This week went by so fast! Can’t believe it’s already Monday again. In
honesty, the work so far is going slow. 11 lessons this week and 3 people at
church. It seems like we may have a 7 weeks of drought before a 7 weeks of
plenty. But we are keeping a positive attitude through it all – which makes it
easy. This week started off with some shopping in the marchés, which is my
favorite thing as you may remember. It was fun going with the two youngest
missionaries (West and Bacera). After that activity the fun started for the
week.
Tuesday West and I got home and set up all our mattresses into
thick landing pads in the living room. This is a good time to stop and explain
that all of us sleep in the living rooms on foam mattresses. The living room is
the only air conditioned room in the apartment – so 6 mattresses are just
always on hand out there. Our Tuesday night fun started with hand stands and
flips but then transformed into parkour! We set up a chair and practiced
hurling ourselves over the thing. haha. In fact we got so good we could do a
running flip over the chair/couch with no hands! Super fun night!
This week we had a big open house which was decent, probably the
best way to describe it. There were about 50 people there and among them was a
pastor of another church. He really wasn’t open to anything we were saying or
showing. All was well until the Q and A session. Then we just lost control of
this pastor. All the missionaries just left the room and left it to the
leaders. Obviously, even with this failure of an activity, it’s still the Lords
church, so it’s not like a critical blow to the branch. Maybe that’s something
I learned this week – don’t criticize the church! (or its activities) Sure
things go wrong or not up to par but that doesn’t mean the church is a false.
The church is run by just a bunch of normal people doing their best, so chill
out if something isn’t perfect –that’s something we try and teach members in
the branches here.
Something that should be perfect in the church though are the
ordinances (baptism, confirmation, sacrament). And this Sunday, West and I had to correct
some false practices. It’s not abnormal to have primary children eat the
sacrament bread after church – but I finally had enough and put an end to it.
After church I guarded the left-over bread from little kids. Then we explained the proper way to the
leaders and priests. So things should
change! I realized that the church here
is like the church in 1830s. It’s
totally new and things still need to be standardized (like this example). The
church members aren’t evil apostates – just new converts. Literally almost
everyone is a convert. I think I’ve met 1 second generation young woman. 1! In church the members often say things like
“when the missionaries taught you, they said…”. Never realized it but in
America we don’t really say that, it’s more like “in primary…”. So the work
continues and we are doing are best!
