Hey Family,
I’ve had quite an adventure since we last spoke. I think reading my journals will help you understand so I’m going to upload them. When I got to Brazzaville my Mission President assigned me to Cameroon. It’s crazy because I’m not even in the same country as my Mission President! Enjoy reading about my adventure!! This is going to be an amazing two years!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
Photos:
Journal Entries:
August 19th
August 20th
August 21st
August 22nd
August 23rd
August 24th
August 25th
Some pics at secteur with my comp! Then some new ties I bought today.
Hey Family,
This week has been great. Time is going so fast. Not going to lie I missed you guys this week a lot, but it’s been good. Everything now is in French so that’s tough, but oh well I can’t do anything about it now. Just need to learn French! This week hearing about President Dial was so difficult. I’m better now but at first I was really upset over it. I loved him so much! Talking with you guys helped so much! Seriously talking to you each week helps so much! I love you so much!! It’s so crazy to think I’ve been on my mission for 1 month now. I can’t wait to get to Brazzaville. I just can’t wait to get to work! It was really cool this week because some of the Elders were struggling and I was able to help them. Then the Elders in my room had some issues too and I was able to help them as well. I just love helping people! Sunday was great because we had some wonderful devotionals about being one with our companions. It was perfect because I was struggling with my comp a bit this week. Missions are so great because they teach you how to deal with things like this. My comp and I are doing way better. I just love and serve him and that helps. I just need to serve and love like dad always says! Well life is good! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
I gave my comp that tie so we had to take a pic haha, the other picture is with the Samoans, they both new Isaac Van Uitert!! You gotta show him!
Hey Family,
I know how crazy that time is flying!!! My week was soooo awesome we had so much success this week and just the Lord was so amazing to us!!! He seriously is always there no matter what!!! The splits with the assistants was awesome!!! Elder Cannon and I worked together and he seriously helped us so much we found so many investigators and he really just gave me the desire to really want to work hard!! Given I got a bad cold after I didnt care cuz the Lord totally healed me in a heart beast time because my comp gave me a blessing and it was seriously amazing how fast the Lord’s hand healed me so the I could keep working hard!!!! No question my body is just so tired as I come to the end of my mission but I see the Lord giving me strength every day!!!! We set a baptismal date for one of our investigators he will be baptised in two weeks time so that will be awesome!! and then we are praying that fr ninssémons kids come back so that he can baptise them I seriously can’t wait for that day!!!! It will be amazing!!!! Sadly family doué the family we have been working so hard on said they dont want us coming back to visit them and they she will come to church with the kids when they are ready we told fr doué to keep the courage and that one day she will come to it I then showed him how far she has come and that he needs to just be patient and let the lord do his work and just try his best to be the best example for his kids! we had a great talk as sad as it was we ended on a good note! we just gotta keep going and keep searching there was this one member we ran into when i was on the split that seriously i know is a blessing sent from heaven he is going to help us work so hard and teach so many families here seriously i will explain to you on video chat it was so awesome!!!! so yeah super great week hahaha then sunday we had lots of old investigators return to church like seriously everyone is just coming out of nowhere because we have kept fighting and kept pushing!!!!!! i got that finish line in my sights and it is like that just 800 meter sprint at the end to the finish gosh i gotta get back into running when i get home hahahahah i seriously miss it sooo much!!!!!!! i think about it sooo much and just how great it was for me hahahaha sorry super random hahahaha lol well i love you tons have a great week!!!!!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
My new comp and me!
Hey Family,
Just when I thought I was getting comfortable with my companion, roommates, class, etc. everything changed this week! I got “transferred” to a new companionship. My new comp is from Nigeria. He’s awesome! He’s going to the same mission as me. Tomorrow we’re going to go proselyte in the streets here in Ghana. I’m super excited because I can speak English! A language I can actually speak. Dad I was really worried until we talked. You made me feel so much better! You helps me so much. I love you, daddy!!! I know my mission will be very different than Tyler’s so thank you for helping me today! It was so awesome to talk with Patri today and teach her the gospel. I felt the spirit so strong as I testified to her of the truthfulness of the gospel. At first, I was so worried and didn’t make much sense then the spirit took over and the whole message just flowed. It was AWESOME!! Time is really flying and I’m doing wonderful! Well I love you! Have an awesome week!!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
Proselyting, teaching the Africans how to catch a baseball
Brazzaville
My new companion and roommates
Hey Family!!
I love you so much!!!!! I got a new companion this week. He’s from Hati and he’s so awesome! Don’t you even worry for a second about me! I am in the Lord’s hands!!!!! Whatever happens is His plan! Just like with President Dial the lord needs him in the spirit world! Sometimes it is hard at first but what a blessing it is we have the gospel and the knowledge that we will see him again i was just thinking about that after we signed off!! You have nothing to worry about man!!!! As for my week it was super great! It was really tough. We had a lot of rejection and to top it off some lady freaked out at us yesterday saying that our work is in vain and that we shouldn’t come back to see her because we will never convince her and yeah it was kinda funny. She was kinda crazy too! My comp and I after just laughed it off and it was so motivational just knowing that really when you know the truth it doesn’t matter what anyone tells you because the truth we have is complete! Like so many people have the worry of talking to other confessions but there is nothing to fear for us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because we have the fulness of the gospel. We have the full picture everyone else is to the side trying to guess what the picture could be where we see the clear picture and know exactly what it is which is why it is so important to share our testimonies with everyone to help them see how we see! I love Elder Neil Anderson’s talk on having and eye of faith. It is sooo true and so powerful. I was studying it this morning!!!! So awesome!!! but yeah even though the week was tough there were the blessings of everyday that made it awesome! our investigators had us walking in circles all week but it led us to find other people that can really progress!!! It was amazing to see that in following the promptings of the Lord as hard as it was with all the rejections we were guided to find new investigators. Even though they didn’t come to church they will with time. It is sure!!! so yeah family doué is slowly progressing they need lots of prayers! we started teaching their kids yesterday we had a great lesson on the family and the roles we all play in the family as explained in ephesians 5:22-25, 31-33 and 6:1-4. It was super great!! So yeah that’s like it for the week!!! love you!!!! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
Our lil homies hahahah they’re the cutest kids they’re twins
Hey Family,
It was so wonderful to talk to you this week. You give me so much power to continue on. It’s just such a blessing to connect with you each week. It gives me so much peace. Also, going to the temple gave me so much strength as well. It so awesome I can attend it each week while I’m here. I just thank God for all of you! I love this gospel so much and this next week I’m going to try and focus so much on the Lord and try not to think about home and just have faith that everything will be ok. Dad, thanks so much for sharing with me D&C 31. It is the best chapter and helped me so much! I know I can do this for two years and I have an amazing team back home. Gosh I love you so much! This week I got a little sick so that wasn’t fun. The good news is that I didn’t miss home. The nurse here gave me some medicine and told me to get some rest. I took a nap but it didn’t really help. Good news is the days went by fast. I had the opportunity to teach “investigators” in French. My French is so bad, but it was a good experience. This week dad I worked on what you told me to do and started complimenting vs comparing. It’s made such a big difference!! I’ve also really started to find things I love about Africa and the MTC as well. I’m really going to work on my attitude because it makes such a big difference! Well you guys have an awesome week. We’ll talk next week! Love you all!!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
Photos:
Group photo taken together with Elder and Sister Martinez together with other MTC staff after the Area Devotional held on July 23, 2019.
Photos:
Baptism for Sr Chimelle!!!!
Some last pics with the members before my comp left. The last supper hahahahaha gonna miss this guy!!!!
Hey Family,
This has been a tough week. I was sick earlier in the week and all I wanted was mom. I’ve just been feeling so overwhelmed with the language and just missing everything at home. I’ll be ok, but man I didn’t realize this would be so hard. That said, I know everyone back home is praying for me and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I just need to have faith that the Lord will take care of me and everyone back home as well. I just need to keep looking at the positive like the fact that I found my white sock I lost when I did laundry today after praying like crazy. I’m so grateful for the Americans and I’m really starting to love them!! I’m feeling better now and talking to the family really helps me! I can’t wait to talk to you all again today! I had the most amazing experience this week. I was really struggling one night and I had been praying and begging the Lord for an experience to feel peace and loved. At the end of my last lesson I was just sitting thinking about my mission and my mission president and I felt this overwhelming feeling like Grandpa was near and I could feel his spirit communicate with mine that he was looking over me, and that he would protect me. I felt his huge big arms wrap around me. It was amazing! It was so beautiful! It made my eyes fill with tears. Right after my teacher shared his favorite scripture with us that helped him on his mission. It was awesome The Lord is with us and even though missions are super hard I’m learning so much and having amazing experiences. Yes, I’m missing home like crazy right now and can’t understand a word that is said in class, but I can bare my testimony in French at least a few words and I know the Lord will continue to bless me. Only Tyler knows what I’m going through and he sent me an amazing email with tons of advice. I love him so much!! Well have an awesome week! I love you all and miss you all soooooo much!!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
Pictures of the week: pics w elder lee and w some teachers that know tyler and other random pictures and a pic of us at the temple this morning.
Hey Family,
FHE with our new converts family ninssémon, another family who is seriously the best and completely are holding this ward together. Family bolly and then family doué, the ones who have been struggling with their marriage, and then there was this vieux père fr seri who seriously reminds me so much of mom’s dad ron. Seriously the coolest guy!! And then fr dalo the Sunday School president! Such a great night seriously! I have never felt the spirit so strong and seriously that night the lord spoke to these brothers and sisters through me! It was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had on mission! I understand really now how peter felt teaching the disciples of christ with Jesus! Idk it was an amazing experience!!! On top of that fr ninssémon shared a war story which is really his conversion story. It seriously brought tears to my eyes!!!! During the war he was taken hostage and separated from his family for a year and had no communication with them. They had no clue where he was and what had happened and if he was even alive! During this time he was at a camp and was put in a cell that literally was 3ft by 5ft by 6ft or something like that. Just some puny little box that to lay down to sleep at night he had to turn his body and put his legs up on the wall just to get his back flat. It was when i heard that that literally i just wanted to cry. He explained how they treated him super bad and he didn’t have much food or water and then it wasn’t till after that one day they came and said that he was free to go and that he was the only one free to go that they had no charges against him. On the other side back at home his wife everyday would pray for him and never lost hope everyone thought he was gone and dead but she never lost hope in him and now they are back together and happy. Seriously he just started getting emotional at this point just thanking us for the blessing we have been to him that the gospel has changed his life completely. That Sunday his little brother came over right after his confirmation and was trying to get him to go to the bar with him (he was a heavy drinker before his baptism). He followed the spirit and didn’t go and in explaining that seriously the spirit was so strong everyone was so shocked! It was so incredible! He is this huge jacked military guy that turned soft cuz of the gospel! It has been so amazing to see his life completely change !!!!! So yeah super awesome experience and the highlight for sure of the week!!!!! We then had a mangez-vous with family doué chez ma famille gueré on a mangé foufou manioc avec sauce longueur c’était très doux je te dis!!!!!! So yeah super awesome week!!!! Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder LeBaron
