New Companion

Hello friends and family,

Time just flies by as mission gets better and better. The older I get on mission the more I seem to enjoy everyday and just relax. My new companion arrived late Tuesday night. His name is Elder Ng'ambi and he's from Zambia. He joined the church in 2011, he has 8 in his family and most of them are members. His branch back home is super small, only about 20 people at church every week but apparently about 90% of the members in his branch are less active. There are just a ton of less active members throughout Zambia which is unfortunate to hear. One of the biggest struggles with inactivty is that the chapels are often too far for people or they have to work on Sundays to support their families. It's definietly a struggle we are facing in this mission.

Well I have just a couple of short stories from this past week. We got a referral from a YSA sister to visit her friend who stays in our area. The referrals name is F____ and she is really cool. We met her for the second time on Saturday and we had a powerful lesson with her. After teaching her half the restoration (up to the apostasy) the first time we met we left her with a pamphlet. Well we came back on Saturday to finish the restoration and found that she had read the whole pamphlet. She had about 2 full pages of notes from the pamphlet and questions. She understood the restoration incredibly well and she was so happy that we gave her a Book of Mormon. She kept offering us money for the Book of Mormon but we had to just keep explaining that it is free haha. She has great potential to progress and were excited to keep meeting with her. It is so much easier to do missionary work when we get referrals. We would have never met this girl if not for this referral because she lives pretty far from the central area we do proselyting.

It has been exciting to have the opportunity to train so far. My companion isn't even that green and I can tell he is going to be a great missionary. I've already learned a lot from him and he has reminded me of the importance of bearing a simple testimony. There is nothing more important in teaching lessons than bearing testimony. Often times we receive difficult questions about whether God is really there or other struggles people face but each time I bear testimony there is an undeniable spirit that enters the room. The most important thing in teaching is sharing testimony, when we say the words "I know" or "I testify" it invites the spirit instantly. It's incredible how many people constantly comment that they feel the spirit or peace when we visit them. I think that I sometimes forget the simple feelings of the spirit such as peace, hope and joy that I feel in my everyday life. The spirit doesn't have to be this overwhelming feeling, it's the calm reassurance that God lives and that He has a plan for us. I know this to be true and I'm so grateful for that hope in my everyday life.

Love you guys,

Elder Summers