Welcome to Secunda and new companion Elder Wilombe

Email #39
Area: Secunda
Companion: Elder Wilombe

Hey Everyone,

The week was really slow, but now we made it to pday so I am super excited for that. A LOT has changed and A LOT is different about this place than Cosmo. So much work is needed here in Secunda. Just to start off, it is a branch and looking at the stats of the branch they have about an average of about 30 people at church. It is a town and so that is a change as well. I am used to township. There is a township area that we work in, it is called Kinross. There are 3 investigators in Secunda and about maybe 10 in Kinross. They just had a baptism last week, so at least there is potential. There are also a lot of less active people, so we are trying to reactivate those people. So I have come to find that Afrikaan people are not very receptive to the gospel. They are too much into the world, but hey someone has to try and teach them. This is the hardest area in the mission right now from what I can see. We are in Mpumalanga, not quite sure how you spell that. But I am no longer in Gauteng anymore, so that is a bummer but it is in the northeast. A ton of farm land and it is beyond flat ground here, just flat everywhere you can see. It is about a 2 hour drive from the office so yeah it is pretty far. The flat I stay in is okay it just needed some uber cleaning, but now it is good. My companion is Elder Wilombe from Zambia and is 21 years old and 3 months on mission. The one who trained him just swapped areas and we are follow up training each others sons. So now I have had a companion from 3 different countries in Africa and one American and one Canadian. So it is a lot to adjust too, but for some reason I know that God has given me each companion with their strengths and weakness's to make of for mine! He loves to draw cartoons and is a child of record like me. We don't have too much in common. But hey you have to have those companions sometime in your mission. We have interviews with Pres. tomorrow and a temple trip next week and then zone meeting the next week. Then zone conference the next week and then a week off and then it is transfers again. So I am happy that we are staying pretty busy and everything especially with a new area and everything. We drive an automatic car, so that is different as well I am used to driving stick so it is a nice change. This area is a testimony builder and will strengthen your patience. God has me here for a reason and my mom always has told me I can do hard things and so if she believes that I can do than sure why not! Have a good week everyone wish me luck!

Elder Bryner

Excerpts from Mom's email:

I really do miss Cosmo so much, but it is ready for the next missionary to take over and help it grow even more! I am going back there what ever it takes. That would just make this all worth it. I absolutely loved that place. Sure it had its downs, but so does everything else in life so just get over it and move on. There isn't an email shop here in this area, so we are at the chapel using the clerks computer and we just bought a modem to use. So yeah it is good in that way so that I can just take my time and email everything that I need to. But yeah this area really needs some help seriously. The members are not that into missionary work and they are not that unified either. We know what we are going to be doing in this branch. Get them motivated and love each other haha! They are a sweet people. One white guy here is 76 and said that he has been to salt lake and was there for about 3 weeks haha, but yeah he said that the missionaries came to him 4 times until he let them into his house. So yeah no effort is wasted and be persistent is what I learned from that guy!

Excerpts from Dad's email:

We teach about 1 to 2 lessons a day and the rest we tract and street contact so by the time I am done here I will be an expert at that haha! It is just so weird every companion has a little bit of jaren in them haha. He loves cartoons and gaming and stuff like that. He is a little bit messy and doesn't like to clean, but last night I cleaned it pretty well. eah transfers were way different and i really liked them actually. I have met a few people, but yeah the people here are either muslim or catholic some christian. This is a country where I have never seen so many religions before, it really is a new world here. Wow i can't even believe that spencer is home already and hunter will be home soon as well.

That is their shower curtain 

I hope this is before they cleaned the bathroom.

His new companion, Elder Wilombe

The new kitchen/laundry room.

New bedroom with lots of fans.

Transfers, Saying See you later to Cosmo City.

Email #38
Area: Cosmo City
Companion: Elder Kwabaisi

Hey Everyone,

Well I am done in Cosmo City and it is time for me to go somewhere else and preach the gospel to others that are ready and prepared. This place is much harder to leave than my first area and to be completely honest, it is almost as hard or harder to leave than when I left home. I didn't have these kind of feelings when I left home, but this is something different. There is one family that I have seen grow from the beginning and wow did they grow. Only 2 are left that are waiting to be baptized and there are 5 in the family, but no father but the strength that they have is none like I have ever seen, the Amanda family. We have developed such a strong relationship it is almost impossible to say goodbye, but today will be just a see you later because I am coming back here no matter what it takes I need to come back. I was honored and entrusted with being able to see 11 be baptized in this area and was able to baptize 5 and those are moments and people that I hold close to me! There is so much work to be done and I hope that when I return that this place will be a ward, but now it is just in the process. The members here remind me a lot of my home ward. That is why it is so hard to leave. This is my home. This is my family. Something that I have grown to know is that if you don't leave an area feeling like that you are leaving home, you are not fulfilling your role and call as a missionary. A member told me that she forgot sometimes that I was even a missionary and thought that I was just another member of the branch. That is when I knew that my purpose was fulfilled and I have been here for 6 months so I really became a citizen and a member of the Cosmo City!

Elder Bryner


Excerpts from Mom's email:

The sisters here in Cosmo have treated me as there own son so that is why I want you to meet them so much! The bad days are there but the good days triumph over the bad haha! I love the mission song and I hope that the missionaries that are home come to my homecoming because I am one of the last ones of the year so that would be so cool to be able to do that! My next area will be a challenge from what I feel but it will make me grow! It is sad that I have to leave and I was tearing up bearing my testimony for the last time and I didn't even cry or anything when I gave my farewell talk. I really see that God has placed me here for a reason and you were right I think that if I was not emergency transferred here, I wouldn't have ever come here. I want you to be able to meet these people and just see for yourself where all my joy and love is coming from! But it is my time to go. It is hard to keep myself together as I type haha such a baby! Time is going so fast and I can't even believe it!

Excerpts from Dad's email:

I really got attached and love this people! It is good and bad, but if I don't feel like that I am leaving my family and home each area then I am not fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and a brother to these people! I have seen so many lives change and I don't take credit for any of it because I am just a vehicle, a servant and a tool of the Lord and He is the one who does all the work. I am just lucky enough to be there to see such miracles! I knew on a mission doing the right thing and being obedient is the only way you should live your life! If someone especially the Lord entrusts you with a responsibility you shouldn't let them down and be disappointed! My feelings are off the wall about leaving I could just stay here my entire mission, but I told mom that I want you to meet these people and you will see first hand where my joy and love comes from and why it is so hard to leave this great place.

Service this week & Transfers next week.

Email #37
Area: Cosmo City
Companion: Elder Kwabaisi

Hey Everyone,

A good week and it is possibly my last week in cosmo city and this passed week we did a ton of service. Washed cars and helped in gardens and just a packed week with service. Teaching wasn't too much, but we had a good experiences doing service. We found out that one of the investigators that have been waiting to get baptized just needed to be married and everything and the problem was that they were living together and not married so yeah they are finally getting married and baptized the next day so that was something that is exciting this week. Time is going still like nothing. Another transfer already gone and another one on the way. A special message to my cousin Brandyn. My mom told me that you read the blog so I would write you a special message and I want to tell you do not doubt your decision and all that you believe in. If you want to serve a mission do it. Do not hesitate, go and help others receive what you have. Make plans and set goals for yourself, because this is a life of learning and growth. You are one of the choicest of God's children! I want to give you a scripture to read in D&C 4. It is our mission scripture along with many other mission and if you read this you will see the plan that God has for you! Love you cuz and never lose hope, press forward with a steadfastness in Christ! For anyone that reads this it is not only to my cousin, but to all that have a desire to serve. I am as far as you can go across the world from my home and I can tell you with the most surety that is within me that I would not come this far if it was not true. I may be a missionary now but I recently wasn't and the doubts that I had about so many things I came to answers through the Book of Mormon! This book is the truest of any other book on the face of the earth! I have read it cover to cover and not a letter or sentence is false. Down to the period, it is from God! This Gospel and Church is true and never doubt what you believe in! From words of a powerful Apostle Elder Holland "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith".
I love you all!

Elder Bryner

Confirmations, Reaching your dreams and accomplishing your goals

Email #36
Area: Cosmo City
Companion: Elder Kwabaisi

Hey Everyone,

A GOOD WEEK! We had everyone confirmed yesterday and I got to participate and do one myself, so that was a cool experience it was my first time so it was a good learning experience as well. This week is service week haha! Washing three cars, Painting a house and a wall, doing a garden and some more may come, but it will be a hectic and productive week! We had a good day at church yesterday from 17 investigators down to 2 haha some were not there and the others are now Recent Converts, but I am not complaining. When we baptized in May, Cosmo had not had a baptism since last December so the Lord is blessing us with success with our efforts. We now have baptized 11 and we hope before we leave one another we baptize 10 more haha. It is quite a goal, but with faith it can be done! We didn't expect to have this many and my goal to have 10 before I left has already been achieved so dream big and don't under estimate yourself and God especially. We are finding some more people and we should be having good amount here in a week or so with more teaching and finding! We are teaching most of Sister Dorcus's children now and one of them is a music producer and trying to help others reach their music dreams. It is in Cosmo where he is doing it and the studio is in his mom's house in a small room, he is making the most of it! That is my week in a short and exciting message and I hope all are well and you are reaching your dreams and accomplishing your goals!

Love,
Elder Bryner


Excerpts from Mom's email:

The Dunn's are so great and they are what I imagined and so much more and I am really going to enjoy the time with them seriously!!! It is funny because we live 5 min. from them in Utah! They both have that love for the missionaries for sure. We sit with our boot (trunk) open with pamphlets and all the material, outside of a shopping center called Shoprite and it is the only place that is in the area. EVERYONE comes there and we have been finding like that a little bit and it was inspired for sure haha! It is pretty cold and getting warmer a little bit, but most nights it is pretty cold I might say! Today we are going to play sports and Braii (BBQ). I really do know without a doubt this work is the work of the Lord and that we are called to the very place by inspiration and that this church is the only way we can have eternal happiness!

Excerpts from Dad's email:

The week was really good and we are just growing so much and yesterday at church we almost didn't have enough chairs to fit everyone in the chapel, but there was a baby blessing as well. I am just enjoying my mission so much and it is just a crazy experience. This week we are doing some more service for some members and the BOM challenge is starting to work so that is good. Members are bringing in referrals now and so it should start to pick up.

Email from a Senior couple:

My husband and I are serving as senior missionaries in the same branch your son is serving.  He is doing a terrific job!  We are very impressed by his hard work and focus.  He loves the people and they love him.  He and his companion work well together and are having great success.  You probably heard they baptized 7 people last week. I was trying to imagine your joy if you had been there and seen your son standing in the baptismal font with his hand to the square and saying, "Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ."  You can be very happy about your son's mission. I am an eye witness of his heartfelt efforts and wanted to let you know.

With love,
Sister Shupe