Week 35 in Douala: "It's a Hard Rain's a-gonna fall..."

 

Bonjour amis et familles!


A little Bob Dylan on your Monday morning-ish with the subject line, which very accurately describes my week.  It rained every day except Sunday. Got stuck in many rainstorms and might have officially taken out one of my pairs of shoes. It had problems before but they've been hilariously exacerbated by the recent downpouring.

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

With all the rain, it was a little difficult to schedule lessons this week. Can't do much if the dirt road gets flooded out. We don't have many progressing people at the moment anyway. But here's a few cool things that happened:

After our last district council of the transfer, we ate and a restaurant downtown. I got a plantain and fries dish with meat. And a really good smoothie that was just called 'natural juice' on the menu so I was pleasantly surprised. But the missionary moment was this: A man sitting in the corner of the restaurant ended up contributing 8,000 francs to our bill as a thank-you for our missionary service. He wasn't even a member; he was just super impressed that 8 young people were doing the Lord's work. A few of us talked with him after and gave him a brochure. 

We had a fun lesson with Alain, our one progressing person as mentioned earlier. We focused on getting him to continue to read the Book of Mormon. We read 1 Nephi 3 with him and he was super impressed by Nephi's response to the commandment to acquire the brass plates. "I will go and do!" We invited him to church and he didn't show; we'll work on that this next week. 

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

Alma 58:11:

"Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him."

A gem from the war chapters. Just as Helaman and the Nephi army were given the peace that Christ the Lord only can give to make it through the horrors of war, we can be given peace and hope for deliverance from our own trials. In the weeks like this one that weren't as productive, I pray for this peace and hope and knowledge that I am still engaged in a great work. The Lord can bless me with the faith that next week will be better. And I love Him for that. 

Je vous aime tous,

Elder May

P.S. there was also a baptism for the other Elders you'll see here. The Standard of Truth has been erected. Also meatballs, my restaurant meal and other fun pics attached. 








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