Mom, it's good to hear that you still have the skills at the piano! As for myself, I've gotten so much better since coming on mission! I take the keyboard home every week after sacrament (a rather arduous task, if I do say so myself) and practice all week when I get home from proselyting. It's really a blessing for us. My companion can play as well, and so can Elder Kenner, our district leader. We have a lot of fun playing together. I'm just grateful that my skill is increasing, rather than fading, in the absence of a piano. I can accompany about 20-25 hymns now, and I'm continually getting better! Before, I couldn't play any. My companion and I play in sacrament meetings for the branch because there is only one person in the branch who knows how to play it, and he travels a lot.
There aren't ALWAYS people in our path EVERY day who are prepared for the gospel. Sure, we have a few of those guided encounter conversions, but most of them are extremely gradual. I don't like "hanging out" during proselyting time, at all. I've seen the positive effects of "taking time" though. I think you remember me talking about my convert Festus. The coolest thing is watching the EXTREMELY gradual change that is coming over his mother, who is neither a member nor investigator. She shut down any initial attempts to teach her, but she has grown to love us (more particularly me, I'm sure. I've been here a LONG time!) as we pass by every day. She's designated a special plate for us elders that she puts food for every day. Before, she wouldn't so much as talk to us, but now she has assigned herself as my "Salone Mom" and loves chatting with us, including on gospel topics. We're just waiting for the right moment to start the real teaching. We know it will happen, but if we rush or force anything, it could ruin the foundation that we've built. We're obedient, work hard, and have a LOT of fun.
Speaking of a lot of fun, the fourth of July was awesome! We invited Elder Stott and Elder Barth over for a BBQ. The pictures are attached. One shows Elder Barth on the left, and his companion Elder Stott on the right. They come over almost ever P-Day for various enjoyments. Elder Stott was our grill man for the night, and he did a brilliant job. Another picture shows my ingenious setup, consisting of six and a half cement blocks, an overturned baking pan, a pot full of rocks and coal, and an overturned fan cover. We grilled 30,000le worth of BBQ chicken (that was about 12 HUGE pieces)(oh jeez it was good!) and enjoyed it with fried rice. It was wondrous.
The next picture is of the baptism we had for Sister Umu Makieu this past Saturday. It was an awesome service! It's been a long time coming for her conversion. We had taught her everything, but she had no interest in coming to church at all. She'd even run from us when we had set times to see her. One time as she ran, she hurt her shoulder, and decided that we were too persistent to give up, so she had better just listen to us next time we come. She was baptized a month from that time. She is CONVERTED. It's so exciting! Sure, we baptized only one person, but she is a PERSON, and that's what counts. She'll never fall away from the church. It was such an awesome baptism. Oh, and my companion is pictured on the right. We haven't snapped too many pictures yet...
Oh, so I thought of some thing to send me: SALSA. Oh man, I was craving salsa so bad the other day. We can make flour tortillas, and there are beans and stuff here, so we could make something truly wonderful. A bottle/jar of Pace would be so good... If you could send that, that'd be most wonderful. Thank you!
Thanks for all the information you sent about Malaria, Dad. Yeah, Malaria sucks like nothing, and what you described is pretty much what happened. One week, I felt pretty icky on P-day, and came down with a fever. I felt progressively better(but never totally well) through the week, but as it reached Monday the next week, I was DYING in the evening. I spent hours in the bathroom just DYING. I took two rounds of treatment, and I feel fine now. It's an experience I'll never want to go through again. Ugh, it was the sickest I've ever been in my life, far far far way!
This week is seemingly uneventful, with the exception of Umu's baptism. We spent two whole days doing address location for all of our members in the entire branch to prepare for the upcoming split. We have to find at least 300 of the 340 members on the directory. It's a LOT of walking, since some of our members are in villages on the outskirts of town (still in our area!!). We've done it for three days now, and found 140 of them, and need to find another 160, so our proselyting has suffered a little. It doesn't really matter though, because God knows what we're up to, and knows what our investigators need. It's just a busy time for us!
So I'm curious Dad, where do you and Mom want to serve your mission? When do you plan on going? I'm so excited for that day! (yeah, a long ways off, I know, but regardless!) I know you and Mom will be great missionaries. As for the work we do here, we seek for "the one," and not for numbers. Numbers = NOTHING. You'd love missionary work here (and anywhere else, I'm sure!). Are you wanting to go back to Texas? That'd be neat to go back to where you had served before.
Alright, time is short. I love you all!
Elder Vaughan
No comments:
Post a Comment