I Dey Go Na

Good morning everyone! This week was really wonderful. We had some big miracles. 

First of all, David and James are doing amazing. They're the kids I wrote about in my last email whose parents are returning members. Their dad still hasn't come to church yet but they've come to church with their mom the past 2 Sundays! And they're such good guys. David is 16 and James is 11 but they both read everything we ask them to read and seem to be understanding everything pretty well. They were really shy at first but now seem to be warming up to us, especially David. He even let Elder Bukasa take a joy ride on his bicycle. Or maybe Elder Bukasa just took a joy ride on his bicycle and he didn't say anything. Either way, things are going well with them and we're planning to extend a baptismal date to them tomorrow. 

Also, I'm going on transfer! That's another big news. I'm super sad to be going, but it feels right. I'll miss Elder Bukasa so much, but I know he'll do amazing things. 

And he is needed here! Especially since we found 2 new French speakers this week, which means we now have 5 French-speaking people in our teaching pool. They all have varying levels of English, but only one understands enough to be taught in English. The rest of them we teach in French. Elder Bukasa does the translating and most the teaching, and I teach a little and bear my testimony at the end. It's a good time. 

Ahmed is one of the French people we found this week, and he seems awesome. We were on our way to teach David and James on the air force base where they live, but we were a little early so we were looking for something to do before we got there. As we were going, we passed a shop and a woman speaking impassioned French. The shop was a little ways off of the road, but as soon as Elder Bukasa heard French we zoomed over there. The French speaking lady was going, but luckily she wasn't just talking to herself and Ahmed was there! Before we even introduced ourselves, he invited us to sit down and teach him. 

He told us he's a refugee from Ivory Coast who has been here for 9 years. He's looking for the true Church and wants to know more about God. It was such an awesome lesson. 

We also have a very aptly named referral that has a ton of potential. Her name is literally Blessing and she lives up to it. Earlier in the week, we were trying to visit a member but couldn't find her house, so we visited a different member named James. It turned out to be so great. He's 85 but looks great and has an awesome testimony. We talked about the world and the gospel for awhile, shared a few scriptures, then asked him if he knew anyone who we could teach the restored gospel to. He told us about Blessing, and gave us very vague directions to her house. 

On Sunday, we went there. It was a super long walk and we had to get a lot of directions but we found the place. However, she wasn't home! We stopped for a minute after receiving this news to plan our next move, then headed out. As we were going, the little girl who had told us Blessing wasn't around at first called out to us and said Blessing had just arrived at home. We happily turned around and taught her. 

She was super cool and said she wants to get baptized! Like right out the gate she said that James has been telling her she needs to get baptized and she wants to. Her only question was how deep the baptismal font is, because she doesn't know how to swim and was worried about drowning. We reassured her that the requirements for baptism don't include swimming and asked her if we could teach her and help her get baptized. She accepted and said she would come to church next week! 

God was in that just like He is in so many other things. I've been taught so much about Him this week. On Sunday we had a mission-wide zoom meeting with Tadd R. Callister and his wife. They taught about the plan of salvation. I have a lot to say about it, but it boils down to the fact that Tadd R. Callister is one of the greatest teachers and scriptorians I've ever seen and that the plan of salvation is real, true, and logical. I have such a greater desire to teach others about it since yesterday. I want to help others to feel what I felt yesterday. The gospel is true, Jesus Christ is our savior, and God is our father. Nasso. 

Love, 

Elder Johnson