Hey fam
Transfer news came and my companion and I are staying. And Elder Robins, my old trainee, is now the zone leader here so that's way cool and we are in the same ward so we get to see each other a lot and I'm proud to see the missionary he's become. Luckily, having me as his first companion didn't ruin him.
We taught a lot of powerful lessons this week where the Spirit was able to testify. We have two awesome investigators who are progressing well towards baptism soon. One is a friend of a member who, despite struggling with English, has pushed ahead bravely in learning and coming to church. The other is a 15 year old niece of a member and is super smart, learns fast and even helps translate for her mother. She also wants to grow up and be a soldier which is a cool connection we have.
I've started reading the Book of Mormon for the 7th time since being on my mission. I recently read how Nephi felt the weight of his imperfections and the trials he faces but then rejoices in the Lord as his strength and declare that he shouldn't worry about those things that are hard around him and give in to temptations because of his faith and miracles he has seen.
Anyway, I found out I am definitely hitting US soil on August 8.
Love you all
Elder Lusk
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Random Acts, Paul's Testimony and Heavenly Milkshakes
Hey fam
This week we celebrated with Elder Jeronimo as he prepares to return home after two years. There was much rejoicing but also sad seeing such a great missionary and friend depart.
We made it a goal this week to look for random unplanned acts of service as we worked throughout the day. So, we sat and washed clothes with some grandmas, helped an investigator cook, played soccer with some random kids and swept somebody's house for them. Little things like that may not have made a big difference in the big scope of things but on the personal level we saw how happy it made the people and they also brightened up my week as I served like the Savior.
I also got to teach gospel principles in sunday school and between the two sets of missionaries, we had nine investigators there which was great.
In my study, I had just read about th apostle, Paul, in his defense before King Agrippa and how, despite opposition, he stood firm and testified of the truth he knew. I have had a number of experiences like that here and one more even came this week after I had studied that and with each time the Spirit gave me power to personally testify of what I know to be true. Each of those experiences has really solidified my faith in this work and I'm grateful for them.
On a lighter note, I finally found a great milkshake here. Maybe it's just been too long but it was pretty Heavenly.
Love you all!
Elder Lusk
This week we celebrated with Elder Jeronimo as he prepares to return home after two years. There was much rejoicing but also sad seeing such a great missionary and friend depart.
We made it a goal this week to look for random unplanned acts of service as we worked throughout the day. So, we sat and washed clothes with some grandmas, helped an investigator cook, played soccer with some random kids and swept somebody's house for them. Little things like that may not have made a big difference in the big scope of things but on the personal level we saw how happy it made the people and they also brightened up my week as I served like the Savior.
I also got to teach gospel principles in sunday school and between the two sets of missionaries, we had nine investigators there which was great.
In my study, I had just read about th apostle, Paul, in his defense before King Agrippa and how, despite opposition, he stood firm and testified of the truth he knew. I have had a number of experiences like that here and one more even came this week after I had studied that and with each time the Spirit gave me power to personally testify of what I know to be true. Each of those experiences has really solidified my faith in this work and I'm grateful for them.
On a lighter note, I finally found a great milkshake here. Maybe it's just been too long but it was pretty Heavenly.
Love you all!
Elder Lusk
Avoiding the Flying Tin Roof, Divine Protection and Running With the National Runners (and being humbled)
Hey Fam
Rainy season ends beginning of April and this year we hardly had any rai. It hadn't rained in weeks when, on Friday, we were walking on the far end of the area in a place with no shelter when the sky opened up with vengeance like zero to driving wind,, sideways rain, flash flooding, the works. We were sprinting through trying to get back home when it starts to hail. The waer is midcalf by this point and the wind is going crazy. I could barely see when a tin roof flies past us a few feet away. Do you remember the scene in The Other Side of Heaven when they run through the typhoon? Yep, I can cross that off the list of things to do on your mission. We had divine protection and made it all the way home safely. That night we had no power so we went out that night for an Indian feast and ate ourselves stupid. We also had a big zone soccer game this morning at the Olympic training park and I did a few laps with some of the national runners who invited me to run with them.....yep, I was humbled hard but it was still fun.
Anyway, love you all and may the blessings follow you this week.
love,
Elder Lusk
Rainy season ends beginning of April and this year we hardly had any rai. It hadn't rained in weeks when, on Friday, we were walking on the far end of the area in a place with no shelter when the sky opened up with vengeance like zero to driving wind,, sideways rain, flash flooding, the works. We were sprinting through trying to get back home when it starts to hail. The waer is midcalf by this point and the wind is going crazy. I could barely see when a tin roof flies past us a few feet away. Do you remember the scene in The Other Side of Heaven when they run through the typhoon? Yep, I can cross that off the list of things to do on your mission. We had divine protection and made it all the way home safely. That night we had no power so we went out that night for an Indian feast and ate ourselves stupid. We also had a big zone soccer game this morning at the Olympic training park and I did a few laps with some of the national runners who invited me to run with them.....yep, I was humbled hard but it was still fun.
Anyway, love you all and may the blessings follow you this week.
love,
Elder Lusk
Praying to Find Her Way Back to Chriist, He's My Friend and Do We Even Need a Sermon After That?
Hey fam
We had an awesome experience this week where we were teaching a lady and she told us that she had been praying for someone to come help her find her way back to Christ and then the next day, we showed up on her doorstep. Ta-da, the Lord's plan is perfect. In fact, later in the same lesson, she asked a question about something she saw in the Bible that I had actually read just that morning during my personal study. I wasn't even planning on studying it but we had a few extra minutes to kill before we left so I had grabbed my Bible and flipped to a random age in the New Testament and followed the footnotes on a few verses in John that turned out to be the exact thing she had a question about an hour later Very humbling to see the direct result of being led by the Spirit to help someone..
One of the people we are teaching has an adorable three year old girl and I was sitting by her and she grabbed by name tag and was looking at it and on the back following tradition I have a few stickers and she successfully identified Olaf from Frozen first then I pointed to a sticker of the Savior and asked her if she knew who it was and she so innocently replied, "He's my friend". Truly out of the mouths of babes. Do we even need a sermon after that?
Love you all
Elder Lusk
We had an awesome experience this week where we were teaching a lady and she told us that she had been praying for someone to come help her find her way back to Christ and then the next day, we showed up on her doorstep. Ta-da, the Lord's plan is perfect. In fact, later in the same lesson, she asked a question about something she saw in the Bible that I had actually read just that morning during my personal study. I wasn't even planning on studying it but we had a few extra minutes to kill before we left so I had grabbed my Bible and flipped to a random age in the New Testament and followed the footnotes on a few verses in John that turned out to be the exact thing she had a question about an hour later Very humbling to see the direct result of being led by the Spirit to help someone..
One of the people we are teaching has an adorable three year old girl and I was sitting by her and she grabbed by name tag and was looking at it and on the back following tradition I have a few stickers and she successfully identified Olaf from Frozen first then I pointed to a sticker of the Savior and asked her if she knew who it was and she so innocently replied, "He's my friend". Truly out of the mouths of babes. Do we even need a sermon after that?
Love you all
Elder Lusk
Going the Wrong Direction, Water Brigade and Mountains of Food
Hey fam!
Fast, crazy week but it ended with a baptism so that was good. We ended up walking way out to the far end of the area trying to locate a referral and it turns out we were going the complete opposite direction and spent two hours going in circles. I also got a hair cut from a guy that didn't speak a lick of Engish and so that was an interesting exercise in trust and hand signals .Luckily, I escaped mostly unharmed and still somewhat presentable.
So, for the baptism. First of all, I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty sick but I was like, "hey, its a baptism so I can't stay in." Then we got to church an hour before for a meeting just to realize that the baptismal font had not been set up yet so we got to work cleaning it out and filling it but water pressure was awful so we had to start a bucket brigade to fill it. An hour and a half after we started, it was only about two feel deep and we couldn't wait so the poor kid was baptized in two feet of water....good thing he was short. After that, we had a lunch appointment that we were supposed to go to with our zone leader. I wasn't feeling food at all but such occasions are rare plus I wasn't going to be that guy to deny it to my companion so we get there and there's a mountain of food waiting for each of us. The whole time, I was just hoping to keep it down and not offend the family (the food was great but I was way sick). We finally got home and I spent a few hours on my death bed till I finally broke a five and a half year streak and threw up and then strangely felt better after that. I woke up feeling somewhat better and was able to go to church, which was great. I even went running again this morning
This week, we're excited to have a wonderful lady that we are teaching who had come to church twice in a row and now is getting great help from her neighbor who is a member of the Church and has been active in all our lessons so we are planning to baptize her in a few weeks.
Love you all. Hugs from Elder Lusk
Fast, crazy week but it ended with a baptism so that was good. We ended up walking way out to the far end of the area trying to locate a referral and it turns out we were going the complete opposite direction and spent two hours going in circles. I also got a hair cut from a guy that didn't speak a lick of Engish and so that was an interesting exercise in trust and hand signals .Luckily, I escaped mostly unharmed and still somewhat presentable.
So, for the baptism. First of all, I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty sick but I was like, "hey, its a baptism so I can't stay in." Then we got to church an hour before for a meeting just to realize that the baptismal font had not been set up yet so we got to work cleaning it out and filling it but water pressure was awful so we had to start a bucket brigade to fill it. An hour and a half after we started, it was only about two feel deep and we couldn't wait so the poor kid was baptized in two feet of water....good thing he was short. After that, we had a lunch appointment that we were supposed to go to with our zone leader. I wasn't feeling food at all but such occasions are rare plus I wasn't going to be that guy to deny it to my companion so we get there and there's a mountain of food waiting for each of us. The whole time, I was just hoping to keep it down and not offend the family (the food was great but I was way sick). We finally got home and I spent a few hours on my death bed till I finally broke a five and a half year streak and threw up and then strangely felt better after that. I woke up feeling somewhat better and was able to go to church, which was great. I even went running again this morning
This week, we're excited to have a wonderful lady that we are teaching who had come to church twice in a row and now is getting great help from her neighbor who is a member of the Church and has been active in all our lessons so we are planning to baptize her in a few weeks.
Love you all. Hugs from Elder Lusk
A Real Hoot and A Holler, Jesus Beholding Him Loved Him, and Sitting Knee to Knee With a Great Man
Hey Fam!
We had a great week and I walked my feet off. We found a lot of new people to teach and Elder Mbile talks to just about everybody he sees and I have to work to keep up with him. We also have a baptism this week for a little boy from a part-member family. It was also a big week for the Matero ward as we got a new Bishop and counselors. We also had a small group visiting from Utah with a local charity organization so that was cool.
There was also a lot of weird moments this week but one was when the people in my area got the laugh of their lives when I bought a barbell to fix my spaghetti arms and was carrying it home and, man, did people get a good hoot and holler out of that.
I was reading a conference talk this week by Elder S Mark Palmer of the Seventy who I got to meet and learn from in Kitwe and is now area president. The talk was from April 2017 and it was all about how when the Savior was talking to the young rich an before he counseled hi to give all and follow him, how "then Jesus beholding him, loved him." He then talked about the fact that in order to help someone change, we must have the pure love of Christ to help them see that love is the motivating factor for the changes they need to make. Anyway, it's a great talk from a man that I respect greatly after getting to sit knee to knee with him and experience this from him first-hand as he counseled me and the other missionaries serving in Kitwe.
Love you all and keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers
Love, Elder Lusk
We had a great week and I walked my feet off. We found a lot of new people to teach and Elder Mbile talks to just about everybody he sees and I have to work to keep up with him. We also have a baptism this week for a little boy from a part-member family. It was also a big week for the Matero ward as we got a new Bishop and counselors. We also had a small group visiting from Utah with a local charity organization so that was cool.
There was also a lot of weird moments this week but one was when the people in my area got the laugh of their lives when I bought a barbell to fix my spaghetti arms and was carrying it home and, man, did people get a good hoot and holler out of that.
I was reading a conference talk this week by Elder S Mark Palmer of the Seventy who I got to meet and learn from in Kitwe and is now area president. The talk was from April 2017 and it was all about how when the Savior was talking to the young rich an before he counseled hi to give all and follow him, how "then Jesus beholding him, loved him." He then talked about the fact that in order to help someone change, we must have the pure love of Christ to help them see that love is the motivating factor for the changes they need to make. Anyway, it's a great talk from a man that I respect greatly after getting to sit knee to knee with him and experience this from him first-hand as he counseled me and the other missionaries serving in Kitwe.
Love you all and keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers
Love, Elder Lusk
Choosing Not to Take Offense and Choosing to Move Past Anger
Hey Fam
I am now serving in Lusaka in the Matero ward with Elder Mbile who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been on his mission for about three months and has only been speaking English for about four months. He's great, though, and his English is pretty good, considering. He's helped me get the wind back in my sails and the fire in my gut to get out and work hard all day. Plus, he's been a sport about getting dragged out of bed so I can go running in the morning....Ok, he sits at the porch while I run up and down the street. We have a nice little house in a quiet, almost American-style neighborhood on the edge of Lusaka. The area, as a whole, is very big and very busy with lots of people moving around. It is also home to the infamous devils sreet that has the densest population of bars, night clubs, pool halls and other various people with questionable character. As this point, not much really phases me, though.
We met a few new investigators and three of them came to church and watched General Conference with us which was super powerful and one of the best I can remember.
Walking through the area the other day, we had a bunch of drunk guys start yelling Muzungu at me (pretty much a racial slur for white people that I've heard about 50 times a day my whole mission) and my comp asked why I don't get mad and confront them. The truth is that I'm sick of it but I learned long ago that taking offense is a choie and that with all that's going on in this crazy world and people bent on tearing society apart, a lot would change if people just chose not to react, not to take offense and just chose to move past anger. As Elder Bednar eloquently taught, "meekness is not weakness but a sign of inner power."
Anyway, love you all!
Elder Lusk
I am now serving in Lusaka in the Matero ward with Elder Mbile who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been on his mission for about three months and has only been speaking English for about four months. He's great, though, and his English is pretty good, considering. He's helped me get the wind back in my sails and the fire in my gut to get out and work hard all day. Plus, he's been a sport about getting dragged out of bed so I can go running in the morning....Ok, he sits at the porch while I run up and down the street. We have a nice little house in a quiet, almost American-style neighborhood on the edge of Lusaka. The area, as a whole, is very big and very busy with lots of people moving around. It is also home to the infamous devils sreet that has the densest population of bars, night clubs, pool halls and other various people with questionable character. As this point, not much really phases me, though.
We met a few new investigators and three of them came to church and watched General Conference with us which was super powerful and one of the best I can remember.
Walking through the area the other day, we had a bunch of drunk guys start yelling Muzungu at me (pretty much a racial slur for white people that I've heard about 50 times a day my whole mission) and my comp asked why I don't get mad and confront them. The truth is that I'm sick of it but I learned long ago that taking offense is a choie and that with all that's going on in this crazy world and people bent on tearing society apart, a lot would change if people just chose not to react, not to take offense and just chose to move past anger. As Elder Bednar eloquently taught, "meekness is not weakness but a sign of inner power."
Anyway, love you all!
Elder Lusk
Looking to Improve Your Relationship with Christ? Perfect, We Have Just What You Need! Pride and Differences and Forgiveness and My Mind Was Freed
Hey fam! Another good week and my last in Kitwe. After over eight months here, I am being transferred and I'm not sure where. I am busing to Lusaka on Wednesday and I'll get my assignment from President Kupu then.
Apart from that, the week went well. We have a guy who is really progressing and we had a great lesson with him the other day and he's preparing for baptism soon. We also have two more people who should be following soon. We were teaching them about the commandments and had an awesome discussion on the Lord's standards for our happiness. We also met an awesome women who was a referral from our district president. She's educated, works as a graphic/web designer ad just moved our here far from family and friends and is looking for some direction in her life to improve her relationship with Christ. Perfect, we have just what you need! She came to church and the Relief Society did an amazing job of fellowshipping her I also had another zone leadership training meeting which was cool because I got to see my man, Elder Robins again who is serving as a district leader on the other side of the copperbelt.
I got to see some of General Conference and I really enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk on the Christ-like attribute of meekness.
On a personal note but one that as one of the most significant of my mission, about a year ago I was with a companion who was also young on his mission. We were only together for six weeks and during that time, we were not getting along for about five of those weeks. Pride and differences of opinion and personality led to a lot being said that was regretted. For the past year, it has been bugging me in the back of my mind. I know, in reality, you're not going to get along with everyone you meet but for someone who teaches about repentance and forgiveness daily, my actions and grudge wore on me...and apparently it wore on him, too Turns out he is the one coming to replace me and last night we spoke on the phone for the first time since The only words to describe come from the prophet, Joseph Smith: "Come now, friend, since war is past. For friends at first and friends at last" Awesome moment when we both admitted how young and stupid we had been and that we held no hard feelings. Apart from that, we laughed and swapped stories for a while. The feeling, though, of liberation from a year of withholding forgiveness was tangible. My mind was freed as if a weight was taken from my shoulders. So, to anyone with a grudge to forgive, I am now witness that it does work.
Love, Elder Lusk
Apart from that, the week went well. We have a guy who is really progressing and we had a great lesson with him the other day and he's preparing for baptism soon. We also have two more people who should be following soon. We were teaching them about the commandments and had an awesome discussion on the Lord's standards for our happiness. We also met an awesome women who was a referral from our district president. She's educated, works as a graphic/web designer ad just moved our here far from family and friends and is looking for some direction in her life to improve her relationship with Christ. Perfect, we have just what you need! She came to church and the Relief Society did an amazing job of fellowshipping her I also had another zone leadership training meeting which was cool because I got to see my man, Elder Robins again who is serving as a district leader on the other side of the copperbelt.
I got to see some of General Conference and I really enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk on the Christ-like attribute of meekness.
On a personal note but one that as one of the most significant of my mission, about a year ago I was with a companion who was also young on his mission. We were only together for six weeks and during that time, we were not getting along for about five of those weeks. Pride and differences of opinion and personality led to a lot being said that was regretted. For the past year, it has been bugging me in the back of my mind. I know, in reality, you're not going to get along with everyone you meet but for someone who teaches about repentance and forgiveness daily, my actions and grudge wore on me...and apparently it wore on him, too Turns out he is the one coming to replace me and last night we spoke on the phone for the first time since The only words to describe come from the prophet, Joseph Smith: "Come now, friend, since war is past. For friends at first and friends at last" Awesome moment when we both admitted how young and stupid we had been and that we held no hard feelings. Apart from that, we laughed and swapped stories for a while. The feeling, though, of liberation from a year of withholding forgiveness was tangible. My mind was freed as if a weight was taken from my shoulders. So, to anyone with a grudge to forgive, I am now witness that it does work.
Love, Elder Lusk
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