We like meat, PIGGY, piggypiggypiggypiggy-Crazy Old Lady

This comes from...you know what... nah.  I will let you make up a story on how I got this quote. But on to stories that I will tell you.

Story Number 1:  CHIEFS FOR LIFE!

Now this week was a very slow week.  So as we were going from home to home we saw a man that we see every now and then.  He is always wearing a Kaizer Chiefs robe and a crazy hat to show his dedication to the team. I wanted his picture so bad.  Luckily we saw him.  So we pulled over and asked for his picture.  He was very willing which was awesome.  Unfortunately he did not want to learn about the Gospel though.  So the picture is included.

Story Number 2: Transfers

As we have come to the close of another glorious transfer in the South Africa Cape Town Mission, we got transfer news.  So Elder W and I will no longer be companions.  He is going to Queenstown.  And my new companion is a new missionary so in mission ( and IsiXhosa) terms, unyana wam.  I am grateful the Lord has given me the opportunity to train someone and for sure we will have much fun (maniacal laugh).  Any who it will be a joy to see what is in store for the next  transfer.

Love you all.  have a lovely week.

Elder Tucker

"They will come again, and I will again eat chicken, and suka Elders"

This quote comes from My companion about a less active doing what he calls a "technical dodge".  In this case the dodge included us getting free KFC so it was one of my favorite dodges. The less active was canceling the appt. but they had chicken. As a joke I said "Oh Thank you!" He said "no actually here, and gave us each a piece of chicken".  Suka means "go away". But on to stories for the week

Story Number 1: If you are doing a painting service, bring professionals.

This week we got the opportunity to paint for someone.  And we have to people in our ward that have one of the coolest jobs ever.  The make and develop colors for paint.  So they know how to apply them and what not, so we asked them to help us.  Man these guys paint well but the coolest part was them teaching us about paint.  Its actually quite interesting.  There is a lot that goes into paint, I won't really bore you with much details but just know that there are people whose literal job is to make colors and name them.  

Story Number 2: Visiting the bush

In Xhosa culture in order to become a man you go to the bush. You are there for about three weeks.  Well one of our fellow shippers was there, so we decided to pay him a visit.  It was interesting because nothing really happens there.  But it was an interesting perspective to the culture because I had never seen or been there before.  What I will tell you though, it does not teach you anything for life.  The real bush as we call it among the Elders is a mission, which actually teaches you life skills and what not.  So in short, if you get the opportunity.  Serve a mission! 

That's all for this week folks

Elder Tucker

Busy with the food, but no gain-Brother Sayo

Hello friends,

This quote comes from a brother in our ward.  We were teaching a lesson to him and he kept looking at his arms.  To picture this guy think of a really tall, really skinny guy.  A toothpick.  After five minutes of looking at his arms and us just wondering what is gonna come out of his mouth.  That is what he said.  It nearly  put me on the floor.  Now on to the good stuff.

Story Number 1: OHHHHH! YOU JUST GOT BURNED!

This week we had exchanges on Saturday.  It was super fun because the other Elders in my district are cycling elders, so I got ride a bike all day.  (For Lane,  The bike company is called Giant, 29 size frame, didn't get wheel size.  Same gear stuff we had on the bikes at the resort, 3 in front, 8 in back, not sure what else you want to know). Any who is was super fun.  From about 12 to 5 we were riding bikes through the hills of Mdantsane NU14.  Which in that time every lesson we had dropped so we were in the sun.  I got crazy sunburned.  So these past few days  haven't been the most fun.  Also the shocks and seat aren't that nice so it hurts to sit.  I enjoyed every second of i though.  Except the bumpy parts.  I can still feel them.

Story Number 2: Viper's Tree

Lately I have been having a desire to cut down a really big tree only using an ax.  If your asking why, its because I can......I think.  Any ways, back to the story, I was telling this to a Less Active we are working with.  His stage name is Viper.  Well this came up in context because when we saw him we were near this really big tree.  After I told him my desire he asked, "How old do you think this tree is?"  I replied," Probably about twenty or twenty-one."  The tree is twenty three and was planted when he was a baby, so he literally grew up with the tree.  I thought that was pretty cool.  

It made me think that just like this young man had a constant in his life, so do we.  That constant is God.  He created us and sent us here to earth to live, although we don't always notice or appreciate Him, He is always there. We can learn a lot from trees.

Those have been a couple of my adventures.  Hope you all get some good ones this week.

Elder Tucker

If you don't know what your doing.Might as well do it quickly. Jay Bear

This quote comes from a bear we found in our attic the other day.  It is a Duck Dynasty B

ear so it has a lot of strange random comments.  This was one of the boarding's favorites.  Picture of bear included.  On to story time!

Story number 1: Always remember rule #6

This week we were invited to attend the YSA Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard.  I have to say, I always looked at the Apostles as these always serious super spiritual people.  Those guys are funny.  Not only that but there were some very good questions and topics they discussed, like less active family members, testimonies.  There was actually a lot discussed but needless to say it was very very awesome.  Highly encourage watching it if you get the chance.

Story Number 2:  Mama's Baptism

One thing I have come to love on my mission is part member families.  Why?  Because they give people first hand experience to seeing the power of the restored gospel in someones life.  Which then leads to them accepting the gospel sometimes.  In this sense it did.  It was a wonderful baptism this Saturday.  We had a lot of wonderful people there and the baptism and everything just went super smoothly.  Like it was supposed to happen. The Lord works miracles for those that choose to follow Him.

No Thanksgiving here it is summer. I don't even remember what we cooked. 

That's all I have for this week.  Love you all. Elder Tucker

"It's a long walk home. That's ok I have long feet."Scott & Becky

A lot of you may know where this quote comes from.  If you don't  i would ask an older sibling or a parent or someone about a little movie called The Phone Call. Why this is my subject is because one of the members of my district had it on his flash drive. I had never seen it before but had heard so much about it.  It was incredible. So if you are bored and want something to watch look for The Phone Call.  

On to story time

Story Number 1: I know you always love to hear about our investigators. We have a baptism coming up this weekend! A very lovely and prepared woman. Both Elder W. and I are very excited for it. She has been around the church for a very long time. A cool story is her daughter was in my first area. When my companion and I met her she told me that the missionaries should go teach and convert her family. To which I sent a referral to the missionaries. Now I get to be a part of that conversion. God is incredible isn't he! 

Story Number 2:  Area Conference

This Sunday we had an area conference for the South East Africa area.  Which is basically the bottom half of Africa.  It was really cool we were able to hear from a couple members of the seventy and as well Elder Neil L Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  Its amazing what technology can do these days.  But one of the coolest things was to hear about the growth of the Church in Africa. How African people are working to build up the kingdom of the Lord.  Great talks, personally my favorite was Tad R. Callister's talk about principle to over coming challenges we face.  It was super powerful.

Well that was my week.  I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Elder Tucker

I conquered the door! Elder W.

This quote comes from my comp. To explain this I will use the phrase, "knock knock".  So in Xhosa when someone uses this phrase we say, "Qonqo"  As I have explained before the Q is a click.  Now he wont click due to his culture, so when I asked if anyone was home his response was, " I konkoed"  in his accent he conquered.  Moral of the story Conquer everything even the little things.  ON TO CONQUERING STORY TIME!

Story number 1: I HATE BIKE RACKS.  

Hate is a very strong word,  Lets tone that down a bit.  I DISLIKE BIKE RACKS VERY MUCH!  

Well right now the other elders have received their bicycles but due to lack of lockable storage in the area we had to transport them to our flat.  It was about eight fifteen when we made this decision.  We got the bike rack on after some observation of how it worked.  Then went to put a bike on.  IT fell and damaged our car.  This went on for about thirty minutes, until we finally figured it out.  I am very not looking forward to taking them back but hey, gotta do what ya gotta do.

Story number 2: Tata

This week we were in a day where we had quite a few dropped appointments.  We decided to visit a member that has the sacrament brought to him.  MAN! That was one of the most powerful testimonies of the gospel I have ever heard.  Right when we got there he talked of his conversion and his family and the Book of Mormon, everything.  It was so amazing to see the joy in this mans face as he talked about something he loved with all of his heart.  He may be sick and not able to go anywhere but he is so happy just from the gospel.  It reminds me of a scripture 

2 Nephi 2: 25. For, for this end was the law given: wherefore the law hath became dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments.  Well we have all that joy, all we need to do is acknowledge it.

We have people ask all the time why do I need your church if I have mine? It is hard to explain until they have tried it. We will keep the efforts going. 

Until next week,

Elder Tucker

"Rocka bye Babies" Elder Davies

Good morning everyone 

This quote comes from one of the funniest men ever to walk upon this earth.  Secondary to my father.  Now to imagine this man think of the epitome of an old Utah man without the beard.  That is Elder Davies, full of stories which he will tell for ages if you let him.  I will tell the story in story time.  So lets go there now.

Story number 1: Zone conference

So this week we had zone conference where we got the privilege of being trained by Elder Koch of the Seventy.  Very amazing man and training! In between the training we had lunch.  All of you must know after food comes tiredness and sleep. Whilst we were getting ready to go back to the training Elder Davies was going to the companionship's  and singing lullabies to them.  It was hilarious.  That man is so funny.

Story number 2: Make sure your oven works before making a cake

This week I told some of our recent converts that i would make a cake for them.  So I tried but our oven did not work well.  I went to put in the cake and found that only the top part of the oven worked so my cake was charcoal on the top and not quite done on bottom.  I was super sad but I had already made the icing.  So I cut off the burned part of the cake and put on icing.  Was not a bad cake taste wise but the look was terrible.  So moral of the story make sure you can do what you need to make the cake before you do so.  I think you all should be able to find some way of putting that into a life story.

In mission news we have a part member family baptism coming up this month. I am exited about that one. Not much else happening there in terms of investigators but reactivation is going well. We have a Melchizedek priesthood holder coming back so that will be nice.  

Have a lovely week everyone

Elder Tucker