Our Amis Continue to Progress!

Hello dear family and friends how are you!?
   I wanted to thank everyone that wrote me this week...it was really amazing to hear from all of you and I hope you have a even better week than this last one!

   This week I don't have a lot of things to say. It was a really good week and we just got out and worked really hard. We only worked one day without a member and because of that, we are really starting to find new amis, new people to teach and people that are interested in our message. But that's about all that I have to report for this week! I just realized that I left my planner in my other bag, but oh well!

 

Elder Legerski and Elder Dou
 getting a weeks worth of water for the apartment
 

   As for the transfer, Elder Kabeya will be leaving our team and we will be back down to 2 people but he will be in our apartment still! We have 5 missionaries who will come into our mission on Wednesday so we will have a lot to do with meetings and all that fun stuff! It's always good to get new missionaries in the mission and it's really exciting being able to meet them all. 

But I do have very good news for everyone even if I don't have a lot of histories (stories)!  Elder and Sister Bills came to do a training because they will come back to Brazzaville to replace the couple that will leave next Monday. Anyway, I talked with them and they told me that John Matoko and Jean Beri, 2 of my converts, will receive the Melchizedek priesthood and that made me so happy! It's so good to see people keep on progressing even after their baptism! And also Loubaki and Nancy, who I taught in my last sector, will be baptized this Saturday so our hard work is starting to pay off! But that's all! Missionary work is amazing!

   But for a challenge this week, go eat some bbq ribs for Elder Freshour and I!

 

Love,

Elder Legerski!

Happy Leap Day from Africa!!

Hello every one...how are you doing!?

 

   Happy Leap Day from Africa! I would like to thank everyone that wrote me this week and tell you that I really appreciated it and that I love you all!  This week was a super busy one! We had a lot of stuff to do as assistants, so we didn't get to work a whole lot. But it was still a great week!

  To start it, I wanna tell you all what we did on Friday morning. We have an avacado tree in our yard and every time that we went outside in the morning, we would find 4 or 5 that had fallen. So I climbed up the tree and picked all the big ones and threw them down to the other Elders and I picked 118 of them! And I only picked about a third of them that were there! It was so awesome! Also, we ate a papai from our papaya tree!

   But this week was good. We had Elder Jomie from Guadalupe, who came into our mission, so we had meetings for him this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And because he is being trained by Elder Rakatoarimanga, Elder Kabeya came and is working with us as a three some! So it's been a little different working as 3 but it's also been really cool! And now we have transfers this Saturday and we are already at our max for missionaries, so we will be adding 5 new elders! Now we will be having some temporary sectors opened up and we will have 4 teams (so 8 elders) in our apartment so it will be a party! 

   As I mentioned last week, Marina had his baptism on Saturday and he chose me to baptise him and it went really well...he was really to plunge! He bore a really powerful testimony afterwards and then on Sunday, he brought his friend with him and he sang in the choir, so it was really awesome to see. 

And that was my week in a nutshell! We played soccer for about 3 hours today so I'm gonna be sore this whole next week! 

   I love you all and I hope that you have a great week full of joy and laughter! And for a challenge, drink some pumpkin hot chocolate for me!

 

Love, 

Elder Legerski

Every Member a Missionary

Dear family and friends,
   This week was a really weird week; it was either super hot or pretty cool so we had the best of both worlds! I just wanted to thank everyone for all that they do for me and thank everyone who sent me an email...I hope that your week was good and I hope that all of you will have another good week this week. This week was one packed with lots of good stuff and lots of experiences, so I'll just go on with the week and talk about all of them!

Zone Conference in Brazzaville
February 16, 2016
 

   So this Tuesday we had a zone conference, but it wasn't like a normal zone conference. There was a video conference that was put out by the church on missionary work that was shown the 20th of January, but because we are so behind, Salt Lake we had to wait for the dvds so that we could watch it. But it was really good and it showed us what we need to do as missionarys and it really helped me know what I need to do personally and as a companionship. But the thing that I liked the most was a short video that showed a member family doing missionary work, and that really hit me hard. I know that when I was at home, I was not a good missionary and I need to really work on that. Most people that discover the Gospel and are baptized are found by members. Members are so improtant in this work and I have really understood that as a missionary. So, I want to invite everyone to  share the Gospel with a friend or a neighbor. Just invite them to church or talk with them about his or her family and link it to a Gospel truth. The Holy Ghost will testify to this person that what you said is true and important. I promise that if you all do this, you will become happier than ever and that you will take part in a very important work. Now I'm gonna link this with an experience from Friday. We left the apartment at 11:30 with a member and we walked around from 11:30 to 6 at night and it was probably 96 degrees outside. 9 of our lessons fell through and as we closed with the member for the day, we told him that this is why members are important in this work. 

   But other than that, all is going well. We are having a baptism for Brother Marina this Saturday so that is really exciting. But that's all for this week! I love you you all so much! And for a challenge, all of you go eat a ghost pepper!

 

Have fun!

Elder Legerski

Avocados and Amis!

Hello family and friends how are you!?

 

   It's still hot here, but the rainy season is coming back and things are cooling down a little bit, so that's really nice! I wanted to thank everyone for their emails; I really appreciate it and I hope you all had a good week! This week was just a normal week for us. We didn't have any unusual things that went on! But our dmp Ken is going on his mission to Lumbumbashi on Wednesday so we are having a special family home evening for him really soon which will be really nice! It's funny because they play the Hokey Pokey and none of them speak English so I am really looking forward to it!!

 

   As I said, this week was just a normal week in the sector. We have been working with 2 people so that they can be baptized on the 28th of February. One of them is Marina and he has been an ami for a long time, but he has a smoking problem, so we talked with him and set up plans to help him stop smoking. We also gave him a special blessing and since we have talked with him, he hasn't smoked and he is on track for his baptism. He is really amazing and he comes to church every week and he even comes to institute every Saturday. Respecting this body that our Heavenly Father gave us is really important and as we do so, he will bless us.

 

   Also, we have been working with a girl named Fabia who will also be baptized on the 28th. She is 23 and she really likes the church as well. She brings her friends to church and to institute as well. We talked with her about Joseph Smith and how important he is for us and what he did for us. 

   But other than that, we have just been working really hard trying to find new amis and to teach and just do everything we can to come unto Christ.  I don't think I have ever been this tired in my life, but I haven't done a work that is more important than this work. As we progress on our mission, we start to realize how short these 2 years are and want to do all that we can to use this time to its fullest. So it results in us being super tired, but it's super fulfilling. Being a servant of the Lord is just awesome!

   That is all for this week folks! I hope you are all surviving in the cold back home! Were here eating the avocados from our tree in our yard. Yeah, that's one of the really awesome parts about Africa, picking fruit off the tree in your yard and eating it for breakfast! I love you all so much and I hope that you all have a great week and I will see you again next week! For a challenge this week, go eat some ribs!

Elder Legerski

New Area, New Responsibilities:)

Hello family members and friends...how are you!?

 

   Here it has been really hot (even more than usual) so I have been sweating a lot! Now I am living in Diata in an apartment which was for the Bills before they went to Pointe Noire to be the senior couple there. Its probably the nicest apartment in the mission and we are here with Elder Nzema and Feshour and Mikanda and its really big, pretty much a house, so today we had to work our butts off to clean it! 

   But as for being an assistant to the president, there are only a few things that have changed.  We still have a sector and we still go out to sector every day, we just have some other things that we have to do. This week Elder Temahauki came from Tahiti and we had to go get him at the airport because President wasn't there and we had to pick him up and do a little orientation with him.  Also, a few days before that, Sister Lenge from the DRC got here and we had orientation with her and we went over to President's house and we got to eat so much! And also we got to see most of "Meet the Mormons" https://www.youtube.com/user/MeettheMormons and it was awesome! But other than that all is going well here in Diata!

   This sector is a pretty good sector and it's one of the biggest wards in the city so it's pretty nice! We had a ward missionary come out to the sector with us almost every day and it went really well. We are really trying to get to know the members and see if they have people that we can talk with and it's been working really well. We have to earn their trust and then they will share the names of their amis they think we could share the Gospel with.  Elder Mikanda and I work together really well and we are really working hard together even though we are both new in the sector. So we are searching and having some good baptisms and helping out this new ward!

   But on a sad note, I saw Elder West off on Wednesday and now he is home! It was really bittersweet to see him off. Seems like it was yesterday that we were together in training back in Bonaberi!

   But I love you all so much! Thank you for all those who wrote to me this week; I hope you all have a good week and I will see you next Monday!! For a challenge this week, all of you go and eat some green cake!! I love you all!

 

Elder Legerski

BORN TO ASSIST

BORN TO ASSIST!!!
   Before I explain why I said that, I would like to thank Elder Bacera for his wonderful and original thought to use this. As I got my transfer letter, I found out that I have been called as assistant to the President for the Mission Congo Brazzaville. I will now be working at the sector of Diata B and I will be working with Elder Mikanda. I'm a little nervous about this new calling, but I know that the Lord prepares those that he calls and that all will go well! Over half of the mission just finished training so things got really shaken up here in our mission!  But I would like to thank all of those you sent me emails this week...I thank you so much and I hope that you all had a good week and that this one will be even better!!

   I also wanted to give a quick shout out to Leanna Hoch for her 2 cards that finally came through after many months! One of the cards was an R2D2 Christmas card and the funny thing is that my family sent me the same card, just one year in advance! It looks like they both know me really well! But just wanted to tell Leanna thank you so much...it means a lot!

   As the new transfer comes, there are a lot of changes that are going to happen! The first of them all is that Elder West (my trainer) is finally going home in 2 days! I can't believe that time has gone by so fast! I still remember the first time we met when I just got out of the MTC!! Now almost 16 months later, he is going home!

   Second thing is that Elder Dou, my colleague right now that I just got training, will be training now! So now I have 2 children with 2 grand children! My missionary family keeps growing and growing! His companion is from the French Polynesia, an island chain in the Pacific Ocean governed by the French! He is the first one ever from there in our mission so we are glad to have him! This is a really diverse mission with, I think, people from 11 different countries!

   But as I am transferred, I had to say goodbye to the ward and to all of the amis that I teach. But the worst was saying goodbye to Joriane and Loubaki cause they are the 2 amis that really love the Gospel. When we met with Joriane for the last time last night, she came out with the 3 Liahonas (a church magazine) that she got at church and she was so happy to have them. You should have seen the smile on her face! It really made me appreciate having a living prophet and reading his words. I have recently been studing the Liahonas  https://www.lds.org/liahona?lang=eng  a lot in personal study and it shows me how simple the gospel is:  we just gotta live it!

   But thanks to all for this week folks! I hope you all have a great week full of spiritual experiences! I love you all so much! And for a challenge go drink some root beer for me!!

Love,
Elder Legerski

Pure and Simple

Hello family and friends...how are you!?

   So that you can get a feel for Africa, I'm just sitting in a cyber (café) overlooking a huge open market...yeah, this mission is awesome!  I wanted to thank all of you who wrote me this week, it was really appreciated and I thank you all so much! This week was quite a busy one for us here in Guynemer and I have a lot to say so I'll do my  best to fit it all in!!

  To start off, we had a zone training, which I got to lead because I was zone leader, and it's just a meeting to help train missionaries so that we can all teach better and become better. I got together with the district leaders and talked with them with the assistant about what the weak points in our zone were and then on Friday, we had training and it was a lot of fun and we had a lot of practice and it helped out so much! I have come to love doing role plays because they are so important and it is one of the best ways to learn together! We all make mistakes, but in doing role plays in a controlled environment, we can all correct each other so we can become better!

  Then on Saturday, I got to go on splits with Elder Kabeya and it was a lot of fun! It's always great to go into different sectors and see their amis and their progression. Its been almost 7 months since the last time I worked with him in Pointe Noire back in my first transfer there, and it's amazing how much he has grown and how much he has improved!!

   And Sunday, we attended the new church built building for the first time! And it was such an awesome Sunday! We had 5 amis who came and 1 that came late with 9 new people that were invited by members!!  We got their numbers and we hope that we can meet with them all this week! And also, we had 3 inactives at church so it was pretty much a hayday! I can really see how the ward is starting to turn around little by little and also how our sector has gotten a lot better since we arrived here. If we are willing to just go out and work, then the Lord will work miracles!

   And finally, last Tuesday the assistant told us that Elder Hamilton from the 70 would visit us here in Brazza for the mission tour. Elder Ellis was supposed to come, but because of political reasons, he can't get the visa. But we were with Elder Hamilton all Monday (which is why I am writing on Tuesday) and it was really awesome! He talked with all the leaders about how we need to lead like Christ and really focus on being an example and showing the other missionaries how work should be done.

Brazzaville Missionary Conference
with Elder Hamilton
(with Elder Legerski smiling in the back:)

 

   And then he talked with us about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how really simple it is and that we need to do our best to be simple with the amis and to help them have eternal life, beginning with baptism. As I spend more and more time here, the more I realize that baptism is the beginning and it all leads to the temple.

   But that is all for this week folks! The transfers are Friday and I think I might be going somewhere so I should have some news for you next week!  Also wanted to give a shoutout to Elder Alexander, who will be going to Benin Cotonou...welcome to Africa my friend!

 

   I love you so much and I hope you have a good week! For a challenge go eat a mango!!

Elder Legerski