Youth temple scramble

Alright so I'm going to make this somewhat quick because I am trying to get all my backlogged emails figured out.

We started this week with a bit of a breakdown ha-ha. Monday night I was feeling sad and stressed that I haven't worked hard enough during the last two years, and I just wanted to finish the best I can. What I learned was that I really have tried my best and I needed to learn more about grace and the power of forgiveness and change. So, I started the rest of the week with that in mind. 

We had a stake youth temple trip that has been in the works for this whole transfer. It was supposed to be all figured out with a bunch of temple recommend interviews last Sunday after church. Well because of snow they cancelled church so instead we went to all of the youth's homes and handed them a phone call with the branch President Bawili on the other line. Most of the time he was at work, or we woke him up to do these calls ha-ha. But he was a trooper, and 6 kids were able to go. Honestly, a highlight of my mission. It was the first time for almost all of these kids and most of them they beat their parents to the temple ha-ha. 

Sadly, though this week one of our new member families moved out of our area. It was really sad. So, they've had some issues with their house and the heat hasn't been working. They went to a check up/vaccinations and the doctor said they needed to move. So, they went to the refugee organization, and they put them in a hotel for 2 nights and got them a new home. They moved like 5 minutes away but went on the other side of the border of the area which was sad. Goodbye Sango, Mauwa, and their family. 

We went and finally visited a referral that we received at like the beginning of the transfer. He finally gave us his apt number, so we went and met him. He is apparently amazing ha-ha. His name is Jaques and is from Congo. He speaks French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, and English fluently. He has like 3 friends who are (inactive) members of the church. He was super cool and when we called in a member Jaques really wanted to come to church. He's here in America completely on his own so it would be awesome to connect him to a bit of a church family. 

Finally, we went by a friend we've been teaching by the name of Albert. We've been hoping for a while to be able to extend him a baptismal date but never felt he was ready. We discussed in district council that day about extending baptismal invitations, so it was fresh on our minds. We discussed the plan of salvation in general and went into depth about the premortal life. Then we called in our member Fiston to testify and he at some point asked if Albert plans to be baptized in the church. He said no and Fiston explained why he should be baptized again and he just accepted it ha-ha. We then put him on date for the end of February and it was so cool to watch the member missionary work in action!!

In all I learned this week that God expects effort. I've heard before that Heavenly Father treats weakness differently than he does rebellion. One involves turning away from God and the other involves a recognition of our own imperfections. The grace comes in when we accept help. Something that I don't understand yet is how we can apply God's power to ourselves, but I do know it is there, and it is available to us all. Christ loves you and he gives you the power to change. Have a great week and I love you too!!