"I Stand All Amazed"

-This week was great. We had the baptisms of Okuhle and Lathitha. It was really special. They were super excited! The water again was absolutely freezing, ha-ha.  Luckily I didn't have to get in, Elder Rakotomamonjy got in which was hilarious cause bro hates the cold, LOL. The baptisms went well though.

-We had a 4th of July braii with our district. We made some dogs, it was great. The only problem was we pulled up to the other elders' apartment to find that they had gotten robbed. Some guys came in the window and took quite a bit: clothes, food, kitchen knives, etc. So that was sketch. They even took one of the elder's towel and pooped on it outside. So that was actually super funny, ha-ha-ha, but also not.

-On Wednesday we got 3 dinner appointments: back to back to back. Yo, I have never eaten so much chicken and rice in my life! It's always good though, the mamas here are really good cooks. It was funny because a lot of these mamas don't speak very good English, so they often try to explain things to us in Xhosa.  Recently I've found myself being able to understand what they are saying to me. It's like I don't really know what all the words they are saying mean, hahaha, but I understand exactly what they're telling me. And, I can communicate with them. It doesn't make much sense, it has to be the spirit because there's no other way because the language is too complicated and hard. 

-I went on 2 exchanges this week, both were in my area. 1 in Queenstown and 1 in Illinge. I was with Elder Morganegg in Queenstown and honestly nothing happened that day, it was pretty boring. But on Friday I was with Elder Fagg in Illinge and one of the funniest things happened. We went to go see mama Pama to set up a lesson with her because she wants us to teach her husband. It was just meant to be like a 5 minute contact, but she pretty much forced us to sit down, ha-ha. She starts talking to us about all these random things. Brings her Xhosa Book of Mormon opens it up to some verses and makes me read them for her in English as she looked at them in Xhosa. She kept just flipping to different ones and said every time "Ah, I love that one ... mmm."  Then went immediately to the next. She then suddenly shuts her Book of Mormon and goes "My favorite hymn 193 and 85". I was like .... oh yes, those are two great hymns. She then made us open up to them on our phone and she said "sing". Hahaha, I was like ohhhh - okay. So, we played "How firm a foundation" and "I stand all amazed" on our phone and we sang it for her. The funniest part was she was jamming out to these hymns like it was some rock song. Also, she was singing with her broken English, she would say all the wrong words ha-ha-ha. It was just so funny, Elder Fagg and I could hardly keep it in. We would start laughing every other line or so. Her husband was just sitting next to her just staring at us which made it even funnier. And to finish it off, as we were leaving she started singing again and made us sing again for her as we walked out. Sister Pama is just such a funny and sweet soul. She always makes me laugh.

-On Saturday we went out tracting for too long and we came across this man named Dylan Allcock. He's an Afrikaans guy. We knocked on his gate. He then came out and immediately let us in. We talked for a bit and told him who we are and what we do. We shared about the Book of Mormon and our testimonies with him. It was really powerful lesson. He told us he's been praying and asking God to send someone to him. So that was really a cool tender mercy. 

- We got to eat some more smiley a mama gave us. Which "smiley" is basically any livestock head. It honestly sucks, but we ate it all always. We had sheep head, so ... yummy, lol. 

- A scripture I loved reading this week was in Mosiah 2. It is probably one of my favorite chapters, super powerful. Verses 22-25, 41.

"22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. 

23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

 24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? 

25 And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you."

"41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

I love these verses. All the Lord asks of us is to keep the commandments he has given us. Which isn't necessarily easy because we have that natural man inside of us. But it is that simple. And like it says when we keep the commandments he immediately blesses us. When it says we are forever indebted to Him. It's true there is nothing we can do to pay back the price He payed for us. But what we can do is show him the gratitude we have. And we do that by being obedient and faithful to the commandments He has given us. 

Verse 41 is one of my favorite scriptures. Because it's true those who keep the commandments, and live faithfully to the gospel are happy. It is the only way for a man to find lasting happiness in this life and in the next. It is easy to see those who keep His commandments. We can see if by the joy they have. And they who keep those comments will dwell with God one day. Such powerful verses. 

-Elder Quick