Sister Caroline Richards: Week 70: He Lives!

hey fam hey friends hello everyone

This week was great! We had a great Mission Leadership Council with missionaries throughout the mission to discuss our theme for the next several weeks which is (drum roll pleeasssee) THE BOOK OF MORMON! Hallelujah! Amen! So obviously I was like the happiest person on planet earth when I heard this and could barely contain my excitement but it's fine! The week was full of lots of laughs and lots of tears and LOTS of tender mercies! We have four baptisms coming up this next week and everything here in Chitown is sweet as candy.

Probably the highlight of the area was with Brother Tawanda who I wrote about last week. Seriously a miracle! I spoke about how my companion and I bore our firm testimonies of the Book of Mormon and how we knew it would bring him the happiness he needed in his life. When we went back to follow-up, we were amazed by what we both saw and heard. Tawanda had a smile on his face. Not only a smile, the biggest smile I have ever seen in the world! Before we could even ask to say the opening prayer, he had started telling us the miracles that have come into his life as he has started to read the Book of Mormon.

"Because I read the Book of Mormon, I know that God created me for a purpose. God created me to be happy. Not even just to be happy, but to have joy."

"The spirit in that book is the spirit of Jesus Christ."

"If I were to write a book, the first thing I would write about is my sisters of God bringing me a Book of Mormon."

We took a picture with Tawanda that day and showed it to him. He said, "Is that me...smiling?!" Then he started laughing so hard I thought he might die. The Book of Mormon brings happiness! It brings a knowledge of who we are and why God created us. I am so grateful that Tawanda read the Book of Mormon, and I know that it is true!

During our first week of whitewashing, we were busy wandering around looking for house numbers when a guy named Kelvin stopped us and asked us what we were doing. I told him we were looking for house numbers and he was like no what are you DOING. Turns out he wanted to know about the gospel (missionary FAIL on my part). We started teaching him the Restoration right then and there, but before we started, I felt prompted to ask him a question: If Jesus Christ was on the earth right now and had a church, would you join it? Obviously he said yes. Well we taught him the whole Restoration just standing there, and at the end, we testified that this is Jesus Christ's church once again established on the earth. We testified that just as we could have joined his church during his time, we have the same opportunity today. We saw him this week and all I can say is that he is SO prepared for the gospel! He accepted a baptismal date for August 12, and is reading the Book of Mormon. Oh how I love missionary work.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said of Jesus Christ, "I am one of his witness, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know nay better then than I know now that he is God's Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that our salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way." As I was reading in 2 Nephi this week, Lehi testifies to Jacob that the spirit that testified to the people in Jerusalem that Jesus is the Christ is the same spirit that witnesses to each of us today. I know that this is true. During my last 17 months in Zimbabwe, I have gained a firm testimony that He lives! Especially this week, I have felt His love and strength. Someday I will bathe my feet with His tears, but my testimony of his life will remain the same.

I love missionary work. I love Chitungwiza. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm just really happy to be alive.

Love, Sister Richards