This week went by way too fast - it didn't even seem like a full week! It's transfers this week. I'll be staying with Anziano Heninger! We're super excited to stay together. ... He thinks I've done so much for him when I think he's been the one to do way more for me. Starting from basically day one, he made me become so much better. My attitude towards everything has improved and my capacities to do everything have increased dramatically. Most of it is just by being with him - his influence is incredible (it's like when you play a sport - if you play with someone who is a lot worse than you, you play bad; if you play with someone who is a lot better than you, you step it up a ton and play like a pro). I'm glad that I'll be able to play like a pro and continue to learn from this pro (hopefully he can make me become that pro and I'll be able to maintain it even after we're separated)!
Investigator Update:
Godsent accepted a baptismal date! He will be baptized the 3rd of December. He really feels good about that date (he had already decided that he would be baptized early in December before we had set the date with him!) and is changing a lot. We are still unsure if everything about the restoration is clear in his mind (his first baptism was without authority and there's only one true church). However, seeing that these two things were the obstacle for over a month before he accepted to be baptized, we think that something is finally clicking!
Joseph doesn't have a baptismal date anymore. We finally taught him with someone who spoke his language (so this person could translate). We discovered that he hasn't really understood anything - he asked us "Why do you want me to be baptized?" This problem resulted in large part from the language barrier and also because we weren't persistent enough in our comprehension questions ..Anyway, he really feels good when he comes to church and when he listens to us. He absolutely loves the Book of Mormon and knows that it's true. Now, we're just trying to help him get the connection that these things mean that our message is true and that he needs to be baptized. He seems to understand better, and now he's trying to help his family in Ghana to learn and accept this message (he won't get baptized unless they will too).
Raymon is a friend of Joseph. He's been a fun one to teach. We teach him and Joseph together (he's the one who can translate). Last lesson we tried really hard to teach about priesthood authority... We would stop ourselves very often to make sure he understood. One thing that he really had a hard time understanding was how one recieves the priesthood. I don't know how many times we reviewed it and how many times he seemed to have understood, finally answering correctly, and then a minute or two later, we ask a similar question (to make sure he still has that it mind so he can be set up to learn about other important truths like the apostasy and restoration) and he'd respond that "you just have to believe..." We had to be very creative and patient as we strove to make him understand. It really was a lot of fun and it was really satisfying as well.
...We haven't seen any of the other investigators - they're not making a lot of progress. So, we've been finding new ones. It has been a lot of fun to talk to tons of people and teach them. My desires and attitude about finding work have improved greatly (sometimes it can be looked upon as a burden, but when you have the right mindset and you're searching to love the people and you have faith that you'll find someone. ...
A cool, every day miracle story: We needed a feather for a little activity with some members and less actives last night. We looked around a little bit as we traveled. We found nothing. However, while we were teaching Michelle, we were sitting down outside on a bench. I had a whiteboard on my lap and onto this whiteboard floated down a nice, pretty, little feather. I looked at it in surprise, looked up, had some feelings of gratitude for God's little act of mercy, and put the feather in my shirt pocket to use for that evening. God answered our prayers in being able to find a feather and thereby provided the way wherein we were able to teach some members who are struggling with a visual example!
Another cool miracle: It was Saturday night and we had tons of things to do. We got back at 9:30 because we were teaching a lesson. These nights are very difficult because there isn't enough time to do all of the things that we need to do - update the area book, write in journals, read the Book of Mormon, and call missionaries in the zone (we have to choose a couple and the other things get put on the back burner for maybe a moment of spare time the next day or the next night). Anyway, we hadn't finished all of the things that we needed to do, and we hadn't done any of the things that we would have liked to do (like grab something to eat before going to bed - remember that we don't get dinner - just a breakfast and a late lunch, ...). Anyway, it was just a couple minutes before 10:30 (bedtime) when we got a call from someone, telling us that it was daylight savings time that night. We had no idea that it was! What did that mean? We could stay up one more hour to catch up and do all of our stuff and still go to bed and have our 8 hours of sleep! It was wonderful!
Last Thursday I did a scambio with our district leader Anziano Ballif. While on the scambio, we ran into a bunch of LDS American ladies who said that they were really hoping that they would see some missionaries. We talked for a minute or two (they asked about how the work was going here and talked about their kids on missions). One of the ladies was really funny - she said "let me get your mom's telephone numbers. I know that if I were a mom of a missionary, I would love to hear from someone that my son was doing well." So, this lady got my mom's number and called her this past week! I would have liked to see what my mom did when this call arrived!...
-Anziano Barnes
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