Hi mom and dad,
Mom, Dad, thank you for always sharing spiritual experiences with me! I love hearing about things you learnt or of experiences you had! I remember that talk from Dallin H. Oaks also! It's a good one and its true (refer to my past week experience in this letter)!
That grill, smoker gift thing dad got from work because he is an employee for 15 yr. sounds spectacular! I can hardly wait to come home and start eating food from home again! I hope you realize that for the first 2 weeks or so we are going to be eating everything that I want to eat! Paha! I'll try to learn some African dishes to make for you guys too! Like Mqushu, or pap and stew... but other than that it’s just rice and chicken... (there are some members who want recipes from Canada, and I was thinking they would enjoy the Kool-Aid pie! Maybe you could send that to me dad?)
When is dad able to go back to work? Sounds like camping will be a good time! Keep sending me pictures! I love them! Thanks for everything! I have the best parents ever! Don't let that get to your heads! I love you both!
Now to share what happen last week. Yes, we had another baptism yesterday! Brother Julius Ceaser Myingwa was baptized by Brother Mason! It was awesome! Next week he gets confirmed! We have people with baptism dates on the 23rd of September, so I hope we'll have some then! This week was pretty sweet! We had exchanges on Thursday with the Zone leaders, and we were able to get quite a bit of work done. A struggle this week has been having appointments hold, but we have still been able to have quite a few appointments!
It was my companion's Birthday-Day on Friday, so we went to a members place and had a nice big birthday dinner! Then on Saturday it was one of our fellow shippers B-Days, so we were invited to another member's place and had yet another B-Day dinner! And before that we were invited for lunch at an in-active members place and had a B-day lunch! So lots of B-day stuff going on! But B-day on mission is different... you still go out and teach people haha! So it was a fun week!
Also, yesterday, we received a call from a less-active member in our area, and he wanted us to come to the hospital and give a blessing to his girlfriend who is not a member (apparently the missionaries have taught her lots before, but she couldn't get baptized because she is breaking the law of chastity with this less active member, and I won’t mention his or her names!). But his girlfriend was in the hospital because she is 8 months pregnant, yet the doctors think that she is going to give birth prematurely. (At least that is what I understood from the situation... I didn't really fully understand what the problem was; I just knew that she and her child were in danger for some reason and that I was asked to give her a blessing.)
Also, yesterday, we received a call from a less-active member in our area, and he wanted us to come to the hospital and give a blessing to his girlfriend who is not a member (apparently the missionaries have taught her lots before, but she couldn't get baptized because she is breaking the law of chastity with this less active member, and I won’t mention his or her names!). But his girlfriend was in the hospital because she is 8 months pregnant, yet the doctors think that she is going to give birth prematurely. (At least that is what I understood from the situation... I didn't really fully understand what the problem was; I just knew that she and her child were in danger for some reason and that I was asked to give her a blessing.)
So my companion did the Anointing, and I did the Sealing of the Anointing and the blessing. Well, out of all the blessings that I have given, for some reason it was really hard for me to say words. I was trying to give her a blessing according to the problem that was at hand, but since I didn't fully understand the problem, I found it extremely difficult for me to utter even a normal sentence... I was rather confused why it was so difficult, but I managed to continue to give the blessing even when it was full of pauses. Eventually the words started to come more easily to me and after we had given her the blessing, and I opened my eyes to find that she was in tears and smiling. So that was a cool experience!
I am excited to hear the outcome from the situation. I have found that not once has a blessing that I have given been neglected by Heavenly Father, even when the words I speak feel as though they are not sufficient for the blessing I intend to give. Truly it doesn't matter, so much, what is said, but what matters is the faith of the person receiving the blessing, and the power behind the authority of the person giving the blessing. It is such a testimony builder to know that the priesthood that myself, and millions of other men around the world hold, is truly the power and authority given to man to act in the name of God for the salvation of His children!
(This picture is in one of our classrooms)
(This picture is in one of our classrooms)
The weather is getting better here every day! Which is nice! It gets hot enough that I am sweating sometimes, and summer still is months away! I'm not complaining! I'm still doing great here in South Africa! This week on Thursday we are going to PE for a Multi Zone Conference, and Elder Cook is going to be there! The same one who was at the Missionary Training Center when I was there and I got him to sign my pocket hymn book! I'm pretty stoked! It's going to be awesome and I'll be able to learn a lot!
Time is flying by as well! Sometimes it feels like my mission is going way too quick! I love it though!
-Elder Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment