Be a Member Missionary

Area - Johannesburg, South Africa
Companion - Elder Wilkinson
Letter # 64

Hey hey!

Thanks for the videos! I did not get to watch them though. This email shop that we use is not very good for downloading and viewing videos, but tell the Travers family 'Hi!" for me! Don't know what they said ha but I'm still happy to hear from them! haha.

I like the ideas that you gave about helping these people realize the joy that comes from service and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't do service a whole ton but we do sometimes. I am definitely gonna try to get our investigators to come help us. That sounds like tons of fun and a great way to get them learning and feeling the spirit.

Yesterday Francis was confirmed so now he is a member of the church and he is very happy! We have been able to have lots of support from the members recently since the New Years resolutions haha. It is really great to have so many members that want to help out and that are doing their best to be missionaries. They are bringing many friends to church and introducing us to them and I love it! We have been taking a guy named Sandile with us many of the days. He was baptized in August and is preparing to serve a mission. We saw evidence of the difference it makes for people to have somebody to fellowship them yesterday at church. A sister that we just started teaching, Busisiwe, came to church and Sandile and another guy Marcel were both there to help her since they were the ones that we had taken to teach her during the week. She said that she loved church and I'm sure that it was partly because she had that support. Sister Busisiwe has a great love for the gospel and we enjoy teaching her. The other day we went to visit and she was watching some shows of these pastors and prophets around Africa Tons of people believe in these guys and would get offended if we said that they were not true. So we told her anyway. we explained and everything like that and then she said, "Thank you for telling me. I am never going to watch them again." Wow! She is gaining a strong testimony so fast! her baptism date is for march and she will probs be ready before that!

I feel like I'm learning so many things everyday and every week and every month.. Sometimes I learn so many things that I forget them and have to learn them again! But I can really feel that I'm closer to God than I ever have been before in my life. That closeness comes from serving Him and His children! You can't deny the good feeling you get when you teach somebody the truth, when somebodies life is better because of the gospel and not really because of you. Sometimes I think "man, I'm great at helping people!" but I always have to remember that it is Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who are helping them. If they weren't there then everything I am doing would be in vain cause it wouldn't matter! I am so eternally thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you, my parents, have taught me and that I now have the privilege to bring those blessings to other families! I think I'm just gonna be a missionary for the rest of my life!! Maybe not a set apart full-time missionary but I hope that I will be at least a worthy full-time missionary till the day I die.

I love you all! Have a great week!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D