Apr 4 My friend Leif

I hope everyone heard Elder Andersen mention the Zambia Lusaka Mission in his Saturday afternoon General Conference address! He spoke of Elder Ssengooba, my previous companion, as well as my friend Leif, or President Leif Erickson, my mission president! We actually knew he was going to be speaking about Elder Ss beforehand, so President gave us and the Assistants permission to stay up and go to the mission office to watch it live!

(Read or listen to Elder Anderson's comments about Grant's mission companion, Elder Ssengooba at this link.  Elder Anderson.)

Elder Ssengooba and President Leif Erickson

Elder Ssengooba has such an inspiring life story and it was awesome to hear an apostle speak of him so the whole world can also look to his, as well as Elder Walusimbi's, example! President Erickson also has an inspiring story, but Elder Andersen just mentioned him a bit.

Another highlight of this week was April Fools Day. We got pranked by some of the sisters in our zone and by Elder Sagers/Ssengooba..They said they were in the office in the morning and that they found 2 packages for me and we could collect them that night. So all day I was excited for my packages but then when we got to the mission office, I found a box of pizza as my package...not what I was expecting but it was still a nice surprise I suppose.

I think Elder Malinga and I did the best prank though. Usually it is my rule that we do not ever joke about transfer news but just this once I broke my rule...Elder Tippets, Elder Malinga's last companion, is always asking questions about leadership in the mission like if someone can be an AP whilst still training, so on April Fools we called him and said he was transferred to be the new Assistant with Elder Ssengooba. He believed it! He was so mad when we said April Fools haha oops! Picking on the greenie...

Wednesday was a great day. I had an exchange with Elder Tayembi in Libala. It was another amazing exchange where we taught many of our investigator families and so from seeing that, Elder T was really encouraged and inspired. It was also just really nice because Elder T and I weren't very close but after that exchange we are great friends and have great respect for each other.

This sunday we had the confirmations for all 4 of those baptized last week and they bore powerful testimonies afterwards! I was especially shocked by Litambezi who is always a bit reserved and quiet but when he went up there he boldly shared his whole story of how his father restricted him from being baptized and his conversion up to that day.

Now we are preparing for the baptismal service on the 16th of April! I'm so excited for that.

Things are going so well for us here. John's whole family came to church on sunday as well. So now we have the Kanema Family too!

Love you

Elder Grant Hiltbrand