Another hard working week!
Walking with Bless from church, ha ha.
Man the work here is just busy, busy, busy!
This week we were just focusing on our new investigators to
help them start progressing so that they are ready for when the chapel comes.
We had a ton of super successful lessons and the people are just so
excited to get baptized that they ask us every time we come, "Where is the
building? We want to come and become members!" They are just so excited
and it makes me excited to think that this branch will grow so fast in numbers
and I got to be one of those who started it!
I am going to talk to you about David really quick. We
met him contacting one day and he is 18 years old and he is finishing high school.
He was very interested in us and we taught him a few times. In our second
lesson when reading out of the Book of Mormon he just had a huge smile on his
face. I asked him why he looked so happy? Then he said that the part we read
really touched his heart and was excited to keep reading. I honestly was so
happy to hear that and knew that this guy was very serious in learning more. We
scheduled to see him in 3 days at 4:00 o'clock and he doesn't have a phone so we
were praying he would be ready. Well he was! But something wasn't right, he was
super quiet and looked super sad. I asked him what was wrong. He then explained
to me how his older sister saw the BOM on his bed and was super mad that he had it
and was telling him it wasn't true and that it was all false. So she took it from him
and put it in her room. Well when she wasn't looking he took it back and was hiding
it from her and didn't want her to know he had it. We talked to him for a bit
about how people will say all these things about the book but have never read
it so we just wanted him to read it for himself and to pray. HE wants to know
if it is true really bad. He even asked us to meet him in a different place so that his sister won't distract us. The faith he already has is unbelievable.
We went to teach a lesson to the boy on the far right, and
his mom was so excited that a white man was there that she went around yelling
and was telling all the kids to come see the white man, ha ha.
Another cool lesson was with Samuel. While teaching Elder
Bidi asked him how he has been liking the lessons. He told us how it has been
changing his life and has seen so many blessing from the teachings. The spirit
filled my body and I felt very impressed to tell him that if he continues
studying and praying he will know for himself 100% that this gospel is the only
true gospel. I don't know why I said that to him, but I know it's what the
spirit wanted him to hear me say. He had a huge smile and just said thank you to me
and was so happy to hear that. He is one of our first investigators we started
teaching and he is so excited to become a member.
So one thing that honestly shocked me this week was what one
of our investigators told us. So Godwill is his name, he is progressing very
quickly and loves the BOM. He told us how every since he started reading his
life is getting better. But what he told us about what the other pastors are
teaching is what shocked me. He said that the pastors here are preaching that
if you die and are deaf, mentally disabled, or a child, you will go straight to
hell. Now I honestly was quite annoyed to hear that. I am not telling you this to have you think that these pastors are all bad and stuff. The reason
I tell you this is to help you understand why it is so important to have
missionaries in the world. Missionary work is not mainly to help the missionary to
become a better person, it is to change the lives of those you come in contact
with. We are here to teach the true gospel with the complete fullness of the
truth. I didn't realize how important this work is until I came here and am
seeing all the untruthful things people are teaching here.
Sister Norkplim brought a 3 year old to church this week. He
is technically the only person who has come to church from Akatsi, ha ha. So we
were pretty happy about it. His name is bless. :)
Stand up for the truth. Don't
ever back down to someone who is trying to tell you that what we believe isn't
true. I gave a talk on Sunday about the BOM and why it is so important to have. One thing I said is that if you have any doubt in the church, like whether
or not Joseph Smith was a true prophet and etc. The only question you should
have is whether or not the BOM is true. If you doubt anything, read the BOM
because that is the truth. If the BOM is true than everything we teach is true. People come up with false teachings or controversial teachings, stand up
for the truth and hold fast to he BOM. IT is the truth and I know it is because
I have read it and prayed about it.
Bonkou and palm nut
soup. :)
I love you all and hope you have a great week
Sincerely,
Elder Baird
Mom's notes:
1. I asked him about transfers and what he thought was going to happen. This was his response, "April 2 is the end of this transfer and honestly, I don't know. President Keyes only likes to keep people in an area for around 5 months. At the end of this transfer, I will have been in Akatsi for almost five and a half months, but to make me leave when I am the person who started this branch wouldn't make sense because everyone here knows me. SO honestly I think that I will stay one more transfer."
2. I asked him if he thought that he would get a new companion. He said, "I do. I think that once we get the building, which is supposed to be this month, they will bring two more missionaries and split Akatsi. Elder Bidi and I will then split so that we can have one of the new guys and be able to show them the area."
3. I asked him how his investigators are progressing and if any of them made it to church yet. He said, "Our investigators are progressing really well! And no ha ha. Well if you count a 3 year old boy who Sister Norkplim brought with her because she was babysitting him ha ha. He thought we were at a funeral ha ha ha!"
Pictures posted by Sister Keyes.
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