HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
Here is a quick update on the work in Lira.
Things are going well and the work is moving forward. This area has a lot of potential and
things seem to be building. This past week we baptized a brother and sister named Paul and Esther and their story is pretty interesting. They are both retired Ugandan soldiers and had been fighting the rebels in Congo. They arrived in Lira two months ago. When we first came in contact with them, they refused to meet with us. Honestly they wouldn't even speak with us.
We just grabbed a pamphlet that addresses Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We wrote our names and our contact information on the pamphlet, gave it to them and they kind of just sent us away. A few days later we were walking down that same road and we just heard clapping and yelling. We looked around and it was Paul and Esther calling us over.
We walked over and greeted them and asked what we could do for them. They said that they needed to learn more about this church and specifically the Book of Mormon. We started teaching them and they were baptized this week. They bore awesome testimony about how when they came from the war they wanted nothing to do with God. They knew nothing of him. That has all changed now. They now know that He is there and that the Book of Mormon is true.
It is really awesome to see how the gospel really helps people to improve their level of happiness.
After his baptism, Paul said, I want you to teach my friend. He introduced us to his friend Tony. Tony is a great guy and we have been teaching him at Paul’s place. During the lessons we found out that Tony was married and had five children. We were surprised because he looks so young. Turns out that looks are really deceiving. He looks 25 but is actually 35 years old.
As we taught Tony you could just tell that he was understanding and it made sense to him. After sharing with him for some time we closed the lesson and committed him to share his learning with his family and invited him and his family to church on Sunday. The following day was Sunday and sure enough the whole family came rolling in together. It was an awesome thing to see as they came in together, sat down together, learned together and stayed to the end.
Paul asked us that day if we would come to his home and teach him and his family together. We committed to go. Little did we know just how far away these people live? We walked for about 45 minutes at a brisk pace. When we reached his home they were all sitting there waiting for us and were exciting to meet.
It is great to teach a family as they really help and support each other to grow and become better. They push each other forward.
This was a great week over all and things are going well! I sure love you all and hope that all is well at home. Enjoy the Fourth of July. It is an important day for sure.
Love Ya All,
Elder Bitter
No comments:
Post a Comment