Oct 3 2011, letter from Bulawayo - One month as a missionary!

Dear Loved Ones,
First off, you are lucky, because my area takes extra time to write emails. I do not feel great about taking extra time, but I kind of need it to do everything. Just be grateful that i have extra time because I do not know how it will be in other mission areas.

(How are the Kelley's doing? Do you know what happened?)

Thank you so much for the advice. I knew that I represent Jesus Christ, but I did not think of it in that way. I will be looking forward to applying that in my missionary work. In that shy part I have been thinking of President Monson and his view on promptings from the spirit. I have studied some of his experiences regarding promptings and I want to make his statement mine. "When Heavenly Father needs a task completed I want him to know that Jake is ready to answer the call." It is my goal to act on every prompting of the lord just as President Monson does. Once again, thank you!

I think letters get sent to the mission home, like the home home. So they will probably arrive there inHarare then they will have to find there way to me in Bulawayo. So I cannot tell you how long it will take for letters to get to me. When I first arrived in Harare there were letters waiting for me. The driving record stuff (which has not been required yet so I am going to hold on to them until I do need them, I really just do not wnat to do the paper work) and Dear Elder stuff. I got your thing along with your English friend's. She told me to tell you what to send and i really do not know. Just tell her to send whatever.

I heard about the Durban Temple. I am excited and I bet my MTC companion is excited as well. We are watching Conference this week. I do not know much about how it is broadcast, but Elder Wae said we will be watching it this week, so I am very excited!

I have truly been blessed. The work in Zimbabwe exceeds that of any other mission. I often hear the Zimbabwe mission being referred to as the "land of baptisms." I think I may have mentioned this in my last email, but it is so true. Our zone goal is to have 30 baptisms, 6 per companionship. There was a baptismlast Friday of to teenage boys and an 8-year-old girl, she was a member so it did not count. We were planning on three boys, but we had an issue with one. The three's names are: Boy One, Boy Two, and Boy Three (changed the names for privacy). Boy one and Boy two were the ones baptized. We started out teaching Boy one and boy two joined the next visit. The problem we had was that boy three came in half way. Boy three had the desire to be baptized with his friends. So we had to rush in teaching and preparing boy three for baptism. We forgot to do something very important...we forgot to talk to boy three's parents. After finding out on Saturday that boy three's mom refused to let him be baptized we realized our mistake. That night we went to boy three's home and apologized and asked if we could continue to teach him. The mama said she would call for the permission from the father. We got the permission the next day and boy three will be baptized at the next baptism ijn three weeks. All was well with the baptism once more, but we hit another snag. Only boy two showed for Confirmation. We found out boy one's older brother refused to let him come to church. We are trying to work that one out. But yeah. Because of conference the next baptism is being pushed all the way to the third week. My companion and I are expecting that one to be a huge one. We feel confident that several people we are teaching will be baptized then and we have three weeks to find more and help those we are already teaching. I will let you know about that one when it comes.

Thank you for making that. I will try to do the flickr.com thing today after I send this email.

I am so sorry. I have not been able to write letters yet. I have started making a tape though! I have been struggling to catch up in my journal writing. I have found out that in this mission you do not have time to do things. you were right. That is one thing that has bugged me though. I am constantly busy, but I never feel like I am giving everything to the Lord. I want to be able to say, "I did my best." But it just does not feel like I am doing everything I can. It is weird to me. I come home exhausted and yet I feel like I should have done more. Maybe you can give me some advice and pray for me that I may find a solution to this. If you can do that for me I would be most grateful. Also, do not get me wrong. I love the work and what I am doing. I just feel like I can do more, you know? But again, I truly am sorry. I really want to get letters sent out. especially to grandma and grandpa. I will let you know when I send those.

I did get those letters. I am really sorry. I thought I thanked you when I was in the MTC. I apologize and i thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will cherish those. I did not want to bring pictures into the mission, but letters were the perfect thing. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Uh...I live in a house? Ha Ha! Sorry, I am not sure I understood the question. I actually took pictures of the house. I love the homes here. They are so old school and modest. I would love to live in homes like these. I cannot really think of anything I need. I want to get a backpack, but I was just going to look around here for one. Even I was going look for one here in town after emailing. I will take a look at everything I have and I will let you know next week if there is something I want or need.

I love you all so much. Forgive me, but I some times forget to pray for you. A lot of times I get so focused on the work and those dear investigators that I completely forget about back home. But I do keep a prayer in my heart for you and I hope and pray things go well for you back home.

I love this place! The people are so nice. The children are great, I always get a smile on my face when I hear them say, "Kiwa, howareyou?" Ha Ha! they ask 'how are you' like it is one word. They always laugh when I wave or say hi to them. The find Kiwa's very funny I guess. I am trying to learn the language. All I can do is great people though. Tendi, the ward missionary we work with a lot, said he is going to help teach me! I hope I can learn Indebella (I still do not know how to spell that). Also, I learned how to whistle! Here inAfrica people call each other by this cool whistle. I have only learned how to do it. I cannot do it as well as them...yet. :)

Well, all is well and it sounds like things are okay back home. Can you believe it has been a month? It feels like I have been here longer, but at the same time time has just flown past! At this rate I will be home before I know it. I just want to say I love you all and let grandma and grandpa know I love them. I will try to get letters written and sent out before I email next week. I hope I can find the time. Again I love you!

Keep the Faith!

Elder Haltom, known back home as Jake

p.s. thank you for calling me Jake.




2nd email:  
My card reader is not working. I think I am going to need a new one. it was working last time. I do not know what the problem is.


Okay, we have issues with photos now. Number one, the CDs are not working. Number two, we are only allowed to be on church cites, so I cannot be on flickr or any other photo cite. I can ask President Dube if I can do the online photo thing, but I do not know when I can ask him (because he does not email me back) and he might not let me be on the photo cites. My only suggestion is that I can email like 6 pictures every Monday and you can send me flash drives. Again I do not know why, but my card reader will not work, so I need a new one. I am sorry. I do not know what to do.

So can you send me a card reader and a 4GB flashdrive. I want you to start sending me flashdrives so that I can put my photos on them and hold on to those flashdrives while on mission. So I will just keep my pictures. if you want to start sending flashdrives back and forth you need to send me two flashdrives. does that make sence? I will keep one flash and I will send back one flash. so we can send one flashdrive back and forth so that you can have pictures and I will keep flashdrives so that way if other flashdrives get lost or stolen in the mail I will still have my pictures.

I think the best thing would be for me to have brought an external hard drive. That way i could have just held onto all my photos, but I did not think about bringing one. I also do not think sending one would be a good idea. If there is a way you can get an external hard drive to me that would be the best, but it is way to risky. let me know your thoughts on this.