Tuesday: My night sleep was almost non existent because of the horrible migraine that I had and by morning I was also suffering a horrible fever. I took a malaria test which came up negative and then when we took my temperature it came up at 101.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The entire day was then spent dying in bed while my companion would fetch food and water for me. It was brutal and hard to not be in the field working. The day seemed to crawl by so slowly. Finally it came to an end and I again set out to sleep.
Wednesday: By morning my fever had broken and I had actually slept through the night. The only problem remaining was the grueling migraine that kept me from moving my head at all. Again it was decided that I shouldn't be out doing things and I needed to be resting in bed. I was able to go out to get food with my companion but to be on my feet for more than 30 minutes at a time was near impossible. Again the day just crawled by and I felt like a worthless missionary just lying in bed. I thought I was never going to get better and that the day would never end.
Thursday: After sleeping from 7:00 the night before to 8:00 in the morning I was feeling much better. My headache had almost diminished and I was able to go out around the apartment to teach a little bit. We didn't bike at all, we just walked and stayed close. It was a day of contacting only and we were able to contact 11 people. Bishop has challenged us to contact 20 a day and it is possible but we wouldn't be able to teach a single lesson all day. We were able to meet a few cool investigators that day that definitely deserved a return visit. Our favorite was Albert and he is 16 years old. He seemed to really embrace what we taught him and wanted to know more. That evening we had to turn in a little early for a district check-in since my companion is the district leader. Still, in my crippled state and with us having to turn in early, we got some good work in for the day and saw a lot of success.
Friday: With that high on Thursday came a low on Friday. Not a lot happening and not many people wanting to talk with us. We exhausted our list of people to call and then when we went to contact no one wanted to talk to us or they were too busy for us to sit down and teach them right then. It's hard to see the rejection side of being a missionary when the whole time I've been here I have seen nothing but success. Hard as it was, when you are working the days are shorter and time flies by so I have nothing to complain about.
Saturday: It was temple day for the ward. We really wanted to get one of our recent converts, Josephine, to the temple for the first time so that she could experience it. When we went to pick her up to take her to the church she wasn't ready because she didn't know what time they were leaving. She was able to get ready extremely quickly but she had to bring her kids because she had no one to watch them for her. We brought them and prayed that we could find someone to watch them. When we started calling, we found that the primary president wasn't going to the temple with the ward. She was just at home for the day and would be willing to watch the children for us. It was definitely a miracle and something that back home I would have completely overlooked. Never overlook anything that happens to you in your life or you will miss so many miracles. We made an interesting discovery on Saturday. There was a family that we had been teaching and when we first taught them the mother told all of the kids to pay attention to us but then left. Upon one of our return visits the boy in the family brought forth a gospel principles book that was missing both covers but was from when Ezra Taft Benson was president of the church. We asked where he had gotten it but he said it was just somewhere in the house. When we returned on Saturday we asked if we could see the mom and when we talked to her we found that she had been less active for over 20 years. She didn't seem interested in what we had to teach anymore but the kids sure wanted to know more about our message.
Sunday: It was busy but no more than a Sunday back home would have been. We got to the church around 8:30 but we didn't leave until after 2:00. That happens to us every single week and we can never figure out why we just sit at the church for so long. Again we didn't start up the ward choir that we are wanting to because again bishop forgot to announce it so no one knew to come to practice after church. We did some good contacting that afternoon and then decided we should get our weekly planning done that evening. We decided to weekly plan at a place we have started to call The Castle. It is basically half construction and half ancient ruin and all sketchy. We climbed to the top floor which also happens to be the fourth floor and took some cool pictures of the city, but as soon as it got somewhat dark we got freaked out and decided to plan back at the apartment. After planning we just crashed and went to bed early because we were so tired.
Monday: It was time for us to head back to the mall to pick up glasses for Elder McConkie. While there we enjoyed an early lunch of Chicken Inn and got a candy bar at Shoprite. I had a Mars bar which I remember hearing of back home but I've never actually tried one before. It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my entire life only because I ate it here in Africa. After that we played soccer or futbol with a bunch of the other elders and a ton of little kids off the street who basically wrecked our trash even though they are half our size. It is demoralizing to get creamed by kids under the age of 10. Now we are here at the Internet Cafe emailing home so you're caught up on my life here in Africa.
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| "The Castle" |
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| Elder Goodrich and McConkie |
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| view from "the castle" |
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