Feb 11, 2013

Hey,

I am still doing wonderful here and I am loving it so much! This week we were able to see a good number of people baptized and progressing to baptism soon. We had 3 people baptized yesterday Isaac, Cecil, and Oliver. All of them have been coming to church for a long time and have been really excited and just waiting to be baptized. Isaac helps with translating all of the time which is awesome. Cecil is an older lady who I guess has been coming for a very long time, but no one knew she wasn't a member and when they found out she started getting the lessons and now she is baptized and her kids will follow very soon. So that was something really great this past week. Also at church we had a surprise Christophe, Claire, and Claudia all came they said they wouldn't be able too, but they did and it was really neat to see them. We are hoping that family will be baptized soon. Along with them we had many other investigators 29 of them. We just have so many people who feel the spirit and want to learn more. We also had 75 at church  so very many have been coming and it is really cool to see the church grow here and I believe it will continue to grow a ton. The Branch is now also starting to give callings and they are getting home teaching ready so that is another great and exciting thing coming up. It is really growing in the right way right now and it will continue to grow very well. So this week I was able to learn some Rwandan culture  really neat too. When someone has a child they gather the whole family around to name the baby so what ends up happening is everyone comes and then everyone has a chance to hold the baby look at the baby and say I call you ... and you say a name this is happening while the mom is away and the dad writes down the name and asks what does the name mean you tell him and then after everyone says a few names they decide what the name is going to be and if they choose your name you choose for the baby they give you some sort of present it is pretty neat. Just thought you would like to know some Rwandan Culture still getting to know it. Well being here there is a lot of work to do even without proselyting everyone brings their friends and the church just continues to grow. We are just hoping we can see all the people that come to church and just get these people prepared and ready for baptism, but we know there is a lot of work to be done. I am grateful for the spirit which is there and will always be with us as we are worthy and obedient to what the father has asked. I am grateful for the work and I love it so much the people here are so amazing and wonderful it is a blessing to be here. 

  I am glad to hear everyone is doing well and I hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Love you lots!

Elder Hildreth