What a stressful week. But! Also sweet. But! Also stressful haha.
Tuesday
was especially crazy towards the end of the day. We were waiting for a
bus on the side of the road when, after we realized we wouldn't get to
our rendezvous on time if we kept waiting, we called a taxi. There were
a few other people waiting for a bus, so we asked if this man if he
wanted a ride while we were going out there, and he graciously accepted.
Then, this other random girl kinda just followed suite, which wouldn't
have been annoying had she asked or anything. Alas - we just let her
get in without bothering her. She did say thank you when she got out,
so that was nice haha.
Later, we
were walking along the railroads (imagine train tracks going through a
jungle village and that's where I was) when we came up on this group of
maybe 30-40 half naked men yelling about nothing to no one, standing in
the middle of the tracks. They were all wielding either a shovel, axe,
or machete. Only one of them started yelling after us, but we took the
first alley we could to get outta there. Thank goodness no one followed
us! I still have no idea why they were there...
Anyway, we
also went out to see a less-active member who is a rapper. His music is
actually way good, and we asked him for a CD. He said of course! and
tagged on something at the end that I didn't understand, but walked back
to his music boutique and put down a beat. Our branch missionary was
like, "did you understand what he said? He said he'd give you one if
you free style." So...we couldn't deny him! In the middle of a busy
quartier, two white missionaries started throwing down. The crowds
came, and while one was free-styling the other was handing out
brochures. It actually proved to be an excellent finding method! So,
if any of you are lacking investigators, set up a couple speakers in the
middle of a neighborhood and start a beat. They will come. Needless
to say, we got our CD haha. He asked us if we could lay down a track
with him sometime next week, but we'll see if we have time. So many
people to teach...
Wednesday
was pretty much normal. I actually don't have anything special to say
about that day. We split at Darcyne's so Elder Hatch could go over the
baptismal questions with Darcyne's oldest daughter Maya. We got called
by an old investigator who wanted to sit down with us, which we did, and
then he didn't come to church again on Sunday. Laaammmeee.
We had a
good day on Thursday. It was one of our recent convert's birthday, so
we brought her a couple peanut butter cookies made by yours truly. You
would've thought it was OUR party though, because when we got to her
house they brought out sodas for us and a couple bowls of crackers. So
nice. Her older cousin told us he wanted to be baptized but didn't come
to church because he shaved the sides of his head and now has this
sweet mohawk thing and he was embarrassed. We told him to come anyway,
which he did! Armel told us about this sweet missionary experience he
had, which was way cool. If he wasn't already 30 he would have made an
awesome full-time missionary.
President
Caillet called us and asked us to come all the way back to the Bailey's
so we could give him the keys to the car to pick up the couple from the
airport, so that took a chunk out of our day. When we got back, the
Baileys were home and we were so happy to see them. They'd been in
Kinshasa the whole week for a couple's conference, but came back
Thursday night. They'd let us stay in their house while they were gone,
so we had a nice bed to sleep on and a sweet stove to use. Then they
blew our minds with some information on transfers. They said that two
new missionaries would be coming on Tuesday, and that I would be
training one of them, Elder Sparry, who is Samoan, and that Elder Hatch
would be going up to Douala with the other, Elder Nzema, to train him.
Incredible. So that's the next adventure - training again! Hatch will
have to go back to Mpaka so I can start training, but there's nothing
over there, so that's kinda frustrating. BUT! I'm so excited to train
again. I loved working with Elder Etherington, I'm sure I'll love Elder
Sperry. I'll let you know next week how that goes, because he's coming
in tomorrow night!!!
We were
basically inside all day Friday due to A) zone training, B) choir
practice (the missionaries are putting on a number for the President's
goodbye weekend), and C) weekly planning. Hatch and I led a great
training, and received some awesome input from the other missionaries.
I love all the guys here, they're all hard workers and are fun to work
with! After the choir practice we went out to set up for Maya's
baptism, which went super smoothly. Against our wishes, she asked me to
baptize and confirm her...we were hoping it would be a member or
someone else that'd been coming to teach with us, but we couldn't
exactly tell her no. So, I got to participate in that, which was very
special. Which also means that that whole family (minus the absent
father) has been baptized! :) Now we're working on her white, French
friend Sophie, who came to participate in the baptism, and their
neighbor Audrey. The work will go forward, even if it's just one person
at a time!
We even sat
down with Cécile Beri, who told us that she wants to be baptized with
her aunt Gerlène next weekend, so now we have another two baptisms set
for next weekend. It's just incredible. They'll be confirmed water's
edge because Sunday is a multi-branch conference, so no time for other
stuffz.
Saturday was
a sweet end to a long awaited marriage between two lovely members of
the Aéroport branch : Rémy and Doretta. I've been working with them
since I was in Mpaka with Elder Brockbank. If you've been reading since
then, it was their house that we painted black with paint mixed with
tar all day. Anyway, in the morning we came to the church to help set
up, and then the celebration was supposed to start at 4, so we went
around saying hi to everyone and giving all the members missionary
homework. We brought 85 brochures and gave each member a brochure to
give to someone who wasn't a member. It was sweet! All of them were
out of our hands after probably an hour. Better in someone's home than
in ours! The married couple didn't show up until 6:30, and by that time
the sun was already most of the way down, so we didn't get a lot of
good pictures. We did get some referrals though! And we were invited
to come into the kitchen while President Caillet was making a speech to
eat before everyone else. We had roasted fish balls, fried chicken and
fried plantain chips, fruit salade, sandwiches, and a weird tomato/apple
kebab. Over all, it was delicious. I brought home a couple Pepsi's
too, because I hadn't seen that since forever. On our way out we got to
take a picture with and congratulate the happy couple. They were all
smiles, it was beautiful. I wish I would've gotten a picture of
Doretta's hair...they way to do it up for special occasions is just
hilarious, but they love it. Maybe you can Google that sometime haha.
On Sunday,
we were especially stressed when not only Sophie come, but this other
older French guy! I totally judged him though, because we'd seen him at
the arts festival that we went to a couple weeks ago, and he was kinda
creeping on Maya. But when Elder Hatch and I went to sit down in
Elder's Quorum, there he was following along with the Ensign. Then,
when the teacher asked a question and no one responded, he raised his
hand and gave an excellent answer. Then, in the Gospel Principles
class, we were talking about fasting, and both he AND Sophie were giving
these great answers and participating so well! It was amazing. Who
knew there were religious French people in the world?! I'd almost
forgot! The rest of church went really well. Great talks were given.
Afterwards we practiced with a real piano the choir piece we were
working on, and then we walked home with Sister Bailey so Elder Bailey
could do a special interview with Elder Johnston for Gerlène, who passed
with flying colors. We'll have a great weekend!
And that's
about it! A lot of stuff happening, but we're going with the flow.
With the mission split, which is next week, 24 new elders will be
coming into the mission. How many are going to Brazzaville and how many
to our side I have no idea. All I know is that things are about to get
crazy!!!
I love you all, I pray for you all, I can't wait to be with you all!
Have an outstanding week.
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