Tsakane Greetings!

Missionary Training Center (MTC) group


I am out of the MTC and my preparation-day (P-day) is now on Monday. I saw Elder Philip Hall at the transfer meeting and the day before also. It was so awesome to see someone i know here. He's crazy but a really good missionary. He serves in the richest city in the southern hemisphere- Sandton, so you know he's good. He's also the Zone Leader over that area.

Oh and when you do send any packages make sure and write on the package "missionary supplies", put pictures of the temple from church magazines, and dont mark the contents to be over about $30. The pictures and stuff will help to keep people out and if you put a big price tag on it I have to pay a big amount to get it thru customs.

I am assigned to serve in the Tsakane area, right outside of Springs. Tsakane (you dont really say the T) is a dirty little township where people live in conditions you wouldnt believe. Its really amazing how content they are with their cement walls and sometimes aluminum walls. Some of the houses are about as big as our den and so no one uses their front door. We always have to go to the back door. The work is great. We usually tract for about an hour everyday because of cancelled appt's and we'll do about 4 houses teaching about 3 lessons. We have a branch in Tsakane that meets in a little school classroom. On Sunday I saw the meeting for the first time and there were about 37 people there including my self. My trainer, elder brown, said that was a bad day because it was a cold and windy day. Yes, it does get cold here!! Its weird. Actually at night I have to sleep with wool socks and a sweatshirt to stay warm because we don't have heaters and there is no insulation. Its great. Anyways, our goal is to turn this branch into a ward. Right now we have about 50 average attendees and we need 70. But most of all we need worthy priesthood holders. It seems like the women are very accepting but the men are just drunks... well most of them. we have some good prospects on men though. Hopefully we'll be baptizing about 3 or 4 in the next month... hopefully. Something interesting about how they live is that they are so poor yet almost everyone has a cell phone. Most people have t.v.'s and some sort of sound system. Instead of saving up to get out of poverty they just spend it on stuff that will probably get stolen anyways.

Here are some pictures from a game reserve we visited recently:





So yesterday i drove a manual transmission on the left side of the road for the first time. It was weird. I drove Phil's beamer like twice but its definitely harder than it looks (manual trans). I'll get it though.

Much love, I'm doing great, and stay well family. Fill me in on the details and send letters!!

love elder robinson