95% . . . rh

Recently, we had a missionary come from Mozambique. There is nothing unusual about that except that when he arrived at the MTC, he spoke no English – only Portuguese. It has come to our attention that several of the missionaries coming from Mozambique, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have arrived not speaking English. Those who have been here for some time now have no problem conversing and teaching in English – the gift of tongues. In fact, one of the Elders from Madagascar who arrived speaking only Malagasy and French told us the other day that they had found a family who spoke little English and mainly French – he found that he was unable to teach them in French.

One of the Elders who recently went home had come from Uganda speaking only Kamba. He spoke to us in transfer meeting in fluent English. These brethren have great courage to not only leave their homes for two years, but to face a sea of English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Shona, Tswana, etc. speakers in their field of labor. I admire them and I am amazed at their ability to communicate effectively with those whom they teach and live.

Incidentally, The Elder spoken of above from Uganda said that he had never had a problem with any of his companions. The main reason being that he decided to always go 95% of the way so the companion would only have to give 5%. What a great idea for getting along in life – 50-50 is not the way to go. If we all went 95% of the way in any relationship, – mission, marriage, family, employer/employee, etc. – we would have such synergy that the world had better get out of the way for us.
I am so grateful to be associated with these missionaries and to be able to learn from them to improve my life and outlook on same.