I love hearing from you all every monday. Makes my
week(:
First off I want to answer a few questions from the last emails. I have not received mail/packages in the last three months. Now the African Elders... Oh man what joy it is to house with some of them. When you listen to the stories they tell, you would think it came straight from an action movie, but its real life. You never know what kind of person you will serve with. And yes, I have made friends and will have friends for a life time. Most of them come from Utah, California, and Texas. But the African friends I have, I will definitely miss when I leave. I know that this is probably the last time we will see each other until we meet in the next life. I don't think I will ever take my family to Liberia and show them around. Liberia is a sketchy place if you are not a missionary protected by the Lord. The places we go to are places you would stay far away from if you were a tourist. But Thats why I love being a misssionary here because we get to see and interact with them and how they live everyday for 2 years. I will never regret coming on a mission. It has been the most positive thing that I have done in my life. You learn non stop on how to better yourself and how to better others who are around you. Also you become aware of what things you need to do to become a Celestial person. When I read more and more, I find that getting to heaven is not so easy after all. When they say that the more knowledge you obtain here will benefit you in the next life, its so true. MIssion has OPENED my eyes really wide. The best advice I could give to you is to study the gospel everyday. Try to be the person that Christ has intended us to be like. We always need to be able to be the instrument in Gods hand to bring others unto Christ. If we don't live how we are suppose to, then how can we endure to the end? As we go to Church, study the scriptures, and attend the temple, we will be helping further the work, and we will start living the way that Christ has intended us to live. We will begin to feel the full happiness that God wants us to have. If you read Mosiah 2:41, we can see that we will be blessed by keeping his commandments. Not only spiritually, but temporally as well. Anytime we are feeling like we don't have happiness or joy in our life, then we need to take a step back and look at how we're living our life. Maybe we aren't keeping the commandments like we're suppose to. Maybe we're not being obedient to our Heavenly Father. I encourage you all to take a step back and see if there is anything that you could do or change in your life so that you can be that instrument in Gods hands. but I got a few stories to write but I don't know if I'll be able to write them all.
First off I want to answer a few questions from the last emails. I have not received mail/packages in the last three months. Now the African Elders... Oh man what joy it is to house with some of them. When you listen to the stories they tell, you would think it came straight from an action movie, but its real life. You never know what kind of person you will serve with. And yes, I have made friends and will have friends for a life time. Most of them come from Utah, California, and Texas. But the African friends I have, I will definitely miss when I leave. I know that this is probably the last time we will see each other until we meet in the next life. I don't think I will ever take my family to Liberia and show them around. Liberia is a sketchy place if you are not a missionary protected by the Lord. The places we go to are places you would stay far away from if you were a tourist. But Thats why I love being a misssionary here because we get to see and interact with them and how they live everyday for 2 years. I will never regret coming on a mission. It has been the most positive thing that I have done in my life. You learn non stop on how to better yourself and how to better others who are around you. Also you become aware of what things you need to do to become a Celestial person. When I read more and more, I find that getting to heaven is not so easy after all. When they say that the more knowledge you obtain here will benefit you in the next life, its so true. MIssion has OPENED my eyes really wide. The best advice I could give to you is to study the gospel everyday. Try to be the person that Christ has intended us to be like. We always need to be able to be the instrument in Gods hand to bring others unto Christ. If we don't live how we are suppose to, then how can we endure to the end? As we go to Church, study the scriptures, and attend the temple, we will be helping further the work, and we will start living the way that Christ has intended us to live. We will begin to feel the full happiness that God wants us to have. If you read Mosiah 2:41, we can see that we will be blessed by keeping his commandments. Not only spiritually, but temporally as well. Anytime we are feeling like we don't have happiness or joy in our life, then we need to take a step back and look at how we're living our life. Maybe we aren't keeping the commandments like we're suppose to. Maybe we're not being obedient to our Heavenly Father. I encourage you all to take a step back and see if there is anything that you could do or change in your life so that you can be that instrument in Gods hands. but I got a few stories to write but I don't know if I'll be able to write them all.
First one.... We were out at Banjor Beach trying to teach one of our recent converts T. I don't know if I told you about T. but his cousin who lives in america, is a member of the church and was telling T. that he should attend the church. T. was not attending church at all, until one day he woke up and had the strong desire to go to church. This was the week right after my training so I had the area all to myself.... We met him at the Duala Branch since, me and Elder Smith were attending his branch that Sunday. We talked with him afterwards and he showed a great interest in the church. I told him that we would come see him that week then he left. We taught him for a good month and a half and he just barely got baptized last Saturday. One of the Happiest days on mission so far. I had the privilege to baptize him as well. But the cool thing about the story, is that the whole time we were teaching him, he had been in a search for a job. He would spend a couple days at a time in Monrovia searching, but he never would have any luck. Then after he got baptized and confirmed, the following Tuesday he got a job. We found this out when we went to teach him on Wednesday and we ran into his brother W. instead. W. told us that T. wasn't home but he wanted him to tell us that he found a job. We were so excited for him!! It just shows that when you do whats right, you will get blessed. That simple. Do what is right.
This same day, we left T's place and went to find his uncle to teach, who lives in a run down compound on the other side of the fence. When we reached his place, he wasn't available, but his wife was, and she wanted us to talk to her and her brother. Now her brothers name is E. After we had opened with prayer, we were talking with them and said that if they had any questions that they should ask them so we can address all their concerns. This sparked his interest and he replied with "Even if they dont have to do with the topic of discussion?" We told him of course. If he had any questions we were here to answer them. The first question he started with was, "how long after Adam, did Eve come?"........ Are you serious? only Liberians would think of these questions. We told him that the bible doesn't tell us the time, we just know it was the same day. Then you wont believe the following question..... "What is Noahs full name?" What?! when do you ever have time to think of such questions? This guy the whole time after this, was trying to confound us about Jesus Christ being God and not the Son of God. We showed him all the evidence but he wasn't teachable. He did not want to learn at all. The whole time he was trying to teach us instead, but we told him to pray about it. So we'll see what happens next right? Maybe he'll have time to think of some more questions that won't help him return to heaven.....
I am running out of time but I want you to know at how good I am with money. For the past week I have lived off of 5 US dollars and still had a few Liberian dollars to spare. Just shows how the Liberian currency is worth near to nothing. I was able to eat and take transport different places for a week and still had money. It usually takes around 20 US to live for a week, but this was the week right before we sub, so It was our affliction week you could say. I didn't run out of money though!! Now for next month I created a good budget though. I will be able to spend around 2.50 US a day and have around 50 US left over to buy good food at the end of the month. it seems like a small amount of money, but 2.50 is a good amount for one day here. I have more stories and pictures I want to attatch next time, so Be ready for them!
I love you all and I keep you in my prayers!
Love Elder Zaugg
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