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

 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's work schedule over and over, we finally nailed down Friday at 2 pm. We go over at that time, and he isn't home yet. But Annetta is. She lets us in quite warmly, and we start chatting, waiting for Paul to arrive so we could start our message. Eventually, Annetta asks us, "You're here to talk about the Gospel right? Let's talk about it!" We then shared with her the Plan of Salvation and it went really well, even if Paul never showed up. So that was on Friday.

Fast-forward to Saturday and we're walking out of our neighborhood and Paul stops us on the road next to the bar that Annetta runs. He seems very happy to see us, invites us to sit down, gives us drinks for free (don't worry, it was soda), and we start talking. I ask him if we could talk about what we'd talked about with his wife the day earlier, and he was like, "Of course!" An hour later, we're finishing up the PoS with him. We've got a new day and time to teach the family now, and I'm very excited to see where the Gospel leads them.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

D&C 124:110:

"Verily I say unto you, even now, if he will hearken unto my voice, it shall be well with him. Even so. Amen."

This is a great, simple scripture, but I love the French version better. The direct translation of the phrase 'it shall be well with him' is 'he will find himself well of it.' ('Il s'en trouvera bien'). The French makes it a little more personal in switching the subject and object, which I like. But this isn't a grammar/linguistics thought, of course, it's a spiritual thought! If we hearken unto the Savior, and do the things he has asked us to do, no matter what we face in life, we will find ourselves in the end well. We will see the blessings that come from our trials, from our covenant keeping. Staying on the path in good times and in bad. It's what being a disciple of Christ means.

Je vous aime tous,
 
Elder May

PICTURES: 

We found root beer! And a cool creek and bridge! And a neighborhood called 'Washington!' And a sign that said 'Welcome to the brain'! (Subject line!)










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