The weekend flys by quick when you watch 10 hours of TV... did I use
that joke before? Oh well, it's the last time you'll hear that because
I just watched my last General Conference on my mission... how is that
possible? I always imagined what life would be like at this point and
would always say to myself "I'm pretty much out of time at that
point." Nope, I've got plenty of time left! Honestly though, the week
goes even faster when you have a big meeting and you move too! Yep
that's right, I'm finally living in my area and I'm out of that filthy
place some missionaries used to call "home". Gross. Our apartment is
wonderful. We got 3 new beds (yes, 3), so we have the nicest beds in
the mission and our carpet is getting cleaned today. How lucky am I? I
pray I get to live here for the rest of the time I serve because this
place is so money. I mentioned above that we had golden retraining,
which is essentially a meeting for the goldens to be told a lot of the
things they are told the first day except this time they haven't just
been thrust into a new world and they aren't as tired... maybe. Elder
Berry asked me what my golden retraining was like and I couldn't
remember so I checked in my journal to see what I said, "I don't
remember much because it was long." Nice. Glad I paid attention. It's
okay though because this meeting was phenomenal and I won't forget
this one. We learned this whole theory that reading the Book of
Mormon, going to church and reading your scriptures will actually
bless your life and help you overcome trials and temptations. Crazy
right? I swear there was a conference talk on this as well... the
Primary answers truly are the right answers.
Two highlightable lessons from this week were first when we taught
Antoinette, who is a girl who had been to our church when she was
younger, but then moved away, but then moved back and wants to come
again! Anyways we taught her the Plan of Salvation and if you read
Alma 7:11-13 it talks about the atonement, then if you finish with
verse 14 it is a perfect segway into a baptismal invitation. We had
her read verse 14 and I said something to discuss baptism then looked
at Elder Berry, gave him the nod and he tossed out that baptismal
invite like it was nothin. Good work Youngblood. Excited to keep
working with her. The second was a lesson with the Hoto/Kolline
brothers that I've mentioned before. There's Venessa, Quince, Allen
and their buddy Anthony who might as well be a 4th brother. We brought
the young men's president, Brother Heist who did a great job with
these guys and Saturday night, Allen and Anthony rode the trolley into
philly for the priesthood session and pizza. They were surrounded by
young men at the table. Solid! Then the whole gang, with their little
sister Solange came to a session of general conference at church! They
practically took up the entire bench!
Speaking of pizza, I haven't had pizza the entire time I've been here
in little Africa. I mean this week I ate fufu and peanut butter soup
with crab and turkey neck, that's like typical food here, not pizza.
And yes I know what your thinking and you are completely right, it was
pretty amazing. You may ask what turkey neck tastes like? Turkey. You
may ask what fufu tastes like or what it even is? Yeah, idk. Anywho
after moving on Thursday we needed to restock our apartment so at the
store they had some bake-able pizzas, so I snagged that and enjoyed my
first slice of sweet pizza that night. Friday was golden retraining
with lunch provided, pizza. Saturday there was the Priesthood session
pizza social. Then Sunday we go to watch conference with some Africans
and I'm mentally preparing myself to eat fufu, but no they bring in
pizza. I think I'll eat some left over pizza from Thursday to extend
the streak to 5 days!
Last of all we had very little time to go finding this week, but
Sunday night we were out, mostly just walking home and no joke two
separate occasions people just called out to us and another part
member family let us in and we were able to share the new Prince of
Peace initiative on Mormon.org with each of them. They each felt the
spirit strong and were interested in how the Book of Mormon can "bring
us peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come." I'm
super excited to once again have an initiative to hasten the work with
and I encourage you to view it then go share it with someone else. I
hope you all have a wonderful week!
1) this lady's name is Kimmy, she owns a corner store by the dump
apartment and she hooks it up fat for her college students whom she
knows each by name and her "Christian brothers" (us). If you check out
her place on google maps "Bill's Market" in Philly she has a bunch of
5 star reviews that just say "Kimmy". Big shoutout to Kimmy and her
cornerstore
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