This
week had a very rough start. The people we relied on the week before to
fellowship with us were not as available this week as they were before.
This meant that our first couple days of the week were a slow and
frustrating process of trying to make appointments with
no fellowshippers. Because we need a third male to be with us when we
teach women, most of our appointments automatically had to be canceled
since we could not have anyone work with us.
In
the end though, we pushed hard. We had 12 lessons total, which isn't
bad, but still room for improvement for sure. We had some really good
lessons. One for example was with Fred. We taught Fred almost the whole
of the Restoration. Since we had time available for us, we had a more
thorough breakdown of that message and really focused on Prophets, where
their authority comes from, and the foundation of the Church of Jesus
Christ. It seemed to be a great lesson. On the whole, Fred seems to be
more and more receptive to us, and he's definitely warmer and friendlier
to us.
On Thursday, we had a meeting with
Bishop Selwa. After that we held a family home evening with his family
and Brother Milambo's family at the Chapel. We taught about Lehi's dream
and we put together a small game where the people had to navigate
through a maze blindfolded while being guided by a voice of a family
member as others were trying to confuse the maze-navigator by giving out
false directions. It was certainly an entertaining experience. After
that, we all had Pizza. It was a Hawaiian Pizza, and I finally tried my
first slice of that pizza.
No, I still do not like Pizza with Pineapples on it.
Anyways, the Family Home Evening went great. It was almost perfect!
We
had A LOT of investigators come to church this Sunday. Robson brought
more or less all the people that live around his area that we are
teaching, including his own father (who really enjoyed church). We even
had an investigator named Matilda show up to church, albeit quite late. I
say late because it was raining yesterday, and rain is generally used
as an excuse here for not coming to church as A) People here do not have
cars. B) People do not like walking in the rain. Once the rain died off
though, Matilda was able to make it to church and was warmly welcomed
by the sisters and the relief society.
Most
importantly of all though, Johnveck got baptized! He came all the way in
the rain to church. Robson was the one who had the privilege of
baptizing Johnveck. It was his first time baptizing somebody, but he did
like ten times better than me when I first baptized. I'm really proud
of him. Kesha also gave a really great talk before the baptism as well.
Those two are the most solid converts I've ever had.
The
sisters also had two of their own converts baptized, Samuel and Elias.
They chose members of the Ward as well, Bishop Selwa being one of them. I
have a cool picture of all six men dressed up for baptism. It is a
really wonderful photo, but it's a shame I can't send it to you.
Now for the big news. If you read the title, you may be able to find a clue to what it is.
So
on Thursday right after the Family Home Evening, we got a phone call
from the Zone Leaders. Elder Nakale was the one calling, and he told me
that Elder Owor would be transferred to Kitwe, and that President
Erikson had prayed long and hard about me and decided to keep me in
Chainama for a LONG, LONG time.
Then Elder
Nakale laughed, and told me he was kidding, and that I too am being
transferred. I'll be serving in Lilongwe in Malawi! I am out of Zambia
later this week on Thursday. I will now have touched the ground of
three capital cities in Africa! I'll let you know more on the details
later on.
Both me and Elder Owor were slightly
bummed though. Yeah, it's great to go to a new area, but we had a lot of
work that we wanted to accomplish here. We were hoping that at least
one would stay behind to carry on the work, but such was not the case.
We had a special fast yesterday that the new Elders will carry on our
work and baptize those that we have on date. We really love the people
that we have taught, and it would be devastating to us if these people
(who have come so far) would no longer be able to continue
their preparation to be baptized. Elder Owor will be leaving for Kitwe
on Tuesday to serve with my former companion Elder Mukisa as a District
Leader. I'll miss the guy so much.
We gotta go
now. Lots of things need to be done before we go. All the members want
us to say goodbye which is frustrating because that means we have a lot
of things to do and not enough time to do our own things to prepare for
going to our new areas. It also means that our bellies will be stuffed
to the brim with Nshima. Zambians don't take kindly to unfinished
dinners!
See ya in Malawi!
Elder Massey
