Monday 20 June 2016

End of a Spark

Well, with transfers being today, we just saw off Elder Penner, who is now on his way to Fogo. Kinda crazy to think that we started together in February, and he's already gone. Gosh, it seems like a long time, but it passed in a second.
Farewell to Elder Penner


This week was interesting because we through Elder Neville into the mix with us, which was super fun. It's super strange being in a triple, you have to buy more food, make more food, plan shower timing better, try not to chat tooooooo much, those sorts of things. It was a lot of fun, but also meant a lot less teaching time in lessons for each individual, which was sorta weird. People in our area are so used to seeing us walking around with an extra missionary who's only in for the day or so, and so it was kinda weird to tell people that, in fact, this new missionary wasn't leaving, it was Elder Penner who was going to leave. However, despite the fact we had another person in the mix, this week was actually really successful for us. 

We started to work with Adiley on teaching him the lessons again, now that he's a recent convert, and also helping him prepare for the priesthood. I think he was kinda nervous, like he was going to have to prepare as much as he did for baptism, but we gave him a For Strength of Youth pamphlet, taught him about what the priesthood is, how he needs to live, had him interview by a member of our bishopric, and on Sunday, Elder Penner and I got to stand in the circle to ordain him a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. For me, it was the first time I saw one of my recent converts receive the priesthood, so that was awesome :) definite highlight from the week. 

On Wednesday we got to go and teach Belarmino with President Teixeira, the Stake President of Praia, which was really cool. It was a super simple lesson, because what we're trying to focus on is how he receive and recognize his answer, but when we gave the time to President Teixeira to teach, I found myself watching him and being taught too, I loved having him there. He taught so honestly and simply, which is different from most members here, as many either stay relatively quiet, or talk about the blessings of the Law of Chastity for 25 minutes, like another member did this past week :P hahaha. It was a simple lesson, and we invited him to pray about which day he would like to prepare for baptism on. When we went back yesterday, we showed Belarmino the video 'the Restoration' and talked about it a bit, and brought up which date he would like to prepare for baptism on. We had a quiet 30 seconds or so, and the Spirit was really strong, and finally, Belarmino told us he would like to have til the 30th of July to prepare. We were so happy to hear him make that date and make a decision, or at least a goal. Elder Penner walked out of that lesson so stoked, I was pretty darn happy too. The Spirit is such a broooooo

A few other highlights from this week: one day as we were going out to work, we came across a newer investigator and his sister-in-law moving gravel with shovels and buckets, so we dove on in and helped them for like 45 minutes. All Cape Verdeans will joke and ask for help, but they never think we can actually do it. They're always like, 'no, elder, don't do that, you'll get your pants dirty!' 'no, elder, you'll get too tired', but we just told them, ' too bad :) ' and got to work right with them. Our investigator, Daniel, worked hard with us, and his sister-in-law, Fatima, was a bro and let us wash up in their house afterwards. Since we spent so long helping them, we were also able to sit down with them right after for 20 minutes or so to teach them a short lesson. There's something so satisfying in helping someone out physically, then sitting down with them and helping them spiritually :) it was fun. 

 Another was on Sunday, when we showed up to church, and saw that our recent convert, Marlene, was sitting up on the stand, and she gave a simple talk about the Book of Mormon. It was SO cool because she really didn't have a lot to say, but what she did was simple, sweet, and boss. 

I guess a last sorta fun moment was last night, Elder Penner wanted to say goodbye to a recent convert family of his from another area in Praia, who now live in our area, and who we helped return to church after being briefly inactive. We showed up to pizza, rolls, and other little foods ready so they could say goodbye to Elder Penner, and we even got him to dance for them :) I sorta initiated it, it's always fun to dance a little, right? hahaha. 

Gunna be a weird week. Don't have Elder Penner with me anymore, but Elder Neville and I are getting along great, so it should be fun :)

Love y'all! 
Elder Massey


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