The Long Run

Well, I had a bit of a God-send this last week. Elder Slade (a missionary in my district) was told that he was going to train, but his companion isn't coming until this coming Wednesday. Not only that, but his companion at the time Elder Ouma honorably finished his mission and went home on Wednesday last week, so he had nobody to work with, so the Zone Leaders came by and dropped him off and we've been together all this time. I wouldn't say that things have improved much though. Both of our areas are struggling lately, and having to proselyting in both our own area and Elder Slade's area can be a bit of a hassle, but we are getting by for now. I'm just glad I've got a missionary like Elder Slade to give me a leg up when it comes to training Elder Kapalanga. This last Thursday we spent probably upwards of three hours doing weekly planning with him and explaining how it is done. Hoo boy was that a long process. A leader of the church (and I've forgotten their name) once said that we should teach not for understanding, but to teach so that it's impossible to misunderstand, so I think that's the theme and the principle of how I train. 

Life at the flat has been good though. Since Elder Slade is my Bawo buddy, we've been playing each other when we've had free time available at the flat. So far he still beats me most of the time, but I still manage to get a few wins here and there. One game I literally starved him out until he literally had nothing else to move with! I even played a round with Elder Chanza, Elder Chola's Malawian companion. Since Elder Chanza is a Malawian, he knows the game inside and out. He whooped me pretty good the first game, but on the second game I beat him handily, though I would say it was probably because of pure luck! His jaw was on the floor as I took out his whole front row in one move!  

Elder Slade has also been taught by the other Elders how to play Draft, which is more or less an advanced version of Checkers. I knew how to play Draft, so I humored him with a few rounds! Fortunately, I'm "smarter than the average [Elder]" when it comes to Draft. We've played several rounds and he's won only once, and only because of a technicality issue. ;) 

Enough of fun and games though. Rest assured we are still working hard when we are in the area, but I will say that the games have been a helpful stress killer. It really is the small things that can really make a difference.

In the area these last few days we've been visiting a member named Sister Banda. She's an older fellow, but very intelligent. She teaches the equivalent of High School level Social Studies, so she is very very smart. However like a lot of other people here she's diabetic. It seems like they don't get proper treatment to maintain their diabetes, so from time to time when their blood pressure begins to fluctuate they get really sick and at the very worst get hospitalized. Whenever somebody has that, people simply say that that person had "BP". Anyways, we've been visiting to make sure she's doing OK, and thankfully she has recovered very fast. President Mukonda had it when I was in Chainama, and he was in a really bad spell that took months for him to recover from, so I'm grateful that such wasn't the case with Sister Banda.

The other highlight of the week is that I got my missionary journal back! I had a journal that I had all the missionaries and members sign and write letters in, but I left it in Lusaka for some missionaries and members to sign when I got transferred to Lilongwe - which was like APRIL - and I hadn't heard about it since, but when Elder Hinckley my new Zone Leader came by he had the journal with him! Glad I have that back. It had all the contacts of the missionaries and members I wanted to keep in touch with! Better yet, I can now have other people sign it now.

That's pretty much my week. It's been slow, but I'm continuing to hope that things will shape up! Love ya!

Elder Massey