Little Things

Mes chères amis et ma famille préciouse, Salut (My dear friends and precious family, Hi)! 

I hope every little thing is going and is alright in each of your lives. You have kept moving forward this far already. Each of you; and you especially, deserve the best.

Keep striving for it.

This week in the Congo was uniquely magnificent like always. We are pretty blessed to live lives in which we can say that. We had the unique concern of striving to find those who are ready for the Gospel. 

We found Frère Stanislas, Sadly, I think I have butchered his name to a pulp, by Sœur Goretti! He went to catholic school in Côte D'Ivoire studying to become a priest when some wars derailed his studies. He is very spiritual. At first, it appeared we wouldn't get anywhere with him. He did not, and I think still does not, like my French. He tried to one-up us in his knowledge. So it was until we started to teach the plan of salvation. As we taught him about how we lived with our Heavenly Father and accepted His plan to become like Him before this life, he was touched. As we explained how the fall of Adam was necessary for us to come here to earth, he was enlightened. We taught that we are redeemed by Jesus Christ alone. When we taught these truths he exclaimed, "Vos paroles ont touché mon cœur." ("Your words touched my heart.") The Lord touched his heart. Wow! 

Is it strange, Sœur Goretti told me that Frère Stanislas has a drinking problem after our discussion. I felt a soul establishing confirmation that we were supposed to meet him. It didn't take too long for him to reveal this fact himself. After 20 minutes he returned hammered drunk and jumped rope with some kids like the "dum dum give me gum gum" statue from "Night at the Museum". I know the word of wisdom can change lives exactly like his. Knowing the commandments of God can change our lives and the lives of others for the best!  What joy I felt when we saw him at church with us! He loves our little library! God is good and wants to save each of His children. Here's to hope and hoping!

I also had the pleasure to do a little split with Elder Lucas and Elder Kiadiata! They each have living and growing testimonies of God! It was a blast to visit nos amis as an equipe de trois (our friends as a team of three)!

As you see, we were blessed this week. Like every week. I pray each of you is happy, safe, and well. I strive to do my best for you. 

Avec sincérité (With sincerity), Elder Habel

 

 

 

 

 

Joy that Endures

Bonjour mes chères amis et ma famille precieuse! (Hello my dear friends and my precious family!) I hope you realize how much greatness you have inside of you. It's quite a lot. Infinite, I will declare.

I'll share one verse from the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

In 3 Nephi 7: 13 Christ invites us all "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?"

Return unto Christ, repent, be converted so He can heal you. Gratefully I know this is true. I have peace in Christ. I have joy because of how He has healed and is continuing to heal my soul every day.

This week I was able to see three spectacular souls healed by Jesus Christ and converted to Him. Repentance is a miracle we can partake of every day of our eternal life.

Sœur Nadine, Sœur Servie and Sœur Marina very powerful women. During our time progressing together; unlike any other, they each learned the importance of repentance and keeping God's commandments. Sœur Marina poured her soul out and confessed all her sins to Bishop Ndonga for 4 hours. Sœur Servie followed the Spirit and confessed a sin to us which was bothering her ("Dis la vérité ma fille," ("Tell the truth, my daughter,") He whispered to her). Sœur Nadine had to learn the joy of confession after she had her first baptismal interview. Our 2nd Counselor to the President told us after he had interviewed them; in complete and utter seriousness: "Elles sont speciuses! Soyez reconnaissant que Le Siegneur vous a donné ces sœurs." ("They are special! Be grateful that The Savior has given you these sisters.")

I had the honor to baptize each of them. Wow. They truly received a remission of their sins and a new life in Christ. They had tears streaming down their faces. Their souls offered praises from their hearts to the Savior silently and sacredly for rising them from their sins. They testified, each of them, after their baptism of how they were purified and had just been born again. 

Wow. Just wow. Their lives were truly changed. Mine has been changed by theirs. Joy was had. That joy endures.

I love each of you. Trust in the Lord. Life can be beautifully simple. Live the Doctrine of Christ. He loves you. Pray to Heavenly Father. He loves you. Follow the Holy Ghost. He loves you too. Keep them close to you by keeping God's loving counsel: the commandments.

Life is beautifully simple right now and full of joy. I hope you each have joy. If there is anything I can pray for on your behalf: tell me. It is the least I can do having been sustained by each of your prayers every day.

Avec sincérité, je vous aime, (With sincerity, I love you,) Elder Habel

 

  

 

Baptism day for Soeur Nadine, Soeur Servie, Soeur Marina

 

 

L'Hebdomadaire

Bonjour tout le monde! J'espèrais que vous aviez tous une très bonne semaine quand j'étais dans sectour! Chacune de vous meritez le meilleur! (Hello everybody! I was hoping you all had a great week when I was in sectour! Each of you deserve the best!)

This week in the Congo we experienced and learned a lot. 

One being...

-Don't take time with good friends for granted. Elder Tshswaka and Elder Kiadiata were unexpectedly transferred Tuesday morning to an apartment closer to their sector. Ils me manquent! (I miss them!) We had a lot of goodbye pictures and hugs!

The second is...

-Don't lose the keys to your apartment or else you'll have to wait in your apartment doing nothing for 2 days. Let's just say we learned the hard way haha. It was cool though because I rediscovered my lanyard for my thread wallet. We are using it now for our keys. It's effective.

Thirdly...

-Maas is a bugger. We had to update our phones for the new church internet safety app. We all met at the church to download the new version. That poor wifi. Imagine throwing 300 pounds on the bench press and telling the skinniest kid to do 20 reps of that. I'm pretty sure we killed the wifi which died in vain. Our abusing of the wifi took a whole day out of our week as well.

And the fourth...

-God is yet still a God of miracles. We had 2 full days to prepare our 5 friends (Soeur Patricia (14), Sr. Christelle (43), Sr Goreti (the mama of...), Sr Serena et Fr Guichel). I prayed Heavenly Father would prepare our friends for baptism while we dealt with our difficulties. He did. He did like He always does. 

I hope each of you can see Heavenly Father as a God of miracles and tender mercies. He loves you.

I hope I can love you like He does. Know you are doing great. The thing you are desperately in need of will come. 

Je vous aime avec sincérité (I love you with sincerity), Elder Habel

(Also we made fresh orange juice with brown sugar. Not in the slightest bit distasteful.)

A Spectacular Alley-oop!

DC 58:12 "Voici, sa mission lui est donnée et elle ne sera pas donnée de nouveau."

D&C 58:12 "Behold, his mission is given to him, and it will not be given again."

This is how I feel about the mission. You only get one shot so take it. The important part is taking the shot, making the effort. You can miss it and all will be well. Like Shaquille O'Neal turning missed shots and clangers into arena shaking dunks, God is down in the post ready to make your efforts into a spectacular alley-oop! 

Take your shot. Send it wherever you are at. Each of you is incredible. Each of you deserves the best.

As you can tell this week was really good.

We sadly had to say goodbye to Elder Huff. He left for grand adventures in Diolise with Elder Winward. I have peace with the transfer because two friends who changed my life for the best will be able to be together. God is good!

 

  

We were preparing for the baptisms of our friends this week. I am happy to say we are instruments in His Hands to bring about the grand changement de cœur dans nos amis (the great change of heart in our friends)  A lot of them are amazingly becoming converted to the Lord. 

Here is one experience which was perfect. Earlier in the week, I had read and miraculously by the power of God gave training on conversion by the power of the Holy Ghost. We feel the truthfulness of the principles and the doctrine of Christ and His Church. We were in a lesson with Sœur Servie. We were discussing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was strong. You could see her faith shining in her eyes. You could feel the raw divine hope as she bore her testimony of her desire to live the Doctrine of Christ. She then said something which was astounding. "Je ressens que tout ce que vous avez ensiengé sont vrais" ("I feel that everything you have taught is true.") She felt the truth by the Spirit. Words cannot capture the celestial sentiments I felt. I have done my best to describe what it was like witnessing the miracle of conversion. 

God is real and good. Experiencing spiritual matters is the only way we can know they are real.

I love each of you. I know God loves each of you. Believe, love and do. 

Avec sincérité (With sincerity), Elder Habel