6/3:
Dang. Nothing today. We'd hoped to go to the Zoo, but it didn't happen. The Senior Couple was busy with errands. So we did nothing but clean, and went to withdraw allotment. E.Mathemera got his just fine, I wasn't able to. We checked three different ATMs, but they were all out of money. It's really frustrating right now that that happened. I'm gonna have to go back into rationing mode with my money since I don't know how long it will be before they top off the ATMs. Great.
We hung out with the other Elders for a little while today (not long) then went looking for a place to email. E.Bailey and E.Amegakpoe went to the church, and we went to one in Salaama. I really hate the one in Salaama, but there's nothing you can do. The best I can say about it: it works.
The only other mildly interesting thing that happened was that I burned my mouth to oblivion when I went a little too ham with the spices, but I still finished dinner (was crying) so that's all that matters. Note to self: be careful with vinegar, but you need more than you used you stupid fool. You also don't need to add chili powder when you already have creole and two other spices. You did finally get the right amount of salt though, so don't forget it.
6/4
Argh. Still wasn't able to get allotment today. They need to top up the ATMs, but it hasn't happened yet. I even tried twice today, once in the morning, and once in the evening.
Anyway, today was a bit slow, we were able to teach a Sister named Brenda who we've been trying (without success) to teach for this entire transfer, so it finally happening is nice. Hopefully she'll be able to progress nicely.
Aside from that, really nothing today. Just a lot of time spent trying to see if there were people we could meet. No dice for various reasons, but such is the life of a Missionary.
6/6
Oh boy, you'll notice a missing day. We were on exchanges yesterday, which means no update.
What happened yesterday? I died. Figuratively yes, but almost literally. We headed over to DDM first thing in the morning (11am, not really first thing in the morning, but still the first appointment of the day). Nothing exciting there, just a regular meeting. The Shirtliffs came near the end and brought penutbutter bars, so they were warmly welcomed. E.Bailey and I chatted with S.Shirtliff for a while about stuff we had no control over, and no news in the x amount of time since we started our respective missions. It was fun.
After that, we headed over to a member's house: Brother Prince. His food is fire. He also gave us Chapate in addition to everything else, so I was extremely content with the meal. E.Amegakpoe and I had to rush out a little early to make an appointment (exchanges, remember?) and 4 Daladalas later, we arrived at the meeting point. We taught a Brother named Elisha (Eeh-lie-sha) and his family. E.Bailey and E.Amegakpoe had taught the wife once before at her work place, and this family VERY eagerly received us.
It was almost scary how happy they were to see us. They brought their three kids, their nephew, and their neighbor's kid to listen in. That was the normal part. What wasn't normal, was the extremely reverent attitude they had towards us. I've never had that before, but they definitely felt that we were representatives of Jesus Christ.
It was a very good lesson, but we'll (and by "we" I mean "they") have to give President Msane a call before they continue teaching this family. B.Elisha is a Preacher, so -apparently- the policy is that he has to talk to the Mission President before they can continue teaching.
I wish they'd keep a book of these little details, because I didn't know that one till later. It's almost a miracle that I know about the policy regarding the need for President to interview a Muslim before they're taught.
Regardless, it was a good lesson, and they fed us afterward. It was really good food, and I was extremely appreciative, but my appreciation lost hard core to E.Amegakpoe, who was excited to see a vegetable he hadn't seen since he was home.
Nothing much for the rest of the evening. We had to take a Daladala back, it didn't drop us where we thought it would, and we had to walk to the flat. It was late when we got back.
I was very happy though, E.Bailey has a copy of Articles of Faith by Elder Talmage that he left laying around, so I started reading it. I need to get a hold of a copy to finish. I was only able to reach Chapter 4.
Today was a lot less exciting. We held English Class (*I* held English Class) then we taught B.Ernest the Word of Wisdom. It went very well, he didn't have any issues with it.
After that, we went to S.Veronica's place with a Portable DVD Player and watched the Restoration video with her and B.Kevin. We left not long after that and approached the flat in horror (at least on my part) because the power was out.
From the fact that I'm updating, at least you know it came back on, but only after about half an hour. Well...a little less than that.
That's it for today.
6/7
"Mission: Impossible -Lockdown-"
-_-
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-_-
My companion left the keys in our flat. It was during exchanges, so I wasn't there, but apparently E.Bailey hopped our wall, discovered that the electric fence was turned off, tore his pants on the spikes, and retrieved the keys. Loads of fun. I kinda wish I was there to see it.
My companion told me after he finished telling the story that the whole situation would never happen with me around.
I take pride in my ability to keep track of the keys, so yeah, the situation probably wouldn't happen with me around, but it's not 100%. Regardless, here's another funny story for you.
Anyway, for today it was pretty slow. We got a hold of some church movies that we'll be using in later lessons with S.Veronica and B.Kevin. I was finally able to pull allotment today, so that was nice. E.Mathemera and I experienced more despair when we got back to the flat, only to find the power out again. It was off for about 45min before it came back on.
I've developed the habit of saying "Huzzah Magic Powers!!!" every time the power comes back. For those of you wondering why I'd say that, go search "Studio C Dungeons and Dragons" on Youtube.
6/8
"A Weird Bragging Right"
My beloved (earthly) father is a business man. Businessmen spend a lot of time shaking hands and greeting people. Not only that, but my father is a friendly man, he shakes a lot of people's hands.
I still think I've got him beat. I think that in one month on my mission I've shaken more hands than he has in his lifetime. I'm over four months now, I'm pretty sure I've beaten him several times over.
It's a weird bragging right, but Africans love their handshakes. Since tomorrow is Sunday, I'll explain a standard Sunday for a missionary.
First, you hang out by the entrance and greet everyone with a handshake -sometimes two or three if they're friendly-, young or old, men or women, everyone. If you see them picking their noses as they walk up you grin and bear it, and shake their hands anyway (it doesn't happen often). At about 5 minutes to 10 you head in and take your seat. Most members don't arrive till late, so we end up turning our heads a lot to see who comes in late, and always hope that it'll be that one investigator you were hoping to see -but usually isn't- I find that it's YSA a good chunk of the time. After Sacrament meeting ends, you go and shake the hands of EVERYONE who attended, as well as the people just arriving. Did you shake their hand earlier as they entered? Yes? You're still shaking it again. You shake everyone's hands. Expect a repeat of this process at the end of church.
The good thing about handshakes here is that they aren't boring. I think I know...uhhh. Actually, there are too many variances of handshake here to count, but there are 5 basic and common ones. Six if you count this random one I learned in SA that I still can't properly preform. It's rather amazing the variety. They're so rooted in the culture that even the Mission President does them.
Well, there's my cool fun fact for the day.
So our day started rather simply with English Class, we taught B.Ernest the Law of Tithing, then prepared for what was to come next:
"Deja vu"
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I think I've done this before.
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Yup. It was in Vegas. I went with my pops there on a business trip (I hate Vegas BTW) we attended a kind of conference, set up a booth, and tried to get people to buy his signs. We were on our feet for hours just chatting and talking to people, and smiling. Lots of smiling.
That's pretty much what happened today. We set up a sign on a road near one of the 11 or so satellite campuses of Dar Es Salaam Uni (I've honestly lost track at this point). We then spent a few hours just handing out pamphlets. There was a bit of a panic moment when we actually ran out of pamphlets. We started handing out the Joseph Smith pamphlets that we had, you know: "I know that Joseph Smith was a Pamphlet, I mean Prophet." -Elder Calhoun. Those Pamphlets. I personally don't like handing those ones out, but we did anyway. Near as E.Bailey can figure we contacted roughly 150 people today between the four of us. Didn't take long either. I doubt we're gonna do this very often. Took us forever to write all the phone numbers on them.
There was a moment when I was hiding behind the sign writing phone numbers as fast as I could to hand a stack to E.Bailey.
I also discovered why he hates contacting women. These two girls walked up and started reading the sign, so I contacted them. I turn to some other people, contacted them, then the two girls walked over and started to pester me about helping them get to the U.S. I informed them that I was unable to help them, but it took me a while to shake them. Rather annoying.
I also had yet another person lecturing me about how I needed to learn Swahili. People do that here, random people, some we've never seen nor talked to before, will start telling us that we need to learn Swahili.
One time with E.Phokane, we were passing by a cafe and a guy greeted him, so he responded in Swahili, then we head over to the guy and without any preamble he begins lecturing E.Phokane on the importance of learning Swahili. He hadn't even spoken a single word in English to the guy before this lecture started. It's kinda funny.
6/9
I got lectured again today about my Swahili. I'm also starting to wonder if this is a daily thing, and I just haven't noticed up to this point. Quite possible, quite possible indeed.
Today was Sunday, which means chuch, which means a lot of handshakes. I also had to give a talk today. I found out yesterday, forgot, and remembered as I was saying my evening prayer. I prayed for inspiration, recieved, and gave a talk on the importance of remembering the Blessings we've received from the Lord. I talked about how stupid the Children of Israel were as Moses led them to the land of Canaan (been reading the Old Testament, I've facepalmed a few times now, also just finished Numbers today, so I'm happy), I also talked about Laman and Lemuel. After them, I talked about how the people forgot the Lord's Blessings and rejected him in the Book of Mormon (the book written by him, takes place after 4 Nephi). Then I just tied it back to them, and told them to not forget the blessings they've received from the Lord, and to take the time to look and find them. The people in the stories I told all had it easy, they'd had experiences with miracles first hand, not just miracles, huge ones, ones that clearly scream: THERE IS A GOD. Now, it's a little harder to see those blessings, but when we look, we will always find. The more you look, the more you realize that you won't be able to find them all.
Know ye not how the Lord has blessed you?
Anyway, I hadn't been given a speaking time, so I spoke for ten minutes, then we sang the intermediate hymn, then E.Amegakpoe got up and spoke for five minutes. There was twenty minutes until the meeting ended. I had a "whoops, I thought I talked long enough" moment in the back, but it was all good. B.Mhango (the first Councelor) got up and translated my talk into Swahili (not word for word, but the basic idea, and he used the same stories), he then spoke for a few minutes and ended the meeting.
I sat in the back in smug amusement as we sang the closing hymn: "Count your Blessings." I assume you know why I was a bit smug? No? I'll give you a hint: Alma 26:12,16.
I even had a moment in Priesthood where I thought that they'd announced that we'd be talking about Elder Renlund's talk, but I was wrong: it was Elder Rasband's. I had a "so close, yet so far" moment after that. It was fun at church today.
After church we went with the YSA, S.Veronica, and our investigator: S.Neria, to visit a Less Active member's home. It was a very long, and very crowded bus ride, but we got there.
I think it was a nice enough lesson. I missed most of it since it was in Swahili.
We ended up giving the wife a blessing before we left. Fortunately, I didn't have to do anything but stand in the circle. My companion had to anoint though. It's better if members do these things, but it is the choice of the one being blessed, so we just rolled with it.
Since it was YSA, there was no way we were leaving without some photos (they'll be on FaceBook by now), so if you're curious you can see a picture of Elder Benson in agony with the sun directly in his eyes, on the far right (looking at the picture) side of the group. Fun!
We visited another member after that, and very nice brother named Phineas. He actually served in this misson four or so years ago, so he's very nice to the missionaries who come to his branch.
"Having me as a Companion"
At the flat I ended up lecturing Elder Mathemera about Japan. This is a regular thing with us. I cheerfully tie anything we're talking about to Japan and share my knowledge. I always end with the line: "I know you won't remember any of this, but I take comfort in the fact that you'll remember it all during Judgement."
E.Mathemera has even told me that he'll probably remember me for that line. So I had a fun evening, we didn't even need dinner after all of that either. Too full from Phineas' place.
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