Week 21- A Different Kind Of Blessing

I hope everyone is well and is getting ready for Thanks giving! We are planning to have a feast as well (without a turkey) at the campbells all the elders are pretty excited for that.  We have had a excellent week this week and have had a lot of success with are teaching. We have several new investigators and they are all progressing so far all of them have amazing potential! We taught this guy named david from zimbob and last week we taught him the godhead/BRT with his friend and when we came back this week he read all the way to 2 nephi in the BoM! Very humble guy and his friend, Nomane are both great. We also taught a guy named daniel that is about 23 which is a rarity because no one in that age group ever wants to listen to us, but hes hungry to know more and always wants us to come back. Also we taught a brother that we gave blessing to in the hospital in the ICU and he wants to know more because the missionaries left the area when he was just getting interested, it was awesome to teach someone who is laying in a stretcher because they can only give you their full attention haha. And the best part about this week is we finally were able to finalize a baptism date with sister named khumo after months of talking to the mission president and the branch president. Shes been going to church for 6 years and has been taught all the lessons numberless times but just keeps moving due to her husbands job. But we set the date for Jan 11th and she was so excited and thankful, this will be great because she knows all the lessons like word for word and this will give us enough time to help her husband Franis be converted as well. Lots of things are in commotion right now and we are excited! Rumor is that elder hunt will be training in Lenyenye and i will get transferred on Dec 8th so im trying to get as much work done as possible to leave this area with a mark of my work. This week we had a lot of service and we picked mangoes for a sister whose husband just died and we filled the whole back of the boki with green mangoes and sold them and got like 450 Rand(40 bucks) which will help her survive for a couple months. We gave a sister a blessing this week and she was extremely weak, and as i was giving her the blessing i felt peace and comfort fall upon me and after we left i felt different and i didnt know how to feel about it. Yesterday we got a phone call and the senior couple told us that she passed away a couple days later from heart failure. I couldnt believe it! I was heart broken and could still remember her voice in my head but i confirmed to myself that was the feeling i had before when i was giving her the blessing, i was sad but comforted that she was in a better place. The funeral will be in a couple days. We also had service in Motupa another area by lenyenye, this whole week it literally dumped rain like no ones business and a sisters house got flooded but mud because she lives on the mountain and she has this son that is 26 and is crippled and cant move any part of his body and can just only lay there and stare at you. I had tears in my eyes when i saw this big mama with her few children in their shack with literally NOTHING and her son just laying on the bed while the whole room was flooded with mud and dirt and we worked all day just to clear it out. The part that touched me the most is that this mama is the most happy and kind mama ive ever met, besides the fact she was simply HAPPY, they had everything hardship you could imagine yet they choose to be happy. Reminded me of 2 nephi 5. We all have the choice to be happy despite anything that comes are way, i my self am still learning this and is always a constant battle but the lord always helps and aids me on my way with his strength. Amazing week laka as always. God loves us all so very much its impossible to understand. Never forget his love that he has blessed you with and is blessing you with and will bless you with. Truly amazing. Love you all Thanks for all your support and love. Have a awesome week!:)

-Elder Swindle