Week 12 in Douala: The African Cold Stone Experience (Feb 14, 2022)

 Bonjour amis et familles!

This was kind of an up-and-down week - some highs and some lows. But I'd be delighted to share some highlights, so let's do it!

WHEN IN AFRICA

So we went and did quite the cool thing today, almost as a whole zone. About a month ago, a Cold Stone opened up in Douala. You read that right. Cold Stone Creamery. In Douala. So we went as a kind of zone activity. And it was so cool. The employees treated us like royalty. They took a bunch of pictures of us and told us they were going to post them on their Facebook page. The ice cream was legit as all get out, and overall it was really a super fun experience. Pics below!

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

Transfers happened this week, but for only the 3rd time on my mission, I'm staying in my area with my companion, Elder Balanganayi. So on Wednesday, while most of the mission was moving around, we had a super productive day where we had about 6 lessons. Some of these were with people we just found, some are a couple weeks going at this point, some others with 'amis éternels' - people that have been taught for 6 months or more and haven't progressed towards baptism as of late. But it was a really good day of bringing all these types of people closer to Christ! My favorite lesson of that day was with this Anglophone named Solange. She asked the question, "why do I feel like God isn't answering my prayers, or that he's making me go through a hard time?" I felt impressed to quote to her a few paragraphs from Elder Holland's talk, 'Waiting on the Lord.' I talked about how God doesn't always answer prayers the way we think He should, but He always answers them in His loving wisdom, knowing that whatever answer He gives, it will be for our good. It seemed to really help her. 

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

"The fufu is gone?"

We were enjoying each other's company at dinner one night when Elder Balanganayi went to grab more fufu from his plate, only to realize that he had already eaten it all. His innocent question was asked with such a funny cadence that we all started laughing.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

D&C 133:53:

"In all their afflictions he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them; and in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old;"

Nothing like a good Atonement scripture. Jesus Christ truly was afflicted with all our afflictions, all of our injustices, all that is wrong or evil in life, Christ experienced the consequences through His suffering of all these things. He can give us strength because of His ability to give perfect empathy. He is the Redeemer - He will right all your wrongs. He is our ultimate loving friend. 

Je vous aime tous,

Elder May











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 15 in Douala: The old Ice Cream <=> Restored Gospel exchange (March 7, 2022)

Image
  Bonjour amis et familles! This week was highlighted by interviews with President and Sister Miner and Zone Conference, and lowlighted by the news that I have developed athlete's foot. But I'm keeping a good attitude and it's been a good week regardless! MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK   So a little bit of contextual background here: there's this lady down the street from us that serves soft-serve ice cream from a machine. Over the past little bit, my comp and I have been frequenting her machine at least twice a week. By creating this friendship (and enjoying some decent soft-serve ice cream), we have now started talking about the Gospel with her, and we even had a little lesson on Saturday with her. She seemed interested and asked us some good questions. We now have an official appointment with her next week. SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK  Alma 24:27: "...thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people." I love this so ...
Read more

Week 6 in Douala: Some new friends for the New Year! (Jan 2, 2022)

Image
Bonjour amis et familles!  Bonne année! Happy New Year! It's 2022! Whaddya know about that? We had a pretty good  week  to ring out the old year and start the new year. Some new people with a bunch of potential. Some fun meals to celebrate the New Year. Let's get into some details: MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE  WEEK   I had an exchange with Elder Knight, a newer American in the mission who I lived with for a  week  and a half at the beginning of this transfer. As we were trying to teach this guy at his haircut place (we kept getting interrupted by customers and stuff), a customer came and started talking to us. He became more attentive than the guy we were actually teaching, and started asking questions about the Restoration pamphlet we gave him. A couple of days later, we had a lesson with him, Paul, and his wife, Annetta. It went really great, and I could tell they felt the Spirit during our lesson. He called us the next morning wanting to meet again, b...
Read more

Week 9 in Douala: Welcome to the Brain (Jan 24, 2022)

Image
  Bonjour amis et familles!  To anyone who noticed, yes, the last 2 weeks have both said 'Week 7 in Douala.' First time I've actually done that (and I've been on the mission for 69 weeks now!).  This week was pretty good. Got off the spiritual high of all the Elder Sitati conferences and got back into the grind of everyday missionary work. Let's get into the thick of it: WHEN IN AFRICA: Elder Balanganayi claimed to see a water snake as we were crossing a bridge while contacting. I agree with him. This thing's head was too skinny to be a duck. It was probably at least 2 feet long. Sadly I don't have good pictures.  MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  We've been trying to get a second lesson with Paul and Annetta, who we met 3 weeks ago, ever since that first one and we just weren't connecting. But we were able to have lessons with both of them this weekend, in the most unexpected way! First, after trying to set a day and time that would work with Paul...
Read more