May 23, 2015 - Euphrasia

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Kafula-Lalia Euphrasie, Av. Kabulamenchee, No. 41, 0998885078, 0813169774

This is the identification information of a special woman we met on the street.  On Thursday, while walking across the street to the main office of Regideso, the local water utility company, I noticed a lady in a very attractive dress.  I pointed her out to Shelley so she could see the dress.  Shell loves fabric and has had 3 Congolese dresses, but is still looking for that elusive perfect fit.  

In the downtown area, there are floods of people and everyone is walking.  It was unusual because this woman noticed that I had pointed her out to Shelley.  She was last least 20-30 yards away at the time, but she turned and walked back towards us.  I spoke to her with our translator, Steve Mutombo.  I told her how pretty we thought her dress was and asked if I could take a picture of her with Sister Davis.  She was very pleasant and agreeable and asked if she could have a copy of the picture.  I told her if she could provide me an email address, I would send her a copy.  She had no personal email and so I gave her a business card so she could contact me with an email address in the future.  We both went on our way and thought nothing more of this chance encounter.

Friday was an extremely busy day with both Steve and Marcel.  We started at 8:30 in the morning and finished about 4:00 in the afternoon.   We drove nearly a hundred miles and visited several projects and potential beneficiaries before returning to the office.  No sooner had we returned than Ilunga, one of the guards came to our office saying someone was at the front gate to see us.  We had not been back for more than 5 minutes.   I welcomed Euphrasie and her male companion into the compound and asked Justin Mukuna, the office manager to translate for us.  Justin related to us the following story as we visited.

Euphrasie said she had met us the previous day in front of Regideso.  She said that with hundreds of people streaming by she saw me point to her and she said it was if the finger of God was pointing to her.  She felt it was a sign that God had singled her out and when she saw that we were missionaries, she wanted to know more about our church.  She said she had felt impressed to use our business card to find us and wanted us to tell her about the church.  

Shelley printed her picture and gave her a copy of the Liahona General Conference addition and a copy of the Book of Mormon.  I told her that we would have 2 Elders contact her before the weekend was out.  She provided us her contact information and we gave her referral information to the AP’s.  I told them they were welcome to teach her in our home if that was what she wished.  I also told them we wanted to be invited to her baptism.

Another interesting thing is that she lives within walking distance of the mission home, although we met her some 5 miles from here.  She is a widow with only one daughter and three grandchildren.  Her male companion was her uncle.  They pointed out the roof of their home from the front gate of the mission compound.  

As humanitarian missionaries we are instructed not to proselyte.  The fear is that others will feel our only motivation for providing humanitarian assistance is to solicit proselyting opportunities to gather converts.  We have missed not being able to share the gospel openly.  We have given away several copies of the Book of Mormon in our interaction with local merchants who are not our humanitarian partners and provided perhaps 5-10 missionary referrals but never one who sought us out.  

I was struck by the sensitivity of Euphrasie.  She was more in tune with the spirit than I was.  I was simply looking for a dress photo.  We have so many experiences that reinforce that the Lord is hastening His work.  It is not us who are hastening the Lord’s work, but merely participating in His plan.  We are grateful to be missionaries and be witness to the hand of the Lord in our lives and in the lives of others.  He is mindful of us individually.   We’ll keep track of Euphrasie’s progress but I wanted to record and share a simple experience from our missionary life.