On the Road Again!

Well, this week continues to hold more and more surprises for me!

On Tuesday, we had a really great Zone Conference. Lots of great
things were to be had in that meeting. For example Sister Stones (one
of the senior couple missionaries) shared a very POWERFUL family
history experience that she had. It really hypes me up to do my own
family history work when I finish my mission. Heck, even this indexing
thing that the church keeps talking about is starting to sound
interesting.

The Lilongwe Malawi Zone

 (Thanks to Sister Erickson for posting this photo on the mission blog...pretty sad when you have to resort to stealing photos....)

 One of the things talked about in Zone Conference was becoming
Full-Purpose missionaries. In the past, the end goal of missionary
work was to baptize those who were worthy into the church,  but now
the church really wants those who join this church to remain fully
active and to raise up active future generations of members in the
church as well. That means instead of having our investigators' eyes
set on baptism, the church wants to shift the focus on getting those
people to the temple for the saving ordinances that can be had there.
Basically, the church wants to make sure those who are baptized endure
to the end rather than have a strong two months of activity in the
church after baptism and then sputter out and go less-active for the
rest of their lives. On that same subject, we talked about improving
the experience we have on the Sabbath Day. We were showed some
leadership training videos meant for the leaders of the church on that
subject, and it was really inspiring and it actually led to myself
contemplating how I can make the Sabbath Day a more special day for
me.

At the end of our Zone Conference we got to FINALLY watch Meet the
Mormons. It was really awesome. The movie was nicely done. The part I
think I liked the most was the one where they got to talk with 'The
Candy Bomber'. Being somewhat of a history aficionado I took interest
into this story in particular because of the historical context and
what not. Hard to believe that guy is 90+ years old and he's STILL
flying. He's in good shape for somebody his age. Elder Bennett already
had a DVD copy of the movie that his family sent, so after Zone
Conference I checked out the behind the scenes stuff, and I actually
watched the Director's Commentary - you know, that one part of the DVD
that NOBODY ever watches?! And it was really good too. I got to learn
a couple more things about the people featured in that movie. It was
absolutely incredible.

As for the rest of the week, it was really good. Working with Elder
Bennett and Elder Shabalala was great. It was much busier than the
work I had in the Lilongwe Branch. We visited a lot of members in the
area. We came to this one home, and there was this skinned pelt of a
CAT nailed on one of the walls inside their home. It really took me
aback quite a bit!

We continued to prepare Vasco for his baptism on Sunday, and he was my
favourite person in that area. He was really outgoing and friendly
with us, and those are generally the ideal attributes that one wants
in an investigator. I personally think that Vasco will make a very
strong member of the church in the future.

Another great person in that area is Don. Don is a recent-convert. The
missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon to read, but his literacy in
English is very poor, so he could not read the scriptural language
that was in the Book of Mormon, so to compensate, the missionaries
gave him a Book of Mormon Stories Picturebook that the church
generally makes for children, and it has really helped Don to take
away important lessons from the gospel. He really comes away with a
lot from those stories and it helps him to understand what's going on
at the very basics. Hopefully he'll be able to read English better
someday so that he can read the FULL version.

During the week, I really had some great moments during personal
study. I've come to the part in the book of Alma where the most
doctrine in that book seems to be and it has helped me draw away much
knowledge from it. I was really pleased of myself when I connected a
scripture related to what a particular verse was saying, only to find
that it was already mentioned in the footnotes. There were ones though
that I found myself that I quite liked. For example, in one verse Alma
asks a rhetorical question saying that everybody is of the same value
to God, whether they were born before or during the time of Christ's
coming. I compared that to the Saviour's parable of the servants in
the Vineyard who were all paid a penny's wage at the end of the day,
no matter what time they started their labours.

Then on Friday, we got some unexpected news. We got transfer news! The
same day we got transfer news, me and Elder Shabalala reuturned to the
Lilongwe North area where I served with Elder Kampelya, while Elder
Bennett is now training a brand new missionary from Tanzania. Saturday
and Sunday, me and Elder Shabalala were already at work doing our best
to rebuild the teaching pool by tracting in Area 6. We've found a few
potential investigators, but we're not entirely certain how things
will shape up in the future.

Elder Shabalala is another great companion. Like some of my past
companions, he's a hard worker. He was also a former ZL. I think the
both of us are alike in that we just want to get to work and do our
best. I'm looking forward to the time we have ahead of us. Our area is
tough right now, but I know that we can really work hard together,
knowing that the both of us are still relatively fresh in the area and
have a positive outlook on the area.

Hoping everything is well at home, I miss you all!

Elder Massey