South Africa Saints

  That's what you're going to hear if you pass by a group of high-school kids lol, apparently, I'm a gentleman so.. that's cool. I know you've been deprived of joy in your life for a while, (I didn't write an email last week) Let me tell yah, this whole weekly email thing sucks. It makes me do stuff like thinking and remembering. I'm not all about that life, but honestly the days just get away from me too fast to write stuff down in an email. I'll keep it short and just tell you guys about some cool people. Isiphile: On date for baptism next week! Maneli: November 24th! Gilbert: November 24th! So, there are 3 baptisms coming up, but guess what? Your boy Elder Cottrell is getting transferred on Friday, so I won't see any of these wonderful people get dunked. I was pretty surprised that I'm getting transferred because it's only been 12 weeks of me being in this area and people usually stay for 6-ish months. So, I guess the Lord has other people...

  Hi!  Something I didn't mention to you last week was I had to speak.. I mean I got to speak in church. It's a lot different when there's only 20 people you have to talk to.   Last Monday, Pday! Guys I had an absolutely delectable time out on the golf course hitting some bombs (meaning I whiffed the ball).   The course was so sick and it only cost 350 rand, a whopping 20 bucks back home! That was for a cart, rental clubs and green fees. And the course was just absolutely beautiful. Well, I was there, so it kind of helped it out, but that's beside the point. MONKEYS   I know hell isn't a place, but these creatures came from it.  They're so annoying, and they know how to take a golf cart. I'm not just saying that as if I didn't experience this firsthand. They also know how to steal wallets!   So, it ended up costing 400 rand if you're counting the missing 50 rand that was in Elder Fergos wallet.   Don't fret.  We got the wallet ...

Nice quote from an old Hindu lady this week, more about her later though. Big shoutout to anyone who actually reads these emails, hopefully the pain and suffering I go through to write them is worth a few laughs. This week was a drag. Most weeks I’m like wow it's already Pday. This week it’s like yo when is this week ending?! On Monday we went and visited the beach with our district. We're not allowed to touch the sand though so it's like,  wow, I bet the ocean/beach looks really pretty. Wish I could see it from the parking lot we're in.   OH, WE WENT MINI GOLFING. Hopefully writing that in all caps made you think it was a special experience, no... it was trash. I got 2nd place behind my trainer Elder Ferguson, who by the way is getting transferred out on Thursday. So now Elder Cottrell with a whopping 5 weeks of mission field experience, gets to lead the hardest area in South Africa. You might think that's an exaggeration. I thought so too until I came here. I just...

Finally Pday!! Ok today's subject actually makes sense for this week. We had a monkey invasion and a fly infestation.  So, I'm sitting in personal study one morning as any good missionary does, then out of the corner of my eye I see the broom fall to the floor. I don't even know why, but my mind immediately went to monkeys. And I was right, one of them came in through a window, through the prison bars and then took some eggs from our fridge.  It didn't even touch a single banana that was just readily available. (See the photos link for videos of the monkeys and more!) That brings me to my next issue, those bananas seemed to have given birth to a crap ton of flies, and not just little ones. These were fat, who's yo momma flies. Anyway, everywhere you go in our apartment you can now find dead flies. We got a mini hoop, shoutout to Ferguson’s mom. It's become the way we settle things like where to go for dinner. Idk why I agreed to this because I'm so bad at ba...

Hi, so we went fishing on Pday and I fell off.  Nah, I'm just joking.  That first sentence of the email has to bait you in some how.  lol Guys, I really don't know what to label my emails, but shark attack seemed like a nice one for this week.  And just like last week, this week has gone by just as fast. On Pday we played basketball which meant I ran up and down the court with nobody passing Elder Cottrell the ball because I'm absolutely garbage at basketball. I don't even think anything happened on Tuesday, if I'm being honest.  I can't remember, actually that's when our sink broke. The faucet got stripped somehow and it was stuck just full blasting water, and here you have to buy the things like your water and power in certain amounts, and when it runs out it just shuts off.  So, this week we actually ran out of both.  That was fun to go through.  Videos of the sink debacle are in the google photos link at the top of this email. I went on an exc...

Joking obviously, I just don't have a good thing to put in the subject. I actually eat plenty and I like the food, I was worried about that before I got here. This week has flown by like actually how in the world is it already Monday? And just like every email I write, I have no idea what to talk about. The work is still slow here but hopefully it can pick up here soon this week. This email might actually be like shorter than Lord Farquad, but hey at least you're getting one from me. Some highlights are: - we went to the mall - had a good meeting with a new person - got held at spear point (didn't even know that was a thing, but hey it happened) - we also got held at rebar point (again didn't know this was a thing either) But all of these people are so drunk if you just tell them that there's free beer down the street, they'll go running there and forget you exist. Everyone wants to take a picture with us because I guess we're cute or something.  (We're ...

Hi all! My mom told me that I can't miss a week of emailing home because people thought something happened to me. No I wasn't kidnapped, although there's still plenty of time for that.   Jokes jokes (not really tho). I can't remember when my last email was but I think it was me leaving the MTC and heading out to the field. Well I made it to Durban and have been out and about talking about Jesus, mostly to people who live in townships.   A township is like a town, but just shacks everywhere.   But yeah the hardest part about mission is probably writing these emails because it's really not fun typing a big long paragraph on this tiny screen with my thumbs. Don't even get me started on the autocorrect, we have some beef that's all I'll say.  The area I'm serving in is called Stanger, but we mostly don't teach here, just sleep and the church building is here. The rest is out in the huts. If you ever come to south Africa, get accustomed to the word mu...