Received at 9:23 AM (MST)
Week 4: Becoming Rwandan, Exercising Faith, and so much more...
Hello everyone! I hope that life is treating you all very well! Life here in Kigali is starting to become second nature as I am now starting to speak the language a little bit and now officially have a worker's ID! It's pretty neat. Also, I'm in a random internet cafe, so there won't be any pictures sadly this week.
Monday: Normally I don't add P-Day in my weekly email, but this one really stood out to me. This is because I went to the Rwandan Genocide Memorial with my District. I do not have words to describe the pain and sorrow that I felt for these people as I saw the entire event unfold before me. I now understand how Moroni and many other Book of Mormon prophets felt as they wrote about the wickedness and bloodshed on the Lamanites. However, I have also never felt so much love. To see the unity and progress that this country has made in response to this catastrophe is remarkable, and I have a newfound respect for everyone I meet.
Rwanda: How the genocide happened: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13431486
Tuesday: Nothing too exciting happened today aside from preaching the Gospel of Christ!!!
Wednesday: We had interviews! President Collings is one of the most inspired men that I have ever met! He and I were able to talk about how my mission is going and where I want it to go and I loved it. Some key things that I learned from this experience is that Preach my Gospel and personal studies are key to be progressing efficiency as a missionary! Later on in the day Elder Driggs and I went to teach a recent convert, Redempta, about Temples and Family-History work. I have never seen someone get so excited about these things, and it brought us all joy and happiness for her to know that she can be eternally sealed to her husband that she lost in the genocide. It was a very powerful and uplifting moment.
Thursday: I'm not going to lie. Today was not the best day for me, but it was still a good one because I used it as a learning opportunity. Whenever we have days where we feel that we didn't meet a requirement fully or even at all, we can have hope in knowing that the Lord will provide a way for us to quickly turn around and be able to do more than we thought we could. He often does this through the small moments of joy that we have. So never take the good small things in life for granted, they might just be what keeps you going!
Friday: Today we got to do the Lord's errand and I learned even more that hope is key!! In addition to this Elder Driggs and I are really working well together and I learn much from him each and every moment of the day. He is a powerful missionary.
Saturday: In today's training I learned a lot about the importance of being a member of the Church and it's organization. Rwanda doesn't have the church as fully developed as it is in Utah. As a matter of fact it's only 7 years old here. So being able to establish the Church here is equally important as teaching investigators is. I encourage you all to truly do all you can to learn about how the Church is organized and even to do all you can in whatever calling you have if you are a member. (Especially if it means feeding the missionaries ;)
Sunday: Today I really got to connect with the members of the branch here and we even have a Branch Cultural Game night planned to unite the branch and invite non-members to see who we are. I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks when it happens November 4th. The other thing from today is that I didn't realize how much being a stage tech would help me on my mission. We were having trouble with microphones, much like a theatre department I know ;), and so I was able to solve the issue and we were able to have one working mic instead of two because the cord was fried.
Anywho, I am very happy to be out here serving the Lord full time! It has helped me gain a better testimony of the church and it's origins. I also know that it has been making me a better person, and one that God would want me to become. I love you all very much and I am grateful for your support! Never give up on prayer or scripture reading, and never surrender to any doubts or fears that you may face each day. You are enough! And you can become more through those spiritual essentials of faith and study!
Much love from the Heart of Africa!
-Elder O'Hagan
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