to baptize Asaduma Kiti, the son of one of our investigators. I still have not driven yet. In order to drive we have to take some kind of test and then have driving practice. Considering I am in a walking area I am not in to big of a hurry to do all that. The wedding went really well. It was perfect even though the Kiti's and Elder Barton and myself only spent a total of 3 hours planning it and getting all the assignments made. I made the wedding cake, because Elder Barton volunteered me to. We also had some more finger foods, they didn't want anything big, so they were really happy with what was there. The cake I made was gone in about 8 minutes, the first thing to go. The snacks are great, you sent soo much, we have been picking away at it slowly but still have tons left. The baptism program was very short, Elder Barton and I both said a short 3-4 minute talk and then we did the baptism, while we were changing they watched a short video clip. In church I teach every 5 weeks in the investigators/recent converts class called Gospel Principles. People can E-mail me, but most of the time I will send you the E-mail to mail out to them. But I can try to E-mail them, they are not to strick on that any more. I love getting mail and it does only come on Friday. I have been trying to write everyone back but it is really hard to find free time. Thank you for sending me the card back, I will let you know when I get it. Austin why don't you just get a I-Phone? Today we are going to play RISK the board game. Last week Elder Barton was pretty sick, so on Thursday we stayed inside all day long so he could rest and get better. It was also very rainy all week; we had four days of straight rain. But its alot sunnier now. This week we really didn't do to much because like I mentioned above Elder Barton was sick, but it was still a very good week. And I love it when you ask me questions because I don't really have all to much to write about any way.