Exchange with Elder Lundgreen

We started out this week going strong. We started out with an exchange with Elder Lundgreen. He was one of my roommates from previously on my mission. He came and joined me in my area. We had some fun. We did some good work as we were trying to find some people to teach. We were able to go by a member's house, she was recently baptized, in the last year. Her name is Tosha. She is going through a pretty rough time. She is having some troubles in her family and she is having a really, really hard time coming to church. She has some outside discouragement and it is making it really hard for her to come. She is trying very hard to do her best and to know what God’s will is for her. When she first walked in, she said, “I don’t know if you guys can keep coming anymore, I just feel, I have a family member who doesn’t believe in God and they don’t want to see any religion in their home. Even to the point of discouraging her from praying. So, we read with her about Alma the Elder, when his people escaped from the land of Lehi. They were chased down by some Lamanites and some other wicked people and they had task maskers put over them. They gave them burdens that were grievous to be born and it says in those scriptures a few different things, but one being that they, “prayed in silence, they prayed in their hearts.” That really resonated with Tosha. She really liked this idea and she hadn’t really ever thought of that before, that she could pray in her heart. She was like, “How do you do that?” So I told her, “You just think of the words. You just have them in you mind” 

That was interesting to me to think about how different cultures see prayer. In her mind it had to be something out loud. It had to be something very outward. Which I think is really awesome., but sometimes it is important to keep a prayer in your heart always.

Not a whole lot happened in the middle part of the week. We had a hard time getting in doors, but on Friday, we went by Rossi and Gothie again. It was great to see them! I always love going by that house and try to go by as often as I can. They really need the help and they always love seeing us. They have a younger brother named Obed and he wants to be baptized. In the past, we have had some trouble working with their parents. They feel that he needs to be older before he can be baptized. He is indeed twelve now, so we are hoping that his parents will be more inclined to agree with us. The parents are not interested in the church, but the kids all are. They understand the truthfulness of it and the importance of it. They are really awesome! We talked with them about holding up their light and sharing the gospel with others and sharing what you know. It was great to hear because they were all talking with their friends about religion and I can really see how the gospel has affected them.

Also on Friday, we got a few referrals from the English sisters in our area. They said that they had met a few African homes. We tried to find them and boy, was it a hassle, but we met a really cool guy. He is an American who is pretty interested. It turns out that the sisters in that area have been recently trying to get in contact with him. So, we were able to act as a miracle for someone else. That was really awesome!

We were having a hard time finding these Africans that we had been told about, so we just started knocking around to see if there were people around. We eventually found them and it was really, really awesome. I loved it. We knocked on this one door and this kid answered it. We asked if his parents were home and he said, “ya.” He came back and said, “ My Mom is getting ready to go to work. So she will see you when she leaves for work. The kid closed the door so we just stood there for quite awhile. At least five minutes, waiting for his Mom. His mom never showed up, but as we were waiting there, a car pulled up and two guys got out. They said that they were just getting back from choir practice. We asked them if it was gospel and we said, “That’s great!” We hope to go there again soon, because they were really cool. That was kind of fun. It was just another moment of just waiting to see what God has in store. It seems to be kind of a theme for us.

On Saturday morning, we went by a man's house whose name is Karambi. He is a funny old guy who lives in a home with a big family. They are all kind of working, but Karambi is always around. Last week we were driving around and we saw him sitting outside. The spirit told me that it’s my job to talk to everyone. So I went up and talked to this guy, and shared with him a little bit and then we planned to come back. So when we went back on Saturday, we talked about the Book of Mormon. He is awesome. He loved talking about it. He and his daughter were super excited to learn more. They speak Kinyarwanda and Swahili and they are super cool. Honestly, when I first looked at them I was like, “I don’t know, they look like they don’t speak very much Swahili and I don’t know if it’s really worth it.” But, it turns out that they are just super cool!  

Also, because we were over there, we met another guy who apparently was an old member. He told us, “I know your church. Look me up in the church records, you’ll find me. I used to live in Utah.” Turns out that he was baptized! Which was pretty crazy. We are hoping to go by and get him back to church. We will see what happens, if you know what I mean.

We went on Saturday to our new member's house named Marine. We talked about studying the gospel personally. That was really fun. We invited some members to come and join in and they were really awesome. They are a married couple and they might both be returned missionaries. They are super cool so we discussed personal study and the importance of having good habits. That was really awesome.

On Sunday, we were walking around on Dena drive. That’s our big complex that everyone lives in. It has all the Africans. We went to Zura’s house. These two little boys who usually come to church with her said, “ Hakuna batu, Hakuna batu?” They were telling us that there was no one home, no person home. They were super cute. Little kids speaking Swahili are adorable. 

Yeah, this week I really enjoyed our exchange that we went on. I am grateful to be district leader here. I  just love edifying those people who are around me and exchanges are really the perfect time for that. I encourage you all to go and do the same. Go find someone like President Nelson asked us to for his birthday. Go find the one. Go minister to the one and try to find someone who is in need of you. I know that if you do, you will find peace.

Have a great week. I love you all!

Elder Baird