Helter Skelter

We had a really great Zone Meeting this last week. One of the missionaries that taught this Zone Meeting was Elder Barrett. He was assigned to teach about consecration, which he did a very fine job of.

What I like about Elder Barrett is that he doesn't instruct in some sort of monotone way like an Economics Teacher would, but he is actively engaging and very enthusiastic about what he teaches, which I think helps the audience to be very attentive to what he's saying. I could certainly feel the spirit strongly as he taught that Zone Meeting.

One of the things that he did during Zone Meeting was give letters to us from a friend of his named 'Tommy'. Once we got our letters, we all saw that the letters that we got weren't just from some guy named Tommy, but from Thomas S. Monson... supposedly.

Anyways, Elder Barrett told us to open our letters, read them quietly and to ponder them afterwards. We did as he said and we all opened our letters and quietly read them. Mines went so and so saying (and I'm taking liberty here, what was written was much nicer than what I'm summarizing), "Elder Massey, the spirit of the Lord has spoken to me...  and has revealed to me that the Lord commands you that you shall never set foot into Canada again, and if you keep this commandment, you shall have eternal life."

It really made me think really hard. I may not seem like it outwardly, but inwardly I'm very patriotic of my country and Elder Barrett knew that as well, so that's why he included it in my letter that he wrote under the guise of the Prophet. Could I really give up the country that I love so dear for God?

I will be honest here, doing so would be a VERY hard thing for me to do. What Elder Barre- I'm sorry, The Prophet challenged the other missionaries to do was also very hard for them as well. Elder Barrett asked who would do as the letter said, and I saw some hands go up, but I knew that in reality it would be much less easier for them to do than say. Elder Barrett used this as a great visualization for consecration. He noted that while we may have not been asked to do this in real life, we have made promises to God as we became missionaries to put our lives on the altar so-to-speak and to give up what we care about most for two years. It was inspiring talk. He didn't lecture on what it means to be consecrated, but rather what it takes for us to be consecrated. It was definitely one of my most memorable Zone Meetings on mission.

One of our highlights this week was Vumu. Vumu is a less-active member that we've begun visiting. He's a great guy. He actually has a very strong testimony of the church, just not of how God can bless him by keeping the Sabbath day by not working and coming to church. He wants to be a missionary someday, which is really fantastic. These last couple of weeks we've been talking to him and convincing him to come to church. The week before he was able to convince his employer to have Sundays off, and yesterday he came to church, though only for sacrament meeting. It doesn't matter much though because he actually CAME unlike most of our investigators (Alex)! Moses was also confirmed at church yesterday, so that was another great moment!

This week we did service at Sister Khama's again, but we had a little bit of a twist. Instead of making bricks, we were digging the ground and turning over soil so that she could make MORE bricks. You see, they don't use concrete to make bricks, but they actually use the soil to do so, so for her to make bricks, she has to turn up some fresh soil and make it muddy so that they can be molded into bricks. All that we had to use to turn over the soil was some hoes, and this would have been all fine had the soil been soft. Rather, the soil was really hard and rocky, so when we thrust our hoes down into the soil to try to turn over dirt, a lot of the time they bounced back up yielding nothing at all. I got blisters on my left hand, and one of them popped as I was hoeing, so it wasn't necessarily a pleasant experience! Thankfully Elder Slade had some basic first aid stuff with him and he wrapped my hand nice and snugly that the pain was greatly reduced. What's even better news is that my hand has finally healed from all the blisters! I'd think I'd choose throwing bricks any day now!

Finally, Elder Slade taught me to play an African game called Bawo. I got a Bawo board for myself the week before, so I wanted him to teach me how to play it. 

I'll try to explain it as simply as possible. There's two players, and each controls a 2x8 grid of little cups engraved in a wooden or stone playing board. You have little marbles or seeds in there, and you want to capture all of your opponents' pieces that are in the front row of his playing area. To do this, you must have two or more pieces in your own cup that is opposite to his in the front row. It's a really fun game because it requires a lot of thinking and the balance of the game shifts VERY fast. Plus, it seems like the variable ways of winning the game are very high, probably much more than chess because the amount of moves you can make in a turn always change, they're not fixed at all.

Unfortunately for me, Elder Slade has already become a seasoned veteran at Bawo, having already beaten some Malawians at their own game. So the benefit for him teaching me was that he could mercilessly destroy me as much as he pleased! He goes for blood when he plays, he doesn't pull punches. So, whenever we were together this week and we had free time (ie. Waiting for others to come for co-ordination) we played each other at Bawo. Unfortunately, as much as a played it, the game was pretty one sided! However, the last time we played, after many turns and dramatic moves I WON!!! The student had finally beaten the master! It was such a great moment for me to actually WIN at that game. It's definitely something I want to play when I come home.

Well, that was the week. As always, we try hard with Alex, but eesh it's tough! Pray for us that we can help him progress!

Yours truly,

Elder Massey

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

(The theme this week is gifts...
The gift of baptism and the Holy Ghost
African Christmas gifts and
THE GIFT OF A RECENT PHOTO!
It's been a good day!)



The big highlight of this week was definitely the baptism which we had for Moses. This week mainly consisted of preparations for that day. I'd say we still did work in the area, but all of it was really overshadowed by Moses' baptism. He asked that President Cimonwe perform the ordinance. I was a really big highlight for Sister Khama certainly! With Moses baptized, she's excited for the next step that's coming, which is marriage. Now that he's baptized, she can finally put in motion their wedding plans. They are planning the wedding for some time in late September, so here's hoping that me and Elder Chola will still be around for that time. It would definitely be a special moment for us and the soon-to-be newlywed couple!

 

                 Here's a question for you...Can you spot the Canadian in this photo?  

                                  Elder Chola (L) Moses, President Cimonwe and Elder Massey

Some other highlights of this week: 

This week I was able to finish my Christmas shopping. Yeah, I'm betting you're giving strange looks right now. Even me, if I was in a normal situation, doing such a thing at this time of the year would be considered outrageous and maybe even sacrilegious. That said, this is AFRICA we're talking about, and my time here is drawing near to a close, so I got what I could so that if anything should happen - say an unexpected transfer for instance - I'd at least have all the stuff that I need to take home with me.

It was fun getting that stuff too. I won't go into much detail, but I had to get the Christmas gifts at a certain market, and you had to talk price before you could get the goods. Unfortunately, for a pasty white azungu like me, that made me a perfect target for somebody to rip me off. So, me and my companion came up with a clever plan to make sure I got my money's worth. I gave the money to Elder Chola, and we tag teamed that market. I pretended that I was helping him 'find' things that he would want, and he would talk price with the vendors. They would start at outrageous prices too, upwards of 10 000 kwacha which was frankly, WAY too much! However, Elder Chola was able to talk down the price way down lower to what it was better valued at. The first day that we went Christmas shopping, we got several items of significant size and quality for a total of 15 000 kwacha, which was definitely an impressive feat. Sadly, our following attempt did not yield such results. It was a Saturday, and all the tourists were buying on that day and the vendors were feeling very good of themselves selling things way beyond their normal price, so despite our bartering, we paid a notch more for the items we bought on that day. Still, we saved a lot of money in shopping. One senior couple got fleeced with a painting for 50 000, which was probably worth ten times - if not, much less than what they paid for.

The only other thing that I could add was that we had some other missionaries join us for the service at Sister Khama's. We stacked bricks as usual, but a lot of the Elders tried being macho men or showing how 'experienced' they were at throwing bricks and tried tossing them as fast AND hard as possible, which left for a lot of cut up hands. It will probably take time for my hands to heal from this last round!

Apart from that, that war really the week. We try our best with Alex and Lexa, but they can't get themselves to take that leap of faith, which is rather frankly depressing at times, but we are going to keep trying.

Missing you as always!

Elder Massey

Rapid Recap

It seems as if my letter from last week did not make it. I can't find it on my e-mail account.

You could say that last week was much of the same of the week before, so I'll keep it brief: These last couple of weeks our main focus has been Alex & Lexa, and Moses.

For Moses, we had given him a baptismal date for August 16th. So for these last couple of weeks we had be trucking hard to make sure that he was prepared for baptism, as we still had much to teach him. We had taught him most of the lessons, but we still had little time on our hands to teach him. He works construction and he is always on call, so even on days where we agree to meet, sometimes something comes up last minute and keeps us from teaching him. We are very grateful for the support of Sister Khama - his fiance - though. She's a member of the Relief Society Presidency and she is very educated in the gospel, and she was capable of teaching and expounding the missionary discussions herself. With her help, we were able to have the remaining ground covered and we had him interviewed yesterday, and he passed the interview for baptism.

Speaking of Sister Khama, we've started giving service stacking bricks at her home again. It was Elder Chola's first time doing it, and it was quite an experience for him as it was for me. My hands would be proof of that!

Sadly, we've hit a wall with Alex. Alex absolutely believes that the church is true, but at the same time he believes that salvation can come from any and all of the churches in the world. Even so, he feels that at this late point in his life, joining this church would jeopardize his salvation as he has been committed to it all his life, and that by joining us at the age of 78 it would be condemnation to him for disregarding all the good things that have happened because of his church. His parents and wife - of whom are all deceased for a long time now - belonged to that church and it seems he fears disdain from them for switching churches. He does however encourage us to baptize not only Lexa but all of his children, because he feels that they are still young and that by joining this church at a younger age they won't be doing anything that might compromise their salvation.

After he revealed this to us, I bore my whole soul out in testimony. It was one of the most defining moments of my mission. I am certain that the spirit was strongly manifest in that lesson. I felt like it was radiating from me. I testified of the ADDED blessings that would come, and how that it would bless him after life. It was really one of my strongest moments as a missionary.

That was two weeks ago, and we've been doing our best ever since to try to help him to have the faith to be baptized. It's crucial that we get him baptized with Lexa, as she is still very dependant on her father as well as the fact that the church is far away. If she goes to church on her own, it will be very lonely and challenging on her part. This last week we even brought the Beals (the only Blantyre Senior Couple) to teach Alex with us. Elder Beal really took control and spoke very bluntly to Alex in a respectful way, and he could resolve some of the issues we struggled going about with Alex. Even though he was a very great help to us, Elder Beal feels like he's done little to help Alex. We're trying our best though. Recently, I used the example of a member from my branch back home named Brother Lowrey and his conversion at a late point in his life as an illustration on how it is still possible for Alex to be baptized and saved at a late point in his life.

Reflecting on this experience though, I realize that it shows how the conversion process into the true church is not a whimsical process. One does not easily join it. In the times of the New Testament, the people who preached the gospel such as the Apostles did not come from what the world would consider 'dignified' positions in life. They were mere fishermen, tax collectors and such. Though he came from a priestly and noble heritage that would have brought much respect to him, John the Baptist basically lived out in the bush living a frugal life with no real luxuries at all. Even Jesus Christ was a carpenter, and many of the scribes of his day doubted him because of what must of been the mere circumstances that he came from.

A parallel appears in missionary work today. The missionaries from our church are not the kind of people that one would hold high esteem for - not that we're bad or mischievous, but there's that notion that we are young and lack experience and knowledge of the things of life. That in itself is true to a degree, but the gospel truly makes us young men something much more and better than the world can comprehend. People would readily believe on what was being taught if the people who were preaching the gospel were elderly people who had degrees in philosophy and theology, that held high positions in far more widely recognized churches and carried much distinction about themselves. Instead, God sends out young men (and women) as young as 18 - having not yet completed their college education, entered into their careers and begin raising their families - to preach the gospel. Because of that, it really takes a lot of faith on an investigator's part to listen seriously to our message and to regard us as serious preachers of the gospel, not schoolboys as some people actually mistake us to be! Many of the people that we meet or teach fall at this point, simply because they can't take us seriously on the account of being young and regarded as 'unlearned' compared to themselves. I've never talked to somebody who has joined this church, but it must certainly have been a humbling experience for them to listen to men and women much younger than they are and receive instruction (and correction) from them.

So, as to why I'm emailing a little later today: Well, these past couple of days, I've come down sick with the things that you least want to come down with (you know what I mean!). It started on Saturday, and it has continued on up to today. So this morning, I decided to check the medical guide to see - just in case - if it might be something more serious. The Mission gives us this medical guide for medical prevention and treatment, such as bleaching your fruits and vegetables to prevent contamination - which nobody does at all. 

Well, I looked through all the symptoms and diagnoses, I got a little scared. There was one illness that matched many of my symptoms. Headache? Check. Fever? Check. Diarrhea? Check.

What could all that point to?

M A L A R I A

One of the other symptoms for Malaria was thinking irrationally. In the days I've been sick, I hadn't experienced this, but after reading the booklet I began experience these symptoms too - not because of what I believed to be Malaria, but because of the pandemonium and fear that I HAD MALARIA!!!

Many prayers were pled to The Lord this morning, a Priesthood blessing was requested, calls were made to the Mission President's wife, the Mission's Health Adviser and Zone Leaders, and there was a visit to the hospital! After a medical test and an intense wait of 15 minutes, the results came.

The results for Malaria came negative. For irrational fear though, full freaking positive!

I think the lesson learned here is to not to jump to any conclusions. I realize now that just because you start coughing, it doesn't necessarily mean you have terminal cancer and that no matter what, you are going to die. It was a big goof and overreaction on my part, and I'm betting my companion was shaking his head and thinking to himself that Elder Massey had gone nuts.

I'm still sick, but just to let you know, don't worry! I hope I won't cause any of you to lose any sleep. It was just a small incident that was blown over proportion by my naivety.

Well, this has been a long one. My companion is probably bothered by how long I've been writing now, so I'll wrap it up here!

See you Malaria free next week!

Elder Massey