Yikes, not much time left. Here we go, diving in!
Last
Monday we were disappointed when we showed up to play volleyball and
found no one on the court. After a few minutes we trecked back through
the quartier to home. On the way we saw this dinosaur of a maman
hauling a bag attached to her head and laying on her back and moving
about 6 inches an hour, so we just took the bag off her head and asked
her where she was going. Well, she didn't speak French, so I had the
opportunity to talk with her the whole way in Munukutuba - it's finally
paying off! Turns out she's the same maman who lives in one of our
recent convert's parcelle, so that was fun. Now we are her children and
she is so happy to see us when we come visit our convert.
That night we ate cajun chicken pasta with the Baileys and had FHE
with Max and his son from the Pointe-Noire branch and then we watched
Hercules - in French. Hades is sooo hard to understand haha.
We
had district meeting over at the Foucks apartment and Elder Johnston
talked about gratitude. I loved what Sister Bailey shared by an unknown
author - "gratitude is what makes what you have enough." So that made
me thankful for a lot of things.
We had to drop a recent convert because he's too active - I
know, what a wonderful problem. We just have so many people to teach
that we needed to liberate our program a little bit, so we told him how
awesome he is and that we'd come by every now and then. He's great.
On Friday we got to teach some great people, one of whom was
an old maman who stopped us on our way to Darcyne's one day because she
thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses, but then when we talked with her
for a while she said she wanted us to come over some time. Turns out
she doesn't live too far from some of our other investigators, so we
called her randomly one day and got to sit down with her. She's way
nice - an empty nester and widow of 8 years with too much time on her
hands. You could tell she missed having company - she was so excited to
have us there and talked our ears off about her kids. Hopefully we'll
get to keep teaching her!
We left to go to Laura's 9th birthday party. I'd prepared 33
peanut butter cookies for them, but they weren't really ready when we
got there, so Maya asked if we could show her a couple of chords on her
new guitar. I accidentally accepted. Dangit...Elder Sperry and I
switched off playing guitar and talking to Maya about church and stuff
for the next 2 hours. Woops. Won't make that mistake again haha.
Laura was adorable though, and right when we were about to leave to make
curfew the mamans who'd been preparing dinner since we got there told
us we had to eat before we left. They ended up packing us a sack dinner
- pasta salade, rice, cake and candy, and Elder Sperry's new favorite
meal - sakasaka ! Just kidding. We didn't know it was prepared with
peanut oil, sooo he took a pea-sized bite and his throat started
swelling, moved into his stomach and gave him serious heart burn. Poor
kid. He had a rough night, but he's ok :) I offered to eat his cake
for him, but he refused.
The next day we went to participate in the branch soccer
activity against this shipping company DHL. Naturally, everyone was 2
hours late, but it was really fun. The studs on my right cleat came
completely off, so I ended up playing half the match barefoot. I had
one good shot on goal, but their goalie was wicked good and made a great
stop. No world cup appearance for me. I tumbled once or twice and now
I have a pretty good raspberry on my knee, but I tied my hanky around
it so it wouldn't bleed through my church pants haha. We ended up
losing 2-1, but it was fun and everyone played with good sportsmanship.
Everyone came back to the church to share a sandwich, coke and little
cake as we introduced our new friends to the church. We're slowly
getting the word out that we don't actually sacrifice babies or do
witchcraft and wizardry. No, the Church is Jesus Christ is not
Hogwarts, thank you.
We made an enormous shepherd's pie to start our fast, but I
wasn't very hungry, so I ended up breaking my fast with it the next
day.
Speaking of which, we had a great sabbath. Lots of people
at church, and lots of new faces. Elder Sperry rocked his testimony in
solid French - I was so proud. He made everyone laugh. I love my
companion.
After church we sat down with one of our best investigators,
Fall, and went over the baptismal interview questions with him. He was
fantastic. We could baptize him on Saturday, but we'll probably wait
till next week so we can finalize some of the lessons with him and give
him plenty of time to reflect on his decision to join the Church of
Christ. One of Jhostavie's cousins came to church despite threats from
his older sisters that they would beat him if he came again. He's the
smartest 12 year old I've ever met. He spoke French super well and
behaved like a normal kid should. I was way impressed. He loves
church, so hopefully we'll be able to get his dad's permission to keep
teaching him.
I learned some things last night that answered in part my
fast. As a mission we were fasting to better understand God's will for
us personally in the creation of a district here in Pointe-Noire. I
found out that I'll be here for at least another transfer after this one
ends in 3 weeks, which will allow me to finish training Elder Sperry,
which makes me super happy. He's been an answer to many prayers. What a
wonderful kid. We've been talking recently about why you would ever
refuse the Gospel. We can't come up with any good reasons haha. God's
like, "Hey here's the best thing that ever happened to you!" and people
are like, "Nahhh." I'll never understand.
The good news (ha, get it? Gospel means good news...ha....ha.....)
is that it's ALWAYS available! Even if you say no a thousand times you
can always say yes in the end. I love that. Even if you say yes, and
then afterwards change your mind, you can STILL come back. I will never
forget Elder Holland's invitation to come back to the light, because
there is NO depth of darkness you can reach that is further than the
Light of Christ can shine. Sometimes we have to climb a great distance
to get back, but it's always worth it.
I love you. I love this Gospel. Have you ever read Jesus the
Christ? In the words of my trainer, holy cats. It's the greatest
thing since scalloped potatoes (which says a LOT if I do say so
myself). Give it a read. James E. Talmage opens up a can of knowledge
you didn't know was available. So many knowledges to be had in that
book. I'm almost halfway done and have so much more to learn. ANYway,
have a great week! :)
God loves you! You're His child!
Elder Garland
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