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
Sunday, May 27, 2018
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
Saturday, March 31, 2018
The Student Did the Teaching, Accountability, Homemade Lasagna and The Destructive Power of Pride
Hey fam!
another week has passed and more adventures were to be had.
another week has passed and more adventures were to be had.
This was a very busy week for us with a lot of moving up and down but we had some good times. Simon, our golden investigators is still going great and we are hoping to baptize him soon. We had a really great lesson with him the other day were once again he did most of the teaching. man I love that guy.
Then I went on two exchanges with missionaries in my district and got to work with them and I also did two baptismal interviews for them. So it's great to see the work starting to pick up here in Kitwe. The Elders have been working hard for a long time and we're starting to see the blessings come.
Then on Friday we had our Zone conference and it was great. We were looking at ways we can carry on the success we have been having and improve this year. We also focused in on taking accountability for our goals and plans of action for achieving them.
As a bit of a fun note I got to spent some time with Elder Almedia, an old friend of my mine from my early days in Lilongwe.He was up here with president for the conference so we got to talk and laugh about old times for a bit before he leaves in a few weeks.
Best of all Elder Armstrong made homemade Lasagna last night but don't worry mom yours is still better) but after 18 months is was truly divine.\
In my study this week I came across an old talk by president Benson about pride and man if you ever want to be humbled that's the talk to read as he taught about the dangers of the all too common destructive power of pride. Lots of great insight. Well Love you all so much hope this week treats you well.
Elder Lusk
Inspired Date for Baptism, I Was Humbled and Had an Attitude Adjustment, Going back to Madagascar and Running
Hey fam! We had another pretty good week here as time is flying out the window. The biggest bright spot in our area is Simon. He's so in tune to the spirit and can connect principles of the gospel together like he's learned them his whole life. We had a special experience with him where we gave him a date for baptism and it was one that Elder Tidwell and I felt strongly about and he was quiet for a minute or two and was getting slightly emotional. We were just sitting there like........what went wrong when he told us that the date we gave him was his late mother's birthday and how she had always been his spiritual guide and teacher....Whooah. Spiritual prompting to give him that particular date?....Absolutely. way cool experience for him and us to confirm truth.
We also had a bit of a humbling. We were trying to meet with this guy who had stood us up twice in the past and I was like "he doesn't show again I'm done" anyway he came and invited us to go back to his house and so we went and walked at least ten minutes into a very poor run down area and I admit my attitude wasn't where it should have been and so we sat down then he went into his house and came out with and old Book of Mormon. Apparently missionaries meet him five years ago and gave him a Book of Mormon and he's been reading with no one to talk about it with. That changed my attitude fast and so we're going to start teaching him this week and we'll see. Also in news Madagascar will be taking it's missionaries back soon. We don't know the exact timeline yet but that means there is going to be some major shuffling around in the mission and especially our district so we'll see how that goes. Funny story this week. The last few months I started running in the mornings with Elder Armstrong (from the Mada group) he was a top runner in High school and he's helped me get back into it. So we were out running outside our house and he's pushing super hard lapping me a ton as I eased into a nice jog and this lady walking by called me out for running too slow........yea we had a pretty good laugh about that in a self depreciating way. Good times. We also have Zone Confrence this week so we see what new direction president wants to take in 2018. Love you all.
We also had a bit of a humbling. We were trying to meet with this guy who had stood us up twice in the past and I was like "he doesn't show again I'm done" anyway he came and invited us to go back to his house and so we went and walked at least ten minutes into a very poor run down area and I admit my attitude wasn't where it should have been and so we sat down then he went into his house and came out with and old Book of Mormon. Apparently missionaries meet him five years ago and gave him a Book of Mormon and he's been reading with no one to talk about it with. That changed my attitude fast and so we're going to start teaching him this week and we'll see. Also in news Madagascar will be taking it's missionaries back soon. We don't know the exact timeline yet but that means there is going to be some major shuffling around in the mission and especially our district so we'll see how that goes. Funny story this week. The last few months I started running in the mornings with Elder Armstrong (from the Mada group) he was a top runner in High school and he's helped me get back into it. So we were out running outside our house and he's pushing super hard lapping me a ton as I eased into a nice jog and this lady walking by called me out for running too slow........yea we had a pretty good laugh about that in a self depreciating way. Good times. We also have Zone Confrence this week so we see what new direction president wants to take in 2018. Love you all.
Elder Lusk
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