Week 81: If you could all be flies on a wall

Hello Friends and Family,

This week was great!

On Tuesday we drove 2 hours out to a place called Klerksdorp to drop off a refrigerator and to pick up a few things. On the drive we passed by the World's deepest mine. It wasn’t that spectacular but at least I can say I’ve seen the World's deepest mine! On the drive back we began playing I spy. Let's just say this game turned into an hour and a half long game until we arrived back at the office. My brain was hurting after playing. Here’s an idea of how deep this I spy game got. “I spy something that starts with an E.... Exhaust pipe!" "I spy something that starts with an S... South Africa!. “ it was an intense game.

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was pretty crazy when my companion, Elder Spencer, got up to bear his final testimony! Time flies. I still remember the good ole days when we were chilling together in the East Rand in 2017!

On Friday we had interviews with President Leavitt. I’m pretty sure each interview I have with him gets better and better! You always leave an interview with President Leavitt feeling loved, motivated to do better, and confident. Also after a long day of tracting in town with no success we returned to our car. As we were approaching our car a car pulled up next to us and asked if we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. It turns out as we were tracting he saw us and recognized us because he had met with missionaries a few years back in Bloemfontein. We scheduled an appointment to see him that Sunday (yesterday). His name is Jermaine.

Well once again this week we had an experience where I wish all of you could have been flies on the wall. Lately, we have been struggling to find new prepared people to teach. On Sunday we were all feeling a bit heavy with the knowledge of knowing we didn’t have many people to teach or people that were progressing. After sacrament meeting we met two ladies whom a member had brought to church. They were both super excited to be there and to have us come visit this week. One of them kept saying “come teach us at my hair salon because there will be a lot of people there who will be able to listen as well!" After church we decided to go check on a less active member. On arrival we discovered that the member no longer lived there. We decided to ask the lady who did live there if she knew anyone who would be interested in hearing our message (she didn’t seem too interested). She referred us to a house a few doors down. As we knocked on this house a colored lady came out. She actually recognized Elder Willison because he had contacted her a while back when he was on exchanges in this area. The missionaries back then ended up never visiting her. She allowed us to come in to share a message right then. After talking about Joseph Smith and the first vision she stated “I felt this warm feeling as you talked. This has to be true.” The spirit was very strong in her home. We are excited for our future lessons with her. After that lesson we ran over to the lesson we had scheduled with Jermaine. When we got there his brother, sister, and girlfriend were all there and joined the lesson (they are all in their 20’s). They each had many questions, his brother Wayden in particular. Wayden grew up Christian and still has Christian beliefs. He expressed however that with all the confusion that is in the world he is beginning to think that the theories behind science are actually true. He said he really wants to believe Christianity but he just doesn’t know what to believe at the moment. After we finished sharing about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, Wayden made some comments that caused the spirit to rush in even more. He said “ Wow Joseph Smith was similar to me. I guess I need to do what Joseph Smith did and God will answer me. If the Book of Mormon is true then I will be convinced that I need to join your church. Man there is no one else that has this.” They each happily accepted a Book of Mormon and an invitation to read it.

Our prayers were answered this week. Each time we feel like we can’t go any longer or work any harder the Lord has blessed us with new people to teach. He has given us a renewed sense of hope. I know the Lord is aware of each of our circumstances and desires.

Love, Elder Rash