11/17/2014

Hey Everyone,

So I left the mission home on Wed morning and met my trainer his name is Elder Dangerfield from the Isle of Man in the UK. He didn't have a drivers licence back home so he can't drive here. Typically, it takes two months for a new missionary to be allowed to drive and they have to pass a written exam from the mission office. But the zone leaders told me that I would have to be driving on my first day.

Starting out it was really scary, especially in downtown Cape Town. But, now I am a pro at it. 

So my first area that I have been to assigned is a place called Paarl which means pearl in Afrikaans. It is like an hour north of Cape Town so were kinda far from everyone else. It is a city of like 200,000 people. There is a huge Afrikaans speaking colured population here. There is also a black township that speaks Xhosa. I am trying to learn a little bit of both. There are four of us in the flat. The other elders are from South Africa and Malawi. They are walking and we are driving. The flat is kinda ghetto. But, we live in the nicest part of town. There is a white population here but, we aren't assigned to the area that we live in. Most of our work gets done in the townships. The poverty in townships is worse than anything that you could ever imagine. My heart broke when I saw it for the first time. Driving through townships is probably one of the craziest experiences I've ever had. The streets are tiny and full of people and cars. Despite all of this Paarl is a very beautiful place, surrounded by mountains on all sides. I hope that I can find success in this place and eventually, learn to love it.

Sincerely,

Elder Sean Herrick

11/13/2014

Hey,

So early this morning we left Johannesburg and flew to Cape Town I have to say that it is the most beautiful place that I have ever laid eyes on. The mountains are vast and shrouded by mist. The weather is warm and their is a exotic smell in the air. The city has many amazing looking buildings. We left Joberg at 8:00 am and arrived at Cape Town at like 11:00 am. We were greeted by the APs and President Merrill. We then drove to the mission home witch is in a very fancy part of the city.  President Merrill is a good guy. I could tell from the start that we was VERY STRICT. He made it very clear that obedience was important. We learned from the APs that he had sent 7 missionaries home 2 weeks ago for not being obedient. After we got settled in at the mission home, the APs took us up to the mountains and we got to take some of the most amazing pics. After that , they drove us to the poorest part of the city and had us street contact. You couldn't believe the amount of poverty that these people live in. I learned that my trainer is from the UK and I will be serving in the Cape Town North zone. I also learned that my trainer can't drive and our car is stick shift. So I have to learn how to drive manual and on the wrong side of the road immediately. I get to meet him on Wednesday. Anyway I am really excited to start work and progress on my mission.

Love,

Sean Patrick Herrick

I made it!

Dear family,

So the last 30 or so hours have been possibly the most crazy in my entire life. It almost feels like a dream. It started it out with the flight out of Omaha on a small regional jet that was so small I couldn't stand up properly. Then after like an hour we landed in Chicago. I wasn't there very long. The flight from Chicago to London was on a huge plane that was packed with people. Mostly foreign people. I don't look back on that flight very kindly because I had ZERO leg room and I hardly slept at all. After what seemed like forever we landed in Heathrow airport which was like the size of Omaha. Except full of people talking in like hundred different languages and kind of confusing. After traveling by bus to my terminal. I went through another security check. And I saw a group of nicely dressed confused looking young men turns out they were the other missionaries. There were 10 of us total all from the U.S. We spent the 9 hour layover just hanging out in the terminal. After that we boarded a HUGE plane headed to South Africa. I honestly think that we were the only Americans on board the plane. Everyone else was European or South African. The flight was long and tedious. But, it was awesome when we landed in Joberg. The weather is warm and everyone talks so crazy different than us. I am glad that I got here safe though. I am looking forward to starting my training tonight. Anyways I will talk to you guys soon.

Love,

Elder Herrick