Africa!!

     Well, I am in Africa now. This is the most crazy thing I have ever done!! To start off, it's so poor here, there is trash everywhere, and people will just use the bathroom on the side of the road! There is no such thing as a dryer, and everything here smells weird. The water in our house has to go through three different filters before we can drink it!!! And I could go on with a ton more!! 

     BUT I am doing great. I am way out of my comfort zone, but I am happy to serve the Lord where ever he needs me!! :) What I thought I knew about Portuguese is nothing out here! They all speak Creole, and speak so fast! The past few days I have pretty much been silent! :) 

     The message I want to share with everyone is to be grateful for what you have! In one of the lessons I was teaching, we were in a house that has been built out of complete scrap. Scrap wood, meat concrete (?), so forth. There are easily 500 flies all flying around! As we were teaching, this little girl comes in with a sucker, probably the size of a dum dum (sucker) and she starts sharing with the other 6 kids in the room. They pass it around and each takes one little suck on it. Then one kid took two, and this other kid straight up punches him in the head, and knocks him over!!! My heart hurts so much for this family. All the kids were under 10 and they were in dirty clothes, or at least part outfits. We were sitting on crates and broken chairs. So love what you have, and who you have, because there truly are people in the world who have nothing! They live the hardest lives ever! 

     I helped carry water today to a (church) member's house from where they get water, and the walk was 250 yards with heavy buckets, and that was what they had to do, or else they didn't have water. 

     So much more has happened, but I need to bail. I am proud to be the Lord's missionary and to be able to bring joy and comfort to these people, showing them that they are loved and things will be alright! 

Love

Elder Naylor