I hope everyone has had an awesome week! Thanksgiving came and went, so I thought maybe I'd share a list of some of the things that I've become grateful for during my mission:
-my loving and supportive family
-good health
-the restored gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ
-clean water and safe housing
-peace in this beautiful country of Zimbabwe
-good friends
-my mission, an invaluable time to bring others to Christ, serve others, learn how to be like the Savior, and avoid being trampled by black friday shoppers.
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| Thanksgiving in Zim |
I hope you all have done your best to count your many blessings during the past week. I think we often forget how blessed we are and we take many things for granted. I know that I have been guilty of that, and I am so thankful that I have been able to have my eyes open to see how much my Heavenly Father has blessed me. One thing that I've also learned is that our Heavenly Father will bless us if we turn to Him. He is waiting to help and knows what's best for us, and if we exercise our faith and acknowledge His hand in all things, we will have peace, joy, and gratitude throughout this life.
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| Baptism! Munashe is in the back next to me, and Diana, Jannet, and Andile are in the front. Andile's mom is also there, and McCartney (our ward mission leader, the short guy in the back) was the one who baptized them |
We baptized 4 people this weekend! Since most of our week was spent with them, I thought I would do a spotlight on each of them:
Munashe- He's 21 years old and was referred to us by a member who was working on our new house. He plays rugby and is just a solid young man. He's become a good friend to us and has great potential as a priesthood holder!
Jannet- Jannet is the cousin sister to a member and is 17 years old. She came to church and wanted to be taught. She's super small but so sweet and humble. She's definitely one of the most golden people we've ever met.
Andile- Andile's mom contacted us as we were walking in the street. She doesn't really speak English, but I was able to talk to her in Shona and she told us about her daughter who wanted to learn about the gospel. Andile is 13 and intelligent, and she came to church after our first lesson. She's been so committed to the church and the gospel ever since we began teaching her.
Diana- Diana is Andile's 16 year old cousin that she brought to church with her the first time that she came. She's the kind of girl that's always smiling and she told us that she wanted to be baptized after hearing that another girl was going to be baptized.
It's been such a privilege to get to know each one of these amazing people and I'm so excited for all that lies ahead of them!
This week we had interviews with President Mkhabela. He taught us about faith and hope and emphasized his confidence in the Lord and his love for us. It was a comforting message especially with all that's been going on in Zim in the past week or so. My interview with him was pretty straightforward and he told me that he felt like he could rely on me, which really helped boost my confidence. He really is an inspired mission president and I'm grateful to serve under him. Yesterday we were able to view the Face 2 Face event for young adults with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard (if anyone missed it, it's still on lds.org). They answered some very applicable gospel questions with profound spiritual wisdom and provided some laughs along the way. I am so grateful to be a part of a church that is led by revelation given to God's ordained servants.
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| The rains came down and the floods came up |
Before I close, I wanted to share my thoughts on the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Nephi 31, 3 Nephi 11, etc). The gospel is made up of five basic principles and ordinances: faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. As Elder Bednar has said, the gospel is all gathered into one in Christ, and I had an interesting thought about the last principle of endurance. It seems like it's just a repeat button. It's kind of like shampoo (interesting analogy I know): lather, rinse repeat. Being a disciple of Christ is all about reapplying those basic principles over and over again: have faith, repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, repeat. Have faith, repent, partake of the sacrament, repeat. It's such a beautifully simple way to "be perfected in [Christ]." I'm so grateful to be a missionary and have the opportunity to teach this good news to all I meet and to learn to apply it more completely in my own life. I know that by doing so we will find ourselves closer to our Heavenly Father with each passing day.
Love you all, have a great week!
Love Elder Barlow
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