Elder LaHue

Max's Baptism! Mncwabe girls, Max & her brothers, Precious Shange, Siphamandla Maluleka, Mfundo Ndaba Transfer news is here: I am finishing my mission in Umbhedula with Elder Cox!! I'm happy. Can't believe this is my last transfer, 6 weeks to go! This week has been great! We finished the transfer off with Max's baptism. Spa, our 17 year old friend, baptized her! As usual the branch did a great job of supporting her. President Sithole said some kind words of encouragement to us so I believe that we have left a good impression in his eyes. Max's testimony made us laugh because she talked about being independent and being a daughter of God in a bold way while speaking in her Ugandian accent. Some tender mercies came from following spiritual promptings: 1. I was prompted to go to the home of a man we are teaching named Petros. He is very sincere but we haven't been able to sit down with him due to a busy work schedule. When we knocked on the d...

The Pakisi family! Dimpho, Andile, Zanele, Lunka & the other children. "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22" What a week!!! We did some great things to celebrate. On Monday we ate seafood at Ocean Basket. Wednesday was zone conference and afterwards Max passed her baptismal interview. In the evening we went to the Pakisi's home to eat cake because Andile and I share a birthday! She is the one in the picture with the cake. On Saturday it was raining pretty hard and we went out and got wet. For an hour we were waiting for some members to get home and we were hiding from the rain on the side of their house with our backs pressed up against the wall! Elder Cox and I set aside some time in the morning to plan a few different exciting goals. Such as: 1. Organizing a bible study class at a member's home on Wednesdays at 4pm. 2. Holding a weekday FHE at a member's home and inviting less actives in the area. 3. Invite the br...

Ndalo Pakisi On Wednesday I turn 22! We are planning a few events to celebrate. My birthday is on zone conference so after that we will go to a member's home who has the same birthday as me and eat cake! Today we will braai in Durban (braai is the equivalent of south african barbeque). Should be exciting! The heat is picking up and hills are still no joke. On Friday we got cooked alive because we were walking in the sun for hours. Our few appointments cancelled so we were wondering what to do. We said a small prayer and went to an area we don't normally work in. While we were there we found a friend of Mxolisi, who is going to school in Durban and got out of rehab a little while ago. His name is Mhtokozisi. He told us that he wants to join our church because of the big change he saw in Mxolisi, especially that he quit smoking. On Sunday he came to church!! It was a small miracle for us. On Sunday we planned to see someone we are teaching named Max. We got to he...

Elder & Sister Hampshire with Elders Chiromo, Cox, Kabisa & LaHue @ Rocomama's! Yesterday Mxolisi and Nkanyiso were confirmed and given the Holy Ghost! I felt humbled because Mxolisi asked me to confirm him. Ordinances are always a special experience to witness and be a part of. Before sacrament meeting began, a drunk baba came into the room and sat down. He was quiet until the bread was blessed. Then he stood up, said "HALLELUJAH", shook my hand and exited the building. One of the more bizarre things I have seen here! Work is going great as usual. We are coming into contact with many new families and it has been a blessing for us to teach them. Mxolisi started going teaching with us and he is a great help since he has a strong testimony and he can share in Zulu. Yesterday we fasted as a mission so we are hoping to reaching new growth as the year comes to a close. Today we helped the elders in KwaDabeka move out of their old place. It is weird be...

Mxolisi & Sandile *If you want to see me when I arrive home, come to the Orlando International Airport on  November 2nd  at  11:30am . Now to the important part of my email this week. I had one of the best days of my life yesterday. It is like my whole mission has led up to the point where I am seeing many blessings in the work. We had 2 baptisms!! Mxolisi, a 23 year old guy and Nkanyiso, a 15 year old boy. Mxolisi's less active older brother Nduduzo came to church! (he hasn't been this year). Nkanyiso's whole family came to support!! He has an older brother named Fundo, who we have been teaching and is on B-Date. The most exciting thing is that his Mom and Dad came, both for the first time! They loved the baptismal service. Almost the entire branch piled into cars to Chatworth to see the baptism. There ended up being 60+ people there from Umbhedula!! We invited the Shange family to fellowship Nkanyiso's parents but pretty much the whole branch ended u...

Nagina. We walked 20 minutes down this hill to get to the email shop! Transfer #16 has officially begun!  This week has been quite different than the last few weeks of my mission. In a good way! Elder Cox is helping me to push myself and work harder and be more productive. We are doing the comp study activities in PMG most nights before bed. My studies have improved and I am feeling more of the spirit! The only main struggle I am having lately is my body has been low on energy. I think walking all these hills is the cause of that. But we are still working hard! We have seen a few miracles this week. First, two of our people on B-Date passed their baptismal interviews! Mxolisi is a 19 year old guy that has family in the church and recently stopped smoking. Nkanyiso is a 15 year old boy who is a referral from one of the young men. His older brother Fundo is also being taught. We sat down with his mom and dad last night and explained more about the church and about ba...

Elder B. Walker. Utah vs. BYU Somewhere up in the heavens, God is looking down upon me. And he is laughing. We received our transfer news. I am staying in Umbhedula and my new companion is Elder Cox. I am really excited to serve with him because we are already friends and he is a cool guy! He is very good at guitar so surely I will learn some nice skills from him. This is the ironic part. Last transfer I was released as a zone leader after serving for 9 months. I was very excited about that. So I was free from resposibility for 6 weeks. Then President Thompson told me that he is calling me to be a ZL again now. So much for a break, hahaha. I don't mind though, with every responsibility there is a chance for growth! I love this quote from James E. Faust: "Hope is the anchor of our souls. I know of no one who is not in need of hope—young or old, strong or weak, rich or poor. As the prophet Ether exhorted, “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ...