God blesses us for our diligence

hey guys!

my week was cool, nothing too crazy (besides the fact that i'm in africa, i guess...). elder adams is doing good. we dont know for SURE that it was malaria, but he took the malaria pills and they helped a ton so we're assuming it. one thing about malaria is that if you go out and work too hard too quickly, it can sometimes come back. so... elder adams is a hard worker to his soul, so he wanted to hit it hard again. sure enough, after tuesday on i think he was suffering a little bit again. he had some bad bad headaches and a fever of 102! so we stayed in for a couple of days even once he felt better so that we can hopefully go at it hard again this week.

there honestly is no better feeling than just leaving the apartment on time, going hard the whole day, and coming back and just crashing on the bed. its not always easy to motivate yourself to do it, but it always ends up being worth it when you do it.

monday is always p day, so this week we only proselyted tuesday, wednesday for a bit (we walked around all morning and visited everyone we planned to meet that day, and not one person had time that day, and thats when elder adams started getting sick. so we just bought a couple of oranges and gave them to some children and called it a day) then friday, saturday and sunday. it was still pretty productive though. we are beginning to prepare a few people for baptism on may 2nd at the beach after church (kobe is one, and i'm so freaking stoked about it).

i think you didnt get the photos and video cause the file was too big. it was like 22 megabites. i'm guessing that yours cant recieve that big. the new mylds.net is made through gmail, so i know if you have a gmail account you can send and recieve up to 25 mb emails. so maybe you could consider creating one of those so that i can send them to that account?? i was actually planning on creating one when i get back, so maybe you could just create one now. that way i can send all my pics and videos to that one, then i could just use that as my regular email when i get back?? just an idea that came. let me know what you think...

(We told Jesse we thought it was funny how everyone there has a cell phone) it's a one and a million chance to meet someone with a/c, a car, a washing machine, a water filter or running water, or even electricity sometimes, but they NEED a cell phone haha. so i think the best way to handle (the Mother's Day phone call) would be for me to buy credit and a chip (sim card) and just borrow a members cell phone and call you guys at the time we decide.

(We asked Jesse whether he ever wears sandals) i use sandals for sure. while youre in the apartment, the africans just throw everything on the ground, which usually is just cement, so it gets a little dirty. i dont really ever walk around barefoot, but i never wear socks when im in the apartment. elder lehr and elder adams have both got some sweet sandals with beer bottle openers on the bottom, and thats way convenient cause all of the sodas here are in those glass bottles haha.

(We asked him if he can make purchases with a debit card) you cant use your cards here to buy things, you can only use them to withdraw money from some of the banks. so we can withdraw the money and use that money to buy stuff.

(Was it hard for Elder Agama to be transferred so suddenly?) elder agama was tired of yamoransa and really wanted to go, but the problem was that he was sent to twifo praso, which is like one of the roughest areas in the mission haha. elder rappleye is sweet. he sure likes to talk. all he talks about is marriage and food from home haha. its cool though, it's crazy different with three whites in the apartment rather than just one...

(We've heard there's a lot of nudity there) thats funny that you mention nudity and nursing mothers... because i see it every freaking day! for example, the old women dont even really care alot of the time, so they'll just roll around their homes and stuff with nothing from the waist up. like the first week elder adams was here he saw this old old fat lady laying down on her back without a top on... and all he did for the next couple of days was just get a disturbed look on his face and say "it was like a pancake!!" i donno what the deal is. either these women are ALWAYS breast feeding, or else they just wait for us to come around to whip it out. it doesnt even faze me any more though (but i cant decide if i'm more proud or embarrassed bout that.) its definately a different culture though!! haha i got alot of stories on that subject haha.

so on friday a guy came to moree to survey the land the we're gunna build the chapel on, and i am so freaking excited about it. all i want is to baptise kobe and see the constuction of the building BEGIN and i'll be content. oh!

i remember when the noorda's invited me and elder lehr to the davis' house to tell us about ghana... and i remember they said that, "the white missionaries are really there to show the native africans how to BE missionaries." i didnt really understand that at the time, but i think i do now. first i can begin with the african culture. church is the norm. everyone goes, its mostly just a matter of which one. in almost all of the churches, they dont really learn much about God, they just go and sing and dance and give money to the church and go home. the pastor will go up and say "give me this much money and i'll pray for you to get even more money." i've heard eyewitness accounts of pastors preaching that if the women will sleep with him that it's a holy thing to do. the wickedness that some africans do in the name of the Lord is just ridiculous. its more or less a business supporting their terrible lifestyle. so many of the africans are totally oblivious to that, and many of them just become decescitised to it all. they just assume that we are getting paid like crazy for our misoinary work, are womanizing, and dont really even believe in Christ. either they believe that, or else they see us as angels, one or the other...

some missionaries legitamately come on the mission believing that that IS what a mission is like. (maybe not to the extent of sleeping with women, but it's not unheard of). that they just get money and relax in the a/c all day then go out and preach for a bit. that's a problem. so, with most of the africans at the very least, they have the misconception that you aren't supposed to suffer while your on a mission. that is the part that is the big problem. in the villages, for example, there is almost always no one to meet with until like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. so they just say, "we'd be wasting time if we left the apartment in the morning, so lets just do something productive and stay in the apartment and study." as i've grown on my mission, i've come to understand them better i think, and i've had a desire to teach them. to teach them that we ARE here to suffer. even if we dont meet with one person all morning long, if you have faith that God will bless you for your seemingly fruitless diligence, He surely will.

one thing that i've learned on my mission is that if you truely desire to be like Christ, or even just be with Him, you must suffer and sacrafice and be patient through it all.

sorry to get a little preachy there, but that's something i've been thinking a bit about lately.

well everything is going just fine. me and elder adams are just living it up. i really couldnt even think about any situation where we would get in even a small arguement. we both have the same chill, dont stress, who cares, personality so we get along about as good as is possible. sometimes your with a companion that doesnt want to suffer. something that elder woodhouse said was that we just need to sprint when we can. so that's what we're doing.

love you!

elder mackay