Week 17 in Douala: The Snail Kebab (March 21, 2022)

 Bonjour amis et familles!


I would regard this week as a pretty successful week. We had some cool experiences in bringing others closer to their Savior, which I believe always constitutes said description. What were those experiences? Let me tell you!

WHEN IN AFRICA 

Subject line explanation time:
As we were waiting for a friend to show up at one point, this lady, her friend, who we were waiting with, called over this lady with a bucket of kebabs of some sort. She buys one. Both me and Elder Balanganayi couldn't quite tell what kind of meat was on these kebabs. So we asked. It was 'escargot.' Snail. She asked us if we wanted to try it. Our response was, "Why not?" So we did. They weren't half bad. A little rubbery. The hot sauce they put on it was a delicious addition. I might even do it again. We'll see.

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

In continuation of the above story, we were eventually able to connect with the lady we had planned on teaching. Her name is Chantale and we had an awesome lesson with her! At the beginning of the lesson, she started asking that timeless question, "Why do bad things happen to people who believe in Christ?" "Why does God let deadly disasters that kill thousands happen? Was there not one believer among them?" I decided to answer her question using the ultimate source, the Word of God. I turned to Alma 14 in the Book of Mormon, where we have the account of a group of believers in Christ being massacred by being thrown into a fire. Alma, witnessing the scene, says to Amulek, his teaching companion, that the Spirit constrained him to call upon God for their deliverance. I explained that sometimes God lets bad things happen to good people, even unto death, but the Plan of Salvation helps us know that those people are then received by the Lord in glory. Death is not the end, and those that are firm in faith will rest I  the next life from all their worldly sorrows. At the end, I asked Chantale if I helped answer her question. She very softly said, "un peu," (A little) which I think means that it actually helped a lot!

I made a kind of goal at the beginning of this week to be really bold in extending invitations, especially to pray about the truth of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration of the Gospel. There were a few lessons where I felt really spiritually energized as I extended these bold invitations and had people say, "Yes, I will pray to know that." Now the next step is following up with these people to see if they were true to their word. 

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK 

French tongue twister time:

"Ma montre-là ne montre pas comme toutes les montres montrent."

(In English: "my watch doesn't display like all other watches display." 'Montre' means watch, 'montrer' means to show or display. Elder Balanganayi bought a dud of a watch this week and so he said this to describe the watch. All context clues given, hopefully.) 

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

In the 50th chapter of Alma, right after a victorious battle for the Nephites over the Lamanites, the record talks of how Moroni, the captain-in-chief I talked about last week, "did not stop making preparations for war" and fortified the defenses of many Nephite cities. This stood out to me, and I would like to compare this phrase to our journey as disciples of Christ. When we overcome one trial in life, chances are other trials await us. We cannot stop making preparations. We cannot ever stop living the Gospel, thinking a strong testimony will never again come in handy. We need to constantly be feeding our testimony, praying, studying the scriptures, going to church. As we do these things, our testimonies will be fortified. Our defenses will be strong against the "fiery darts of the adversary". And when our personal 'Lamanites' come to attack us again, just as the Lamanites ended up doing later in this story, we will have prepared and will easily defeat and overcome any of those darts that are thrown at us. 

Je vous aime tous,

Elder May

PICTURES:
Since it's the last week of the transfer, I had to get myself some Cold Stone. I also made pizza. Baptism pic (not someone I taught but cool nonetheless, of course). Pics with members, Spider-Man, and a friendly lizard. 










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