21 January 2013 - Bold Comic, Peggy, Primary Kids

Me, Sister Peggy, and Elder Gillespie

I have decided to write this letter in bold comic sans.

Hello family and happy birthday Mariah!

Besides transfers this week has been a slow one. Not much worth noting has happened. Transfer news is that I'm staying in East London. Elder Gillespie is moving on to an area in Cape Town and my new companion is Elder Pebe from near Johannesburg. Elder Madsen in my district/boarding is moving on to George (one of my previous areas) and is being replaced by Elder Tukuafu from Arizona (his father is Tongan).

Interesting fact that I just learned: Elder Tukuafu's brother plays for the 49ers and he just learned that his brother is playing in the Superbowl... the year he's on mission and can't watch it. haha. That makes our district now Elder Pebe and I in the driving area and Elder Tukuafu and Elder Strauss in the walking/biking area. Our Zone Leaders are Elder Moangare and Elder Simpson.

I got grandma and grandpa's package and also a package from Sister English with cards from some of my previous primary kids. That was very nice, thank you.

Oh! I just remembered something amazing that happened this week. One week ago on Monday I won Phase 10 for the first time! On the last hand I went down and out on the first turn, blowing through 3rd and 2nd place to steal the win. It was glorious.

L'église est vrai!
("The Church is True" - in French)

-Elder Tekulve

14 January 2013 - A Tough Week, Book of Churches

I almost wrote '14 January 2012'.

This is displayed on an old library building
across the street from where we e-mail.

This week has been... a bit tough actually. I did the math and while every day was full of appointments, 70% dropped for one reason or another. That's pretty high, but hopefully next week we can teach more. What to do if appointments drop is an art learned through experience. Popular options include visiting members, seeing if investigators who have dropped appointments in the last couple of days are home, or simply tracting. Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel. You bring joy to the missionaries when you refer people to teach.

This week is transfer week, but I don't have the news yet. Most likely I will be staying here in East London 3rd Ward.

Unfortunately I have not received any other packages yet.

I'm going to start keeping a "Book of Churches" so I can document all the interesting and various churches I encounter in South Africa. There are a lot.

-Elder Tekulve

07 January 2013 - Ticket to Ride, Simphiwe's Baptism

Hello Everyone

Happy New Year 2013. I guess this means my "Mission Year" is over. Lots happened in 2012, didn't it? Not that I would know, it's all just mission to me.
Thanks for sending the pictures.

This week was a pretty slow one after New Years on Tuesday. On New Years Day, like last year, we couldn't go out into our area, so we played Ticket To Ride in the morning and went to the Steenbeek's farm again in the evening. On Sunday Simphiwe got baptized. He's a great guy with a strong testimony, and possibly a future missionary (he's about 6 months younger than me).

I would like to add the CD 'Variations on a Sacred Theme II' to the top of my wishlist at the exclusion of all else. I will even pay for it if need be, I simply must have it. Something else that I think Dad or Nikolaas would like (but that is not on my wishlist) is an artist named Ludovico Einaudi. Look him up if you like ambient-type music.

Breaking News! I now know that the day I leave mission will be June 27, 2013. Because of flight times and time zone differences and layovers I will most likely be home on the evening of Friday, June 28th. It is also possible it may not be until the morning of June 29th. That makes it exactly 2 years to the day that I got on a plane headed to London, and I can give my homecoming talk on my 24th "click day" of the 30th of June.


Just as a side note: Elder Gillespie looks a lot like Keith from Humble Ward. Unsurprisingly, Elder Gillespie's sister looks like Krista.

I mentioned last week I got the Young Women's package but I haven't gotten any other post besides that. Well, I think that's all for this week. Give my love to Humble Ward and tell Elder Ballard I'm sorry I missed him. :(
-Elder Tekulve

Elder Gillespie, Simphiwe, and Elder Tekulve

Elder Gillespie, Nadia-baba (an investigator),
and his dinner.