Elder Kaden Smith: March 13, 2017

Wohoo! Another week in KwaMagxaki!

The week started out with a chill p day in Uitenhage with the zone. Did some basketball and jammed with Elder Greengrass.

We've been working hard building up our teaching pool again after we've had those baptisms and we've been able to find a few more people which is going to be great.

We've been trying lately to also work with our recent convert priesthood holders and get them in the missionary spirit. We took one of them, Khanyiso (19 and finishing Matric year=12 grade, already been to the bush) on Friday and it was an awesome experience for him and us. He was able to help us teach and bore his testimony at the lessons we went to and it was powerful. One of the young member girls asked, "hey wasn't this the kid that was just baptized? How does he know so much?" haha it was awesome. It really shows how when you build that foundation on reading the Book of Mormon how it strengthens you and your testimony.

On Sunday I confirmed him and gave him the Holy Ghost. We took him and our other priesthood recent converts with us to the mission prep class at church and they loved it. I hope this interest has sparked and he will have that desire to pursue mission to help others.

We were able to have our first lesson with his sister and aunt and cousin following church on Sunday and he said it was a day of blessings because he was there to help us and his aunt was quite receptive and wanted us back!

Our highlight of the week was Zikhona's Baptism on Sunday! She is a very powerful girl and has a strong testimony of Christ and the Book of Mormon. One of the lessons we had with her we were talking about how Jesus Christ performed the Atonement, the time of his life where he suffered for our sins not only in Gethsemane but on the Cross, and she mentioned how sad that must've been and it made me realize she truly loved Christ as her older brother. While it was a sad experience we also mentioned how much good it brought to the world.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ allows us to be forgiven of our sins, to make ourselves clean. As Christ commanded us to be perfect even as our Father in Heaven, that is not possible without the Atonement. After baptism, where we are washed of our sins and start a new life through Christ, we can use the sacrament each Sunday to renew that covenant again and be forgiven as long as we have sincerely repented.

Since this email is a little later, Today for P-Day we went to Addo Elephant National Park and it is the biggest Nature Reserve I've ever been to. Although we saw no lions or Hyenas, we saw several Elephants, Zebra, Cape Buffalo, Fox, Ibex, Dung Beetles, and several other beautiful African animals. And on the drive, we saw hundreds of monkeys along the road and they're so funny when they wrestle and jump around.

I've learned to love the beauty of Africa. It is a whole different world here full of the beautiful creations of God. I feel truly blessed to be here, we just need a lot of rain. Port Elizabeth is in a drought and there are water restrictions each day. We need rain a lot, please pray for it!

Thanks for the support and until next week~

Elder Smith