Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 16 Davis Pool Service in Africa

I feel like I just had P-day yesterday! This week has flown by! I will apologize in advance and warn you that this letter will be quite short... Sorry...

But, it has been a good week! But first off, Happy Birthday Tobie!!!

Parabens a voce! Nesta data querida! Muitas felizidades! Muitos anos da vida! That is the happy birthday song that they sing here! It means; "Congratulations to you on this dear day! Many happies (there is no real direct translation for that) Many years of life!" So happy birthday on the 30th Tobie!

So we have 18 investigators with a baptismal date marked! We will be having a massive baptismal service on October 17 with 3 of our investigators, and a few of other Missionary's investigators!

But Elder Badger got bit by a stray dog on Sunday Morning as we were walking around to check on our investigators before church! I was a few paces ahead of him, when I heard him scream! We've got no idea why this dog bit him, but it wasn't even that bad of a bite. It didn't break skin, it bit him on his ankle, and the bite didn't even put holes in his pants or his socks. But he was pretty worried, so our Mission President's wife told him to go to the hospital. So we left church a little early and went into the city to get him looked over. The doctor wants to be cautious, so we have to go back every week for the next month to get a series of Rabies shots for Elder Badger.

This week I also had my first hard rejection. We were knocking on doors, and we could hear this kid playing inside of the gate of this rich house. So we knock on the gate, and the little boy comes to the door and he is this super cute little boy! I'll never forget him! His name is Yuma, and he went to call his Mom, who then comes walking out with this Mulato(tan) baby in her arms. We ask if we can talk to the Dad of the house, and so she goes and calls him! She was super nice, and super welcoming to us, and Yuma held my hand as he walked us to the door. Then, The Portuguese man comes to his door. We explained that we were Missionaries and that we'd like to share a message about Christ with him and his family. Then, extremely rudely, he said, "No. Leave. Goodbye." And he walks back into his house. Man, I was so upset. Matthew 19:24. I'm tired of rich people thinking that they don't need Christ or any sort of religion at all!

But the day got a little bit better as we tried another rich house! We entered the gate, and female after female after female came out of the house to greet us! There were probably 7 girls from ages 5 to 15 that came out, then finally a man came out! We introduced ourselves, and he was very nice! We were invited to come back another time, but what made me really happy was when I saw their pool!! I asked him if I could look at his pump for his pool. Surprisingly, it is extremely similar to pools in the states! He had a sand filter, Chlorine pool, that was a little dirty, so I grabbed the pool net, and cleaned it up a little bit, checked the chemical levels, and he was extremely impressed! So Papa, if you ever want to take Davis Pool Service International, I've already got some connections here! Haha! So that made me pretty happy!

The Mozambican little girls here are so adorable! With the beads in their hair and all! At a family night, they wanted to sing with me, so we just sang hymns while everyone else watched Carrossel- a really family friendly Brazilian show. But this week was super good!

So as for the super spiritual experience...

I was super frustrated as to how our night was going, and we were just walking along when I heard a voice say, "If you want us to stay with you, you have got to change." In that instant, I changed my attitude, and then realized that we had passed a family without even talking to them! They had this cute little baby, and so we turned around and talked to them. We have yet to sit down with them, but I feel super strongly that they will be good investigators. So that was the super spiritual experience that I had.

Well, that's all that I've got this week! I'm sorry, again. But I'll try to do better! I love you all! I love this work. I know God lives. I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.

That's all from this side of the world!

Tchau,

Elder Rash