Father's Day

 June 17th

Happy father's day to everyone yesterday, I hope you all had a great day to celebrate the great men in this world!

We saw Bawili after a few weeks of her being busy and she said she's still down to get baptized! She mentioned feeling like she had to talk to her family first and see what they think. But, I truly think she has a desire and feels that what we teach is right. Hopefully, we keep moving forward! 

We met a couple new guys this week. We have Kabarati and Antoine they are two different dad's of their respective households but they're pretty cool and think they could be interested. Antoine said he was wanting to come to church next week which was great! 

We had Zone conference which was awesome as always! President talked about helping people build faith in Jesus Christ and invited all us district leaders to train on finding answers to questions. I really liked how he went through all the ways the Savior taught and I want to try and implement them in my teaching. 

Été kind of disappeared, he said he went to Texas and is going to be there for a little while. Maonyesho is also in Michigan, and I didn't understand well but it sounds like he's there with family looking for work which worries me. 

As usual we visited Abdou a few times and we also went on an exchange. I was here with Elder Price and we talked a lot about his desire to serve and see people grow. We also bought some French bread at an African store right before Abdou one time and it was pretty good. 

We also had an unplanned full service day. It started off in the morning helping a person the sisters found clean out and organize her shed (not gonna lie it was kind of a hoarder space but it's alright ha-ha). We built some shelves and it was fun. Then we got a call asking if we could help someone move into a neighboring ward and they were really nice. Then we went and helped one of our members get rid of a mattress and a couple cabinets suspected to be infected with black mold. She had already had a bunch cleaned out but wanted to be safe. Then we went and had soccer night as usual because it was Saturday. 

Thought: the Savior taught in many ways, including through his acts of service and love. In preach my gospel it says: 

"You can improve your teaching by learning how the Savior taught. For example, He loved the Father and those He taught. He was prayerful. He taught from the scriptures. He prepared spiritually. He asked inspired questions. He invited people to act in faith. He likened gospel principles to everyday life."

This is the pattern we need to use when teaching our friends, in classes, and our children and families. I know that if we do, our faith will grow and so will that of those we teach.

Love you all and have a great week. 

English Elder for a Day

Hello everyone! Happy D-day week and happy birthday to my sister Miranda. Hope everyone is enjoying June so far!

We started off slow and didn't do much last P-day, just kind of loafed around and did some cleaning. It was good though. 

Tuesday we had Zone Leadership Council. That's where we learn what president talked about with the Zone leaders and then we discuss how our individual areas are doing. We also talked about how to be better leaders and how to be a blessing to our missionaries. It was a good conversation. 

We were finally able to see Bawili again. She still has a desire to be baptized but expressed that she needs to talk to her parents about it. She is an adult so we don't need permission but she doesn't want any conflict. So prayers for Bawili that her parents are open. We have learned that when they all lived in California her dad has talked with missionaries and he was welcoming to us so we hope for the best! 

We also talked with Jean Claude again. He was talking about how to know a true prophet and we landed on if their fruits are good like it says in Matthew 7, and how that means if they follow the commandments and bring good things to the earth. He still has a Book of Mormon from when he was taught before and apparently reads it every now and then. He's decently far so we asked him to keep going and to pray to God about all this so he can know the truth. 

Wednesday, we met some new people but my stomach was hurting so it was hard to really find a lot. But we sat down with Abdou and went deep into patriarchal blessings. His understanding is deepening and then we walked with him to T-Mobile to translate for him ha-ha. It made me think of how I can use these skills in the future to help others and I'm excited to get to do so!

Thursday, when we sat down to weekly plan we discovered that we had a member meal that we forgot about so we ran to a place called Jaggers with the ward missionaries and it's actually pretty good and fairly inexpensive. They're a cool couple too! 

Friday, we has DC and I exchanged in the ZLs area (they're English elders). It was so fun! Elder green his super funny and so down to earth. We handed out like 3 copies of the BoM in a few hours and then the next morning we built a pool for this family on the outskirts of the city. They were super nice and super appreciative! Again I was reminded of how serving others with Christlike love can change everything. 

Saturday, we decided to go out after soccer night to contact. It wasn't super effective because most people were drinking but we saw Eté so it was worth it. 

Sunday, Maonyesho came to church again which was awesome and Abdou brought an English speaking friend of his!! I'm so proud of Abdou, he's said how he wants to be a missionary one day and he's already starting to do missionary work!  Also a friend from another French area came to our unit at the wrong time so we ended up sitting through 5 hours of church meetings. Then we went to a birthday party for the sisters friend, ate dinner with Elder Ballard, and taught Sandra's family again. We showed them Elder Bowen's conference talk. 

Also that talk is crazy! Everyone should go listen to it again and ponder what the priesthood means to you. I know I've benefited from it's power all my life and I am so grateful for ordinances and covenants that come from the priesthood. 

Have a great week everyone! Love you all!