I keep my ears open for interesting things. Last week President Chishala of the Woodlands branch said he was surprised that the old mission president had left. He guessed that everyone knew he was leaving but him. Actually, Pres. Padovich spent his last Sunday in the Woodlands branch but I guess they never spoke about it being his last Sunday there.
Pres. Chishala then related that he grew up in a village where everyone hunted for food and there was plenty. If a lion or deer or baboon was killed it was shared with someone and that was it. Folks outside that little circle just weren't involved, but you told those you wanted to know all about it.
However, he said in the village when an elephant is killed, you don't have to tell anyone, as everyone already knows and everyone will get some. He likened that to Pres. Padovich leaving. Everyone knew. I suppose he is a "big elephant" in church callings. Pres. Chishala wasn't told because everyone should know that the elephant was killed, or Pres. Padovich was leaving. Big events are that way.
Pres. Chisala is a good story teller but he is difficult to understand for me because when he gets going he slips in some native words. It might be English as the official language but at times you certainly wouldn't recognize it. Many words just aren't completely said in their speech. Often the endings are dropped and the sentence structure is simplified. TV announcers are the only ones who come slightly close to British type English. The added problem is the local folks often speak in a very low voice more often than a loud enunciated one.
The second story he related was when they were going somewhere from their village and they started hearing noises off the trail on one side or the other. He said it could be a lion or buffalo or snakes or whatever. The point he made was that you had already committed to that path.
It was no use being scared and worrying about the sounds you heard. Just stay on the path and you will get to where you are going.
When I was telling Kristi today about these stories she said she had taken my photo with Pres. Chisala after church when I was chatting with him again.
Sooooo, I thought I can write about his stories and I finally have a chance to put a real African elephant and lion in my blog.
