I want to start this email with something unique, so here it is. That's it, wasn't it pretty special? That is the first time I have started an email like that. Now I just need to remember to not do this again.
On preparation day we went to Beira, it was my fourth time in the city and it always surprises the other missionaries that I have no idea how to get around Beira because I never have had to and basically every other missionary has served here or been here enough to figure it out. Anyway it was cool and shopping at an actual super market was nice (Dondo doesn't have one). It did take all day and there was still a bunch of stuff we didn't get.
Also this last Zone Conference the mission asked us to move our focus towards families and more established people (apparently the mission was baptizing a lot of children). Fortunaetly we aren't teaching any children, unfortunately our most progressing people are teenagers (mostly 14-17). I don't really know why but they come to church and are already friends with members. We also are teaching these two adult women but this week we found out they are not understanding things as well as we thought, though one of them does walk like 1.5 hours to get to church. The problems is that we are finding and teaching plenty of couples and families but they move so slowly because they have to marry.
I do enjoy teaching a lot of these families because they are usually super cool but it can be frustrating that even after being super active in the church for a really long time, they still don't want to get married. But hey it's a work in progress.
Fun story this week, the other Elders found this guy that is a missionary/leader in his church and rather than argue with us, he wants to join our church. But not for the right reasons, he says he wants to join and be a missionary (despite being about 40) so that he can go back to his church and help them. Yeah, pretty odd. What is worse is that he has been randomly showing up, following them to lessons, showing up to church while they are there, and just asking tons of odd questions. It has been a little annoying, especially since he doesn't actually want to join our church, just learn more so he can help his church. It has been a little odd. He even showed up this week to church and was very engaged. We'll see what happens with him.
Another weird story this week. We were walking to our lesson and I saw a little grass fire going. Fires like that are kinda normal here, don't know why, so we kept on going. We got to our lesson and started teaching, and while we were teaching I saw this fire get bigger and bigger. As we were close to finishing we were seeing groups of people running and shouting to get the fire put out. It was really bizarre and a little stressful being even kinda close to the fire. After quickly wrapping up the lesson we walked back home and the tiny fire and turned into a small wild grass fire. Fighting the fire was about 15-20 teenagers (don't know why only they were fighting it). I asked Elder Mateus if we should helped and he said no it's dangerous. So we went home. the next day there was a kinda small area that got burnt. I don't think there was that much danger because the grass was pretty wet but it was still pretty crazy.
Also Sunday was super crazy. I have no idea how but we taught like 8 lessons in 5 hours. What was crazier was that every lesson was productive and had the spirit. Some of the visits were just recent converts and members but every one we taught something helpful and spiritual. My two favorite lessons were with two separate couples that are pretty new. We had really good discussions with both and I really look froward in seeing them progress.
Days like Sunday remind me of a lesson I learned from a very wise missionary about diligence. Some days on the missionary are very hard, you can have all your lessons fall through, people not want to talk to you and a whole slew of other things go wrong too. But if you give up and stop working, you'll never see the days when everything turns around. You will only get the blessings if you keep on working to see them. If you give up halfway, you'll never see the finish. That's why it's so important to keep going, so that even when everything goes wrong, at least you did your best. And when everything goes right you will see your dedication pay off. So keep working hard out there, one day it'll pay off.
To be continued...
Elder McDonald
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| Cappy Delight (Mango flavored) |
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