The Joys of Teaching La Famille d'Albertine

Hello everyone...how are you!?

This week was a good one, but I think that is was the most boring week out of all the weeks that I have spent on my mission! Because of Congo's President, and the things he is doing, it has been causing some problems here. Last Saturday we had to come back to the apartment early because of shots that were fired, but they were not near us. And this last Tuesday, there was a march, so on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, we were shut in the apartment all day long. And as a missionary, you have nothing to do in the apartment...I almost died of boredom, but Elder Bills gave us General Conference so we were able to watch that! But all the trouble is gone now (to Mom and Grandma, we were never in any danger.  We live in a safe neighborhood and all is well now.) But thanks to all that emailed me this week; I really appreciate it! I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!



Elder Legerski, Leticia, Jean,  and Elder Museku
6-10-15

But this week we really had to focus on the amis that had baptismal dates so that they may be baptized. And mainly it was the family of Albertine. In their family, there is the mom, Albertine, and then 4 kids: 2 boys and 2 girls...Chadrack, Sarah, Jhovitha, and Price and they are 20, 15, 13, and 10 years old! This week we talked about the Plan of Salvation and it went really well! They really liked learning about where we come from and where we are going. They were lessons just full of the spirit and they really love to learn with us and read the Book of Mormon. They are really excited to go to church this coming Sunday and also be baptized on the 5th. It's a really cool experience getting to teach them. It's only the second time that I have taught a couple, but it is the first time that I have taught a whole family and I love it. Those that did missions where you taught families, you are really lucky and those that are on missions, now take advantage of that! 

During my personal study, I discovered something that was really cool. I was reading in Alma about the people at Zarahemla who were keeping the commandments and were being persecuted by those that didn't and how the Lord lifted them out of these afflictions. It was because they humbled themselves and they put their trust in the Lord and they prayed with all their might. And because of that, the Lord blessed them more than their enemies.  I really liked this lesson because they are all things that we can apply when we have hard times.  And it's the same way with us, if we will do these things, the Lord will bless us. I am so thankful for Him and the chance that I have to testify of this Gospel unto the children of men. 

But that's all for this week! I love you all so much and I hope you have a good week.  I will see you guys next week! And for a challenge, go eat some Mc Donald's french fries!!

Elder Legerski

The Simple Joys of a Missionary

Hi family and friends...how are you !?
   This week has been really good for us here in the Congo! If you are or were a missionary, you know the simple joy of going out in the sector and working your butt off all day long. Even if you didn’t do much, you are doing something and you are adding to the Lord's kingdom on the earth and that gives you a joy that many cannot describe.
    But for this week, I want to talk about the Albertine family that we met this week. I don’t remember if I talked about them last week, but I know that even if I did, they are worth a second letter. Well, we met them and we started teaching them and from the start, they were just so awesome! The whole family loves to meet with us and they are really interested in the Gospel. We taught them about the Restoration this week and the Spirit was so strong in all of the lessons! You can tell that God prepared them and that they are meant for us. And also, all 4 kids came to church this Sunday and they all loved it! The mom didn’t come but she said that she will come on the 1^st, so that will be really exciting! At the last meeting with them, we talked about the Book of Mormon and we committed them to be baptized and all 5 of them accepted to be baptized on the 5^th of December! I really hope that I am still here and that they will go through with this choice that they have made.


Elder Tschibanda, Soeur Alex and her brother,
Elder Legerski 7-11-15

   
   Also, during my studies I read in the book of Mosiah and I think it might have become my favorite book in the Book of Mormon! I was really touched with how King Benjamin taught his people, and how he teaches that all we need to do to have eternal life is to be obedient to all of God's commandments. And as we do that, it shows the love that we have for Him. Also, as I read of the people of King Zeniff and how they were cursed or had many burdens, it was all because of what they themselves had done.  Many times when we have hard times, it is because of the choices which we have made, which means that many of things can be avoided if we just follow the small and quiet voice who leads and guides us.
    But thank you so much to all the people that emailed me-I really appreciate it and I love you all! I hope that you have a great week! For a challenge this week, go eat a corn dog!

Love,

Elder Legerski



Between the toes sandals...I'm finally growing up!

Hello all of the family and all friends!
   This week has been super awesome for us! We were able to see a lot of amis and to meet new people and create new memories!! I don’t have a lot to say this week so I hope you will all be satisfied!! But I want to say thank you to all of the people that sent me emails this week; I am so thankful that you take the time to write me and I hope that you have a very good week!
    One thing I do want to talk about is our meeting that we had with Sabina. Sabina is the wife of one of Mama Cecile and Papa Beri's sons (yeah, just one of their 10 children!!). She has been coming to church for a few weeks now and we finally went over to see her. Now the hard part is that she doesn’t speak much French. She understands a little when we talk, but for her to speak its really hard. That is really common here and it creates quite a few problems. I don’t know if I have said this before, but when you walk down the streets here you hardly ever hear French. It's mostly linglala or munikituba, so it's quite different. But I now understand basic things! Well, we have been teaching her about the  restoration and we needed a  translator, so we used Papa Beri. It was really neat to feel the Spirit as we spoke and then Papa Beri translated and Sabina answered. No matter what language you speak or how you speak it, if you teach with and by the Spirit, then everyone will be able to know that what you are saying is true. I look forward to teaching her some more and learning some more kiycongo!!

Elder Waite, Elder Kamba, Elder Legerski, Elder Bacera,
Elder Tschibanda, Elder Kabongo, and Elder Kazemb

 

     Also, I got to go on splits this week with Elder Kazemb and we had a really good day in their sector!! I got to go out to the Mpaka apartment and stayed with Kazemb, Kabongo and Dou. We had a good time eating fou fou together and talking about things.
    But other than that, I don’t have big things to say this week! I saw bats in the market, but President Monga said we aren’t allowed to eat them or else I would have bought one and had Elder Dou cook it up for me! And also, I bought sandals that go in-between my toes, Mom! I'm finally growing up!
    But that’s all for this week. I love you all and for a challenge this week, go and eat a blizzard from Dairy Queen!!

Love,
Elder Legerski

Grandpa Legerski and the GIGANTIC spider

Hey family and friends how are you doing!?
   This week was a really good week for us here in the Congo at Aeroport! I can't believe I'm still here... I feel like a grandpa!! But I know that God wants me to be here and it means that I have work to do.  I just wanted to say thank you to all of the people who wrote me and I hope that you all have a great week this coming week! I love you all!!
    The best part of this week was the baptism of Jules! He has just been waiting to turn 18 so he could be baptized and his birthday was last Sunday, so finally the date of his baptism came! It was a really good service! He was there really early and he was talking to us about how he was really nervous, but all went well!! He chose me to baptize him and it went really well and this time it only took me one time! But he was really calm and you could really feel the spirit. I have to say that when you perform ordinances, you are so tired after wards! The body just can't keep up with spiritual things! The past 2 Saturdays I have fallen asleep in English class!! Afterwards,  Jules bore his testimony about how he has a kind of broken family life, but when he met us and he came to the church, he began to feel a joy and the members of the church rallied about him. I swear he is at the church every day! The second councilor who gave the welcoming word said he was surprised to see Jules being baptized, because he thought that he was a member already because he is always at the church...you really can see how he loves the church! Now he really wants to start working with us so that will be really awesome! It's really cool to see how the spirit has changed him and I can't wait to see the person he becomes in the church.


Elder Legerski, Jean, Cecile (who were baptized last month),
Elder Tshibanda

    Also, we have some new people that we are teaching; one is Beljuda, who is the niece of our branch president and she is really cool! She is only 12 years old, but she can't read. But she really loves meeting with us and when she does, she is always with her cousin, who is Claude, and she helps us out. But every time that we leave her homework in the Book of Mormon, she reads it with Claude and she is able to explain to us very well what she learned!
    Also, we have been teaching Judelle for awhile, but we have started teaching her husband as well, because they are not married and we want them to work together. And yesterday, we talked about the restoration and it was really awesome. And as we ended the lesson, he said that he was coming to church, which was the commitment we were going to give him. And he also said that during the week, he thinks a lot about our meetings and even before we came he was waiting for us.  He was really excited and he didn’t know what it was. But I realized that it’s the light of Christ acting in him and because he is using it wisely, it is growing in him and he is recognizing it.
    And to end this week, I had the chance to go on splits with Elder Bacera and it went really well and I learned a lot of things! In a month and a half, half of our entire mission will have less than 4 months left to serve, so it looks like I'll never serve with someone older than me! But its good to see the mission grow.


Elder Waite, Elder Kamba, Elder Legerski,
Elder Bacera, Elder Tschibanda, Elder Kabongo, Elder Kazemb

  To end the letter, Elder Tshibanda and I were teaching and I was just thinking how the houses here aren’t that bad and I could live here when a GIGANTIC spider, probably 3 inches in diameter, crawled out from under the bed. Elder Tshibanda and I froze and watched it  crawl behind our ami and then onto the foot of her sister and they didn’t even notice. Yeah, I about pooped my pants and I was really glad to leave that house. 

Elder Waite, Elder Legerski, and Elder Kabongo at the beach a few weeks ago.
 

    But once again, I love you all and I can't wait to hear from you next week! For a challenge, go eat a Subway sandwich!

Love,
Elder Legerski!

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