"So Much Better, Elder Lusk", Those Darn Muddy Munchkins, Saving a Girl From A Donkey and Sparkling Grape Juice

Hey fam! I had a greeat week. Our area is really progressing. We have
baptized for three weeks in a row. The best part is our recent
converts are inviting all their friends to learn. The young man we
baptized this week was a friend of my first convert who was very
hesitant at first but something told me to be his friend and now every
time I see him it goes ,"stanley how are you"? "So much better elder
Lusk". I agree life is some much better with the gospel.
 We also have another brother who we never thought we would teach who is getting ready to be
baptized.
 Sadly, Elder ketchum returns home on thursday. Man we
had a great run. From cooking together, him patiently training me
through my dark first few days, our daily disney quotes and star wars
talks, deep spiritual study, powerful teaching, early morning P90x,
and lots of laughs in between. And blessed were we with success in
our area in bringing many souls to Christ. Also the transfer doesn't
end till the 27th so for ten days i'll be in a tripanionship with
Elder Tidwel and Almedia and all 3 of us will cover the entire
district till they can send us another missionary. It will be good
though and  they are good Elders and we've been together the whole time.
Good experience on thursday: we were on exchanges and I was with Elder
kabisa from Namibia. We had had a rough day with a lot of fall through
and I was frustrated and tired and not really feeling it when he
decided that we should stop and play a couple rounds of dodge ball
with some kids in the street. As much as they drive me nuts and I got
my shirt dirty those darn muddy malawian munchgins got me smiling
again and I got a prompting to try to see one last person and it turns
out that they had come home from school early that day and we had a
great lesson. It's random moments like that that can make a
differnece. Like chopping wood for a guy and everyone stops to watch
the white guy do work, or when you have to pull a little girl from the
street because some guys donkey's get loose and are running down the
narrow road.....yea it's what we call a tifa moment (this is freackin
africa...and the capitol city too but yea not making that story up)
still i love this crazy place and i know God does too. Missions are
not all work though our district had a nice Christmas party saturday
night with steacks, chicken, soup, cake, and sparkling grape juice to
the sound of christmas carols then we sat down and got to watch "its a
wonderful Life" ( never seen it full length but was really touched by
the simple message that one life for good can change the lives of so
many) I know that's true as I have seen it everyday out here. We all can
influence so much good as long as we focus on the one who's life made
ALL the difference.
My humble testimony of the Savior I leave with you.
from the warm heart of africa merry christmas
love elder lusk

Best Week of My Mission, Road Trip to Blantyre, Songs, Skits, Santa Hats, Powerful Missionaries, Most Beautiful Place I've Ever Seen and Man, I Love My Mission

Hey family! Man, this was like the best week of my mission.. So we started the week great with a lot of lessons and we got one of our investigators interviewed which is great since  he is an awesome kid and a referal from my first baptism. Then on wednesday night since the bus to Blantyre left super early all the elders slept over with the zone leaders and we had a big african style BBQ to kick off the fun. Then we woke up super early and took the bus down to Blantyre thursday morning. It was a  very beautiful drive down to Blantyre through the southern highlands and man Blantyre is the most beautiful place i've ever seen in my life. Tall rugged majestic mountains everywhere, green grass and trees and it's a lot more developed than flat dusty Lilongwe. But yea it was great to see Elder Chauke and Sister Porter again. It was so crazy to see how different we all are after three months in the field. Man we are all some much stronger, confident, mature, focused, and just better. It was alot of fun to see them and swap all the mission stories together.
Thursday was our Christmas celebration and man it was a blast. We have some super goofy missionaries. Songs, skits, santa hats, water melon relays (showing water melon in your face super fast) and our white elephant where I got a super nice lion print chichenga (like a multi perpose bed sheet) and then president Kupu made a pig which was nice and we feasted hard.
Then Friday was our zone confrence/training which was super spiritual. Sis Kupu is such a great teacher and we also gave her a suprise birthday party. We talked about quality finding and teaching, Book of Mormon, Area goals for church growth, and it was great. We have some very powerful missionaries here but we also know how to have a fun time and get goofy.
Then saturday we where suposed to get on the bus at 7 but something came up so we spent the morning proselyting in Blantyre. I got to go on splits with Elder Chauke and man that guy has grown powerful since the mtc and i want to be like him. haha we also met the drunkest guy i've ever met here (saying a lot) and i was like hi im Elder Lusk and he was like oh Edward Lust...........yea now half the mission is calling me that. Oh well it was funny. We left after lunch on saturday and my comp and I were riding in the ZLs truck and we took the back roads route through the bush in the highlands and ended up pulling off to the side of the road in the middle of nowehere and us and the STL,s went bushwalking and climbed up this big hill to take pics. On sunday we Baptized a great man we had met on the streets back in september and we are really happy about how much he has changed. We ended the day with 3 great lessons and happily went to bed early, tired but  satisfied. Man i love my mission. And i hope to get down to Blantyre again because i've missed the mountains but it was a very fun and spiritual week and to end with a baptism is the best feeling. Love you all 

merry christmas

elder lusk 

Cruising Around Africa in a Pick-Up Truck Preachin' the Word, Quantity and Quality and Headed to Blantyre

Hey family we had a great week here in lilongwe! First, On Tuesday I taught my first district meeting lesson which went great and then I went on exchanges with our zone leaders and had a blast with Elder Chartier from Idaho. Just to Merikan boys cruising around Africa in a pick up truck preachin the Word!
In other great news, power came back so we have been cooking and eating like crazy to put some meat back on my bones. My companion made some amazing homemade chapati's ( thick african tortillas) .We also beat our previous record for number of lessons taught in a week. No slowing down for us. What was better is that we had quantity and quality lessons. It's amazing to see how some people are somewhat shy in the beginning but as they start to feel the love of their Savior and start embracing His gospel you really see their joy grow as they build their faith and change their lives.  We had a lesson with a progressing investigator where we where teaching about tithing and he immediately began teaching us about the widows mite and the spirit of giving. I love it when people are taught by the spirit!
  Right now we have six investigators on date for December.! It will be a great month for celebrating our Savior with baptisms.  We are also teaching two 9 year old twins who are so much fun and really smart for their age and are learning a lot faster than we had planned.
 We have also been very fortunate to have members work with us and  in almost every lesson we teach there is a member with us helping us teach. The members are very passionate about helping the missionaries (and providing lunch i was feed nshima three days in a row...I really am a Malawian).  On Sunday I was able to confirm the Majamanda family. That was super spiritual for me. I just love them so much and have seen how much light the gospel has brought them I feel like they will be a very influential strength to the church here in Lilongwe as they are so passionate about  the gospel and really living it as a family. As for this week we head down to Blantyre Thursday morning and will be there till Saturday for our Christmas party/zone conference that my district has a special musical number for which should be interesting seeing as i was blessed with a wonderful singing voice.........oh well i'm really looking forward to it. sorry I dont have alot to say today but i still love you all very much!

happy holidays

Elder Lusk