ER Visit

 

Haha don't worry, it wasn't for me. One of my roommates needed a couple stitches on his shin because he got cut while ice skating at a YSA activity. He's all good now. 

 So it has been a good week as usual, although it started out a little disappointing. We had a lesson Monday night with Chenga, and basically he just said that every church that talks about Jesus is the Church of Jesus Christ. Which of course leaves us pretty much unable to teach him because he's not interested in coming to our church. I have a new understanding of the word "exhort" now, because I was testifying with everything I had that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is the true word of God, but he remained hard in his heart. In the end we told him to, "pray about the Book of Mormon and you will receive your answer. Give us a call when you do." I had hopes for him and his son Luenda, but we did our part by sharing, testifying, and inviting. I have the faith that one day something will change and they will be ready to accept the gospel. Although it was disappointing, I walked out of that lesson filled with the spirit because I testified calmly but powerfully with all the energy of my soul of the truthfulness of what we shared. In the end I am grateful for the opportunity I had, because it was one of those moments where I didn't have to question if the other person was "ready" to hear everything about the church. So to me it was a powerful faith building experience because there was no doubt in my mind that everything I said was 100% true. 

 Last Monday was memorial day and I had the opportunity to call my siblings while they visited the graves of my Grandparents. There's these trees near their graves that have berries growing on them which are quite fun to toss/throw at each other, which my mom says is fitting because her father loved things like that. God has a way of reminding all of us that we are known personally to him, and he showed me that on Wednesday. We were biking through the University of Louisville to go home and I saw a bush with some incredibly similar berries. It was a very simple but powerful reminder that God, and through some extension my grandparents, are thinking about me out here. I know that he loves me personally and I cherish the opportunity I have right now to bring that love to others. 

Oh and we've locked ourselves out of our apartment a couple of times because the locks are always locked. So we left a window open haha. There's a photo of Elder Xanthos climbing through two weeks ago. 

There's also the complex I talked about the week before that was pretty sketchy. We had a miracle there. We had a feeling to go visit some people one afternoon and nothing really came of it. But then we were going to visit our boy Tangente before he left. He wasn't home and we left a stack of pamphlets with his wife. But because we were at a different part in the city we passed by the sketchy complex. So we took that as a sign to go visit the family we had met there. And turns out the parents were home! We taught them the restoration and it was really awesome. Their names are Erike and Aline and they both speak French and Swahili. 

Then another day we went to teach a mother named Aisha. She's really cool but we got through a small lesson and learned that she can't read, anything. So Elder Xanthos goes "well I've taught a few people how to read English but never Swahili" and proceeded to show her all the letters. Turns out q and x don't exist in Swahili so that's cool.  

So, finally we have Justin and Massan. They are so cool! They moved here from Togo and love the scriptures. Justin is very interested in everything we share and Massan seems to love the added knowledge about God. We were also able to have them talk with a member who just moved from Togo, and I think was a branch president there! The lesson was so good, and they were just super interested! And then we came back the next day because Justin felt bad, he couldn't read yet, so we went back with another member and taught the restoration, and they loved it too!! I definitely have high hopes for these two. They're awesome. 

 Pretty great week everyone. I hope you enjoy hearing about my adventures in African infused Kentucky. Have a great week!

 Elder Baird