"If you aren't hungry and tired you aren't doing it right!"

Dear Brother and Sister Weiler,

We wanted to let you know that your son arrived safely yesterday to the South Africa Durban Mission, and spent the day at the mission home with President and Sister Zackrison, and the other 8 new elders that arrived from the MTC in Johannesburg.  He has been assigned to work in the Newcastle area in the Newcastle Zone.  His trainer companion is Elder Benissan.  His P-day will be on Monday, and you will be receiving an email from him then.  We will be sending a picture soon also.  We know that he will be a great addition to the South Africa Durban Mission!

Sawubona!

This week's subject brought to you by my trainer, Elder Benisson! I read it and realized that it sounds really harsh.. But we were joking around when it was said hahha It is our new motto. 

It's very true. I never realized how much it means to feed missionaries until I came on mission hahaha Whenever I see a dinner appointment I cry sweet sweet tears of joy that I dont have to eat another sandwich or bowl of cereal haha!!!

Just kidding, it's not that intense. But still. You get the point.

Whatta week!! I finished up at the MTC ( I was so ready to get out here ), took a 45 minute flight to Durban, met the president, and got my assignment!! I am in Newcastle, South Africa! It is a 6 hour bus ride from Durban! It is in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province of South Africa! (Kwa-Zulu means "Home of the Zulu" in the Zulu language) Zulus are crazy people hahaha we have run into a few Afrikaaners but the population here is OVERWHELMINGLY black. I see like 3 white people all day hahaha 

My first night in the mission field I got to sleep over with the APs because I was traveling so far, so I didnt actually get to Newcastle until Wednesday afternoon! It was really sad to say goodbye to my MTC group! But I am so excited to hear about their adventures!

Elder Benisson is a great trainer and companion!! He just got here 3 months ago so he is also new to mission! We are often referred to here as "Greenie Fire" by the other missionaries in our Zone! I take that as a compliment! There are a lot of old missionaries who are on their last transfer and you can see how exhausted they are! So I think it's good that there is green fire here! I call Elder Benisson my baba, which means Father in Zulu! He is from JoBurg! It is so nice to be trained by a native African! 

Most of the people here speak Zulu, so I am trying to learn that. hahah it is WAY harder than Malagasy (yes, Zulu is the clicking language. C,Q, and X all receive a different kind of click. I can't really explain it over text.... But I am getting decent at it!) Because almost all of the older generation speaks very limited English I have a really hard time communicating with them.. But I get along really well with little kids and Young Adults who speak fluent English! Apparently I have a really thick American accent (Who knew??). I have to simply my language A LOT. which is a struggle for me because I spent my entire high school life expanding and elaborating upon it! So I'm striping it down to the basics! 

Here in Newcastle we have one branch. One branch that HEAVILY relies on the missionaries! We fill every single calling that isnt assigned, which is almost all of them!!! We have about 60 members here but only 14 priesthood holders, including Elder Benisson and I. We are ALWAYS searching for men to teach, but Zulu men are very against religion, they are very manly men who believe that religion is feminine and weak. So it is a really big struggle to bring families to church. 

FUNFACT: I am the only white person in the branch. hahaha I am the victim of a lot of White jokes. It's so weird to be the minority here! But I think I am finally starting to get some color under the summer sun here! 

Also, I am a little bummed. We don't get conference for 3 weeks!!! Although we did get to hear who the new apostles were! We were all crossing our fingers for Elder Dube!!! WE NEED AN AFRICAN IN THE QUORUM OF THE 12!!! But I was so excited to hear about all of them! Especially Elder Renlund!!!

I am so amazed by the members here. They have the most faith I have ever seen. These people have given up their whole lives for the gospel, they have changed everything because of their testimonies of Christ and modern day prophets!! I feel so inadequate to teach them! They are very very amazing people! I love them so much! 

I have been blown away by the few priesthood holders that are here, 12/14 are 18 and under! The third counselor in the branch presidency is graduating in a month!!!! The Elders Quorum President is in his class as well. They have such amazing testimonies of their priesthood responsibility! Many of their fathers have left or aren't members and aren't very participating fathers; so these 16/17/18 year olds are the patriarchs of their home, and they DO NOT disappoint! They know how to rise to a call to action! They give everything they have to their families and to their callings in the branch. It is incredible to watch them serve! Not to mention, they're some of the coolest kids I have ever met! We take at least on of them out every day to our lessons, they're like our best friends! They have incredible testimonies and teaching abilities and to add on to that they are way good kids that like to have fun! I love our branch!!!

People are so ready to receive the gospel here! We have to book people for next week for teaching appointments because so many people are so eager to be taught!! People will ask us to come twice a week because they want to receive all the lessons so that they can be baptized sooner! We have some really amazing investigators! They are so eager to learn and grow to Christ! But unfortunately, we don't have any male investigators... YET! 

Anyway, missionary work is the most amazing experience in the world! I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to wear the name of Jesus Christ on my chest each day! I know that it is because of Him and His loving sacrifice that I am here today, doing the things I am doing! Two years is the least I can give to Him for all that He has given me! I love the gospel and the joy that it brings me! I know that my called was inspired and that I am needed here! I love the work and I love all of you!! Talk to you soon!!

--

Elder Weiler

PS. My inbox was FLOODED with loving and supportive emails when I opened it this week! Thank you all for the kind and motivating words! I love you all and I will do my best to respond to everybody!

It was Heritage Day last week and one of the workers at the MTC was all dressed up in her traditional clothes.

Sister Van Syl, our teacher, finally smuggled in some treats after some convincing hahaha (From L-R: Elder Eastmond, Elder Oliverson, and Elder Casperson)

Elder Rakotomalala and I were dethroned from our throne in Bobby, by our teachers!!! 

We hosted Sunday Scrabble in our room every week, it was pretty much the highlight of the week! haha

Elder Rokotomalala and I unintentionally matched on our last day in the MTC! #compgoals

I tried leaning back in a roller chair... Ask me how that worked out....Love, Elder Weiler

Man! It is so strange to be on the other side of the mission emails!! This week was INCREDIBLE. I'll have to ask you to forgive me, for two reasons : 1. These computers don't have spell check and I'm trying to type quickly! 2. This was seriously the best week of my life so I'll try to keep it short..ish. ;)

Also, I may have exaggerated a little bit on the subject... hahaha because Elder Rakotomalala is learning English and I've been his teacher, we decided that he would teach me Malagsi in return! So I have been learning a lot of that this week!

Manaona! (Hello!)

It is unbelievable to think that I have only been here for one week! I literally feel like Ive been here for AT LEAST a month! The days here at the South Africa MTC are long and jam packed!! Every day feels like a week, and every week feels like a month! But that is so good! I feel like I learn and grow SO much every single day! Everyday I can feel myself becoming more and more like our Savior!

Elder Rakotomalala (Rah-koo-too-ma-la-la) helps me sooo much to develop christlike attributes. He is one of the most christlike people I have ever met in my entire life! He has taught me SO much about humility, patience, faith, and charity. He has an incredible testimony. It is so simple, but so powerful and genuine. It is a blessing to be with him everyday. He just converted 4 years ago, he and his older brother are the only missionaries! I am so amazed by him! Not to mention that I love him with all my heart! We are best friends! We've got a friendship handshake and all!

Okay, so I figure you'll want to hear about the MTC and Africa, so here goes! First, talking to people is a very... interesting experience... Accents are very thick here and I sometime have a hard time understanding what people are saying to me.. hahaha Afrikaaners (white africans) arent as hard to understand! But some of the Africans.... man.... I dont even think its english sometimes!! Either way, Africans are the most hilarious people on the Earth. I never stop laughing here! They are also so kind and so loving, especially of missionaries! Also. EVERYBODY has crazy names. Theyre all so so cool! Because so many people speak Afrikaans almost everybody pronounces Weiler correctly!!!! Finally!!! I feel right at home here in South Africa! ;)

Okay funniest story of the week. It just happened. Our district, the Ammon District, decided we were going to trek down to KFC and treat ourselves to a nice, cold Coca-Cola! We were all dying for a soda ahahha anyway, when we were walking back to the MTC we hear this guy yell "ELDERS" and we all looked at him and he just yells "HOORAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!!!!!!" and we all just went nuts and starts cheering and yelling and it was probably the funniest thing that has ever happened to me! I love being an Elder.

The MTC is awesome! The food here is really good! We usually have one familiar meal a day, other than that we eat traditional African food! African food is very hardy food. Like dairy and protein all day every day. Also, carbs like you wouldnt believe! hahaha my favorite is vary sy laoka! (Malagasy for rice and meat) I dont know what they do to it but maaaannn that stuff is sooo good. The schedule is so exhausting. Like I didnt know what exahusted meant until my first day here! 16 hour days where every minute is occupied with spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical exertion! But I have never been happier! There is seriously nothing else I would rather be doing in my life!!!!

The MTC is funny because every little thing that is different is so exciting! The little things get all of us through the day! For example, at lunch everyday Brother Mokie, the manager of teaching here, gives us all riddles to solve while we eat. Every day I work hard to ensure that my mental sharpness is at its prime... and I still feel like an idiot. hhahahaa his riddles are so so obvious but he is so good at hiding the answers and the clues to find an answer. Don't worry. I am documenting all of them so that I can torment you all when I get home with South Africa mind games muahaha!!! On Monday during sports time, the Elders from the Johannesburg mission came to play soccer on our field at the MTC, so we played with them! There were so. many. Africans. And they are all so good at soccer. Its amazing. BUT we proudly scored against them a couple times! Everytime we did we all freaked out ahhah we would dog pile the person who scored and then do the penguin slides and stuff and it was probably the funnest game of soccer I've played in my life! Also. The showers here are almost as confusing as the dashboard on an ariplane. There are separate knobs for hot and cold water and its seriously like rocket science trying not to either freeze or cook yourself hahahaha

Elder Cook from the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us on Tuesday and that was PERFECT. He spoke about the church in Africa, missionary work is so different here! The Lord has surely saved africa for the last days! He spoke mostly on becoming Africans at heart, that we can't coast through our missions looking down on the African ways of doing things if we want to succeed in our purpose. I have already begun to take the African ways to my heart! Their culture is becoming my culture! Their vocabulary and grammar is becoming my way of speaking! (Our grammar is very very different from yours. For example: Instead of me saying "I'm on a mission" I would say "I am on mission" and other different rules like that!) My favorite word so far, they don't call it Foosball, they call it Bobby! So we all love to play Bobby every night if we can!

Elder Rakotomalala and I are currently holding the champion spot in Bobby right now! We are undefeated!!! We play as a companionship and we are actually pretty good! Looks like we aren't just good at teaching ;)

Perhaps the highlight of the week was going to the JoBurg temple! IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL TEMPLE ON THE PLANET! The gardens there are unreal! I would take the gardens at JoBurg than the SLC gardens any day!! They basically had to tear our zone out of the gardens to go back to the MTC! hahaha The temple is so tiny. Like only 25 people can be in a session at once. So so small. But the exact peace and joy rests in that tiny sanctuary! That made my whole week! While I was there I bought a really cool journal and a little book of mormon that have some really cool african covers! One nice thing about the exchange rate is that 1 Rand is about $0.08! So everything is about half price than it is in the States!

The second highlight of the week was definitely sacrament meeting in the MTC! They had all of the Elders write a two minute talk on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and just called us up and WOW. It was the most powerful and inspiring testimony I have ever been to! I took 4 pages of notes, both things that people said and shared and a lot of enlightenment from the Spirit! It was lowkey the minor leagues of General Conference. No joke. It was awesome.

Okay I know this is getting long but please bear with me here. There is some way good stuff coming! (and I'm almost done)

One of the most terrifying experience of my life was our ride from the MTC to the temple. It was one hour of pure horror. Driving/sitting in a car/walking on the sidewalk/even thinking about the road is gambling with death. hahahaha because so many cops are occupied with crime and other business they dont really have time to pull people over for traffic violations, meaning, people have no respect to speed limits, stop signs, red lights, or even lanes!!!! I think all of us were praying for safety the whole time! hahaha it is almost worse being a pedestrian! I am more afraid of being run over than I am of being robbed!!! Oh. We also had a presentation on heath and safety yesterday. I dont know if they were trying to inform us or trying to get us to lock ourselves in our flats all day. haha! There are so many medical precautions we have to take! Not to mention that they told us just to do whatever anybody tells us what to do if we are confronted on the streets!

GET THIS. After all the shots and vaccines in the US, I still got FOUR MORE shots here! But the nurses gave me a lolli after...

I think they felt bad for me....

Elder Rakotomalala and I are currently teaching two investigators! Alex and Alo! Or as Elder Rakotomalala refers to them: Brotha Alex and Sister Aloa hahaha they are both progressing really well!! We committed Alex to baptism yesterday!!!!! Joyous day!!!! Alo is getting really close to a baptismal commitment as well! She is learning really quickly! But baptism isn't everything here in Africa. Many many people are baptised every single weekend! Our purpose as missionaries here is to establish our wards and branches! To bring people to the temple to make covenants with our Father! Retention is everything to us! We strive to bring our converts to the state of conversion that they begin to strengthen and establish their own branches and wards!

I swear I witness a miracle every day here. I have seen so much change and growth in myself and all the other Elders here! I have also seen miracles in Elder Rakototmalala's English!!! He is getting so good!!! We kind of have our own sign language to communicate when we dont know how to say it to each other hahaha I have learned that EXACT obedience is mandatory if you want to be successful! Being exactly obedient will bring you more joy than anything else in the world!! Not just on a mission! For you too!! I know that we are all imperfect human beings, but our Father in Heaven doesn't ask us for perfection, He simply asks for sincere effort; our BEST effort!

If I were to give any advice to any future missionary it would be as follows: The mission is NO time to begin your study of the gospel. DO NOT WAIT. Once you are here all of your gospel study is for your investigators. You will never study for yourself here! It is crucial that you begin to familiarize your self with gospel doctrine and principle before you even get you mission call, if possible!!!

I think my new favorite scripture is Mosiah 4:19-20! I read it, and the power and conviction that I felt from those words really meant a lot to me as a missionary! Especially in Africa! I would recommend that each of you read it! We all have so much that we can learn from King Benjamin! This reference is powerful and I hope that you take it to heart!

We were all so sad to hear about Elder Richard G. Scott passing away. He was an incredible apostle and his words inspired us all! I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation and the comfort that comes from it! I know that his work is not finished as a witness and apostle of Jesus Christ! My heart is filled with joy to think that he is reunited with his dear wife once more!

My last request, please pray for the people here in South Africa! Pray that their hearts and ears will be opened to our message, that they listen to our message! They are amazing people, and I know that the gospel holds the answers to their problems! The message of the Restoration is the answer! Not NGO's (my apologies to the UN). I am so thankful for your prayers, I can absoulutely feel them strengthen me!

Thank you all so much that sent me with letters and packages for me to bring to the MTC! I loved all of them!! They mean so much to me!!!

I hope that you know that I pray for all of you back in the states every day, multiple times a day! God be with you!

I love you all so so much!!!!

--

Elder Weiler

 Elder Rakototmalala dressed up in our suits for our Zone picture, and we were looking to sharp not to take pic ;)

 This is Brother Ramiaramanana, he is my evening teacher, and one of the funniest and strangest guys I have ever met!! hahaha I love him!!

We finally got to explore Joburg a little bit!

Welcome Dear Friends and Family,

This is Elizabeth, London's mom, and this is my first shot at a blog.  I hope it all works! :)  I am so grateful to each of you for your love, support and interest in sharing this experience with London and our family--you are now honorary members of the Weiler Clan.  We have been thrilled to receive several e-mails from London and the MTC this week, so pull up a chair and enjoy.

Greetings from the South Africa MTC

Your Elder is here.  Due to mechanical difficulties and bad weather, it took an extra day to get everyone here, but we are very happy to say they made it.  We are still missing luggage, but that will be sorted out by tomorrow.  What a wonderful group of Elders.  We love them already.  God has blessed us with an incredible bunch.  They had a busy day yesterday.  They found their rooms, met their companions, unpacked, filled out forms, saw the nurse, ate, had a tour of the MTC, emailed, and were interviewed by President Collins.  Last night we had our first meeting with them.  We taught each other the "Doctrine of Christ."  Even with their jet lag, they did a great job of participating and teaching.  We can tell they have been well prepared for their missions and are focused and ready to learn.  We will take good care of them for the next 11 days and will do our best to help them become the consecrated missionaries the Lord wants and needs. 

The next time you will hear from your Elder will be on Thursday--their Pday.

With love,

Sister Collins

Hey fam!

I've got just a few minutes before lunch. But I wanted to let you know that my P-Day will be on thursday! So as far as I know this is the last time I will have time to write for a week! So I hope you all know that I love you and I am so thankful for all of your examples and support! I wouldnt be here without you!

We're all getting along really well here! My roommates are awesome! We've gotten really close really fast! It's kind of nice that there is so few of us! I think that I've got everybody's names memorized.

 This is Elder Thorson, he's from Texas; he is one of my roommates! We share a bunk bed, last night we COULD NOT sleep. So at 2:30 am we decided to get get a midnight snack in hopes that it would put us to sleep. WE WERE WRONG. We literally didnt sleep at all for the rest of the night! There is an 8 hour difference between here and Utah, so when you guys are eating lunch I'm supposed to be going to bed!! This is us halfway through the night, feasting on toast, grilled cheese, and hot sweet milk (something that Elder Rakutomalala showed us haha it's actually really good!)

 We were later accompanied by Elder Elliot (from Mesa, Arizona; he is in the black shirt) and Elder Dowdle (from Idaho, he's in the blue shirt... eating grilled cheese.... at 5 am)

Life is good here in the MTC! There is more milk and bread than a young elder like myself could ever ask for!

The accents here are so fun to listen to, but really really hard to understand hahaha most of us Americans just nod our heads and agree with whatever they say! Africans are the most hilarious people on the planet! I love them! I love it here! It is such a beautiful place, it has been really fun to see so many animals that I've never seen before!

Okay, that's all for this week!! Love you guys so much!!!

Stay true to the faith!!

I'm praying for you all back home!

--

Elder Weiler

Elder Eastmond also took this picture and I figured you'd enjoy it! Elder Eastmond is in front, Elder Grange is in the middle, and I'm not sure who that weird kid is on the end... These two are like my brothers!!  

Hello Family!!

We have arrived safely at the Johannesburg MTC!! Africa has AMAZING weather right now! It is soo nice here! Our flight was really nice! The stewardesses treated us really well, and I slept for 11 HOURS! All the elders thought I was dead hahaha I traveled with 24 other American Elders, all of the staff at the MTC call us the "historical group" because there has never been this many Americans in the MTC at one time! Although I only met all of these Elders yesterday, I feel like I've known them for my whole life! It is incredible how the spirit brings people together!

I have only been out for two days but I already have so many stories to tell! We jsut finished dinner and they're giving us a few minutes to write home. There are other elders waiting to write their families so I can't tell about all of our adventures!

A few must-tells:

Our plane was struck by lightning while we were flying to Atlanta! The plane just turned off and we started to stall! The staff was trying to play it off but they all kind of freaked out hahaha other than that the flight was perfectly safe (dont worry, mom)

Contacting in the airport was super funny! All of us Elders all just group together and decide who's going to go talk to somebody! We've met some hilarious people! I gave my pass along card to a man named Frank, he told me a lot about serving in the Marine Core and doing hard drugs haha Frank is a very nice man.

Being a missionary definitely has its benefits -- besides carrying the spirit of the lord with us wherever we go, bring people to the Savior, and serving with no worry of work, school, or girls -- we also get tons of snacks on the plane, every time they came around with snack cards they would give us tons and tons of those little bags, we thought that it was just quality service, but nope, they just love missionaries haha!

The MTC is tiny! There are only 27 of us - 24 americans and 2 africans and 1 elder from madagascar! That one elder from Madagascar so happens to be my companion! His name is Elder Rakotomalala and he is learning English here! It has been a little awkward with our language barrier but he is a really hard worker and a really good sport! So it has mostly been really funny trying to explain things to him!

The MTC presidents are super relaxed and are giving us tonight and tomorrow morning/afternoon to get over jet lag. We have a ping pong table, a foosball table, basketball court, football/american football field, and a work out room! We also just kind of eat whatever we want, they have food and juice in the fridge and they make us an entree three times a day, but we can go in there whenever we need a snack! The MTC president and his wife, President Collins and Sister Collins, are really good people! They're americans too!

One really nice thing about traveling and the MTC so far is that I'm with Elder Grant! He went to WX! its been really nice to have a friend here! He's the man! I think he'll be in leadership in the MTC and throughout his Mission in Uganda.

Well that's all the time I've got tonight! I love you all and i'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord here in South Africa! I know that the Lord provides for his servants according to their faith in him! One big lesson that I've learned already is that being set apart as a missionary doesnt make you perfect, I still struggle with my weaknesses and I am constantly working to be better!

Veloma!

--

Elder Weiler

Elder Rakotomalala and I, we're pretty much best buds already! Did I mention I'm the only Elder without an American companion?? hahahah #blessed

Elder Grant and I livin it up at the MTC

So this is happening. Welcome to Africa.