About a year before I left on my mission, I recall a conversation I had with my cousins, Rob and Braden. They are much older than me and have also served missions in exotic places. They were convinced that I would be called to serve in a place where I'd need to face my fear of spiders and insects. They were trying to scare me by showing me pictures of the "Camel spider" and other frightening spiders. This memory came back to me when I saw something much more frightening than the Camel spider. Up in the corner of an old shack was a large black spider with bright yellow legs. It was easily bigger than my hand! That's not even the scariest part... It had a small rodent!!! Ah!! Way worse than any Camel spider haha! Africa is truly jaw dropping! Thankfully... I also remember Braden and Rob assuring me that the Lord will replace my fears with comfort as a result to my willingness to serve diligently. They were right! It's insane how much I've been able to endure regardless of my arachnophobia haha!
We are getting into dry season and my gosh it is hot! While it's getting chilly back home... It's only getting hotter over here. I miss the feeling of being cold and not consistently sweaty!
I went on exchanges with Elder Tamfumo from DRC. He is a great guy and such a good teacher. My area is doing good! Angel went with us to the General Woman's session last week. We later had a good lesson about living Prophets. I had to clarify that we don't worship Russell M Nelson... We honor and follow his direction.
Okay this next part makes me upset... One of our dogs, Russell got really sick one day and Elder James noticed a large green bean looking thing in the dog's ear. With a pair of tweezers, we tried to remove it but couldn't. I was scared it was a growth but after closer inspection we realized it was a large tick. The other Elders wanted to pull the tick out but I proudly said, "No guys. I'm an Eagle scout and I have been taught to never pull a tick out. The head will stay and get infected. We need to poke the tick's butt with a burning needle. It will release and then we can remove it from the ear." Haha I probably looked like a nerd but it worked and I felt very proud. After we removed the 1st tick... We found 5 more!! The poor dog was loosing brain juice and we didn't even know it! Well after the surgery, we felt pretty cool about ourselves. But GUESS WHAT!? The mission office took the puppies!!! Ah I'm so upset!! I fought to keep them alive and I didn't even get to eat one!!! (Kidding totally kidding)
Not a whole lot to report this week! The work is great! Love you all! Thanks for your kind emails!
Sincerely, Elder Hallenberger
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