This is such a powerful scripture to me. In my short time here in Mozambique I have witnessed many miracles. When I first came into the mission our mission would baptize MAYBE 14 people every month. Well over 80% of our baptisms were young men or women ages 12-18, now in 10 months things have changed. This month we were blessed with 24 families that were baptized and 100 baptisms. Now our mission is baptizing 80% families instead of the other way around. Last night in district meeting we talked about the power and authority of our calling, and how we can tap into that power. During our discussion 3 nephi 8:1 came up. The Lord has blessed us tremendously and will continue to do so as along as we are exactly obedient.
Elder Ostler and I are trying to be bolder in finding, teaching, baptizing, and helping families. We’ve made it a point to always extend the baptismal invite in the first lesson. In fact this week we’ve even given the baptismal invite in the first five minutes, before we even teach the lesson. We are finding that many people are open to following Jesus Christ. As missionaries our purpose is to help others come onto Christ by helping them have more faith, changing the lives through repentance, being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost, and helping them endure to the end. Elder Ostler and I have begun teaching our purpose at the beginning of every lesson, helping our investigators know from the beginning that we are there to help grow their faith, change their lives, and be baptized by authority. In fact during a few contacts we have extended the baptismal invite. We did it in the contact three times this week and all three times the contacts accepted the invite and said they would be baptized.
Elder Oslter and I had 3 families at church this week and have a goal of bringing four families next week. Laivino and Presalina are doing well, the only thing holding them back is getting married. We have a date set for the 19th of this month. Joaquim and Argentina were the second family we had at church. Joaquim had not been coming for about a month. He said that he had to work on Sundays and that’s why he wasn’t making it to church. He works at a little restaurant, and one day we were walking down the road where his restaurant is. He was outside talking with his boss. I stopped said hello and after talking to the boss, I explained that Joaquim had to come to church on Sundays and can’t work on Sundays. His boss, surprisingly understood and said that it was no problem. Well, that was easy. The power of communication is incredible.
As district leader I’m always thinking of ways I can help my district progress and become more extraordinary missionaries. This week we set some district goals to help us progress. As a district we have a goal to have 12 families at church. Each dupla has a goal to bring four families to church. To accomplish that goal Elder Ostler and I are going to have to teach probably 10 new families this week to find one good one that will progress.
As far as the office goes, Elder Ostler and I have learned to be more productive and efficient. We’ve organized this office so much. This week is going to be crazy. There are many new elders coming into our mission on Wednesday along with the very first Sisters. One is an American from Idaho, the other is an Angolan sister from Luanda. We have a Zone Conference this week that is going to be Incredible. And then in about two weeks we’ll have conference here. I’m SO excited to listen to all of the talks. Okay times up! Thanks for all the support and letters!
-Elder Greenman
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