A behind-the-scenes look at Evan's two-year mission in Madagascar for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Monday, June 8, 2015

6/08/2015

  And so ends another week of missionary work in Fort Dauphin.
    Last week, I mentioned that there was a chance that there would be baptisms on Saturday. Unfortunately, the baptisms did not happen.  Our investigators who were supposed to be baptized this week had their baptismal goal delayed to next week. They were disappointed.
The baptisms will mostly take place this weekend. There is a family of 5 that should be baptized.
  Theophile, one of the investigators I baptized last week, received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday, and he also was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School. There is also an investigator named Bartholomeo, who was referred to us by Theophile. We taught him that there is a living prophet and living apostles today, and he was taking notes. He asked for two copies of the Book of Mormon. One for his family to read at the house. Another to take and read at work. He has still not been to church, so we will try to have him attend church this week.
   We have many investigators who are reading The Book of Mormon and have a lot of questions. I used to think that it was too much to expect investigators here to read The Book of Mormon realizing the fact that many of the people here are not able to read or comprehend reading. I don't believe that to be true anymore. Obviously those who can't read will not be able to, but everyone else who can read just needs to try their best. It is a tender mercy to see the change in these people whose lives are impacted by The Book of Mormon.
   One of our recent converts brought a friend to church. The gospel principles lesson for this week was about the Word of Wisdom. The friend was answering questions and participating a lot in the lesson. After church, we talked to him for a few minutes. He seems interested in learning. Elder Horspool and I agreed that the reason that missionary work is so great in Fort Dauphin is because some of the tribes here claim to be descended from Jews. 
  I was asked to give a talk next week in church about missionary work. I have never given a talk in a foreign language, so this should be cool.  Also, transfer news was sent yesterday. Elder Horspool is leaving, and Elder Rasmussen (one of the missionaries from my MTC group), is replacing him. That is cool that Dad and Jordan met Elder Christofferson. That reminds me that there should be an apostle who will be here around October. Elder Bednar is the apostle who is in charge of the missionary work in many African nations, including Madagascar, so maybe he will be the apostle who visits. 
  A scripture I found this week in Doctrines and Covenants 122:8 . It was the Lord's comfort to Joseph Smith when he was imprisoned in jail: "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than He?"  This scripture teaches us that, even though we may have trials, Jesus has suffered for all of them. Have a great weekend everyone!!


Elder Pinson

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