Oh hey
How have you been?
So just a quick little update for you today so I can tell Madre that I sent an email out.
• my first transfer here in Pietermaritzburg is coming to an end on Friday!
• new mission President Laguna came in on Wednesday!
• President De Kock completed his mission, he's such a good guy, man I love him and sister De Kock so much
• I am going to be training yet AGAIN. So, stay tuned for that 😉
• all my friends have gone home/are going home 😔
Funny story!
I woke up on Pday to the smell that can only be described as ... bleach fumes!
Elder Castillo (from Philippines) was being a kind soul and decided to mop the floor and ... the walls?
He was using bleach, and it didn't feel too good to breath in. I think when my eyes started stinging was probably the time to skedaddle out of there ... but hey when we came back everything was as detoxed as much as it could be so maybe lung cancer < clean floors?
Lmk on that one.
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Went on an exchange to white-people town and funnily enough found ourselves in a township. For those of you who are new, a township is like a little village and white people do NOT go there. I repeat. They do NOT go there ...
Anyways me and another white kid walk into this township where we are met by an old baba with a hammer and some nails. No biggie, right? WRONG.
I didn't even get to say "Sawubona unjani" before he told us, " I see your tie, you see you tie? I'm going to hang you by your ties and you going to die."
...
With that warm welcome we just walked by him and said "shap shap" (shap is similar to saying "bet". Idk that's not a good translation for it, but its close)
Then we went and had a wonderful lesson despite all this Matthew 24: 9-11 type stuff.
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Also, shoutout to Lil bro who got his driver's license this week!! Can't believe he's actually getting older and growing up while I'm gone haha.
Spiritual thought:
Something I've been thinking about a lot is mistakes that I've made in the past and how Heavenly Father views that. What popped into my mind was how God infinitely hates sin, like Bro gets absolutely appalled and can't stand it when there is something unclean. Which is understandable bc he is a literal perfect being ...
But then he created us, a whole world full of people who constantly fall short of his glory ... by sinning.
So, God truly loves us more than an infinite amount purely out of the fact that he created us with the foreknowledge that we would do what he dislikes the most ...
But he sent a Savior for you and me to come back to live with him again, and that's something that I will forever be grateful for!
Write to me if you're feelin it!
-E Cottrell