Hello! We had another good week! We finally have gotten more
good investigator families and are really filling our schedules. Now we just
need to find out how to eliminate fall-throughs (when people who aren't there when
you come for the appt). It just makes it difficult when people don't have their
phones on because there's been power cuts lately.
Oh yeah thats something I haven't talked about haha I guess
it's just become totally normal to us. They call it "load-shedding".
Zambia does not have enough power and they don't have enough money to import
power I guess, so what they do is they shut off power for periods of the day to
shed the load. So most days we wake up without power and when there's no
power there's no water so we just use our back-up jugs which lately have been
getting some alge due to the heat as well.. yes mom you'll suggest to put some
bleach in to keep them good - beat you to it (;. Or we will come home at night
and we won't have power and we do everything by candle light and then cook on
the "mbaula". So basically we live the same way as many of the
Malawians and Zambians - bucket showers, candles ,and mbaula! Its not too bad
actually. But for sure we rejoice when there's power!
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| Making samosas on the mbaula because there was no power. |
There was transfers this week and no changes for us
(thankfully), but like I said last email we got Elder Sagers and Elder
Kibirango in our District. They are such great missionaries, or "Powerful
Servants of the Lord". I'm sure they enjoyed Church on Sunday haha The
Matero ward is one of a kind! I'm excited to work alongside these elders and I'm
sure I'll learn a lot from them.
On Thursday I woke up sick but we still went to the area and
tried to take it one lesson at a time but eventually after I felt like I had
done what I had strength to do, we went home. On Friday I woke up sick still and
was getting worried that it was malaria because the symptoms were similar - no
appetite, headache, nausea, etc. So I was advised to go get a check. The ZL's
asked us to find a clinic in our area which I was fine with because I never
like taking other missionaries away from their work for me. So we went to a
local government clinic since we have to walk pretty far to go anywhere from
our flat and it was closest. That was an intesting exprience hahaha! Everyone
was excited to see an azungu there waiting in line for a free government clinic that's
for sure. Well I told the Dr I wanted a malaria check and he told me I didn't
have it and asked lots of weird questions and stuff then scribbled some
diagnosis and sent me to the pharmacy to get free pills, but not knowing what
the pills were and what sickness they were for I didn't take them..
The ZL's decided to take me to a private clinic where I was
told it was a flu. My bad..but it's good to at least be sure it's not malaria
first. After resting for the rest of the day, I woke up perfectly fine the next
day and proceeded with the work trying to make up for the lost time!
Our street contacting has been proving successful this week.
We taught many great fathers and even one pastor. Usually when teaching pastors
though they want to bash or just want to learn from us to use it for their
gain, but with this one he was captivated by the Book of Mormon so we discussed
the Restoration and focused on the BOM and it seems he is humble enough to
search that scripture with "real intent". We're are starting to see
miracles occur often in our area.
I love this work and love you all.
Elder Grant Hiltbrand