Sister Caroline Richards: Week 51: "The Damage Has Been Done"

Hi Fam!

Good week again here in the promised land! This week was hotter than anything I have ever felt in my whole entire life. I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS TO YOU THE HEAT. Like even my feet are extremely sunburnt? how does that even happen? Anyways. We saw some huge miracles this week, including the baptism of Isheanesu!

MORE BLESSED: So we've been working with an investigator named More Blessed for weeks now and he's doing so well! He used to be a cold hard criminal. He was in jail for a long time for like murder and theft and stuff but is really doing so so well now. We discussed just about repentance this week and we were able to read Alma's conversion story from the Book of Mormon with him. More Blessed told us the pain and guilt that has been consuming his heart, and we were able to read the words of Alma saying that although his pain was so bitter, his joy will be so sweet. I wish you could've seen the look on his face! This man is changing and wants more than anything to repent of his sins. He's been working with Bishop a lot and everything is going so well!

REPENTANCE: So something I repented of this week was my refusal of seeing less actives. Oh my goodness I do not like visiting less actives. It puts me in a terrible mood. Well a member of the stake presidency asked to work with us this week because he said he had a number of referrals to show us. No no no. None of them were referrals, they were all less actives. So here I am thinking poor me I'm being forced to see less actives but it was actually the best thing ever! Brother Khumalo is like 65 and is the funniest old man alive and we were able to walk to church with him on Sunday! He's really taken to us and he's kind of like a grandpa to us. He has a BEAUTIFUL garden with oranges and papaya and guava and everything you could ever imagine! When we picked him for church we asked if he was excited and he said, "of course, can't you see I'm looking smart?" Everyone was so happy to see him at church. So we had three less actives come back to church this week and I know they're going to stay!

THE DAMAGE HAS BEEN DONE: So things blew up again with Ishe's family this week before the baptism. We we were at the Ngirande's (the family whose house we teach him at) and waited for about 45 minutes and Ishe didn't show up because of some stuff with his mom. We were starting to get worried and were just talking as a companionship about everything. But then President Ngirande (EQ President) looked at us and said, "Sisters don't worry, the damage has been done. The gospel has been planted deep in his heart. He will be baptized." Well, because God is a God of miracles, everything fell into place, and Isheanesu was baptized on Saturday and bore the most powerful testimony. President Ngirande came up to us after the service and took us both by our hands and said, "Sisters, what did I say? The damage has been chii?" (chii meaning what) and all together we said "DONE." It was awesome.

Something I learned this week is to trust and obey God even if we don't know the reasons why we are asked to do something. One of our investigators really, really struggled with the thought of not taking coffee and tea because he didn't understand WHY God would ask that. After many days of praying and asking, he said, "I still don't know why, but I just know that I'm supposed to do it. These are word from God and I have to follow them." Faith! Let us each have faith enough to follow Jesus Christ, even when we don't know why.

Love you all, have an awesome week. Sending you some sunshine from Zimbabwe!!

Love, Sister Richards