11/2/2015

Hey,                                                                                              Nov.2,2015

A very busy week here in the Queenstown area. The elders from Mntata drove over for Zone training. So they came on Monday and spent P-day with us. We ate at this middle eastern restaurant and afterwords had a ultimate Frisbee contest.

So funny story. There is always a good number of homeless people in most South African cities. We were sitting down at this restaurant and eating some spicy chicken when two of them ran in and stole the bones off my plate. The owner of the restaurant yelled and chased after them. It was a very funny scene.

We had an ultimate Frisbee game which was good fun. We spent all of Tuesday at zone training and interviews. My interview with president went well. He confirmed that I am going to be training a new elder next transfer. So that is exciting.

The work in Ilinge is going well. We have a sizable teaching pool so we are never bored and there is always someone to see. We have two baptisms scheduled for this next Sunday. One is this fifteen year old boy named Locke and the other is this 19 year old girl named Nonkosi.

Ilinge is a nice area. We don't have do to any finding. People just bring their friends and relatives for us to teach.

We went on exchanges Sat. I went with Elder Hoffman from Utah in a area called Mlungisi. It is the big township in Queenstown. It is a densely packed place. Most of our appts dropped so we did some tracting. Loads of drunk people. It was hysterical.

So last Friday marked a year since I put on the name tag and entered the MTC. So I wanted to celebrate. All the missionaries in Queenstown showed up to our flat and we ordered pizza and I burned one of my white shirts to commemorate one year missionary service. It was a lot of fun.

So lots of exciting things going on. I am so gratfull for the what this last year on mission has taught me and I am excited for the adventures that await me in this my final year.

Love,

Elder Sean Patrick Herrick

10/19/2015

Hey!                                                                                                  Oct. 19th,2015

It has been a week of adjustment for me as I try to learn my new area and remember all the names and faces of people that we are teaching. I must admit it has been difficult thus far. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon. This is a great area though. It has a lot of potential for growth as well. The bishop of the ward is great. He is very willing to work with us. 

The ward is nice as well. Though, it needs some older members. Most of the active members are Young men and women some of whom are barely older than children. I think that the reason for this is that it is a struggle to teach the older people and they are typically more conservative and have poor English skills. 

Elder Fonua is great. He is a very sincere teacher and his desires are golden! I know that we're going to do a great work together as we serve in our area.

Our area is a very dry and hot place. It honestly looks like Wyoming at times. Weird huh?

So I actually don't work in Queenstown. We do live in Queenstown with all the other elders in a very nice flat complex. We drive to our area every morning and come back in the evening. It is a 30 min drive from town so if you forget something at the flat your're out of luck.

We live in a four man boarding with the Sada elders.There area is also a distance from Queenstown so we both have to make a drive everyday. There is a huge ward in Queenstown that is about to split into two. There is a ward in Sada and also a ward in our area.

Spiritual highlight this last week has easily a lesson that we taught to some recently baptized young men. They will soon be reaching missionary age. We take them fellowshiping a lot but we felt inspired to sit down and teach them a lesson. It was powerful! we talked about the potential that they had and how much good they good do for their lives if they served a mission. We felt the spirit so strong!
So yeah things are going great!

10/12/2015

Hey,                                                                                                          October 12th,2015

So a lot has happened! I am being transferred. I received a phone call Saturday night that I'm being moved to a place called Ilinge. It is about 35 mins outside of Queenstown in the Eastern Cape. It is also in the Xhosa heartland and probably the most rural place in the whole mission. 

It's 100% pure Xhosa. So it is almost like I'm getting transferred to another country. My companion is going to be Elder Founa from Utah.

I am leaving Wednesday morning by plane to East London. Than we will drive three hours north to Queenstown where I will live.

I said most of my goodbyes yesterday. It was awesome to see how many people's lives were touched by the gospel and the positive influence that we had one them.

I am sort of sad to leave this area though. I have many great memories of this place and built strong relationships with many of the people that I have come into contact with. 

Yes this was a difficult area. But at the same time, a very rewarding experience. We baptized three wonderful people who have tremendous potential. We taught countless others and I am sure that the seeds that we planted will be harvested by future missionaries. Cape Town has become almost a second home for me.

My last couple of P-days in this area have been fun. We went to Kirstenbosch gardens and then hiked a portion of Table Mountain and. It was hecka fun! It is always good to be among my fellow missionaries. They are like brothers to me. We also went to Cape Towns chinatown. All the merchants there are Chinese and they sell some very interesting goods.

In a few weeks, I will hit my year mark on mission. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I'm planning on doing something cool for the day I turn one year.

Over the course of my mission, I have learned how of a good influence we can be in other people's lives. It really isn't the big things that we do either. It is the small and constant things that we do over a period of time that have the biggest impact.

Love,

Elder Sean Patrick Herrick

9/28/15

Hozit!                                                                                                   Sept. 28, 2015

So a lot has happened over the course of the last few weeks. A good time in for our area and investigators. We had a baptism on Sunday. The person being baptized was  a member referral and a father of a family. Though he is the only member of his family that has gone to church his wife and son seem interested so we're working with them as well. His name is Anton from Zimbabwe.

Anton gave a very powerful testimony after it was finished. He said "Before I joined the church I was afraid of death, but now I stand here today and I don't fear death because of the knowledge that I've received and I know that I am part of the true church!" Powerful stuff right?

This week went well in lessons. We went and worked on the ward list with the High Priest group leader. Visited a lot of people who have been inactive for a long time. Some seem willing to meet with us in the future. I hope that they do. This ward is in need of a boost of enthusiasm.

I also got to confirm Christian and Astride as members yesterday. First time I've ever done that! So yeah the work is moving forward.

P-days have been kind of a bore recently. Not a whole lot going on right now. I hope next Monday is better.

The weather has been very pleasant, though I'm not accustomed to it getting warmer the closer we are to Christmas.

So yeah mission life marches on. We had zone conference recently. Very spiritual moment for me! President Merrill spoke and and said some very profound stuff! He talked about how we serve in areas during seasons of time and the time that we have is very short. So that is why it is so important to make the most of the time that we have. Food for thought!\

So yeah things are going well here for me and I'm continually striving to refine myself to learn something new every day!

Love,

Elder Sean Patrick Herrick

09/14/2015

Hey!                                                                                                    Sept.14,2015

The weather is getting progressively warmer everyday and the smell of the sea every morning is always pleasant.

We had two wonderful baptisms yesterday! It was a grandmother and her grandson both from the DRC. It felt good to get down into the font again. I haven't done so since the good ole days in Paarl. Very special experience when the Grandmother shared her testimony about how much this gospel has changed her. Our teaching pool is expanding. 

We have been receiving a lot of referrals. We also have another baptism date set for the 27th of this month. It is very likely to hold. We found a father led family through referrals and the father has come to church every single Sunday.

Things are going well with my new companion. I'm trying to help him be a little more outgoing. Sometimes, he can be a bit reserved around people and quite during lessons. He is a good teacher and has a great knowledge about the gospel. Especially for a recent convert of only a year and a half.

This week definitely had its adventures. On Friday, the U.S embassy in Cape Town received a threat from a local terrorist group and so we were warned not to wear anything that would indicate us as Americans. Crazy stuff!

A spiritual highlight for me this week would be a lesson on stewardship that I learned. A lady in a less active family approached me on Sunday very upset that we had not visited them in a while. I knew about them and their issues but I kept procrastinating seeing them due to what I thought were more important people with more important problems to resolve. I was wrong. 

This area is my under my stewardship and if I don't do my very best to work for the well being of everyone than I have let down my Father in Heaven. I guess you could say that this is a small turning point for me, to be a better missionary and to be a wise steward.

Overall, it has been a good week. Full of great lessons learned and experiences that will change me for the better.

9/07/2015

Hello,                                                                                                        Sept.7,2015

Well a lot has happened over the past few weeks. Missionary work in our area is surging. We are actually going to have two baptisms on Sunday. We have been teaching a Congolese part-member family who have really made some good strides forward in terms of conversion.

It consist of the Grandfather who is a member and the Grandmother and grandson who are investigators. So they have been attending church for the last couple of weeks and are progressing very well. Their names are Astrid and Christian.

There is a large amount of foreigners who live in our area and they are far more receptive to our message than the native population. Not one of our investigators are from South Africa. Most of our investigators are Zimbabwean. They seem to be naturally humble and are very excited when we share the gospel with them.

Our area still has many challenges. But we are working to overcome them. A lot of our work recently has been focused on working with the members. The going has been slow but we are making steps. 

A new transfer has begun! We drove up as a district to the mission home in Pinelands and I said farewell to Elder Rasmussen. I then waited for my new companion. He had to fly in from East London. Missionary work in the eastern cape is very different than missionary work here so I am hoping he adapts to the big city soon.

My new companion is Elder Mubaiwa from Zimbabwe. He has been a member of the church for a year and a half. He has a pretty interesting conversion story. He is the only member in his immediate family.

The weather is gradually getting warmer and warmer here. South African spring has arrived. You can practically smell it in the air. Winter is gone. Although it never felt like a proper winter in the first place.

We've had some pretty fun P-days recently. There is a large population of European expats in Cape Town. So we browsed some of the stores that had imported food from Europe. It made the danish missionary kind of trunky. I spent probably more money than I should have on loads of Swiss chocolate.

We've thoroughly explored a mall called Canal Walk which is the 3rd largest in the whole of Africa. It is very close to our area so we frequent it often.

We had a funny experience this week. I found some recently baptized Nigerian members in our records that seem to have gone completely inactive. They supposedly live in the small township on the edge of our area.

The record didn't give a precise address in where they lived. Since township addresses are useless anyway. The only detail that the record gave was that they owned a hair supplies shop in the middle of the township.

So we decided to look for them on foot. We spent a lot time wondering through the township asking various Nigerians if they knew them. It was kind of fun being the sole white guy in crowds of Africans trying to track someone down.

We eventually found out that they had moved to a huge township called Khayelitsha. I'm kind of let down that we didn't find them. But at the same time it was a cool story to tell.

Life continues and soon I will be reaching my year mark on mission. Time always keeps marching onward at a remarkable pace. I hope that my service will always make a difference in others and in myself.

Love,

Elder Sean Patrick Herrick

08/24/2015

Hey!                                                                                                                 Aug.24,2015

The weather has been mildly warm this last week here in Cape Town. Although we had a thunderstorm last night coming off the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Town weather changes very fast and the wind can really blow if it wants to.

We had a very successful week in terms of missionary work. We found some really solid people through member referrals and the member missionary plan is starting to have a very positive affect on the faith of the members and us as well. 

Five investigators showed up to church and we they are all very powerful and we may have some baptisms around the corner.

We taught some very spiritual and inspired lessons this last week and the people we are teaching are making huge strides forward. The "Meet the Mormons" fireside went well a lot of people were crying when it was finished so I would call it a success.

The bishop of our ward died this week after a long battle with liver failure. We found out on Friday it made a good day a little depressing. The bishop lived in our area so we visited his home often to do service for him and his wife. We gave his wife a blessing after church yesterday. It was a very emotional experience.

It seems like I've been involved in a lot of blessings these days. This last week has been full of people getting all emotional around me. 

We had a fun P-day adventure last Monday. We searched all through the city of Capt Town for some Pop Tarts. We heard a rumor that a store sold imported American food. After a long journey and many disappointments we finally found them at a store all the way in Vredehoek.

It almost made me trunky opening up that box and reading the American labels and stuff. The small box cost us over 70 Rand. Yeah it was pricey. But it was soooo worth it!

So yeah awesome adventure!  But on the flip side we've have had some very spiritual experiences with all the people that I come into contact with recently and I can see the changes being made in there lives. 

We grow as individuals during times of trail and hardship. And although we don't realize it during the moment. We can look back and see how far we've come.

So That is all for this week. My most sincere apologies for the short letters. Time can be short on Mondays. The only day of the week I can email.

Love,

Elder Sean Patrick Herrick