March 7, 2011

Hey!

First off, I was glad to hear you had good weeks! Glad you had a good birthday dad! And congratulations on becoming a deacon, Jack, thats awesome!

So my new companion got here on Tuesday. His name is Elder Tshiyoyo. Hes 23 and a very nice guy. Whats funny about him is that he was baptized in August 2009...while i was on my mission in Togo the first time. Im serving with a missionary that was baptized two months into my mission! That made me feel old. He still needs help getting the doctine down but hes a willing learner and very easy to be with.

Sounds like the non ivorians went through a lot to get out of the Ivory Coast. They got stopped several times and finally where threatend and robbed by rebels armed with knives. One of them broke Elder Tshibasu's badge in half and they kept saying they were going to burn the van they were driving in. Luckily they got out of there, drove all the way from Abidjan to Lome. The Mission President and his wife and the ivorian missionaries are still over there. Keep them in your prayers.

Things are still going well in my area. We have five baptismal dates set for the 19th so we'll try to get as many possibe to go through. We had a big breakthrough yesterday at church- Beni, the young men's presidents cousin finally came. He really is an awesome guy, had a great time at church so he'll be baptized the 19th. Before it was always hard for him to go to church because he has a crazy work schedule- he goes to work mon-sat from 7am- 6pm, comes home and eats, and then goes back from 8pm to 3am. Sleeps for a few hours and then goes back at 7. Insane. But he says he needs the money. He says he might have found a new job though so thank goodness.

Nathalie is doing a lot better too. At church sunday, we fixed a pretty definitive baptismal date for the 27th (a sunday). Another reason she had been hesitating is that she is kinda dating the district clerk and she doesnt want people to think that she is getting baptized for him. But we talked about it and her testimony and she feels more comfortable now. I really like her, shes one of those investigators where you cant help but become really good friends with.

Other than that nothing too exciting happened this week. Just getting ready for our next baptisms on the 19th. Praying that everything goes ok. Well thanks for all of the emails!

Love,

Elder Bertoch