Missionary Work

    A few days before our October 30 missionaries were to depart, Elder Cloward and I went teaching with Elder Randall and his Malagasy companion.  We went to see two families that evening.  The first family lived in a little house down this alley.  Elder Randall said that we could drive down there and it would be okay.  As we got driving down there we got lots of strange looks from some of the people walking along; the further down there we got we really started to understand those strange looks.  It got to the point that we had about 6 inches on each side of the car, and that was after we had folded both side mirrors in.  When we got to where their house was, we pulled over as much as we could, which wasn't much, and people just had to walk around the car.
  Their house had the main room that was big enough for a double bed, a little love seat and a cupboard with a television on top.  It had a real wooden door and a little window way up high with a shutter that would close.  There was some kind of other room also cause when the little boy had to go to the bathroom they went in there.  It had concrete walls and a  concrete floor.  The room was really clean, everything had a place; because there was No Room for anything to be out of place!
   The little family that lived there had a five year old little girl and then twin boys 22 months old.  Often the Mom and Dad would be gone, either working or looking for work, and the five year old would tend those two little boys, feed them, change them and take care of them for hours at a time.    The little family had been members for several months and they were teaching the Dad's cousin and his fiance over there. It was awesome to talk with them about the importance of families.
   When we first walked into the house, the little girl started to scream and cry and climbed back to the back of the bed as far away from us as she could get.  From what I understood, it was all of my white hair that had her so scared.  I've heard a few times that I look like a ghost.  By the time we left the little girl was my good friend, holding onto my hand and trying to climb up me.
  In order to get our car out of there half the neighborhood came out and they took down a fence so that we could get turned around.  The whole area knew that we had been there!

   The next family, a mother and three kids (a 14 years old girl, 10 year old boy and about a 6 or 7 year old girl), lived in a little one room wooden house out in the middle of some fields; I think they were rice paddies but don't know for sure because it was dark by the time we got there.  We walked along this little raised path out in these fields to where there were about 15-20 little one room 'houses'.  The lady had met us about half way along the path.  When we got to her house her 14 year old daughter was sitting on a bench seat out of an old taxi busse studying on a little 2x3 foot table by the light of one little candle.  Dad had a flashlight in his pocket and he stuck it to the metal ceiling.  It really lit up that little room.  All of his flashlights have certainly come in handy.
  They had fabric hanging over the door and the one window.  There was barely enough room for a double bed on one side with their belongings stacked on the bottom of the bed, and a twin bed on the other wall.  In between there was the seat out of a van, a little table that they could eat on and then another little 2x3 foot table against the other wall that had a couple of pans  and a jug of water under it.  Almost all of the people here cook on little charcoal burners either just outside their door or just inside the house.  It is always smoky here.
   This sweet lady that lives there is working like crazy just so she and her three kids can survive, and what she is worried about is making sure that she has a temple recommend.  She knows that she won't actually be able to go to the temple, but she wants to have a recommend.  The church here will help families to go to the temple in Johannesburg for the first time when they are going to be sealed as a family.  She won't be able to go because her husband is in prison.  She would like to get a divorce from him but she doesn't have the money to do it.  She was such a sweet lady, and it was wonderful to get to visit with her and to help teach her a little bit. 
   Going into these peoples houses and seeing how sweet and humble they are really makes you realize what is important and how much we need to be doing to help them.  It sure is humbling.

We  have a sign in our office of the definition of a missionary:

I love this little sign.  It certainly keeps things in perspective.