This week was very good. To start, we had a baptism yesterday!!! I'll send a pic, his name is Sipho. About two months ago my trainer and I were driving, and as we drove past a road he was like "I've been feeling that street for a long time," so we tracted it. The first house didn't care to hear our message, so we went to the second house, and they were watching Lord of the Rings (I've probably told this story like 8 times, but it's whatever), and there were some girls there and a 23 year old guy, and he was kind of a joker haha. Afterward, Elder Clegg and I just thought he didn't seem very serious, but then the third time we went there we found him reading the Book of Mormon on his own, so we were like "Whoa this guys pretty cool!" And now he's changed his life and been baptized! In his testimony he said that when we first came to his house he was like, "Yeah, I guess I'll let these guys in" but it was sort of just a whatever thing, he didn't really care that much, but then as we were talking to him a lot of the things we said made sense, so he decided to let us back. It was super cool to hear him talk about it. And he's just a cool guy, he's already been a missionary, he'll read the Book of Mormon at school, or on the train, and people ask him about it and he talks to them about it, and he's just awesome! This next Sunday he'll get confirmed, and then before the month ends we're gonna get him the priesthood, call him as a ward missionary, and get him to the temple for baptisms for the dead! And we're teaching his best friend and other members of his family too, so our goal is for him to be able to baptize them. Pretty exciting stuff! He's definitely a kingdom builder.
That's one thing I've learned from the baptism process this past week, is that I don't want to do anything the day of the baptism haha. My goal is to get someone from the ward to speak, baptize, say the prayers, and confirm the next Sunday, just because if the missionaries do everything, if we teach them without a member present, and we're the only ones they know, then they get attached to us and are bummed out when we leave, and sometimes go less active. So the week has been awesome, Elder Rini and I are on the same page a lot more, because we're learning each other's teaching styles and we just talk a lot about our plans and goals, and we're really working on getting members in most of our lessons, so that our investigators have friends at church and feel welcome! We have three more baptisms lined up for the end of this month, which may be my last Sunday here (everyone seems to feel like I'm leaving, which would be fine, as long as those three people get baptized haha) so hopefully everything goes according to plan! Even though I know it never does hahaha! But I'll still be satisfied with our efforts. We've been working hard, and it's definitely paying off!
Other than that, not too much has happened this week, just getting our teaching pool organized, dropping the people that don't want to hear the message or keep commitments we give them, which can be difficult because I always want to give them another chance, but it's nice having 6 people on date who will actually be baptized than having 14 who aren't very serious. Constantly learning new things about missionary work, the scriptures, and just life in general! My mission is the best, wouldn't trade these past months for anything, I've learned and experienced way too much! I love the gospel, I definitely know it's true, and I've seen it literally change people's lives! I know why I'm here and I'm grateful for it! I love you all, thanks for everything you do! Talk to you next week,
Peace
Sipho is on the right, Ronney, (the ward mission leader), is the one on the left.
