Wednesday 26 August 2015

With a Little Help From My Friends



Figured it's due time I throw it back to the Beatles. If I'm not mistaken, this is my first time using the Fab Four for an email subject. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

First of all, this email comes a day late due to a 'medical emergency' we had yesterday. By that, I mean my comp got a headache, and had it for longer than a day, and told me he needed to go to the hospital for it. Granted, I get what bad headaches are like, but it's like, come on dude, the best thing for you is gunna be an ibuprofen, not anything a doctor here can tell ya. Regardless, my companion waited 4 hours in the hospital line, to get a prescription, which the hospital wouldn't fulfill until he'd had testing done, aaaaaaaand they don't test on Mondays. By the time it was all over an done with, my window to get stuff done on P-day was more or less done. Cape Verde is a bit dumb sometimes, even if I love it to death here. 

Ringo Starr, though the least talented musically and lyrically of the Beatles, once sang profoundly in saying, 'I get by.. I'm gunna try... (and) I get high' all 'with a little help from my friends', which, if we looked at those lyrics, would lead to suggest that, without that help, he might not 'get by' or 'get high', and only through his friends is he able to get that. In bringing this up, I wanna talk a bit about the one friend we all need to 'get by' or 'get high' (disclaimer: high is used as in terms spiritually, or by achieving high set goals), and that we need to give this friend a 'try' in helping us. Something I'm learning every single day of my mission is that I can't do this mission on my own, despite how much I feel like I am alone sometimes. I don't think there's any way a wimpy white kid from Canada like me could be shipped over the ocean and be expected to function on a random island where everybody speaks a language that really isn't even a written language, but because of the help of my best friend, that is, Jesus Christ, I'm able to do that. I've noticed so many times in these past few weeks where I had nothing to give, but found the Lord picking me up and giving me the strength I need 'to get high', or even just 'to get by', and the funny thing is, that's exactly what I go around telling people, is they need to 'get by with a little help' from their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

With all that said, this week wasn't easy, or one where I quite reached high enough, maybe more of one where I 'got by', but that's not to say it wasn't a good week. Definitely learned my fair share of lessons. We had Zone Conference this past Wednesday, which was definitely a good pick-me-up, or good 'spiritual feeding', as well as physical feeding. The lunch we had, the caterers had provided us with noticeably REAL ketchup instead of the wide-spread Cape Verdean stuff that is definitely less-than-satisfying, so if you want to know, yes, having real Heinz ketchup is worthwhile putting in my weekly letter, it was such a lovely experience. Something that stood out to me was an Elder Holland quote, where he talked about every road to perfection goes through the Garden of Gethsemane, no matter how close or far, and that as missionaries, it's often at the end of the most miserable, tiring days or weeks that we find that glimpse of light, whether it's the last door we go to, last person we talk to, whatever. I thought that was pretty cool, but I hadn't really had that experience happen. Funny that it would be something I would experience the very next day, hey?
We had gone to our lower zones, Maria de Cruz and Domingo Lobo, where we have a number of progressing and decent investigators, and I can usually find anywhere from 2-4 lessons in walking through there. This day, however, happened to be a day where it seemed like legit EVERYONE didn't want to talk to us, or legitimately ran away or hid from us; that happened with two different investigators in TWO different places. One hid behind her freezer, the other locked herself inside after I had made eye contact with her from around the corner. I was stressing out, cuz I was like 'what the even HECK is going on right now, why is everyone hiding from us??' I have my suspicions someone is spreading crap about us, but I have no evidence. However, at the second last house, this girl hid from us behind her freezer, and when she finally came out, I told her, 'listen, if you really don't want us to pass by, we won't', and there was a kid there who was like, 'you really won't listen to these guys? Come on' and so I was like, 'hey, you got 5 minutes to talk a little?' and he was kinda surprised, but was like, 'yeah for sure!' and we went to his house, legit the last one in Domingo Lobo, and had an awesome lesson with him. It made all the strugglin' worth it, and as we hiked up the side of the hill,  I played my harmonica in success.
I want all of you to know that I know with a little help (or a LOT of help) from our Savior Jesus Christ, that we can all get by, no matter what we have in front of us; just turn to him and take his hand. Only by Christ is it possible. 

Got a new mini for the last week of the transfer, transfer Sunday is coming up here, I'll keep y'all posted on what happens! Have my suspicions, but won't say anything here. 

(Funny story on the service project:  They are helping a member family weed their crop using hoes.  After only a few minutes, the 15 year old boy says "Elder, you should stop and take a rest.  You look tired."  English translation:  "You're terrible at this!"  Give him credit for trying....)


LOVE Y'ALL
Elder Massey


1 comment:

  1. Hang in there, Elder Massey, it will come together for you soon. There IS a reason for you to be there. The Lord will bless you with solid people to teach. Good job.

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