We white washed this sector and because there are no addresses. It’s really hard to keep what the other missionaries had for us going, but we held on to three of them. To try to find people this week we met up with the ward missionaries who are a group of young adults and they showed us to every active members house in our sector. It was great. Like I’ve said in the past, the Beninese custom is to give people water every time they come visit you and your forced to drink to respect the custom. Because we visited so many people, by the end of the day Segal and I had to pee so bad.
That was what we did for the week. It was good. We met some good people, some interesting people, as well as all the joys of this mission
The hardest thing about this week was Sunday. It was hilarious I don’t know how to describe how funny and weird the three hour program was this last Sunday. We had four talks for sacrament meeting and each one of them talked about how we need to respect the bishopric, for some reason, along with a topic of their choice. It was very funny to see. Three of the talks just made no sense at all. It’s as if they just said a bunch of gospel words but not really having any point. An example of something they would say is
"the flesh is not spiritual and the flesh will lead you nowhere, for the spiritual leads to the light and the light will fight away the bad, and the good will lead the spiritual person away from that which is no longer righteous for those who believe in the flesh. So, what really will help this ward is to overcome our weakness though abandoning our flesh and helping our spirits be more spiritual, and we need to respect our bishopric."
I wish I was making this up, but it was that bad. And the kicker was the last talk where a brother shared the weirdest story I’m not quite sure what the point of sharing the story was but I’ll try to tell the real story using two (fake) names to clear up how it went. Sam is member and Bob is his friend. So, Sam offended Bob, his friend for many years, but Sam started feeling guilty because he totally lost Bob as a friend. So, he went over to Bob’s house to say sorry, but Bob was still offended a little bit but Sam was not having any of that. He wanted Bob to forgive him. So, Sam just stayed in his house and wouldn’t leave. Bob started to eat dinner with his family and Sam was still there. Bob’s wife asked him if they should invite Sam to eat. Bob said “no, I don’t know why he is still in my house.” Sam just watched them eat and complained about how hungry he was. Then night fell and Bob thought Sam would leave, but Sam didn’t leave. Sam decided to get his apology and he would just sleep in Bob’s living room, that would show him. Bob wakes up to find Sam still there. Bob and Sam both go to work, but that night Sam shows up at Bob’s house again to repeat the same thing. He does this for four days. Then on the fourth day Sam is so mad that Bob still hasn’t forgiven him he decides to sit at the table with his family and forcefully eat Bob’s food. Bob says, “if you even touch this food I will not eat it.” Then Sam sticks his finger in all the food. Bob is furious he goes in to a room his wife follows him into the room, they talk. Bob goes out says to Sam “thanks, you taught me a lot, I forgive you.” Then Sam goes home.
This story was told to us from Sam’s perspective because he was the member who actually did this. If any one understands this story, that would shock me. Segal and I were holding back laughs about how horrible this member was to his friend who he already offended and then forced him to accept his apology. The rest of the church followed a similar pattern of lessons that made no sense.
I love this place, it’s nuts.
Segal and Larson looking towards the future
A picture in my sector - Finagnon
My room in Finagnon (mine is the bed with the net)
Me
