Week 37 in Douala: Quality over Quantity

 Bonjour amis et familles!


It's your favorite missionary back with another update about the past week. So put your hands together for Elder May and the Village Branch!

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

We're still having a few problems with finding new people that can progress in our area. We achieved 20% of our goal of 15 new people. But the people we did find seem like they're pretty good quality. Let's meet them:

We found a lady named Esther as we were walking back from a new person lesson. She was there selling roasted corn (as many people do, actually) on the side of the road. She seemed mildly interested in learning more, so we gave her a brochure. We asked for a number, which she declined to give us. But she told us to come back to that specific spot  on Saturday and we'd find her there. So, definitely quite a few flags that would normally tell us that it wasn't gonna work out. But, to my great surprise, when we showed up on Saturday, she was more than happy to discuss with us! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was touched by our promise that God would respond to her prayer to know the truth of the book. We set up a return appointment for next Wednesday.

We had another great unexpected experience on Sunday at church. We had had a lesson with Kelly the week before, but we hadn't been able to schedule a follow-up and weren't getting a very promising vibe. After sacrament, we get a call from her asking where our building was! We were able to lead her there and she enjoyed the last 25 minutes of sacrament meeting. She stayed for 2nd hour too and loved the Sunday School lesson. The Branch President talked to her after and mentioned that he could assign a member of the branch to start visiting her. Suddenly, Elder Libero and I are getting a very promising vibe from Kelly!

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I suddenly have a crazy urge to go snowboarding."
-Elder Harris. It's August, we're in Africa, and you're only at 8 months. How?

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK 

Mark 2:21-22:

"No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles."

This is a very short parable of Jesus that at sundry times has escaped my understanding. But upon reading it this last week, something came to mind. Jesus might be telling us that our knowledge of the Gospel, the new cloth or the new wine, has to change us. We cannot stay the same person once we have learned about the Gospel. If we do nothing once we have learned about the covenant path, our knowledge will condemn us later on. The cloth is made worse. The bottles are marred. The Gospel helps us to become new people, who have let their covenants with God and their obedience to those covenants completely change them. Let this be said of all of us. 

Je vous aime tous,

Elder May

Pics:
1. I made chicken fried steak because I wanted to make fried chicken but they were out of pre-cut boneless chicken at the supermarket. 
2. This soap ad poster makes it seem like God wants me to use it.
3, 4: I live here, by the way.






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