I Didn't Know I Was Expecting!

So, last Monday evening I got a surprise phone call. The Zone Leaders called and gave some transfer news. I wasn't moved out of the house, but I took over an area left behind some sisters who are leaving the area.

That's not all though. I was told that I would be training! My new companion is a Malawian visa waiter named Elder Kapalanga. He's supposed to go to Botswana, but he's having some visa issues right now. 

I took to training really well. I enjoy training a lot. If I could sit down in the flat and just train missionaries all day, I'd think I'd be down for it. Training has shown myself how much I've developed as a missionary. I'm certainly not the kind of missionary I was when I started. I've also developed the appreciation of the other trainers in this mission. It's no walk in the park, that's for certain! 

Elder Kapalanga is great. He's humble and willing to work, but has a lot to learn though. His English needs a little work and he actually hasn't gotten through the MTC yet, so I've got a lot on my shoulders to help him out with. Then again, I'm sure it's much of the same for all trainers wherever you go in the missions of the world. All that really matters to me though is that I want to be able to please the Lord and be an effective trainer, so I'm really doing all that I can to help Elder Kapalanga become a good missionary. I've made an effort to thoroughly teach him the doctrine of our lessons so that he can be able to expound and better apply some of the other principles of missionary work. In the end though, I just hope that I can be able to measure up to some of the great missionaries in this mission such as Elder Chola who is a great teacher and trainer. 

The biggest challenge of all though is the area itself. I won't go into great detail, but suffice to say the Sisters weren't able to work in our new area on a regular basis, so there's hardly anybody to teach at all. This means that we have a lot of finding to do, which is frankly the thing I like the least. If I had an area where we had people to teach, I think things would go fine, but I'm just frustrated by having this great responsibility and difficult challenge all lobbed together at the same time. It drops a whole whopper of stress on me. Ideally, we'd have some sort of teaching pool that would keep us busy. That's what I like being the most on mission, just running between appointments here and there.

I've had many other experiences on mission where I have been humbled greatly, but this is certainly the most humbling and trying time of my mission. It's certainly one of those moments of my mission where I have much testing to shape me more into the person that the Lord wants me to be. I will not hide the fact that I am very stressed right now. It's very overwhelming and I realize I won't be able to manage this all by myself. I have made many pleas to the Lord as of late that I will have strength to overcome these challenges. God has realized that I've been in a comfort zone for too long and I believe he has seen it fit to put me in this situation. I'm having a  hard time right now, so I would ask that you all keep me in your prayers this week that I can be able to persist through this moment of my mission. 

So again, I ask that you please pray for me,  I'm going to need all the help I can get, especially from our Heavenly Father. If I can get through these couple of weeks, I'd think that I'll be able to push on just fine.

Love,

Elder Massey