2 miracles in a week!

August 1, 2018

Alright, technically that title is a lie because one of them is the one I promised to tell y'all last week but I want to tell y'all about two. The first one is about my instructor Frere Avana. Last week he had this insanely bad neck problem for a couple days. The pain was so intense that he had to be in a neck brace and when the pain would shoot in spurts up his neck he would almost pass out. He had received some blessings but after 3 days it was still bad. He was reading in Ether about the brother of Jared and how he stretched the Lord's capacity of what most men thought he could do because of his faith. He decided to put it to the test. He didn't give specifics but he said he had an amazing experience and through prayer his neck was healed and that very day he was back in class teaching us. I love this guy so much. He is such an amazing teacher and loves the gospel so much. 

 Elder Toa who is a literal freak of nature from Tonga! I would never want to get in a fight with this beast but luckily he is one of the nicest guys I've met and a teddy bear :')

The second one is about the gift of tongues. Hehe, nope not about me but about this other elder named Elder Vakamelilio. He is this super yoked guy from Tonga (who I am pretty sure will marry the princess of Tonga if there is one). Anyways he only spoke Tongan before he got here and is learning English. A couple days in I talked to him and didn't know that he didn't know English. He understood me and responded really well and I just assumed that he already knew English. I started talking to him more and about 5 days after he had gotten there he told me that before he got to the MTC he knew 0 English. He said he didn't even know how to say "how are you," but on the second day he read the Book of Mormon all through the night in English on an act of faith that God would teach him English and by the next day he could speak and understand English!!! Like WHAT!!! He does that a lot of nights (not the whole night just till super late) reading it in English. (haha I asked him why he is never tired and he said "because I am Tongan"). 

The legendary Elder Vakamelilio

The man Frere Avana himself! keeping guard while we eat our pizza from the one Pizza Hut in Accra that he smuggled in for us!!

This elder is a super humble guy and hasn't really talked about it much but it is the biggest example to me that the gift of tongues IS REAL! He had a desire to learn English and the faith that God could help and through that desire and faith, the gift of tongues was given to him. Now that doesn't mean that God is going to answer every fervent prayer we offer in the way that we want because that is not always gods plan for us, but it is a testament to me that he does answer us according to our faith in him so one question I would like you to ask yourself this week is, think of how much faith and trust you have In God right now in your life and how you can better strengthen it to rely on god in "all things"

Love yall!!

-Elder Briggs

Manna from heaven

Haha ya, my companion says I sleep talk almost every night but he can't really understand what I'm saying. Now I think he has just got used to it. lucky him.