Trails today = Testimony tomorrow

What's good family?

That Ragnar sticker is not that cool on the truck, sorry! haha. That is a nice picture of Kelly. But WOW the palm tree looks SO different! that's sweet that he just climbed up and cut it. How much was it?! and what did y'all do with all the palm fawns? Well, I'm glad to hear you guys made it home safe...even through nasty weather.

SMILEY, traditional food in township. Braaied sheep's head.

We get fed only on Sunday's after church..because yes people are very poor...but sacrifice a LOT just to feed us. Yoahh the food is goood! Xhosa mammas can cook! The other elders say they get fed some African things! Like chicken hearts and stuff. Over here they eat what is called "SMILEY" yeahhh, umm, basically its sheep head!! yummmm...haven't had that delicacy yet! Cant wait haha. It is literally half of a sheep's head, and it is smiling at you :) :) The cheeks and tongue are the tastiest parts of the head.

I never knew Ben Toolson was getting married! cool. I better get Sadie's wedding invite! I heard the post is better in other parts of the mission...East London/Mdantsane is not so good.

Not sure where that zip drive is..sorry. but the USB thing you sent is already filled up with my pictures...and I still have more. so I'm not sure how I'm gonna solve that problem. and I burned a CD with most all of the pictures that I've taken on mission. So they're backed up, but I would like in the next package or bigger like a 4GB memory card..that would be nice. but BAD NEWS...I took that sweeeet video of Highway....BUT it was too big to send home as an attachment..sorry!

Ya know, this has just been, once again, a wonderfully busy and hectic and tiring week here in Mdantsane. we work hard. we taught 3 days of 5 lessons a day. so that's basically show up to the area, drop the other elders in their area, so scoop up our fellow-shipper, start teaching a lesson and when that's done, hop into the car and drive to the next teaching appointment, finish that one, then scurry off to the next, etc. until its time to pick up the other elders and go home and Chow! haha.

We work a lot with recent converts. they all are doing very well. and they'd better be cuz we visit them like twice a week! haha. yesterday, Axolile and Lihle (recent converts) both gave Powerful talks in sacrament meeting! they both did a great job. and tonight at FHE, Nosibosiso (recent convert) is teaching the whole lesson. and she just turned 15. AND she was like begging to come out fellow-shipping with us, so we took her for 4 appointments, on 2 days last week. dang, she is powerful.

Yesterday we walked to church with mamma Pam. She is old, and is always late to church, so we made sure she was on time. she doesn't walk too fast, and she takes care of 3 of her grand-kids cuz their moms stay in cape town, so she basically is an amazing woman. so humble and loving. but she has a baptism date for the 29th of this month..and so does this other guy named Chris. He's just an investigator, but during FHE, he always talks and shares his thoughts...its great! they both are fun to teach and I'm excited to see them get baptized. But Heike did get baptized yesterday! she was scared of the water hahaha. she is Swati, but obviously knows Xhosa. Her name means "star" that's another thing I like about Xhosa names....they pretty much all have some sort of meaning! I love baptisms! but after church is always hectic! Elder Barlow kinda just stood there and followed me around as I went from person to person talking to them and asking them when we could come visit them this week, and also I had to line up all of the fellow-shippers to come out with us this week. but guess what, I got a boat load of appointments and a fellow-shipper for every day this week! yes!

Once upon a time, we drove past all of these kids that were playing in the road, and I like hooted (honked) a few times and smiled, and when I got out of the car, they all came sprinting up to me and like yelling and laughing and shouting "mlungu" haha and like gave me a thumbs up and always say sharp (shop) meaning its cool. these kids over here are always soo happy with the things they have and are just adorable.

Elder Barlow is still sweet. we get along great and have fun together. we teach a lot, and that's a good thing.

This week the one and only President Probst is coming to town! Time for some interviews! I'm excited to sit down and talk with the master himself! haha. it'll be great.

Umm, read Alma 17. we shared it for 2 lessons this past week. goll, Ammon is such a stud! What great faith. and yeah we meet some mean people, but that's nothing compared to those Lamanites! dang. 14 years for the Sons of Mosiah...wow. and I thought 24 months is long.

Something I discovered is that you cant measure love. Its not a concrete thing, and there's no formulas to use.

Also, someone once said "trails today = testimony tomorrow" I like that.
Alright greatest family in the world, I'll talk to you guys next week...same time, same place!

Take care!

Love always, your missionary son,
Elder Dusty Haws