Saturday 23 January 2016

Hot Tonight

This week has brought a NUMBER of changes, not the least of which being the temperature change. While I was in Cova, the weather was absolutely wonderful, and I rarely sweat because of the climate, but here in Praia, MAN. It's hot. We sleep with the fan on like every night, and usually more than a few windows open. We live on the third floor, so it's okay :)

SO, this week has been a CRAZY one, there's been so much to learn and get used to and adjust to, but at the same time, it's been so much fun. I've gone from making 2 phone calls a night to 6. It takes a LONG time, but it's fun. I was stressing about having such a big district and having to do so much, but my district is so good, they do all the work and I just have to tell the ZLs about it; I'm convinced I got the best district in the mission. Like I mentioned last week, I'm a district leader for 4 duplas of sisters, the Assistants to the President, and my own dupla. It didn't take much work to become friends with all of them, they're all super relaxed, and hard workers. I'm having fun with it :)

Coming to Praia brought about seeing some familiar faces again, and getting to know some new ones. We had Zone Meeting this past week, and I got to see 3 people I came in with, my boys Elder Penner, Elder Masubelele, and Elder Bannerman again. It was defs a party, a good solid reunion. One of my ZLs, Elder Clegg, was in Fogo during my time there too, so I got to see him again. 

I've also had a good time getting used to my companion, Elder Amado. He's a super fun guy to be around, and likes to work. The only thing is that I've had to certainly adjust to the way he teaches. For the last 6 months, all of my comps have taught based on the way I have, because I was either training them, or babysitting them as a mini missionary. Having a companion with almost a year on the mission has honestly been a breath of fresh air, because I don't have to lead out on more things than not, and also it's given me a learning opportunity. Elder Amado has had a lot of success in this area, so it's just a matter of time before we find ours together as well. 
Speaking of success, we did have a baptism lined up for this week, named Telma and she looked really solid. By the time I got here, it was a matter of teaching a few commandments and reviewing material, and we even got to marking a baptismal interview, but come the day of, we called her to see if she was at home, and she informed us she didn't want to get baptized this Saturday anymore. Needless to say, it was a bit of a bummer. She's still interest in talking to us, and I believe she'll be baptized here in the future, but for now, she has some concern that we need to help her solve, or that she needs to work through. We'll see how it goes. 

As for my area itself, I'm absolutely LOVING it. We have a mission goal of 15 contacts and 5 lessons every day, and while I fought every day in Cova Figueira to reach my best, here it isn't even close to hard. I'm pretty sure we could do the 15 contacts in 20 minutes if we really really wanted to. The other thing I love is that, with every one we contact, they're willing to mark a time for us to come by and talk to them. It actually shocks me how willing some of the people are to hear. My area, Bela Vista, seems to me to be one of the more ghetto areas of Praia, not in terms of thugs, but in just houses and terms of living. Praia has a lot of nice homes and places to live, but Bela Vista is almost entirely block houses where entire families live in either one big room, or two moderately sized ones. It's really humbling to see, but at the same time, the people don't care. They're just happy to have what they have. We're also able to find new investigators with consistent frequency, usually teaching one or two new people every day. It's a LOT of fun for me, I'm honestly loving the opportunity it's giving me to work. Something I'm hoping to get better at is not just working to get our goal of 15 and 5, but to give an 24 hour effort and teach and contact consistently. If we did, it really wouldn't be hard to have upwards of 25, 30 contacts every day, and 6 or 7 lessons. We'll see how it goes :) 

Love y'all! Hope all is well! I'm VERY busy, and sweating my fair share. It's without a doubt that it's gunna be hot tonight :P 

Elder Massey


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