Happy Easter!

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Martin
Letter #73

Hey!

Sounds like a nice Easter Weekend for you! Can't say that ours was that good haha. We only taught 1 lesson total on Saturday and Sunday combined :( Kind of a bummer. We should be having more lessons on the days that are holidays related to Christ but instead we are just walking through the town a midst drunkards and the sort. It's sad and I really wish that people understood the reason that Easter is so important. Everybody went to church on Good Friday but on Saturday and Sunday it was just party central and even today there are more shops closed than there were yesterday. I am so grateful that we do have a knowledge of the restored gospel and that we have a living prophet to day to "prick [us] in the heart, stirring [us] up continually" in the remembrance of our Savior and the things that he has done for us! What a beautiful gift that we have and how great the importance to share it with everybody that we can! It made me so happy to hear that you had invited that family over for dinner and showed them that movie to remind them of what Easter is all about and even given them a chance to see and hear the prophet of God bear his testimony. I'm so glad that I can be a missionary full-time right now and that Easter weekend is not the only opportunity I have to share the gospel. We are not Christian only on Easter and Christmas; we are Christians full-time! I'm not a missionary only when I feel like it; I am a missionary full-time!

We met a really cool family this week, the Molefe family. We were tracting for a few minutes before we had an appointment. We knocked on their gate and waited for a loooong time and were about to leave and then their little boy came running around the corner followed by his father. Last time it was Elder Martin that said something dumb when the Ndimane family let us in(by the way they are doing awesome and they have a baptism date for June 09) and this time it was me who said something dumb and he said okay come in! Don't know why but he was excited. We met his wife and his 2 kids. Shared a very brief message of the restoration and told them where the church was and they said they would come. Guess what? They actually came! They left after the second hour, don't know why. They left so fast that we couldn't even get through all the people before they were in the car and gone. BUT they came and I think they enjoyed. We shall see on Weds when we have an appointment with them. I really hope that we get to teach them cause they are a perfect family to come into the church! They are looking for a family church right now cause they just moved to the area and the father isn't really religious, he goes to church cause his wife wants to. They need it so bad! Heavenly Father knows it too cause we could have just sat on the curb and waited 15 mins for our appointment and not have found the Molefe family.

We got to go to an Easter devotional after church where the bishop showed that movie that you watched, "He is Risen". I liked it a lot! Have you seen the DVD's, Mormon Messages? If not I bet you could get them at Deseret Book. They are super cool and have tons of short messages that you could share when you invite people for dinner or for FHE or whatever. Thanks for being a great example of member missionary work! Did you find out what the missionaries do to organize the member missionary work in the ward? -I wanna know! Can you show me?- can you guess the Phil Collins song and the movie?

This week Elder Martin got 2 packages for Easter that were sent on Mar 09 and I still didn't get the one that you sent for Valentines...I don't think I'm getting that one :( There was a post strike for like a month that I didn't even know about and I think it was during the time that you sent it.

Have a super week! Nate and Dad, be safe and shred the gnar!!

Love y'all!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D