Week 2 in Libreville: "Bonjour, les blancs!"

 Bonjour amis et familles!


This has been quite the awesome week, and that's undeserving it. Let's get right into it:

WHEN IN AFRICA 

A couple of interesting things around the apartment:
1. We have caught 2 mice.
2. Our fridge died.
3. The power goes off for 20 seconds every night almost without fail. Then it comes back on and the cycle repeats 5 times.
4. The lights will take a minute to turn on - they will flicker, which creates a cool horror movie effect at night.
Also, the subject line means "hello, whites!" Kids around here (which are many in number) need to say this whenever we pass. We hear it about 3 times a day and its adorable.

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

A couple of highlights:
We had a second lesson with an older lady from last week who I will call 'Yvette.' She invited her husband and 2 grandkids as well, and we had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation (the song my MTC district made came in clutch with remembering certain points in French). After the lesson, Yvette told us all we taught was true, and was very excited for future lessons!
We had a member lesson on Friday that Elder Meyer and I actually went to by ourselves, which led to some definite culture-shock moments. During the lesson, I was able to talk about my favorite scripture (Mosiah 2:41) in near perfect French for a solid 5 minutes! It was amazing! The Spirit as I was testifying of the truths found in that scripture was so strong! It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had on my mission so far. The gift of tongues is real.

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

"Dang, we're in Africa!"
There's been many reasons to say this thus far, but this was the best context. We got a little lost while tracting so Elder Meyer pulls out Google Maps. He started zooming into the Salt Lake Valley, and then remembered where we actually were in the world and course-corrected.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

3 Nephi 27:20:

"Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day."

At that same member lesson, I asked the patriarch of the family to share his favorite Book of Mormon scripture, and he chose this one. What I love about it is that this is Christ teaching His Gospel to the ancient Americans, and this verse is the big 'to sum up' verse. This is His Gospel, and this is what I'm inviting others to do. There's a reason this same scripture is quoted on the front of every copy of Preach my Gospel. 

2 weeks down in Africa. Roughly 74 to go.(okay, it might not be so 'roughly')

Je vous aime tous,
Elder May

ALL THE PICTURES











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