Hey everybody! Good to hear from home as always. Sounds like everyone is for the most part healthy and happy.
We had an awesome week full of miracles. On Wednesday we had a dinner appointment with our investigators from Cameroon. They taught us how to make fried plaintains. It was pretty fun and always delicious. That is something I will be making after the mission for sure haha. We taught them how to make homemade bread as a trade-off. It was cool. On Thursday I split with Elder Gutierrez who is the new missionary in our apartment. We had a good day of lessons. It was nice to be able to take the bus and do some walking. I hadn't been able to for a while since Elder Read needs to take the car because of his knee. We don't have as many opportunities to talk to people in the street when we're car bound. One of the people Elder Gutierrez and I ran into was Marc. He's a guy I had met a few weeks prior and seemed pretty crazy like he was on drugs the first time we met him. This time he seemed like a different person. He just seemed super humble and like he had a desire to change his life. He mentioned that he was having a hard time paying for food. We were in a hurry to catch a bus but we told him we'd come by his place the following day. We had an extra loaf of homemade bread we had made so we brought that to him the next day. He was very touched and said he wanted to come to church. We gave him all the information and left, hoping he would show up on Sunday. He did! He came and stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed it. He was touched by the Spirit for sure. We have an appointment set up with him for Wednesday. It's cool when people who are prepared started showing up seemingly out of nowhere.
Saturday was the biggest miracle. We had dinner and a lesson with Anita, Pierre and their kids (investigators from Ivory Coast). Anita's mother, Gene Vieve is a member. We've been teaching them for a few months now. Last week we were over there to give Gene Vieve and Anita a blessing. Afterwards Pierre, who had just been observing, asked us if he could have a blessing as well. This week when we were teaching them we told Pierre that he could have the Priesthood which would allow him to give blessings to his family as we had done. The Spirit was very strong in the room. We taught him that he would first have to be baptized. He accepted. He (and soon the rest of the family) has a date set for May 31. It may get moved slightly depending on how the teaching goes, but at this point it's looking like I might be coming back to visit my mission sooner than I had been expecting. I wouldn't want to miss his baptism for the world. We'll see what happens.
To top off our week, Yesterday we did a bit of knocking with Stéphane who had been wanting to do some missionary work with us for a while. We only ended up knocking two doors since the second door was a girl who let us in to teach her. Gotta love it when that happens. Her name is Edwige (pronounced: edveege) and she is from Togo in Africa which is actually where Elder Read started his mission before he had to return home for knee surgery. They were able to talk about that which was way cool. She was super kind and super open to the message. Stéphane also appreciated the experience.
I've been having a lot of mixed feelings lately. It's going to be very hard to leave these people who I've grown to love. After 8 months somewhere you start to feel at home. Last night it was pouring rain as Elder Read and I were knocking a few doors before heading home for the night. As we walked back to the car it hit me how much I'm going to miss this. Despite how difficult it is at times it is so rewarding to be a missionary. I gotta make this last month count!
I love you all and wish you a great week! Happy Easter on Sunday!
Love, Elder Oxborrow
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