elephants

"You don't need the six pack when you've got the nose"-Axe Commercial

Hello Friends

So the quote is something that we heard this week.  Now in my family, we have decent size noses.  But to people the people here and the other missionaries.  I HAVE GOT THE NOSE. (still working on the six pack).  STORIES

Story number 1:  Primary Presentation

Man this week in Motherwell it was the primary program.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love little kids. This was awesome to me.  First off,  Christ told us that his spirit is with the little ones.  That is so very true, whilst listening to these kids talks/ songs the spirit was so strong, just Incredible! Also the kids were so funny.  One of my favorite actions was by a child we call S.  All he did was sway and smile, so awesome.  So when you next have a primary program in your ward, appreciate it.  Those kids and teachers work hard.

Story number 2:  Playing with Elephants

My zone leaders birthday was the other day. In order to celebrate he wanted to ride Elephants.  So we did.  We had enough people to get a really good deal on it.  We all went and we had fun! These are the pictures. The elephant I rode, his name is Duma.  Which means the sound of thunder, or something like that.  Reason being is he makes a unique sound when he is eating. The guy I am with is named Chris, he had been riding/guiding elephants for six years.  Duma is twenty eight years old and is THE ALPHA MALE.  And not only did we ride them but we got to hug them and pet them, and feed them.  Elephants are cool.  So that's what most of the pictures are.  It was a powerful experience.  Now to my brothers, I have an elephant  friend. I AM THE REAL TARZAN. 

The rest of the pictures are of a mask i got that was super cool.  Got that for skiing.  We call it Bandana bandana (long a)  after the National soccer team here.  Bafana Bafana. 

Until next week my friends.  Sho

Elder Tucker​

"Ukkh,man" "duhhh"-The Motherwell YSA

Dear Family and Friends: Moja

These are the responses to sarcastic comments or the response to the sayings of the great Captain Obvious.  It almost seems like many of the people here are like Sheldon Cooper.  They understand sarcasm but have a hard time distinguishing it.  Elder Smith and I get a lot of these remarks.  

STORY TIME!

Story number 1: Be a dog.

This week we had the opportunity to  go on exchanges.  I got to go to another area and we went to set up an appointment.  This Gentleman was contacted semi recently, but he wouldn't let us set an appointment.  However he did tell us that we were supposed to be dogs not cats.  Personally I want to stay as a human. He never agreed to a time.  It was interesting. But  I guess I am supposed to be a dog now so, "ruff".

Story Number 2:  Elder Tucker!  No, wait yes, but wrong one.

So after visiting some people they wanted to see some pictures of my family and I had my USB with me so we plugged it in to their computer and I was narrating the pictures a bit just explaining who was who and what was happening and what not.  Then they saw some pictures of Teron and this little five year old was like, "Hey that's Elder Tucker."  And then everyone was like no that is not.  Then it hit everyone.  He was right it was Elder Tucker, but the wrong one.  It was funny.  Still didn't believe it was not me.  I love having a twin, even when people haven't met him, and when we have the same name.  I can still confuse them, on who is who.

Does it feel like it has almost  been a year to you because man things are going so quickly. It is beautiful here in Port Elizabeth. Our Momma V. who feeds us every other day got to go to the temple in Johannesburg.  It is a14 hr. bus ride! Be thankful for temples that are close. We would like to have a temple in East London someday. We are working to make that happen.  

That is it for my week.  Bonsair friends and family.

Elder Tucker.  

"Hey,Mzo" "What? "Says hey to the black man and not the mlungus. That's racist." "Yes! I did it, I corrupted you."

To explain a little bit more about this, as white people in a township everyone loves to say hey or hello to us but will always disregard the fellow shipper.  So he always calls the person racist.  This time the tables turned and this was my response.  He was a little bit shocked but mostly so very proud.  Now on to stories.

Story Number 1:  "I cannot guarantee this works."- Asian man

So as most of you know, I wear a watch.  Have for the past four years, and I hate not knowing the time.  My watch band has been broken for the past few months but is now fixed thanks to some ingenuity and creativity on part of yours truly.  Back to the story I was going crazy not knowing the time, so I asked our fellow shipper "where I can get a watch and he took us to this store".  I found a pretty nice watch that was perfect for my needs.  I asked, "how much it was?  The shop keeper said "50 rand"( round about four dollars).  I was satisfied, but then he had the audacity to tell me, "I cannot guarantee this works".  In response I put the money back in my pocket and said " well then I cannot guarantee that I will buy this watch."  We left the shop and went to another place to get watch where watches work.  I respect the man's honesty but disrespect his sales pitch.

Story Number 2:  Memorization

This transfer one of our zone goals is to memorize the entirety of The Living Christ.  And it is really not to easy to do because we are doing three paragraphs a week, but the wording is very peculiar.  Even though it is a bit difficult,  it has truly been a wonderful blessing, because as we have been reading and memorizing it everyday.  I have found my testimony of Christ to be far stronger.  Also it has made teaching so much easier because it is like the How to Begin Teaching point says,  "Our Message is centered on Jesus Christ" which has made it easier to see how everything we share and teach points us to Jesus Christ.  Its powerful baba.  If you have not read through or it has been a long while since you have.  I remind you of President Nelson's talk.(At least I think it was President Nelson) Please read it.( Anyone know what talk he is referring to? I will ask in my weekly email.)

On that note, Have a lovely week everyone.

Elder Tucker

This is one of  my favorite little guys. I am not sure where he learned to make faces in pictures, but he does a pretty decent job. Small but feisty.  

"What's in your mouth?" *pfft* wrapper is on the ground. "Nothing".

This week our fellow shipper had another run in with low blood sugar.  It was not to fun, but the fellow shipper was so funny.  It took everything I had to keep professionalistic. ( I know that's not a real word, but if my mom can do it, so can I.)  We had a little packet of screws left in our car from another fellow shipper and apparently he thought it was food.  So he almost ate it but he did get part of the wrapper and title is what he said.  Man it was so funny, sounded like a three year old.  Ah that guy is awesome though.  His blood sugar returned to "beautiful" levels before we reached the hospital !

Story number 1: Stake Conf.

This week we had stake conference with everyone in Port Elizabeth area.  Hopefully we can help the Stake to be able to split soon.  Back to the conference we had a lot of powerful talks given, one of my favorites was from Elder P. one of the seventy.  Elder P. talked about a lot of things but mostly testimonies.  He shared something about the prophet and apostles.  He said "they are not perfect people, but their testimonies of Jesus Christ are perfect".  So if you want to be like the prophet just make sure your testimony of Christ is perfect and rock solid.

Story number 2:  "You don't speak normal english. - A six year old

Saturdays are really hard days here for missionary work.  The white handbook lied.  Anyways this Saturday we had one lesson at twelve and then all of our appointments dropped up until six.  So we decided to try and contact some of our previously dropped appointments in the week.  We went to a house and there was a lot of kids outside that all had a lot of questions. I was kind of bored so I started talking with an Irish accent.  This was the kid's response to my accent.  So sorry if you are Irish you don't speak normally. Good kid though, very very talkative.

Until next week folks.

Elder Jeron 

"We got some Sandies with Balolo.Pelolo"-Bro. G

This week we helped with "Mormon Helping Hands". This was the description of the food. Now to truly make you understand why I loved this statement.  I want you to picture "Andre the Giant",  but black, with a shaved head.  That is what this guy looks like. (If you don't know who "Andre the Giant is" go watch "Princess Bride". He is the Really BIG guy.  Then in your head say this a little bit like Teron would say "Faabulouss" but  a little bit less diva- ish and more relaxed. That is how it sounded and it was AWESOME!.

Story Number 1:  My wife has a question for you. 

So lately we haven't had to many older investigators for church so we just stay in gospel doctrine.  This Sunday was not too different  so we stayed in Gospel Doctrine, which is good because no one really goes into deep doctrine. We had an investigator who is the mother a family we are also teaching.  We had an appointment with them later that night, but unfortunately she runs a hair salon.  Hair salons here are always running because people change hair here every week and a half. (If you get that reference. You deserve a high five.  So just TAP the monitor and that will count.)  Back to the story though, we were visiting their neighbor later that night and her husband saw us. He came and told us that she had a question about the Lesson earlier. The lesson  was on baptisms for deceased ancestors.  We then had a wonderful lesson teaching her about how she can help her ancestors come to know the gospel and accept it.  Great stuff.

We had five investigators at church and they are all doing very well. All referrals, but one of them was a pastor for another church. So my companion and I were praying and trusting a lot in the Lord to help him soften his heart. The heart softening seemed to come during Priesthood. The teacher was talking about the Book of Mormon. Great things were said. Man we are teaching alot of Pastors. I am finding out how much some pastors really do not know about the gospel and basic doctrines of Christ's church.  It is very scary. 

Story Number 2:  For a driving Area we sure do a lot of walking.

This is what I told my companion as we walked the width of our area yesterday morning.  It was a very long walk.  Like two hours of just straight walking.  It was good though it helped a lot of people realize that not having bus fair to get to church is not an excuse to be less active.  It was very fun, except I shined my shoes before we did it and then they were not as shiny or nice looking for church.  Hey we did  help a soul come to repentance so that was really good. (he didn't finish the story-guess that will be mom's question for next week).

Mom-Ipads are a "no fly zone" if we want to share a Bible video we put it on a flash drive and hope the investigator has a flash port to share. We can refer them to the Bible video's the church has put online. 

The pictures attached are of one of my best friends. He is two. He wants to be a missionary and likes to wear our name tags. He also likes drawing and cars.

(Been working on getting the pictures for an hour.-Mom Will add them when I figure it out).

The Famous Mdala Myama (Elder B.)

This week when going to church we got to the courtyard of the school where we attend church and saw a white couple standing there.  Needless to say Elder Smoothies and I were very confused because. I presumed we had the title of mlungu in Motherwell.   We greeted them though thinking they might be guest speakers from the stake and were even more shocked to hear that they were not South Africans.  In fact they are from Alabama and he served here before, and just came back to visit.  Very nice people.  It was good to finally meet someone that you hear about a lot.  But Stories.

Story #1: Blessings of The Fall

This week we had a lesson which really brought into perspective how much The Fall of Adam and Eve helped us to fulfill the purpose of God.  Now when we teach the fall we always talk about how Adam and Eve were innocent. That when they were cast out they could feel sadness and misery but also love and happiness.  When we were teaching this man though he got so angry at us because he said "we were accepting sin".  But what he couldn't understand that we can only know good from bad if we have a chance to experience both.  Maybe sin is  not personally, but we can still see how bad leads to more bad without repentance and good leads to more good.  It was a very frustrating lesson for us to teach,  However it helped me to see that the Lord loves each and every single one of us with an incomprehensible love. The Lord wants us to be happy and I appreciate and know it.  That is why he lets us see/ hear or experience bad things.  Isn't our God amazing! But before I go to far on that I will end there, but if i can add one more thing is you have agency use it.  Don't let the gift be taken or misused.  Back to the story he never really understood, so we asked him to pray and read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon that can hopefully explain it better than we can.

Story #2:  Oh, there's dogs, naww man.  I don't do dogs I had a bad experience. 

So at one of our investigators houses there is an old dog but not like really old just an old dog.  Now when ever we leave the house the people always hold the dog.  This week we found out why.  The dog will let us enter the gate and go to the door, akongxaki.  When we leave though he doesn't like it.  This time we went and no one was home but the dog was.  Our fellow shipper does not like dogs so he was outside the fence. Elder S. and I when we found that no one was home made a b-line straight for the gate.  The dog was near the gate.  So Elder S. ran out and I followed shortly after and shortly after me came the dog.  Luckily Elder S. basically threw the gate closed as he was leaving and I was skinny enough to make it through.  The dog almost got his nose smashed though.  Scary moment though.  Dogs are weird. 

News on transfer:  I am staying and so is Elder S. 

Have a lovely wonderful week and beware of dogs

Elder Tucker

Dad,

Life here is awesome. It has been getting warmer latetly so the weather is getting sort of unpredictable but it is really nice. Sister Vena is doing well. Someone did throw a rock through her window because they thought no one was home. She is a very fiery lady so they wouldn't have stood a chance against her. We are her missionaries and we did go right over to make sure she was safe. Miss you lots, Jeron

Mom in answer to why some call me an Albino African:

When I came to Motherwell The missionaries before me spoke little to no Xhosa. I however knew enough to have a pretty lengthy conversation. So I would always use Xhosa when talking to people. Our fellowshipper said

"no you are not a mlungu(white man) you are an Albino African". Then when I was driving in my bucket hat and shades a drunkard said "look at that Albino driving there". That's really the Albino African story. Just like Teron's "your the blackest  white man I ever met". 

Sum up if Teron's ok. I don't want to be worried so I didn't read the notifications you have been sending from the mission home.( He loves his brother. A sum up was already in my letter luckily.)   Jer