All is well in Zion

Hello po!

 

So this week has been a big one, apart from spending two entire days flooded inside with never ending rain. The flooding outside our house got thigh deep this week and it rained for about 3 days straight, but by some absolute miracle our house was saved. Other people in the area were not so lucky though which is really sad because its mostly the poor people that suffer the most.

So this week. I ate snails, it was the grossest thing ever. I spat it up twice before I could get it down, and it also came to us soaking in rotten milk to make it even more fun. Theres a video of it which I'm sure some of you will have the pleasure of viewing one day.

There was also the really sad event of a young boy in our ward passing away. One of the strongest families in our ward, 9 children and sealed in the temple which is rare for here as its so far away. Their only son when he was 10 years old became sick and they took him to the hospital where the doctor gave him the wrong medication. He then became very weak and wasn't able to walk or do anything for himself from then on. He's been inside his house mostly unable to go anywhere for 5 years now until on Thursday without any warning he died at the kitchen table. We visited with the family several times this week and although it was obviously devastating for them, they are taking comfort in the fact that they are sealed and they know that he has gone to a better place. We sat with the mum for an hour while she laughed and told us stories about all the funny things he used to do, and all the sneaky things he used to see in the house because he was always around and nothing got past him. Last night we had a service with their family where we placed flowers on the coffin and had hymns together. It was pretty hard to see, Bishop sung Families Can Be Together Forever to the family and the dad broke down really hard. They have a tradition here also where they have the body on display in their houses until the funeral, so we were able to see his tiny body which hasn't grown since he was ten, which was a little hard to see since its not something we see all the time at home. The funeral is on Wednesday and were going to sing with the YSA. We've been praying really hard for the family. One of the hardest things about it is they don't have the spare money to pay for the funeral and the parents are all still having to go to work this week, but the ward is helping them out so much which is another reason why its such a blessing to have the church.

We had our first baptism scheduled for this weeked, on of our favourite investigators to visit. The only problem was that she and her parter had 2 kids together so they had to get married, which they at first didn't want to do and over the last few months have got more and more excited about. Shes been taught all year now and we finally thought she was going to do it until she told her parents about the wedding and they forbid it, so were no longer allowed to visit them, which is kinda devastating. This week we had a lot of discouragement from those were teaching who have stopped progressing, but we've also had a lot of good progress from new people we have a lot of hope for. I won't give up on anyone though because I can see how happy they will be once they finally make the change, its just getting them to see that which is the hard thing.

Despite the hard times, I am so happy. We are changing lives here even though sometimes its hard to see the benfit. But all is well in zion. And I'm finally attaching photos for you!

So one is Sister Storey and I, then Elder Ramsay and us all at district meeting, theres 6 people in our district and three of them are us! The green ones are the tapeworms that live in the water, this is our clean dishrack so if we dont watch it every day the worms get HUGE! So if you eat one, you die. Maybe not die, but maybe. Also a flooded street, not even the worst of it. We tract in shin deep flooding but when it gets real bad its straigh up bawal. Some missionaries in the Philippines got electrocuted two weeks ago because a broken power line was in flooded water, so thats why they're so strict! And the best bridge ever, this one was only kinda sketchy, usually theyre jsut a thin concrete pole and we are at any second likely to plunge to our deaths coz were crossing in ballet flats and skirts. This work man!

 

So to set the record straight about missionary work, the hard bit isn't getting up every day at 6.30am, or not being about to hang out and do what you want, or having to work and study all the time, I love all of these things and I couldn't care less about what everyone else is doing on a Saturday night. The hard thing is when people who know the truth won't commit, and miss out on blessings that would change their lives. And when people don't listen because they don't want to be better, and when you feel like you've done everything you can and nothing happens. But know that the blessings missionaries recieve far outweigh the hard times and life is so good here, I wouldn't trade this for the world.

Love you all!

 

Sister McKim xxx