The roads out here are so bad. There are huge pot holes, and you can't avoid them, there are just so many. I feel like I am in the Indiana Jones ride in Disney Land, you know the one? Where the car is jumping around and all that? Yeah, that is my car on a daily basis. It can be a little scary, but the worst part is the people on the other side of the road try to avoid them by coming into my lane, and they almost kill us. Man it is interesting. Looking forward to a day I can hand over the keys and go back to walking, but everyone says that wont happen till I die. We will see.
Okay, so we all know I can be a little weird in what I find funny. Well my companion is afraid of frogs and snakes. We were at a dinner with a member family and I was helping with the cooking, or I was going to at least, when a large frog jumped into the room, and so after some time I managed to catch it and then decided to go show my companion. He screamed like a girl and we all laughed. Then the other Elders got a fake snake that looks pretty real, and they recorded a time when they walked up and handed it to my comp, and he screamed and ran out of the room. That thing has gotten to give us a lot of laughs, since we have done that to other people too. I love it. You have to have fun on mission or it just isn't good.
I have come to have a deeper love for the people as I serve, I have seen struggling families, hard ship, fear and concern, and I have seen how a friendly smile, a hand of help and a kind word can change someones day. I have seen people have their family lives strengthened by serving them, and I always feel a sweet peace when I serve, even when it leaves me bone tired at the end of the day.
The Recent Convert family, the Nyumtora family are great. They have a daughter that the father got to baptize, who when we first got here was scared of me. Now when ever we walk around the corner she runs at me like she wants to tackle me and throws herself at me. I have to brace cause I can't not catch her. She almost ran a little kid over the other day, but when I try to tell her not to do that anymore she looks at me and starts speaking in Shona, and no one else will tell her to stop and I can't get my point across and neither can she and it happens the next day again. I love the family, I just can't get the little one to understand that she shouldn't do that.
Accent and speed. That is my problem with communication out here. They say I have an accent and that I talk to fast. I don't think I have an accent, and I have slowed down from how I used to be. I want an accent, I would love to come home speaking Shona fluent, and not be able to be understood with English cause of a thick African accent. We will see.
We are gonna be a branch soon. Don't tell no one, it is confidential. But we are becoming a Branch on the 25th of this month. I think Christmas has come early. I am so excited for us to be a Branch, and be organized on our own. We recently rented that house that we were wanting to get for a meeting place, the people were so patient and willing to wait for us to make our move. It took way to long in my opinion, but it is done, we have the place, and things are going forward. I got the opportunity to baptize a great young man named Tanaka and that was great. We have baptized at the beginning and end of almost every month we have been here, and I have gotten to baptize at almost every one. Cool huh?
My companion is doing much better. After almost six days of being sick he is now better. I am glad about that, cause sitting in the apartment all that time was really rough. Let us hope that no more sicknesses will be coming our way any time soon.
"My counsel for all of us is to look to the light house of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. The light house of the Lord sends forth signals readily recognized and never failing."
-Thomas S. Monson
"We believe in a God who is engaged in our lives, who is not silent, not absent, nor, as Elijah said of the god of the priests of Baal, is He '[on] a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be [awakened]"
-Jeffrey R Holland
It saddens me to know that people out there feel alone, or lost, or unloved, uncared for, or unwanted. To many people feel this way. To any who read this who may feel this way, I ask you to search your feelings. The Book of Mormon tells us that "all good things come from God... wherefore ye may know with a surety it is of God." It also warns that all bad comes from the devil. If you feel bad, or others make you to feel bad, IT IS NOT OF GOD! God is the one who loved us so much that He allowed His perfect Son to die for us. Imagine how much love that must have took. And it was for you. If you ever have feelings of being alone, unloved or unwanted, reject it. Realize that you are never alone, never unloved, and always wanted. Our Heavenly Father is always there, He always loves us, and He wants us to come home more then anything else. "This is my work and glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" the Lord told Moses. Everything He does is for you. I beg of you, "cast your burdens on the Lord, and bear a song away", you can feel of His peace, and His love. I was reminded by my Seminary Teacher Sister Watson that the Book of Mormon tells us that to find peace in this life all we have to do is read it. Start from the beginning and see what peace it can offer you, I can promise you it is there, I have felt it in my life. Please read it, and never lose hope.
"And don't underestimate the importance of body language,hah"
"It caught me completely by surprise, for the fifth year in a row!"
"Whoa, Mermaid off the port bow, Ariel, how you doing kid? Wow what a swim."
"You were messing with the Shadow Man? He was very charismatic!"
Always remember that I love you.
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