Sometimes you have to go to the end of the road and turn around and start over again

Hello!

Another week has passed! As always, a pretty good week for us. Suuuuuper slow but good. My companion got sick on Friday with some serious stomach stuff that kept him in the bathroom most of the day. That actually put us down most of Saturday and all of Sunday. We even weren't able to go to church... That was my first time missing church on my mission and it felt super strange. It was also a bit of a challenge because we had investigators there that we couldn't support. So I hope it went good! I had fun and we got some good work done so I am content with the week. 

Well, at the beginning of this week we had a pretty small teaching pool. We had many that were just not progressing and we decided to stop meeting them. Others we had progressed and baptized. So we had only 4 or 5 people at the beginning of the week. This week we were able to find 9 new people. It was great! Many are really good and interested too! So I will tell you about them:

Samuel and Family! - We met Samuel while knocking doors. We were walking down this little road and there was a compound with many houses in it. We peeked through the crack in the gate and saw a younger girl cleaning the porch so we knocked . She let us in and pretty much just ushered us into their home as though they were expecting us. The Father welcomed us in and sat us down on the couch. It was probably one of the most casual welcomes I have had. It was literally like he was just waiting for us and knew we were coming! After chatting for a while they were more than happy to accept our message. We set an appointment to teach the whole family, Mom and Dad + 4 kids, this Thursday! 

Moses and John - These two were contacted when we found Moses sleeping on the ground as we were walking down a road. He woke up as we were passing and we greeted him and moved on. At the end of the road we turned around and started knocking the doors again. We had no success until we again reached Moses. As we talked to him he awoke and sat up. He was happy to hear from us. His brother, John, came out of their house and sat with us. They told us that their mother passed away a few months back. Their pastor told them some words that weren't so comforting about her "current state" and it angered the two of them and now they "hate" God. We gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and will be returning tomorrow to talk more about it. We are looking forward to it. 

Fiston and Kawunga - Fiston is from Burundi and Kawunga is from DR Congo. They were both found on the way to visit another investigator named Emmanuel. Kawunga called us over and told us he is pretty much a mess. He drinks and smokes and hates the fact that he does it and just wants help. He tried other churches and none of them cared about is addictions and struggles. We of course do! His friend is Fiston who has actually come to church a few times. We are meeting them again on Wednesday.  

That is pretty much it for new people right now. Others we are teaching are still doing pretty good. Emmanuel is having a little problem with the Word of Wisdom and so we are working with him to overcome it and progress to be baptized. Vicky is doing great too and we are still teaching her! It should be a busy week coming up. We have our work cut out for us so keep us in your prayers. 

Welp, I am excited to go on some fun hikes and join you guys on your trips when I get home! Have a great week!

Love you all! 

Elder McLain