Happy December

Machoma bwanji!

My oh my another week has come and gone so I can officially say Happy December! J I hope that everyone had a grrreat week and lots of exciting things happened! Our week was filled with lots of ups and downs but overall it ended on a great note!

So for everyone who didn’t know before I can officially announce that I am THE most forgetful person on the planet earth. Okay maybe we can narrow it down to missionaries but I am unnecessarily forgetful in a different way. So our week started off just fantastic when I lost the phone for the 3^rd time in the past two months; I don’t know why I just can’t remember it anytime and so Monday after we finished emailing we left and came back and it was gone. Luckily we have great couple missionaries who have kind and forgiving hearts and they got us another one but this was the third time so I vowed to never carry the phone again. Other than that our week went by fairly well. We went by our recent converts on Wednesday to teach them about baptism and to help the young girls with their personal progress. It was a wonderful day with wonderful lessons. Wednesday was however a little bad since my companion began feeling unwell. She was experiencing very shocking pains and burning in her legs and it got progressively worst throughout the day and so we ended up staying in Thursday to allow her body to rest. Friday she was still having some pain but it was better than before.

So of course I have to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Honestly, that had to be the highlight of my entire week! For the first time ever; The mission had a Thanksgiving dinner with everyone in Lusaka. All of the couples cooked American food for us and we ate and ate and ate. You will see from the pictures just how excited I was J Pumpkin Pie. Enough said. It was great and I enjoyed it very much. Even though it made me a little homesick, it was a super great experience and I enjoyed it very much so. So we were suppose to have a baptism a few weeks ago if you can remember and we weren’t able to so we decided to start filling up the font on Friday with water so that it could be ready by Sunday. So we went and set everything up and got that prepared so we were able to have a baptism yesterday of our two investigators the magnificent Nasilele’s. It was so great. Man, have you ever had that feeling of relief after something you waited so long for happened? Yes. I had that feeling yesterday. It was so nice to see them get baptized. As soon as Sister Meriam came out of the water she was smiling so brightly and she just said, ‘‘Finally, I’m born again. I’m clean.’’ It was so sweet.

So I think the best moment of the entire week was actually a miracle moment that we had! So The Shonga family is the family of the 4 kids we baptized back in October this year. So in their family there are 5 members and three non members. So the three who are not members are the son, father, and one daughter; So recently we have been teaching all three but it has been really really difficult for us to really get them. So Saturday we had the opportunity to sit down with the son Emmanuel Shonga and share with him the My Family books that the church has put together to help with family history. It was a neat experience. We were able to help him begin and it was nice. So after the lesson we headed home and he escorted us with his family and I had time to chat with him. He opened up a lot and told me a lot of his background and how the missionaries already taught him everything and he knows it all. So I asked him if he has prayed and he was quiet for a moment and then he said he prays all of the time but he doesn’t know if something is wrong with him because he hasn’t gotten an answer yet. So As I listened to him Ether 12:6 came into my mind and I was inspired to share it with him. I told him to go home and read it so I hope that this week when we go he will have some thoughts and we will be able to share more. I can see he has desire but he loves researching online and it gets to him, but I hope that Heavenly Father will help us with this one.

So this week was definitely a good one for us. My companion Is feeling better and our area is doing great. Personally I am doing well. The countdown to Christmas has begun! But everything is okay. This week I actually had the time to study Alma 12-14 during my personal studies and there was something that I studied that gave me inspiration this week. So I was reading about Alma and Amulek and their journeys throughout the lands preaching to the people. As you read you realize that they encountered so many things and so many trials. It made me realize the importance of faith also adversity. I know that if there were no trials then there would be no faith. Adversity is something that is necessary and even the faithful and obedient at times must suffer because of the precious gift of agency that we have. But when we choose to be obedient and faithful then that is when the Lord can help us and give is the strength that we need!

Well I love you all. Words can’t really express. I pray that the Christmas spirit and season will be within all of your hearts and that you take this time to draw closer to Christ. I love you! Have a great week! 

Love

Sister Scott