Another Good Week

Dearest Family,

It was yet another good week in Malawi. I got my first letters this week! Shout out to Mariah and Shaelie for being the bomb! Getting letters is so exciting, especially when the postage seems so unpredictable.

So not only do I love the Malawians, but I have decided that South Africans are the coolest people ever. I live with a sister from South and then two elders in my district are from South and they are all so funny and kind. They are the most westernized Africans while still being VERY African. I really love my district so much. It is Sister Orr and I and then Elder Moklhapping (like Mo-clapping) from South, Elder Hanson from Utah, Elder Hinckley from Canada, and Elder Mohklakuana (probably butchered the spelling) from South. For the baptism on Sunday the elders kind of didn't really plan in advance and 30 minutes before it was supposed to start they realized they hadn't filled the font. The font is a free standing, giant tub and we didn't have a hose to fill it so we started filling it with buckets. It was a potentially frustrating situation but we were all laughing so hard as we ran around the church complex filling buckets at every tap we could find. It seemed like we weren't filling the font but I said, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass!" and then we all just cheered each other on with that scripture. It was a nerdy missionary moment but SO fun. I will send pictures hopefully next week.

I'm loving teaching more and more. My favorite thing is to see a little light start to grow in their eyes. Even if they don't end up moving forward with learning, you can tell they recognize truth somewhere in their spirit and you know a seed has been planted. I was teaching a man about Joseph Smith this week and I felt the truth of it so deeply in my heart. I could just feel Joseph come and sit down next to the man and put his arm around him letting him know it was true. Oh, I love this gospel so much!

More crazy things about Malawi:

-At this time every year there are these guys that run around with masks and body paint and machetes and scare children and it's actually terrifying. I guess it's some type of ritual and they are called something like "Gooli wan gurus" but yeah. Especially the machete part I try to avoid.

-I met a guy named "Fun" this week

-I met a 96 year old woman! That is like impossible in Africa. She was like a little raisin laying under a blanket and had the highest voice. She was adorable.

Since our investigator died, we knew where he lived, so this week we went to his house and met his mother and she had such an amazing spirit about her. She was so grateful to us for being there and we even went back on Friday to help her in her large garden. We worked for almost four hours watering and weeding and she said that she is supposed to do that everyday but she has HIV/AIDS and it is hard to keep going all the time. She is very educated and religious and hearing her life story was amazing. We will go back this week to help more.

Operation Smile packed up on Saturday so we got to go back again to help them inventory and see through the last patients. We even got to stand in on the last operation of the mission--a 16-year-old boy that had walked two days to get this surgery. Let's just say I don't think my future is in the medical field. I've never thought of myself as squeamish but seeing them cut up this guy's face was pretty gruesome. I can tell you that I never imagined in a million years that I would be in an operating room in Malawi on a mission.

So this week I have been a nurse, a farmer, a teacher, a bucket hauler, and a friend. Missionary life continues to bring new adventures everyday!

Love forever,

Sister Michaela Proctor