Hello Family!!
I'm not going to lie, I'm a little jealous of your trip. I'm glad you all
had a great time out there. :)
So for this past week, remember how Elder Smith was sick on Sunday? Guess
who got sick Monday night? haha...I started feeling sick around 3ish on Monday
and thought to myself, "I'll prolly throw up tonight..." Turns out, I was right!
Right as we got to the area that we wanted to work, I was feeling worse...got
clammy hands and told Elder Smith to wait because I was going to vomit. And
then, about 2ish minutes later, I threw up...and got it all over my shoes and a
little bit on my pants...haha. Don't worry though, I cleaned them. They are
wearable again!! Tuesday morning, I woke up and felt better at first, but then
about after 5 minutes I felt super achy all over my body, to the point that it
hurt to stand up. It even hurt to sit down...and lay down even. And then I went
to the bathroom about 6 times in the space of an hour. So we ended up not
getting any work down Monday nor Tuesday...but the good news is that we are both
healthy now! Yay!!
Wednesday morning I woke up and felt so much better. I am SO grateful for
the Fitt couple here because Tuesday night, they brought us homemade chicken
noodle soup, crackers, apple juice, and coke. The chicken noodle soup reminded
me of yours, mom! It was SO good! I definitely blessed to have the Fitt couple
here.
But good things did happen this week. :)
With the family Swanepoel, we were able to see them Thursday. We talked
about keeping the Sabbath Day holy because they haven't been coming to church.
It went very well and they recommitted to coming to church. At the start of
priesthood meeting, they hadn't come. And they still hadn't come by the
beginning of the second class...but after that one ended, I walked out of the
class room, and there was their 6 year old daughter. I feel like I
haven't ever been happier. It was so great to see them there.
Later we talked to the DMP (ward mission leader) about the Swanepoel's and
we came to a decision that they need to wait a couple more weeks before they get
baptized. So we'll be planning now for the 7th of September for them. I'm still
super excited. :)
Raphael is doing very well. A miracle happened with him. Now, when he
smokes, he isn't able to finish the cigarette because it starts to taste really
bad about half-way through. He is now down to 1 and a halfish cigarettes a day.
He's made so much progress. He does have one problem though other than that.
Family problems. His parents and rest of his family are not okay with him coming
to the "Mormon" church. Nor do they understand why he needs to get baptized
again (he's been baptized once. Catholic, no need for a 2nd baptism...). And so
baptism is a rather touchy subject with him. He said he can't get baptized yet.
And that he can't live one commandment and break another. If he did get
baptized, he "wouldn't be honoring his parents." So that's our new concern with
Raphael. I know that he knows these things we've taught him are true, and I know
he's felt the spirit testify to him, we just don't know what to do now that
we've finished all the missionary lessons with him.
Christian, on the other hand, is doing super great! He and his girlfriend
(who was baptized in May in Poitiers) are thinking about marriage. They are
looking forward to going to the temple with each other. They aren't looking
forward to waiting a whole year though. It's been such a great blessing for me
during my mission to be able to be one of "his" missionaries. He definitely is a
miracle and tender mercy from the Lord.
We also have another ami named Anne. And she is progressing very well. She
has a smoking problem, so for our 3rd rendez-vous we had with her, we taught the
Word of Wisdom. And she just accepted it all and has already cut down her
smoking in half! We were teaching her with a member...but we thought that we
should teach with this member on occasion...for two funny things that happened
during the lessons. After we taught the Word of Wisdom, Anne asked us if we eat
meat. And we answered yes, she then stated how she is vegetarian. Our member
then stated how he thinks that during that millennium, we'll all be vegetarians
anyway...let's just say Elder Smith and I had a great laugh about that
afterwards.
The next rendez-vous we had with her, we were hoping to create an
environment that the spirit could testify well to her so we could lance the
baptismal invite. During the beginning when we did a suivi (follow-up) on the
WoW, our member proudly stated how he had never smoked in his life right after
Anne stated how hard it had been for her to cut down on her smoking...Elder
Smith and I had a great laugh about that as well. We weren't able to give her
the baptismal invite at this rdv. But at the one after, when we taught with the
Fitt couple, we did. And Anne got super excited and asked when she'll get
baptized. We hadn't prayed for a date yet, so we told her that we'll talk about
that in the next rdv. And at church she told many people that she was going to
get baptized, but that she didn't know when. It was pretty cool to see how
excited she got about getting baptized. :)
So President Babin has started something new. Now instead of getting our
transfer repertoire on Monday, it comes out on Saturday! So Saturday we had a
look at the repertoire to see if one of us would be leaving. Elder Smith and I
will be companions for another six weeks! Sweet! :) We went and had some McDo
after to "celebrate". :)
Also, here is a photo of the district. I've loved being apart of this
district. Elder Louis has been such a great District leader. He's gonna do some
great work out in the real world. (this was his last transfer, number 16).
Even though the week was off to a rough start, it was a super great week
and flew by so fast!
I love you all so much! :)
-Elder B. Stanton Wilson
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