June 10, 2013

We ate caterpillars this week:) 

I will try and send more (pictures) next week!

Yep it will be a great experience for them!! (Missionaries as Branch Presidency in the new Huambo Branch)

So we went over with President Kretly on Thursday night and he challenged Elizabeth to pray to see if she should be baptized. And he challenged her for the follow Tuesday right before he left back to Mozambique. So at first I was fine with the situation, but I was a little bit nervous because she has not been taught all the lessons and she had only been to church once and she was still a leader in her church. So I was not really liking the situation and as I prayed I told Heavenly Father that I was not liking the situation, but if President Kretly was really inspired to invite her to be baptized on that date I would follow! Then on Saturday night I got a call from the Elders who were teaching them and they said that Elizabeth and Inacio called them (the missionaries) and came to the conclusion that it was too fast and that Elizabeth was not going to be baptized on Tuesday. The Missionaries said when they heard that they went over to their house to talk about it with them, but apparently it turned out to be a through down lesson and apparently they called Elizabeth to repent and be baptized and from their was kind of a scuffle of words... I do not know all the details but when I heard what happened I did not like the situation even more because I felt like Elizabeth was just under all this pressure and if she ended up accepting to be baptized I felt like it would be because of pressure not because not because she was converted! I was planning on talking to President Kretly about it, but then on Sunday the missionaries called me and said that Elizabeth was going to be baptized on Tuesday. She said after the missionaries left she prayed and she felt like she knew what she needed to do. I was still nervous about the situation, but we went along with it. I told the missionaries to make sure she was converted and make sure she was not doing this just because of pressure! Also I talked with the Elder who was going to give her the interview and he said he was a little bit nervous about the situation as well and I told him the same things to make sure she was converted and not just because of pressure. After the interview I talked with him though and he said that it was a really good interview and he felt like she had a change of heart. So that night Elizabeth and their three kids including the 21 year old who was here in Angola for the summer break of school (he was studying in Houston Texas) were baptized.That night I felt bad and I went to my knees to ask forgiveness for not necessarily believing that this baptism should or could happen! But as I started kneeling I had the thought came into my mind that said "Do not feel sorry or bad that you wanted to make sure that someone was prepared for baptism". So they were all baptized and then confirmed yesterday and Elder Chatwin sent me a text last night and he said that they are doing great! So that is good!!

So that was the experience. We learned a lot of things (From President Kretly). One thing he hit hard on was that we need to be finding teaching and baptizing all at the same time. Not just at first finding and then teaching the people and then baptizing them and then starting the process over. We need to be doing all three all of the time! I hope you have a great week mom!!!! So Grandpa still has not written me back! Should I write him and just tell him some experiences I am having or should I wait for him to respond? I love you!!