Toti (10/07/96)

Family-

Well, another week has flown by! I didn't even get a chance to send off last weeks letter.  Things have been quite crazy with our little vacation to Midmar Dam.  The trip was pretty fun.  It was raining 90% of the time, so we spent a lot of time inside.  It was still nice to have a little bit of a break.

I am now in Amanzimtoti or Toti as they call it.  I love it here.  We are having so much success here!  It is amazing!  I didn't realize how hard Durban North was until I came here.  I, of course, still love Durban North, especially the people there, but Toti ROCKS!  There are so many people preparing for baptism here.  Our goal is to have 10 baptisms in November. Those are the people that are preparing now.

The branch here is quite small.  They meet in a beautiful old house that they have converted into a meeting house.  The people here are so kind!  I know that i am going to love the time I have here.  Everyone kept telling me how much I'd love Toti, but I didn't understand until I came here.

Sister Wall is really cool!  We get along really well.  She's such a good missionary!  I'm amazed at how well she teaches after only being here for 2 months.  She's really cool!

I saw Beth denDulk on Thursday. She just came back on Wednesday.  So, I got to see her for a few moments before I left Durban North to come here. She is so cool!  I love her to death!  She told me all about her visit with you guys.  She loves Utah.  She really wants to move there.  In a way I wish that she would, but the church really needs her here. So many members are moving to Utah from here that the church is really struggling.  It's pretty sad!

She also told me that you (Mom) were pretty upset when I wrote about how Pres. committed me to write to Elder Miller.  Sorry that you were upset.  No worries, I haven't ever heard back from him, so really no distraction.  You'd just have to know Pres.  He is a total match maker and the thing is, his wife wrote to him his whole mission and then she flew over to his mission (in Europe) and he was released and the next day they were married.  This was all with permission from the First Presidency actually under the direction of the First Presidency because, I can't remember the story completely, but he was called to go to some country with an investigator who was a Princess or something of that country and I guess he was going to teach her father or something, for some reason or another, he had to be married in order to go.  I don't know, it was some crazy thing like that, I'll have to ask Pres. to tell me again and I'll tell you the real story with all the details.  But anyhow, so I think that Pres. doesn't see anything wrong with having a serious relationship going while on mission.

Anyhow, that's that.  Everything else here is going well.  I am extremely happy.  I love being here.  Nine more months isn't long enough!  I sometimes get jealous that the Elders get to stay for 2 years.  18 months just isn't long enough.  There are so many people here who are just waiting to hear about the true church.  It's wonderful to be able to help them out with that.

I know that this gospel is true.  I know that Jesus Christ is the head of this church.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true.  I also know that it was written for us, in our day!

Well, I love you all very much!  Take care!

I love you!

Michelle :)