Week 38 Piano and Practice

 This week went by quick! We had some lessons with some new people that we found this week and the week prior! 

On Sunday, we got to talk to Fr. Vann and Fr. Beny. Fr. Vann is in his 20s and Fr. Beny is 14. We have been teaching Fr. Vann for about 2 weeks now and he is now preparing to be baptized! Fr. Beny is the younger brother of Fr. Josué Caleb who was baptized last month.

We have some other great friends who are super close to getting baptized as well!

On Sunday I played piano for the ward. It was fun! It was the first time the ward has ever had a piano to sing along to.

My French is getting better as I practice and study each day. I am able to understand more and more! 

This last week was very cool. In the 70s for a couple of days! Right now we're heading into the  cool dry season here or "saison sèche"-- it's pretty nice!

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to serve here in Africa at this unique time and I see so many miracles every day.

Piano set up at the church

Elder Nsaka and Elder Hillam

Week 37 Bonjour and Mbote!

This week was great again!

We had a decent amount of lessons this week but it was a little slower due to many people being busy as it is the last couple of weeks of university and school here!

This Saturday Frère Arolde got baptized! It was an awesome service, and he will be an awesome member!

This week we will be working to have Frère David and Sr Honoria, Jeade and Grâce ready to be baptized this week!

Fr Arolde!

Elders of the Makabandilou Ward

Week 36 Thunderbolts and lightning--very very frightening!

Howdy and Mbote!

Another good week in the Congo. I had some great lessons this week and am looking forward to the baptism of Fr Arolde and Fr David this Saturday the 19th! 

We had zone council this week which was good.

I started to carry a Book of Mormon in my hand everywhere I so I can use it and talk about it more. So one day we were sitting in a bus and I was holding it in my hand and she peered over and read the title out loud. I asked her if she had ever read it before and she said she hadn't. She told me her name was Sr Nelly and one thing led to another and I gave her a copy and got her number. 

A couple days later we went to Sr Nelly's home and had a great lesson with all of her family about the Book of Mormon and what it is! It was an awesome experience! 

Friday at around 4am I woke up and was lying in my bed. There was a crazy lightning storm around us. Just lightning strike after lightning but with no rain at all. It felt so odd, and I've never seen anything like it. Not 5 minutes later as I'm laying awake in my bed, I see a giant flash of light and hear a crazy loud crack of lightning that struck our apartment. It was crazy. I checked to see if my phone was still charging and it wasn't. The lightning took out our power. Since I was awake I decided to go out on the balcony and film some of the lightning! 

On Saturday I found out that my companion Elder Nsaka would be getting transferred to Point Noire, a city on the coast that you have to fly to. I would be in a trio with Elder Edwards and Elder Dewey for a week or two but today the mission office couldn't find his passport so I don't think he will be leaving anytime soon... 😂

Nkombo Zone

Our apartment

Sunset

Sr Nelly and her family

Week 35 Twenty-five kg of Uranium

I had another good week here in la terre promise!

On Tuesday one of our lessons got postponed so we went out contacting and met a man named Fr Augustine. After talking with him he walked us to his home. We met his whole family and taught all of them together it was awesome!

Most of the rest of the week was filled with lots of teaching appointments! One Sunday we had a lesson with Fr Arolde and he will be baptized on the 19th! Super excited for him!

We got a keyboard in our apartment! One of the members had an extra one for us to borrow so I could practice and play for sacrament meeting! It will be fun and exciting for the ward to finally have a pianist. Luckily for me the Congolese love to sing egregiously slowly which will make it easier to play in sacrament meeting!

So Elder Dewey and Elder Edwards have been teaching a guy. And out of the blue he texted Elder Dewey about 25 kilos of Uranium he had somehow gotten from working in the Chinese uranium mines in DRC. He wanted to see if we could help him sell it! Anyone want some uranium?

I'm joking, that much uranium would be illegal to possess. lol.

I'm so thankful for the time that I have had here. I've been in Africa for 2 months now which is crazy. Time flies here! I have really been trying to use my time here as effectively as possible because in the end the 16 months I have left here is a very small amount of time. There is so much work here to do!

Tried wearing one of our friend's wigs, trés beau, no?

Our piano!

Soursop, interesting fruit, tastes like strawberry and apple together!

25 kg of Uranium