Week 48  Sour Cream Sandwiches

Well...talk about a week. Monday we had a water balloon fight with all the missionaries. We couldn't get into the churches backyard (cause the church here is a house) through the normal door so we went through the window and down a ladder. So that made part of the experience. It's really fun to be with all the missionaries and we get to do it a lot. OK, so the week....I'm going to be honest here. Real talk time: the beginning of the week was actually pretty hard for me. I hit a low again. Even further then last time. I've been pretty stressed lately. Although my new companion is great and we get a long, she is slow with somethings. So I have to lead a lot, it kinda feels like I'm training again at times and I do about 90% of the work. I teach and translate primary by myself. I am the only one who teaches English at English class. I'm really the only one talking in lessons...and the stress really got to me. On top of that I'm a perfectionist which makes doing certain tasks make me feel like the world is on my shoulders. We also haven't been able to find anyone new so that just put the cherry on top. It's been kinda tough. Luckily it's gotten better. I got a priesthood blessing and I was able to talk to one of the sisters about this which made a whole lot of a difference. I've started to push her more to do certain things like doing the spiritual thought with a member and turning to her lot for certain things. Basically pulling my trainer moves out from last transfer. And I think she got the hint. This of course is not saying she is a bad missionary or a bad person because sister Mafi is really great, but I think she got a little too used to not having to do certain things in her first transfer. Once the weekend hit things got a lot better. We had a cool experience with the elder's investigator. He is kinda of a visionary man. I have noticed, maybe this is wrong, but God speaks to certain groups of people differently and for him he speaks through dreams. He told us on Friday that we should go buy red flowers, specifically red, for a girl. This girl he did not know but he felt that she was young and went to church a few times. Both my companion and I realized who he possibly could be talking about, which is a former Isani investigator. So we met with ემ (I will call her) and dropped off some flowers and talked with her. Now the meeting wasn't overly amazing or anything but we got to know her, be friends with her and testified how she could find happiness and meaning in her life. Because of the meeting i think she felt more open with us and she even came to church and really loved it! Now I don't know if the flowers made a difference or whatever, but it made for a much more faithful experience. Saturday things got interesting. Let's just say the weekend was a weird one. We went to Rustavi and met with one of the elders investigators wife. She is a little bit against him being baptized so they thought it would be best if the sisters befriended her and made things a little bit better. So she does nails so we asked if we could get some manicures. Yup we got our nails done. Oh how hard missionary work is sometimes.🤣 Well the meeting went great and I was able to speak really good Georgian! Sister Mafi played the ukulele for her and we had a grand old time. We had to leave though soon afterwards because we had a meeting and she said that we should come over again because she felt that we didn't really get to talk since some people kept stopping in for other appointments. This by the way is in her house. So mission accomplished and if felt great. We left and then had a meeting with a member where she fed us sour cream sandwiches. I mean it was literally half a thing of sour cream in between two pieces of bread...the amount of times I got close to gagging was real. She said that this food is like water and that it is easy to eat...for me it wasn't, haven't felt good since. I ate the whole thing and Sister Mafi got away with only eating half and saving it for "later". We ended up heading back to nail lady because we forgot to pay but she wouldn't let us, said it was a gift. Turns out because we drove over there we met a cool guy and got a contact. So worth the trip back. Sunday was a dozy. So I was chorister again, and I think I got the hang of it. Then second hour...was pretty hard. So ემ came so sister Mafi went with her to Sunday school class. I went up to teach primary with a certain Rustavi member (for fast Sunday Rustavi group comes up to Avlabari) This member is great don't get me wrong but they wanted her in the children's class so that she wouldn't derail the Sunday school lesson. So primary class was a little crazy. Half in Georgian half in English. 3 groups trying to get my attention the entire time. One second it's the English group next it's the Georgian group and then next it's the member talking about some other random subject...man I about lost my mind. Turned out OK and the kids still all love me which is great just took all my energy out. With a few hugs and some cute pictures and letters to me afterwards it was worth it. I told the kids to write some letters to some people they love and write why they are thankful for them and they all gave me one at the end. Made the stress worth it.

Spiritual though: So I've been thinking about last transfer a lot and this transfer. I realized that I have been much more stressed and worried this transfer than I was a last transfer when I was training for the first time. Which is kinda weird but then I realized something. Mosiah 24: 13-15. God will help us with our trails or ours burden and will help ease them to where we cant even feel them even while still in the midst of them . I think that happened to me last transfer. Yes, the transfer was hard at times being with a new missionary, but I didn't feel like the weight of the world rested on my shoulders. I now see God truly was there with me my entire last transfer helping me carry the burden I thought I couldn't carry. So I guess the stressful week was worth it cause I got to see how much God was in my life last transfer.

Well that was the week, until next time!

-და ჯენსენი