December 24, 2009

We spoke to Sam today for 2 hours!! He is sounding great. We were able to learn a lot more about what life is like there for him. He said his area is really doing well as far as baptisms. It used to be the place where the missionaries did not want to go, but in November the companionship who lives with him (Elder Bowman and Elder Carver) were #1 in the mission and Sam and his companion (Elder Halverson) are on track to be #1 for this month. He mentioned, though, that he will probably be transferred to Benin very soon. I think it will be hard on him - he has really grown to love the people there. There are 12 missionaries in Togo. They get together every p-day and have gotten to know each other really well. The mission president, of course, is in the Ivory Coast, and the senior mission couple are usually in Benin, so they don't have a whole lot of supervision, but it sounds like they are working hard.

Sam explained that the families there live in small one story buildings with doors off of a hallway. A family will live in a room behind each door. These rooms get very hot, so they do most of their teaching outside among the goats and chickens. He said that it is very dirty (dusty) there. He doesn't wear his sandals because his feet get so dirty. And there is a lot of trash around. They have a large soccer stadium in Lome' and he plays a lot of soccer with the kids and on p-day. There's even an old rickety basketball hoop that they can play on sometimes.

Sam also told us about a ceremony that the Muslims hold there where they take a lamb out into the street, cut off it's head, and then burn it. We talked a little more about the cat he ate. He said he knew which cat it was and that he had seen it walking around. Hope he doesn't have to do that again.

We updated him on things around here as well. It is so great to hear how happy he is and how much he loves getting to know the people there. As an added plus he loves his companions (and roommates). He's still staying healthy and just seems to be battling ingrown toenails (which can be very painful). We appreciate your prayers and thoughts for Sam.