I picked up Elder Madilu on Monday with his companion
because he had to come down for immigration, and we were still with Elder
Barrett until we dropped him off on Tuesday, so it wasn't quite official yet.
Then immigration closed early on Tuesday! so we didn't get those elders in so they had to stay another night with us, so it still wasn't quite official. President Mushala of the Stake Presidency is in charge of immigration and he had gone hunting the night before so he invited us over that night. I got to try antelope and wild duck. They were both so good!
Then on Wednesday we got them through immigration and got them on a morning bus back to the Copperbelt. Now Elder Madilu and I were officially companions and we were able to get straight to work!
He is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a French speaking country. He was supposed to go to Durban for his mission but instead got redirected to Ghana for a month then here forever. He learned English on mission and now having been 10 months on mission, speaks fluently with a great vocabulary. He is 23 and already has a degree in some sort of radio television broadcasting. He even schooled in France for some time. His father is a patriarch in Congo Kinshasa. He is musically talented being able to play the piano a bit and the guitar, but most of all he dances and sings. He is really a great vocalist. Sometimes he even sings in French while an English Mormon Tabernacle Choir song is playing and it sounds really cool. I am so happy to be serving with him. He is very Christ-like and I'm excited to see what new dynamics he will bring to this companionship and area.
We will be having a baptism next week of a young woman named Enia! She told us how every time we come she's a bit reluctant because she wants to play or go somewhere but then when she does meet with us she feels like it goes too fast and she loves learning and feeling the Spirit. It was so good to hear she is feeling the Spirit and it makes her want to be better. She will also be baptized with her 8-year-old sister, Hope, who has joined our lessons as well and demanded her own Book of Mormon even though she can't fully read it haha. This will just be the start of the baptisms to come!
We had Mission Leadership Council on Thursday. It was a
really good meeting. It's awesome to be a part of the leadership right now as
we change the direction of this mission and stop tracting, but it also creates
a lot of pressure and stress to train up the missionaries correctly and
effectively!
Here's a pic of Elder Madilu and I in the internet cafe ha
we just took it so we could email it home.
Love
Elder Grant Hiltbrand