Mecredi
soir, we get back to the apartment. Everything is normal. We head straight to
the kitchen as normal, because we’re always really thirsty. We drink some cold water,
everything is good. We try to turn on the sink. No water. We think hmm. We go
to the shower. No water. Well that’s great. We went to bed, hoping that the
next day there would be water. Nope. We used our reserve barrels of water to
shower, make breakfast, and make food. We went to the conference de zone. Came
back. Yeah still no water. So that was really awesome. We tried to find the
problem, but we couldn’t find where the water connects to the house. Super sweet.
We had already drank all of our drinking water, so we went to bed pretty
thirsty. We called a guy to come check on it, and he said he was coming, but
the next day. The next morning, vendredi. Still. No. Water. Around lunchtime,
finally this guy came to check the water. Apparently, some genius saw our pipe
leaking, and so he turned our water off. Does the water leak from the pipe anymore?
Nope. Does it leak in the apartment? Nope. Is there even water in the apartment?
Definitely not. This mans turned off our water and didn’t tell us haha. Now that
we know where that switch is, we can hopefully not have that happen again. It made
me really appreciate water though haha.
The
same day that the water came back, I guess I was really thirsty all throughout
the day, because that night I bought a ton of juice. It was our first time
buying juice from this lady, she makes the best juice I’ve had here. I’m probably
gonna start to grossir again. She makes passion, which I’ve mentioned before.
It’s passionfruit juice, which is absolutely amazing. Next, there’s bissap.
They do something with hibiscus leaves or something, I don’t know. It doesn’t matter
really, as long as it tastes good. Then, there’s baobab. I think that takes
first place. I just found it this week, and it tastes so good. It’s hard to
explain, but it has the consistency of a smoothie, and tastes like the fruit in
lehi’s vision. Just kidding. It's just SO good. They all come in these little bags a little bigger than
a pingpong ball, and they’re only 50f each, which in dollars, is not even close
to a dollar. It’s less than 8 cents. So. Good. I wish we had that stuff back home.
So, if you ever have a chance to try passion, bissap, or baobab, definitely do
it. Your life will be changed.
I
just realized that most of the exciting stuff this week happened on vendredi haha.
That day at sector, one of our rendez-vous nous a fuit, or one of our appointments
wasn’t there. While we were waiting, we stopped by Sr Linda’s house (one of the
ward missionaries), and talked to her for a little bit. As we did that, this weird
looking guy came by, selling shoes. He was an older guy, with a cowboy hat, dreadlocks,
and glasses like Harry Potter. He was a fou. Before him there was just the fou
that asks for brochures (who we had another encounter with last week) and the
fou that picks up trash and yells at towels. Now, there’s this fou. I think I’ll
call him the duck fou. All of the fous here have one thing in common: they’re mostly,
if not completely, incomprehensible. This guy was the best one yet. For every 1
word of french, he said probably 1 sentence of nothing comprehensible, and 1 duck
noise. When he turned and started talking to Sr Linda, I could not keep it
together, it was so funny. Here’s an example of some of the stuff he said: “Life’s
not easy (2 minutes of not a real language) hallelujah *duck noise* The other day
(incomprehensible again for a minute) amen *duck noise* *another, longer duck
noise* (still can’t understand 3 minutes) ...and that’s why you’ll be blessed *duck
noise* I was crying I was laughing so hard. After he finished every sentence, whether
in french or in fou, he would make some duck noise. It was the funniest thing
ever. Also, after about 20 minutes of this, he said “okay I’ll see you guys later.”
Shook our hands, took a step back, and started talking again! This guy. He
shook our hands 5 more times, and finally, he saluted us, made one final duck
noise, and continued on. Here’s some stats from that encounter:
Combined
total of minutes - 30ish
Amount
of french spoken by fou de canard - 175
Combined
total of duck noises - at least 20
XP gained
- 4,501
Tears
shed because of laughing - probably 6 or 7
Amount
of times he shook our hands making us think he was leaving - 6
It
was so funny. I hope I see him again, maybe I’ll try to talk to him in his fou
language.
One
jeudi, we had zone conference. It was really good. I had to go to the leader meeting
before, and that was kinda scary, but it was okay. The conference was wonderful.
The main focus of the conference was to choose to be obedient because of our
love for God. The mission REALLY needs that. There’s so much futezz here, you guys have no idea. But
anyways, it was a wonderful conference. My companion bore his testimony, and it
was great too. It’s gonna suck to have to send another comp home haha but it’s all
good. After eating soggy fries for lunch and the monthly stats for our zone and
the mission (our mission had 101 baptisms in December. So cool huh?), I went to
another leader discussion after. Scary again, but it wasn’t too bad. Anyways,
in the briefest way possible, that was zone conference. I’m excited to see what
the future will bring and hopefully that we apply what we learned there.
Before
I finish, I’ll update you on our ami’s de l’eglise! On mecredi, Elder Palmer and
I were at sector. We had set a rendez-vous with this lady (Sr Flora) that we hadn’t
met with before. It kinda surprised us when she showed up within 30 minutes of
our set time. We talked for a while, and she was distracted a lot (we were talking
to her not in her house, but on the sand road outside). A bunch of kids were
running around playing right next to us, and we just finished teaching about how
God is our loving Heavenly Father. We asked her if any of the kids there were
hers. She said yeah, three of the little girls were. I asked her, “you love them
right?” Her eyes zeroed in on mine and she said “Yeah, I do.” I asked her if she
wanted to be with them forever, as in after our life here. She said yes, and we
started talking about eternal families. Before we mentioned that subject, she was
distracted, checking her phone, looking away. But after that, she locked eyes with
us. It was almost scary how she did that, but I thought it was a really cool
experience. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet with her again next week. On samedi,
we were trying to find new people to teach, and I thought hey, let’s go say hi
to these members. We walked over into one of the house complexes, and at the
end, Fr Michael was there! I think I’ve mentioned him before, but it was probably
back in November. He left in November for some vacation, and as of this week,
he’s back! He’s a really cool guy, Hopefully we can meet with him this week. And
last but not least, la famille Djehi. Let’s go back to mecredi. Right after we met
with Sr Flora, we went over to teach them about baptism. I had always known that
they would be baptized, and so we planned to ask them to be baptized then. We taught
a good lesson, but only the Fr Djehi was there. We taught everything, and asked
him if he would be baptized. He said yeah, no problem. Then his wife came in, and
we weren’t sure if we would have to reteach, or if she would reject it, or what.
She came in, and Fr Djehi said something to the extent of “Honey, the men of
God say we’re getting baptized.” Her response surprised Elder Palmer. “Oh, that’s
good! When?” So that was super cool, they’re planned to get baptized on the 1st
of February. I’ve always known that they’d be baptized. Now, I just pray that
they will be sealed together. They’re a super cool family, I hope with all my
heart that they’ll be sealed. I can’t explain the smallest part of what I feel.
My
scriptural thought for this week is on the subject of what we learned at zone
conference. There’s many scriptures that talk about obedience, but this one seemed
the most appropriate to share.
“And
again, I say unto you, I give unto you a new commandment, that you may understand
my will concerning you: Or, in other words, I give unto you directions how you may
act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. I, the Lord, am
bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.”
(D&C 82:8-10, see also 83:20-21)
No
matter who you are, this law applies to you. When we are obedient and do the
things that we know are right, we are promised blessings. When we don’t, we “have
no promise.” Exact obedience is often very hard. Satan has innumerable schemes,
traps, and devices that he uses to try and lure us into temptation and unhappiness.
Sometimes it’s easy to see and avoid, other times it’s not as easy. Sometimes
it’s a decision between two good things, and which one is better. There are so many
ways that he tries to harm us and hinder God’s work. What’s important is that we
need to do our best to follow Christ as best we can. If we love Him, then we will
keep his commandments. Sometimes obedience is easy, other times it’s not. God will
never put us through a trial that we aren’t capable of handling. If you’re
doing good with obedience already, that’s wonderful, I’m so happy for you. If
you aren’t doing so well, or have maybe strayed from the covenant path, it’s okay.
He loves you and He will never leave you. Step by step, He will help you back
to the light if you want Him to. I know personally that when we do our best to
keep his commandments and live a life unspotted from the world, we will be
blessed. It may not seem easy at first, but if we try our hardest to make all
of our decisions under His influence and follow His teachings, life will
become full of joy and we will be able to feel His love more. If we are obedient,
blessings will come, and our life will change for the better. I know personally
that this is true. I love you guys with all my heart. Vous me manquez. Until
next week.
-
Elder Lyman
Also
fun fact I wrote this (on his Neo2) while Elder Tehiva threw pieces of concrete
at our bedroom window. Not pebbles, or rocks, but chunks of concrete.
•It is hard to set up appointments with people because they are hard to contact, leave when they know the elders might be coming, and are often not around when they say they will be.
•futezz = disobedience. Dumb disobedience (in Elder Lyman's words)
•No photos in the future. Elder Lyman's camera disappeared with 4 months of his companion’s photos.
•fou = crazy
 |
| dinner at branch president's house |
 |
| Another trip to the beach with the district |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.