Sanbonani!
Guys… I don’t think we’re following the Word of Wisdom as exactly as we could be. I mean yeah, we’re not drinking strong drinks or smoking tobacco, but that’s only part of the revelation. What about the other parts of those verses in section 89? I think it’s time we take the next step. "Strong drinks are not for the belly," it says, "but for the washing of your bodies." When last did you bathe in Castle Lager? The last time you were bruised, or your cattle were sick, where was your tobacco? Let’s resolve, brethren and sisters. From this day forward, we bathe no more in water! Champagne showers from here on out! But only just kidding… Whiskey showers are the way to go.
Anyway! So many good things happening this week and so little time to explain… Guess it’s just gonna be highlights. Let’s start with zone conference yesterday since it’s still fresh on my mind. Man, it’s always a treat to hear from Big Z. That guy understands personal revelation like no one I’ve ever met. He only taught us for a half hour or so before turning the time over to Elder Hamilton of the Seventy, but man… I didn’t know you could cram so much spiritual POW in so little time. He talked about the powers of heaven mentioned in D&C 121:34-40 and spoke about our entitlement to them as we remain righteous. “Many are called, few are chosen.” Try to be amongst the few. Man… I feel like I’m beginning to understand that phrase better than I have before. He stuck with the Spiritual side of missionary work and personal conversion while Elder Hamilton stuck with the practicalities…teaching, finding, and the sort. What an uplifting day. Oh! And Elder and Sister Hamilton are from Cali, and Sister Hamilton even grew up in Santa Clarita! Small world, hey? But man, any questions I had going in to zone conference were answered. I think the rest of our zone can say the same. And so, the work moves forward unhindered.
Let’s see… Last…Friday? Yeah! K, last Friday we had our first jobs workshop, and I’d call it a great success. I mean granted, only one person showed up, but the worth of souls, even a single soul, is great in the sight of God. It gave us a good idea of what we need to do for the coming week. If you’re an athlete, you have rough games every once in a while. But do you quit? Nah. You evaluate, practice, and do better next week. That’s exactly what Elder Marumo and I did the next day. We took a look at how we were contacting people and decided we needed to make it a little more personal and sell the idea a little better. I mean, people get super excited when they see a sign that says, “DO YOU WANT A JOB?” People like free stuff, so when they find out we don’t actually have a free job for them, they get a little disappointed. But we’ve changed our approach a little bit and have high hopes for the coming week.
Hmmm… Although it didn’t bear too much fruit, we did have some fun while contacting. On the streets, we’ve been carrying around our huge “DO YOU WANT A JOB?” sign. It grabs attention like a boss. But, Satan decided to send his winds Thursday and uh… Tear up our sign. Dang it. Oh! But this is super cool! We’ve been trying to figure out how we can talk to the Afrikaans population, and found a way serendipitously this week. A couple times a week, the Pick N Pay in town lets us have a stand outside their store, and we’ve had people of all ethnicities talking to us… Even the Afrikaaners! The people talking to us aren’t necessarily interested in the workshop, but they find it to be a good thing that we’re doing for the community. One man named Henry thought it was brilliant and even wants to work with us in the future. I don’t know that he’ll be interested in the gospel, but hey, at least we can work with him and do some good in the world.
In addition to all the finding and talking to people, we had some powerful lessons with our current investigators. Ah man, Gregory... I think we went a little spiritual overload on him, but he handled it well! He has an inquisitive mind, and one question leads to another... By the end of the lesson, we had gone through the temple,baptisms for the dead, branch leadership, area presidencies, seventies, apostles, the first presidency... We all just ended up laughing at the end. Jolly good time. I can't think by name everyone that we taught, but man... People are progressing like never before. And with the enlightenment gained from zone conference, this next week should be even better.
So one quick story before I'm out... We've had rats running around in our ceiling. And we were alright with that until this last week when we found rat poop in almost every room of the boarding one night. Haibo... So we finally asked Sister Herrington to buy us rat poison. It said very specifically not to "strew it randomly," and we figured that was a no brainer until we opened the attic and...started brainlessly strewing it randomly. Woops. But I think they're chowing and should be passing on to the spirit world shortly.
More good times ahead. The gospel is true as ever, and I'm pretty sure the Book of Mormon is still blue... Definitely still true though. Sala kahle, stay positive, and love your lives my friends.
Much love,
Umdala Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment