My Dear Family,
This is your son from Africa!
Let me get into the meat of it: This week we were cut by both edges of
the sword. We found success and
disappointment in all we did. But
like President Monson advised us this last conference, take an inventory of the
good, and the blessings, so I will.
We were richly blessed to be able to watch all 5 sessions of General
Conference on Saturday and Sunday!
WHOA! It was a spiritual
feast! I’m still trying to
digest everything that I was able to retain. I can't wait until the magazines and DVD's become available
to us, as there are many talks I feel the desire to study. Some impressing talks that hit me hard
were: Elder Bednar’s talk about testimony and conversion, Elder Eyring's tender
talk about his sons and the carved wood boards, Elder Perkin’s talk about strengthening
the family through five or six points, Elder Uchtdorf's talk about the Pieper
Cup and F-15 Jet Plane relating it to large organized wards versus meager struggling
branches, and many others. Those
men are men of God.
There is a lady we are teaching that I've come to love. She is in her 30's, has 2 young kids,
and is striving to allow the gospel into her lives. Her name is Sibongile, I've mentioned her before. On Tuesday, we took our Branch President
to her house for a teaching appointment. It was a huge blessing as through his help we found out about
concerns and desires and such. She
has a good heart, but she is a little held back by her husband. She wants to join and live the church
and gospel, but wants to do it as a family (honest desire). However, we have yet to even meet
the husband since we began teaching a few months ago. He works long hours far from home and often
returns late and leaves early every day.
Sometimes he doesn’t even come home. Let me also mention that they
live a little far from our area of concentration, so we don’t usually go out
that far unless we are seeing her or another boy.
Well, yesterday she came to church and was able to watch the conference.
After Church we went to her area to check another boy we are teaching, but
found him not. We were going to go
back to our area of concentration but instead we decided to do some finding
around his house. Eventually we
had the feeling to go check Sibongile so we walked a few roads over and knocked
on her door. We were expecting to
see her open the door (as she always does) but instead, and to our surprise, it
was her husband who greeted us. Upon
seeing us he quickly invited us in and sat. We explained who we were and such. We spent an hour or so with him talking and discussing the
gospel and his family and how both are intertwined. Let me make mention that he is a Rastafarian, but hasn’t
been too active in that faith for a while. Though, he still holds to some things from their ways. Something must have struck him from what
we said because, towards the end, he wanted to know if he could ask us
something. He wanted to know just what
he needs to do in order to be baptized! Imagine my surprise as I looked upon this muscley,
dread-locked man, who carries a very chilled and laid back attitude, as he
asked us that question. We
responded accordingly and he committed to taking certain steps for him and his
family. His wife, who had joined
us halfway through, looked as if she were going to cry. She was happy!
The mission is true. It is
a blissful experience. Though hard
at times, I have found so much joy in this journey. I am feeling the firm winds of conversion fill my sails each
day as I move closer and closer to my Father in Heaven.
I love you guys. Please,
always remember that. I appreciate
all you do for me. I pray for you
that you may continue to be blessed.
With love and sincerity,
Elder Gold
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