Week 16 in Yaoundé: *Nonchalantly quotes Jesus*

Bonjour amis et familles!

This week turned out to be quite interesting. It began as my first week on the mission where I was in a 2-man apartment, and now that is no longer the case. What we did and how we did it before we became a trio was sometimes kind of difficult to maneuver and navigate. I'd never been in a 2-man apartment, let alone be the only American in an apartment. But, due to some crazy things going down elsewhere in the mission, I have my 9th companion on the mission in Elder Wheeler. I'm still with Elder Mutombo as well, but now I've got my 3rd American companion in Africa. He's from San Antonio and has been out for 3 weeks. So my dream to train an American actually, in a crazy turn of events, came true, which I'm pretty excited about. 

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

Elder Mutombo and I had a cool experience where we gave a follow-up lesson to someone the Assistants found who lives in one of our two areas. As it turned out, he lives super far from any main road and we had to pay 4,000 francs there-and-back (about 8 bucks, which is actually pretty exorbitant for taxis here). But it was worth it! We had a great conversation with Pierre and his wife Elise about the Restoration. Near the end of the lesson, Elise was talking about all of these pastors who don't actually believe or live what they preach, and she asked us about why that is. To respond, I seamlessly quoted Christ's words to Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove - "They teach for doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." I was surprised I remembered the French version. She responded with an 'amen.' It was a cool moment. We're going back next week, and hopefully we won't have to pay 4,000 francs to get up there.

Once we got Elder Wheeler, we had one of the best Sundays I've ever had. We went to church at the Messassi Branch for the first time, and we met a bunch of cool members there. Then, we taught the guardian of the building, who's not a member, who decided to come in and participate in the service. After that, we went and gave a blessing to this older member of the Branch who has diabetes. We then went over to the Eleveur Branch to pick up a set of keys they'd made for us, and we were able to talk a lot to members over there. To cap off the afternoon, we taught somebody new who liked one of the church Facebook ads about prayer. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and Elder Wheeler shared a scripture from 1 Nephi (4:4-6), and then I shared a scripture from Moroni (10:32) to explain how the entire book testifies of Christ! He said he would read it and was excited for our next appointment.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

D&C 50:13-14:

"Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question—unto what were ye ordained?
To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth."

Given that I will hit my year mark in 10 days, I should probably share a scripture that sums up what I've been doing for the past 355 days. This scripture is the inspiration for the title of the missionary manual, "Preach My Gospel," and it lays out what we as missonaries are supposed to do. We have been ordained to, with the help of the Holy Spirit, teach the truth about the human existence. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? How do I receive the blessing of eternal life? That is what I preach. But there's a catch: I have to preach the gospel by the Spirit. If I am not striving to be the best disciple of Christ I can be, I will not have the Spirit with me and it will not testify of my message. Every day, I have to want to become more like Christ. Every day, I have to improve. If I don't have this desire, my message, which is the most important message one can learn in this life, is for naught. So, I will try my darndest to continue to improve. And I invite you all to think of ways you can improve on your journey of becoming like Christ!

Je vous aime tous! Bonne semaine!

Elder May

PICTURES:

Couple of vistas. Elder Ntambwe photobomb shot. The new Eleveur/Messassi trio. A lizard. And 'Kossam,' a yogurt-like drink that I have become addicted to.












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