The rain came down and the floods came up.‏

Someone, while designing and building our flat, was a very foolish man. He decided to have a big step down into our flat and leave a two inch gap at the bottom of our door. In East London, when it rains, it pours. So that resulted in a flooding of our boarding. Yeahh... That was frustrating. It trashed one of my white shirts. It's all stained yellow and brown now... but hey, it's got character.

Because of the constant raining and downpour we weren't able to teach and visit as many people as we normally would like. We had to stay inside our flat basically for two days because it was raining and flooding so bad. The streets were washed out and there were road wrecks all over the place. We were in a constant battle with dishing out the water that was filling up on our front porch. I felt like a pirate who's ship was leaking or something. I just decided I want to express my thoughts and feelings in a poem.

"It Pours."a heartfelt short poem by Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne
Sometimes it rains,Sometimes it pours,Sometimes your companion,Can't hold in his snores.
Even though it is wet,And you don't want to go,You have to forget yourselfAnd teach some mo'.
I may miss my family,I desperately need sleepBut Christ has said,Feed my sheep.
#missionlife

That's all I've got. Enjoy. I guess my freestyle rapping addiction can come in handy, ehh?

The few lessons we did teach went well though! We have been trying to help Elder Ramat, my new companion, learn the area. He is picking it up pretty fast and teaching me some cool things. He is a really good missionary who is truly striving to be obedient. It is a good thing having him around. Naturally, I miss Elder Oldroyd and Elder Capozzoli who were both from Utah and both extremely similar to me, but Elder Ramat and I have a lot of things in common as well. He is 17 months on mission and doing great.

Elder Ramat and I were asked by Mama Mapitsha to come and dedicate her home. So we went and said the prayer to dedicate it and she asked me to share a scripture. I instantly turned to one of my favorites Omni 1:26. I bore testimony in the name of Jesus Christ that if she gave herself to the Lord and held nothing back that her home, family and life would be sanctified and protected by the Lord. It felt like there was a sonic boom in the room. We were all slammed with the spirit. The feeling was so apparent and almost tangible. The love of God swept into the room and we felt such peace. She started crying and said that she will start to let go and turn more to God. It was really amazing.

Then on Saturday we went to teach Lamla and we met three of his friends. One was actually baptized by Elder Giles and is now less active. The other two friends weren't members but they wanted to learn more. We taught them the restoration and are going to be meeting with them more this week! I am pretty excited for that! 

Thabo the other day told me he had something he needed to say... The room got a little tense. He said, "I no longer want to go to church.".... My heart totally sank, then he said, "I NEED to go to church." Ahh.... sweet relief. It was a cool moment then to have him basically teach US the tree of life vision that Lehi had. He really is being taught by the spirit and having such great understanding. That is really so rare here in Africa.

On Sunday it was a bit of a bummer at church since it was raining so hard and people have to walk a long way to get to church there was hardly anyone there. We didn't have one single investigator at church. We only had two recent converts there and one less active. I realized that I will have those days on mission.. Not every day is beautiful and easy, but you learn something or grow from every rough day as well.

Uzakusipekhela Nini means when are you cooking for us? Probably the best Xhosa phrase I have ever learned. We have literally been destitute this past week because my home account card got sucked up by an ATM and destroyed and then my companion came to me with NO money at all. So I have had to buy food just to feed us. We have been out of money for a week and living off of the members feeding us. Luckily it is such a part of their culture to feed and share with others, or we literally would be on the brink of starvation. Luckily we get MSF (missionary support fund) on Wednesday. So I am excited for that. 

The work this week has been slow, but with trials and struggles comes growth and blessings. I really have felt the succor of the Lord this past week. He comforts us when we are in need.  

I have never been more tired, and never been more happy.

Cheers.

Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne