Service and Dumplings

A lot of cool things happened again!

First what I want to mention something I forgot to put in my last email, not only was last Sunday Fast Sunday, but the date was also a palindrome (for those of you who don't know a palindrome is a word or phrase that read the same back word as forward. Here is an example: Taco cat, reversed is taco caT. Last Sundays date was 02/02/2020).

Among the cool things that happened that day, one of the Swahili people we are teaching, walked up to the pulpit and bore his testimony of God's love for him. Of course we could not have understood him if it weren't for my companion translating for him. The most exciting thing to ever happen in a fast and testimony meeting is when one of the people I teach: goes up in front of all the people, most of whom were total strangers, then shares something personal about their relationship with God and Jesus Christ. Seeing this man go up was just an awesome experience for us.

The same day we also had a general authority join us for sacrament meeting: Elder and Sister Stapleton. They also bore powerful testimonies of the truthfulness of the church, and of some of the blessings of serving missions. It was sweet.

Anyways, back to the present, our week was full! 

We were talking about Boots,
and they convinced my companion
to put some "Boots" on

I don't know what it is, but lately we have been having to reschedule lots of appointments with the people we teach regularly, and in many of those times our schedule was empty. We get a call, either for a blessing at the hospital or someone else needs help in the area. Here is an example from Tuesday. We had planed to go finding in a certain area but instead we received a call for a person who needed a blessing. How soon we asked? Now, they said.

So we went on our way to give a person a blessing. We are not sure what was wrong, we asked the nurse and she only told us that she was very sick. This person had tubes going everywhere, even in places where I had previously thought it was not possible. I will not give any more details on the matter, except to say that it was an amazing experience to give this person a blessing.

Like I had previously stated last week, last week. We are trying to get as much people to church as possible. So far every promise to go to church we have obtained from the English people we teach have been hollow and empty. They commit and tell us that they will be there, but no such luck. If it were not for the Swahili people we teach we wouldn't have anyone at church. Speaking of which yesterday was ward conference. 

We have an awesome bishop. He does all he can to help those we bring to church feel welcome. He gave a talk about the love and care others have shown to him and how should follow the example of Christ and care for all people when we can. At the end he bore his testimony, but this testimony was different. Since the Swahili missionaries started working on this area the bishop took it to himself to learn Swahili. His testimony yesterday was completely in Swahili! Many people in the ward looked confused, I guess they thought somebody fell asleep with their finger on the gift of tongues button because it was good!

These are called mandazi I think.
They are basically African scones.
Just fried bread, and it's good

Next on the list: Service and Dumplings!

We do lots of service at Food Banks. This place in particular is massive, and is usually full of Slavic patrons who are in need of weekly sustenance.

On the day of question, we were having a slow day. We started off by dropping off the elders at the service and proceeded to go to some scheduled lessons that were far from this service. We then experienced disappointment after disappointment. Each of the scheduled visits we had planed and confirmed, had canceled or failed to show up when we were ready to meet with them.

Slightly infuriated (because of the waste of the waste of time and miles) we went back to the service we dropped the other Elders off at.

Once we showed up about 5 minutes past until it was time for us to go. Needless to say, we were having a bad day.

On our way to the car we encountered a funny guy. He was from China. He was well dressed in traditional Chinese clothes and had a big bulky suit case.

Once he saw us, his eyes brightened up. He waved us over and asked if we could help him carry his accordion. He had told us he was a performer, 35 years in practice, and he was going to the local dumpling festival. We all walked back into the building where the the Food bank service was held, and found that he was in the wrong place, and that it was just down the road from there. He told us that we should go by there around 1:00 and get some dumplings. We thought it was a good idea for lunch so we went right ahead.

These are called Mandazi I think.
They are basically African scones.
Just fried bread, and it's good.

Later once we got there, it was PACKED! There was an hour long wait for all you can eat dumplings, it was a bigger hit than the anticipated.

Once our friend found us he lead us right through the line, gave us a plate of dumplings for all of us and told us to try them. We could feel some of the eyes on us for cutting the whole line, and our friends only care was to show off to us. He then took us over to a piano in the room and played a traditional Christian Chinese song. Wow! He is good on the piano.

He then wanted us to get some ice cream which also had a pretty big line but we couldn't take that much advantage of his hospitality. 

Around this time there was some traditional Chinese dancers in the middle of the room, and boy it was cool to watch. (I'm sorry that all I can do is tell you what happened in an email, but I did take a video, I will send it to my family and they will put it someplace where you could find it)

What a cool experience. 

I have spent enough time on the email now, so I will turn in, but not before a nice scripture moment. 

Today's scripture is Jeremiah 1:5, it is for when people say they they don't know of God loves them, or doesn't even care for them.

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations

God knew us before we came into this world, he has a plan for us and has given us the tools necessary to make that plan possible. He loves us and cares for us. He is happy when we are happy. He is sad when we are sad. Much like our parents, He is there for us in every scenario and in every heartbreak. He will comfort us in times of trial and will provide a way for us - always.