So
in response to recent complaints, this letter will be a bit longer than they
have been the past few weeks. So quit whining...
So,
just to review and to catch up.
I
am currently serving here in Nampula with my companion Elder Taukiuvea. He is
just about to go home and only has 9 weeks left until he leaves, so we are trying
to stay focused and work hard during the tail end of our missions.
We
have been doing a lot of finding recently because they just got done having
some weddings and baptisms right before I got here, so they had been busy with
preparing those families, and so now our focus is on finding families. Lately
we have been doing a pretty good job at it. We have been working really hard
with the members at getting references from them. We currently have a family-
Ercilio and Saquina. They are a reference from the first counselor in the
Branch Presidency, and they are super nice! We taught the Law of Chastity last
night and are preparing them for marriage and baptism on November 12. They told
us that they would discuss this date and let us know when we pass by on Friday.
Ercilio is ready for a quick and simple wedding so that they can get baptized;
Saquina, on the other hand, is a woman. She wants a big party, the dress, the
cake, the whole shabang! I hope Ercilio is able to convince her into a simple
wedding. Saquina has also been a huge help in inviting her neighbors to receive
our visits. In fact, this week we will be sitting with two families that live
next to them and teaching them about the Restoration. So I hope all goes well
with that.
We
also have a new family; Casiano and Ercilia. We have only sat with them once,
and the husband came to church and also to an activity at the church, but the
wife stayed at home because they have a newborn baby boy. They had promised to
come to church yesterday, but he said that he had to run some emergency errands
and wasn't able to come. We marked a visit with them and we hope that they will
all come this next week. They are a really nice and beautiful family that would
be really blessed by the gospel. So please pray for them.
We
also have a few other families that we have been teaching, but they have been kind
of getting on my nerves these past few weeks because they haven't been keeping
commitments and I won't take the time to write too much about them.
We
have begun focusing our efforts more centralized around the chapel, which means
that we have been knocking doors in a lot of apartment buildings... We haven't
been having too much success. We knocked an entire apartment complex of about
25 doors and were only able to sit with about 2 people... And with these two
people, we will probably be dropping them this week. They don't look too
promising. The same thing happened in 5 other apartment complexes that we
hit up. So we've moved back out to the neighborhoods right on the outskirts of
the city, which is where we have all of our progressing investigators. (note from mom: After reading this part of Ryland's letter, I instantly thought of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from the General Women's Conference last week. Ryland hasn't heard this talk yet, but I hope when he does, he understands how important it is to knock on every door and share with EVERYONE our Savior's plan of Happiness! Never give up or discouraged! Someone will be grateful you knocked on THEIR door!)
So
I understand that this last week was General Conference. I am going to be
downloading it today and watching it during the week, so I'll write about what
touched me in my next letter.
This
past week we had 2 baptisms in our area and a child of record baptism in our
Branch. We had Casilda who is a cousin of one of the RM's and also Deolinda,
who is the aunt of another one of the RM's. At the end of the month we should
also have a few more baptisms of some part member families, and in November is
when we should really pick up with the new families that we are finding,
November will be a busy month with baptisms and weddings.
Well
I think that is all I have got for this week. Sorry it isn't as long as I was
hoping, but it should do. I love this work. I love being a missionary. I love
seeing the gospel change peoples' lives. I love my Savior. I know He lives. I
am so grateful to know that through His atonement that we can all be cleansed
of our weaknesses. I love my family and am so grateful for the knowledge that I
have that we can be together for time and all eternity as we live worthy of the
covenants that we have made with God.
I
know this work is the work of God. I love being a Missionary.
-Elder
Rash I (Not to be confused with Elder Rash II who is serving in Jo'burg)
Elder
Ryland Rash
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| Elder R.'s first baptisms in Nampula |
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| Baptismal font that they fill with a hose |
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