Hey Fam! Good news: the rain came. Bad news: the rain came. So now we've gone from swimming in our sweat under the blazing sun to treading through mud. All is well though and I have officially survived my last African hot season.
We had a pretty busy week here. We found 18 new investigators which is a mission high for me. First, the professor that we met the other week is the nicest guy ever and he even bought us lunch AND came to church on Sunday! Being a doctor of zoology, we also got a free lecture on the destructive power of the southern African army worm on local agriculture practices...yea, I fell asleep.
One of the coolest/craziest lessons my mission: We met this guy on the street and set a return appointment to teach him and some of his friends. Well, we showed up at the address to find out it was the local Bible college and we were standing in front of a room of 7 pastors in training teaching about the doctrine of the Church. I think it was intended to be an academic encounter but the Spirit of the Lord was so strong and their questions so pointed, and we testified and taught for nearly two hours and we have a return appointment where we will be placing 7 Book of Mormons. I even started getting choked up once when they asked me to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I don't know if any will be baptized but we were planting some seeds that I only hope and pray will lead to some miracles in the Lord's kingdom.
This week we have a busy schedule. The zone leaders are coming out for a leadership training for me and then we are holding a training for the district and then going on a district blitz finding activity where we flood an area with a ton of missionaries and talk to everyone. So, we will see how this goes.
Now to the food reports. With four hungry, creative cooks in one house, we have been eating like kings. I've even put on a pound or two. In the last week, we went through 40 eggs, five loaves of bread, 6 liters of milk, 4.5 pounds of ground beef, a chicken and probably 3 pounds of potatoes.
Love you all so much! Here's to another good week wherever you are and whatever you're doing.
From the muddy streets of Kitwe, Zambia
Elder Lusk
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Monday, January 1, 2018
Welcome to the Flat, More Manpower, Stepping Up as a Leader and The Power of the Atonement to Forgive
Hey Fam
Crazy busy week here. We got four new missionaries here in Kitwe from Madagascar and I've put them to work. It's been busy trying to split the area, show them around, and get used to new people living in our flat. They're good Elders, though, and it will be a welcome addition here and hopefully we can be much more effective in the work now that we have an ample amount of manpower to cover all our areas. Its kind of been a call to me to step up as the leader here and take a bit of charge with the new change.
We had a lot of lessons this week and were blessed with three people attending church. We actually spent an afternoon contacting people at our mall for a change to try to get more investigators. A bit of a new experience for our Madagascar elders who had not seen an mall in months.
I had a special experience this week as I interviewed a lady for baptism. As I spoke with her, I had a very real witness of the power of the Savior's atonement to forgive us of all our mistakes. I could feel her sincere desire to follow the Savior and, after consulting with President, it was a blessing getting to tell her that she could be baptized. It was a sight, that, if nothing else, would make my service here well worth it.
Love you all
Elder Lusk
Crazy busy week here. We got four new missionaries here in Kitwe from Madagascar and I've put them to work. It's been busy trying to split the area, show them around, and get used to new people living in our flat. They're good Elders, though, and it will be a welcome addition here and hopefully we can be much more effective in the work now that we have an ample amount of manpower to cover all our areas. Its kind of been a call to me to step up as the leader here and take a bit of charge with the new change.
We had a lot of lessons this week and were blessed with three people attending church. We actually spent an afternoon contacting people at our mall for a change to try to get more investigators. A bit of a new experience for our Madagascar elders who had not seen an mall in months.
I had a special experience this week as I interviewed a lady for baptism. As I spoke with her, I had a very real witness of the power of the Savior's atonement to forgive us of all our mistakes. I could feel her sincere desire to follow the Savior and, after consulting with President, it was a blessing getting to tell her that she could be baptized. It was a sight, that, if nothing else, would make my service here well worth it.
Love you all
Elder Lusk
Completely Fluent, What Am I Doing Wrong?, God's Timing and Perspective and Receiving Madagascar Elders
Hey fam
Well, it was officially the hottest week of the year here. When it's that hot, there's really nothing you can do about it besides just suffer through till the sun starts to go down and cool the place off.
The week was full of dropped lessons and lots of walking. The week wasn't all bad, though. We were well fed and had two very large dinner appointments and another three scheduled this week. We did get to meet a lot of new people this week and after weeks of that, Elder Robins and I are completely fluent teaching together. Apart from that, its been the same struggle to get people to keep their commitments and come to church. At times, it is frustrating and you want them there because you know it will be good for them and other times I feel like "what am I doing wrong here? nobody seems to be taking our teaching seriously". All of it has been one big test of character and patience but I'm happy to say I'm not going too crazy. With about 15 months of this , I've learned that God's timing and His perspective is much better than mine. Plus, having a great companion who can laugh things off is a great help.
Things are great here anyway. The rain and cool weather are only a few weeks away and hopefully we can continue to get more people progressing towards baptism soon.
Last night we made a ton of homemade pizzas and ourselves stupid and then watched "Testaments". On an interesting note, our mission just got a little bigger by "adopting" 25 missionaries that just got reassigned from Madagascar due to the plaque over in Madagascar right now. So far, I have not heard if my district will get any of these elders or sisters, but we will wait and see.
Love you with all of my heart.
Elder Lusk
Well, it was officially the hottest week of the year here. When it's that hot, there's really nothing you can do about it besides just suffer through till the sun starts to go down and cool the place off.
The week was full of dropped lessons and lots of walking. The week wasn't all bad, though. We were well fed and had two very large dinner appointments and another three scheduled this week. We did get to meet a lot of new people this week and after weeks of that, Elder Robins and I are completely fluent teaching together. Apart from that, its been the same struggle to get people to keep their commitments and come to church. At times, it is frustrating and you want them there because you know it will be good for them and other times I feel like "what am I doing wrong here? nobody seems to be taking our teaching seriously". All of it has been one big test of character and patience but I'm happy to say I'm not going too crazy. With about 15 months of this , I've learned that God's timing and His perspective is much better than mine. Plus, having a great companion who can laugh things off is a great help.
Things are great here anyway. The rain and cool weather are only a few weeks away and hopefully we can continue to get more people progressing towards baptism soon.
Last night we made a ton of homemade pizzas and ourselves stupid and then watched "Testaments". On an interesting note, our mission just got a little bigger by "adopting" 25 missionaries that just got reassigned from Madagascar due to the plaque over in Madagascar right now. So far, I have not heard if my district will get any of these elders or sisters, but we will wait and see.
Love you with all of my heart.
Elder Lusk
Our Well-laid Plans, Will You Write About the Joy?, You Just Have to See it and Natural Country Charm
Hey Fam
Life is well here in Kitwe. We are experiencing a rare mid hot season rain so that is a welcome break from the heat.
We have a baptism planned this weekend for a young man we have been working with for about three months here and he's finally ready to enter the waters of baptism.
This week was a bit of a tough one where, despite all of our well laid plans, we had fall through after fall through with appointments and then we found out two of our golden investigators moved away , only one of our investigators came to church and it was hot all week.
In the middle of all that when I felt like we were working so hard with no results, I got a text from Sister Kupu asking me to write a piece for the mission newsletter on finding joy in the middle of trials. How's that for a wake up call on my attitude? It was one of those moments where I knew Heavenly Father knew what I needed. After that, I was able to start seeing the blessings including that we received two referrals from members of the church and have a dinner appointment set for this week.
On top of that, my companion who is brand new is molding into a powerful teacher and is great at bringing the Spirit of God in as we teach in a natural country charm way. So when life is getting you down, there is still plenty to be positive about. You just have to see it.
That's all I have for now but time is flying by here and without realizing it, I am among the old veterans in this mission which is coming with its own set of joys and stresses but all is well.
Love you all and enjoy the Fall weather.
Elder Lusk
Life is well here in Kitwe. We are experiencing a rare mid hot season rain so that is a welcome break from the heat.
We have a baptism planned this weekend for a young man we have been working with for about three months here and he's finally ready to enter the waters of baptism.
This week was a bit of a tough one where, despite all of our well laid plans, we had fall through after fall through with appointments and then we found out two of our golden investigators moved away , only one of our investigators came to church and it was hot all week.
In the middle of all that when I felt like we were working so hard with no results, I got a text from Sister Kupu asking me to write a piece for the mission newsletter on finding joy in the middle of trials. How's that for a wake up call on my attitude? It was one of those moments where I knew Heavenly Father knew what I needed. After that, I was able to start seeing the blessings including that we received two referrals from members of the church and have a dinner appointment set for this week.
On top of that, my companion who is brand new is molding into a powerful teacher and is great at bringing the Spirit of God in as we teach in a natural country charm way. So when life is getting you down, there is still plenty to be positive about. You just have to see it.
That's all I have for now but time is flying by here and without realizing it, I am among the old veterans in this mission which is coming with its own set of joys and stresses but all is well.
Love you all and enjoy the Fall weather.
Elder Lusk
Taxi Rides with Strangers, Pizza, A Baptism After All, 6-7 A Day and 93 Degrees
Hey fam! We had a great week. First, we had a baptism but more on that later. On Tuesday, we were on our way home from the other side of Kitwe after doing a baptismal interview for the other elders. We decided to stop at Pizza Hut in the mall to treat ourselves. The pizza was great and we were heading home in a cab when we met the nicest man to ever wear shoes. He got in the cab with us and started talking to us and next thing we know, he's paid our fare and we are sitting at his table (he lived next to us) getting a second dinner with food to take home. He's a doctor with a large family and a wife that can cooooook! We are very blessed.
All went well with our baptism interview but then the night before his baptism, he called to say his grandfather dies and so we cancelled the baptism. Then we both spent a sleepless night tossing and turning over that turn of events only to be awakened at 5:30 am by him calling and saying he would still like to be baptized that day. We flipped out and we had a great baptismal service for him.
We have another man who just accepted baptism and is learning super fast. He just needs to work on keeping some commitments.
Then we had a guy call us who had found the church online and, after reading, told us that he had already made up his mind on joining the church. We are looking forward to teaching him and his family.
For food this week, in addition to the pizza, the avacados are ripe so I whipped up a batch of awesome guacamole.
Also, president just raised the mission standard to 6-7 pages a day in the Book of Mormon with a goal to finish every 90 days. Elder Robins and I started at the beginning again and, due to a competitive nature and lots of fall through lessons, we are now 100 pages in after one week and saw an increase of scripture use as we taught together which is an added blessing for reading.
All is well here and hope you are having a great week. If you're curious, the lowest daytime temp this week was 93 degrees....and we walk.
Love you all
Elder Lusk
All went well with our baptism interview but then the night before his baptism, he called to say his grandfather dies and so we cancelled the baptism. Then we both spent a sleepless night tossing and turning over that turn of events only to be awakened at 5:30 am by him calling and saying he would still like to be baptized that day. We flipped out and we had a great baptismal service for him.
We have another man who just accepted baptism and is learning super fast. He just needs to work on keeping some commitments.
Then we had a guy call us who had found the church online and, after reading, told us that he had already made up his mind on joining the church. We are looking forward to teaching him and his family.
For food this week, in addition to the pizza, the avacados are ripe so I whipped up a batch of awesome guacamole.
Also, president just raised the mission standard to 6-7 pages a day in the Book of Mormon with a goal to finish every 90 days. Elder Robins and I started at the beginning again and, due to a competitive nature and lots of fall through lessons, we are now 100 pages in after one week and saw an increase of scripture use as we taught together which is an added blessing for reading.
All is well here and hope you are having a great week. If you're curious, the lowest daytime temp this week was 93 degrees....and we walk.
Love you all
Elder Lusk
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Running in the Dark, Pleased with My Efforts, Spriitual Resurrection and the Atonement, Oh and Soft Serve
Hey fam
We had a pretty good week here in Kitwe. Funny story. The Kupu's (our mission president and his wife) were coming around for flat inspections on Wednesday just before zone conference on Thursday. In their effort to find the flat, they got lost and after about ten phone calls of me leading them all over Kitwe in the dark, I finally just told them to stay put and Elder Robins and I took off to get them. Picture this: Its pitch black outside and you have two young white guys in white shirts and ties sprinting through the dark with a flashlight. Yep, by the time we found the Kupus we had sprinted about 1.5 miles in just under 10 minutes (feeling proud about that feat in my current lack of conditioning).
We had a great zone conference and President Kupu says he's pleased with my efforts as a district leader.
Then on Friday, we went on splits with the assistants and that meant we got to work with one of my favorite missionaries, Elder Chartier. He was my zone leader back in Lilongwe and he's just a blast to be around and the boldest teacher I've met. We had some great contacts with him including a man that had been taught before but felt like God had abandoned him to which we said that the fact that two missionaries were standing in front of him shows that God still cares for him.
For me, I had a new insight when we were teaching the Plan of Salvation to a man the other day and he asked if there was such a thing as spiritual resurrection and then it came to me that repentance is the spiritual resurrection that comes through Christ's atonement. So that was a special moment for me when, as a teacher, I was taught.
Finally, we found an amazing soft serve ice-cream stand just by our flat!
Love you all!
Elder Lusk
We had a pretty good week here in Kitwe. Funny story. The Kupu's (our mission president and his wife) were coming around for flat inspections on Wednesday just before zone conference on Thursday. In their effort to find the flat, they got lost and after about ten phone calls of me leading them all over Kitwe in the dark, I finally just told them to stay put and Elder Robins and I took off to get them. Picture this: Its pitch black outside and you have two young white guys in white shirts and ties sprinting through the dark with a flashlight. Yep, by the time we found the Kupus we had sprinted about 1.5 miles in just under 10 minutes (feeling proud about that feat in my current lack of conditioning).
We had a great zone conference and President Kupu says he's pleased with my efforts as a district leader.
Then on Friday, we went on splits with the assistants and that meant we got to work with one of my favorite missionaries, Elder Chartier. He was my zone leader back in Lilongwe and he's just a blast to be around and the boldest teacher I've met. We had some great contacts with him including a man that had been taught before but felt like God had abandoned him to which we said that the fact that two missionaries were standing in front of him shows that God still cares for him.
For me, I had a new insight when we were teaching the Plan of Salvation to a man the other day and he asked if there was such a thing as spiritual resurrection and then it came to me that repentance is the spiritual resurrection that comes through Christ's atonement. So that was a special moment for me when, as a teacher, I was taught.
Finally, we found an amazing soft serve ice-cream stand just by our flat!
Love you all!
Elder Lusk
16 Hours on a Bus, A Few Good Dinners, Dust Road "Sermons" and Jeus the Christ
Hey fam! This was a pretty crazy week that is turning into two crazy weeks! So, the beginning of the week was normal and we did a lot of finding new people until Thursday morning at 9:45. We had a great day planned and were just about to head out when the phone rang and one of the missionaries who is an assistant to our mission president told me that we were due to appear at Zambia's immigration office in Lusaka on Friday morning. So, we had to cancel our plans for the day and rush to pack and then meet up with the other Elders in Kitwe who also had to go and then jump on the next bus to Lusaka for an eight hour cramped bus with no A/C. We get in late Thursday, got dinner with the APs (assistants to the mission President) and then crashed. The next morning I go into immigration and two minutes later walk out having signed the one form that was required. Then apparently a last minute law change came up and my companion and the other new missionary in our district didn't pass and we're still battling the red tape.
On Saturday morning, they put me and Elder Blanchard on a bus back to Kitwe (again insert 7.5 hours of no A/C with an active two year old next to you). So right now we are on extended exchanges till they get everything sorted out and we get our companions back.
As crazy as it was, I did get to enjoy a few good dinners at the mall in Lusaka and catch up with some old mission friends I have not seen in a while. We should still be having our baptism this week or next for a wonderful brother.
Also, with 16 hours in a bus this week, I had a lot of time to read and ended up covering a significant portion of the book, "Jesus, the Christ" by James E. Talmage. While it about as dense as a law text book, I ended up seeing so much strength in reading again about the simple and humble birth and life of our Savior. Somehow after 13 months of dust road "sermons", it feels a little more real to me as I understand more of the character and mission of our Savior.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Lusk
On Saturday morning, they put me and Elder Blanchard on a bus back to Kitwe (again insert 7.5 hours of no A/C with an active two year old next to you). So right now we are on extended exchanges till they get everything sorted out and we get our companions back.
As crazy as it was, I did get to enjoy a few good dinners at the mall in Lusaka and catch up with some old mission friends I have not seen in a while. We should still be having our baptism this week or next for a wonderful brother.
Also, with 16 hours in a bus this week, I had a lot of time to read and ended up covering a significant portion of the book, "Jesus, the Christ" by James E. Talmage. While it about as dense as a law text book, I ended up seeing so much strength in reading again about the simple and humble birth and life of our Savior. Somehow after 13 months of dust road "sermons", it feels a little more real to me as I understand more of the character and mission of our Savior.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Lusk
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