Dear Mom,

 

I love you, but you already know that. I loved your email this week. It sounds like you guys had a blast up there in Show Low. I can't wait to go back up to that place and spend time with the family. How on earth did you handle 18 seven year old kids at our house?! You are super woman... but I've known that since before the foundation of the Earth. I want you to teach me how to play hand n foot so that I can play with you guys.

 

It's funny that you mentioned that dream. Ever since last July I have been writing my dreams down in a little journal I have. I stopped for a couple of months and picked it back up again this week. I was flipping through some of my old dreams and I have come to the conclusion that someone dopes me up when I sleep because my dreams are so wack. You guys are going to be laughing so hard when I read them to you. I have only had two or three significant dreams. I have a hard time remembering things so I have been trying harder and harder to write things down so that I can remember them when I reach that ripe old age of 48. I love you dad :)

 

So this week I have had a stupid cold. It is so ridiculous... as a missionary I feel so guilty just staying home to recover from a wimpy cold but because I haven't, I feel like it is taking longer for it to get better. I have had gunk in my lungs the whole week and my nose has been running and what not. Elder Nash has been pretty sick too. We gave each other blessings... well, they were a couple of days apart. It all started with him. He has had a weird cough ever since he came here to Congo. Then I got that stupid cough and it got worse and turned into a cold and then I gave him the cold. So, we have been pretty haggard this past week but we're getting through it.

 

The other day we were going to a members house in a quartier called Loussala and when we got there we heard all this shouting and yelling and all of the sudden there was a flash mob of children all with sticks in their hands and they were beating on each other. We just stood right by and watched it all and laughed a little. They wouldn't dare touch the whites so we were in no danger. It was pretty funny. You never know what you will find around the corner over here in Congo.

 

I'm going to talk about Bonace. As you know he is a recent convert and he loves to share the message of the Restoration. We fixed a rendez-vous with him at noon one day and when we showed up we saw him with three girls in his room. My first thought was "okay Bonace... what are you up to?" He walks out to greet us and then he invites us in. I was so impressed when I walked in. There at his desk was his Book of Mormon, Bible, brochures, Liahonas, and other teaching materials. I asked the girls what they were doing and they just said that Bonace was teaching them. I don't think Bonace could be any more "on the rock." He always blows me away. He is an awesome example to me and I am so grateful that I was able to work with him and help him come into the waters of baptism.
 
I read a sweet scripture this week. D&C 43:34. It's the last verse in the section and Christ testifies of himself and then says something I love so much... Que la gravité de l'éternité repose sur votre esprit (and let the gravity/solemnities of eternity rest upon your mind).  In English I think it says "solemnitites" or something liket that, but I like the word 'gravity' so much better.  I was pondering the importance of gravity and to what it serves.  If it wasn't for gravity, our life would be one of chaos and have no order. How would things be held together? I cross referenced this scripture to 2 Nephi 9:39... "to be spiritually minded is life eternal." To be "spiritually minded" and to have "the gravity of eternity" upon our minds I think is the same thing. So, by allowing the immense gravity of eternity, which I feel is the testimony and knowledge of the Gospel and of the Divinity of God and of what we can become, we can receive that unseen force or strength to build and establish order in a world of chaos. I don't know if that is making sense or not. I wrote it out in my study journal. I just love that scripture.

There was this homeless crazy guy that followed us and tried to pick pocket us in fond tie tie. He followed us for a few hundred yards and it was only us and him. He was so blatantly obvious. I just walked with my hands in my pockets and buttoned up my back pocket which had about $10 worth of money. I realized that he wasn't going to stop so I turned around and confronted him. He started asking for money and what not and he was so drugged up and lost. He was feeling my butt and front pockets. I saw that he had a glass pepper shaker in his hand and I had no clue what he was going to do with it. I saw it as a weapon that he could try to hit us with so I told him that I would give him some money if he gave me that pepper shaker. He agreed and I told him that I was only going to give him 100 cfa, which is like twenty cents and he said that was okay. So I gave it to him and then told him to get away. He left and we turned around and started walking away. After a few seconds I realized I still had his pepper shaker so I turned around yelled out "chef!" and threw it to him and luckily he caught it. We were almost 20 yards away from each other. It was probably his only possession besides the raggedy clothes he had. So a few days go by and I see this guy walking on the road. I yelled "hey!" to him and gave him a thumbs up and right when he saw us he went into super crazy mode. He started sprinting after our taxi is his torn up wife beater, shorts, and cowboy boots and actually caught up to us (we were in a little traffic). I locked my door because he was trying to get it. He was asking for more money and what not. He had some kind of butter container in his hand but he moved and put it in between his cheek and his arm, like you would hold a phone when your hands are dirty or something, and he was running along with the taxi like that just hanging on. At one moment he actually tried to stop the taxi. How? He tried planting his feet on the asphalt and pulled but he only slid along. He was shredding his boots. His butter thing fell and the taxi guy sped up and he eventually let go before he fell on his face. I looked back and he was just looking at his destroyed boots. I felt bad for trying to say hi. Crazy stuff. I hope we don't run into him again.
 
So there is my week! I want to do a shout out to Craig and Keri Ford. Congratulations on the birth of your first child Audrey Lee! I can't wait to see her! Je vous aime!

 

I love you Mom :)

Elder Schmid