November 14-28th, 2016....." It was the craziest experience I've ever had"

November 28, 2016


Cool experience.

Last week Wednesday we went and visited a super sick member by the name of Sister Deborah, she had cerebral malaria. Super deadly. The malaria had actually attacked the part of her brain where speech is concerned. So we could only communicate through yes or no questions. At the end of our discussion we asked if she wanted a blessing. She nodded. So we proceded to give a blessing. Then we left and never heard anything til yesterday. We net her small daughter and two older daughters at church (all nonmembers) they told us that the following day after we have her a bless g she woke up able to speak. Her voice came back!! She had no medicine or anything. It was the craziest experience I've ever had

Elder Scatena

November 7, 2016

So we had a baptism this week!!! I had to do the baptizing again. She chose me. The work is on fire here. We hope to have 4 baptisms by the middle of December. Which, in case you didn't know, Is a good think. We walk alot here though hahaha. Miles and miles every day. I'm so used to walking that I honestly don't even feel it anymore hahaha. We normally work with Ackim. Since he is a returned missionary he is a very good teacher. Plus he's a super hard worker so he doesn't mind working with us hahaha. On average we teach about 3-4 investigator lessons a day. We also teach about 2-3 less actives a day. As well as 1-2 member visits a day. On a good day we can have like 10-11 lessons a day. But as of late we have been bumping up or investigator lessons cause we want to baptize more converts. Soon we want to go to the dam again. Probably next week Monday. We've earned a chill day hahaha. Our zone here is on fire too. In the month of November, every companionship baptized. Which is super crazy cause this zone used to struggle. Especially my area, it used to be nicknamed "the atonement" cause you'd come and suffer here. But we've flipped it around and made it nice. Hahaha. The work is tough but it is made easier cause the product I'm selling is the best hahaha.

I hope that's long enough hahaha.

Elder Scatena

October 10, 2016..."The power of studying is beyond me"

One "long email" coming right up.

So this week was one of the more interesting ones. We had many lessons and by many I mean MANY! We had the privilege of meeting alot of new people and inspire them. We also had companionship exchanges with the elders in Kawama.i was with the kid Elder Thomas he's pretty new he is in his last week of training this week. But we were able to teach many. 

One specific experience that was pretty cool is the enlightenment that I had while talking to a man on a bus. I can't remember the man's name but he was a member of the church that follows the man William Burnham. A man who says he photographed god lol. But the enlightenment I received was how valuable studying is. This man immediately, without provocation, started to attack the means of baptizing in the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Luckily that same week I had studied that, I was able to defend by pointing out that they were indeed the separate individuals. That sparked the argument cause their beliefs are in the Trinity. So I brought the facts to him by bringing up the fact that Stephen saw god and jesus. And that since Christ wasnt a ventriloquist at his baptism a separate individual had to have been speaking. Then lastly I asked him who was Christ praying to in Gethsemane if they were one. The man, now in a dazed stupor, had no rebuttal. Mind the fact that this was all on a public bus and alot of people were listening to me preach at this man. He was super embarrassed cause I'm just a young man and he is an experienced old man, that and people were laughing at him hahaha. The power of studying is beyond me. Hahahaha.

Elder Scatena

July 25, 2016......"Elders, I sense something different about you, I like you two"

Hello!

It has been a long week. we have had referrals pouring out of the heavens. we have picked up teaching two older gentlemen this week. brother Mushamba and brother Thembo. bother really good guys and really interested in the church. we also met with some of our recent converts. one of which has 2 more children that we are starting to teach which are both on track to be baptized. we have been walking sooo much and working super hard to try and find more people to teach and it's working quite well. later this week, a young man in the ward has like 4 friends that he wants us to come teach so there are some more people and the branch president's wife has a referral as well. so the area is good. as for now me and Elder Essliflie are the only two missionaries in the entire Kitwe. so this whole city is our area. we have a pretty big area. lol. but everything is good. thanks so much for the stuff in the package. i killed the ramen in like 2 days. loll. but there weren't any glasses or belts. just your scriptures, candy, trousers, my card, seasoning, ramen, and drink flavorings. 

Hello!

so I got my new comp he's pretty chill and we're busting out work. We have one kid set on date for the 7th of August and we hope to put 2 ladies on date for the middle/end of August so we are working hard. The new mission pres is cool. I've only talked to him once so that's about it. we have a lot planned for our area over the next two months. hopefully all goes accordingly. this week was weird. i had a moment of some sort in a lesson with a difficult old man. he started arguing with us and then rather than argue back (which i promise was my first instinct) I sat back and chilled. In the end of the lesson I was able to mention to him that we encourage questions and he was so blown away and impressed cause he realized that we didn't argue with him (he had met some Jehovah's witnesses earlier the day before) and he said "elders, i sense something different about you. i like you two." it was not just  good experience but a learnt lesson for me. sometimes (i really mean sometimes) arguing isn't the answer. 

June, 2016....."We had referrals pouring out of the heavens"

Hey what’s up!

I’m on now. it has been a long week. We have had referrals pouring out of the heavens. We have picked up teaching two older gentlemen this week. Brother mushamba and brother thembo. Both are really good guys and really interested in the church. We also met with some of our recent converts. One of which has 2 more children that we are starting to teach which are both on track to be baptized. We have been walking sooo much and working super hard to try and find more people to teach and it's working quite well. Later this week, a young man in the ward has like 4 friends that he wants us to come teach so there are some more people and the branch president's wife has a referral as well. So the area is good. As for now me and elder essliflie are the only two missionaries in the entire kitwe. So this whole city is our area. We have a pretty big area. lol. But everything is good. Thanks so much for the stuff in the package. I killed the ramen in like 2 days. lol. But there weren't any glasses or belts. Just your scriptures, candy, trousers, my card, seasoning, ramen, and drink flavorings. 

Elder Scatena

May 30, 2016.....Pics from Zambia!

April 11, 2016.....Well, if I didn't email you, who else in Africa would?"

well if i didn't email you who else in Africa would? hahahaha this week
was a long one. I got the flu (cause its flu season and I'm a disease
magnet. so I ended up having to waste tons of time and money on rest
and medicine. We got out at the end of the week to go see some people.
We are teaching one kid who is super ready. his name is kondwani. we
have taught him all of the restoration and about 2/3  of the plan of
salvation. He is super spiritually directed and this week we want to
try and visit him thrice so we can blast out the rest of the plan of
salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ. whatever tho. just working
hahahaha will you send me some recipes? I can buy whatever i need to i
am about to become sick of instant noodles cause  I've eaten them for dinner
every single night for the past month and a half. I just want some
different food hahahaha. well transfers are next week.. actually they
are on Saturday so one of us is probably being transferred so pray for
me. other news. our branch is sorta falling apart. The branch
president last week announced that when you are at the pulpit and are
giving a talk there is not allowed to be a translator anymore so if
you give a talk in English it just gonna be in English if its in
chichewa its just gonna be in chichewa. so our entire branch is
throwing a fit and just about on the verge of apostasy cause they (the
people) suggested that the article of faith that says that men may
worship how when and what they may means that we can change the rules
to translate the sacrament meeting. almost all of the women of the
branch didn't come to church cause almost none of them can speak
English... so yeah we had a massive debate about it in branch council
meeting in which me an my companion gave a dump truck load of fire to
anyone saying that they should just do what they want hahahaha. but I
just pray that it gets sorted out.

Elder Scatena

March 28, 2016......"They're aiming to make this area a stake in about 2 years"

Hello Everyone!

so this week was super good, but kinda boring. we had zone conference and then district conference. they are aiming to make this area a stake in about 2 years... so after im home. hahaha. me and my companion had a lot of success this week. we met a lot of people and got to teach a lot. we should be baptizing like 3 people on the 24 of this next month. transfers are either at the end of this week or the end of next. im pretty sure that me and my comp are gonna be split cause we've been together for almost 18 weeks now.  dk im not too excited. I dont like transfers. they give me stress. yeah tho a companionship, it is like marriage. except its like a marriage in which your wrists are shackled together. cause you have to be together 24/7 lol. i just miss lying down in my room and binge watching random tv series on Netflix hahahaha 

.  We taught a man about the restoration this week and he was begging us to be baptized at the end. so that was cool. idk nothing much is new. im reaching 7 months in like 4 or 5 days so that kinda weird. idk when that happened but it did hahaha. in two months after that ill be at 9 months and i swear just yesterday it was Ammon reaching his 9 month mark. idk whats going on. and where the time is going but it sure isn't sticking around hahaha.

Elder Scatena