Well Hello Famila,
I’m serving in Thaba
'Nchu, which happens to be even farther away from the ocean than I was
before. President knows me well. :p There is a tiny branch here, but they are
power!!! I’ve never known members more
on fire for missionary work than these people.
They are a mix of Basotho and Batswana's, so I still get to retain my
Sotho culture. So, we live in a place
called Madella View, which is about 15 kilometers outside of Bloemfontein. We travel about 50 or more kilometers every
day to get to our area. It’s quite a
change up from living in our area. So,
in our boarding there is Elder Rotich from Kenya. He runs, and runs, and ruuuuuns. Dad, his marathon time is 2:20!!! There is Elder Shokoane from South Africa,
and then my companion, Elder Fokuo from GANA!
He is lekker(cool)! He is such a
humble, funny and caring guy. He is
about to go home, so in mission terms I’m killing him. He will be leaving on October 1st,
so I have two transfers with him.
It is cold! It snowed in our area on Saturday, but luckily
we have a car. Actually I don’t like the car when it comes to missionary work
because we don’t get to talk to everyone like we do without it. We are in accordance with the members a lot
here and get fed often. It is definitely
good but in some ways, not so good.
I get to run with Elder
Rotich which is sick (awesome)! We just
started off doing 6 K's in the mornings but that will be upped.
I’m not sure what more I
can say at this point. The time is
flying. Oh man, your Book of Mormon idea
is sick (see description below)!! I so wish I could be part of
it. I’m so proud to be a Gold because
you guys are leading legacies back home. I’m so happy with my family. :) . . . Definitely blessings of serving a
mission.
I hope you find your
birthday card soon mom and these photos to be fun. :)
Proud of you Bug, way to
step up and get your Eagle Project done. I wish I could have been there. Way to be lekker. :p Teach Dad to surf Bug. He ought to be able to smoke me by the time I
get back.
I love you all. Stay well and
know I’m in His hands.
Elder Gold
Letter From Mom:
So, here's
a new project your dad and I are collaborating on. I am binding a series
of small books where the pages will be sewn in (temporarily bound) in order to
remove them when the project is complete and we know the exact number of pages
the entire project required. Then, I will permanently bind the completed
work using the same process and similar materials that were used to bind the
original first edition copies of the Book of Mormon back in 1830. The
pages will start out empty (except for very faint lines that will be a guide
for the scribes). Ward members, family, friends and whoever wishes to be
a part of this project will eventually fill those pages. So here is the
cool part. The project is going to be: Writing out the entire Book of
Mormon as others dictate the contents of its pages word by word. Here is how it
is going to work. Let’s say a family wants the book next week for family
home evening. They will take it and have each family member take turns
being the scribe for a page and being the reader for another page (or however
many pages they wish to do). Dad calculated that if a person wrote for 1hour
a day it would take approximately a year to complete (over 300 hours). It
took Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (and a few other scribes for a brief
period of time) a little less than three months to complete the original translation
of the Book of Mormon (started on April 7th and completed by the last week of
June, around 60 working days).
I feel
this project will help those who wish to participate develop a deeper understanding
and appreciation for the sacrifices made in order for us to have this ancient
text in these modern days. Being a
scribe was only one part of the great miracle that took place to keep this work
moving forward, but it was a very important part and those chosen to be the
Lords servants did so humbly and faithfully. As we work on this project my prayers will be
for the spirit to touch the hearts of those participants that they may gain a
deeper testimony of the Book of Mormon’s eternal value as a witness and
testimony that Jesus is the Christ.
There
is much to do before the book is ready to be filled and I will keep you updated
on its progress. We have decided that there will be certain rules to
follow for the participants. First off: a specific pen will be used for
all of the entries to alleviate issues that could arise with children trying to
use a quill pen and ink. However, I will provide the families and
individuals with parchment paper, quill and ink so they can write a page of
their own to help them also understand the challenge of writing and having to
re-ink constantly. Only proper names will be spelled out and they will
only be allowed to use pen for recording the dictation, so if there are
mistakes to be corrected they will have to cross out the error and rewrite the
change as Oliver had to (no spell check on this tablet). Speaking of
tablets, after the project is complete we will have a get together for all
those involved and will provide them an opportunity to try their hand at
writing on brass/metal plates in reformed Egyptian (sorry, we can't provide
gold plates for this one). Wow, and they thought being a 19th Century
scribe for the Book of Mormon was a challenge? Could be interesting and
really a lot of fun, don't you think?
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