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