Another week bites the dust! I apologize for the short email this week, but if I'm going to be honest with you, it's been a super long week. I was informed of my grandfather's passing this week, and it has hit me pretty hard. I'm not quite sure how to deal with that while I'm 7,000 miles away from home, but this too shall pass. On top of all that, I have been quite sick the past few days. I must have eaten something bad. I'm not sure what caused it, but I'm hoping to feel better in the near future!
Enough of the bad news. Let's get on with the good news! Elder Bloomfield and I are continuing the Lord's work even with a few setbacks this week, and we are preparing a few more folks for baptism! If all of the lessons and the teachings go well, they will be ready by next week! I love being able to watch people's testimony grow and develop. Many of the people we are teaching are ready for the gospel. They just need a helping hand to guide them and encourage them along the way.
This is such an interesting life out here for me. I am almost used to it, but there are a few cultural differences I am not used to. One of them is no cutlery when eating! Hands only. Kind of a silly thing, huh! But oh man, I miss having a fork and spoon. My mom was smart, and she told me to pack a pocket-size fork/spoon combo, but sadly it is extremely frowned upon and almost considered disrespectful to whip out one of those bad boys and start to eat with it. Although I was raised differently, it is something I am just going to have to get used to.
My favorite scripture this week is Matthew 10:39, which states, "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Basically, what that is saying is if you lose your life or lose yourself in the work, you shall find your life. That's just another testament to getting lost in the work because eventually, you will find your life.
For this week's photos, we had what we call an FM (free meal or family meal) with one of our members. We call her Mommy Phylliss (she is the lady in the green shirt). She fed us ground nut soup and rice ball with what I think is pork. I'm not really sure on that one, but it tasted pretty good. She's a pretty good cook, but as Alan Jackson says, "it ain't like mama fixed it." The video is of me and Elder Bloomfield grinding palm nut, which is this very fibrous nut that they flavor a lot of food with. A very popular drink here is malt. Most of the Americans don't like it, but I think it's pretty good. I find it interesting that it is made by a well-known beer company.
Anyway, that's all I got for this week. It was kind of an off week for me, but hopefully, things will return back to normal here soon! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I'll talk to you next time!
Here is the link to my photos.