"Cana?"
This week was pretty packed. I don't think I had a single normal day this week.
Well, preparation day wasn't too crazy. We had enough groceries that we decided not to leave and buy more so we were barely out of the house. Our apartment also got another AC installed which was pretty nice. That night our house had two extra Elders in it because they live in a different city and flew in for Zone Conference.
Yup, Zone Conference was this week. It was pretty fun and I understood a lot more of it than last time. We talked a lot about our goals with less-actives and baptisms, as well as working with our ward leaders and a lot of other administrative stuff. Zone Conference is one of the best days of the transfer and it was certainly a pretty sweet experience.
The next day was pretty fun too. We knew we would probably be having interviews with President so naturally we decided to work in our the furthest away part of our area. Yeah I don't know what we were thinking. The other annoying part is that we had no idea when our interviews would be. We had to rely on the other Elders to let us know when we needed to be there.
While we were in between lessons we walked by one of our other investigators houses. One of them wasn't home so we weren't going to teach them, but we had a short chat. While we were talking they asked about our English class on Saturday. So we gave them the details. As we were walking away one of them asked "Cana?" I thought she said "cada" which means 'every' like she was asking "does the class happen every Saturday." So I said yes. Well, cana means sugarcane and before I knew it this 50-60 year old woman had grabbed a machete and was trudging into the sugarcane patch next to her house. After a minute we heard some chopping and another minute later she came trudging back with three stalks of sugarcane. She promptly gave them to us and later I learned how to cut and eat it (it is pretty solid).
After our lessons we headed back to have our interviews. Naturally our interviews happened hours after we got there. But our interviews went well and I certainly learned a lot from mine. We were also the last interviews of the day. So, when we were done it was super late so it was pretty hard to get chapas back to our apartment. But we managed to catch the last running chapas and made it back.
Thursday we worked with the two extra Elders here, it was really nice to have two companionships working in our area.
Friday two couples we are teaching got married, it was super cool. It took basically all day. Also during the wedding the power went out so they opened the curtains which face the street so tons of random people were watching. Also it rained pretty much all day (isn't it ironic?). I was kinda bummed we were there for the whole thing and didn't really do any missionary work. But as the other missionaries reminded me, this is the only thing stopping them from being baptized and normally it is super hard to get people to be legally married. So one day is a small price to pay for their salvation. Still the wedding was cool and at Zone Conference our mission relaxed the eating rules so we could even the eat the food they made! It was really good, especially after having skipped lunch.
This Sunday I gave a talk! Our bishop asked one of us to give a talk and I decided it would be good practice for me to do it. It went alright. It rained so there wasn't to many people there.
After church we talked with a lot of our ward leaders and learned a lot. If last week we learned what we need to do, this week we learned how hard it is going to be. But we also learned that we can do it. The path is going to be hard but I also know we can do it.
With all this work it would be pretty easy to get tired and frustrated. And honestly sometimes I do. But this work has also been super fun. This is probably the happiest I have been my entire life. Which is super crazy because living in Africa kinda sucks. But even when I was in States I enjoyed it a lot. The joy I feel now is from serving others. The prophet Alma sums it up perfectly (Alma 29:13-14):
Well, preparation day wasn't too crazy. We had enough groceries that we decided not to leave and buy more so we were barely out of the house. Our apartment also got another AC installed which was pretty nice. That night our house had two extra Elders in it because they live in a different city and flew in for Zone Conference.
Yup, Zone Conference was this week. It was pretty fun and I understood a lot more of it than last time. We talked a lot about our goals with less-actives and baptisms, as well as working with our ward leaders and a lot of other administrative stuff. Zone Conference is one of the best days of the transfer and it was certainly a pretty sweet experience.
The next day was pretty fun too. We knew we would probably be having interviews with President so naturally we decided to work in our the furthest away part of our area. Yeah I don't know what we were thinking. The other annoying part is that we had no idea when our interviews would be. We had to rely on the other Elders to let us know when we needed to be there.
While we were in between lessons we walked by one of our other investigators houses. One of them wasn't home so we weren't going to teach them, but we had a short chat. While we were talking they asked about our English class on Saturday. So we gave them the details. As we were walking away one of them asked "Cana?" I thought she said "cada" which means 'every' like she was asking "does the class happen every Saturday." So I said yes. Well, cana means sugarcane and before I knew it this 50-60 year old woman had grabbed a machete and was trudging into the sugarcane patch next to her house. After a minute we heard some chopping and another minute later she came trudging back with three stalks of sugarcane. She promptly gave them to us and later I learned how to cut and eat it (it is pretty solid).
After our lessons we headed back to have our interviews. Naturally our interviews happened hours after we got there. But our interviews went well and I certainly learned a lot from mine. We were also the last interviews of the day. So, when we were done it was super late so it was pretty hard to get chapas back to our apartment. But we managed to catch the last running chapas and made it back.
Thursday we worked with the two extra Elders here, it was really nice to have two companionships working in our area.
Friday two couples we are teaching got married, it was super cool. It took basically all day. Also during the wedding the power went out so they opened the curtains which face the street so tons of random people were watching. Also it rained pretty much all day (isn't it ironic?). I was kinda bummed we were there for the whole thing and didn't really do any missionary work. But as the other missionaries reminded me, this is the only thing stopping them from being baptized and normally it is super hard to get people to be legally married. So one day is a small price to pay for their salvation. Still the wedding was cool and at Zone Conference our mission relaxed the eating rules so we could even the eat the food they made! It was really good, especially after having skipped lunch.
This Sunday I gave a talk! Our bishop asked one of us to give a talk and I decided it would be good practice for me to do it. It went alright. It rained so there wasn't to many people there.
After church we talked with a lot of our ward leaders and learned a lot. If last week we learned what we need to do, this week we learned how hard it is going to be. But we also learned that we can do it. The path is going to be hard but I also know we can do it.
With all this work it would be pretty easy to get tired and frustrated. And honestly sometimes I do. But this work has also been super fun. This is probably the happiest I have been my entire life. Which is super crazy because living in Africa kinda sucks. But even when I was in States I enjoyed it a lot. The joy I feel now is from serving others. The prophet Alma sums it up perfectly (Alma 29:13-14):
13 Yea, and that same God did establish his church among them; yea, and that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full.
14 But I do not joy in my own success alone, but my joy is more full because of the success of my brethren, who have been up to the land of Nephi.
Things aren't perfect, some days are super rough and not fun. But day to day seeing people make lasting changes and become better makes me so happy.
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| Me trying to "skin" the sugar cane, or "cana" |
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| Eating lunch at Zone Conference |
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