The Elder's New Clothes (and haircut...)

I honestly don't know what to write for this week. This week has been another rough one so to speak. We were juggling our own area with Elder Slade's for half of the week until he got his companion, so we hadn't had a full week in our area... again.

That said, we had a good lesson in Elder Slade's area. We were teaching this young brother of a member. His name is Chisomo. He's only about 9 years old. If I'm correct, most if not all of the family are members of the church, but they hadn't got him baptized when he turned 8, so it was Elder Slade's job now to teach him the missionary lessons so he can get baptized. It was a great lesson. It really put me to the test. I'm used to teaching adults all the time, but rarely have I ever had to teach younger children, and when you teach such children, you really have to simplify things but still make sure that what you are teaching to them is especially profound to them. In this case, we taught Chisomo about him being a child of God, how he loves him and how he has given commandments to make him happy in his life. It was a really good lesson, and Elder Slade said after the lesson that he felt the spirit very strongly in that lesson.

We've continued to give service to Sister Khama this week. This week she finally began burning her bricks. One of the things she had us do was to move timber over to where they were burning the bricks. We're not just talking about small sticks, we were talking about BIG, BIG logs! We had to all work together to move them. For example, there was this one log that was way too big for all of us, so Elder Chola devised this clever idea of moving it. We got two smaller logs and put them under the log horizontally on both ends. We lifted together on these smaller logs and we were able to get it over to where we were going. We also moved bricks again, but this time the bricks were much much larger, almost the size of a shoebox! Surprisingly, they actually felt pretty light in the hands.

A cool thing that happened this week was that I unexpectedly got something from Lusaka. A while back I saw Elder Allred had something sent from Lusaka from a member of one of the wards I used to serve in. The member's name is Sister Mooto, (pronounced almost like Moto in Motorcycle) and she is a very skilled tailor. Anyways, Elder Allred had her make a chitengi hoodie using some nice material from Nigeria. It was finished after he left Lusaka, so it was sent to him when he was in Blantyre. I got to see it myself and it looked sick. I'm not one that really cares about clothes, but when I saw Elder Allred's African Hoodie I was like, "Fetch, I need to get one of these for myself!" so I sent a letter and some money to her via a trusted friend. Just this Saturday, I was given a grocery bag addressed to me that had something inside. I opened it, and to my surprise it was my own completed Chitengi hoodie! It looks sick! The sleeves are just a tad short, but apart from that I've fallen in love with this thing. I've sent some pictures of it along with some of my new haircut.

 

 

Training Elder Kapalanga has been going okay. He's slowly picking up things as we go along the way, but one of the challenging things in our area is that we hardly have anybody to teach, so it is hard for Elder Kapalanga to really put the principles that he has learned into practice. Likewise, finding has also been a pain. So far we've had no dice. This is one of the reasons why I don't like finding. It is long, slow and hard without the members helping us.

It is safe to say that this is one of my most humbling times on my mission. It's one of those moments in my mission that Heavenly Father has leaned in and said that it's time for me to straighten up. I've probably said it before, when things go well, my prayers slowly grow less and less sincere and become more rushed. It is when I face the most challenging trials in my mission where I begin to humble myself and offer up more genuine and sincere prayers. Saturday night was one of those nights. I was probably on my knees for a while just asking help from God. I've realized though that perhaps God is withholding divine assistance for a time to see how I respond to the challenges before me. He wants to see how I react. I suppose it is much like the situation that Job had. Job hit a really rough spell in his life and things really turned south. Regardless of that, he was still faithful to God, but God still waited to see how Job would persist in his trials. It was only after a while that God saw that Job truly had humbled himself and poured out blessings to him. Perhaps it is the same with me. I'll be frank though, I've got a long ways to go before I'm like Job. God has really magnified my weaknesses and I've seen how helpless I can really be without him. I'm not always perfect at doing what I'm supposed to be doing on mission, but it is my desire to do that which is right, and I pray that that desire can overpower my human weaknesses and help me to overcome the challenges that I am facing.

Wishing you all well!

 

Elder Massey

 

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 

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

I Saw God Today

Going to rip off my bro Elder Massey 2.0 and do what he usually does when he writes home, which is use song titles and compares them to the experiences that he had that week.

Sometimes things get rough for us and we have trouble on seeing and recognizing the good things in life. We get so frustrated with our present situation that we begin to forget to try to make the most out of what little we have and we fail to notice the subtle things that help us to find a little joy in our lives. That's what the song "I Saw God Today" by George Strait talks about. In the song, there's a man that has just been through what can be easily described as a very intense moment in his life, and I would reckon it was overwhelming too. But as he stops to settle down a little bit, he mentions, that he "saw a flower growing in the middle of the sidewalk pushing up through the concrete like it was planted right there for me to see." On any normal day, he wouldn't have noticed it, but because of what he went through he had the impression it was not just happenstance that he saw that flower there and he remarks, "I've been to church, I've read the book, I know He's there but I don't look near as often as I should. His fingerprints are everywhere, I just look down and stop and stare, open my eyes and then I swear, I saw God today."

Definitely this week I can sympathize with the man in this song. I've had the knowledge of the Gospel and what not, but often I don't stop to see the subtle things in my life that God has done to help me out. This week was especially tough for us as we're heading into that point of missionary work where we are running out of people to teach and we are failing to find people to take their place and to continue our work. We even had a day where it was just fall-through after fall-through. It was really tough and I just had a lot of stress on my mind. Then one morning we were visiting this one recent convert named Hellen. It was shaping up to be another tough day. Hellen had gone to prepare something for us to eat and Elder Chola had gone outside to take a call. I was sitting in Hellen's living room trying to read my scriptures as I was thinking to myself how we were going to manage to get by this week. All of a sudden I heard laughter and squealing outside. I noticed that Elder Chola was playing with Hellen's kids and family members outside. They were playing a group version of monkey in the middle. At first I ignored it, but I felt prompted to go outside and play with them. Even then, I was still reluctant and I dragged my feet outside. Once I joined and began playing catch with them though I was having the time of my life. It was probably one of the happiest moments on my mission. I don't mean to speak ill of any of my past experiences on mission, but by far and hands down this was one of the few moments of my mission where it was just pure unadulterated joy, even if everything else around me wasn't necessarily going the way I'd want it to be. I realized shortly after that experience it was maybe God reaching out to me to help me feel a little better that day. I saw the fingerprints that day and opened my eyes for once and I was able to see the hand of God in my life for once.

Last Monday we visited President & Sister Mtale and had Family Home Evening with them. They invited a nonmember father to join us, and we had a good time. Sister Mtale shared a brief message, and we played some fun games. I learned a fun puzzle game called Cups. I'll have to teach you that one when I get home, because I love messing with people's minds!

We had service at Sister Khama's as always. We invited a couple other companionships to join us as there was a lot of work that day. For the most part, it was another normal day of service, but there was twist.

Elder Ouma loves messing with these things that come from a tree that I don't even know what it's called. The 'fruit' of that tree is yellow, shaped like a pea pod and is VERY fuzzy! It's very dangerous though as the fuzz on it can cause severe irritation and itching if it makes contact with any exposed skin. Worse, if you scratch there, it spreads to the part of the body that you made contact with the itching and so forth. I don't know why the fetch he does it, but Elder Ouma loves plucking these itchy itchy scratchy things from the tree and handling them with something to protect his hand. The way I see it, it as if he was toying around with a freaking grenade in his hand and that he was going to screw us all with it!

So we had finished this service, and we were all lining up to a bucket of clean water to wash our hands and arms. Elder Ouma was in front of me, and all of a sudden he turns around and I feel something brush my right index finger. Elder Ouma hadn't realized I was there, and in his (protected) hand was a itchy itchy scratchy that had just made contact with my own unprotected hand!  

An appropriate representation of my reaction to said itchy itchy scratchy touching me:

Fortunately I was able to be smart and not do anything that would get the irritation all over myself. After some herbal application and some sort of therapeutic oil that Elder Slade applied on it, it eventually recovered!

Last of all, early this morning some of us missionaries climbed a mountain to see the sun rise. There was cross on the top of that hill so there was a relatively easy trail that led us there. We had an absolutely OUTSTANDING view of all of Blanytre and the surrounding region, and despite some hiccups, we made it right on time for the sunrise! Elder Ssengooba had brought his Canon DSLR (A Rebel T3i) and he let me take some pictures with it! It was great to be able to get my hands on a really good camera! I miss my T4i back home. Thankfully, I still remember how to use such a camera, and I took some FANTASTIC pictures!

I almost forgot! I also got my hair cut today. I'll simply say that it's different but mission appropriate! You'll be surprised what I had done! Seeing as my family members are getting some pretty new haircuts that they've never had before, I'm getting in on the action too! I'll send a picture of mine next week. Just wanted to give Elder Doig a shoutout for the sick job that he did!

Take care everybody!

Elder Massey

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

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

(The theme this week is gifts...
The gift of baptism and the Holy Ghost
African Christmas gifts and
THE GIFT OF A RECENT PHOTO!
It's been a good day!)



The big highlight of this week was definitely the baptism which we had for Moses. This week mainly consisted of preparations for that day. I'd say we still did work in the area, but all of it was really overshadowed by Moses' baptism. He asked that President Cimonwe perform the ordinance. I was a really big highlight for Sister Khama certainly! With Moses baptized, she's excited for the next step that's coming, which is marriage. Now that he's baptized, she can finally put in motion their wedding plans. They are planning the wedding for some time in late September, so here's hoping that me and Elder Chola will still be around for that time. It would definitely be a special moment for us and the soon-to-be newlywed couple!

 

                 Here's a question for you...Can you spot the Canadian in this photo?  

                                  Elder Chola (L) Moses, President Cimonwe and Elder Massey

Some other highlights of this week: 

This week I was able to finish my Christmas shopping. Yeah, I'm betting you're giving strange looks right now. Even me, if I was in a normal situation, doing such a thing at this time of the year would be considered outrageous and maybe even sacrilegious. That said, this is AFRICA we're talking about, and my time here is drawing near to a close, so I got what I could so that if anything should happen - say an unexpected transfer for instance - I'd at least have all the stuff that I need to take home with me.

It was fun getting that stuff too. I won't go into much detail, but I had to get the Christmas gifts at a certain market, and you had to talk price before you could get the goods. Unfortunately, for a pasty white azungu like me, that made me a perfect target for somebody to rip me off. So, me and my companion came up with a clever plan to make sure I got my money's worth. I gave the money to Elder Chola, and we tag teamed that market. I pretended that I was helping him 'find' things that he would want, and he would talk price with the vendors. They would start at outrageous prices too, upwards of 10 000 kwacha which was frankly, WAY too much! However, Elder Chola was able to talk down the price way down lower to what it was better valued at. The first day that we went Christmas shopping, we got several items of significant size and quality for a total of 15 000 kwacha, which was definitely an impressive feat. Sadly, our following attempt did not yield such results. It was a Saturday, and all the tourists were buying on that day and the vendors were feeling very good of themselves selling things way beyond their normal price, so despite our bartering, we paid a notch more for the items we bought on that day. Still, we saved a lot of money in shopping. One senior couple got fleeced with a painting for 50 000, which was probably worth ten times - if not, much less than what they paid for.

The only other thing that I could add was that we had some other missionaries join us for the service at Sister Khama's. We stacked bricks as usual, but a lot of the Elders tried being macho men or showing how 'experienced' they were at throwing bricks and tried tossing them as fast AND hard as possible, which left for a lot of cut up hands. It will probably take time for my hands to heal from this last round!

Apart from that, that war really the week. We try our best with Alex and Lexa, but they can't get themselves to take that leap of faith, which is rather frankly depressing at times, but we are going to keep trying.

Missing you as always!

Elder Massey

Rapid Recap

It seems as if my letter from last week did not make it. I can't find it on my e-mail account.

You could say that last week was much of the same of the week before, so I'll keep it brief: These last couple of weeks our main focus has been Alex & Lexa, and Moses.

For Moses, we had given him a baptismal date for August 16th. So for these last couple of weeks we had be trucking hard to make sure that he was prepared for baptism, as we still had much to teach him. We had taught him most of the lessons, but we still had little time on our hands to teach him. He works construction and he is always on call, so even on days where we agree to meet, sometimes something comes up last minute and keeps us from teaching him. We are very grateful for the support of Sister Khama - his fiance - though. She's a member of the Relief Society Presidency and she is very educated in the gospel, and she was capable of teaching and expounding the missionary discussions herself. With her help, we were able to have the remaining ground covered and we had him interviewed yesterday, and he passed the interview for baptism.

Speaking of Sister Khama, we've started giving service stacking bricks at her home again. It was Elder Chola's first time doing it, and it was quite an experience for him as it was for me. My hands would be proof of that!

Sadly, we've hit a wall with Alex. Alex absolutely believes that the church is true, but at the same time he believes that salvation can come from any and all of the churches in the world. Even so, he feels that at this late point in his life, joining this church would jeopardize his salvation as he has been committed to it all his life, and that by joining us at the age of 78 it would be condemnation to him for disregarding all the good things that have happened because of his church. His parents and wife - of whom are all deceased for a long time now - belonged to that church and it seems he fears disdain from them for switching churches. He does however encourage us to baptize not only Lexa but all of his children, because he feels that they are still young and that by joining this church at a younger age they won't be doing anything that might compromise their salvation.

After he revealed this to us, I bore my whole soul out in testimony. It was one of the most defining moments of my mission. I am certain that the spirit was strongly manifest in that lesson. I felt like it was radiating from me. I testified of the ADDED blessings that would come, and how that it would bless him after life. It was really one of my strongest moments as a missionary.

That was two weeks ago, and we've been doing our best ever since to try to help him to have the faith to be baptized. It's crucial that we get him baptized with Lexa, as she is still very dependant on her father as well as the fact that the church is far away. If she goes to church on her own, it will be very lonely and challenging on her part. This last week we even brought the Beals (the only Blantyre Senior Couple) to teach Alex with us. Elder Beal really took control and spoke very bluntly to Alex in a respectful way, and he could resolve some of the issues we struggled going about with Alex. Even though he was a very great help to us, Elder Beal feels like he's done little to help Alex. We're trying our best though. Recently, I used the example of a member from my branch back home named Brother Lowrey and his conversion at a late point in his life as an illustration on how it is still possible for Alex to be baptized and saved at a late point in his life.

Reflecting on this experience though, I realize that it shows how the conversion process into the true church is not a whimsical process. One does not easily join it. In the times of the New Testament, the people who preached the gospel such as the Apostles did not come from what the world would consider 'dignified' positions in life. They were mere fishermen, tax collectors and such. Though he came from a priestly and noble heritage that would have brought much respect to him, John the Baptist basically lived out in the bush living a frugal life with no real luxuries at all. Even Jesus Christ was a carpenter, and many of the scribes of his day doubted him because of what must of been the mere circumstances that he came from.

A parallel appears in missionary work today. The missionaries from our church are not the kind of people that one would hold high esteem for - not that we're bad or mischievous, but there's that notion that we are young and lack experience and knowledge of the things of life. That in itself is true to a degree, but the gospel truly makes us young men something much more and better than the world can comprehend. People would readily believe on what was being taught if the people who were preaching the gospel were elderly people who had degrees in philosophy and theology, that held high positions in far more widely recognized churches and carried much distinction about themselves. Instead, God sends out young men (and women) as young as 18 - having not yet completed their college education, entered into their careers and begin raising their families - to preach the gospel. Because of that, it really takes a lot of faith on an investigator's part to listen seriously to our message and to regard us as serious preachers of the gospel, not schoolboys as some people actually mistake us to be! Many of the people that we meet or teach fall at this point, simply because they can't take us seriously on the account of being young and regarded as 'unlearned' compared to themselves. I've never talked to somebody who has joined this church, but it must certainly have been a humbling experience for them to listen to men and women much younger than they are and receive instruction (and correction) from them.

So, as to why I'm emailing a little later today: Well, these past couple of days, I've come down sick with the things that you least want to come down with (you know what I mean!). It started on Saturday, and it has continued on up to today. So this morning, I decided to check the medical guide to see - just in case - if it might be something more serious. The Mission gives us this medical guide for medical prevention and treatment, such as bleaching your fruits and vegetables to prevent contamination - which nobody does at all. 

Well, I looked through all the symptoms and diagnoses, I got a little scared. There was one illness that matched many of my symptoms. Headache? Check. Fever? Check. Diarrhea? Check.

What could all that point to?

M A L A R I A

One of the other symptoms for Malaria was thinking irrationally. In the days I've been sick, I hadn't experienced this, but after reading the booklet I began experience these symptoms too - not because of what I believed to be Malaria, but because of the pandemonium and fear that I HAD MALARIA!!!

Many prayers were pled to The Lord this morning, a Priesthood blessing was requested, calls were made to the Mission President's wife, the Mission's Health Adviser and Zone Leaders, and there was a visit to the hospital! After a medical test and an intense wait of 15 minutes, the results came.

The results for Malaria came negative. For irrational fear though, full freaking positive!

I think the lesson learned here is to not to jump to any conclusions. I realize now that just because you start coughing, it doesn't necessarily mean you have terminal cancer and that no matter what, you are going to die. It was a big goof and overreaction on my part, and I'm betting my companion was shaking his head and thinking to himself that Elder Massey had gone nuts.

I'm still sick, but just to let you know, don't worry! I hope I won't cause any of you to lose any sleep. It was just a small incident that was blown over proportion by my naivety.

Well, this has been a long one. My companion is probably bothered by how long I've been writing now, so I'll wrap it up here!

See you Malaria free next week!

Elder Massey