Waters of Baptism

Area- Pretoria, South Africa
Companion- Elder Coon
Letter #91

Dear family,

Well my new companion is Elder Coon from Oregon. He was my district leader for 6 months in Joburg and now we are companions for his last 5 weeks! ha-ha. We are already having a great time together as companions since we already knew each other for such a long time. He is determined not to get lazy at the end which is perfect cause that's exactly what I want to do. I don't know how I could have a good final interview with President if I was lazy for the last part of my mission.

We have tons of good work to do here though! We just had a baptism for Leshego yesterday which was awesome cause the bishop organized a linger longer afterwards so that many of the members would be able to support him.

It's always so cool to be with them just before we go down into the water and see how nervous and excited they are and then afterwards how calm and happy they are. Leshego invited many of his family to attend his baptism and 2 of them loved the church. They were going around meeting all the members at the linger longer and telling them that they are going to be back next week. Super cool! Baptisms are such a good way for people to come and experience the church.

Bantu also enjoyed the baptism very much. He has already invited his entire family to his baptism which will be Sept 22nd. Yesterday he was able to bring his daughter. she couldn't stop smiling the whole time. It was a really good Sunday to be in the Pretoria ward for sure.

MonaLisa is even progressing again., she wasn't able to come to church for like 4 weeks but now she has been twice in a row and we gave her a baptism date for October. She wants to be baptized so bad and I just hope that her job can stay stable and that she doesn't have any more problems with her car. She is reading the book of Mormon for the third time already!

Thanks for the cool scripture that you sent me last week (D&C 29 4-7). It really did help me. I kind of regressed in my communication skills when I came to this area but I think that I am getting them back and gaining the same kind of confidence that I had when I was in the township and city and village. I love the part that says you are chosen out of the world cause when you realize what that means you have no thought for what other people think about you. You share the truth with the name of Jesus Christ on your chest. Even our baptismal covenants tell us that we need to take upon ourselves His name. I sometimes get scared to talk to people cause I am prideful and don't want them to not like me. Dumb reason! Sometimes I am scared to make the right choice or to be an example cause I want the crowd to like me. We are chosen out of the world to be an example to them and to help them return to the fold of Him who loves us most. When we do things to please Him we are doing ourselves a favor and preparing to live for eternity in celestial glory and doing others a favor by helping them also receive that blessing.

I hope you all have a great week! The restored gospel is true and we all have a responsibility to share it!

Love you all!
-Elder Dirkmaat