So
this week was effectively a 'back to work' in my own area. Lilongwe
North had really dried up in the time that me and Elder Kampelya were
together, and it was more than expedient that me and Elder Shabalala
gave it our all to rebuild the area. For me, I really wanted to go out
there and take charge in leading the effort for getting the job done.
The only thing was that as much as I wanted to get things right, I was
really discouraged by what would needed to be done to achieve that.
Effectively, we had almost absolutely nothing to work with in finding
new investigators save for tracting. For myself, there's nothing more
that I would enjoy than having a magical 'new investigator button' where
every time you pressed it, you would get a brand spanking new
investigator that is serious and really interested in what you had to
share.
Likewise, I really would have loved it
if members here actually gave us referrals to people who would be
interested. I guess it's due justice though that we lack such people.
Before I left on my mission, I always remembered that whenever
missionaries asked me for referrals I was always like, "But guys... talking to my friends about the church is haaaaaaaaaaaaaaard! I don't want to do that!" So I'm guessing the powers that be are having a really good chuckle about my woes.
Back
to the point: If we had any hope of rebuilding our teaching pool, we
would have to tract - and tracting is hard for me. I'm generally one who
is pretty introverted so to speak, and talking to strangers is like in
my top 5 of 'Things that Mark Massey does not like'. Adding to that, I
was pretty confident that several hours of tracting in a single day was
going to kill my motivation, because all that had amounted from tracting
was some Garden Boy or Maid covering their boss saying that they were
away, bathing, sleeping and any other barely valid excuse. So, the idea
of having to do that for several hours straight - not just for a couple
of hours - was really unfun to me.
It had been
the subject of some of my prayers where I asked God if he could give me
strength to be able to simply do the work that needed to be done in this
area. I guess that I had expected that strength would come out of
nowhere and that the following morning I would wake up out of bed, chest
puffed and full of fire saying to my companion, "LETS GO COMPANION! IT'S 6:30 AM AND WE ONLY HAVE TWELVE HOURS TO FIND PEOPLE! WE MUST GO NOW!"
What
really happened though was that in the mornings as I was about to head
out, I was thinking to myself how this was going to be a rough day and
wondering how I would be able to pull through. Somehow though I was able
to get myself out the door and into the area and knock all those
mean-looking gates, even if nobody wanted to listen to the message we
had to share. Even when we were turned down, it didn't bother me that
much and I just shrugged it off more or less and moved on to the next
gate. I hadn't really thought much about it, but looking back at it now,
I realize that the Lord must HAVE given me strength to get out there,
it was just subtle and sufficient enough for getting me out the door
into the area.
Tracting actually yielded some success
this last week. We had some initial success in Area 15 and had a couple
of lessons here and there, but the people that we taught for the most
part did not honor their commitments and did not make themselves
available for the return appointments we made for them. On Saturday
though, we had some considerable success in finding in Area 18, the area
furthest from the chapel. We found a number of people there who were
willing to sit down for a few minutes and listen to the message we had.
None of the people we found came to church yesterday, but at least I
felt like we actually got something done this week. I think we actually
taught the most lessons ever since I came to this area.
After
labouring so hard in this area, our Zone Leaders came by Thursday with
some news: Elder Shabalala was going to get a new companion and I was
going to Blantyre! I thought that I would be serving in Lilongwe for the
rest of my mission, but I'm certainly glad to be able to serve in a
THIRD zone on my mission. I can safely say now that I've served in more
than half of the Zones in my mission! I'll be leaving for Blantyre
tomorrow, and my new companion will be a Ugandan (again) name Elder
Etiang. I've heard very good things about both Blantyre and Elder
Etiang, so I'm super stoked to go there. I hear that Blantyre is a very
beautiful part of Malawi as well. You are surrounded by mountains there.
Having grown up just a hop away from the Rockies, I'm looking forward
to being somewhere where you can actually see mountains. The only catch
is that I'll have a lot of climbing to do. Blantyre is supposedly rugged
and hilly, so I'll have more than my fair share of exercise. A lot of
missionaries have lost a lot of weight there, and seeing as I am a very
weight 140 pounds, I stand to shave off a few pounds!
One
last thing: So it became apparent to me that I needed a haircut, so
this week I went to a barbershop to get it cut down. Now usually, I'm
indifferent about how my hair is. I usually just get it sheared short
like a sheep and grow it out before repeating the process. However, I've
seen a lot of my fellow mzungu Elders rocking some haircut where the
sides are shorter than the top, and it looked pretty nice, so I was like
, "Why not?". Anyways, I got it cut that way, but I'll have you know
that it isn't extreme like Macklemore's. The sides are only a length
shorter than the top, so the difference is very subtle. Nevertheless, it
looks very sharp and if I were to send a picture of me with that cut
wearing my aviators, I'm pretty confident that I would get a lot of
letters from 'potential investigators', but to spare my e-mail inbox of
hundreds of love letters I won't show it off to you! ;)
Well, this has been quite a long one. Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Massey
No comments:
Post a Comment