Missions are for the Boys

August 14, 2017

Last Monday was top notch! President & Sister Randall organized a zone
pday, so all the Elders and Sisters from Valley Forge met up in
Broomall for some pinball soccer and food! Of course the squad of
Elders stayed after for Volleyball before we headed out to Philly and
somehow ended up on the Rocky Steps at the museum! We gave a blessing
after pday was over and had a great lesson with Vafa on the
restoration. It was such a packed day, I loved it! Throughout the week
we got fed some super good dinners too haha I haven't eaten so good in
months.

We got over to see the Sesay family this week! I love this family so
much, they got baptized right before I got here and we used to go
there all the time but they've been so busy. The boys Ishmeil and
Chernoh love to play basketball so we always promise to play with them
after the lesson. Their court is incredible! It's an uneven dirt patch
in their backyard with a basketball hoop tied onto a 2x4 shoved into
an old fisher price base. I'm pretty sure I sent a picture before, but
I'll probably send it again! The boys are 11 and 10, it's hilarious to
watch them play 1 on 1. I got to go again to work in P4 with Elders
Tawiah and Cole. We had an amazing lesson with a less active sister on
the sacrament. It was amazing because I'm pretty sure the elders plan
was to teach about prayer, but between the bills, the spirit and I we
ended up shifting it to the sacrament. By the end she was telling us
she wanted to pick up her recent convert neighbor to go to church this
Sunday and she actually did it! I don't think she's been to church in
a long time, I'm so thankful we followed the spirit on this one.
Saturday evening we got to go teach Esther, she shared how she was
praying to be able to get to our church when we first knocked on our
door! Her kids in Liberia went to youth conference this week and loved
it. It was kinda funny because during the week she texted me and said
"elder, the missionary took my kids for a 5day program and I don't
know where they are. I know they are safe but they don't have their
phone" hahaha luckily with some questions we found out it wasn't the
missionaries and it was just the branch. We also taught Vafa again
that night and shared "You Never Know" and guess what! She finally
came to church! They had to go right after sacrament but her 3 year
old Erin said "mommy I want to go to my class!" Vafa felt so bad she
had to leave hahaha.

If anyone has ever heard of the Phila 1st Ward before, you know it's
legendary. I could tell many stories, but this one might take the
cake. A brother stood up to give a talk today. He also happens to be
the chorister who continues to sing different songs after the hymn is
over... and at random times. When he stood up his comments immediately
made me get ready for the show. Chorister man decides to walk off the
podium and walk through the aisles speaking as Christ did, then asked
for us missionaries to stand. Us 5 stood, then he asked 7 more people
to stand. He said some stuff about how people need to repent and that
one day he would be gone and the people needed to listen to his 12
apostles. After preaching he just walked out the door. No joke, just
walked out the door! So we are all standing there like uhhh and a few
minutes later he walks in another door and says "y'all are still
standing?" goes back up on the stage and sits down. I seriously
thought he was going to elaborate on this extravagant performance, but
he didn't. That was it, that was his talk. Then another man gets up
and preaches for more than his allotted time about parenting and
somewhere in there talked about "this is my work and my glory to bring
to pass the immorality and eternal life of man". Nice! All in all it
worked out because we confirmed Dolly at the end of sacrament meeting
so it ended on a great note! I don't know how I'm going to be able to
go back to a Utah ward, I love this one too much. I love this mission
so much. I've already looked at the upcoming week and the days are
packed, I know it's going to go quicker than ever. I hope you all have
a wonderful week!
1) rocky steps
2) rocky!!
3) Greg!!
4) cracking open a cold one (dad's root beer) with the boys
5) "smile for our moms!"
6) the sesay family!
7) dinner at the Cullen's