Getting transferred

Email #56
Area: Secunda
Companion: Elder Going

Hey Everyone,

Yeah I am leaving Secunda, I am so mad and just confused! I actually just started to love this place like my own home and family and then just get ripped out of here. Everything was getting good with all the members, investigators and just was loving it with Elder Going. I even called Pres to ask if I could stay. But he said I would love my next area, he says that about every area.  It doesn't make sense to me why, but hopefully I will see why soon. It just wasn't expected and I thought that Elder Johnson would leave, because he and Elder Holmquist have been together now for 4 1/2 months and that doesn't usually happen! But this time I got to say goodbye to everyone that I wanted to and got so many pics. I will have to send some next week, not enough time this week.  It took us forever to get the internet to work this week and I am the first one and the other two still have to email.

The talent show was so much fun and everyone had a great time and did some cool talents. We did the Haka. Wendy and Gugu, they are cool girls! It was a really good week with them. Bethal is about 30 kilometers away from Secunda and so we decided to go out there awhile ago! The other less actives girls even came to church this Sunday and got a pic with them, they are really cool! I didn't get the chance to make the bread. The chicken feet aren't that bad, but yeah cow brain I won't touch.

Saying goodbye wasn't easy this time either. In the mission call packet they never said anything about leaving your family more than once, but I guess it just comes with it! Wish me luck in my new area and with a new comp hopefully I like him!! BTW, mamako is Zulu for mom!

Love,
Elder Bryner

Talent show was a big success!!!

Email #55
Area: Secunda
Companion: Elder Going

Hey Everyone,

We had a really good week and had a great talent show activity and it was a good turn out and everything. People are already asking when the next one will be haha!!! People had a great time and they were even impressed with our cooking. I made some of the traditional food it is called pap the stuff that looks like mashed tatoes yeah I mastered it haha!!! Yeah I am trying to learn all the african foods and have tried some weird stuff haha. Like chicken feet and intestine and other weird stuff but don't freak out I am fine and my stomach has been holding up on the weird foods here but some of it is really good!!! One of the members is Sis Khumalo and we usually cook with synthia but this wednesday the member is teaching us the traditional bread that they make!!!

We got it organized perfect, nothing went wrong except the weather. So in the morning of Saturday it was nice and later on about 10:00, it started to rain and we planned to have the activity start at 1:00. We were going to start with the bbq stuff and all the meat and setting up for the talent show. We said like 3 prayers haha, but it actually turned around and the sun came out about an hour before it started and were able to do everything. We also planned to watch the restoration movie and during the movie it rained. After we had a bomb fire yeah, bomb fire haha and it stopped raining. We had two girls that came, one of them is a sister to a recent convert and they are friends. They are kinda young, but we talked about the book of mormon yesterday and they said they even prayed about it. They said that something told them that it was true and the movie helped them to understand more about the church and that there should only be one church. So I think they are going to be baptized soon, we will put them on date this week maybe!

So the questions I will try to answer now. Jerry is doing okay, he got a job so we see him only on Sundays now but can't get to church still. The less active sisters are sisters to Thato and they are doing good, but they are in their own other church. So it is hard and their mom doesn't like the church. They were baptized when they were 8 or so, but we also found another less active family that is from Zim. There is her sister there as well in bethal so this place is exploding. We are going to try and get a group started out there! So the food in the pics is dombollo which is a bread. The green stuff is spinach, it is called moroho super good. The orange stuff is pumpkin and the other is just mince or hamburger meat and veggies. A member made dinner for us one night and gave a left overs so nice, but I am learning to cook all of that!!!!! I actually don't miss all that much food from home! Synthia wants to be baptized in December with her husband and the daughter later! Yeah got some pics yesterday, I will send them home! Yeah the weight is Elder Going haha he has to take it to every area and is a huge hassle, but it is worth it. Me and him are eating way healthy and working out!!! Yeah that was my week in a bit and hopefully I can stay here one more transfer that would be way cool! The teaching was alright and we had 18 lessons, but we had the activity on Saturday!

Love,
Elder Bryner

Elder Bryner bowling on P-day

Pap and vegetables

Chicken feet, mmmmmm good

Elder Going eating chicken feet.

Hanging out with some kids racing their go-carts.

Bomb fire at the activity :-)

In their outfits, ready for the talent show.

Elder Bryner with Synthia's kids

Synthia, Doctor, Nqobile, Tokozo and Elder Bryner

Elder Bryner and Elder Going

Elder Bryner and Elder Going at Synthia's house.

More lessons and hosting a talent show for branch

Email #54
Area: Secunda
Companion: Elder Going

Hey Everyone,

We had the best week since I have been here, we had 22 lessons the week and next week hopefully 20. We met with Thato again this week and we found some more people there and received a referral from a member from another area. We saw her this week and she came to church as well. We got a cool activity planned this Saturday for the branch and we are hosting. We have been planning this for a few weeks and today we got to do a ton of stuff. So it should be a good time. Its a talent show and braai and we invited a bunch of people and hope it will be a good turn out. People are getting ready to do their talents. No other holidays celebrated here now. They had christmas trees put up in October, haha so that was kinda weird. I hope to be here another transfer to see it grow a little more. I am going to request to stay here so we will see where that takes me. Tell stan hello back and hopefully mich gets out there soon. We met some more people on friday and it happens that they are related to a member and has been to church before so that will be cool.

Love,
Elder Bryner

Miacles happen... Hump Day shirt burning.

Email #53
Area: Secunda
Companion: Elder Going

Hey Everyone,

So for hump I burned one of my shirts and tie, because I didn't do it when I was 6 months. I didn't really do anything besides burn that stuff. So the story about the girl goes like this. It was a hot day and we have been looking for the less actives on the branch list and we found one of them named Thato. She works at the college as a secretary, but we found her 3 weeks ago. We had planned to meet with her this past week and as we were trying to find the other 2 less actives house we couldn't find it. We thought it was written down wrong and street name and house number were wrong. So we tried to go down another street, but couldn't find the house number. As we were going down the street we see this girl that was walking through a soccer field. We turned and looked at her and she said as she was pointing at us "I know you". We stopped right there and threw down the window and found out it was the less active girl we have been trying to find for 3 weeks. We also found out the 3 less active people are sisters, so we met with all of them this past Tuesday. The Thato girl that works at the college came to church this past Sunday and bore her testimony about how she has been praying for 3 missionaries to come to her home. What do you know there were four of us that found her, so miracles happen all the time!!! Well that is the story in the finest! So the mail is just ridiculous now so I won't worry about mail or anything for awhile just write emails. Synthia is doing good and she feeds us everytime we go over there so that is nice. We are starting to get close with the members now so that is good. Still not any referrals, but they will come around. Yeah but she wants to be baptized with her daughter when she turns eight in January next year. So I am not sure what will happen, but it is fine it is how the work goes and I know that it was for a good reason. We haven't made any food for them really, we just help her cook sometimes. I know how to make some of the traditional foods now, so I will have to make for you guys when I get home! I am enjoying my mission and it gets better everyday, have a good week!

Love,
Elder Bryner

Hump Day, burning a shirt and tie