Elder Brandon Winters

May 21, 2011

Hey everyone!!!
It feels like I have been here for 2 weeks already. All of us guys (about 28 total) are really close and it seems like we have known each other for ages.

The first day I got here President Christenson (MTC President) called me into his office and asked me to be the District Leader over the Ammon District (10 Elders). It is pretty cool, I get to talk with all the elders and make sure that they are happy and having a good experience. I and another elder are also in charge of sacrament meeting tomorrow so we have assigned talks and prayers etc...etc...etc...(gotta stick with the King and I theme going on there in the states:D)

So I've attached a picture of my first companion, he is sooooo tall. I feel like a midget next to him. haha I must warn you that the picture may not be to scale, he's only about 6-5 but it looks like he's 8 feet tall, must be the lighting or something. lol

We have about 6 native African elders some from Kenya, two from South Africa and one from Zimbabwe. The elder from Zimbabwe is in my district, his name is Elder Macovire (pronounced MOK-OOO-VEE-REE) Having him in my district and in the bunk right above me has helped me even more to realize how blessed we are in the United States. We got to talking about life back home and it was humbling to hear what his living conditions were like. Yesterday was the first day he had ever seen a washing machine, we taught him how to use it and the proper amount of soap etc...He has washed his clothes in a bucket scrubbing the dirt out with his hands since he was born. Also, a lot of the elders here brought candy and snacks from home. It was really fun to see Elder Macovire's reaction to a Reese's and Strawberry fruit snacks. I hope all of you know how blessed you are to live in the United States with all the comforts of a modern world. All over Africa there are people like Elder Macovire who are living life with the barest essentials and happy about it. It is very rare to see a native African not happy, they are thankful for what they have and thank God for it.

I have been soooo busy, the day starts at 6:30 in the morning with getting showered, shaved, and dressed. Oh, by the way, they don't have any power converters here in the MTC so I haven't been able to charge my electric razor, I'll probably have to start using the blades by the end of next week. I'm going to get a converter once I get to Uganda but until then I'll be out of luck. We do have hot showers here at the MTC so I'm prolonging the time to showerless "bliss." :D

My favorite part of the MTC has been the companionship discusstions where we have talked about various principles of the gospel and practiced backing them up with scripture. We had an exercise yesterday where a lady from the local ward came and pretended to be an investigator, our main goal was to get to know her by asking her questions that would help her to open up to us. One of the main problems missionaries have is that they try to teach people the gospel before those people trust them. Our new rule here for every teaching exercise is to get to know the person and gain trust before brining up the gospel.

Until next week. Love from Johannesburg!!!
p.s. I still haven't recieved any letters!!! QUIT SLACKING!!!! haha

Elder Winters