African Drip

Thus week has had all kinds of ups and downs, twists and turns. But in all we saw the hand of the Lord. 

Week of May 27

First of all our power was out Sunday around 12:30 until we got home Tuesday around 9. It was pretty crazy! And to make things worse, when we were all excited to get home and there was power we walk in to this awful smell. Turns out our burner had been turned on and a ziplock bag had totally melted on. We finally got it all cleaned up and we're good but it was crazy. I even had to wash a couple shirts in a bucket because we couldn't do laundry on Monday haha! It was an adventure for sure

Monday night we went over to a members home. This is Sandra Bayo and her children. We talked about priesthood and the temple and we're trying to help them start walking down the Covenant path again. They've been baptized for almost 5 years but only one of the kids has done baptisms for the dead so far. Member work continues! It's awesome. 

We met with Abdou a few times this  week. He's still working on building his testimony in president Nelson and receiving more ordinances like a patriarchal blessing and also doing baptisms for the dead. He also has been coming across a decent amount of anti and even hearing it from coworkers/American friends. We're working on building his testimony and a firm foundation so he knows how to respond to things like that. He's still a happy guy all around which is awesome. 

We went buy the house of this one guy Jean Claude 3 times last week. His oldest son home is named Moses. He invited us to come to a graduation party of his little sister on Tuesday but he had to leave before we could really talk. So we came back on Thursday morning and had an awesome discussion about the restoration. Then his dad came in and asked about sabbath worship so we planned and came back on Sunday to talk to Jean Claude. I didn't really understand his questions so I called a member from Lexington to discuss with him. He didn't realize he was talking to Louisville Elders so they planned to meet up again in a few days only to learn they lived over an hour away from each other haha. We'll call him in more though. 

Été's brother had a baby last week so we stumbled upon their dad at Été's home. His name is Bendera and we met with him twice so far. The first time we talked about the restoration and the next time we discussed deeper about the book of mormon. He had various doctrinal questions of things he's heard before but it was awesome to see he is a thinker. 

We also met with an older couple who don't seem to speak Swahili all that well. It's crazy how even with 3 languages in total I still can't communicate with everyone I meet. In this area there is a lot of people who move from Rwanda where they all speak their language and a bit of swahili. There's a lot here in they same situation. I don't know how they do it here in America but I pray that God helps them learn English quickly so they can get work. 

Us and the ZL's helped brother Ciarlante build a chicken coop which was super fun. I miss building stuff like that and it was a nice service break from missionary work. I love doing service like that because it is easy to see how much you can help people from serving them. 

Friday we met the brother of one of our members. He lives in Texas and is here to visit. Hopefully we can find some time to talk with them together and that this brother is interested!

We had interviews on Saturday, and president taught me how to be better prepared for my District Council trainings. And also on Saturday we taught a family of Maonyesho. He then brought his whole family to church!! That was great to see! He seems pretty interested and hopefully will receive a witness soon. 

In all, God has been blessing us with some really fun people to talk to and honestly I'm a little decent at talking in Swahili! I can teach the first lesson pretty good, the next 2 alright, and parts of the last one. I'm working and building daily. Right now I'm focusing on having meaningful studies. They've been pretty subpar lately and I want to do better. I encourage you all to assess how your study of the gospel looks like and reevaluate. Make a goal of where you want them to see and do it!

Have a great week!

Elder Baird

P.S. I forgot to mention that I got some African bead bracelets for the flags of Tanzania and Congo. We see them everywhere and people love seeing us wearing them. It's been fun to show them off to people this week ha-ha. 

Transfers and Storms

I apologize that this transfer has gone mostly unreported! I'm going to give a run down on what I did this week and hopefully I'll find time to make another to give explanation for the rest of the transfer. 

On Monday we had the last P-day of the transfer and went to a bookstore and LEGO store. It was a fun and chill day. 

Tuesday we went by Ete's family and they weren't available and then to Bawili but we went late so they weren't home. We then exchanged and I went up to rolling hills to serve English for a day. It was pretty fun and we met some cool people. We met someone who is part of a very interesting religion. They like were a part of a church that collectively everyone technically has their own beliefs and opinion and they read like everyone's religious texts. I'm confused about how they even worship together... but who knows. Then I had a good conversation with Elder price about his desire to be a more obedient missionary and I'm really happy with how it went. 

Wednesday we had District council (it's usually on Friday, but transfers were on Friday, so we did it on Wednesday), and I planned it the night before and morning of haha. I decided to talk on Joy and the difference between lasting spiritual joy and momentary worldly fun. How those can often coincide but we need to watch out for when they don't. How momentary fun can get in the way of true joy. I also had everyone give a quick thought of what they had learned that transfer and it was honestly a super spiritual event and everyone that shared had such great things they had learned. We also finished our exchange and met someone who had read the Book of Mormon before, he wasn't  interested in taking lessons but he read like the whole book and personally that's all I ask. If they decide it's for them then we welcome with open arms, but if not they are no less in my eyes. We also had dinner with Elder Ballard at cheesecake factory and had transfer calls. 

Thursday we had lunch with the whole district at a Mexican place and that was pretty good. And we bought Ete some herbal tea so he could better understand which was word of wisdom accepted or not. And we also talked with Abdou, he's struggling a little bit with a lot of friends asking him questions and he doesn't know too well how to find answers himself. We often just work on showing him how to find answers to his own questions but he's learning. He's currently working on getting a temple recommend and a patriarchal blessing too which is awesome. 

Friday we went by Abdou again for a little bit and then stopped by Ete and taught him about Joseph smith some more, he had some questions about if Joseph Smith is mentioned in the Bible so we discussed the time gap, apostasy, and the importance for modern prophets. Then we called in a member and she gave some great insights for him. We then went to talk with a new friend I'd never met. She was awesome! She had questions about commandments and the difference between law of Moses and the higher law and how to know which ones we have to follow. We discussed also how living prophets who help us to know where the lord needs the world to focus on at any given time. 

Saturday we contacted a few people and did service for Brother Ciarlante, he's a funny guy who has a billion projects going at every time. A couple weeks ago we helped him pull up some carpet and move some wood. This time we worked on setting up his aboveground pool and planted a tree. Then we had soccer night which is fun as always. 

Sunday was better than usual, we had a good amount of members in attendance as well as a friend for the first time since I've been here! Then we had a storm that knocked out our power! It's still out as of Monday, and may be a few more days. Hopefully we get it back soon. We also went and met with James. A few weeks ago we invited him to pray about baptism and he apparently had been doing it which is great! We talked about how to receive answers to our prayers and how to recognize them. 

It was a great week, and I'm sorry again about the hiatus. I'm trying to be better ha-ha! Have a great week everyone. Love you all and happy start of summer!