Want Some Drugs?

Hey y'all! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and an amazing New Years, being from the future (like 8 hours ahead) this new year is looking pretty good! Y'all are gonna love it!

So I’m going to talk about the title of today's email early...cause it's a funny one! Let's just say all the "just say no to drugs!" they taught us in elementary school was useful! We were teaching this guy and he was lowkey so cool and funny, when we walked in the first time there was coffee and whiskey on his table and when we told him the name of our church he put it into youtube and said “I'll research you guys"... so we were pretty sure he wasn't going to contact us, then he did! And, turns out his youtube research brought up these points: we have word of wisdom, law of chastity, AGAINST polygamy, against slavery, annnddd have our own bible. All in all not a bad list, we went over and taught him the BOM isn't the Bible and how the Bible and the BOM work together! He also showed us the video he watched and a bunch of other videos not on our church that were just weird and confusing. We talked with him for like a good hour and a half (he wouldn't let us leave, just kept talking) and then at the end he was like "hey smell this" and hands Tolman a small bag with some sort of suspicious herb in it…Tolman looked at it and said "is this weed?" And the guy goes "yeah, I loveeee this stuff! Y'all want some?" We said "no thanks" and then he showed us some of the music he is making and showed us his youtube channel (hit me up if ya want it, it was kind of fire ngl) so shout out to elementary school teaching me how to say no to drugs! Came in clutch!

So, I found out the adults don't celebrate Christmas but MAN DO THEY LOVE NEW YEARS! I swear everyone has been partying this week and getting ready for parties! They love New Years here!

So, met a few interesting people this week, let's talk about them! First off a Nigerian girl told us that even if she did pray and God told her that her church was wrong she wouldn't come...wild..., next a Muslim momma who made her whole family come out to see us, then told us Christ is coming, he will be here for 7 years and have 4 kids…Muslims don't even believe in Jesus like that…weird. Next up we got the dude from above, creates fire music in a small studio we thought was a house, and finally a 17 year old that looked like Miles from Spiderman into the spider verse, he was hilarious and knew he looked like Miles, his name was Maël (sounds kinda like Miles).
Had some parties this week, all started 2 hours late...it's on Africa time, but they were lit! So much fun! I may not speak these peoples language that well but ya don't need to talk alot to party! The music was lit, live bands, delicious juice, and the most amazing people ya can ask for!

Also this weeks huge highlights!
1) our friend Rose was put on date for baptism! When we met her she didnt believe in anything! She had tried a bunch of churches but didn't like any of them, but we taught her and she started coming to church and she loved it! She's already got friends in the ward so she's on date for Jan 12th! My last Sunday of being a trainee...🥲
2) our friend Marus, kind of like Rose he didn't believe in anything, his wife went to church but he didn't and didn't have faith at all, so we have been helping building his faith and when he prayed we saw him a few days later and says "guys! I prayed like how you told me and I've noticed a difference in my life and mood! Not only ive noticed but my wife has too!!" Which is absolutely lit! He has just recently started coming to church which is awesome! He loved how calm it was!
So there are the miracles from this week (Marus happened like 2 weeks ago lowkey but he started to come to church) the spirit works in our works, ladies and gentlemen! The harder we work the harder the spirit will work!

Okay for spiritual thought this week comes from Alma 50: 1-6
It's in the war chapters which i usually didn't mark alot but these stood out to me for some reason. It's Moroni preparing for war and building these huge walls and defenses around all the cities to prepare for the Lamanites to come. What stood out to me from these verses is how he prepares even when they aren't there, he could have waited till they were coming and ask God for strength to defeat them, but he prepared! Like how life may be easy for us right now and not have a lot of trials but we still need to prepare and build spiritual walls and defenses for when the Lamanites of our day (temptation and trials) come at us we are ready and have defenses and ways to avoid falling into the hands of these temptations. In some meeting I was in (don't remember which one) but someone said "a lot of missionaries don't prepare for lessons or anything and say 'oh the spirit will help me' which isn't a good way its the lazy way!" The spirit may help you but you still need to prepare and do all you can! The Lord isn't going to do everything for us, He just helps us where we fall short. If we can do 70% he will do 30% but he wont do the full 100% for us, we need to put in constant effort!
Basically even if its easy at the moment get ready, read your scriptures, pray daily, and prepare for the war that may be coming.

Hope you all have an amazing week this week, start and end every day with a prayer! The power of prayer is so real and very very important! Have an amazing week, love y'all!