A Day in Liberia

Hello Hello!

Well, what can i say, what a week! Let me start with transfer news. Elder Conners and I are.. drum roll... TOGETHER! still here in New Kru Town. Ah, its great! We were both so happy and thrilled to get to stay together especially for this upcoming transfer where so many of our friends/ investigators are coming to be baptized. It seems that baptisms kind of come in waves. We go a few weeks without a baptism and then have roughly 3 or 4 at the end of each month. We havent had one for a while because they are all coming to be baptized this transfer!

Let me share my favorite experience from this week regarding one of our candidates. M. is 18 years old and lives with her uncle, one of the counselors in the branch presidency. She is ready to be baptized and has a strong testimony of the gospel, but there was a road block. She wouldnt be baptized till she had contacted her father who by happenstance, lives wayyy out in the "bush", even though her legal guardian approved. That means that his phone is almost never on, and if it is, by some miracle- like they charged it with a generator, cell phone coverage is extremely limited. We devised a plan that for the next few weeks, we would call him every day in hopes of reaching him.

We also were praying that he would agree for her to be baptized into Christianity because he himself is a Muslim (the 2nd most popular religion out here). So, every day for the past few weeks we have been coming to her house and trying his number, to no success. This past Friday, we sat down and went through the baptismal interview questions at the conclusion of which, we asked her if she would agree to be baptized even if her father is unable to be reached. We taught her that prolonging her baptism is simply preventing her from receiving a remission of her sins and that it was critical that she be baptized as soon as possible. We were a bit shocked when she replied that not only would she be baptized if her father could not be reached, but that even if her father would not approve, she would still choose to carry on with this mandatory ordinance for salvation. Elder Conners and I were thrilled! We concluded the lesson and then handed M. the phone. She tried her fathers phone number like she had so many times before... after only a few rings... yep, you guessed it, they answered.

It still brings tears to my eyes thinking about that miracle! The Lord is so merciful to those that have faith and follow that faith with their works. Not only did she learn a powerful lesson about how the Lord works, but I did as well. When we make up our minds to follow the Lord, no matter what He asks, He will move mountains for us to get where we need to be. If i didnt explain it very well, contacting someone living in the 'interior' of Liberia is literally a mountain, one that the Lord moved in response to the humble prayers of one of his daughters seeking the approval of her father.

And to top it off, after only a small debate, her father AND mother agreed that she could be baptized! ah, that was the icing on the cake. we rejoice that day :) M. also took the opportunity to speak to all of her younger siblings and family members she had not spoken to in months and to see the joy on her face as she spoke to them also brought so much joy to me. The Lord is ever willing and ready to answer our deepest and faithful prayers, even to open the windows of heaven upon us when we are willing to take up our crosses and follow him.

Lets see, many more miracles occurred this week, but maybe i will keep those ones in my journal for story telling when i return :) Dad, you asked what a normal work day is like, maybe i can try and sum that up for ya! Every day we have our usual Personal and Companionship study till 10:00 am, that is unless you're in training and you're given an extra hour for companionship study and go till 11:00. I like to get right out of the apartment and into the field asap, so usually our first appointment is at 10:30. we strive for roughly 25-35 minute lessons or shorter, depending on the investigator, but as we factor in walking time and greetings and chit chat, we average teaching someone at least every hour. our next appointment is around 11:30ish with someone in the same area. our proselyting area is maybe a mile X mile so usually we work our way from one side to the other throughout the day, grouping appointments with people in the same area at the same time. We usually see the same investigators Tuesday and Thursday, and a separate set Wednesday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday being a "catch up" day for seeing referrals, contacting, seeing non-progressing investigators, bounces etc...

So we go from 10:30 till maybe 1:30 ish, teaching as many as we can, at about that time I prefer to take a 20-25 min break to grab a snack from a roadside stand. just a little something to re-energize me and to rehydrate. these bottles we drink from get hard to suck from after about 3 weeks, so it takes literally 5- 10 minutes of pure sucking to finish only 500ml of water. if we dont actually sit down and plan to drink water, we dont get the chance! haha so I drink about 1.5 liters before leaving the apartment and then another 1.5 liters upon returning, with at least one full 500 ml bottle in the middle of the day. ANYWAYS, details for ya mom :) yep, after our break we go to our appointments, teaching from 2:00 till 6:00. At 6ish, we start heading back to the apartment as to be home by 7:00. Ill admit, im a bit notorious for always being back with only a few minutes to spare, trying to take advantage of any teaching opportunities i can. what can i say, I've never been late! the Lord always provides a taxi at the last second!

Assuming we return at 7:00pm, we close for the day and evaluate how each lesson went, what could have gone better etc... then we plan for the upcoming day an discuss which lessons need to be taught and what each investigator needs to do to progress and be ready for their baptismal date. seriously, thats one of the hardest things being in Liberia, managing everyone! obviously, the ones that keep their commitments and are excited about being baptized arent tooooo hard to manage, but striving to work with those that are a bit more stubborn takes a lot more effort. Its heartbreaking to have to drop people with so much potential, because you simply dont have time to keep encouraging them, trusting that the Lord will surely gather them at a later time when they are more prepared. Of course, this happens all around the world, but here our time is so limited that after only 2 or 3 lessons, if progress isnt made, we've gotta move on to those that are going to actually change NOW. anyways, thats one of the difficulties we have here.

Planning and closing for the day usually lasts till 8:00- 8:15 depending on the companionship. Then we make dinner and eat, maybe till 8:45ish. after which I study and write in my journal till the evening is over at 10:15 when i then brush my teeth and hop into bed. somewhere between 8:45 and 10:15  each apartment gathers and each member shares a miracle they witnessed that day. we call it "miracles", yeah, creative i know :)

Well, that's the average day for us! tuesday- saturday! Sunday is the same, except we subtract 3 hours from proselyting for service. Saturday, if we have baptisms, we leave the apartment by 8:30ish to the baptismal service held at the district center which starts at 10:00 and usually lasts till 12:00ish, after which we go out and continue teaching till 6:00pm! seriously, that's what we do every waking second we have, teach appointments. You would be surprised at how spiritually draining it is to try and be so focused on allowing the spirit to loosen your tongue from 10:30 to 6:00 every day! On an average successful day, we teach about 7 lessons. On an average day, we teach roughly 5 lessons. on a poor day with plenty of bounces, we teach maybe 3 lessons. I cant remember a full proselyting day, no meetings or service projects, where we taught less than 3 lessons... each week's lessons fluctuate a bit because of exchanges, service projects, and meetings, but to give you an idea... this last transfer (from dec 23- feb 2) we taught 58 member present lessons, 60 other lessons and 22 less-active/ recent convert lessons.

I hope you can all see why the work is so rewarding here! All we do is work! and when we work, we get the spirit and then we help people by the spirit and then we're happy! and trust me, i am happy!! :) I've been a bit reluctant to give out those numbers...and other proselyting areas in this mission have even higher because of the denser population! this mission is sweet. :)

Well, i hope that answers what a normal proselyting day is like paps :) if not, ill try again next week. thank you all for the prayers on my behalf, they carry me through those days that are just a bit more trying :) till next week,

elder fairwell