Almost Christmas...

Hello everyone,

How are you doing!? As for me and Africa, we are doing just fine!! This week seemed to be a very eventful one, as well as a very slow one. So I will go ahead and just start off!!

For Mom, we will be able to Skype for 40 minutes and I don’t know when we will do that; I just know it will be during Christmas day from the Coleman's apartment. We have 2 districts Skyping from there, so 8 Elders total, so it will be pretty tight for time! Some of our amis have been taught by other missionaries and some have been taught only by us. The average time teaching is around a month, I would say, because there is so much to do before!! As for the music, I use it all the time and I am so glad to have it!

 

Elder Legerski and Elder Larson in the back of a truck

Well, one day after we were done eating, Elder West and I went to the boulangerie, which is like a small Albertsons, to get some bread for dinner. And as we were checking out, it just started to pour!! I thought rain in the States was bad sometimes, but that is nothing compared to this!! So we waited for about 15 minutes to see if the rain would let up. When it didn’t, we decided to just head back to the apartment. And when we decided this it was with great care because it's a 25 to 30 minute walk back to the apartment. And my bag was full so I did not have anywhere to put the bread. Well, we ran back quite a bit of the way and then we slowed to a walk because we were out of breath. So we walked the rest of the way home in the pouring rain, with water up to our ankles. Then I said in my mind "well, this stinks so we might as well sing a song", so Elder West and I sang Christmas carols all the way home. And when we finally returned triumphantly to the apartment, THE BREAD WAS STILL DRY!!!! It was such an awesome and wonderful experience.

Next, I was talking with Davy, who is a young man in our ward and he came up and he had a red Under Armour shirt on with a devil looking "E" on the back, along with the phrase “Earned It”.  My first thought was Evanston High School, but I did not ask him about it. Later that night after teaching an ami at church I saw Davy again and asked him and he said it WAS from Evanston High School. I could not believe it!! Evanston ruins everything, even Africa:) Turns out an Elder Scott Davis was in this mission and was friends with Davy and gave him the shirt. I guess the world isn’t a such small place after all!

This week was also a week of splits. For those of you who do not know, splits are when you work with a different companion for a day in your sector. So I got to go out with Elder Rakotondrabeharison who is from Madagascar and is Elder Larson's companion. It was just a good experience and you learn how to work with other people and it gives you an opportunity to learn from them!! Elder Larson and I are going to have to do splits together this next week so that will be very interesting!!

 

Elders Larson, West and Legerski
 

As you may know, we teach an English class on Wednesday as a district, and this last Saturday was a lot of fun. I can now understand a lot of what people are saying and I can communicate with them basically,  so I talk when I can but little kids love talking with us. So I talked with a little girl named Grace the whole time. She is so funny and we just talked about school and braiding her hair and it was so much fun. And then I told another young women that Legerski in French means elephant rider. And she believed it!!!

But the highlight of the week came when Elder West and I were teaching a recent convert named Andre. We were reteaching him the restoration and in broken French, I was able to teach him about the life of Jesus Christ, the Great Apostasy, as well as the life of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I do not know how I did it, but I was able to. Also, I was able to understand the things that he said in the lesson. I know that for that short period of time God gave me a great gift. Earlier that week I had been struggling with my teaching, as well as my French, so I made a promise with God. If I was to read the Book Of Mormon everyday in French and only study my scriptures in French, that as I do these things I will be able to become more fluent. I can say that I can already see this promise working in my life. I am able to understand more and slowly, but surely, I am able to speak.

 

My testimony of the Book Of Mormon is growing day by day and I don’t know what I would do without it. Before my mission I did not know the Book Of Mormon hardly at all but already in the short while I have been out, I have read it from cover to cover. I have gained so much knowledge and learned so much. I testify that if you read the Book Of Mormon, that you will feel its power. That you will know the things that it says are true. And if you ask God with a sincere heart and a contrite spirit, that he will give you an answer.

 

This is all that I have for you for this week. It's back to another week of being a servant of the Lord. Somebody go have a big bowl of Waffle Crisps for Elder Larson and I!!

With much love,

Elder Legerski