It's the end of the transfer. I have one more transfer left with my trainer, Elder Bloomfield, which is a good thing because, as confident as I am to tackle Africa, I think I need just a little more time to get a good grasp of things. It's been a much better week this week. We were able to find some more people to teach. We thought our area was running a little dry, but the Lord has provided again! He will never let you down.
This week's story actually happened last night. We had a free meal at Mommy Phyllis's house on Sunday evening. It was a little windy, but we didn't think anything about it. We were eating our dinner, and the weather just got gradually worse. But still, we thought we were bigger than the storm that was brewing. Mommy Phyllis's house is about 15 minutes from our apartment, so we set out thinking we would beat the storm. We set foot outside her compound, heard the gate lock behind us, and it started to drizzle. The sky was completely black. The wind was howling, and it started to pour rain. And I'm not talking no little wussy rain. This was pretty impressive. We decided to turn around and head back to Mommy Phyllis's house, but she had walked back, and the gate was locked. No matter how loud we yelled, the rain pounding on the tin roofs was louder. And also, to add to the absolute chaos, we started the journey off with four missionaries, and we were only three standing outside the gate. So there we were, three obrunis (white guys), soaked head to toe, locked out of any shelter in the middle of the tropical storm in Africa, and Elder Bampoe was nowhere to be found. It was about as wild as it gets. Elder Bloomfield, Elder Riley, and I were walking around in the rain that was so heavy, it was hard to see. We found a little shelter under the overhang of someone's roof. We said a quick prayer that went something along the lines of, "Help us to find Elder Bampoe and be protected throughout the rainstorm." We were already soaked, so we sought out Elder Bampoe. We were calling his name and looking everywhere. We finally found him in a nearby member's house. They saw him out in the rain and pulled him into the house. But Heavenly Father had answered our prayers. We found Bampoe, and we may have been soaked and covered in mud, but we made it home safe.
We had two more baptisms to end off this transfer. I'm super proud of these two. One's name is Precious. She is nine, and the other is Isaac. He is 11. We have been teaching them for a few weeks now, and they expressed a desire to be baptized. So we asked the mom for permission, and she said yes. Super happy for them. I hope that we can teach the mom and help get the entire family into the waters of baptism, but only time will tell.
This week's photos include one of me right before disaster struck. You can see how the wind is bending those palm trees. We had a meal of fried plantains and bean stew, a picture of all the elders in my district, us all shoved in the back of a taxi, and a pig that I wanted to get some bacon off of. Some videos of after disaster struck. We were scared that the phones were going to get ruined in the rain, or I would have some more videos and pictures of the rainstorms because they are crazy! I'm pretty impressed some of the structures remain standing throughout these storms.
Anyways, it was a good week. I hope all is well for you guys and I love and miss you all. Have a great week!