Area - Kanye, Botswana
Companion - Elder Holman
Letter #30
Hi family!
Thanks
for the great e-mail! Super excited that Eric turned in his mission papers!
that's awesome! I was already gonna write him a letter today to see how he's
doing since I tried his e-mail and it didn't work I guess. He finds out next
week already? Better tell me where he goes and when he leaves! My guess is
Paraguay. My hope is South Africa ha. When will Brother Gruen be in South
Africa? Depending if I get residency, I could be back in 5 weeks. But if I do
get residency I'll probs be here till at least the end of this year. That
daddy-daughter dance sounds like a blast! Glad you went "all out." No regrets!
haha. Do you have any pictures of what you looked like? I didn't get the
announcement for graduation yet but I got the 6 month package! Thanks for it! I
like it a lot :D
This week flew by so fast it's hard to even remember
what we did. We had our record number of investigators at church yesterday, 4!
The Molebatsi family came on time finally which was really good cause they
finally got to take the sacrament and all of the sudden they are all fired up
again. They got hung up on tithing but they are overcoming that by developing
their faith and desire to follow Jesus Christ. We've been teaching a lot about
faith, commandments, being examples of the believers, being children of God,
etc. One lesson we were teaching I thought of an analogy randomly about why we
follow the commandments. Totally the spirit that gave me the analgy cause
halfway through it I didn't even know what I was gonna say next or it was all
gonna work ha. We were telling them you have a belief in God first. Then, you
read the scriptures to learn of him. Next, pray to receive an answer that he is
there. Finally, obey the commandments that he gives to increase your testimony
of him and receive blessings. Analogy: You want some chicken. You believe that
there is chicken at the supermarket. You read the advertisement in the paper
about the chicken(read the scriptures). You go to supermarket and ask the
workers where the chicken is(pray). They show you and tell you that to get it
you have to pay(answer to prayer). You pay the price(obey commandment) and you
get the chicken. I got to believing that there is chicken at the supermarket and
thought "Where am I going with this??" but I kept talking and it all worked out.
It was interesting and kind of an example of in D&C when the lord says that
the spirit will give us the things to say in the moment that we need them. I've
had it happen so many times but this time it was a little easier to explain than
other times so I told you about it! ha. But we had a nice time with the
Molebatsi family last night. They weren't sure that they were ready to baptized
yet. The father is a detective so it is tough for him to do something without
knowing everything. We asked them the baptismal interview questions and they
answered correctly and firmly to all of them and so we told them that they are
more than ready to be baptized. The thing about learning more we told them would
come when they received the gift of the Holy Ghost and even I told them the
story of one of the presidents of the church when he was 98 years old told the
other apostles that he was finally BEGINNING to understand why we go to the
temple. They are now planning on being baptized on June 17. Pray for them! He's
gonna be the next branch president! ha.
On Saturday we met two kids 12
and 14. It was crazy to hear about the kinds of things they had done in their
lives already. One of them told us about his favorite kinds of beer and the
other told us of how he had french kissed this girl. There was some other stuff
but I think that sufficeth yeah? We were talking to them for a while and they
really wanted us to come visit their families and even they wanted to come to
church the next day. Lots of missionaries don't like to talk to kids too much
but would rather just say hi make them laugh and keep going. Me, I love talking
to kids! And now we have this sweet teaching opportunity because the 12 year old
came to church yesterday and brought his sister and nephew! They walked like 5+
miles to get there too! I am excited to go visit their families today and
hopefully it will be as good as I hope it is!
The past weeks I have been
really bad at getting out of bed at 6:30. I've been awake but not out of bed.
This last week I started to make progress and did like 15-20 mins of stretching
before getting out of bed and this week I should be exercising AT 6:35(after I
pray ;D). It's been super hard to be awake right away in the morning for me and
it's weird because the sooner i get out of bed the better of a day I have. Being
exactly obedient truly brings blessings! I like the story you told, Dad, about
how you would go to sleep way late and be physically tired even the next morning
but you still had energy because you were doing what you are supposed to. I am
enjoying mission and I love it so much and I'm sure that if I can wake up on
time I can love it even more.
I hope you have a great week! I love you
all! I will def keep that girl in my prayers.
-Elder Dirkmaat :D
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