Lost in the Work

 Okay I actually have less time to write this week than last week.

 It's going to be hard to not repeat myself, but honestly it's amazing to be back here. Last week passed in the blink of an eye. Lost in the work is such a good feeling.

 

From 6:00-9:30 each day we do all of our daily preparation. Pray, exercise, personal and companionship study, and daily planning. Then, from 9:30-19:00, we have lessons. The entire day. Some days we don't have time for lunch, we just keep going on teaching and finding. Then after 19h00, after we've done all of our planning and cleaning and dinner, it's usually bedtime au même temps. It's so crazy, we have no time to se reposer. I love it though.

Sorry if I use French words. Sometimes it just makes more sense that way.

We had zone conference this week (it feels like ages ago). It was really good. It had been a long time since I'd had zone conference in person, and even longer since it'd been here with President and Sœur Lewis. The Spirit was really strong there. 

Some of our amis that are progressing the best is la famille Soya. It's a family that has 9 kids I'm pretty sure. I love them so much. The parents and a few of their kids have been pretty consistently attending church each week, and tonight we taught a wonderful lesson with them. We taught l'évangile de Jésus Christ, or the Doctrine of Jesus Christ (I think) and read Mosiah 5. When we asked them to be baptized, they were happy and excited to. The Spirit was so strong as we talked with them. One thing though, Fr and Sr Soya aren't legally married yet. They'll be married in June, so they'll have to wait. I hope I'll still be here to see that happen, but we'll see. Either way, as long as they are firm in their knowledge and testimony of the gospel, that's what matters most.

La famille Soya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... 

Now I want to talk about someone that I love very very much.

 Elder Assale told me that this ward was amazing and that they work really well with missionnaires. I quickly found out why. Our ward mission leader, Fr Oulaï, is one of the most Christlike people I've ever met. I've been working with him for just a month, and I've already learned a lot and grown just from his example. I don't know all of his story as well as I'd like, partially because of français, but here's what I know.

That is Frère Oulaï in the forefront

 

 I don't know how many years it's been, but he converted to the church a while ago. From what I understand, there was a point in his life where he started to search for truth. He went to many different churches, and even tried Islam and Buddhism. He spent a couple years in search of truth. Eventually, he found the missionaries, and discovered the truth he was looking for.

 A couple years after that, he was living with a woman (now his wife) and they were working towards marriage. They saved up enough money for la dote(similar to a required dowry), but then he was paralyzed. I'm not sure what situation he was in medically, but from what I understand, for a year he couldn't move or talk. After a year, he slowly rehabilitated, and was able to function properly again.

 They had to get ready for marriage again by saving up money. It was then that Fr Oulaï found out that living together before marriage wasn't in compliance with God's commandments. So, for the next year, he slept outside. Basically, he chose to be homeless to keep that commandment. The amount of devotion and love he had is really amazing to see.

 Now, they're married and sealed together. They live in the poorest section of our area, with a house similar to the ones I described next to the lagoon in Vridi. Dirt floor, black trash bags for walls, and sheet metal roofing. Their home is 1/2 the size of my bathroom back home. They basically have nothing. Fr Oulaï doesn't have a job anymore, and I don't think Sr Oulaï does either, at least they don't have consistent incomes at all. They actually live from day to day. 

 And yet, despite their complete lack of money and possessions, they're always happy, always smiling. Fr Oulaï works with us 2 or 3 days a week, for 10 hours a day. And even then, when he isn't working with us, he's street contacting people all the time. He's someone who truly loves the Lord.

 After we talked with them and they recounted their history, Sr Oulaï fed us dinner. They're scraping by as it is, and they chose to feed us. 

 On Saturday, Elder Kouadio and I were going back to the apartment after a meeting for lunch, Fr Oulaï tagged along with us. Our apartment didn't have water for a while, so the dishes had really piled up in the kitchen. I was planning on washing the dishes, but Fr Oulaï just started doing them himself. He did a couple days worth of dirty dishes just because.

 He never ceases to amaze me. I love him so so much. And his wife too, she's amazing as well. But especially Fr Oulaï. People like that deserve so much more than they deal with. It breaks my heart. But it also makes them be such an incredible example for me. I love them so much.

I almost forgot to mention it, but next week we'll be having a baptism. Sr Martine Lida was someone that Elder Assale taught for a long time and she's finally ready. I'm excited for her to be baptized.

Soeur Martine Lida

 

 Yeah I don't know what else to say. I'm happy to serve, learn, and help. When you lose yourself in the service of others is when you truly find yourself. Love you guys. Have a great week!

Elder Lyman

La Terre Promis

 

Okay, I don't have too much time to write this week. But I'll write what I can.

This week was just like the last, nonstop work. It feels so good to be back and always have somebody to help. There's always an ami, a missionary, or a member that I can be thinking about and wondering how we can serve them, what will help them progress, or what way we can bless their life. This place is the terre promis. 

Elder Assale finishes with his mission tomorrow right after zone conference, so I have another companion with me right now. His name is Elder Kouadio. He's from Yamoussoukro (no idea how that's spelled), Côte d'Ivoire. He's been out for about 4 months now, and seems awesome so far. I'm excited to work with him. 

Departing companion (Elder Assale) is next to Elder Lyman, new companion (Elder Kouadio) is on the far left.

 

We went on exchanges with the assistants this week. It was so wonderful to work with Elder Diaz again. The entire day went so smoothly, and I really felt the Spirit as we worked. It was good to see him again.

Elder's Lyman and Diaz working together again

 

There have been tons of other experiences that I was intending to share, but can't right now. Maybe I'll save them for next week.

I'm just so happy to be back with my people and be serving le Seigneur. Despite all the difficulties and struggles, this has been and continues to be the best experience I've ever had in my life up until now. I've come to know so many things that I didn't before, or at least didn't have a clear testimony of before. Foremost of those being that God does exist, and that Jesus is the Christ, he sacrificed himself for us in the ultimate expression of love, and that in following his council, we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. 

Love you guys

 

Elder Lyman

Thank goodness for water filters.

Africa is dope

Africa is dope. I forgot how awesome this place is. It's such a different world out here, especially in comparison with my mission before. First off, COVID regulations, or anything of that sort, are essentially nonexistent. The moment we stepped out of the airport, mask off. The only time we need to take any precautions are when we go to church. So yeah, that is a huge blessing. 

I'm currently in a part of Abidjan called Yopougon, and my area is called Koweït. The ward here is awesome, it's as close to a ward in the states as you can get as far as being well organized and having a good amount of people show up. 

My companion is Elder Assale, he's from Abidjan. He was serving in Congo Brazzaville but he's here because of the COVID changes. He was supposed to finish his mission last month, but he extended. He's going to finish next Tuesday, so I'll have a new companion then. He's incredible, I'm learning so much about how to teach in French again, how to be a zone leader, how to interact with people, along with many other things. I'm gonna miss him when he's done.

I'm busier here than I ever have been before. Each day here is full of lessons or meetings from 9:30 AM often until 8:00 PM or later. Usually by the end of the day, I barely have time to write in my journal. It's kinda crazy and really tiring, but I love it. Being able to just push and work work work is such a blessing.

As far as French goes, I haven't had too much of a problem with it. Somehow, after almost a year of not being immersed in it and for the most part not practicing it, I'm still fluent (don't take that term too literally). I learned French 100% through the Spirit and the gift of tongues, and I'm certain that my French is good now for the same reason. 

Also, it's so hot here. So hot. Thankfully this area is right next to the lagoon, so sometimes we get some cool breeze blowing through, but for the most part it's just a microwave. The piment definitely doesn't help with the heat factor.

I've missed all the little kids shouting 'le blanc' as I walk past, eating garba and futu, having random goats and chickens chilling everywhere, breastfeeding during lessons (kinda didn't miss that), random people touching my hair, eating mystery meat, people saying goodmorning and howayoo, murder missle taxi drivers, the excessive amount of oil on literally anything I eat, sleeping with a fan blowing on me all night, sitting on 6 inch tall stools under random fruit trees teaching lessons, bissap, and a whole big list of other random things that I forgot about being here. This place is so dope haha.

Here's some random experiences from this week:

On Saturday, one of the fat rats like the ones we warred against in Vridi ran through my legs during a lesson. It brought flashbacks.

Friday and Saturday, our water was out, so we weren't able to shower. Also, our power was out Friday night, so we didn't have dinner. We finally found water somewhere Saturday night, so we carried buckets of water up to our room to shower with (we live on the 4th floor). Super fun stuff.

I found mountain dew here. 

I've had to learn how to handwash my clothes. Super fun (not).

We changed out the water filters today. I haven't seen a more heavily used water filter than today. Holy cow it was nasty. It hadn't been changed since October or November last year. Nasty nasty. 

Earlier today, I was thinking about my mission. When I returned here last Friday, I was finally told my end date for the mission, August 3rd. It didn't take me too long to realize that I only had 5 months left. It's such a small anount of time left for me to serve. It made me kind of sad especially when some part of me still feels like I need to serve 2 full years here. Instead I'll have served around 1. It made me feel like I was robbed, especially since I spent 3 months awaiting reassignment, and a lot of time in Flower Mound wondering if I was really making a difference. 

Although that is the case, and it would have been wonderful to have been able to serve 2 full years here, I know that what happened is all according to God's plan, and I learned what I needed to as well as had the experiences I needed to have. At first it wasn't a very easy concept to come to terms with. However, as I've reflected over my mission up to this point, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Simply taking into account the change that I've seen in my own life and testimony makes it all worth it.

I applied to serve the Lord for 2 years  and I was called to serve, not to a place. That, and what we do with what we're given, is all that's under our power. The rest is up to God, to carve our path. And having signed up to serve the Lord, the least we can ask is just to influence the life of one person for the better. And if He sees fit to let us do more than that, it would be wonderful. In my case, I've been blessed with the opportunity to see many people's lives change for the better, the foremost of which being my own. 

I don't like to say this because I feel like I should be more outwardly focused and talk about other people that I've seen positively influenced by the gospel, but I truly do feel that the change that I've seen in myself has been my favorite part of my mission.

Before I came on a mission, I went through the motions for the most part, as most people do. I went to church because that's just what one does, I maybe participated in seminary, and every once in a while I got nightly prayers and scripture study in. I had faith and believed in everything, but it wasn't a very solid belief. I just thought "yeah, it's gotta be true" and didn't think much else of it.

Going from that state to where I am now is more than I can thank my Heavenly Father for. I've learned that God really does live and love us. I've learned about God's plan, the restoration, the gospel, and what they mean for me and for everyone. I've learned so much about Jesus Christ, what he did, who he was, what he really went through, and what that means to me. It's been so wonderful.

I can never thank my Father in Heaven enough for that gift that he's given me.

So for where I stand whether or not a mission is worth it... yes. My answer is a complete, resounding yes. Although the mission is indisputably hard and even sometimes excruciating, it is so so so worth it.

I've loved my mission up until this point and I'm excited to work as hard as I can for the next little bit. 

I love Africa, I love the mission, and I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

Have a great week

Elder Lyman

 

Elder Lyman's current companion, Elder Assale, is on his right side, and his last companion in Africa before leaving, Elder Diaz, is on his left side.