First Email from South Africa

Hello everyone,

Well I made it safe and sound. My first area is Margate, it's beautiful and the people are great. The weather is pretty mild so far, very humid though. Ill just have to get used to being wet. Food is pretty similar so far nothing to out of the ordinary yet. There's a good mix of cultures I've run into about half and half Zulu and Afrikaans and a few Indians here and there for good measure. I like teaching the Indians because in there culture it is very rude to have someone in there house with out giving them something to eat and most of the time it's sweet meats (which is like cupcakes and such) the other day we taught an Indian lady and she gave us homemade snowballs, very tasty. Ive got my camera to work so I'm going to send you a picture or two of my boarding (apartment) which is a converted horse stable on the Branch Presidents property. It's nice a cozy and everything works fairly well.
Church on Sunday was great we meet in an old Red Cross building but we're hoping to be able to build a chapel of our own soon. We had 14 Investigators a large part of that was a group of young women from a local hostel (which is like a public boarding school) they sang a traditional Zulu song for us, it was beautiful.
I've got to tell you about one thing that happened to me this week. It was Friday night and I was praying before bed. I was having a rough day getting used to everything and I was thinking to myself "whats the point of this, do I deserve to be here, am I supposed to be here?" that sort of thing so I asked God to let me know if I was supposed to be on a mission, If I deserved to be on a mission, If it mattered that I was here now, or if there was any point to what I was doing. And while I was praying for our investigators and the people we had met this week I got a feeling we should visit one of our investigators tomorrow. Her name is Gogo Francisca ( Gogo is grandma in Zulu, it's respectful to call all older women Gogo) Gogo Francisca is one of those very wise old women. She doesn't speak English very well but she has a lot to say. We usually meet with her on Wednesdays but I got this feeling we needed to see her the next day. I thought, naa that's just me wanting to feel like I'm doing something important it doesn't matter what day we go. But again the thought filled my entire mind until I couldn't think of anything else. So I got up wrote it down in my planner and told my companion that we needed to go see Gogo tomorrow. He agreed. The next morning when I got up I thought that this was the answer, if she wasn't home or didn't need us in any way than I would know that I didn't need to be here. We drove to maGogo's and knocked on the door. She has a young girl who comes and helps clean the house she invited us in and told Gogo that we were here. Gogo who is about 75ish got out of bed and came to sit with us. The first thing she said was "You guys think it is a small thing when you come here, you see lots of people and you think it is small when you come here. But it's not small, not to me. My heart is empty but when you leave here it is full. I am so glad you came." Right then I knew that I was where I was supposed to be. She wasn't in danger or anything critical of that nature but I know that the spirit did truly speak to me on behalf of those I have been called to take stewardship over.

These pictures are taking a life time to upload so I think Ill only be able to get off two or three the First here is of my room the second is of me and my comp. His name is Elder Tidwell. He's a great trainer, he's from Las Vegas and we're actually a lot alike. In fact most people we meet think we're brothers because of our glasses. It turns out mail takes about 10 days to get from me to you but an undistinguished time to get from you to me, so it's a good idea to email and let me know that you sent something if you do. I'll send more pictures if I can next time.

I love you all!
Elder Scott Brazee

He's There!

Dear Brazee family,

Please find attached a photo of your Elder with Sister Von Stetten and me at the Mission Home in Durban. We want to assure you that Elder Brazee is safe in his first area and appears to be adjusting well. We are confident that he will be a great asset to the mission and would encourage you to write to him weekly to keep him encouraged and strong.

Thank you for lending this young man to the service of the Lord. May you and your family be blessed for his labor. Your son has been assigned to the Margate area of the mission. It is at the southern end of the mission on the coast. It is a beautiful city. There is a small branch there with wonderful people.

We have been serving here for almost a year. It is a great mission. I’m sure your son will have a great experience.

Sincerely,

Sister Davis

General Secretary

South Africa Durban Mission

Jolly Ol' England

Scott had an eight hour lay over in the London airport...

Hello Family,

Well I couldn't get the calling card to work, Maybe I'll try again in a little bit. I just wanted you all to know that I'm safe and sound and I'll be headed to South Africa from here in mere hours. The airport is really cool, the presence of big brother is a little more prevalent here than in the States. Maybe it's just that the automated voices have accents or maybe its because instead of saying "please don't leave your bags unattended" they say "For your safety any bag found unattended will be destroyed". Well I can't talk long because we're paying by the minute here. But I'm alive, and no one will look me in the eye after they see my badge, good times. I don't know when my next communication will be, so for now just assume the best.

I love you all,

Elder Scott Brazee

P.S. Mom I would like my missionary scripture to be Alma 29:9 final answer.

Week #2 in the MTC

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for the letters and packages! It´s so awesome to hear from you every chance I get. I am wearing my jeans right now and you have no Idea how good it feels so thank you Dad. And Mom thank you for the cookies, another Elder on my floor got cookies from his mom so we traded one to see whose where better, it was a tie. ( but really yours were better I just didn´t want to make him cry.) I have been having so many awesome experiences here, whoever said the MTC was boring wasn´t doing it right. There is so much to be learned and so many friends to be made and fun to be had. We have gym 5 days a week which is nice I´ve been partial to playing Volleyball, but 4 square is where its at. It gets INTENSE, someone sprained their ankle yesterday. Things have been good with my companion, He talks in his sleep but thats okay.

Elder Edwards who is my roommate and DL had an amazing experience this weekend, on Thursday he was called into the Presidants office (of the entire MTC not just the brance presidant) he had no idea what for, but he just assumed the worst. He gets in there and the presidant say the Elder Hinckly (yes that Elder Hinckly) has given him permission to go home on saturday. Elder Edwards asks why, and the Presidant says, you dont know, your Dad is getting baptized and your baptizing him. It was so cool to hear him tell the story really an awesome experiance for everyone by proxy. Also sorry I would be using more exciting puncuation but the keyboard I´m using is all messed up. More exciting news me and Elder Garcia are teaching a real live investigator at the TRC (teaching resource center) which is where we go to practice teaching. Usually they just have people pretending to be investigators, but through luck of the draw me and my comp get to teach this super awesome 11 year old boy named Steven. He comes from a big family and his older brothers have been being pretty bad role models for him, so he went to church with his neighbor one time and really liked it. He´s got long blonde hair down to his shoulders and loves to skateboard, super bright. I didn´t think I could feel so much love for someone you had just met. We get to teach him again on Sat. I´ve been thinking about him all week. He had a Book of Mormon but reading that whole book is a tough feet for an adult let alone an 11 year old kid so I told him about one of my favorite parts right at the beginning 1Nephi 3and4 when Nephi goes to get the plates from inside the city gates. He seemed excited I hope he gets a chance to read it. I had no Idea how important the Book of Mormon was, I mean I did... but I didn´t. Our whole religion truly does rest on the truthfulness of this book. And you can argue the archeology, theology, and terminology till your blue in the face but really the only way of finding out if its true is to read it. Read it and pay attension to the way you feel when you bath your thoughts in its words, in its principles. It truly is a second witness to the Bible to the divinity of Jesus Christ.

I have so much more I want to say but Ive onlty got three mins left.

I fly out sunday 30 hour trip with layovers in Chicago and London, Im excited to see the London airport! I´m pretty sure my address is already up on the blog, mail takes like a month to get to me so please write.

I miss you all and I love you all and I pray for you all everyday,

With all my Love,

Elder Scott Brazee

1nephi 3 7 I will go and do

p.s. There is no spell check function please spell check haha.

His First Email!

Hello everyone,

First off this is the weirdest sensation, to be typing. There's so much to tell I hope I can get it all in, I only have a short amount of time on the computer. Thank you for sending those records and things, I just got them yesterday, I will take them to the info desk today as soon as I can. The immunization records are my old ones so I'm going to need the ones from the Hoag walk in clinic in woodburry as well. I'm sorry I didn't have this smoothed out earlier. MTC is great so far, my companions name is Elder Garcia, he's a nerd too so thats nice, and he looks a lot like Tony Danza so that's nice too. My district is great, everyone is so supportive of each other and as of now there is no bad feelings between any of us, which is apparently slightly unheard of according to my Zone leader. I feel like Ive been here for a month, but the fastest month ever, I don't know its a little tough to describe. I don't have a lot of addresses so if you could send me (and by you I mean any one who is reading this) your address so I can write you back that would be awesome. I'll send some pictures as well, I didn't get a chance to upload them before my email, But I'll try and make sure to do that for next week. I'm trying to orgnize (sp?) my thoughts for you but there is so much to say. I got the advice of keeping a letter list throughout the week, but I didn't get that advice like yesterday so that doesn't help me much...

The devotionals have been amazing, the spirit is so strong in the MTC, its a definite roller coaster of emotions, I feel like I've learned weeks and weeks of information in such a short amount of time. One of the biggest testimony builders for me has been that, I had this quit fear that I would get to the MTC and they would hook me up to some proverbial mainframe and turn me into to some sort of missionary droid that is programed to beguile and trick people into getting baptized or something like that. I couldn't be more wrong. Over and over again we learn that our purpose is simply to Invite and to Help, not to sale, force, argue, trick or anything close. I hope that makes sense. I'm loving my time as a missionary so far. I feel as though I've grown both spiritually and in maturity.

I love you all and I can't wait to here from you, and I promise to organize my letters better next week,

Love,

Elder Scott Brazee

MTC address

Here is Scott's MTC address. He will only be there a little bit longer...but definitely long enough to send at least one letter!

Elder Scott Brazee

MTC Box 205 SOAS - DUR 0220

2005 North 900 East

Provo, UT 84604-1703

He's Off!

Scott is officially a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We sent him off to the Provo, MTC yesterday.

Dearelder him if you want to send him a letter.

He will be leaving the MTC hopefully in about 2 full weeks.

Contact Information

If you would like to send me a letter or package please send it to...

Elder Scott Milton Brazee

South Africa Durban Mission

8 Windsor Ave

Westville

3630

South Africa

Phone:27 31-267-0250

Once I reach South Africa this will be my address for my entire mission.

Another way to send me letters is through a great website called dearelder.com

Its basically like emailing me, except they print it out and give it to me. Just go to the site and set up an account, it's super simple. You can use it to contact me in the MTC or in the mission field.