Leaving Lilongwe

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

On Sunday I was asked to talk in both branches, and I shared about the story of the ten virgins. In preparation for the talk, I read about the parable in James E Talmage's Jesus the Christ. If you can, I urge you all to do the same. His explanation is simply beautiful, and it helped me to really break it down in simple terms for those wonderful people. There's something about telling stories that really helps people to know more about the Gospel. Perhaps the Savior was onto something.

On Thursday, F and I had a funny experience as we walked through Kauma. We saw one of the Elders' investigators and walked up to say hello. Now, she'd been coming to our English class, so I said to her:

"Amayi, how are you?"

To which she promptly replied:

"My name is Berthi (pronounced Bert)."

F and I were in stitches afterward, and as a bit of an inside joke, we'll randomly say 'my name is berthi!' I think I can safely say that I hope Sister A, my new companion, will have kwambiri amounts of yellow (look up 'the color code' to understand).

I don't know if you watched it, but on the internet broadcast of General Conference there was this thing called The World Report, and Elder Holland talked about some people I think in a French speaking part of Africa (can't remember the name, much less how it's spelled--but I know it's french because the name was spelled weird and french-like). He said if you ever want a lesson on how to truly be happy, go to Africa. He talked about how the people don't have much in the way of the world, but they are happy here. And it's true. Every day I'll be walking through the village where parents maybe can't even give their children shoes, but the kids are always laughing and smiling and playing. And I've realized that that is how they know to be happy. They don't need expensive toys or video games, they just live. It's a lesson I plan on teaching my kids when they are old enough to understand.

I started packing this morning, just because I didn't actually want to move all my things. You know when you have a jar of dirt and water and you shake it up and then just let it sit there? Well, packing would be for me like shaking up that jar again. And I wanted to put it off for as long as I could. But when I woke up this morning I sighed and realized that I couldn't really put it off any longer. I was amazed that all my stuff could still fit (almost all of it, because that package you sent me back in November won't fit in any of the boxes... wonder how I'll pull that off in the chicken bus...).

**

The hymn for the week is #124. This is a brilliant hymn, with a calming melody along with calming words. It really helps me go through troubles, and I know it can do the same for you. I leave you those things in the name of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sister Adams