Missionaries, Culture & Fathers

Area - Kanye, Botswana
Companion - Elder Holman
Letter #33

How are you my family? :D

I got residency! :D I could go back to South Africa but most likely I won't. There are transfers July 10 so maybe wait until then to send? You have the address right?

Ollie you got bit my a gecko? Ouch! i got bit by a dog! haha. It only nicked me though. Glad you guys found some new friends! Did you take some pictures of the huge bunnies?? I wanna see em! Nate I emailed you last and you never replied :P Glad graduation week was fun though! What is your eagle project if it's only 1 or 2 weeks away? haha nate, you and your friends need to listen to the song Kunze Kwadoka by Oliver Mtukudzi, "Punani!"

This week has been another great week, except for church ha. This time there were zero investigators. BUMMER. We were positive that there were gonna be at least 7 people. One family had to go to the cattle post cause some of their cattle got lost. Another family, the son got sick and they went to the hospital. another guy is a detective and got called in to work. Another woke up and his dad had taken the car and he had no money for a taxi. I decided maybe we aren't doing anything wrong but maybe we could improve by helping people find ways to come to church and praying and fasting even that they will have no obstacles and be able to make it. It's just that pesky little Satan likes to mess things up! And we have to work harder than him :D

About missionaries and culture and fathers. Well dad you are right; that is exactly what we do. We teach fathers how to be more responsible and care for their families. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, every culture revolves around family. Everybody has parents and most people have children. In the Bible we learn that Adam was the first man and he and Eve were the first parents and they made a family. We are not teaching people to change their culture, we are teaching them things that we KNOW are truev(by the power of the Holy Ghost) and that have been true since the foundation of the world and since the beginning of time. Cain was the start of incorrect traditions among the children of men. In the Book of Mormon we learn that we have scripture and prophets to convince and testify to us of the truth; that God is our Father and Jesus Christ is the Saviour of all mankind; and of the incorrectness of the traditions of our fathers. All cultures stem off of the belief that there is a supreme being but are not christian cultures due to the fact that their fathers chose not to listen the counsel of Gods prophets and made their own way of doing things. Maybe it wasn't called Christianity until after Jesus Christ was crucified but it is still the only religion that has been on the Earth since the first man. We all believe the same thing but over time ideas have been lost or eroded and changed. That is why we have living prophets sent from God today to lead us and guide us to the full 100% truth. The purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to bring us all together as families. We are god's children and He wants us to live with him again after we die and we can only do that if we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ and develoop good relationships with our families here on Earth. We share the truth with others and let them accept or reject it. We don't do the convincing. The Holy Spirit does the convincing and if they feel the spirit and choose to reject then there is not much else we can do except be good examples. It is not us telling people to change, it is God. We are not however, completely changing their cultures. For example, here in Africa many people believe in their ancestors and in worshiping them and receiving guidance from them. So do we. We don't worship them but we can communicate with them though work for the dead and they can help us in our lives as well.  Me personally,  I love other cultures. Learning new dances and songs. Here in Africa they have funerals an interesting way that I'll have to explain some other time. eating different foods. The way people interact with each other. Nobody loses anything from becoming a "Christian." Instead, they become better. They have greater knowledge and understanding of how God wants things to be done and not how man wants things to be done.

Well I didn't say much about what I did this week.. Sorry.
Have a great week and I hope we both have lots of stories for next time! :D

Love you all!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D