07 April 2010 – Wednesday
We went to DDM with the Empangeni District and I was asked to give the spiritual thought about “the Book of Mormon as a scripture of light.†I immediately thought of D&C 50 and how it talks about the promise to those who seek light, how Christ is the Light and Life of the World, and how the Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ. So the basic purpose of the Book of Mormon is to testify of Christ and to bring his light to those who read it.
In listening to the reports on investigators it sounds like the pool is not very deep in any of the areas and that is always troublesome because without a good pool of investigators there is not likely to be many baptisms in the near future. It will be interesting to hear tomorrow how the Richards Bay district is doing for investigators.
After DDM we went to our usual lunch at KFC. The line was long and as we were standing there I got to talking to the couple in front of me. It turned out they were married, had 6 children and lived in Kosi Bay. We got to talking about church and I gave her a ‘Who are the Mormons†and an Article of Faith card. I mentioned that there was a small branch in Kosi Bay and when I mentioned Iras name she said she knew him. I gave her his phone number and suggested she might contact him. Unfortunately I did not get her number so he could call her. I will probably never know if anything comes of this meeting but hopefully it planted a seed that will grow into her family being blessed.
We then went to Esikhawini where I tried to fix the hose that got burned and Mary changed the dressing on her incision. By the time we were done there, she was quite tired so we decided it would be best if we went back to our boarding. On the way we stopped and I bought a new hose for Esikhawini so the dear sisters can water their newly planted gardens.
I worked on getting things organized for the District Council Meeting at 6:00 and Mary rested. The meeting was very helpful and I once again was impressed by the quality of President Baldwin’s handling of the meeting and things that came up. I learned some things that I did not know – or at least had not thought about – from him about the relationship between him as District President and the Branch Presidents.
The Youth trip to the temple was again moved back – this time until the first of August. This means we will not be able to go but it is more realistic as far as getting it planned. I was assigned to speak at the Richards Bay branch on the 18th – it will be the only chance I have had to speak in the branch.
Over the last couple of days we have gotten many nice comments on Facebook about Mary’s day in the hospital. It is nice to know that there are many of our friends throughout the world who are praying for us and other missionaries.