Alex
Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes once sang that, 'home is
wherever I'm with you', suggesting that home isn't necessary a house, a
hometown, or a country, but that it's where you're together with those
you love.
Yesterday, I had to say a sort of
second goodbye from home, as I left Cova Figueira after being there for
more than 6 months. My last few weeks there, I've really come to see the
people there not just as investigators, members, or less actives, but
really as my family.
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| Elder Massey with his Cape Verdean "parents" - Aninha and Vitor. They are going to Brazil in May to go to the temple. |
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| Elder Massey and Dani - the ward mission leader |
Being such a small community, it got to the point
where I would just hear people shouting 'Massey!' and some kid would be
like waving to me or something. The people there really became my
family. Some of the members became some of my best friends, while so
many of them became almost literal brothers or sisters to me. I had two
different members pronounce themselves my mom :P thought it hadn't been
an easy 6 months, they became probably the most important 6 months of my
life.
Our work this past week went really
well for us too. We knew we hadn't been achieving our best in the past
weeks, so we made it our effort to make sure the last week of our
transfer was our best. SO, we went out and we WORKED. By no means was it
a perfect week, but it was a good one. During our district meeting, I
gave a training about endure til the end, and not just waiting til the
end. I was realizing that we were all so focused on the end of the
transfer that we hardly realized or recognized the blessings and
miracles we were missing, and through enduring to the end, it gave us an
opportunity to see them a little bit clearer.
One
such blessing I saw was in a less active member in Tinteira, named
Matooka. When we had gone about contacting her to bring her back to
church, she wanted nothing to do with us (or so it appeared) and often
had excuses for what she was doing, and rarely had time for us to talk
to her. Weeks ago, we had finally been able to talk to her while she was shelling beans, and we helped and taught, and it brought about a
slow and ultimate change. Starting the week of Christmas, she REALLY
started to come around, coming to both the ward Christmas party and
church on Sunday, and the difference we saw was incredible. Every time
we've gone back, she's been very excited to talk to us, and we can SEE
the Spirit working in her life. It was certainly a miracle that I came
around to seeing this last week, and I'm SO glad I actually recognized
it :)
Another small (and HUGE) miracle this
week, was I got a call from my Zone Leaders, while they were in Praia,
saying they contacted my recent convert from Maio, Luisa, who I had NO
clue where she was. I then got to talk with her on the phone for about 5
minutes, which was incredible. I could actually understand her creole!
The only miracle bigger than that is that I happened to get transferred
to the district in which she lives now!
On
Sunday, our calls came around, and I'm now in Praia, serving in an area
called Bela Vista. It was an area that used to be a part of the Praia
5th Ward, but was split into a branch 2 weeks ago. I'm serving with
Elder Amado, and elder from Fogo, and I'm district leader in a district
that includes the Assistant's to the President, and 4 duplas of Sisters,
I'm like 97% sure it's the biggest district in the mission :P
kiiiiiinda stressed, having gone from being DL of 3 other people, to 11
#toostressedtobeblessed . Also, I'm now in a city, and I haven't seen so
many cars in like a year. It's so weird.
SO,
with that, I'm moving on. I've left behind my only son, Elder Mason, who
is taking my reigns in Cova, possibly being district leader. I had a
blast with that kid, he was so much fun!
Love y'all!
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