Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was nice to read
something from each of you. But this Friday, if I’m not mistaken, there is
another Birthday. GABBIE’S! Happy 16th birthday! Not to scare you but now you
can go on dates (and drive but that’s a lesser thing. haha). Have an awesome
party and a rockin' day, love ya!
For the last week of being a teenager, I actually worked really
hard. Tuesday Elder West and I just killed it in the sector. 7 lessons our
first day. To explain, 7 is basically maxing out the schedule, so that was
pretty exhausting. If I remember well, I belly flopped onto a mattress in the
living room when we got home.
Wednesday, I gave myself a hair-cut. And it’s official, I’m
basically a professional! And honestly the rest of the week was just working as
normal. Bouffing chocolate pancakes, making endless Alfredo noodles, and being
young men around the apartment.
Later on in the week Elder West got sick with a flu bug. So we
stayed home and got him feeling better – I’m sure Pizza Friday helped cure him.
haha. And speaking of sicknesses – Ebola. So right after I went home Monday we
got a call from the senior couple and they warned us about it. Secretly, us
missionaries have been hoping we get shipped out and go to South Africa or
France. JK, but we are told to not touch animals or infected people, also not
to eat bat, monkey, or pork. I think we’re good though. No need to worry.
For French study, I created a new game. It’s team poem writing.
Basically each missionary adds 1 line to a group poem and you see where it
goes. So far we have 2. “mon ami, ma sami” and “laissez mes legos”. So the goofiness of the apartment continues.
Also this week I had another sad missionary story. An investigator
- Amos, was taken to the hospital after having been found unconscious in is
room. Apparently he had hyper-tension, which may have caused problems. But
Saturday we get a call from a member letting us know about his state and
wondering if we could come visit him. So we did, and after wondering around the
hospital complex for 20 minutes, we stumbled across his room. I think both West
and I were freaked out. He was hooked up to breathing tubes and was shaking a
lot. So we gave him a blessing and left. Sadly, on Sunday the member came up to us in
church and said Amos died. I didn’t really know him that well, but the saddest
part is we dropped him 2 weeks ago because he refused to keep commandments.
Literally so close to baptism, and had he kept the commandments for even 2
months things could have been so different for him. I guess it put a very
tangible feeling to Alma’s words, “for this life is a time for men to prepare
to meet God.”
As of this weekend as well, our water is out! Apparently the
pump that gets water to the apartments burned itself out. So this morning we
did all our cleaning and showing with buckets. We had to go to the ground level
and fill them up. (We live on the 3rd floor of an apartment building). Just
more fun African adventures!
In honesty, my last week as a teenager wasn’t that crazy as
maybe I expected but, I learned a lot. Time is going by super quick as well! I remember 1 year ago being at church
confirming my first convert! Well next
year who knows what I’ll be doing.
PS – The word “bouffing” comes from a French verb which
basically means to eat like crazy.
