Badges and Baptisms

 Bonjour tout le monde! (Hello everybody!) I hope all is good wherever you are because I know each of you are good, good people!

This week in the Congo was awesome! We had a lot of rendez-vous avec nos amis (with our friends) which was really nice after not having many at all last week! We were preparing for our friends' baptisms for most of our lessons so that was fantastic! Thankfully each person who had their baptism planned for this week was baptized! We even had an extra one because Frère Mirlain was baptized but never received the gift of the Holy Ghost so we had the pleasure of helping him receive the blessed ordinances correctly! I would also like to say for each of our friends in the Lord I had the pleasure to baptize, it only took one time each! I am thankful to the Lord for His mercy which He has shown to me and has let me behold in the lives of others. 

Speaking of beholding the Hand of God in our friends' lives I have seen His hand so many times. I will share those experiences which I am guided to share.

1) My badge was retrieved for me (hence the picture with the évêque (the bishop) wearing my badge)! I wasn't expecting to ever see that again but now I will forever wear it close to my heart (both literally and metaphorically haha)!

  

2) The Lord has answered my prayers each time I have offered up my soul to Him. My mom gave me some good advice last pday about the language: just ask! Something deep rang clear in my soul that this is how the universe is. I know my Heavenly Father was tapping me on the shoulder to remind me to practice what I preach. So chaque fois (every time) I needed the Gift of Tongues I asked genuinely for the Gift. The best part was He answered perfectly each time. Not according to my will but His. I was able to say those universal principles of established truths to our amis of which they needed. Charity, Hope, and Faith are how we must live to know God. I'm glad my mom was able to show me the way so I could help mes amis and the Lord. 

3) Baptism truly is a rebirth. I had the grand opportunity to baptise Soeur Derna. When I went to faire le baptême to (do the baptism) I prayed that she would feel God's love and the Spirit in her heart. I prayed she would feel something. So we're in the font: it's cold, slightly filled with sand and trash, and perfect. By the grace of God, I was able to pronounce the prayer without mistake (though I am pretty sure I butchered Soeue Derna's name to the amusement of everyone like usual, haha). She went completely under the water and I brought her back up. It was like she was breathing in a new life like she really was just born again. It sounds strange and silly but that was a really powerful and perfect answer for me.

Well, I'm going to offer my apologies for the ramble. Sorry. I hope you each can feel the love of God, His Spirit, and know that He is real.

Because He is the Great I AM.

Sincerely, Elder Habel

    

Dinner time: Guacamole with bread, Dark green stuff with grubs, fried bananas, fruit, and mango popsicles.

Sandwiches!

Bonjour toutes les monde! Salut mes amis et ma famille!  J'espère chaque un de vous avez eu bonne semaine! 

Hello everyone! Hi, my friends and family! Hope each of you had a good week!

We had a weirder than usual week over here in the Congo. My collègue Elder Konan got malaria this week so that kept us indoors for a large chunk of our time. We were able to help Frère Bidier be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ! Once again I stand all amazed at how powerfully the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His love and the Holy Ghost can change lives and souls for the better! 

We also had a zone conference which was awesome and bizarre in itself. We were thirty minutes late which knowing my previous record with zone conferences didn't come as a surprise at all. The thoughts and ideas from the zone conference were super good! I especially liked the thought of 2 Timothy 4:7

 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

The good fight is to keep the faith that is centered in Jesus Christ. Keep the faith, grow the faith. 

Also from zone conference, there were these sandwiches which were so good they almost made me weep with joy! I savored every bite of the multilayered, meat-stuffed, veggie-filled, french bread sandwich. 

Also after an epically good mangé-vous (where I ate this super hot pepper in one bite which was...let's just say fun, I definitely was sweating a bit more than I usually do haha) we went to this music studio and jammed out. It was pretty epic.

As you can tell the mission is fun, hard, and overall more than worth it! I'm extremely grateful for chaque experience ici! (every experience here!) The Lord's hand is everywhere! You just have to look!

Adieu avec tout mon amour, (Farewell with all my love,) Elder Habel 

Frère Bidier looking angelic at his baptism!

  

Les Frites  (French fries)

 A soundboard place of one of the members! We had a lot of fun!

    

Le Bureau de Mission (The Mission Office)

 

Improving Encore et ce Progresse Chaque Jour

Bonjour tout les monde! J'espère vous êtes très content et chaque autres de vous est trouver joie dans votre vie! Hello everyone! I hope you are very happy and that each of you will find joy in your life!

This week we once again had many great experiences with nos amis (our friends!)! Frère (Brother) Junior has absorbed everything we have taught him deep into his soul! Frère Bidier is progressing as well! Every person we teach loves the good Word we preach! Most already have a testimony which is amazing! The Spirit of the Lord is working miracles. Elder Konan and I are très reconnaissant pour chaques bénédictions des Dieu (very grateful for every blessing from God). My language is improving encore et ce progresse chaque jour (still improving and progressing every day!)! 

I was also able to listen to a couple Conference Générale talks which were amazing! What wonderful gifts modern-day Prophets, Apostles, and Revelation are! I am extremely grateful for the Lord blessing us to live in times like these! There will be always more of the word of Christ to feast upon!

I find it special God has always made Himself known to His children if they would be willing to look! We are blessed to have so much of the Word of God! We will never run out!

Know that I love each and every single one of you. God is real. More real than you think. 

Till next time, Adieu! ---- Elder Habel 

1) Mama Gorreti et sa famille (and her family!! Nous ensienons la famille!  We keep the family together!

2) The BEFORE shot of my haircut 

3) The AFTER shot of my haircut

4) Nous avons fait les pommes de terre dans mashed potatoes (We made the potatoes into mashed potatoes! We had to use a spatula and a fufu stick to mash them though.

5) A one-legged chicken. Des autres pictures bizarre!

6) Frère Junior! Il est très spiritual! (He is very spiritual!)

7) Une orange 

8) Les ciel et les nuages (The sky and the clouds)

A Tag in the Well, and other baptismal adventures

Bonjour tout le monde! Salut mes amis at ma famille! J'espère vous êtes tous allez trés bien! Je sais que Dieu nous aime et Il veut le meilleur pour vous dans vos vies!

(Hello everybody! Hi, my friends and family! I hope you are all doing very well! I know God loves us and He wants the best for you in your lives!)

This week was pretty good here in the Congo. We had a lot of rendez-vous avec nos amis! All the people we meet with are very willing to let God Prevail in their lives! I am very grateful for each and every single one of them. Je eux aime! (I love them!) 

As for the language let's just say the power of prayer and the Gift of Tongues is very real! I have improved and grown bit by bit out here. Je suis très reconnaissant pour les bénédictions de notre Dieu qui est notre Père Céleste! I am very grateful for the blessings of our God who is our Heavenly Father! 

We also had the opportunity to baptize Soeur Cécilia this past Sunday! We didn't have enough water so we filled the font up with well water! We took the well water to the font using a lot of buckets! A lot of the young men helped us out! Sadly while I was reaching into the well to fill up a bucket of water my tag fell off into the well and sank to the bottom! So yeah that happened but that honestly was more funny than anything else. We were able to fill up the font a reasonable amount. I then had the special opportunity to baptize Soeur Cécilia! I was able to offer the prayer correctly (I know absolutely shocking, right?) but this time it took a couple times to make sure she was completely immersed when I baptized her. It was actually pretty cool reflecting upon it. She basically went as straight as a pole going into the water so I basically had to straddle my leg across her legs to make sure they didn't come up and then I had to shove her all the way down. It was like she was doing the belly float lol. However, I say it was cool because just like our Savior took up new life once before, our friend Soeur Cécilia was able to do the same. I always had the mental image of Jesus Christ being raised up from the dead lying down flat to standing up straight. Now I've been able to experience a similitude of such in real life. Also, the men's room didn't have any light for me to change in so that was interesting trying to get back into my regular clothes in total darkness. All in all baptisms over here are cool, crazy, and filled crazy strongly with the Spirit!

Also, I am very thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ, His Church, and His Apostles and Prophets. Seeing that Conference, Easter, and Soeur Cécilia's baptism all were aligned for today! I know He lives! His Atonement is real and powerful! He is mighty to save! I know we will be resurrected because He was! I know this is His church (His organization of love for His disciples) in the latter days! I know He has blessed us with Prophets and Apostles today! He is the Living God!

Avec tout mon amour, Elder Habel 

(With all my love, Elder Habel)

About the pictures

1) One of the funniest things I've ever seen here. A three-wheeled moto stylo is driven by what must have been at least an eighty-year-old grandma. She was hauling too. I was lucky to get the picture.

2) Frère Bidier is wearing the fortis shirt! He is one of our friends! He is a great guy and has really taken ahold of the Gospel!

3) Just a really random and funny picture I found walking around sector one day. All of the shop signs for the boulangeries, the car shops, the hair cut salons, and the boutiques are paintings above the door of the building. I am amazed at how good the people here are at painting. I have seen some very life-like ones. 

4) Ahh...I sure do love herbal toothpaste. Bet you've never seen that before. I hope you haven't had to use it before either. 

5) Les Soeur dans notre paroisse avec nous. (The Sisters in our ward with us.)

6-7) Les seaux des eaux. (The Buckets of Water)

 

8) Tout le monde avec Soeur Cécilia! (Everyone with Soeur Cécilia.)