Where Are You Now?

 

Been another whirlwind week with stuff to do as secretaries, but this week calmed down a bit, and gave me an opportunity to work myself into a regular groove, which was super nice. A lot of the week, President and the Assistants were gone on Zone Conferences, so we didn't have people running around giving us miscellaneous tasks to do, so it was a good, calm week in the office. With that being said, I did get to do some big-people things, that I never saw myself as the type of person doing. I get to email people like I'm big and important and demand stuff from them, and send emails to moms about go-home dates for missionaries and stuff, it's all pretty powerful. There's definite perks in the job that we have.

With the week in the office being a calmer one, Elder Penner and I had more of an opportunity this week than last to get out and to actually work in our area, which was super good. When I got here, the investigators that we had were, for a large part, ones that we've been working with for a while, so there really wasn't a whole ton of progression happening, just a lot of casual visiting and stuff, since being in this position doesn't give for a whole lot of time to find new people and really dig in our area. Knowing this, we made a really strong effort this week to go out and find those new investigators that the Lord has prepared for us in our area, and thankfully, he did just that! 

 

 

We've recently started working with various members of the same family, since we knocked a few doors next to each other, and we found out that they're all like brothers and sisters and such, it's kinda cool. One of the guys in that family is named Carmalito, who was suuuper drunk the first time we met him. I didn't really think much of the first contact we did with him, and we taught him the first time only cuz we happened to find him sitting outside his house, but when we went back the second time, he told us that, since our first visit, he hadn't had anything to drink, because he felt that our message was true, and he needed to follow it; needless to say, Elder Penner and I were pretty stoked to hear that. We've also began teaching his nephew, who pretty well contacted us on the street, and his sister as well. We found out that Carmalito's nephew, Denis, was so excited to go to church, that he got all ready to go on Sunday morning, and was waiting for us to pass by, so we could all go together, but the only problem was, since church starts at 8:30am for us, and we live 20 minutes away from the church and a solid 15 from our area, we didn't have time to go pass him! They're super cool though, we're looking forward to working with them a lot. 

In getting about explaining my song title, let me tell you about a major miracle we had in our area this week. We were out of the office one day, working in our area, when somebody called my name, and I was like, 'what the heck, nobody knows my name here', and I saw a guy that I knew from my first area, in Maio, who's living here now. This guy, named Adi, was a guy who lived at the same house as the woman we baptized on Maio, Luisa, who I knew had moved to Praia as well since I'd left Maio. As I got to catch up with him, I was like, 'hey, do you know where Luisa's living now?', to which he told us she lived less than 5 minutes away, and took us to her house. Ever since I left Maio and heard Luisa had left too, I had this dream in my head, that one day, once I was in Praia, I would just randomly run into her, and it would be super cool, and this week, the Lord answered my prayer! We got to talk with her and her 6 year old son, the same one who got super drunk one time, and taught her (even though she doesn't live in our area), and for the first time, honestly understood what she says! Her Creole is so thick that it was still a struggle for me to get it, but it was honestly so so cool, and was the definite highlight of my week. She said she's gone back to her old drinking and smoking ways, but said she needed the boost we gave her, and is gunna stop going to the weird miracle church her friends are taking her to, and go back to the right one :) It was such an incredible blessing for me to find her. 

 

 

On a lighter side, it's become apparent to me that people like to use us, and by people, I mean mostly the missionaries in our zone. People call us all the time, especially one Sunday's and Pday's needing things or wanting things, or every once and a while we get a Sister wanting meds from the office and for us to drive it to them, or some Elders who need a table want it 'right now', because they know we have a car and can, in theory, do that :P I've made it a personal goal to stop being a push over and showing tough love, and a little sass when necessary. We had our district leader call us today demanding his package before he used internet, to which I told him, 'and what's your solution for that one?'. I ain't takin' no more crap. 

 

 

Hope this week's been rad for y'all, love ya!

Elder Massey 

 

Good to know Elder Massey still has a little time to play....he's probably just getting some tips from the local expert!!