This week was pretty cool, we got a lot of really solid work done and had some fun activities. The end of the week we had General Conference which is always pretty cool, though here in Africa has been the weirdest one I have had so far.
To say the weirdest conference I have had so far is a little misleading, because it honestly wasn't particularly crazy. General Conference happens four times on the mission and this was my 2nd one. My first was in California and almost every session we did something different. One we watched at the church, one at our apartment, and two in a member's home. In California the time difference basically doesn't matter at all, but here it is quite substantial. Conference starts at 10 AM in Utah and Mozambique that is 6 PM. So we got home early and watched the morning session and then our day was over. We have to watch the Saturday and Sunday Afternoon sessions on our own time just because it starts at about 10 PM here. It is especially hard for the people here to watch it because the only options are through data on a phone or one of the sessions was on television. Both mobile data and TV are pretty expensive for the people here, so the next few weeks we will be showing the sessions at our chapel. Watching Conference is an opportunity everyone should have and we are doing our best to provide that here.
During our work this week we met a couple new people to teach. One of them was pretty interesting. Normally when we meet someone new, we arrange to meet at a location we know, such as a police station or our chapel, then they take us to their house. This guy we were trying to meet though for some reason wouldn't meet us at one of these places. Instead he told us about where it was and told us to ask people for "the guy that sells green plants." Well we wandered around the slums (which are practically mazes) for about 20 minutes, asking almost everyone for "the guy that sells green plants" all to no avail. Eventually, he came out and found us in like two minutes and took us to his house. Sure enough his yard was filled with green plants that he was selling. He had also painted his house green. Then we finally got to talk to him. Apparently he had met with missionaries in the past and he also like to talk a lot. We were also already late for our English Class (which I teach). So we chatted for a bit and left a Restoration pamphlet. I honestly didn't think he was that interested just because he seemed pretty invested in some other churches. So I was shocked that night when we got a text from him that read "Good night, I finished reading the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can I get a Book of Mormon?" So we will see how it goes in the future.
This week I also had another weird Africa moment. We had been working in an area that was pretty far away from our house and we saw a huge storm coming in. Like it was huge. So we did the smart thing and left early. When we got to the road with the chapas it was sprinkling. A chapa passed by going the other direction and we decided to take it and wait for it to turn around and take us back to the city, so we could stay out of the rain. Well, it was certainly a good choice because shortly after it started pouring. It was already pretty late and the thick storm made it super dark. As we were driving we passed by a group of kids coming back from school, probably six of them hopped in with us to avoid the rain.
Side note: chapas have two workers, the driver and the comprador. The comprador mans the door and gets people in and out. Comprador technically means buyer in English so I am just going to use comprador. Anyway compradors are usually pretty rude so all the kids that didn't pay to get in were made fun as he shouted jokes out the window. Then on the way back the windshield got foggy so the driver pulled out a rag and started frantically wiping the window while driving the chapa. So, the driving was wiping the window with one hand and driving with the other and because of the fog, rain, and darkness he couldn't see very well plus the dirt road had quite a few potholes and on top of that their was another car coming from the other direction. While all of this happening I had the profound thought "dang this isn't very safe and we might die." Fortunately, we didn't. The driver managed to keep us on the road (despite how close it felt) and the whole rest of the ride I was thinking of how weird Africa is.
Mozambique never stops surprising me, every time I feel I understand what is going something new and unexpected happens, every time I feel comfortable some new problem arises. If only there was some way of getting helpful advice about this sort of thing, like some sort of meeting where people give messages about how to deal with challenges and how to improve your life. Wait...
That's right it's a General Conference segue. I know I already talked about but this isn't for me, it is for you! General Conference is a pretty neat experience. It seems no matter what personal questions I have, I can always find an answer in the messages given. They are super cool and I would highly recommend them. Anyway that's all.
P.S. When I was in the chapa I randomly thought about the song
Don't Stop Believing and the Midnight Train it talks about. So that is where I got the title from. Also if you like Harry Potter you could also call it the Night Chapa (like the night bus) and it gives you an idea about how the ride felt.
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| Me and Elder Alberto |
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