Elder Chipman's Adventures in Africa: Week 16

What is good everyone!?

I hope everyone is still enjoying their summer and all the fun activities that are going on!

This week was a great one for us. We had a leadership council on Wednesday followed with Zone meeting on Friday. And from there all the days are mooshed together for me haha. The Lord has been truly blessing us in terms of the work lately. We accompanied Carlos and Elsa to Carlos' parents’ house to talk about them getting married and it ran smoothly. They now have the goal to get married on the 2nd of September and then baptized on the 9th. Also, we are planning on have a baptismal service for Pedro, Benjamin and Gabriel for the 12th August. We are also working very are hard with some teenager boys, Henriques, Joao, Milagrino and Americo. We have been visiting with them all for about 2 and half weeks now and they are super funny. They are big jokers and the way the mess around reminds of my friends and I before the mission. But it is really cool to see them change when we start our visits and you can just tell how serious they are about changing somethings in their life and doing all together as friends.

Elder Souza and I were talking on our way back to the house last night about these 4 young men that we have become really good friends with in a very short time. We were talking about them getting baptized, receiving the priesthood, helping their friends in the neighborhood come to know the blessings of the gospel, serving missions and so on. I was pondering about this a lot last night and the thing is... that we are not sure if they will be baptized. We are hopeful and optimistic that they will but we are not sure. And then it hit me, that this how Heavenly Father thinks about all of us. He has the highest aspiration for us all that one day we all can return into His presence, after having experienced all the joys and sadness of this mortal life. He wants us to achieve this thing so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for us so that this would all be possible.

"It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.

He did this at least in part because then and now all of us need to know God more fully in order to love Him more deeply and obey Him more completely." -Elder Jeffery R. Holland, "The Grandeur of God"

I hope that we can see our own, as well as others, potential and do our very best to do what Heavenly Father wants us to do so that we can we all reach our full potential.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Chipman