Monday, December 7, 2015

#6 First Baptism..."are we not all beggars"

OH MAN! It is getting down to the wire to my first mission transfers.  I’m interested to see if I’ll be staying in Barbados or going somewhere else and to so see who will be leaving and staying but it’s going to be great no matter what happens!  (Dave- Basically about every month or so, a mission has “Transfers”. That’s where the Mission President moves missionaries around the mission.  You will get a call one night saying “pack your bags, you are going to a new area tomorrow”.   As you can imagine, transfers are anxious time for missionaries.)   

So this week was a short one since my last email but still full of events. On Saturday we baptized Martha and it was amazing.  She was so funny.  Just smiling and telling everyone how she thought this skinny guy who was going to baptize her wa not be able to get her up out of the water and drown her. (Not me, I’m not skinny anymore)  She is just so amazing.  She was just telling me over and over and over how she was so excited and that she has changed so much.  Seeing the before and after of this woman is incredible. This gospel has to be true to change someone like that from what she was before to what she is now.  And then Sunday rolls around and she walks into our little chapel with her arms held high waving and showing off so that everyone knew that she was baptized.  It was just too funny to see that and how she just was telling everyone how she was baptized.  I hope that’s what Kacie did Sunday!


                                                              What it's all about!


After our baptism, we had an investigator that we have been working with for a while come up and say she was ready to be baptized next week so this week we have another baptism for a young lady named Maria.   She is also awesome, we love seeing her because she is really funny and always gives us something to drink.  My new favorite drink is a drink called Mauby. It is a very interesting drink.  It goes from being really sweet to super bitter out of nowhere.  Sorry back on track, so ya, we have another baptism this week and we are super exited for her.  It’s going to be awesome again.

Today, for our Pday, me and some other missionaries found a golf course and went out and hit some balls on the driving range.   It was so much fun watching a guy from Australia play golf but he is a really good sport and tried his best and laughed it off.  That’s Elder Kuru.  He is an awesome guy. The last ball I hit I pulled back and swung and I hit the ball perfect and was going straight and then I see this other thing flying about half as far as it and I look down and the club broke!  I couldn’t believe it.  The people said that they knew it was an accident and that I didn’t have to pay for it so everything was okay.   Also I got some new t-shirts that have bob Marley on them so now I am really becoming a local. It also says CHEESE ON BREAD on it so that’s even better.

                                      

Something really cool that happened this week was that I was reading in Mosiah, in the book of Mormon and it talks about how we are all beggars.  It’s interesting to look back on my life and see how I have looked at people begging on the side of the street and said, “well they did that to themselves and they deserve the path they are going down." But then we turn around and ask heavenly father to help us and beg him for forgiveness and a second chance a third chance, but we can’t help that one person.  It just gives me a better perspective that if we are begging to Heavenly Father to help us and we turn around and can’t help the beggar than we are like the servant in the parable told by Jesus.
That doesn’t mean that you have to go start looking for crackheads and such to give money too but just think of that and it will help you look at people in whole different way I can promise you that.

I love this gospel so much! It brings me comfort and it brings me so much joy. Every day, at least one of the many prayers I say, I ask Heavenly Father to help me through this and to keep me strong and I remember that my family will be blessed and many other lives will be blessed as I am out here.  If anyone ever is questioning whether or not this church is true or even if Heavenly Father still loves and helps his children, I challenge you to walk around with the missionaries for one day and see if you able to do it without his help and his strength.

This guy Jehile was surprised that we were able to do this for two years but I told him, "Heavenly Father has not forgotten us, all we need to do is not forget him." Love everyone please.  Everyone needs it.  I’m not perfect and I know that, but Heavenly Father can help us get as close as possible in this life.  I love Lexy!

Love with every fiber of my body

-Elder Fokken

And one more picture of me and one of our Barbados neighbors.   

                                       

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