I am really glad that you are all doing much better,
especially Kaleb and Maya. That’s good
that they are all healed up from the tonsillectomies. Except for Maya's knee! I’m sorry that that happened. I’ve heard it’s painful if it pops out of
place. What were you doing silly? And how did you fix that?
Fun fact for Kaleb…there are these Canadian kids that
skateboard at the church. Their parents are here for humanitarian service and
so they need a place to hang out and skate, they chose the church basketball court!
For Ferious and Robert, as missionaries we always look for
cool air-soft and paintball spots throughout the town. There are some cool places we’ve seen before. I’ve decided that going air-softing with you
guys is something I’ll have to do more regularly. I also remember the anime TV show that Ferious
was getting into before I left. I watched
a few episodes with him and it was pretty funny. Just over the top dramatic and epic haha. As a side note, all of us missionaries love
Adventure Time!! and The Regular Show!! I’m glad I had siblings that liked those shows.
: )
Also, new Bishopric! I
think I know Bro. Carole who you’re talking about, the
previous first counselor? If so, he would
be an awesome Bishop. I remember hearing
his testimony once before I left.
Don’t worry about sending stuff to me. I think I’ll just buy shirts here soon. They’re super cheap ($5) and I can get them in
a slim cut so it might just be a win win if I do that! Thanks for the thought, I appreciate it.
We definitely try and work with less actives here. They can
be really hard to get to come back sometimes. It seems like they go in cycles - month on,
month off. It’s kind of like
baby-sitting for them here in Africa. If
you don’t stop by one week they don’t come to church, and if they don’t come to
church it’s hard to fix appointments with them and then it just spirals
downward. Working with less active is
something I should definitely be better at. I think that now, I have baptized enough and
am more willing to give it a rest for a bit and focus on current members.
Mom, that dream was crazy! I am very surprised you had that dream. In fact,
I read it twice just to make sure I read it right the first time. These last few weeks it seems like things
have been going a little south for me. I've
gotten extremely bored with the same sector and a little bit with Africa. Plus, my companionship is not doing well. There’s this stress management book at the
apartment and I went through and did a self exam and basically – I’m way too
stressed emotionally and spiritually. I am definitely not saying I’m asking for
a plane ticket home, but it’s
interesting that you should have that dream the same time things seem to be falling
apart for me. Like I said, I’m still out
here and will be for a while, but I think being a missionary in Africa is
giving me a run for my money. haha. I’ll
keep you updated and continue to work my hardest out here for the next year!!
(Note form Mom – I dreamt that I went to visit a city in Africa about 4 hours
from Julius. He showed up at my hotel and said he was ready to go home because
he missed listening to music. I wasn’t
disappointed but I was concerned that Julius would not be happy with his decision
and I asked him to stay or serve another year in another country. When I awoke I sat straight up and looked
around because it felt so real! When I
typed my weekly email to Julius, I hesitated to type out the dream – I didn’t
want to put thoughts in his mind that may not have been there, (power of
suggestion). But I felt such an
overwhelming prompting to type the dream out in detail to him. It just goes to show how Spiritual promptings
work and that God is so aware of us and our needs, that He’ll use others to
help us if He can.)
Today we had a little adventure which was kind of exciting. We went out to the African bush and romped around
for the day.
We followed an old slave
trail along the beach and looked at old storage houses for slaves and the port
from where they left. It’s cool because along
the trail there are mango trees everywhere. The reason is because the slaves ate mangoes
and then threw the seeds on the side of the trail. There are also massive bamboo groves in the
forests as well. In fact, me and a few
others took bamboo shoots and poll vaulted with them because they are so
strong. haha (I’ll try and get you a picture
of me doing that) Today was a fun adventure in the village, sadly no monkeys. It ended with lunch at a super nice hotel on
the beach side.
From this adventure I think I learned something. I remember talking about starting a
rock-climbing company in America, but why not just take people on excursions
throughout the World? I think I’ll seriously
consider that for my future!
For this week I think that’s all. It’s been slow except for today, obviously. I hope all is going well for you guys there: school,
work, fun, and family life! It sounds
like when I get back we’ll need to find some serious adventures to spice things
up a bit - for all of our sakes. I love
you guys bunches, thanks for all the support and prayers from across the
oceans.
