Week #20 Bouta And Baptisms

Welcome back to another weekly recap/ ramble of what my week was like this week. It’s nearing curfew so I’ll get started…

Tuesday:

Our morning started with a journey over to Walvis Bay to drop our car off at the Ford shop because it needed to be serviced. Luckily they gave us a ride back to Swakopmund and we also had the sisters EcoSport here in Swak but no sisters so we got to drive that while we waited for our car. 

We held our weekly planning session at the beach so that was a nice change up.

We taught a lesson tonight with an inactive recent convert and she is very cool so we're going to keep meeting with her more.

Elder Were (people have been asking how to pronounce his name, *Where-Eh) taught me how to make an East African food called Chapati. It's a dough made of flour, sugar, oil, water, and salt that you then roll out into a thin pancake and fry it in a pan. It is so good and you all need to try it!                    

Wednesday:

We started our day by going and teaching a little girl named Emma with her mom who is a member. Her mom wasn’t sure if Emma was ready for baptism so they prayed and both received the answer that she was. The power of prayer is truly amazing!

We also stopped by Naftali’s and quickly did a check-up to see how he was doing and he is so ready and excited for his baptism! While we were there one of the members from the ward, our friend Eben, was playing music from back home and it was very refreshing to hear. I can only listen to the music on the sacred music app :’(

We had dinner at the Katjojo’s which consisted of Pap, fish, and cabbage, it was very nice.

Our last lesson of the night was canceled so we quickly went to the beach and played a little soccer for 15 minutes.             

Thursday:

We taught a handful of lessons today and there were a lot of good ones. We taught our friend Lilie-Angela who is preparing for her baptism and she is very anxious to be baptized.

We then bought 20 VoetKoeks (fat-cakes) which is customary now every single day. I'll post a photo of the fat cake operation below.

We met with our friend Karel who now wants to meet 3 times a week so we’ll set a baptismal date for him soon!

Our last lesson of the night was with a bunch of members and then one investigator “Sarafina” who's on date and we’re helping her prepare for baptism.

For those of you who don't know, "on date" means that they have set a date to be baptized.

Ended the night by whipping up some more chapati.

Friday:

We helped Siegfried submit his mission papers this morning which is very exciting, he's been trying to get that done now for months.

We taught a few phone lessons and then we taught Fatima who is on date for the 10th. It’s so fun to have so many of our friends on date right now! 

Then we led the youth activity, today we put on a movie and made popcorn. We watched “The Other Side of Heaven”. 

We ended the night by teaching a couple of lessons.

Saturday:

Our first 7 lessons fell through today so that sucked but it happens. 

We taught mission prep today and got everyone to basically teach each other, it went very well.

We had an eternally long lesson and I was feeling very anxious to get out because we ended up missing a couple of lessons because of it but hopefully the lesson helped them.    

We ended the night by going back to that inactive member's house and teaching her with some members, it was a very nice lesson with them again.

Sunday:

Our attendance at church today was unfortunately subpar. However, it was a very nice fast and testimony meeting and my boy Bouta is back from Walvis Bay (picture will be included).  He really reminds me of the Notorious B.I.G.           

After church we helped Joel submit his mission papers, it seems like all the youth here are leaving which is sad but very exciting for them!

Then we picked up Brother Pepcy who has his mission call to the Capetown mission so we brought him teaching today from 3:45 - 7:30. We taught Lilie-Angela, our friend Rodriquez who wants to go on date, and Sarafina with him.

Our final lesson was with Sister Maria and her family and she said that she’ll pick a baptismal date and tell us sometime this week.

Monday:

Today consisted of a lot of sleeping which if any of you know me, I love sleeping. It was a nice P-day. We also did a little grocery shopping and I got a bad haircut.

We had one lesson today before our Zoom mission devotional. It was with our friend Karel and we put him on date. The baptismal dates are just flowing in right now, we're at 7!

We’re so excited for them, please keep them in your prayers.

We ended the night with our devotional which was all car, bicycle, housing, health, and safety stuff so it was very boring. 

Spiritual Thought:

Alma 7:15-16 - 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. 16 And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me.

Baptism is a truly special promise or covenant that we get to make with our Heavenly Father. It is a great blessing that we can have this gift in our lives and be baptized and born again by the proper authority to do so. 

I’ve seen this bless my life, my family's life, and many people here in Botswana and Namibia.

Conclusion:

This week felt very long but we saw so many miracles and are so excited for our friends preparing for baptism! 

I love each of you and so does your Heavenly Father, I pray for you continually and Hope you have a great week!

                                                       

All my best,

Elder Miller    

I'd love to hear from you! 

This is the fat cake operation. We buy 20 of these every day. They are so good.

You can even buy fat cake flour here.
Bouta is back! I love him so much. Future Hero and Future Missionary!