Dec. 1, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

     This last week has been pretty awesome. On Last Saturday we went on splits with the (real) missionaries in Johannesburg and went proselyting with them. It was the first time i really felt like I was in Africa since I got here. The place we went proselyting at was Dobsinville, it's kind of like the ghetto part of Johannesburg. It was a really eye opening experience to see how people live and all of the cultural differences from America. Every house (no matter how poor) is surrounded by an 8 foot tall iron fence because the crime rate in South Africa is awful. People don't mind if you walk straight through one of these gates and on to their property though, in fact they’re always excited to see the missionaries. That goes double for drunk people. I'm not sure why, but on three different occasions, a completely wasted dude came running down the street and started rambling and shouting at us. I asked the missionary if that was normal and he was like "yeah, drunk people love the missionaries for some reason”. He also said I must be good luck because he usually never sees so many drunks in one day.
      We had a presentation from the Churches Health authority in Africa, he told us about all the different diseases throughout Africa and how to not catch them. He also gave us all a mosquito net to take with us to the field and he gave us a water bottle that purifies water. This last week we had the chance to teach real people (usually we just teach our instructors role-playing as investigators). My companion and I did an awesome job and the spirit was so super strong as we taught. It was one of the best experiences I've had so far in the MTC.
     You asked about how to find The MTC on Google images, if you go past the front gate of the MTC the building on the right is where the dorm rooms, class rooms, cafeteria, and everything is at. The other building (there's a volleyball court next to it) is actually an LDS church building. I hoped that helped a bit. Sorry about the date I gave you last week, but the real date I leave for the field is on December 4th. I don't have any specifics on the flight info (I don't even have my ticket yet) but I do know that it's about a 4 hour flight.

Lots of Love,

Elder Grilliot


MTC in Johannesburg


Johannesburg South Africa Temple

This is an e-mail that Sister Reber sent out to all the families today titled "Miracle of the Day".

Another group of missionaries is preparing to leave for the Mission Field on Tuesday.  Elder Grilliot, from Illinois, received an email from his father today....giving him his line of Priesthood authority.  His father was ordained a High Priest by my cousin, Ted Dahl.  Then his father ordained Elder Grilliot to be an Elder.  So the Elder's line of authority goes right to his father and then Ted Dahl.  He was so excited to show me another connection that we have.

Goodness....what is the chance that in South Africa I would meet someone who's line of Priesthood Authority connects to my cousin?  Well, it wasn't chance.  We feel the love of God in so many ways here at the MTC.  This is just one of the many ways I am blessed.

We are decorating for Christmas!

At the MTC we "talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ" (2Nephi 25:26) and now we are setting out the nativity scenes to remind us of his holy birth.

Love, Sister Janet Reber
South Africa MTC