"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 

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

Being Rude to My People, The Parable of the Chocolate Brownie and Satan's Counterfeits, Oh and the Most Successful Month Ever

 So first something that happened last Monday we were out by the souvenirs market looking at some hand- crafted merchandise and just enjoying talking to the craftsmen and even met two BYU professors. Anywa,y there where these two European ladies there being super rude and disrespectful to the locals and yelling at them and i was about to go give some serious fire  but they left. If anything boils my blood, it's rude people. Especially when they're being rude to my people who are just trying to make an honest living. Enough of that. We had a good week. We are preparing to have 4 baptisms this month. One is a great family who is just eating up the gospel so fast. Another is a man we had just met on the street who is so honestly searching for the truth in his life. The last one is an older gentlemen who, despite his very broken English, is very excited about the church. We had two brand new investigators come to church for the first time which really gets me excited to see such commitment. Interestingly enough ,the gospel principles lesson covered what we had been planning to teach three of our investigators next. Love it when that happens. Interesting experience the other day. From the Gospel of Elder Lusk the parable of the chocolate brownie. So we were at the store picking up some groceries and there by the bakery was some fresh chocolate brownies. We saw them and where like "man those look great" and they did. We bought our things and we went back and because they where cheap, big, beautiful, still warm and we were hungry we each bought one. Excitedly, we finished dinner and then unwrapped our treats. It looked and felt just how a chocolate brownie should expect one thing...they sure didn't taste like they should. They where disgusting. And now it was too late and we had already bought them. It gave me a great metaphor for Satan's counterfeits and temptation. They might have looked tasty but they where not. They were in the open right where we would see it at a vulnerable time. They were cheap but the same money could have been used for bus fare to our area and for something productive. Unfortunately, we learned the lesson late after we had bought and started eating the "brownie". This is just how satan works to tempt and deceive us. He knows our desires and purposefully makes sin appealing despite it's bitter after taste when we chose to yield to it's enticing facade of momentary pleasure. It seemed a small innocent thing and they looked exactly who they should but they where not. I love this simple example of all the everyday lessons we can learn when we simply try to see the opportunity to learn from them. Oh big news. this month was the most successful month the mission has ever had in terms of baptisms and lessons taught. The fields are white here in the great Zambia Lusaka Mission. I serve among great people and with the best missionaries in the world. I am so humbled to be part of that effort!! Not too much else to say I've successfully finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission. Oh and this is the last official week of my in field training! 12 weeks here in Lilongwe have been the best (and based on the way things are going i'll probably stay here awhile which I am totally down with i love my area).  Lots of love to you all back home.

elder lusk 

That's My Boy, The Cat and I Were Both Happy, Running Cross Country, My Own Galilee, Oh, and Boss Chili

hey family! So, it felt like i was just emailing you and somehow a whole week passed by but that's how it goes so here. 

We ended up having the most lessons ever this week after a really slow start which was great. We had our recent convert pass the sacrament for the first time which was great to see him in his new shirt and tie fufilling his new priesthood responsibility. I kinda had a sentimental dad "thats my boy" moment and we celebrated with them after church with a big meal of nshima and fish (actually not a big fan of the fish so i ate the nshima and their cat sat on my lap and i fed it the fish so we where both happy).

The big thing, though, was a surprise rainstorm that came early on Friday.  The rains were not supposed to start for two weeks but we were sitting in a home teaching a great family about the Book of Mormon when suddenly the skies opened up and didnt stop. We ended up waiting for and hour...eating a snack (best apple i have had in a while) and playing with the kids and getting to know them better but two problems, one it was getting late and two,  we still needed to go to the store to get some bread. So we ended up running like 2.5 miles through the mud and rain to get to the store. It was honestly a blast! my companion was a runner in high school as well and we had been running together so we had the awesome mud filled xc course along the side of the road in the middle of Africa singing the rocky theme song. We ended the night by buying a pizza, drinking hot chocolate and watching bible videos while our stuff dried off.

 Spiritually, as I  have been studying the Savior's life, I've seen many parallels to my own mission. Jesus walked among the people and taught in the streets, hills, small homes, and over many meals.  He taught rich and poor alike and loved all. The children where always near to his heart. That how it is here.  The dusty roads of Lilongwe have become my own Galilee. We are even teaching a family with a lot of energetic kids by using primary songs and picture books. The savior taught to people's understanding  whether it was scriptures, farming, fishing, or whatever. Thats something I have been trying to learn to do more to help people learn more. So the work here is great and I'm having a blast. The other night i made a boss chili and home fries that was super good..a bit spicier than i intended but still very good. Love you all

Elder lusk