Monday, March 31, 2014

Persistence

Hey everybody!
So I don't know what happened with the last week's email... It was a really long detailed one too. Well that really bites. I thought I found it and sent it again, but I realized that that wasn't it...
Anyway, these last couple weeks have been really good. Things are going really well. We had a baptism on Saturday! It was a really awesome experience.
Last week we had an awesome week too. President Cook came on the Saturday night and we all went to a wedding at the church. It was a really cool thing. Marriages are hard to come by here. But it was really fun too. The missionaries were charged with the responsability to bring the food out. You should see the presents they give here! We also had one investigator named David that came to the wedding. He grew up in France and is a really awesome investigator. It was his first ever wedding that he has attended! He also said that he was really touched seeing all the missionaries together. He said he saw something that really makes him want to be a missionary! We're only a couple weeks apart in age and he's very exposed to western culture, so it's really fun working with him. Then this week we saw him again and he said that since the wedding he's felt different. We asked why. He said "I don't know, but it's like that feeling you get when you decide you need to do something." Then he started talking about serving a mission. It is so cool! He's going to serve a mission one day. He's getting baptized the 26th. So I hope I'm still here for that.
Then the Sunday after, we talked to president. He had a lot of interviews to do at church, so we only got a couple minutes than really short interviews with him. It was really good to see them though. They are really sad to see the mission split because that means they're going to lose all their American elders. But as far as the split goes, no one knows anything. Not even who the next president is going to be. But there is only 50ish missions on this side of the mission, so we are probably going to get a bunch of new missionaries, and a lot of new areas will be opened up. I'm excited.
This week went by really fast. Things are going well with my companion. He is used to doing things the way they do in Kinshasa, so there are some discrepancies, but we are making a lot of progress. We have met a lot of new investigators this last little while. Just this last week, we found 5 new investigators.
Saturday was the day of the baptism. Of course, it was pouring rain all day, which means no one goes anywhere. But it still happened. His name is Loubaki. He's an awesome guy. We met him when we were waiting to meet up with other elders to do splits the next day. They were stuck in traffic and really late. But that meant that we were there when Loubaki happened to walk by. He saw us and is learning English so he thought it would be a good opportunity to speak English. We at first didn't take him too seriously cause sometimes people just talk to us to learn English and don't care about the Gospel. But he called us 3 times over the next 3 days. So we decided to see him. He turned out to be awesome! He asked me to baptize him. It was a really cool experience. It was the first baptism I've done that took 2 tries, but it was still really cool. As he was walking out of the water he said "thank you Jesus." The next day at church he was confirmed. We got to participate in the confirmation. As Slasvie, the member confirming him, said "receive the Holy Ghost" I felt a tingle all through my body and out through my hands. It was like I could feel the Spirit going into him. It was a really cool experience. I'm so excited to see him a member of the church.
A list of my recent converts:

We also had a cool experience where we were going to have a second lesson with an investigator, but we accidentally went into the parcel next door. But it turned out the guy was really interested and wants us to come back! We have a lot of really cool stories. It is such an awesome opportunity to work in such an amazing sector. There is 2 1/2 weeks left of this transfer. So I'll find out in 2 weeks if I get to stay. There are 4 new elders coming to our mission, and apparently 1 is supposed to come to our zone. So anything could happen. It is possible that my companion could get sent back to Kinshasa because the African elders usually just come to fill in a spot when we don't have enough Americans. But we'll see. Heck, I might even train! haha That would be interesting.... I finally feel comfortable enough with my french though that should the occasion arise, I would be ok. Anyway, sounds like you guys are having fun. Congratulations to Conner! That is so awesome! Have a great week!

Love, Elder VanAusdal

No comments:

Post a Comment