15 August 2011 - Xhosa 102:

15 August 2011

August is half over. Is every e-mail going to start with a comment on how fast time flies? Only time will tell.

 

Something that's been really odd here is coming to terms with the fact that I'm a minister. I even have a ministerial certificate. More important than that is what it implies. You see, the Dutch really did a number on these Africans all those years ago and how everyone and their dog is Christian. Automatically and everywhere I go people call me pastor, brother. You know the stereotypical African gospel church? Where church is more like a disco than a church? That's exactly what it's like. Hallelujah.

 

Everyone believes in Jesus Christ. Everyone welcomes us in out of respect, even if they don't particularly want to talk to us. We get special visiting rights outside of visiting hours at hospitals. It's a very new thing to me.

 

I'll tell you about the Seti family. We met them on the street, and they wanted to ask us questions because they had seen us visiting another family down the street. We got their address and eventually found the husband, Innocent, at home. He asked questions about the nature of Heavenly Father. He said he was searching for the truth, that he was hungry and thirsty for it, and that it would set him free. He said he believed we were there to tell him the truth. We taught about baptism and he agreed that same day. Near the end of our visit his wife Noxolo (No*click*olo, see below) came home. She had read the pamphlet we gave her a week ago three times from front to back. She said she really wanted to be baptized but was terrified of the flowing river or ocean. You see, someone had died being baptized in the river a while back. Not in our church, but one of the ones where they dunk them 3 times under water. So she hadn't been baptized. We explained that baptism can be done in any water and that we had a shallow, clean pool that we could do it in. It's basically a big tank of water out behind the building we rent for church. Right before we left Innocent asked about the Book of Mormon. He wanted to know if it was the same as the Bible. Amazingly Noxolo answered his question. She knew it was another testament of Jesus Christ similar to the Bible. We hadn't mentioned anything about it to either of them yet.

 

Xhosa 102:

 

• Xhosa has 3 different clicking noises. All three are made with inward sucking pressure as opposed to blowing presure.
• -X is pronounced with a click out the side of the tongue. This is most similar to "click", as if imitating a snap. The word Xhosa sounds like "*click*osa"
• -C is pronounced with a sucking noise in through a small part of the front of the tongue. Think of a "tsk" noise.
• -Q is the loudest and is made by moving the whole front part of the tongue from the roof of the mouth to the bottom. Imitate a "tick tock" noise. This is made the same way but is lower pitched.

 

I love Mondays. I seems like every night at the end of the week I'm progressively more tired, than on Monday I'm refreshed. I also love to hear from everyone.

 

Talk to you later,

-Elder Tekulve