Rocklands 2 Area - Week 7

Nkopane (an investigator), Elder Dos Santos & LaHue

Matthew 20:28 "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."

Today marks one month of being in Bloemfontein, South Africa! Here is a general rule of thumb. When we are teaching lessons, the time flies by. When we are knocking houses, it drags on forever.

Some strange things have been occurring in my first transfer. The other 2 elders in our boarding were emergency transferred on Friday, meaning that it's now just Elder Dos Santos and I. Things are quiet now and we have much more work to do now that there are 2 instead of 4. Second, all of our plans for our investigators to be baptized this transfer have gone as wrong as they possibly could have. We went from having 6 with a date set to 0 now. Thankfully, we have been able to see the efforts of our hard work and many should become baptized come January. One important thing to remember is that these are not just numbers, these are real people. We are making a real impact in their lives and it is a privilege and an honor to be able to do so.

Christmas is approaching soon. Look for ways you can serve. Like it says in Matthew, Jesus came into this world to serve, not be served. You'll find that the spirit of Christmas is in giving, not receiving. 

This Christmas, think about one thing about yourself that you would like to change. Repenting of our sins and mistakes means changing ourselves. People have compared sinning to placing nails in a wooden post. I've heard people say in church that when you repent, you remove the nails from the post. Then they say that you will still be able to see the holes in the post, due to the consequences of our choices. This is false, due to the fact that when we repent the post becomes BRAND NEW. "There is no 'hole left in the post'. It is a new post." The same applies to us when we repent. We become brand new, completely clean.

Much love and be safe,

Elder LaHue

Elder Katimbo