Bonjour!

Bonjour!

 Things went pretty well this past week! Just been teaching a ton of lessons! We had a solid baptism day on this past Saturday and that went awesome!! I was especially excited for Daniel, who’s been stellar no doubt! It was the best to see how happy he was, it was insane! He’s progressed insanely fast since we found him just a few weeks ago, and was able to get baptized this past Saturday with all those others! He’ll be getting the priesthood in the next couple weeks as well, so it will be awesome to see how well he progresses in the church, he has an incredibly strong testimony in all the things we’ve talked about, and was surely converted by the Book of Mormon, so that was a special baptism no doubt! We have 5 more coming up this next Saturday so that will be really fun for sure! Me and Desvergez both stayed here through this last big transfer, so that was good for sure! I love him a ton and we have the best time no doubt, and its great for both of us to see a lot of the fruit of our labors these next weeks with the baptisms! I’m pretty sure one of us will be leaving this next transfer though when we get 21 new missionaries. So the work is going really well. We have a lot of finding to do though, so we’ve been up to a lot of tracking, and looking. We had a really cool lesson with a Muslim couple this past week. We read Alma 42 with the two of them, which is in depth on the atonement, and the importance of Jesus Christ, the spirit was incredibly strong no doubt, and afterwards all Desvergez said was, man. Dieu est fort.. We were lucky to even talk with the people, as they are Muslim, let alone read the Book of Mormon with them, and as they did you could see the spirit working in them. We have fixed a date for baptism with them the 21st  of this month, I’m really hoping, but well have to see if that works out! Either way, they for sure have a better understanding of Christ thanks to the Book of Mormon, so that was awesome for sure! Things are good in the branch as well, this past week was the temple trip for the youth, so this past Sunday was the testimony meeting for those who went on the trip, and that was awesome as well! It was great to see how blown away and happy they were talking about it!  It’s really cool to see these people getting the chance to go to the temple, and the sacrifices financially they made to do it. They only get the trip two times each year, but you could definitely see they made the most of it!  

It’s been really hot this past week, and its now hitting that time of year where it just gets hotter. Its good though being acclimated by now! Me and Desvergez had a solid basketball session today as well, doing our usual... either the people here are getting faster though, or I’m just getting more out of shape.  With those cleaning checks.... its too competitive... we seriously went all out, we cleaned, went and picked flowers, made a fruit bowl, and hung up Benin flags. Yet we still didn’t win.... That was terrible Ha-ha. Things are good though!  things are so much more fun when you can speak the language, studies as well!! It’s really fun teaching the atonement with these people because really it’s something complex but there are many ways to make it easy to understand. I’ve always heard the way with us being in debt, and Jesus Christ paying that for us, so now we have to pay him back. This one is good, but really we cant pay the debt back, and that’s not what Christ wants from us... but this past week I found something that makes a lot more sense, and that’s piano lessons. For example, a mom pays for piano lessons for her child, so she gives him a great opportunity, and something that can be a big blessing, she doesn’t ask for the child to pay her back, that isn’t what she wants, but all she asks for him to practice, and that is what makes her happy, that’s also the way the child can show his thanks for her, for what she gave him, by this as well he grows and becomes better, as he grows, that’s what makes the mom happy, its not that he repays her for the lessons, he doesn’t pay the teacher for the lessons, but just practices.. With this the child grows and can become really good at piano, which is what the mom is wanting. This analogy is a lot like what Christ did for us, as he paid for all the sins and all he asks is obedience and repentance. In doing so we become better and more like him, which is the goal in life... along with that, I know from my experiences, we don’t like practicing the piano, because we don’t see the use of it. Just because we don’t see through the mom’s eyes, and we go and do our own thing. Which again is a lot like with Christ, where we don’t see reason for repentance or obedience in some things. If we only saw through Christ’s eyes and saw why he has us do all we do, its just so we can become more like him, be happier, and live with him again. The atonement is something special for sure!! I love you all though, and I hope all is great there!! Have a great next week!

Baptisms Saturday!

Daniel