It's a Beautiful Day for a Baptism

Dear family and friends...how are you doing!?
   This week was a really good week for us here in Pointe Noire because it was a baptism week and it was even more special because it was the baptism week of Mama Cecile and Papa Beri!!! But before I talk about that, I want to say thank you to all of the people who wrote to me...I really appreciate it a lot! I wish you all a great week and I hope that it all goes well!
   It's starting to heat up here and the rain will be starting soon, so it looks like we will be having a lot of fun in the sector,but that is life, I guess!!  But other than that, life is going great and the work is continuing! We have another batch of new missionaries coming in and we have 9 new missionaries! And the amazing thing is that my whole entire zone is training! And in our mission, we have 16 teams who are training and 13 who are not and at the end of this transfer, we will get 11 Americans! So it looks like we will be very busy, but it is good because that means that the mission is growing!!
   But as I was saying, it was the baptismal week for Papa Beri and Mama Cecile! This week we talked with them about the temple and the preistood! They were two super amazing lessons! When we talked about the temple, they were so excited and they had so many questions about it and they really want to go! And they said that they will start preparing so that they can go to the temple in one year, which is really awesome! And also, we talked about the priesthood and how it blesses families and it is why this church is the only true church of Jesus Christ.  Papa Beri was really excited and he really loved it and after he was ordained a priest after sacrament meeting, he came up to me and said, "I got it!" It was a really awesome moment and so amazing to see how they have progressed. On the day of their baptism, there were so many people in the room! We had to bring in extra chairs and they had so many kids there! It was really awesome to see the whole branch and family there to support them.  Mama Cecile chose Elder Tshibanda to baptize her and Papa Beri chose me:)   Mama Cecile's baptism went off without a hitch, but for me it was a little hard! He is 75 years old and he is a pretty good sized man and the font that we have isn’t the biggest so it took me 2 tries to get him all the way under, but I finally got it! It was so cool to see them all dressed in white and to be all dressed in white with them. It is a moment that I will never forget! And after the baptism, they both bore super strong testimonies and everyone just loved them and it was an amazing moment and so special to be a part of!
   But that’s all for this week, folks! Now it's on to the next adventure and to the next family to find! But once again, thank you so much for all of your emails and I will see you next week! For a challenge, go eat a baconator and then some rocky road ice cream!

Love,
Elder Legerski

Hitting My Year Mark!!!

Hey everyone how are you doing!?
   Sorry I didn’t send you an email last week. I promise it wasn’t a problem with anything bad! Just that the email service of the Church had some problems and I wasn’t able to send an email! But I just wanted to thank you all for the outpouring of messages that you sent to me this week! I loved seeing how you all were and how you are all doing! Thank you to all that wrote to me...I just love opening up my email and seeing all the responses! But these past 2 weeks have been super, super good and also really hard as well! That is just the life of the mission! But as usual,as I start to write my mind becomes blank!

   But to start out with,  I'll talk a little bit about Mama Cecile and Papa Beri! They are doing just awesome!!!! We are over at their house nearly every single day and they just love talking and meeting with us! They are doing so well! This week we watched the film of the restoration of the Church (https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2008-06-01-the-restoration?lang=eng) with them during Family Home Evening and after we got done, they talked about how they all loved it. Papa Beri is the best because he talked about how this church is the only true church and because of Joseph Smith's humble prayer and answer, we do have the fullness of the gospel here on the earth! But all is well with them and they will be getting baptized this Saturday, so it’s a date that we have all been looking forward to and it will be such a great addition to our branch and to the church!

   At another meeting we had this week, we were talking with an investagator and he told us that the Book of Mormon wasn’t true and that all that we were doing was false and that we do not know Jesus Christ. And then his friend, who was with us, told us that we were hypocrites and that we needed to stop what we were doing. All this was really hard to take being missionaries of this church. But as I heard these things, I wasn’t angry or upset, I was actually sad. Because I know that these things are true for myself and I wish that they would partake of the goodness that the Gospel gives to us and how it blesses us. But sadly, there are people who want nothing to do with you and want to tear down all that you do. But this is where I think charity comes in, because we just need to have a pure love for all people and if we do have this love, then it will allow us to become more like Christ. It is not something that is easily obtained, but I know that it is worth it! Oh, and they bought us beignets after the lesson so there were no hard feelings!

   Also, we were contacting, for like only the 3^rd time in my mission the other week! Yeah, people contact us here. But as we knocked on a gate, the person answered and we asked if we could share a message about Jesus with him and he said no, that they people that lived there weren’t for God and that we were liars and then slammed the gate in our face. It was not fun, that’s for sure, but I was glad to stand as a witness for Him. He that gave all for us so that we may have the chance to be with our Father once more. I just hope that I can continue to be worthy of His name until the day that I die so that I may receive a fullness of joy.

   But it's been one year folks! It's really weird to think that half of my mission has passed! I still feel so new and I feel like I have so little time left! But I burned a shirt and that was about all that I did!

   That's the end of my email for today folks! For homework go eat or make a meal that is special to your family! I love you all so much and ill see you next week!

Love, Elder Legerski!!!!

P.S. I feel like French is my native language now. I haven’t spoke English with my companion in over 9 months. I speak, read, think and dream in French. It's really weird.

 

I'm The Old Man in the Mission

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

   This week was a really amazing week for us here in Pointe Noire! Lots of things going on and lots of excitement!  Just want to say thank you to all the people who took time to write me this week, as usual, I really appreciate it and always love seeing how your lives are going! It's weird to be getting near to my year mark. It seems like I am still really new here! But that's not the case. Most of the  missionaries that I knew from the beginning are already at home and I'm starting to become an old guy in the mission! But this week started off really well. Paco, who was our DMB
(or forwards ward mission leader) left for his mission in the Ivory Coast! It's crazy cause they
had a little party for him at the branch and they asked the missionaries to come and talk,
so of course we did! But as we were sitting there, Elder Bacera leaned over and said "you
know, there isn't one single person here who was born into the church. They are all converts
and all were baptized." That really struck me and its really amazing to be here. The only
people born into the church here are the littlest of the kids and it makes me remember how
awesome it is to be a missionary here in the best mission in the world!

   But we were able to talk with Mama Celile and her husband this week. They are really 

awesome. They have been amis together for 5 years and couldn't be baptized because of
certain things, but we talked with the President and we got the approval for their baptism
for the 26th of September! When we went over to see them, they were so happy and all of
their kids, who are already members, are so happy for them! We taught them about the Restoration and they said that they know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet! It was a really spiritual lesson and I'm so glad to be a part of their progression in the Gospel! Mama Celile was really amazing; she didn't go to school, so she couldn't read or write and when she started the lessons, she didn't speak French. But through the Church and her own efforts, she can now speak French and also read French, so she is able to read le Livre de Mormon (Book of Mormon)! Such an example of faith and determination.

   Also, I wanted to talk about the importance of a personal testimony. We were talking with

an ami when it really hit me. Each person in this church does the things they do, not
because of parents or other things, but because of a personal testimony. That is why the
Church is so strong. This huge organization is built on the blocks of individuals who know
these things are true, so we live in accordance with the light that we have received. And it's
something that nobody can take away from us because it is part of our personal experience
with God.

    I just want to say how grateful I am for the chance to serve this mission and for learning how to help others and seeing this Gospel change their lives and just becoming an instrument in the hands of the Lord so that I may be able to do his will. I know these things are true and because of that I wish to share it with all of the world. 

    But that's all for this week folks! I wish you all a good week and for all those college students,

keep on going forward...you can do it! I love you all so much and I look forward to hearing from
you next week! For a challenge, talk to someone random in the lunch room this week!

Love,

Elder Legerski

Officially a Missionary:)

Hi everyone...how are you doing!?
   This is Elder Legerski coming at you from the Congo once more! This week has been a really
good one for us! But it was plagued by sickness this Saturday! To be brief,  I was pretty much glued to the toilet all day:(  And for my father, Gary, and former Bishop, I officially became a real missionary after our apartment prayer. So, it looks like there is nothing left for me to do:) But training with Elder Tshibanda has been going super well! He already knows a lot of what we need to teach and we are just working on how we need to teach it and focusing on the needs of our amis.

   This week we were able to meet with 2 guys whose names are Ngama and Djimi and they were some really awesome meetings! With Ngama, he really talked about how he wanted to know how he can show his faith in Jesus, so we talked about how in order to do that, we need to follow his example and also, we need to keep his commandments. So after talking with him, we fixed a baptismal date for the 3rd of October! Also,  we saw Djimi. He was a guy that stopped us one day and said that he really wanted to know how he could become a member of the Church and asked if he could find out more. Because of our delay in Brazza and a bunch of other things, we were able to finally meet with him this week, and as we talked with him, he really expressed a desire to change his life and to follow Christ and he really wants to become a person who prays often and someone who lives a good life. It was a really powerful lesson and I know that the Spirit was there. He was really serious about all this and he had even  read in the Book of Mormon the night before and this was just our first meeting with him! Just goes to show that the Lord is preparing people all around us and we just need to be in the right place at the right time to give them what they need. Something I really like about Africa is that all of the people come up to us and ask US questions about the church, so its like they come and contact us! It's really amazing to be a missionary here at this time!

    But that's about all for this week folks! I would like to express my gratitude for all of the people who wrote me this week, and also with all of you college students, good luck on this first week of studies! Go out there and get it done!  For homework, I want each of you to try and do a random act of kindness for someone! Also, if you ever get mad about a situation, look at it and ask yourself  "now, how can I learn from this?"

 

But thanks so much all of you...I love you so much!

Elder Legerski

An Airport With No Gas???

Hello everyone how are you!?
  
   I am so happy to hear from all of you this week and I just want to thank everyone for all of the emails that you sent me! I love seeing all the emails when I come to cyber on Monday and it just makes me smile!

   Well this week was quite an interesting one! To start, we were going to Brazzaville as planned but as the week went on, it was something quite more than that! To start, Tuesday morning we got up early as usual and we got ready and we went to the airport. Elder Bacera took with him his infamous apple bag that he found in his apartment. We had someone who wanted to bribe us in the airport, but we just gave him a brochure so there was no problem with that! We got all of our bags checked and we were off to Brazzaville!

   Right as we landed I saw my teacher, Ngonda, who taught me for 3 days in the MTC before he came back here to work for the mission office! It was really different, because now I can speak French and I was able to communicate with him! But he is doing really well! Then we went to the mission office and we were able to meet the Nelsons and all of the other people and see the stake center and meet a lot of new missionaries, which was really nice...oh, and it was the first time that I had ever met sister missionaries in the mission since they are only at Brazzaville! But we all went in and we talked about what we need to do and what we shouldn’t do as trainers so that we can become good trainers. Then we ate and went back to the assistants apartment which is super big and super nice! Because they were there, I got to see Elder West again, as well as Elder Kabenga and Elder Rokotodrabaeharison! We had a lot of fun together and the next morning they headed off to the airport to go home! It was really nice seeing them all one last time.

   Then we went to the mission office and waited for the new missionaries! Their plane was late, but eventually we met with them and I got to meet my new companion, Elder Tshibanda number two! He is from Lumbumbashi and he is the first African companion that I have had who was born into the church and he is 18 years old which is really rare! But he is tall and goofy, just like me, so we should get along just fine! But after that, we went to the Monga's house and ate and it was so good! Sister Monga made Saka Saka for us and I loved it! Then that was the end of the day for us.

   The next day we had training for the new missionaries and we booked it to the airport to catch our flight. But the airport was out of gas, so we were stuck in Brazzaville! So we went back to the assistant's apartment for the day. The next day there was still no gas' so we went to sector with Elder Nzema and contacted for 5 hours and taught at the end of the day...it was a really long and hard day, but it was good. The next day, Saturday, we didn’t know anything, so we went and did service in shorts and dress shoes and man did we look good! But after we were there for about 10 minutes, we got a call so we went and got our stuff and waited at the airport. We were there from 10 am to 5 pm and we just sat there and waited the whole time,,,we got really bored. But we finally got a flight and got back to Pointe Noire at 8 at night. It was a really long week and I'm really glad to be back home!

   But that’s about all for this week; I hope I'll have some better news this week! I love you all and thank you all so much!

Love,
Elder Legerski

A Day of Big News

Hello everyone back home...how are you!?

   I was quite surprised to see all of the news when I opened up my email but it was all so exciting! I would like to say congrats to my father for being called as the new Bishop of the Desert View ward! I love you so much and I am so proud of you! I know that you were called by revelation and I know that you will do an amazing job! I have seen 2 branch presidents called here on my mission and one district presidency, and I know that each one of them have been called by God and each was chosen to lead his people at this time!

   And while I'm at it, I might as well add in my big news! I have been called as a trainer and also as the new District Leader! So tomorrow, I will be going to Brazzaville to learn how to train and I will also be meeting my new companion straight from the MTC! And on top of that, I will be the District Leader for our district! All these things are really new and exciting and even though I'm still one of the youngest missionaries in the mission, I know that with the help of the Lord I will be able to do what He has called me to do and I pray that I may be able to give my best effort!

   This week has been a really good one and also a little sad one. Jules was supposed to be baptized, but since he is a minor, we need to have the parent's consent and his father was not okay with it, so he couldn’t be baptized.  This really stinks, but we have set up a meeting so that we can go meet with his father so that we can talk with him and explain our church and we hope he will let his son be baptized! It's often like that here because so many bad things and rumors are spread about the Church here and I think all over the world. Many things about us are not understood and many things that are said are not true. As one of the apostles said, its not easy being a Latter Day Saint! I really like this statement, but I also think about all of the blessings which come from being a Latter Day Saint and I can say that I'm proud to be a member of this church and to be a messenger who is a representative of this church and of Jesus Christ, who has been called to share this restored gospel with all of the world.

   But recently, we have been teaching a woman named Judel and she lives in the same parcel as Jean and his wife & this week we taught her about the Word of Wisdom(https://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng) and it was really easy because she does not take any of the things which are not allowed! It was a really cool experience and I think it really shows how there are people who are being prepared even if we do not realize it!

   Also, this Sunday we had a really good sacrament meeting...why, you may ask? Well Jean blessed the sacrament for the first time! He was really nervous and you could tell but he read the prayer like a champ and even though it was his first time, it only took him one try! It's awesome to see how much he has grown in these last few months! Also, right after that, he was called as the secratery in the Sunday School residency and he also gave his first talk! He did really well and I was so proud of him! Also Alex, another of my recent converts, gave a talk and even though she was terrified, she got up and she did a really great job in front of everyone!

   But that’s all for this week folks! I want to thank all of the people that wrote me I really appreciate it! I would like to send my love out to all who read my emails! I love being here and I love the mission and there is no other place that I would want to be at this moment! I love you all so much! For homework, I want you all to thank someone who has made a positive impact on your life!

Love,
Elder Legerski

She Doesn't Cry When She Sees Me!!

   Hey everyone back home...how are you!? This week has been a really good one for us here in Pointe Noire and I'm looking forward to this next week! I just want to say thank you to all of the people who sent me emails this week...I really look forward to them and each time I read an email that someone sent me, I just have the biggest smile on my face because I love reading about your lives and what you are doing!

   But this week was a really good week for us here in Pointe Noire; I'm gonna talk a little about Jules. He is a kid that we met 4 weeks ago and ever since we met him, this kid is always at the church! He is really awesome and he really likes meeting with us! We have been working with him many times this week and he will be baptized this Friday (because of the nation holiday that will be held on Saturday)! When we talked to him about it, I was really amazed by how well he understands and how strong his testimony is. He already assists seminary and I think even mission prep and it amazing how much he already knows! We are really excited for his baptism this Friday!

   Also, we talked to Justavain. She has got to be my favorite ami by far, just seeing the change that she has undergone since we started the lessons with her is so big and now she loves talking with us! Even her youngest daughter, Stephanie, who used to always cry when I came over because I'm white…(yeah that happens a lot:)…. now runs up to us at church and when we come,  will say "hi" to us. But we talked with her about the Word of Wisdom and the law of chastity and she had some doubts but as I bore my testimony on these things, I got a really powerful feeling and I knew that the spirit was with us and that he was testifying of truth. It was a really great moment and was made even greater when she agreed to keep these 2 commandments so that she may be baptized.

   We also had a zone conference this Friday, so we got to see President Monga and he was able to teach us a little bit. And most of what he talked about was studying and it was really good for me. He talked about how we can take our study to the next level and how we can learn more and progress faster as missionaries. I really liked this because I feel like the mission has really helped me learn how to study and I feel like this skill will really benefit me when I come back home and I go to college!

   But that’s all for this week folks! I will see you all in one week! And for homework you can all go smile at one random person and spread a little sunshine!

Love

Elder Legerski!