Douala is a blast, it’s
a much more developed city. And when I say city, I mean city. Think of Vegas
but replace all the casinos with random shops. It’s the rainy season right now
so every morning its freezing and then the sun comes out at about 2. The new
companion is fun. He’s still new - Only 4 months in. And he's my twin - looks
just like me apparently. So far we are getting along fine. It's true that there
are a lot more Africans with us now. I think with the mission split they added
some in so the mission wasn’t completely void. This is my first apartment with
no Africans (also first non-African companion in like 3 transfers, we have a Malagash
with us but we don’t count him as African). Our new mission president is coming
to visit Thursday and so that will be exciting. Apparently he is a little
scared to work with Americans.
This week was the
slowest and toughest week of my life. New responsibilities as a leader and a
new sector just wiped me out, but it'll start going faster. I held my first
district meeting Wednesday - went well. No mutany. haha. Also did a bunch of
contacting, which in this mission means you literally have no one to teach.
Coolest thing though is whenever we contacted, we set a goal of 1 on the fly
lesson for every hour. So basically do an on the spot lesson. One day I said to
Elder West, "2 hours, 2 lessons, that’s our goal." Started walking,
met someone 10 minutes later who accepted a visit and after that lesson, his
brother came home who is already meeting with us and accepted a visit. 2
lessons, 2 hours!
But that's not even
the coolest experience this week. Here is the story that gave way for the
title. I’m just going to quote what I wrote in my journal:
"12 July, 2014.
Another hour of contacting today and so our goal was 1 lesson - 1 hour. Walking into a neighborhood I don’t know so we
decide to go down a small road. (easily miss able) Turns out a member lives
there. Stop and say Hi to the son but keep walking. Pass the neighbor's house
and all of a sudden I feel like we need to knock the door. Pivot immediately
and knock. Michelle answers. And I feel impressed to do a lesson. Then feel
impressed to just jump into apostasy and Joseph Smith. (You should know that
apostasy and Joseph Smith are the 5 and 6 points of the first lesson.) Jumping
the first half of the lesson is a 'no-no' for some missionaries) Spirit was
there and I think it excited him. He mentions two things,
1 - jehovah witnesses
gave him a brochure that talked about Joseph Smith (umm...weird)
2 - His neighbors
visited his family last week.
Cool so we leave the
lesson and notice a missed call from earlier in the day from Yémin. Yémin is
surprisingly a member on that street. Great! Let's just see what he wants.
Knock, Knock!
'Hey, brother Yémin
what did you want us for?'.
'Hey Elders, just
wanted to get you in touch with my neighbor. We gave him a brochure and visited
his family earlier this week!'
'Aww! You're the “JW's”
who gave him the brochure! Not JW’s at all in fact. We just did a lesson with
him without knowing that you wanted us to meet him!"
THE SPIRIT TOTALLY LED
US TO HIM!! It's called inspiration. :)"
Well hope the story is
inspiring and makes sense! Keep following the whisperings of the spirit and
you'll see miracles like this one. Now I have proof, I really did learn my
lesson from Daniel's story.
Douala
Douala
Elder West is my Mini Me
