7/1
It was P-Day, what do you expect happened?
7/2
...
We got bounced a few times, had a bible bash, and visited an RC today. The only thing worth mentioning is the RC visit.
Okay, I have every good things to say about the guy -B. Kelvin- we visited today. That guy is a powerhouse, he was baptized last year, and he's about to start the paperwork for his mission. We went there to teach him, and mostly just let him teach himself. We did talk to him a bit about the process for applying for mission, as well as the amount of time involved in the process. He's hoping to have his papers in by August. Anyway, he's 21 years old, a teacher, and he's living on his own. This is a guy who knows what he wants, has a powerful testimony, and has the faith to see it all through with God's help. E.Pratt and E. Qinsile did a good job getting this guy Baptized.
We read Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 with him, and discussed it a little. He was really happy, but I do feel bad because he's still recovering from Malaria. He told us he was fine, but I'm not so sure. Anyway, it was a good visit. I really like the guy, and it looks like we'll start working with him to help his mission prep. Oh, here's something interesting: in DRC, E.Kanda's bishop refused to recommend him for a mission till he'd worked with the missionaries for a little while. It's rather interesting to see how that goes.
For my Mother's sake I'll include that I ate an Orange today. I actually found a stall that sells orange ones. Took forever to peel. Should probably get one every week or I'll be sent home with scurvy. My only source of Vitamin C was recently cut off, so the orange will act as the replacement.
7/4
Oh boy, what happened during exchanges? Nothing. We (E.Saunders and I) were supposed to go contacting all day, but we spent the whole time just chatting about our old area. We both started our missions in Chang'ombe 2, and he's the one who opened the area, so we spent the whole time talking about people we both know, and about swimming. E.Saunders is a huge competitive swimmer, and he was extremely happy to speak to someone who understood all the lingo he used. If you all recall, I used to be on the swim team, so I spoke the same language.
Later that evening, he taught me how to make Chapate too, so that was really cool. This was all after DDM that morning.
Today, we had service. I spent the whole time chatting with E.Cole. He did theater, and I speak his lingo, so he has a fun time chatting with me. He played video games, and he speaks my lingo, so I had a fun time chatting with him. (Yes, our service activity was still completed)
When we stopped by the church we discovered that the water was running, so we had to start filling the font then, because you don't know when the water will be gone, so we had to put everything on hold to clean it. Unfortunately, because of the size of the font one person will always do more work than the other, so I spent the entire time feeling useless as I did everything I could. When we finished we headed back to the flat to change, and rushed out. We were still late visiting B.Anthony. We read the Book of Mormon with him some, and encouraged him to think about a mission.
From there, we were late for our next appointment too. The guy gave up on waiting for us and left, so we walked 30 steps away to chat with a guy who'd been contacted earlier.
This guy is one who talks about his devotion, but gives a lot of excuses. I wasn't in the mood to play today. I firmly had the spirit, and firmly crushed his red herring argument with what I vaguely remember of logical fallacies.
We were trying to talk to him about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and I explained that keeping it holy isn't advisable, it's a commandment. He tried to say something along the lines of "Well, what happens if you're like Mandela and you're in prison for 27 years?" I pretty much asked him how that applies to him, and he tried to push the red herring, so I joked about him needing to quit his job if it made him feel like he'd been in prison 27 years. That shut it down. He did chuckle though.
Anyway, we finished the whole thing with me telling him that actions speak louder than words, I challenged him to do EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make it to church, and prove to me that there was no way he could be there for two hours. We left after that.
The only other interesting thing from today was that I got to say a quick hello to E.Phokane on the phone today. I don't know if it was just the phone, but his voice has changed a lot. He did mention that my voice had changed too, so maybe it was just the phone. It was still fun hearing from him.
7/5
Oh boy. We got to meet President Mdletshe today. He's an interesting guy, funny too. He likes to joke. We only got a short time to meet him, but it was an all-day event for us missionaries since we had to travel to Buruburu Chapel for it. We didn't dare schedule any appointments since we weren't sure how much time it would take.
Anyway, as I said, President Mdletshe is an interesting guy. When he opened up for a Q&A it was dead quiet, so I broke the silence and asked about his Marathon Running. A few months ago, he'd written a little article in the Liahona where he talked about how he loved running, so I asked.
Ummmm...yeah. He doesn't like running or love it. It seems to be his second wife. He told us that he's run over 100 Marathons, and that he still runs 6k every morning just to stay in shape. He then tied it to diligence and discipline and gave us low-key fire. I had a "oooohhh, he's really not gonna wait to give fire? This guy's good." I was kinda expecting it, but it was still fast. I knew for certain we'd get fire during the second meeting, but I wasn't sure about the first. It was nice to see, and since I was the one who asked the initial question he directed most of his answer at me. It was kinda funny.
So the two other things we learned about him: he was rather determined in his courting of his wife (funny stories there), and he has a PHD in Education. So, aside from that, the only interesting thing is a guy we contacted today.
After we finished with President Mdletshe we headed back to our area and grabbed dinner at our usual restaurant (for lunch, never eaten dinner there) as we were sitting there as I just finished up my meal a guy leans over to us and says: "You guys are missionaries, right?"
We talked with him, and taught him a little. He tried to see if we could hook him up with a bible, but I'm not sure if that's our wheelhouse. We did offer to bring him a Book of Mormon, and taught him a little about it. We also helped him understand a few points of doctrine, and I can say that this guy seems to have given a place in his heart for the Holy Ghost (unlike a certain Bible Bashed idiot from a few days ago) because he understood everything we taught, and we were able to successfully clear up his confusion regarding the Trinity. He asked to meet with us again, so hopefully he'll turn into a good investigator, but you don't know with this mission.
7/6
So we started taking a challenge given to us by our District Leader during the last DDM: we've started doing kneeling prayers to end a lesson. I don't know why, but I've never done them, it just never happened with either of my previous companions. So far, nobody has had an issue with it. At the end of the lesson I just get down on my knees and stare at the person we're teaching while my companion invites them. Works every time.
Anyway, I gave a lot of fire today, just rained it down from the heavens. I've discovered that I love giving fire, just saying what I'm thinking, and calling them out on what they're doing but, I live content in the knowledge that I'm still holding back.
I gave fire a few times today for procrastination, and made the people I was talking to rather uncomfortable. We invite people for church, then they say "maybe next week" so I just let them have it. "Next week is never gonna come. You'll be saying next week until Judgement...We don't know how long we have in this life, if he wants to, the Lord can claim you like that *snap* and you're gone." etc. I also live content in the amusement of my hypocracy. I know I procrastinate, I've just gotten better at squelching that urge for the sake of my mission.
Anyway, I gave fire for that twice today. It was fun. I'm bad cop, my comp is good cop. The trick to it all, is that I have to avoid giving fire for people lying to us. Don't tell us you're interested when you don't care, don't tell us you're gonna come to church when you know you won't, don't tell us you'll be busy when all you'll be doing is sitting at home watching Tv, blah, blah, blah. If you're wondering, I think I'm getting pretty good at giving fire. I'm able to keep the Holy Ghost around the whole time, and I never raise my voice. I just tell them the truth in a way that will cut the wicked. The goal is to wake them up, and show them the seriousness of the situation. 1 Nephi 16:1-4.
A lot of the people here take the Gospel too lightly, they say that they know that everything they have is from God, but then they blow off church at the first opportunity. Because of that, the best way I've found to give them a wake up call is to give fire. If I find a better method, I'll use that, if not... [Elder Benson uses the spell "Meteor" it's super effective!]
As for our appointments today, we started by getting bounced, and went to our back up without any hesitation. We had to wait for a while, but he did show, and we taught a good lesson. He's showing some positive signs as an investigator: he's asking questions (a very good sign) to learn, not to pick a fight.
We did some contacting, had lunch, then went to a productive correlation meeting (I love how productive they are here, something actually happens), got invited to a Ward Council meeting tomorrow, and we taught a few more lessons.
We were actually prepared to drop one of our investigators today since she hadn't been keeping commitments, but she'd done her assigned reading, now if she only comes to church tomorrow, and not "maybe next week" we'll be back in the green with her.
We paid a visit to a Recent Convert named Tracy after that, she'd been given a General Conference copy of the Liahona, so I went through and marked a few different talks that I liked, and that I thought would help her. Next time we swing by we'll bring a Flash Drive with a few talks downloaded and let her pick one to watch.
"The Attitude Toward the Church"
Well...there are a few different ones. The one I've gotten the most is "aren't you Jehovah's Witnesses?" Which is very annoying. I shoot that one down quick, and people here in Kenya hate them as a general rule.
The other attitude (aside from "never heard of them") is that we're Devil worshippers. S.Tracy, our RC, got fire from an extended family member for joining a devil worshipping church. That's kinda how it goes here.
7/7
*siiiip* "Bleh! This stuff is no good."
I made the mistake of trying Cadbury's hot chocolate mix. It was a mistake in-deed. Fortunately, I only bought the tiny bag of the stuff. The one that costs 15/=. Back to Raha I go. The stuff is nice.
Anyway, for today we had church, then four kids were Baptized, then we had a Ward Council Meeting. I -of course- ended up representing the missionaries. I didn't do it on purpose, but I think a lot of people will remember what I talked about the most because I used jokes to make my point. People remember jokes better than a speech. We just talked about the need for greater communication, and the need for missionaries to build trust with members. Apparently, I spoke so authoratively that the Bishop asked me if I was the District Leader. My response: "Nope! I'm the Junior Newbie." I got quite a round of chuckles from that one as the Bishop turned around to confirm with my companion. It was a funny moment.
*siiip* "Bleh! Still a mistake. It's really the aftertaste that's the worst."
Anyway, after that we went out to proselyte. We taught a lesson, and essentailly offered to be "Missionary Run Alcoholics Anonymous" as a woman shared her life story with us. I got to share a powerful testimony (because the Spirit let me for some reason... ;P) and I could see it hitting this woman hard. Her friend was feeling the spirit too. Keep in mind: these are both women who believe that they're "saved," but I testified of the Savior's Atonement. I'm still feeling the spirit as I think back on the moment. I borrowed some words from Brad Wilcox who gave a talk titled: "His Grace is Sufficient." It's a rather excellent one, I've heard it about 5 times.
"We aren't earning Heaven, we're learning Heaven."
For myself, it will be weird having the first lesson we teach be the Word of Wisdom, but you do what you need to do.
After that, we were bounced a few times. We ended up waiting on a street corner for 40 minutes before giving up. I had to deal with a crowd of annoying kids asking me if I knew Obama. I just ignored them except for the time that I told them: "Toka Appa." It's a bit rude, but it's a way of saying "get outta here."
I did give one of them a Pamphlet for some reason. I dunno why, just chalk it up to the spirit. Planting seeds wherever he tells me to.
We were bounced again after that, so we rested at the flat for a little while (Fast Sunday, we're both dying by this point, me more than my comp) then we headed to our last appointment. We ate dinner, they all chatted about "Football" (Soccer *eye roll*), I got accused of liking American Football, to which I replied that I didn't care about it. I don't care about any sports, but the sport I take any effort (no matter how small) to care about is soccer. I blame Alekken, he'd probably accept that blame with great joy. I dunno at this point, but maybe.
We taught a lesson, and I read from "The Family" it was a nice evening, even if they did try to kill me with food right after breaking a fast. We had to run (literally at one point) back to the flat, and made home safe by about 5 minutes. My comp does NOT want to call the Mission President, so he avoids being home late at all costs. I can't say I blame him.
*siiip* Bleh! I'm officially done with this stuff! The rest of this is going down the sink!"
No comments:
Post a Comment