Man, I'm A Missoinary....I Like This Stuff, Show Them Some Love and Life Is Great, and Spaghetti Curry

Hey Fam-we had a really great week here, had a lot of fun and taught a lot of lessons. First it's still hotter than Hades out here and  the rains have not fully come yet. But despite the heat the work is great. We had baptismal interviews for a great family yesterday so they will be baptized on Sunday. So excited for them and  they are just the sweetest people ever and were so prepared to hear/live the gospel. We also had a lot of new investigators this week which is always exciting to teach new people. Our efforts to find have really been bringing in results. At our Zone meeting this week we where challenged by to have a baptism on Christmas day so we are praying right now to be able to celebrate the season with a baptism. (hopefully before then though elder ketchum leaves the 16th)  Also on December 2nd were going down to Blantyre for a combined Christmas party/zone conference so i'm really excited for that). 
 We also got surprise fed a lot this week and so we came up with a gospel message with Nshima (white corn flour and water). It's simple yet filling like the gospel. You desire to share it with everyone and all partake together. It's hot so you can't grab it all at once (unless your Malawian) and you have to eat it bit by bit, and there is always plenty of nshima.
I was asked to give a last minute talk at church (happens a lot) and so i had time to say a quick prayer for the Spirit to be with me before i stood up to address the saints of Lilongwe. As i did, i was taken back to 12 weeks ago when a scared, weak, young missionary stood for the first time in this strange land and quickly gave a generic testimony. Now 12 weeks later i stood there filled with love and strength for these people and the spirit came to me as i shared what i had been studying about which is faith, hope, action, and the Saviors call to all of us "come follow me". It really felt great and that's when i realized.."man i'm a missionary"..."I like this stuff". Great moment. Another interesting thing was we were on a mini bus and the conductor tried charging us Muzungu price to go up the road and we where like "no man it's only 100 mk" and he's like "150". Surprisingly, the other people in the bus started yelling at the guy in Chichewa and next thing we know he's giving us the regular price. Normaly they would just laugh and ignore us but all our community out reach and conversations have been paying off (literally) and these people had our backs. Kauma for the win!  I love these people (ok there still some things culturally that are a little annoying but hey people are people nobody perfect but show them some love and life is great).
We were in a lesson with a lady this week who was going through some big changes and we were talking about prayer and i asked her how God has helped her in the past and in her broken English she gave me a powerful lesson. "Dah moor iz forgive dah haapyah my life is"! Powerful. I reflected on that that the more me forgive other, chose to be happy and seek for forgiveness through Christ's atonement the better life really is.
 To the fun this week on thursday Elder Ketchum and I where craving some Noble china and we hadn't been all transfer to we splurged on some sweet and sour chicken (plus we didnt have power so we couldnt cook) and then we got a call for a zone celebration on saturday night and we had to breack into our saving but it was well worth it we went to a really nice hotel and hit up there amazing buffet of steack, bbq chicken, and everything else to celebrate a few elders turning one year old. Also i made this really good spagethi curry dish that was really good. Well thats life here in Lilongwe for now. I love you all very much.

Elder Lusk 

ps 12 weeks here went by way too fast