Yes, conference was amazing! I just loved every second of it! South Africa got 2 shout outs!!

HEY!!

That was cool to see all my awesome friends on my Facebook wish me a happy 21st birthday! Thanks for doing that daddy. Yes we did climb all those peaks today. But to answer some of your questions...I haven’t heard of any South Africans participating in the Olympics. Normally if I can remember correctly, we have some good swimmers this side. But hold up, you guys better record or do something with the Olympics so I can watch when I get home. K thanks. And yes, the senior couples don’t have such as strict as a schedule as us. I love all senior couples and especially the ones here in SACTM! They always take such good care of us. Ah, I love them so much! I can’t wait to be one someday.   Kelly didn’t include any of those pictures in her email this week. I love getting emails from her. She’s the best sister ever, and what she writes me each week makes me smile without fail! Ah I miss that girl.

Good question mommy about service. When I was in a township, service was easy to come by. Just show up at anyone's house with a spade (shovel) and you got service for the morning. It’s not like that here in a town area. I’ve done some sweet service as a missionary, and I’ve learned how to do a lot of things. But this week we went to the clerk’s house and tidied up his garden and backyard area. He is such a sweet older gentleman, so I was glad that we could help him out.
Last p-day was fun. We smashed some volleyball around. I hit some overpasses straight down! it felt SO GOOD!!! Elder Mamaia is freakin good, and so is Elder Morris. Man, thanks daddy for urging me to play volleyball. What a fun game!

But my birthday on Tuesday was just fantastic. I didn’t realize it was my birthday until Elder Rogers wished me happy birthday after we prayed in the morning. It was a great day. We did some errands in the morning and taught a few lessons in the afternoon, then went to the Scheepers for supper. And you won’t believe what brother Scheepers made for me. A key!! So basically in South Africa when you turn 21 you get like a key. It’s hard to explain. I’ve seen then in housed and necklaces, but now I have one! I feel special. I’ll send you as picture. Brother Scheepers has been in the church 10 years now and this is only the 3rd key he's ever made for a missionary. That makes me feel special. And the crazy thing is that it only took him 2 days to do it. You got to see it to believe it.  But the next day the other zone leaders that live in our same apartment complex came over and made a nice cake! It was gooood. But man, sometimes males are stupid. Because we ate the entire cake! Like each piece was a little bit bigger than a napkin. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so good afterward haha.

This week we did our zone training and had interviews with President Wood. Our training for our zone went very well. We had to teach for 2 hours total. It was kinda fun. And my interview with president was just great. But before the day was over, president called us in again and told me my transfer news. Because Elder Rogers is going HOME on Thursday so that he can start school at BYU on Monday. Yeah, that sucks. He only gets to be home for like 2 days. Poor guy. I’m going to miss him sooo much. I love him! haha. President said that I’m now going to be with EPIC Elder Morris! ohhh myy goshh, you don’t know now cool and powerful this guy is! He is in my transfer and is from Ventura California! His companion is going home as well, and so we're going to be zone leaders together. Basically, I am the only zone leader for my zone, and Elder Morris is the only zone leader for his zone. Yeah it’s pretty hectic and confusing, but we're going to have to do lots of planning, but things will be just fine. Its only for 3 weeks, until I get a new companion and Elder Morris will get a new companion in a new area. Crazy! haha I am super excited.

Yes conference was amazing! I just loved every second of it! South Africa got 2 shout outs, did you hear them! This place is zion haha. I wish I had more time to tell you why I loved conference, but I don’t.

Something cool that happened this week was that President and Sister Wood came out teaching with us for an appointment we had! Man, they are powerful! We taught about the Book of Mormon to our investigator, and after that, how could he not know that the book was true! haha it was a cool experience, I just wish it could happen more often.

Another exciting thing is that this Sunday Helga is getting baptized, and I think she wants me to do it! That’ll be sweet. her and her sister came for all the sessions. What studs.

Yessie, we did it today! Elder Morris and Elder Legge and Elder Rogers and myself all got up at like 5:30 this morning and started hiking lions head by 6:30. We got to watch the sun rise over Cape Town! Man, it was beautiful. That hike wasn’t so bad. Then we drove over to Devils Peak and hiked that sucker. It was revenge for me. It’s the peak that overlooks all of my area, and the last time that we hiked it, it was very cloudy and so I couldn’t see anything, but not today! Man, it was breathtaking. You could see for miles and miles. But then, with wearied legs, we hiked the big daddy, Table Mountain! Last time I just about died when I did it, but for some weird reason, today I had its number! I owned it! haha. I just had to smile at myself when I saw people struggling going up the mountain, haha, I just felt like saying if you only knew what I hiked already today! hahah. Elder Rogers and I motored all the way to the top without stopping, and then walked around a lot on top, then kinda ran at some parts on the way down. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but we did it! Now, I can barely feel my legs haha. I did it though.

I have to apologize because this new email shop we tried today doesn’t allow me to send pictures home, so tomorrow morning we're going to go to a place that we can send pictures home at, and I’ll send the few from last week and the ones that we took today :)

I’m exhausted at the moment. This week is going to be entertaining. I’ll tell you all about it next Monday, but I promise to send pictures tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the many many birthday wishes. They mean a lot to me. I’m 21 baby!

LOVE,
Elder Dusty Haws