So our first p-day without an e-mail happened this week. We have been warned repeatedly that this would happen and I have prepared myself, but it was still disappointing - we just knew not to worry or panic. It turned out, though, that his mission president's wife had a miscarriage (our prayers go out to her and her family) and their zone conference had to be rescheduled for Monday (p-day), so we got a really nice surprise when his e-mail showed up on Thursday this week!!
August 27, 2009
My companion has been a member for a few years, he's from cote divoire. He knows the bible crazy well, like I didn't know it was possible to know the bible so well. So ive started to read the new testament in french so i can try to keep up. i've learned a ton from him.
The first person i baptized was hossei sekina, shes the ward mission leaders little sister. The i baptized Mama Ahoefa (any one with a child here you call mama). Shes was some one my companion had been teaching. Shes really strong in the church now, we visit her a lot and i've really developed a strong relationship with her.
The weather here has been really nice here. Its humid but for the most part its just been really overcast so not too hot. There have been some scorching days but not too many- i hear it really starts to get hot in november. its only rained hard once since ive been here, i think i just missed the rainy season. When it did rain tho the streets became rivers and we had to jump from like island to island or stepping stone to stepping stone, it was kinda fun.
The foods been fine, i actually like african food. I get enough to eat, " meals a day. We all eat together and its usually rice or potato type yam things with a little chicken or fish and a very spicy sauce. The africans love spicy food, they put a spice called pima in everything, and I'm just fine with that. I think ive lost some weight but not from lack of eating; everything is just healthier here and i walk like 7-10 miles everyday.
As far as the actual mission is going, im loving it. We usually teach between 6-8 lessons a day and the zone goal is 36 a week. At first it was a little rough cuz i was pretty lost- i never knew who was an investigator or a recent convert or a member- but as time has gone on i've really grown to love our investigators. As i learn more french i am able to actually teach and participate and joke around with our investigators. ive really become friends with them which is vital- it gets you motivated to serve and bring them closer to Christ because you love them, not because you know you should. It also makes missionary work infinitly more enjoyable. Our investigators are all very nice. They ilisten to us and just accept what we say for the most part. The hard part is getting them to really keep their commitments ( church etc)
My area is pretty suburban for Africa. There are cities here in Togo but where we are there are just houses and little shops and one big market. I can buy basically anything here, every other pday we take a taxi to the city to a place called champions- its like grocery store you could find in the US its really nice.
I would send letters home but i have absolutely no idea how. There is no post offices here and the zone leaders pick up our mail for us, i dont know where they get it. Just know im looking into it. I'll send pics home too when i figure out how.
The french is really coming a long. When i first got here i could speak enough to get by it was just hqrd to try to understand and keep up with them. I've gotten a lot better now tho and can understand a lot more. There were some differences here between here and what i learned at the mtc but it was easy to adapt.
Ok well i hope the email was better this time. Today was much better- usually it takes like 45 min to open the page like david said but today was nice. I love you all! Thank you so much!
Thanks for sending me the debit card! I'll let you know when i get it.
PS you're getting this thursday bc monday we had zc so we're doing pday today.
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