Miracle In Stellies

- Another good week in Mdantsane. The work is moving fast here, so it's keeping us busy. A highlight of the week was that we had MLC this week. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to Cape Town this time around as it was via zoom. But it was still powerful. We talked a lot about our mission goals for 2024, as well as how to develop the faith to achieve those goals. After the meeting Elder Roberts and I went and walked in the pouring rain for a couple hours, it was one of those days, lol. But hey, honestly, it was super nice,  it's a lot better than the usual humidity and heat. When the rain is coming down that hard the only people we saw outside were the young boys, they make these makeshift carts out of scrap wood and random wheels of all sizes, put an old school chair on top then take it to the top of the hill and just send it. hahaha. 

-Our friend Washington is an interesting guy. We've been working with him for quite a while now. He just randomly one day came to church and since then we have been teaching him every week. He's got a soft heart, he may not fully understand everything but he's sensitive to the spirit. Which counts for a lot. Something he told us this week after we were speaking to him about some commandments and how sin will push us away from God. He goes "Oh no, I do NOT want to be far from God!" Then went on to explain the peace and happiness he feels when at church. The spirit and atonement are working in his life. Hope to see him baptized soon. 

-A miracle happened this week. My friend Caleb, who we found and started teaching when I was serving in Stellenbosch, which was my very first area, finally got baptized!! I knew it was just a matter of time for him. He's come a long way. He had a hard time from his family pushing against him, to having to exercise so much faith to receive a witness, he really had so many voices trying to keep him away from the truth. But I know the Lord has big things in store for him, or else the adversary wouldn't have worked so hard to try and keep him from discovering the truth. When I got sent the pictures from the members there, yo, I felt so much joy! When I was teaching him way back. His family used to send him anti church videos and stuff like that. What he would do was he wouldn't watch them without us, lol. So, we would go through it with him answering all his questions and clarify the truth from fiction. Every time it would end with him closing the video 10 mins into an hour-long video, because he got the point that those videos were just wrong. We talked a lot about receiving a confirmation of the truth of The Book of Mormon. About what that feels like and how to have those experiences. It was such a happy moment when he texted me saying "...It was amazing, had an incredible experience as I got in the water, felt that feeling in my chest. So so happy."  What a blessing it is to see the hand of the Lord working in the lives of others! He's had a long story that would take so long to fully go into, it's been a rocky path for sure, but truly it was a miracle. Something I really learned from Caleb is that it doesn't matter where you are placed in someone's path to Christ. You could be someone who reaps, sows, or even the one who finds the seeds in the first place, but in the end, it doesn't matter, all that matters is that you were there in the moment or time allotted that God needed you to be there for that specific person. I'm so very grateful for the Lord letting me be part of Caleb's path to Him. I feel as Ammon did when he said, "...they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work. 

Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

I'll leave it there for this week. So grateful to be missionary for the Lord's church. It really is the greatest work on earth. No better feeling than seeing the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in and change someone's life. Seeing that change in someone else creates a change in yourself. The church is true I promise!! 

-Elder Quick