Another week bang! This will be a short email! Haha, this week has been good. We had a lot of challenges and some good experiences! 

We will start off with the things that have been hard. There has been a lot of death recently which is super sad. But a lot of our friends have been dealing with a death in the family. It felt like almost all of our investigators had someone die in there family. So a lot of lessons this week fell through. We also had some revisions of rules imposed on us that make things a little more difficult to teach people. All missionaries world wide I believe can no longer meet with single women inside or outside without another male present. The rule used to be if there wasn't a male present you could just take the lesson outside, but that is not the case anymore. So PLEASE fellowship with the missionaries in your ward!! It helps them out so much. We have been struggling a lot with this new rule, and have had to reschedule many lessons because of it. 

Now on to the good things that happened this week! I lead out the area on Thursday! We went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I was able to bring Elder Stock into the Motherwell area! Things were rough as many of our lesson fell through but we stayed busy and keep pushing forward! We actually had a really good lesson about temples and family history with one of our recent converts!

AMERICAN XHOSA

     This week we weren't able to meet with Mama Oliphant because of the new rule. We told her that Heavenly Father will provide a way for us to meet as we are obedient to his rules that he wants us to follow. We didn't think much of it after that. But then we get a call from someone the next day. It was a young adult that was installing mama's Wi-Fi, She shared with him a little bit about the church and he wanted to learn more. So she gave him our number. We were able to meet with him 35 min after we hung up the call. We went and had a good lesson with him and when we left he told Mama and texted us that he wanted to live the gospel and be baptized! He is an amazing person and is very intelligent. We met with him the next day and had a wonderful lesson about the plan of salvation. He absorbed all of the plan very well and even came to church the next day! And the best part of it all is Mama helped him find a place that is close to where she stayes! So, we will be able to get him to fellowship with us! That was definitely the highlight of my week! Anyway, to the American Xhosa part. As we were visiting with Mama she said that he loved us and that he thought we were so cool and nice. And Mama said YES of course! They aren't like the white people here. They are one of us. They are American Xhosas. So yeah.. That made me super happy to hear that they like us! 

We also had two baptisms this Saturday!!!!! Mxolisi and Sister Rasi, they are absolute beasts! And I am so happy they chose to be baptized and take the next steps on their covenant path. It has been amazing to watch Mxolisi change for the better. I was actually here the first time we meet him, so I've been able to watch and help him go all the way! But when we first met him he struggled with a smoking addiction.  That is now out of his life and he has a light that shines super bright. He has found so much joy in the gospel. 

We also had 5 investigators come to church this week! Three of them have never come before. So that was amazing to see some new growth! 

This P-day we went to Jeffery's bay! It was super nice to see some actual mountains! Motherwell is extremely flat. Like you can't even see the ocean even though it is pretty darn close. We were able to get some fun shopping in, get some lunch, and play sports on the beach! 

Anyway, this week was good. Keep going with faith. And never give up on what you believe. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you! (And me) Keep going! 

Here is a conference talk that has given me comfort the last few weeks. 

Just Keep Going—with Faith

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/13cook?lang=eng

With Love,

     Elder Lawrence