I say it again, I love this branch!

I am doing well. This week was great. We were able to have 6 investigators at church and we were able to set a few baptism dates. I told you about the sister that just walked into the building and wanted to get baptized last week, right? Well, she is making progress and she is still very motivated. She only speaks Saranan-Tongo which makes it a little more difficult for me to communicate with her, but Elder Swart does great. I am still learning the language, and I am slowly getting the hang of it.

She is really committed to keeping the commandments and she wants to get baptized. She really is a golden investigator.

I think I have already said that I really love this branch, but I'll say it again, "I love this branch!" The people are just amazing! They do a lot of the work for us. The sister that I mentioned above came to church, and we needed someone to sit by her during Sunday School. I went up to one of the Ritfeld girls and asked her if she could sit by her and help her during the class. She said that she would and it turned out to be great. Later that day I called her to thank her for what she did, and she simply said, "Niets te danken, It's part of my job." I was so impressed with that statement that it ran through my head for the rest of the day. She was right. It is part of our job as members of the church to fellowship others and helps them come closer to Christ. If all of the members of the church acted like the Ritfeld family do, we would see so much success as missionaries around the world.

Another example is this; we went to the Ritfeld's house after church planning to stay only a few minutes to ask them about an investigator that is related to them. We ended up sharing a lesson with that investigator, and getting great meal that sister Ritfeld was preparing. Sister Ritfeld said a prayer to bless the food, and in that prayer she said, "Wij zijn zo dankbaar dat de zendelingen bij ons kunnen zijn..." ("We are so grateful to have the missionaries here...") I realized again how blessed we are to be able to work with families like them. Families that are grateful for the work that we do. We can always count on them to help out with investigators in church or to come out teaching with us.

We are going to hold a fireside tomorrow. I will be talking about the atonement while my companion Elder Swart will be doing a practical lesson and the branch mission leader will share his testimony on the atonement and missionary work. I am excited to give this lesson and I hope that the members will be uplifted in their faith in Christ because I know that the atonement is real, and that we can receive so much joy by applying it to our lives. This truly is the work of the Lord, and none can stop the work from progressing.

Love,

Jeff