Week 6 in Libreville: The only constant is change

 Bonjour amis et familles!


This has been a crazy, crazy, week! The big turning point/highlight event was that there are now 14 missionaries in Gabon! 7 Americans and 7 Africans, who all arrived Wednesday afternoon. So now, I have an African companion! His name is Elder Utshudi and he's from DR Congo. He knows very little English.

WHEN IN AFRICA

Nothing too crazy this week, which is good, because that means I'm adjusting to living here a bit. We did get followed by a crazy guy but it's fine. It's mainly just been adapting to the culture of the work that the Africans have brought with them, which  really isn't a 'when in Africa' thing, but more of a 'every missionary does it a little differently - especially if you're from another continent' thing. 

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

A fun addition to the Africans arriving was that I technically switched areas. Now Elder Utshudi and I are over the 'PK' area, and all the progressing people Elder Meyer and I were teaching live in the 'Nzeng-Ayong' (don't even try to pronounce that) area. So we're starting from scratch. 
We were able to have 2 lessons with this guy I'll call Rafaël. He's the dad of someone who was taught pre-COVID, and now we've had more lessons with him than his son, so that's cool. He seems to like the doctrine we're teaching, or at least I think he does - sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on. I don't always understand my companion when we're in lessons thus far. But the main thing is he keeps meeting with us. We're going over there again tomorrow.

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Please bless this nap that it will give us strength"

In another context this would actually make sense. But for my prayer for the 'meal' ('repas' in French), I instead said 'repos', which means 'nap' or 'rest'. Languages are hard.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Deuteronomy 4:29-31:

"But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
(For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them."

I started reading the Old Testament cover-to-cover last month, because how else am I gonna spend my free time on the mission?
I wasn't very excited for Deuteronomy (the Greek means 'repetition of the law') but then I came across this gem. 
I'm kind of 'in tribulation' mentally right now. I've gone from like 55%-95% with speaking French, everything about the work and culture is different, and I personally don't love change (my family can attest to this). But I know that if I 'seek the Lord' in everything I do, and put Him first, everything will work out how it's supposed to. 

En avant! Je vous aime tous!

Elder May

And now, the visual part of the email:








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