Hey everyone!!
So this week was pretty stressful. It started off well. My companion and I had some high goals for this week. We have SIX people getting baptized in the month of august (hopefully) And then we have another with a date in September. In the MTC they tell you to challenge people to baptism on the first lesson but our mission president told us not to since people out here will just say yes to be nice and they wont be ready. These people are the nicest people in the world though. They always say hi and are very friendly. They always call me obolo which means fat boy, but here it is a compliment I guess, haha. We are teaching like 4 people right now who dont speak any english so we have to have a member present which is hard because I get lost in the conversation so easily. The language is still really hard for me and some of the names are very hard to remember too.
Anyway the beginning of the week went really well and then I got sick on Friday and Saturday. I thought my appendix burst or something. Anyway it was really bad and I had to sit in the apartment all Friday and Saturday. Sunday our bishop's daughter was blessed so we went to a party at his house after church. I had Fufu for the first time and i finished it! its still pretty hard to swallow these things without chewing but i'm getting better. Also most of his family aren't members so there was tons of alcohol and I accidentally had a coke that was spiked with something. I couldn't tell until my companion had the last little bit but I thought It just tasted goofy because it was made out here! I felt really bad, but another elder in my district said the same thing happened to him when he went to a funeral. These people drink a lot of alcohol and if they aren't they drink malt (non alcoholic bear).The members drink that a lot so i've been getting used to having it!
To answer a lot of your questions, if you want to send me something you send it to the mission home then they bring it to me. We don't have any real address or mailbox or anything like that. I was grateful that I got to catch up on some sleep this week even though it really sucked staying in the apartment for two days. My companion takes me running every other day at 5:00 in the morning which is very tiring haha but hopefully it'll make me slim down a bit! The hardest thing I did this week was try and eat while I was sick because I could barely keep it down. The best experience i've had this week was having one of our investigators have a special interview and pass and just seeing his true desire to get baptized. He makes it so easy to teach and he's already being a missionary to his wife who wouldn't take discussions at first. His wife said that she would probably join the church eventually! Also we met with a young man about 16 years old and he said he wants to be baptized. We taught our lesson and said goodbye to his father and he said he loved our church and wants to join after his son, then his stepmother walked outside with a Book of Mormon and said she had been reading it and wants to know more! Man the Lord truly prepares people. Hopefully we can baptize that whole family in September but we don't want to get our hopes up!
Anyway thats pretty much all that happened this week. We couldnt reach a lot of our goals since I was in bed for two days so that was kind of a bummer. Thank you for all of your prayers! Things will always have adversity i'm just trying to push through It!
Love
Elder Smith
So this week was pretty stressful. It started off well. My companion and I had some high goals for this week. We have SIX people getting baptized in the month of august (hopefully) And then we have another with a date in September. In the MTC they tell you to challenge people to baptism on the first lesson but our mission president told us not to since people out here will just say yes to be nice and they wont be ready. These people are the nicest people in the world though. They always say hi and are very friendly. They always call me obolo which means fat boy, but here it is a compliment I guess, haha. We are teaching like 4 people right now who dont speak any english so we have to have a member present which is hard because I get lost in the conversation so easily. The language is still really hard for me and some of the names are very hard to remember too.
Anyway the beginning of the week went really well and then I got sick on Friday and Saturday. I thought my appendix burst or something. Anyway it was really bad and I had to sit in the apartment all Friday and Saturday. Sunday our bishop's daughter was blessed so we went to a party at his house after church. I had Fufu for the first time and i finished it! its still pretty hard to swallow these things without chewing but i'm getting better. Also most of his family aren't members so there was tons of alcohol and I accidentally had a coke that was spiked with something. I couldn't tell until my companion had the last little bit but I thought It just tasted goofy because it was made out here! I felt really bad, but another elder in my district said the same thing happened to him when he went to a funeral. These people drink a lot of alcohol and if they aren't they drink malt (non alcoholic bear).The members drink that a lot so i've been getting used to having it!
To answer a lot of your questions, if you want to send me something you send it to the mission home then they bring it to me. We don't have any real address or mailbox or anything like that. I was grateful that I got to catch up on some sleep this week even though it really sucked staying in the apartment for two days. My companion takes me running every other day at 5:00 in the morning which is very tiring haha but hopefully it'll make me slim down a bit! The hardest thing I did this week was try and eat while I was sick because I could barely keep it down. The best experience i've had this week was having one of our investigators have a special interview and pass and just seeing his true desire to get baptized. He makes it so easy to teach and he's already being a missionary to his wife who wouldn't take discussions at first. His wife said that she would probably join the church eventually! Also we met with a young man about 16 years old and he said he wants to be baptized. We taught our lesson and said goodbye to his father and he said he loved our church and wants to join after his son, then his stepmother walked outside with a Book of Mormon and said she had been reading it and wants to know more! Man the Lord truly prepares people. Hopefully we can baptize that whole family in September but we don't want to get our hopes up!
Anyway thats pretty much all that happened this week. We couldnt reach a lot of our goals since I was in bed for two days so that was kind of a bummer. Thank you for all of your prayers! Things will always have adversity i'm just trying to push through It!
Love
Elder Smith