Bucket Showers and The Blessings of Sacrifice

Hello everyone!

   This is Elder Legerski coming at you from Pointe Noir.  It's been really cold lately but it just reminds me of home so that's good! This week has been a super good one! We got a new couple so we are very thankful for that! Now we have the Bills who will replace the Baileys so we are all very happy! They are really nice and I know that they are going to take really good care of us! They have been out on the mission as long as I have so I think we are going to have a good time together!

   Also our water pump is broken so we haven't had any water! But no worries...we have buckets! You're not really in Africa unless you have to take a few bucket showers and wash your clothes in a bucket.

   This week has been a really good one with the amis! We have Jean and his family who are progressing really well. They weren't able to come to church because they circumcised their son who is like 6 years old...ouch! So we had so move back their baptism date to the 18th of July, which is a bummer, but it is more important that they are ready.

   Also we have been working with Alex and she has been doing really well! We have been meeting with her for a long time, and she will be baptized the 11th! We are really happy because when we last met with her, she said that she really likes coming to church because she knows the people there now and she can see her friends.  It's really awesome when the members really get with people who are new in the church because it makes the missionaries' jobs so much easier because they are encouraged by their friends to do the right things.

   This week in church we had a lot of really good lessons! When we were in the amis class, we talked about sacrifice and how we need to learn how to sacrifice to become like God and as we sacrifice things for the will of God, it prepares us to live with him again one day. And it hit me as I was sitting there that God sacrificed so much for us. One, He gave us His only son Jesus Christ. He also gave us so many things, like the world and all the things that we have. He created and did all these things so that we could be happy in this life.  Even if we do not do His will, He still loves us and gives us blessings.

 

   Also, in Elder's quorum, we talked about President Eyring's talk from general conference.

And as we did that I realized that when we know that we act in accordance with the will of God, we will be happy. Because we know that He is the most important person in the world; God lead us and we followed him. It's not always the most fun thing in the world, but we will have a joy inside us after we do it.

   I know that the things that we as missionaries do are what God wants us to go. And that's why missionaries are always so happy, because we share the good tidings with everyone! I thank everyone who wrote me this week...I really appreciate it! I hope everyone has a good week and I will write you guys in a week! Someone go have some chicken nuggets for me!

Love,

Elder Legerski

Brothers in Baptism

Hello everyone!

  I hope you are all doing good in America! Just to let you know that here in Africa, people talk about America so much that it seems like I don’t even know what America is like! I feel like I have lived my entire life here in the Congo! I guess I'm just used to speaking only French and being surrounded by black people. America has just turned into a giant black hole and I have no idea what goes on there! But enough with that! My week was really good this week!

The Pointe Noire Elders before Transfers

The Pointe Noire Elders after Transfers

   These week we were blessed to have Uriel's baptism! He came to the church because of his friend DeChrist, who was just baptized a few weeks ago! Uriel has been progressing really well in the gospel and his testimony has really been growing. He asked if DeChrist would baptize him, which is really cool.  DeChrist has only been a member of the church for 2 weeks and already he has the chance to baptize his friend! We went over on Saturday morning and showed him how it would work and what he would need to do and we thought all was well! They gave us some food, which was fried rice with chicken stomach (it is surprisingly good!) Then we all headed up to the church together. As DeChrist went to baptize Uriel,  we ran into a few problems! The first time, he didn’t get him completely under the water and the second time he didn’t say the words right but finally the third time, he got it completely right! But as he was putting him under the water, he saw that he wasn’t going to get him completely under, so he practically just let him go and let him fall into the water! And you just hear Uriel try and breathe and swallow up some water and start chocking! But Dechrist got him up and all was well! Then on Sunday, I was able to confirm him a member of the church and it was a really great experience! It's so awesome being a missionary and seeing all of these people change their lives!

   In addition to the fantastic experience of Uriel's baptism,  I had my first ever ami come to church on Sunday! Sylvie is a lady who the Baileys met and we started teaching and she is awesome! She was born in France but she is Spanish and she speaks the two languages perfectly! Oh, she also speaks English, German and  Italian! She has had a really rough life and moved here to Congo 7 years ago. She has really had a spiritual experience and she has come to know that there is something that is acting on her. We have been teaching her for a few weeks and it has been going really well! We asked her to be baptized this last lesson and she said that she doesn’t know right now, but she sees that as she has started to meet with us that her life has really started to improve and it is so awesome. She is reading the Book of Mormon and I know that as she reads she will get an answer to her prayers!

   The last thing I want to talk about is the lesson Elder Bailey gave on Sunday about fasting. As he was talking,  he said that we can use fasting as a tool to strengthen our testimony. Often times we fast because we have to, but we don’t have a specific goal. But as we have a goal set, we will unlock the power of fasting and we will see the blessings that come because of this principle of the gospel.

   Well, that’s all for this week folks! Koltin, I hope you're doing okay! It’s a good thing that your head is so hard! But thank you so much to all of the people that wrote me this week...I really appreciate it! I love hearing how your life is going and how you are doing! I love you all so much! I have been learning some of the local language so maybe I'll become trilingual! Someone go eat some grated cheese for me!

Je sais que Tata Nzambi zola beto!
Love Elder Legerski

Come and Serve in the Congo

Hello everyone back home!

   Coming at you once again from the Congo ! I just want to thank everyone that wrote me and for all of the emails ! I loved seeing how you are all doing !!

   Well this week was a really good one ! Elder Mbikayai  left and he is now in Cameroon ! Because of jet fuel shortages, they stayed at the airport all day and finally left at night when we got all of the new Elders ! So we got 4 new elders in our zone and 2 in our district ! Elder Kabasele came here and I have lived with him before, but also we got Elder Bacera and Elder Kabenga and Elder Tshibanda ! My new companion is Elder Tshibanda ! He is from the DRC and he is 27 years old ! Yeah, he's a grandpa but what are you gonna do:) Because he is so old, he only has 5 weeks left on his mission ! So we're gonna do all that we can to keep this work here going ! This week was a really really good one, but it was also really stressful ! This is the first time that I was left with a sector, so it's been really trying knowing where to go and where to take the bus and when to get off.  Luckily, I have been managing and we have only gotten lost a few times ! But our sector has been going very well ! The work here is just amazing ! In this last transfer (or 6 weeks) we have had 139 lessons, so it's been a lot ! And the amis are doing so well !

Elder Legerski and Elder Tchibanda will be the missionaries for the Aéroport Branche.

   We have several people who are doing very well ! To start, we have John and Laticia, who are a husband and wife that we are teaching ! They love church and they come every week and we have set a baptism date for the 11th of July with them ! It is some thing that is so exciting to see ! This is the first family that we have taught and I love it ! We taught them about the law of chastity this week and I really liked the lesson. While we were teaching, it just hit me how important it is that we are married when we have kids and that we need to be faithful and to treat our spouse right. Because the example we set for our kids will be the example that they will pass on to the next generations ! And as we do this, our family will grow and our home will be a home where the Spirit can reside. We also have Uriel who will be baptized this coming Saturday ! It's really  been awesome to see how he has grown and he told us that as we have taught him, he has really seen a difference in his life and it has been for good. It's really awesome being here in Congo and laboring in the Lord's vineyard and I love it with all my heart ! I know this is the best mission in the world ! But unfortunately, we have 5 entire sectors without missionaries and after the end of this transfer we will have 7, so everyone fill out your papers so you can come to the Congo !

   This week, I have been reading in the Book of Mormon and I have really loved seeing  how

everything in it comes together. It just reassures me that there is no way that Joseph Smith could have written this book on his own and that it was translated by the power of God. I am in the middle of Alma and I have been reading about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I really liked reading and learning how the Atonement gives us the way to have faith and to repent and if we accept it and let it change us, we will do things that we can't even believe. Je sais que si nous applicons l’expiation de Jesus Christ que nous pouvons surmonter nos epreuves ! (I know that if we apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can overcome any test.) Et que cette sacrifice est le plus important choses dans toute l’histoire de la terre ! (And that this sacrifice is the most important thing in the whole history of the earth!)  This week, I have really focused on language study and I have learned to love French ! Unfortunately, the weird thing is that I never know what language to read speak or to write !

   That's all that I have for you this week ! I hope you all are enjoying your summer and the nice hot weather ! Its about 80 here and its cold season ! So no sweating at all in the sector and I have to wear a long sleeve shirt at night because I get so cold ! But I love you all ! Congrats to my little bro on the Shrine bowl ! South is still the best ! Someone to eat some muamba for me !

Nzambi Vana Nge

Elder Legerski ! Aka Tatu ! 

Life is a Beach

Dear friends and family,

  The internet here really, really stinks, so I hope that I will be able to send you guys an email this week! This week was a really good one for us here at Pointe Noire! We got our transfer letters and it turns out that my companion will be leaving for Cameroun and he will be working in the sector that I left! And now I will be working with Elder Tchinbanda which I am really looking forward to! I heard he is a great Elder, but unfortunately he will be leaving at the end of this transfer! But this transfer affected a lot of people. Only 4 people stayed and 6 left, so things are going to change a lot!  Elder Beutler and Mandefu went home and it was really sad to see them go! It seems like everyone that you meet on your mission should just stay a missionary until the end of their lives!

   This past Monday we were able to go to the beach as a zone and eat and just have some fun and it was really awesome! We were able to just relax a little bit and talk as missionaries so it was a lot of fun.

 

Happy Birthday Sister Monga!!

 

Food, glorious food!

Elder Legerski playing "Place the Stick": keep your feet behind
a line and see how far out you can place your stick without falling!

Elders Legerski and Larson (aka:the Twins)

Elder crazy eyes Legerski

 

The Pointe Noire Zone 

   This email won't be too long because we were held in the apartment for all of Friday due to some things and it was such a long day! It's weird how now all I think about is missionary work all I wanna do is missionary work and even all I dream about is missionary work. It's really weird; honestly I have no idea what it is like to be a regular person!

   But this week was a really good week. We were able to meet with John and his wife Laticia and it was really awesome! We set a baptismal date with them, which is the 11th of July and we are so excited for it! During this last Sunday, John got up and talked about how he has found peace and love in the church and he has finally found a place where he can stay. It was such an awesome experience and something that I will remember forever!

   Also, we had the baptism for Dechris and it was really awesome! He bore his testimony after and it was really awesome. It's so cool as a missionary to see how people change their lives and as they do so, to live in accordance with the Gospel, that they find happiness. He asked me to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was really nerve racking, but I think that I did a good job! It was such an honor to do this for him and I will always remember this.

   As a missionary, I have really learned the importance of all these things and being an instrument in the grand plan of God has been such an honor. We are all so imperfect, yet through God we can be made strong. I have loved seeing how now that I understand all this, that I can see the hand of God in everything!  Even when things are tough, we know that one day they will be light.

   I took the challenge to read the Book of Mormon in a month and I started Tuesday and now I'm in Mosiah 25, I think, and as I read, I love seeing how if we simply keep the commandments, that we are blessed. God doesn’t ask for a ton of things, He just asks that we love Him enough to keep his commandments.

   Well that's all for this week folks! Thank you so much to all the people who sent me letters! I got them from Hannah, Sister Unrast, Megan E., and Troy and Jamie! I love them all..thank you so much! Also, congrats to my little brother on graduating and good luck in the Shrine Bowl! Go get one for the South! I love you all so much! Someone go eat some mac and cheese for me!

Love,

Elder Legerski

Another Wyoming Cowboy in Africa!

Good afternoon everyone!
   We had a little bit of trouble with our internet so my email will not be super long but I will do what I can to make it a good one! First off, I would like to say thank you so much to all the people that wrote me this week...I really appreciated it! And second, I would like to say congrats to Brayden Flack; you're coming to Africa buddy! It's no Francophone mission but it's still Africa so you are in the brotherhood!

Elder Legerski and Elder Mbikayi taught Presley the Gospel.  Jhostavie is his friend and baptized him.

   Well, this week was just a really really awesome week! I got to go on splits with Elder Beutler, who is our zone leader. We are the same age but he came out right after high school and he goes home next Wednesday. He is such a good missionary and I loved working with him so much! Its crazy to see how even though we are the same age, he is so far ahead of me in missionary work because he has been doing it for about 16 months more than I have! But it was so nice to be able to talk with him and to work with him! While we were with him, we had a really cool experience at an amis house. We were talking with Alex, who is a 17 year old teenager. And last week, I shared with her my dad's experience (by the way thanks Dad!) about when we pray, sometimes we just have to stop and listen so that we can hear God's answer. As we followed through to see if she had read the Book of Mormon and if she had prayed, we asked her if she had gotten a response. And usually this is a no most of the times. But she said yes and she went on to explain how she got her answer and she said that she would be baptized on the 27^th of June! It was so awesome and I know that it was all God and I know that He does answer out prayers if we are willing to listen with our spiritiual ears!

   Second we had 2 people have interviews this week; only one passed, the other one didn’t. This was really a bummer, but after talking with the ami, we saw that it was just a mistake.  Other than that, the ami was really ready so they will be baptized on a later date, so that’s not too bad of a problem. But we did have an ami who did pass and Elder Beutler said that he was really ready for baptism and that he had a really strong testimony. I really liked when he said that when he was bearing his testimony, it strengthened mine. This is so true and that’s why we have things like fast and testimony meeting, because every time that we share or listen to a testimony ours is strengthened.

   One of the most exciting thing for this week is the fact that we had a whole entire family come to church on Sunday!!!!!! It was the most amazing thing to see! And that’s the first time that that has ever happened on my mission!!!! We are really working towards baptism with them and I hope they will be baptized before the end of the month!! Families are so amazing. I miss my family so much, but this work is worth it because it blesses other families.

 

Elder Bailey, Sylvie, Paco, Elder Legerski and Elder Mbikayi enjoy Sylvie's
meal of "paella"
 

Paella!! I ate it....shrimp and all.  And I loved it:)

    Well, that’s the end of my letter for this week. I love you all so much! Ah...I forgot but we are teaching a white French lady! She cooked a Spanish dish (not Mexican, Spanish...there is a big difference!) but I ate shrimp and loved it! Mom and grandma you would be proud. Also, I love avocats now. But someone go eat some chinese food with curry for me!

Love
Elder Legerski