This Week Was OUTSTANDING!

Hey Yah MOM!!!

      This is also meant for the rest of the family.  This week was OUTSTANDING!  So let me start here so I don’t forget these items: I couldn’t resist, I caved... I opened my Christmas package too.  It was awesome!  I love using the bag.  I have abandoned my backpack for it.  I already had the Doctrine and Covenants DVD's so I gave them to a member in the branch who really liked them.  Also I loved the Church History DVD's.  Sadly however, I messed them up... I tried to glue the DVD info on the front of each disc so I could leave the case and put them in my collection.  The glue cracked the discs... My bad!  I was pretty bummed but its OK cause I was able to watch at least some of them.  I guess some attributes (like breaking things) never leave us from childhood.  Ok, so you'll probably see the photos and think "what??"  Let me explain.

      So, this week we worked.  It was most likely my last week here (hence I haven’t given you a number to call me yet).  I’ll do it next Monday when I know where I am, so don’t hyperventilate.  So, I thought, “OK, its my last week here and it’s also my birthday this week, so what do I want to do?  Well, my biggest desire was to give the Lord my best work this week.  Just put my hand to the plow and dig in.  So, that’s what we did.  But, we still had a blast doing it.  It rained a lot Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  So on Friday (my birthday), when we got to the area, there were a lot of people fishing with hands and nets, catching really big catfish and other smaller fish.  I went and took a bunch of photos and some guys liked that the lahura (white guy) liked what they were doing, so they gave me some fish.  I cut them up, and ended up giving them away to members.

      One of the senior couples baked me a cake that morning and then a member baked me one in the afternoon.  It was fun, but nothing that happened this week compared to what happened on Sunday.  YEP, we had two more baptisms!

      OK, so there is a young man and a little girl.  The young man is Thapelo (17), and the little girl is Remo (9).  Both are from part member families.  Elder Fokuo and I Started teaching both of them some months back.  It was OUTSTANDING!  The service was amazing and we yielded a few referrals from it.  I had the humble honor to baptize the little girl, Remo.  The family asked that I do it.  Normally I refuse to baptize the individuals, and prefer that a member do it, because they will be a help and support to the new member throughout their membership, but with Remo I just felt that it would be OK.

      I think I was one of the happiest people at the baptism.  As we have been teaching Remo, I have really been opened to the fact that "children are an heritage of the Lord".  She is one of the sweetest, innocent little girls I know.  She understands the basic doctrines and principles of the gospel and does her level best to explain them and live them.  She lights up whenever we praise her for making correct choices.  She is so sweet.  She was also very ready to be baptized.  The water in the font was very cold, but she charged in there before me giving only a little squeal from the cold them waited with a big smile as I shivered and stepped in.  Mom, I didn’t know how to feel when I was in that font.  I was so happy, and I felt the spirit.  I felt and thought to myself "She is so pure, and will be even more pure and clean in a minute.  She is and will be more pure than I, and yet I have been entrusted to perform this sacred ordinance for her."  It was an unspeakable feeling to have that honor.  This is what it is all about.

      I’m so grateful for everything.  I really mean everything.  For my time in Thaba Nchu, for being in the Lords service, for the priesthood, for my family, to being born at this time in this dispensation... It is remarkable.  My week was the best.

I look forward to talking to you mom and everyone on Christmas morning.

 I love you.

Elder Landon Taylor Gold