Hi friends and family!
Well we had a huge week in Masaka! It was one of the best weeks of the mission as far as the work goes. We worked so darn hard and had a lot of great success. It was awesome.
Early in the week we were going left and right back and forth to all of our investigators to prepare them for the baptisms. This was the big week. All of our work early in the transfer was cooked up and prepared for this very week... It was delicious. We started off hard with our investigators making sure they understood everything and would be ready for the interviews. All 3 of them did a great job. Nakato Teddy was so impressive. She is 17 and just has a strong desire to learn it all. She takes notes in our lessons and at church. She asks inspired and deep questions all the time too. One time she asked us to describe to her how the Urim and Thummim was used to translate the Book of Mormon. Yeah.... She is prepared! Gorreth and Ayub are cousins and we worked hard to make sure they could be baptized together on the same day. We had many others we had to meet and work with as well but these 3 were our key focus. Sunday came and the 3 of them met all the spiritual and temporal requirements for baptism. I was asked by each of them to baptize them and so I did my FIRST physical baptizing on my mission. Normally we encourage other ward members to baptize in order to have a fellowship for when the missionaries leave but in this case with all 3 asking me, I wasn't going to tell each of them to choose a member. So, I was able to participate in the baptisms for the very first time on my mission! It was so awesome. It was a great experience and I loved the happiness and love I felt for each of them as I watched them be baptized. They all did great in the baptism and bearing their testimonies at the end. What a great thing that all 3 of our investigators entered the waters this week. Go Masaka!
President and his wife came to our branch this Sunday. I think he was impressed with the work from our elders. We had the 3rd highest attendance of all time at 162 people. We had 5 baptisms (3 of which were from me and my companion). We also had 3 confirmations in Sacrament (2 of which were from us as well). So, a lot of work was done!
We got our transfer news this Saturday and I was a bit surprised. Fortunately I am staying in Masaka but moving to the other side in another district. Even better I am staying with Elder Kubheka. It will be fun and hard work for us these next 6 weeks! We will also be walking but I am excited about that. A truck put too much freedom in the work and that made it good in some ways but bad in others. I prefer walking though.
On Saturday we took a quick stop at our Muslim friends in Bwala. They are from Pakistan and are all really fun. They invited us to play some cricket with them. We joined in a game and played. My companion played on the South Africa National cricket team before his mission so he is obviously insanely good. I picked it up really fast though and wasn't half bad myself. We had a ton of fun. Later we got back to work though of course...
I had one of my favorite weeks for studying. I challenged myself to deeply study Jacob 5 and truly understand each and every verse. I learned some amazing things and had no idea the chapter prophesied so many things. The chapter literally prophecies the time before Christ, the time of Christ, the great apostasy, the gathering of Israel and the Millennium. I want to leave a spiritual thought with you. One of my favorite parts is in Jacob 5:41,47 and 49. The Lord of the Vineyard goes down to check the trees. We can assume this is after the time of the Great Apostasy and just before the Gathering of Israel. The Lord of the Vineyard goes down to see that all of the scattered trees, even those bearing good fruit in the past, are all corrupt. The evil fruits and corrupt branches overtook the good fruits and made the whole tree bad. He then says in those three verses, weeping, "What could I have done more for my vineyard." God does all he can for his children. He is fully engaged in our lives and often times we do nothing to thank him. In fact we are almost always disappointing him with our actions. After the times of the Great Apostasy, God wondered what more he could have done. Fortunately we later read that he began to mix the good and the bad in all the scattered trees and eventually life came back to them to the point that no evil could overcome them. We are in the Gathering of Israel and each of our good efforts is strengthening the good branches and bringing forth good fruits. Let's remember this and keep up our good work.
I hope you all had a great week and that this week is even better. Enjoy the fun activities for the Fourth. For me I will probably buy a chicken and slaughter it for the Fourth. Stay tuned!
Thank you all for the love and support! Have a good 4th of July! We will celebrate here too!
Love,
Elder McLain
Harrah for Masaka!
Baptisms in order of Gorreth, Ayub and Teddy!
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