Week 85: General Conference is like GOLD!

Hello Friends and Family,

Well after a long and stressful day of preparing for the transfer we have tomorrow, I am finally getting around to sending my weekly email. A lot happened this week and I have a lot of thoughts, I hope I'll be able to convey them all.

This week we were able to have a lesson with Boet! It was great! Boet is an amazing man. He is in his 50's or 60's. He is a white man (only in South Africa where you have to clarify that lol). He is divorced and lives by himself next door to one of our members. We've been doing service for him over the past couple of weeks and as I shared last week, he was super open and eager for us to come share the gospel with him. On Friday we were able to. We had a great lesson about the restoration and about the darkness that he feels he is in. Boet can talk. We had a 4 hour lesson with him, not by choice. But it was great for us to be able to let him talk and for us to just listen. Listening to other people has become one of my favorite things to do, especially when I know that something in what they say will allow me to relate the gospel to their lives. At the end of the lesson we invited Boet to general conference. He happily and readily accepted the invitation. We also invited him to close with a prayer. I won't forget this moment, as we stood there Boet bowed his head and began to offer a humble and sincere plea with God, about midway through the prayer the spirit rushed into the room and Boet began to become very emotional. It was a very tender and special moment and an opportunity for us to let Boet know that grown men do cry lol. Unfortunately, we got a message Friday night from Boet informing us that his friend had to move and that he was rushing over to help her move and that he would be helping on Saturday as well so he wouldn't be able to make it for conference. I've never felt so disappointed before. However, we know that it was a sincere reason why he wasn't able to come. We are excited for this coming week.

Also, on Friday we were able to conduct the MTC experience. This is when we take the MTC missionaries out into the mission field to do some finding and teaching for a few hours. I was privileged to be paired with Elder Previatti who is from Brazil and will be coming to our mission. We had a great time together. It was amazing to see Elder Previatti use the fact that he is learning English to his advantage in starting conversations with others. I was also able to learn a valuable lesson from Elder Previatti. As we concluded speaking with a man who didn't seem too interested, I began to turn to leave. As I did Elder Previatti stopped me by asking the man if we could leave him with a prayer to bless him and his day. The man's whole demeanor changed after the prayer. Elder Previatti is going to do some amazing things on his mission.

Saturday and Sunday we were finally able to watch general conference. I loved every minute of general conference! General conference is like gold for missionaries. Especially when we are able to get people that we are teaching to come. Bro. and Sis. Alexander, who we have been teaching for a while now and we have been struggling to get them to come to church because they are devoted and very active in their church, came to conference. One thing that we have been stuck on with them is about the Plan of Salvation and helping them receive an answer if the Book of Mormon is true or not. They attended the Saturday Afternoon session, literally almost every talk was focused on the concerns that they have been having. Elder Mathias Helds talk was perfect for them! His conversion story is very similar to where they are at currently in their search to find out if these things are true.

Another talk that I enjoyed was Elder Dieter F Uchtdorfs talk from the Saturday Morning session. If you thought missionary work was hard, go read his talk. Here are the 5 simple things we can do to help us in sharing the gospel.

First, draw close to God.

Second, fill your heart with love for others.

Third, strive to walk the path of discipleship.

Fourth, share what is in your heart.

Fifth, trust the Lord to work His miracles.

The 3rd talk that I absolutely loved was Elder Carl B Cook from the Priesthood session. If you want to know what missionary work is like in Africa, go watch his talk. I have seen the principles taught in his talk take place throughout my mission. In my last area the young men went from 1 to 20 because of 1 young man that was baptized who then was an example to his friends, which they then followed, and so on. His talk really made me realize how much I am going to miss South Africa.

Unfortunately on Sunday Wayden dropped us. We are still good friends with him and still gave him the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and search to find out if it is true but he feels like the Rema church which he has been attending with his girlfriend is where he should be. It was disappointing but we know a very strong seed has been planted.

Well Elder Spencer has finished his mission. It has been great to serve with him and to be able to learn a lot from him. He finished strong and was a very good example to me. Unfortunately I couldn’t get rid of him forever, I’ll be seeing him and living with him once again in 4 months when we room together at BYU lol. Also, in sad news, Elder Nau collapsed earlier in the week last week. This caused much more concern and urgency to obtain a full diagnosis of what is causing these collapses. After counsel between him, his parents, President and Sister Leavitt, and medical professionals they came to the decision that it would be best for him to return home to obtain the medical treatment necessary to discover what is wrong with the hope of returning to the mission field depending on the diagnosis. These two Elders are great men and we had a blast serving together. Elder Willison and I will continue to serve together as we seek to grow the Lord's vineyard in Florida.

Sincerely, Elder Rash