Elder Verdoni Monrovia Liberia Mission

Mar 14, 2016

3 Nephi 15: 9

Well this week was long. I could have sworn to you the first part of this week happened two weeks ago. It was a good week! But long haha, a lot of things happened though!

We got new missionaries! 14 to be exact. I am so excited that they are here, as are they. The Lord continues to send stellar missionaries to the this Mission. Like I know he'll never send bad missionaries, cause that's not really a thing but every single one of these new elders just blow me away. We are super excited to have them. 8 Nigerians, 4 Americans, and 2 Ghanaians. They are sweet men.

Other than that to be honest I can't remember much of the rest of the week till the weekend, and this weekend was incredible. Aaron, the man who was released from prison? (His real name is Moses, he gave me permission to talk about him so it's okay now) Yeah Moses was baptized this weekend.

What an experience. This man cleaned the font himself to make sure it was clean and filled and ready for his baptism. He was at the church everyday to make sure it would be ready for his baptism. And what a baptism it was. Although this time Elder Wight and I were certain that this baptism was going to be perfect! Never have I had a baptism that just goes smooth with no wahala(problem) but we knew this one would be. WRONG. hahah we get there the morning of and one of the members (who's also a DEA agent here, he's super legit) said that some kids came yesterday for seminary and SWAM IN THE BAPTISMAL FONT. Are you kidding? They had to drain it, clean it, and were now in the process of filling it back up. We just laughed. At least it was filling up!

Other than that, it was perfect. Our Branch Mission Leader came back from visiting his family out of the city for three months, so he came back and really took care of the whole program. The people were prepared, talks, hymns and everything! Wow. Also, we had quite an audience for this man. Elder and Sister Wollenzien, who met him in the prison and are close with him, Elder and Sister Kimball, returned senior missionaries (from several years ago and now serving for 6 months,) President and Sister Carlson(!) and Sister Olukunbi, who works for the Red Cross and was really the one who helped him find the church and get him released from prison. Plus all the members who came to show him support. It was the biggest audience I've had here. This man is loved. Both by the Members and the Lord.

The actual ordinance went great, Elder Wight did it, but the water stopped filling up after some time (never flawless) but there was enough water to do a kneeling baptism. It was wonderful. He gave his testimony after words and it was touching. Quite a few eyes were wet, including his own. He never believed he could get to this point, he said, "I never believed that Jesus Christ could accept a spiritual vagabond such as I" but He did. The Lord provided miracle after miracle for this man. Open and visible miracles. The Lord wanted Moses in His fold, and made sure that it would happen. I was just there for the ride. What a spiritual experience his baptism was, knowing this great man has been a spiritual experience. He is just so cool! His Confirmation on Sunday went wonderful. He will be a great benefit to the Church, as the church has been a great benefit to him.

A lot of cool things happened this week, but this is the one that really got me and the one I wanted to share most!
I love you all!
Elder Verdoni