Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Spirit is So Powerful.

So, first week of the mission didn't go that badly! Still getting used to really living in a third world country, but aside from that this place is fantastic! 

Let me back up I guess. We showed up at the mission home on Tuesday, like scared little lambs, ready to be given trainers and sent off into the world. Other missionaries gathered around and it became clear that we were greenies who had never even seen what the field looked like. Eventually, my card came out, and it turns out my trainer is Elder Ojaide! A hilarious guy from Nigeria, with great English.  

I got assigned my area. I'm basically in the bush!  Man, I need to send pictures as soon as I am able, let's cross our fingers for next week for my camera SD card to work. Then, I think the description of this week will be pretty short, since I forgot my journal, but I'll do my best!

Something I had to get used to was the fact that there are so many different names that I'm used to here, and they're not said generally in a way I can understand. Precious, Perfect, Nodoubtingod, Godsway, and more. These people though are so warm and welcoming. Different ways of communicating, and different styles of personalities that I'm getting used to here, but it's all still good. 

Something so powerful to me during this week, was that no matter how stressed I got, or how uncomfortable a situation felt, as soon as I started teaching, a feeling of peace came over me. The spirit is so powerful, and even though God will let me make mistakes, he will never leave me alone! 

We have this super dedicated investigator, JJ, who keeps every commitment we've given him, and shows up to church activities like, 40 minutes early! He's fantastic. He loves God so much and wants to make sure he is following Him in the best way that he can. I will tell you about others another time.

Something about the system here, the town is basically built off the N2 national highway. And the town sprawls out in any direction. There are really no roads as houses are just built wherever they'll fit, so when talking to people about where they live, they give a landmark or a general area. Then, literally anybody and anybody will sit down and talk with you. A local chief gave us an appointment time with him this coming Wednesday, which should be fantastic. We ride our bicycles around and everyone keeps calling me Elder Green (who was the white missionary before me in the area), and the little ones will often look at me and say Yevu! which means white man. They'll just repeat it over and over. Yevu, yevu, yevu! It's super funny.  

We have a sizable ward as well, 34 people attended the other day, although half of them were young kids. And it also turned out I was being called as the executive secretary as well. We'll see how that turns out!

I also did laundry by hand for the first time today, and realized I had failed to buy clips to hang my laundry, haha. But aside from that, it went pretty well. I'll post some pictures of that as well soon. Preparation day has been pretty chill so far, it's been fantastic! I'll have a zone meeting for the first time tomorrow! Should be great!

2.5% of the mission done! I love you all! See you in 97.5%!

Elder Harris

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