The Plan of Salvation

Area- Vosloorus, South Africa
Companion- Elder Kelebogile
Letter #79

Family :D! How are you!?

Soooo I read the book you sent me this week (The Engine 2 Diet) and now I feel bad about my list from last week. I still want it all! But I realize how you must feel sending that stuff ha. You can consider me a progressing investigator though. Based on the fact that I kept the unspoken commitment to read it and that I have shared it with my fellow missionaries. So far the only defense they have is "Well I need my protein" and "I love my meat" which we all know are lame excuses...If you've read the book. I'll have you know that I can't progress any farther until I get home. I still feel bad every time I eat things that are "not approved" but the change will have to come at a future date. Let me add some things to my order list though. I need more of those pens(Pilot G2 0.38) and that chap-stick(Ocean Potion).

Thanks for the sweet pictures! Can't wait to take a spin on the Green Machine! When was the last Daddy Daughter Dance? It seems like you just barely went to one. Ollie is gonna be a pro surfer pretty soon! I hope that story gets published! You'll have to let me know cause that would be awesome. Also I am so down for the surf trip before I go back to school! Hopefully my skills can cope with the quality of the waves. Eric told me he got to go surf in Kaui'i and that he saved some waves for me. Another trip in the making? haha.

So here's the best part of the week...Besides the fact that every week is awesome and missionary work is the best. We went to see Br. Manana on Tues and we came in while he was busy watching "Our Heavenly Fathers Plan", one of the church movies about the Plan of Salvation. For the past weeks we have been going to his home to be friends with him, read chapters from the Book of Mormon and just help him feel the spirit. We decided that we are just gonna wait until he tells us that he wants to be baptized. The only problem is that we don't really know what he needs to make him say that. Heavenly Father provided the answer with His plan! When we found Br. Manana watching that movie we immediately knew that we now had a teaching plan. When the movie finished we talked to him a bit about what he learned and how he felt. He told us how he has truly been enjoying our visits and looked forward to every Tuesday and Thursday and that he was learning new things that he never understood before because we had been reading with him. He saw that DVD in their collection and decided to watch it since we were a bit late and thought we weren't going to come. As we talked about the Plan of Salvation I noticed that his eyes started to water up and he shed a tear. He started asking all kinds of questions. We answered and even on Thursday we went back to teach the Plan. We asked him things like, "What do you have to do to be able to receive the blessing of eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom?" and he knows all the answers from our discussions! The only problem is that he is shy or scared to actually go to church and be baptized. He will do the things that he can do in private without anybody seeing him and giving him praise. With him the secret is time. I'm so happy that he is finally having a desire to learn and act. he told us that he was never interested and he doesn't know why but he now has a huge desire to learn and he never knew that there was so much that he still could learn. We shall see what happens in the future but so far very good!

That's the main thing I wanted to share with you this week. We are seeing great success every week and I am loving the people more and more each day! It seems like the challenges of being a missionary don't really matter when success is happening. We are going to have another baptism this week for the friend of the bishops sons and then in June we might have a father of a part member family and also the Ntimane family. Sister Ntimane told she has gone from 3 cups of coffee/tea per day down to only one in the past week! And that's in the middle of winter too!

I hope you have a wonderful week. Thanks for all that you do for me and being good examples at home!

I love you all!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D