Well, for starters, this has been a most wonderful week filled with a lot
of fun and productivity. I absolutely love the new Elders in my district or
apartment. I can't express to you just how great it has been to finally have
true friends who genuinely care for me, who help clean the apartment, who have a
desire to be my friends and to help me in everything that I do, and with whom I
can let lose, relax, have fun, work hard, laugh, eat good food and have joy in
the difficulties that we have to go through. At long last, I'm genuinely content
and happy. Oh, it's so nice to have true friends again. A lot of prayers have
been answered as a result of their coming into my apartment.
This is kind of funny for the both of us, but E. Barnes and I were a little
skeptical on how well we were going to get along before he came; however, it
turns out that we're super alike, we get along a lot better than anticipated,
and we've been having a blast living together.
Today, as for an exercise
activity, E. Barnes and I played broom hockey with a small ball as a puck and
water basins as goals. We kept playing until I broke the broom. It was a lot of
fun and we had a ton of laughs.
It's super nice to be able to live with someone with whom I can be myself
and have what feels like a non-stop streak of happy moments, hilarious
experiences, inside jokes, and so much more.
My life has changed for the better and despite all that I have to go
through on a day to day basis, living with a friend sure makes all the
difference.
Well, I'm afraid that I'm all out of time. Gotta go to a family night at the
church with the district!!
Monday (16 May) -- As I had
already described, E. Barnes and I played broom hockey, then we went to the Cyber and
then to the Church as a district to participate in a ward family home evening
which consisted of the youth and young adults both member and non-member. We
watched the LDS produced movie called "The Testament", discussed about what we
understood and appreciated from the movie, and then ate cookies and drank juice
as a snack at the end.
Tuesday (17 May) -- We
canceled our district meeting and stayed in the apartment during the morning due
to a rain storm that had come in. We're currently in the rainy season, and when
it rains, it comes down hardcore. Thankfully the rain stopped some time in the
afternoon, thus we were able to go out into the secteur. Earlier in the day, my
companion refused to help me plan for what we were going to do today and told me that I could fill out
the progress report that we fill out and then discuss upon during our
coordination meeting that we have at the end of the day at the church with our
ward mission leader among other leaders. Well, let me just start out by saying
that my companion is very easily offended, he gets angry when I least expect it
and then holds grudges and takes things very personaly. My companion was
offended for what I had done to him the other day, that is, praying before he
was ready to start. The entire district had waited for him for an hour to get
ready so that we could get going to the cyber. Once we gathered together to say
a prayer before we left, he asked us to wait for him to zip up his pants and
tuck in his shirt. Well, I really wanted to go to the cyber and my patience was
already running thin, and so I started praying as he got himself ready. Well,
that made him so mad that he lost his spirit and decided that he didn't want to
help me with what I just mentioned along with none of our lessons. Well family,
believe it or not, I gave three lessons all by myself without any contribution
from his part whatsoever. Fun right? At least once we got to the church after we
(I) had taught our investigators, our ward mission leader apologized to us due
to not magnifying his calling for the past month and said that he would start
coming to the coordination meeting each week and would start attending baptisms
every time we had them. I had been praying to find out as to how we could better
work with our ward leaders and then had later discussed with our Bishop about
everything that has not been happening but should on our ward mission leader's
efforts. Our Bishop had then spoke with our ward mission leader and that had
appartently done the trick. I love it when things just sort of work out like
that. Such experiences really remind me that the Lord is currently capable of
doing his own work.
Wednesday (18 May) -- We
worked with our recent convert Fr. Girard who will soon be receiving the Aaronic
Priesthood and works with us every Wednesday from 15h00 to 20h00. My companion didn't speak or
teach during our lessons until the very last one, but that at least gave Fr.
Girard an opportunity to see what it's like to teach with and as a missionary.
Our convert is super intelligent and understands the message of the Restored
Gospel super well, thus he was able to teach as if he had already been called as
a full-time missionary. This kid is so great and I know that he'll be a
phenominal missionary. He's eighteen, by the way, and will hopefully be
graduating from high school this year (in a few weeks).
Thursday (19 May) -- Had a surprise meeting with Pres. Morin, his wife, and
the Togo Assistants in the morning at the Kégué chapel. I didn't find out that
we were having this meeting until last
night while my companion and I were planning for the next day. I'm super
glad that we had this meeting, for it was during which that we discussed as
leaders on the following points: teaching in unity so as to more fully
accomplish our missionary objective, getting along with companions, having love
one for another, becoming more like Chirst, being accountable for our actions,
supporting what we teach by putting it into practice and so forth. As a result
of this meeting, my companion started teaching again and did so through out the
remainder of the day, but we were still lacking a very vital key to missionary
success: unity along with the spirit and power that come from it. The meeting
that we had along with the lessons that we had given today moved me repent by doing something about changing our
situation so that we could have the spirit of unity back in our companionship
and in my own life. However, I wasn't sure as to what I should do and I didn't
know as to when I should go about making said change. Even though every time I
did so the spirit felt very distant, but I decided to give myself up to much
prayer so as to receive guidance and inspiration, for I knew that if the Spirit
were to come back into my life, I would have to reconcile myself with my brother
first (3 Nephi 12:21-24).
Friday (20 May) -- Weekly
planning in the morning. My guy helped me out and it was much appreciated. We
saw a lot of people today, and
everthing on which we had discussed with them pierced my soul and just shredded
me to pieces. There I was teaching others to change their lives, to stop
drinking and start keeping the word of wisdom, to prepare themselves to go to
the temple, to start coming back to church, and so forth while my own life was
in complete disorder. At the end of the day, we saw Sr. Reine and Sr. Victorine,
two girls who were supposed to be baptized about a month ago. For the past
couple weeks, they hadn't come to church. They went to visit their aunt one week
and then the next they didn't come because the eldest didn't want to go. It
feels like it's been a long time since I've poured out my heart and testified
with everything I got as I did that night to help these little girls realize
that the Church and Gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored, that Joseph Smith
was a true Prophet, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that they
absolutely have need to come to church and to be baptised, and that they've got
to keep moving forward by keeping the Lord's commandments. My heart was filled
with love, power, conviction, and a sincere desire for their salvation as I
spoke to them; however, due to the problems that my companion and I have been
having, it felt as if a small yet piercing void had been carved within me. It
was at that point that I had resolved to repent, to confess, to change the
situation, and to reconcile myself with my companion by sincerely apologizing to
him for all that I had done to offend him as we walked home to our apartment. As
a result of that talk, the Spirit had finally come back into my life, my
companion and I have started talking, working and interacting with each other
again, and I feel at peace. It's pretty insane to see what life is like without the constant
companionship of the Holy Spirit. It was among one of the most worst experiences
that I've ever had in my entire life, but it was very eye-opening in many
different ways in that pride is killer and humility is wonderously sweet. Well,
at least I now know that I should never again take for granted the constant
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Saturday (21 May) --
Baptismal service bright and early in the morning at the Bè-Kpota chapel for E.
Barnes and Fr. Tcharé and for the Sister missionaries in our district. Before
the service started, I had a baptismal interview with the other Elder's
candidate named Sr. Rose, who thankfully passed the interview with flying colors
(an odd expression, but that's English). I dislike doing interviews the day of
the service because one never knows whether or not the baptismal candidate is
actually ready to be baptised. Fortunately, Sr. Rose was ready and worthy to
contract the baptismal covenants and had a beeming testimony of the Restored
Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the afternoon, my guy and I taught two investigators
named Sr. Sharlotte and Sr. Dopé along with her friends and then we saw two of
our other converts Fr. Josué and Sr. Débora. As we were on our way to Fr.
Girard's house to talk to his little brother Fr. Godwin, a raging, mini-flash
flood, rain storm came out of nowhere and we were forced to sprint for about
thirty minutes through the rain, flooded streets and mud in order to get back to
the apartment. We stopped twice, once underneath the roof of small boutique to
catch our breath and then at the church to take another breather. It was the
most insane rain storm that I had ever been caught in. It was fun and all, but
man, that was a pretty scary and intense experience! When we got to the
boutique, I decided to try something as a thought popped into my head to give it
a shot. I had decided to pray and then command the rain in the Lord's name to
stop falling as intensely as it had been so that we could safely return to the
apartment and so that everyone in the area would be kept safe. It continued to
rain, but the quantiy thereof along with the intensity of the wind had settled
down enough for us to return home in safety. I tell you what though, I was
pretty sore once I woke up the next morning. It's been a while since I've ran
that fast for so long. As for the others, they had fortunately found shelter at
the house of an investigator who has been coming to church ever since I got here
but hasn't been able to be baptized because of her martial issues. She let the
missionaries stay at her house and cooked for them until the rain calmed down
enough for them to return to the apartment.
Sunday (22 May) -- Went to
Church; not very many people showed up, but we had some investigators come; went
home directly after the third hour; slept for a few hours due to getting my butt
kicked by the other day's storm; amazingly went back into the secteur in the
evening (believe me, it was really hard due to our fatigue); spoke with Sr.
Reine and Sr Victorine's Mom with a member named Fr. Komla (the member who had
introduced us to the girls) to make sure that she was still okay with her
daughters being baptized due to the past excuses that she made; she was of
accord and even helped us find certain information needed to be written on the
girls' baptismal forms; afterwards, we visited Sr. Shériffa and her family and
then we visited Fr. Josué and Sr. Débora at the end of the day.
Well family, everything has been momentarily brought back to the way it
should be; although, I would humbly ask that you pray for me and my companion so
that peace, happiness, unity, cooperation, and so forth my reign within our
companionship until transfers come along (this upcoming Saturday). I would very much appreciate
a happy ending; it's always best to end a companionship with a good note. No
bitter memories make the mission a lot more enjoyable.
I sincerely hope that everything else is going well for you all and that
you have a most wonderful week!!
I love you and God bless you!!
Sincerely,
Elder Gonzales
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