So to start off with i will tell you the great things that
happened this week. So Claud, John and Simmy's friend that we have been
teaching committed to baptism, and we will be baptizing him this upcoming
Sunday!!!! He is so awesome and so willing to learn and really wants to be a
member of the church and loves the teachings it brings. What was also
cool was that our appointment with him on Saturday had John and Simmy with us
as well and as we were reviewing the Restoration and teaching the Word of
Wisdom and Law of Chastity, John and Simmy were pretty much teaching the entire
lesson!!! It was so awesome because everything they said was completely
accurate, and they are really into the missionary mind because they are also
trying very hard to help Claud and help him towards being baptized. Their
english has really improved since joining the church and their testimonies are
growing so fast....John is going to talk to our branch president soon about
going on a mission.....Man those guys are so awesome. Anyways so Claud
came to church this sunday which keeps us on course for baptizing him after
church on this upcoming sunday. so we are very exctied for that.
Also last sunday, there was one other african brother named christian that
stays near them and when we were walking back from an appointment, he was
upstairs in his apartment and he saw us and called down to us and asked what we
were doing. so we told him we are sharing a gospel message and how we can become
closer to jesus christ. So he invited us up to talk...so we set an appointment
for the next day and we taught him three times this week. He is so
anxious to learn and really wants to find a church and become closer to and
learn more about god. He asks very sincere questions and is such an
amazing guy and he accepted our baptismal invitation to be baptized on February
8.!! So i know you are probably all thinking why am i teaching so many africans
and not focusing on the indians who i should be teaching. But honestly i
don't care who i am teaching as long as i am giving them that opportunity to
hear and accept the true gospel. And quite honestly, right now they are
our only investigators. For some reason we have no indians that want to
listen to us at all. But one young man came up to us (Indian) and asked
us if we could please teach him, so this week we will begin teaching him
also. Also we taught a man named Suresh who is paralyzed on one side of
his body but is a very kind man, and also his wife and we taught them the
restoration and towards the end of the lesson they said we are wasting our time
because we already know the gospel. So at that moment we just got to tell
them that it is great they know some gospel, but we aren't here just to tell
about jesus christ, but how to come closer to him and improve our knowledge and
also that we have the restored fullness of gospel and priesthood once again on
the earth. It is really sad when people don't want to listen because i
just think about how they had the chance and if they don't ever accept it they
will wish one day that they would have listened. Anyway those were some
pretty good experiences.
So the odd thing week....brace yourselves....one of the members went
literally insane this week. It is the weirdest thing. Apparently he started acting
really weird on saturday when he woke up screaming and shaking and then was
acting totally weird and different. So we spent all day with him trying
to figure things out on wednesday and three hours with him on tuesday trying to
help him. Anyway, it was the absolute
weirdest thing ever, and you probably think i am kidding or don't believe me
but it is as serious as ever. So serious that his brother is coming this week
to take him back to their home...it is so sad because he has been such a big help
and a friend to us...really
unfortunate. Very weird, but very serious...anyways it is so sad so this
week we will say goodbye to him :(
In other news, transfer calls come today so we will see what
happens. Pretty much everyone thinks i will leave because i have been
here almost 6 months now, but i think i will stay because of Elder Bandi....i
don't know though we will see.
So the missionaries that got arrested knocked a hindu door
so the person had them come back a different day, and when they came back they
were arrested and then got released soon the next day. but apparently the
RSS is really trying to hit Christian missionaries hard now so.... So with my
new comp, i absolutely love him....but honestly i don't think i can take it
anymore, haha. It is really hard teaching now without being able to
door knock because we have to rely on members, and honestly right now, it is
really difficult with the members not having much of a desire to help. my
fave thing to drink is probably guava juice or mango juice...so
good. I haven't really eaten anything gross lately. I pretty much
avoid that haha. Best thing this week was getting two baptism dates for
sure. Something new i learned this week is actually how sensitive Elder
Bandi is about his companions. Because he loves everyone so this week he
has almost cried a couple times because he is nervous about me leaving him. He
wants me to stay haha.
Pats and Hawks huh??? Go Hawks. Kentucky is balling huh? of course they are...they have all
the talent. Tell mom to lay off you;) haha Lay off mom;) the big sports
updates are great and i look forward to them every week and don't worry, they
aren't distracting at all because we are far too busy during the week to even
think about it... So yes dad i guess i am a singer. I actually discovered
i really like singing haha.
And yes i am staying very thirsty. It is weird because
when i first got out here i thought i wouldn't mind if people don't listen and stuff
and if we have some free time how great that will be. But now i hate not
having new people to teach and hate having time with no appointments. All
i want to do is teach people the gospel non-stop until it is time to eat or go
back to the apartment. Not teaching is one of the worst things. I
don't know i guess i just get a thrill out of teaching people what i know about
the gospel.
Scriptures: 1 Nephi 21:13-15, 2 Nephi 4
Well i love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! Will talk to you next week.
Love, Elder Ball
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