June 15
Welcome to my new cousin Aleah!
The
conference with Elder Carl B. Cook was really awesome. He's a powerful
guy. Something he said that touched me was about what it would be like
to be one of the first missionaries to go to England almost 200 years
ago. That's the same as we're doing in Rwanda. (I think there have only
been like 20 missionaries in the country before me.) How we're the
builders of the foundation of the church in Rwanda.
We had a
baptism yesterday! Justin's brother is a member and Justin started coming to
church with him. He met with the other missionaries a few times, then
they left and I came. Taught him a lot more and now he's baptized! He's a
good kid.
I came pretty close to death this week... You know
the pedal-bodas I mentioned before? Now that I'm in this branch we use
them a lot more whenever we go to Batsinda. On Saturday we were coming
back from there and we decided to tell the drivers to sit in the back
and we would drive and race each other. The seat was really high, handlebars messed up,
brakes like a foot away from the bars. And we were starting off at the
top of a steep bumpy hill. I try to start off and get going out of
control, wobbling down the hill. Towards the road. I'm squeezing the
crappy brakes and sliding my feet and finally come to a stop just before
colliding with a bus. Kinda scary. All the people were pointing and
laughing at the "stupid mzungu!" I felt pretty embarrassed and pedaled
out of there pretty quickly. :)
Oh yeah. Something we hear a lot, 'I don't know French.'. It's just what a lot of people say when we try to speak with them. In English.
June 22
We're going to Mama Cecile's for lunch
after emailing! It's been over a month since I've seen her. I'm excited.
This has been a really good week! Nothing too close to death this time.
Went on a pretty cool African adventure. Going from one appt. to the
next we decided to take a "shortcut." It wasn't that short. Instead of
staying on the main roads on the hills we tried cutting through the
valley. Turned out being a lot farther than we thought and all through
the fields and swamp lands. I miss-jumped some stream spots a few times
and got my pants and shoes soaked for the rest of the day.
Ok. Love you!
-Elder Collison
We
broke some of our records this week. We met 12 new investigators and
set a bunch of baptism dates. We met some awesome and prepared people.
We had another baptism Sunday! It's a kid named Cedric. He always reminds me a lot of Raymond.
June 29
Another good week. We've still been meeting with a lot of
cool new families. Missionary work becomes a lot more exciting when you
focus on them and get to see the gospel blessing them as a whole
family. Not too much to say this week. One of the families I had been
teaching a lot in K2 just got baptized yesterday. I didn't get to go but
it was awesome to hear about. Our mission is discontinuing the wearing
of suits. Sunday will be the last time we wear them. I'll just try to
find a member the same size as me. I gave a talk Sunday. You know..
Teaching and talking to people all day every day makes it a bit easier
to get up and speak. I spoke about missionary work. I went up with a
sticky note with a few thoughts written to guide, and I made eye contact
with people the whole time. Glad I'm drifting away from the 'get up,
read quickly the small things I had prepared without looking up, close,
and rush back to my seat'.
Mission is weird. Since I left in the middle of winter, every
time I think about home I imagine it as winter. Then I remember it's
summer and even hotter than here right now. I really miss being able to
work hard outside. Like wood hauling wood, digging, and just any outdoor
farm work really. We'll occasionally get some service in but nothing
really fun like that. So I guess you can expect plenty of help getting
wood in a couple winters.
We were walking past a big wall fence last night on the way home
and some dogs were going crazy on the other side. My companion hates
dogs so he picked up the pace and went to the opposite side. as we get
closer we realize the dogs weren't on the other side but on top of the
wall. They were nasty and angry looking things. barking and howling and
snapping at us. We just walked past and nothing happened. So not really
an exciting story at all.
July 6
Transfer number five begins today! My companion and I are both
staying here together. This is a big deal for the Kigali 3 Branch. It
got white-washed three times in a row but I think we've broken the chain
now. :) So all the members are excited about that. And for the first
time since I've been here our whole house is staying the same. Which I'm
glad about. It's an awesome group. And one of the K1 elders who has
been here a transfer longer than me is getting moved so that means I am
the missionary that has been in Rwanda the longest with the current
group. Other than this, not a lot has happened out of the ordinary. On
Saturday Elder Empey and I sang all the American songs together. Also on
the 4th was Rwanda's Liberation Day. It was a bit harder to find work
to do that day. But that's pretty much it.
Love ya!
July 13
So this week was... an interesting week. One of the K1
Elders got moved to Uganda this transfer and a new one came. A brand new
one from Utah. Elder Ercanbrak or something. He's a good kid. Haven't
been able to get to know him too well yet. We got fed like 6 times last
week. Our feedings come in spurts like that. Weeks without, and then
nonstop for a week. It was nice. Ate a lot of rice. And my companion has
been making me posho. It's interesting. Another exciting thing- iron chest... I have learned a good lesson this week. That is;
don't' ask someone to iron your shirt for you. While you're wearing it.
I think this was on Thursday.
Not gonna say who, but he put it against my chest and pressed the steam
button. It was hot. It turned red and painful right away and I kept a
wet rag on my chest during my studying. Now it's still red and blistery.
My shirts are turning yellower in the same spot there from the blisters
popping. It feels fine now. It's a fun story.
We had a
baptism yesterday! Her name is Angelique. She's a shy but super smart
girl. She understands
everything really well and always keeps commitments. Whenever we would
leave a reading assignment she would come back with notes and summarize
the chapter and explain what she learned from it. She's really awesome
and I'm really glad to have been a part of her conversion.
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