Baptisms Can Be Any Day!

 Caleb slept in so we ended up not doing a video call, but we did message for a little bit. 

A few more baptisms this week. There is one scheduled for next week,

but the individual Caleb and his companion have been teaching lives in

a bit of a dangerous area, and that man's brother was beat up over the weekend.

The family is a bit scared to leave their home at the moment, so we're praying 

that this individual will feel safe enough to be baptized. 

If not, Caleb's sure it will happen at some point.

In addition to the individual that Caleb mentions in his email, a mother

and two of her children were also baptized over the weekend. Her

oldest son was baptized just before Christmas. The work is moving forward! 

Here's Caleb's email (he sent a link to his photos but not sure if it can 

be accessed from here, so I'll post the photos from this week):
 

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful day! And an exciting start to your week!

As for me, I am doing pretty good. Nothing too crazy happened this past week so I'll instead share a fun fact. The language dominant in my mission is Zulu, its most notable by the way they pronounce q, x, and c which they use clicks for. But something I find interesting is that much of the language and grammar is based on prefixes, their aren't individual words for things like "we", "i", "they" instead the word you're putting it with gets a prefix. For example, ibona means "see" to say "we will see" would be Sizobona. One word with a prefix instead of 2 seperate words. I just thought it was interesting.

On a little more missionary work side of things this week we had 4 baptisms! One of which was on Saturday! Which is kinda of uncommon here, theres a large culture of "everyone needs to see the baptism" so they're normally done right after church on sunday, which is great! But sometimes people take that to mean they can only happen on Sunday. We had a friend that had put off baptism in the past because he was afraid to be baptized in front of so many people so when we had invited him to be baptized and he shared his concern, he was happy to hear that he could be baptized on any day where fewer people would be present! It was an amazing and intimate baptismal service and I'm excited to see him continue to follow the Saviors footsteps!

The Lord loves us all and has given us simple steps to make it back to Him! The 4th article of faith teaches us that Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost are the first steps to lead us to God. These things are simple! Not always easy but simple none the less, because this allows everyone to understand and follow the steps of Christs Gospel

Love,

Elder Roskelley

Here's the google photos, join if you'd like to see a little of my South African Journey

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vz3HHG6wAbRNjQpf9  

 

 

Pioneer Children Sing As They WALK

 Yes, Caleb got a bit of walking in after church on Sunday and he wasn't 

prepared for it! It is summertime there and a hot day. He anticipated an hour walk round trip and

it ended up being 3 1/2 hours with no sunscreen! He said he's a little crisp! 

(He and his companion have a car but they're not allowed to drive anyone other than

missionaries. He explains more of the story in his email).

The work is progressing and Caleb continues to do well! 

Here's his latest email which covers the last two weeks along with some pictures: 

Hello Everyone! I hope you are doing well! As for me I'm doing pretty alright. It was super hot this passed week which was not fun however last Sunday our friends Eric got baptized! He's super awesome, hes read the Book of Mormon 5 times but has been working on stopping smoking for sooo long and he finally managed to get rid of his addiction and now our friends Simphiwe(sim-pee-way) is getting ready to be baptized this Saturday! First Saturday baptism while here on my mission. 

As for fun stories, yesterday we met a guy also named Simphiwe(different guy) and he said he wants to know how to be baptized. So we're like, "we love that question, maybe we can visit you sometime this week" but he doesn't have a formal address. He said the general location of where he lived, and Elder Jamo said its close and we could just walk with him home after church. So I trusted him. 2 hours later we arrived at Simphiwes home. And then we made it like 1 hour later we got caught in a downpour on the walk back to the chapel. So I'll never trust jamo about it again. (If you're curious it was between and a 10-11 mile round trip)  

We also got to have a member meal with a sister who joined the church 32 years ago and was baptized in a pool. It was pretty good food nothing too crazy. 

I had a drink called Umqomboti (might be spelled wrong) its a Zulu beer dont worry I was assured by the MEMBER that it had not alcoholic. So I graciously accepted. Twas not very good and after further research, I prayed and asked for forgiveness but i can now say I've tried beer I suppose

For those of you that didn't know, South Africa is a heavily Christian country, meaning that many know some things from the Bible. Most people gladly accept knew knowledge about Jesus and God. However some feel the urge to prove their knowledge of the Bible. I wouldn't say its a bash because they are not usually trying to contradict us. They usually use random verses and try to show just how much they know. Amd sometimes the things they say make me grateful for the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets. In Psalms and John 10, its stated that we are gods, some i have talked to take this literally and use it to justify any lifestyle since they are already gods. However the Book of Mormon and modern prophets clarify that these verses are referring to our potential to become like God.

We are blessed to have the Bible the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets to work together and strengthen one another so that we may hold steadfast to the rod of iron and not be led away in the mist of darkness.

Love,

 Elder Roskelley

                                                   With his friend Eric and Elder Jamo.

 

                 The "beer" Caleb mentioned. Made from some of the leftover porridge shown below.

                                A meal that a sister in the branch made for them. Not his favorite!

 

A picture of the area he's in (along with the one with homes).

He said members there seem to love the Lord's Prayer. 

Christmas and New Year's!

 Heard from Caleb again today. Poor kid has been sick. 

He said their was some suspicious meat in some finger foods he ate.

But, seeming to like the new area, especially having more options for food!

He found some Tim Tam! Anyway, his email this week was pretty detailed,

so here it is:

 

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all doing amazing and that you've all had a wonderful holiday season! For me, its been a blast although its kinda weird for it to not be cold 

First and foremost, I got transfered! I have left Nhlangano in Eswatini and moved to an area called Ladysmith in South Africa. Compared to my previous area its much more wealthy here. Everyone here has a proper home with a roof overhead, in my last area we ran into many people that didnt have phones or proper addresses so it was quite difficult to teach them after our first time meeting them, so far in Ladysmith that hasn't been an issue at all! 

For Christmas all the missionaries went down to Durban, we had mission Conference on the 23rd and 24th and then partied on Christmas day. Honestly the whole time was a party but there was also a lot of insightful things that were discussed during mission Conference. One of the biggest take aways that I recieved and that i somehow feel everytime we have zone conference is that the missionary work is a work of miracles, which I'll touch on a little bit later.

During mission Conference we did a service activity where we made little school supply bags, for children and families that cant provide the supplies they need for their child to go through school. We ended up making somewhere around 5,000 supply bags and it was super awesome, its wonderful that the Lord can provide such gifts to those that need them.

After Christmas we all went to our areas, but unfortunately a bunch of missionaries (including myself) got food poisoning it was no fun but nothing can stop the Lords work!

New Year's is a crazy time in South Africa, its basically just a reason to party and drink... in the middle of the road! On Tuesday we were trying to leave our area but people had put rocks in the road basically to close it off to have a block party. Due to the craziness on New Year's eve, all the missionaries had to be inside by 2 PM, which meant our regular working day was only like 3 ½ hours

I mentioned previously that what I took away from mission Conference was that missionary work is a work of miracles. This is for one huge reason. In Early November our mission president had a conference with all the mission leaders in the Africa South Area, and they were asked, in one sentence, what their goal was for December because every mission in Africa South sees the work slow down in the month of December. Our mission president said that the SADM's gift to the Savior would be that every missionary would baptize 1 child of God in the month of December. By December 21st, 115 people had made covenants with our Heavenly Father in the month of December. And on the 28th of December 17 more people were able to be baptized. The Lord is hastening His work, and He blessed the SADM missionaries to be able to find 132 people that were ready to go before the Lord with a contrite spirit and broken heart in the waters of baptism!

Sorry that this weeks was so long but there was a lot to catch up on!

Love you all,

Elder Roskelley