Transfer News, Living in the 1800's & A Crazy Australian Lady

Hellooooooo family,
 
Africa is here. No worries. We did finally get transfer news and I'm
still in Lewabu with Elder Burton. That's super sweet though because
it's exactly what I wanted! I'm a pretty happy camper here. I'm
guessing that I'll be out of here at the end of this next transfer but
we'll see what happens, still plenty of work to do before then. It'll
definitely be exciting to see all the changes in the house. I'll bet
it looks pretty sweet. A family trip to Nauvoo would be pretty
stinking nice... I want to see all those church history places! Also,
I just want to tell the Nielsen's that I miss them! And Big Black.....
WRITE ME BACK MAN! There's a bucketful of noonas I'll be wanting to
hear from you. So send me all the juicy ones.
 
I was thinking about some stuff the other day and I realized that the
culture here is like people living in the 1800s but then there's cell
phones and modern cars. But in many ways it's similar. Women spend
their entire lives in the house washing clothes on washboards, cutting
wood, cooking over an open fire, taking care of children, etc. The men
usually have hard labor jobs and are busy with that all the time. The
houses are made out of mudblocks and sticks, or this combination of
sand, rocks. and small cement. The roofs are all with thin pieces of
zinc. It's kind of a weird mix of modern and old. No problem though.
The work here is sweet and I'm definitely blessed to have been called
to this mission. One missionary just got an update about his friend
who is serving in Korea- the guy has been out for 6 months and
yesterday was the first time they've had an investigator come to
church. I think my first Sunday there were 10 investigators in church.
Definitely spoiled to be here. We're even supposed to be having a
baptism this weekend. Speaking of being spoiled, this last week
something really crazy happened. Last Tuesday we went to Kenema to do
interviews and trainings. The next day, Wednesday, we were standing in
this big car park where you get in vans to travel between Kenema and
Bo. Basically it's a big dirt field and people are walking around
selling things and there are cars everywhere and people trying to get
you to get in the car whether you want to go to where they're going or
not. Anyway, we went to the place that the vans are going to Bo and
the one they were filling up had only one space so we were standing to
the side waiting for the next van to come. While we were standing
there this guy looked at us and asked us what country we were coming
from. We told him we were from the US and he just looked at us for a
second. Then he said "You guys should just get out of this country
because you're not doing anything to help it." Then he went and sat in
the van. We were super confused and a little offended so we walked
over to him and asked him what his name was. He got out and told us
that he wasn't going to tell us his name and he wanted us to get out
of his way and go away. While he was saying all this, a white lady
stuck her head out of the passenger seat of the van and said "You
people just want money! Money, money, money! You divide families and
ruin lives!" Then she stuck her head in the van and the guy sat inside
the van again. At this point we were just incredibly confused and
didn't really know what was going on so we just stood there and left
it because we didn't want to make a scene. One more person finally
came and the van started closing all the doors and getting ready to
depart. Just before leaving the white lady gets out and walked up to
us. Before we could say anything she told us we were terrible people
and needed to get out of Africa because we're just taking money and
dividing families (again). She also said that we needed to leave her
own people alone and stop ruining everyone's lives. We asked her where
she was from and she said Australia and started walking away. We asked
her if she knew what church we were from and she was just like, "Oh, I
KNOW your church." Then she slammed the door and they drove away....
what?? We were so taken aback and confused. I guess she didn't know
that we have to pay for ourselves to come out and that one of the
biggest doctrines in our church is that families can be together
forever. It was just so rude and as we were on our way back I just
couldn't see how people can serve missions in places like England
where everyone is just rude to you and won't even let you get a word
in. That was the first time anyone has been super rude like that for
no reason and it was just really weird. I don't know what happened
that filled those people with so much hate, but I hope one day they
can understand who we are and what we're REALLY doing. It kind of
messed up our morning but later we had a massive group of children run
up to us cheering and greeting us so that was always a plus. The work
here is sweet though, don't worry. I'm still happy and no crazy
Australian ladies are going to change that! I love all of you and will
talk to you next week! Mission is weird sometimes!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart
 
PS we had to go to a new internet cafe because the other one was
closed... this one won't let me send pictures. Sorry!

 I (Jill) found this new pic of Hunter meeting Elder Curtis and his wife on 

the Mission President's blog so I thought I'd include it since Hunter 

couldn't send any pictures this week!