At the Bottom of the Bottle

At the bottom of the bottle:

Saturday was super busy, we had started our day with 3 back to back lessons with Brenhamists which are always "exciting." Then, we had a lesson where a member  we were with just spoke to the investigator in Lingala the whole time and it was really cool to see the investigators heart softened. We had 2 other "meh" lessons on doorsteps because we were teaching women and we didn't have a 3rd male with us. Finally,  around 8:00pm we were pulling into our last lesson before quittin' time. 

We were somewhat nervous because this particular investigator thinks that joy is found at the bottom of the bottle and it wouldn't be the first time we found him wasted in the parking lot. We'll call him A. Since A has a drinking problem he doesn't want to work, mostly he just wants to drink all day because whenever he's sober he's depressed. Since he doesn't work he has no income so he can't rent an apartment. His way of living is to just find an African apartment that will let him in, (because of a weird unspoken code between Africans) he'll live with them for a few months, then they'll kick him out because they're fed up with the alcohol, then he'll go find another place to live. Right now he lives with 2 older single moms from Rwanda, neither of them like him and he's probably about to get booted. 

We showed up and miraculously A was sober as a judge he let us into the apartment that wasn't his. Where the younger of the 2 moms was sitting on the couch playing with her new baby. We'll call her F. F had taken the discussions in Amarillo but had moved before she got baptized and now she isn't interested anymore. But, on her wall is a picture of her and her family with 3 missionaries who she always talks about. so it's safe to assume she's chill with missionaries coming over and teaching A. 

F had usually been quiet and respectful whenever we were over, like all other Rwandans. This time, however, she was louder... crazier. Normally a "Hujambo" and a handshake is all she'll say to us unless we try and talk to her more. This time, it was more like.

"HELLOOO, TWO FRIENDS!" She said as we were sitting down on one of the many couches they had. 

"Hey F, how's it going is that a new baby?" Elder Alleman replied.

"Yes, my little baby, 4 months old." She bounced her baby on her knee, her voice somewhat distorted from what it usually sounded like, and also a lot louder. 

"Oh cool, he's very cute" 

F. took that as a request to see the baby up close so she staggered over to us held the baby Lion King style [side note: one of the only decorations in the house is a poster of Rafiki holding Simba] and then plopped the baby down into Elder Alleman's lap, which is totally against the rules. His face went white with fear and then red with embarrassment.

 I thought back to my MTC days where they were explicitly warning us to NEVER hold children under any circumstances and one of the sisters asked, "what if someone throws a baby at you?" And it was brushed off as a nonsense hypothetical question. 

For about 5 minutes Elder Alleman tried to hand the baby back but F seemed oblivious to his discomfort.  

Finally F took her child back and sat on a couch behind the stool where A was sitting, maybe her drunkeness was wearing off. 

Even though A wasn't drunk he had no current interest in reading the Book of Mormon with us. Instead he repeated what we've heard a million times about how Africa was colonized poorly. Then he moved into talking about how much he hated single moms and how they were weak, he was not doing a great job at reading the room. F kept making weird, hand gestures at him. It looked like she was doing sign language or something trying to convey some complex, offensive statement about A. We weren't sure what she was exactly trying to say beyond it being offensive. 

Then she started to sing in Kinyarwanda using her 20 something bracelets as tambourines. A finally gave in and started reading the Book of Mormon but he read very slow on purpose. F was still singing, doing her weird hand signs, making a freakishly exaggerated frown at A, and to top it off she had started breastfeeding [It's not really a private thing in Rwandan culture].

A had reverted back to talking about Bantu languages or something and it was almost time to leave.

The next conversation is abridged.

"I WANT TO GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW" F yelled.

"Uh, ok it starts at 10 tomorrow"

"TOO EARLY, I WILL BE SLEEP BECAUSE BABY"

"OK, next week it starts at 1..."

"NO, I MUST GO TO CHURCH TOMORROW, I WILL BE AWAKE. CALL ME WHEN MY RIDE GETS HERE."

"Sure, we'll get a ride for you," Elder Alleman lied. He knew that we shouldn't be bringing hung over people to church, and she wasn't going to remember this conversation. so we'll just invite her next week.

"NOW I GIVE THE PRAYER."

I can't remember most of what she said but the entire prayer was just thanking God for us and asking that he blessed us. "Thank you Jesus for the 2 friends sitting over there, the ones thag walk side by side and talk to everyone, and are very nice." 

I felt special.

On a more spiritual note:

We have an investigator who is an older man, he's here in America with his punkish nephew while his wife is still in Kinshasa. He moved here for a better life but now he just wants to go home and be with his wife. We saw him yesterday and he apologized he hadn't been able to talk with us, for awhile. His youngest brother had been hit and killed on a motorcycle in an African village. He told us he didn't have enough money to go to the funeral and he was very sad. We dropped our lesson plans and read Alma 40 with him re-teaching him about the spirit world. He really liked the idea that his brother was getting a chance to hear the gospel as a spirit. 

I surprised myself by going off on a really long testimony I don't remember what I said other than it was my testimony, and the Spirit was in the room. After I finished speaking he said something to the effect of: "This isn't in The Bible... but I like it. I'll read this." 

The most spiritual part happened after we left when Elder Alleman said, "As we're teaching him here, our ancestors: your grandpa, my grandma, are teaching his brother in The Spirit world."

Je vous aime,

Elder Murdoch