A Few Tender Mercies

It wasnt particularly a crazy week but a few tender mercies were noteworthy:

1. Sister Julius:

Allow me to tell you a little about Sister Julius. She was born in Tanzania but moved to Rwanda when she met her husband.  She never went to school and so She never learned French and her Kinyarwanda is a little rusty, her native language is Swahili. Despite her lack of formal educatuon she was a midwife for many many years. In Rwanda she also had many children but due to conflict and disease apparently only 3 still live.

Somewhere along the way her husband died and she and her family moved back to Tanzania as refugees for a while where a few of her grandkids were born. In 2010 they came here to Texas as refugees. She rarely left the house and relied on her family to take care of her. Since she never left the house she never learned English. The story doesn't progress much except for she had a few more grandkids.

Then, in 2015 the missionaries found her, keep in mind she still didn't speak English and the missionaries didn't even speak French let alone Swahili. That didn't stop them from teaching the grandsons (who spoke English) though. Now's the point where the miracle occurs. Sister Julius who spoke 0 English sat in on the lessons. Her grandson George occasionally translated for her and she was given a Swahili Book of Mormon. Even though she barely understood a word the missionaries said, she said to us (via translator) she 'just felt it' and 3 weeks later she and her grandsons were baptized. 

Even though her grandsons would translate for her during lessons they wouldn't during church. And so, she sat there for 3 years. Never missing a Sunday. Not understanding a word of it. She didn't quit though she still could not deny the spirit that she felt. She was endowed and remained active for all these years. She understands English now but prefers Swahili. One of her daughters was baptized and moved to Colorado, one wanted to be baptized but her husband wouldn't allow it and one didn't want to be baptized. 

Sister Julius kept working on her unbaptized children and now we have begun teaching both of the daughters and the one daughters husband. All thanks to the testimony of Sister Julius. 

2. We didn't get in a crash:

On Wednesday we were sitting at a light waiting to go left with a car in front of us. Elder Alleman kept saying he was super tired and to compliment his sleepiness he turned off the A/C to make the car nice and warm and put on some really slow music, so slow that it made Motab sound like Skrillex. Elder Alleman also has a habit of closing his eyes at intersections. Anyways, we were sitting there and I was doing a less than stellar job at paying attention to the road/my French book and was staring at some funky looking pigeons or something and all of the sudden we slowly started rolling forward. I regained focus just before we ran into the car in front of us with the awful sound of two cars colliding. Elder Alleman looked up bleary eyed with drool hanging out of his mouth. "Did I hit something?" He asked, and answered his own question when he noticed we were way too close to the car ahead of us. 

When the light turned green we followed the car to a nearby gas station. The driver got out looked at his undamaged back bumper and then started walking towards us. I got out of the car and he looked at me, gave me a thumbs up and then turned and walked into the gas station bought his cigarettes, and drove off. Our own car was undamaged but we will be requesting that I become the designated driver this week.

3. Primary activity:

As a Stake we were asked to participate in a primary "missionary activity" most of the companionships taught the kids how to tract but The Zone Leaders and we, the African elders taught about a few aspects of missionary work in another class. The kids were all funny they askec questions ranging from, "Is missionary work hard, is the Spirit always with you?" (Yes, and yes (if you allow the Spirit to be with you)) to, "What if you're teaching someone and they catch on fire?" (Call the District Leader, who will call the Zone Leaders, who will call the Assistants, who will call President Whitney, who will tell the Assistants he doesn't care and to check the handbook, and it will go down the line)

At the end of the activity the Stake President asked the kids who was more excited about being a missionary and everyone raised their hand. Mission accomplished.

4. Roho Mtakatifu

This is a short one. Roho Mtakatifu is my new favorite Swahili word(s). It just rolls off the tongue. Go ahead. say it. It's pronounced exactly as it's written. It means, "Holy Ghost" and I use it in every Swahili lesson now. 

5. Smartphones:

We said goodbye to our dinosaur brick looking phone and got sleek looking smartphones. Finally, I can call someone from the areabook. What a time to be alive. 

Love y'all, 

-- Elder Murdoch

Pic 1: me standing uncomfortably close to my companion during some service