A.
Points of Contact
Some may be puzzled by the seemingly tangential role played
by younger missionaries in this description of our experience in Malawi—at
least as it has unfolded so far. But,
upon further reflection, this should not come as much of a surprise. As MLS missionaries, our focus is upon
supporting local members in learning their duties and developing faith. Our time is devoted to visiting members,
active and less active, sharing short gospel lessons, trying to train local
leaders, supporting branch and district activities. Five months into our mission, we also picked
up responsibility for reporting and accounting for the use of local mission
funds. While, on occasion, we work with younger
missionaries, helping fellowship those who are older and have less in common with
younger members, proselyting is incidental to our primary activities. Moreover, what we struggle most to
understand is how both members and nonmembers in Malawi approach matters of
faith, how they develop character—the strength to live the commandments once
they become members, and how they try to incorporate the principles of
Mormonism into their lives—many of which are strange and almost unfathomable to
them. So what we think most about are the
Malawians and their struggles, not about the stories, character and struggles of
younger missionaries. Yet, of course, the
two stories are intertwined—as these young missionaries have certainly colored
our experience and, at the same time, have had a profound impact upon the lives
of our members.
No doubt, the experience of other senior missionaries is
radically different. Many of them spend
far more time interacting with younger missionaries, supporting their teaching
activities and, in some cases, enjoying with them the cultural opportunities
present in their mission field. As their
blogs, letters and other reports readily attest, their mission experiences are
far more tied up in their dealings with young missionaries, than has been the
case for us. However, younger
missionaries have certainly had a great impact upon us, as we have watched,
somewhat from a distance, their faithful service, knowledge of the gospel, and
spiritual maturity. The following is a brief description of some
of the ways in which we have interacted with younger missionaries.
First, young missionaries get together weekly for either a
district or zone meeting (the zone meeting being once a month, the district
meetings on the other weeks) and a weekly meeting to coordinate with the branch
mission leader. For the first five
months of our mission we made a conscientious effort to attend all of the
meetings that were attended by the younger missionaries assigned to the
Zingwangwa Branch. This allowed us to
feel more a part of the local missionary effort, to get to know the branch
members, and to understand better the challenges facing the missionaries and branch
president. When we assumed
responsibility for the office functions in Blantyre, this meeting schedule became
too heavy, so we cut back, going only to the monthly zone meeting, and
occasionally to one of the branch mission correlation meetings. This change in meeting schedule came at a
price—now it is much harder to keep up on the status of branch members, and to
know who might be struggling. We have markedly
less visibility into the weekly activities of the local missionaries.
One of the unique features of these missionaries meetings,
at least from our perspective, is that each meeting is under the direction of
someone else—the district leader runs the district meeting, the zone leader the
zone meeting, and the branch missionary leader the branch missionary correlation
meeting. Hence, participating in these
meetings has resulted in our getting to know the younger missionaries and
branch mission leader well. The young missionaries are wholly responsible
for these meetings—they conduct the meetings, set the agendas, and do the
instruction. Rarely do they expect or
ask Carole and me to play much of a role—other than giving occasional prayers
and scriptural thoughts. They serve as
the line leaders, while the senior missionaries play the role of students. Those outside of the Church may find this peculiar—having
young missionaries—with just a couple of years of Church experience—take
responsibility for instructing senior missionaries, with far more experience in
the Church, and likely a better understanding of Church doctrines and
practices. The pattern is, however,
consistent with the way in which the mission is organized—the mission president
and younger missionaries being the ones responsible for proselyting
activities. Senior missionaries operate
outside of this organizational structure, so it is not so surprising that they
reach instruction from younger missionaries.
Of course, by being a good
example, senior missionaries can subtly mold the behavior of younger
missionaries, but this does not run along lines of formal authority. Senior missionaries have no control over
younger missionaries, who report solely to the mission president.
Second, Carole and I are, from time to time, asked by
younger missionaries to join them for proselyting visits. Most of these requests have come from sister
missionaries. Church policy prohibits,
for example, sister missionaries from meeting with single men alone without the
presence of third party—who performs somewhat the role of a chaperon, to
eliminate the very appearance of impropriety, while at the same time protecting
sister missionaries from awkward or potentially dangerous situations. It is also somewhat surprising how often
Carole and I have, by mere chance, come across younger missionaries, as we have
visited the homes of active and less active members. If we are out and about, this frequently
occurs once to twice a week. Four missionaries (two pairs) are assigned to
work in the Zingwangwa Branch, and four missionaries to the Blantyre 2nd
Branch—each branch covering a relatively small geographic area. So on a routine basis there are eight other
missionaries circulating in the two areas where Carole and I spend most of our
time, so it is not too surprising that we bump into one another with fair
frequency.
Third, one might think we would have much contact with
younger missionaries at Church services.
But this occurs far less frequently than one might anticipate. Of course, we see them at Church, with quick
greetings, but usually both of us are so busy with our own assignments that the
level of the contact is cursory. Carole
is consumed with helping in Primary and Relief Society, and I in Sunday School,
Elders Quorum and with the Branch Presidencies. For their part younger missionaries are, as
one would hope, preoccupied with their investigators, attending the Gospel
Essentials class (which Carole and I rarely attend), lining up appointments,
visiting with the youth, coordinating with the Branch Presidents. There is some overlap, but it is not extensive.
Fourth, once we assumed office role functions in mid-March
2015, we found ourselves in constant contact with the Zone Leaders in
Blantyre. At least weekly, they come by
to pick up money (Malawian kwacha) to make missionary allotments, purchase
fuel, cover utility costs (phone, electricity, water), and cover
medical-related costs. This past year
Blantyre’s Water Board (the local water utility) has experienced one crisis
after another in supplying water to local residents. Once or twice during the week, the water
supply is cut off, and water delivery may be disrupted for hours, and in some cases
for even days, before it is restored.
Our residence has a 500 liter water tank, from which we can draw water,
when the municipal water supply is cut off.[1] As a consequence, the Zone Leaders have been
often impressed into becoming “water barons.”
Late in the evenings, after full days of missionary work, they come by
in their Isuzu truck with six to eight 5-liter plastic containers that they
fill up with water from our tank for re-delivery to those missionary flats,
where there is no water. The water
shortage problems were so chronic at the Pacific Palm Apartments, where the
sister training missionaries resided, that we ultimately moved them out of that
flat, even though it was ideally located to the sisters’ proselyting area, and
was otherwise a decent flat. It is
almost unimaginable the number of hours the Zone Leaders have had to consume
this year in addressing the water shortage problems faced by the Zone’s
missionaries.
This past six months the Zone has had, it seems, more than
its fair share of medical/dental problems—these problems sometimes seem to come
inexplicably in waves. Oddly enough,
the most recent rash of problems cropped up shortly after the Merrills left
Blantyre in mid-June of 2015. While the
Merrills were serving as CES missionaries, Elder Merrill is an experienced
physician and had served six prior missions as a Church medical advisor, skills
invaluable to aid local missionaries in deciding how and when to seek treatments
from local health providers for their medical problems. Young missionaries have had painful teeth in
need of extraction, have been crippled with panic attacks, and have been bitten
by spiders; they suffered with nasty skin rashes, have had neurologically reactions
to ‘anti-malaria’ pills, and have tortured by stomach/digestive ailments. Usually, the problems, if severe, are first
brought to the attention of Sister Erickson and/or Elder Birrell, who do a
limited, long-distance triage to determine whether the Zone Leaders should take
the affected missionary to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. In
Malawi, everyone goes “to the hospital” (which includes visits to local
clinics), when there is a medical problem.
This is the Malawian equivalent of “going to the doctor.” Often Sister Beal and I learn about the cases
only when we see a bill for a hospital consultation, treatment or
medication. This speaks to the self-reliance
and independence of the Zone Leaders, who try to solve problems on their own, without
turning to us. But on occasion, if the
Zone Leaders are unavailable, the problems are particularly acute, or more
money is needed for the care, we are asked to come to the hospital or to pick
up a suffering missionary.
Lastly, we got to know several sister missionaries much
better than others because they lived in the same apartment complex as we
did. The first five months in Malawi we
stayed in Apartment No. 5, in the Pamodzi Settlement Project in Sunnyside,
later moving into the One Kufa Road residence, previously located by the
Reynolds. The Church had a second
apartment, Apartment No. 3, in the project, which had virtually the same floor
plan, except that that apartment was located on the second floor, facing to the
west. As a consequence, Apartment No. 3
would heat up in the late afternoon, while our apartment, on the first floor
and eastward facing, stayed cooler. The
first pair of sister missionaries we met were Sister Komiha from Zimbabwe and
Sister Rasband from Utah. Later the sister
missionaries staying in Apartment No. 3 included Sister Dlamini from South
Africa, who is still in Blantyre, though now living in Nyambadwe, serving with
Sister Frimpong as one the sister training missionaries; Sister Griffus from
Minneapolis; and Sister Browning from the Boise area. Sister Griffus is now back in the United
States, and Sister Browning in Zambia.
Because of the proximity, we would frequently give the sister
missionaries rides to Church, help out with shopping, or pick them when coming home
in the evenings, little gestures we won’t normally do for other younger missionaries.
When
we moved out of Apartment No. 3, the sister missionaries took that apartment
and we terminated our lease of Apartment No. 5, returning the space back to the
landlord.
As a result of these points of contact, we have
gotten to know a few missionaries quite well, and have had enough contact with
most of those in the Zone, as they have come in and out, to develop a fair
impression of their skills, commitment, and work habits. Most younger missionaries stay in Blantyre
for five to eight months before being transferred to another area in the
mission or returning home. Of course,
there are outliers—the few who come and go in just a couple of months, and the
handful who spend more than eight months in the same city. Many parents
of missionaries doubtlessly take comfort knowing there are one or more senior missionaries
in the area, who can, if the need arises, step in to provide additional support
and heft. Had our children served as missionaries in areas
where there were senior couples, Carole and I would certainly have had similar feelings.
[1] As
long as the municipal water system is operative, the water will run until the
tank is full and then will cut off.
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