Oct 26, 2015

"Every man heard them speak in his own language."

Another awesome week. I love this place.

This week we had a Baptism of 8, what an incredible experience that was. After the actual baptism and they were dry and seated, the Branch Mission Leader had them stand and bear their testimonies. I loved it. That was the most spiritual part for me. Every single one of them gave extremely wonderful testimonies, and it was then that I realized that these people were converted far beyond the point that I could solely convert them. They developed their testimonies from the Holy Spirit, and the influence He had upon them as they ACTED on the things we asked them to do. Read, pray, ponder, search, ask, and come and see for yourself. They did these things and I know that it allowed for the influence of the Holy Ghost to pierce their hearts and give them that testimony. Now they have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, the right of his constant companionship. I am so excited for them, crazy how much I love all of them and in how little time I have been here.

Funny story about the baptism though; as they were coming in the baptismal clothing and sitting down before we started the ordinances, two extra people came in also dressed; an old man, and a teenager. I was confused. Elder Treadway and I looked at each other and then asked our Branch Mission Leader, "who are these guys and why are they in the baptismal clothes?", He replies, "arnt they your investigators?" , "No we don't even recognize them!" Haha long story short, we had two other people who wanted to be baptized and so they decided to just join in. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't quite work like that. Now to their defense they have both been coming to church for quite a while and really desire to be baptized, we just have to teach them first. haha I never thought I would have to STOP people from being baptized. Definitely a tough problem to complain about haha.

That evening (Saturday) we went to a Branch activity that was held at our chapel, and since most of our Recent Converts were there, we decided to also go, And it was so much fun. We played volley ball, ( A sport I'm actually decent at compared to soccer) and that was awesome, it was just a great time, and it was nice to spend that kind of time with our members and Recent Converts as well, just a way to show them that yeah, we are normal people and like to have fun and not just teaching robots. awesome.

WANNA KNOW WHAT ELSE IS AWESOME? Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Hallstrom of the Presidents of the Seven and Elder Curtis of the Seventy are all coming to the Liberia District Conference this Sunday! WHAT!? I am so pumped for this. It's not really for missionaries but man I am going to love it. Also, the missionaries get to go to the Priesthood Leadership Training with them after the conference. Again not strictly for us but it will be a much smaller attendance so it will feel more personal. So, so excited!

As for my subject line, I am picking up the Colloqua, or Liberian English, little by little. To the point where I've gotten compliments here and there, still working really hard but I find that if I can get the Language down, I can connect much better with the people and the culture, so that's my goal. I still miss Twi though ever so much. and I have lost my Spanish. Every time I try to think of a Spanish word all I can think of is Twi. Which means that at least I will have a hard time forgetting it, I hope.
That was my week though, this week should be pretty eventful so I will let you know next week!
-Elder Verdoni