E-mail dated 2/1/10

Ok I can't really start emails very well so I'm just going to dive right into whats on my mind. Its kind of interesting as I look back on the progress of the mission since it was created 2 and a half years ago. Very gradually the Lord has revealed line upon line his will with this mission. When I first came the mission was focusing on finding the rich, the noble, the learned and wise to teach instead of the low class. Just before I came the focus was finding the less active members and for a long time we focused alot on reactivating the less active members. Early in 2009 the revelation came to the mission leaders that we needed to focus more on teaching familys. Not necessarily changing the focus but rather just adding to it. About October of 2009 the focus was added once more this time about member present lessons. One of the things we report each week is the number of lessons taught to investigators with a member present. This is what we are really focusing on right now here in Bo.

Once we recieved this focus we quickly made a plan to do the Lords will. Ever since October we have been doing our best to get our member present lessons to be more effective. The results have been miraculous. Gradually we are seeing a change in the members' helping us. Now that we have seen how effective member present lessons are we don't want anything else. That is really our goal. All member present lessons.

As I was pondering one morning the question came to my mind What do I want for these people here? Baptism did not come to my mind like it would in most missions. My answer would be to have the church so strong here that they could sustain a temple. They can't get a temple unless they first become strong enough to become wards and a stake. We have been called here to build these branches, not to baptize. Maybe one day 5 years from now the mission president will be telling the missionaries to baptize more, but for right now we need to build this kingdom. I know that member present lessons will do this faster than anything else.

We are still focusing on families. This Friday we had a baptism of the nine year old son,Emmanuel Songu, of our first counselor in the branch presidency. I have really enjoyed going to the house and teaching the whole family for the past 3 months. I don't know of anywhere else where the missionaries would spend three months to teach a nine year old. But we felt that it would strengthen the family and it has. As the father was present for all the lessons he is now helping us teach another family that lives nearby.

As for the rest of our investigators we are still teaching the Kinawa family. We are also trying to finish the Smith family and we started teaching Abu Kougbaka's family. We are teaching the Moigula family, and the Massaquoi family is helping us teach sister massaquoi's brother. I think I'm starting to get attached to this branch.

Well Elder Lauti and I are staying together for this next transfer which will be six more weeks. We are learning alot together and I'm excited for what the Lord wants us to do next. Thanks for the updates and have a great week.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life