Hola mis amigos !!

Yeah, that’s Spanish.  After we left the cyber café last week we stopped by a bookstore annndd I bought a book so I could study Spanish while my companions study French.  I’ve been reading it every day and I love it.  I’m going to finish it and hopefully get a dictionary, then I’ll go back and get the same book in German.  Maybe I’ll just stick with Spanish…we’ll see I guess!

Last Monday night was awesome, too.  We went out for our typical chawarma and one of the workers there offered us a drink.  He was way nice.  Then we went out to this ice cream parlor owned by some white guys, and that was really good, although kindof expensive.  Basically it was just nice to have ice cream for the first time in a while.

On Tuesday morning, the Gailey’s (the missionary couple) took Elder Zurcher and myself to Yaoundé  (Yah-oon-day) to renew his visa.  It’s the political capital (the president lives there) of the country, where Douala is the economic capital.  Yaoundé’s climate is so much more agreeable.  It’s always in the mid 80s to low 90s.  There are beautiful hills that surround the city, but I didn’t really get any good pictures so you’ll have to Google search it or something.  Maybe just imagine it.  There’s also this famous red mud/dust that covers all the roads, so that was pretty exciting.  All the missionaries there have red-tainted shirts, it’s pretty funny.  We get there and met up with them and the Whitesides, the other missionary couple to have burgers, which were surprisingly pretty good!  It was the first time I’ve had a coke since I left the MTC.  We went on splits with the other missionaries, and I had an awesome time with Elders Schmid and Johnston.  We visited an inactive guy who is really interested in serving a mission now.  He’s been playing professional soccer in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for the last couple years.  His older brother runs a boutique and fed us beans and beignets - a very typical Cameroonian meal.  One of our investigators from Douala wanted to meet us at the church in Bastos, so we got to see him for a while as he told us about the incredible trials he’s been going through since he left.  It was awesome to see someone stay so strong even though at every turn they seem to be cursed with failure.  He’s one of my favorite people that I’ve met so far, so we’re really pulling and praying for him.

The elders bought us a pizza for dinner because they both had mangez-vous’s, and then we stayed up until midnight talking about video games.  I haven’t stayed up that late (at least not on purpose) since I left, so I felt like garbage the next morning, but I’ve since repented and gotten on with life.  We took care of the visa stuff, got on the bus to come home, during the whole ride of which we listened to Gospel music and people praying and preaching, it was so funny.  Then we got ratéd by one of our investigators, and made cheeseburgers for dinner. Great Tuesday.

Wednesday was crazy.  We invited our taximan to be baptized on our way to our first rendez-vous, he was so interested.  During our second to last rendez-vous is started pouring rain, so we got soaked as we ran home to get umbrellas, only to stay soaked as the rain continued to pour on our way to the last lesson of the night.  Thank goodness for my Chacos; they’ve really been holding out great, and I have a sweet tan line!  On our way home some random stranger waiting for a taxi called out “mormon!” as we were walking by, and turns out he was an inactive member who didn’t know where to find the church.  What a blessing!  It’s so amazing to just watch as the Lord dumps blessing after blessing on us, I can’t even believe it sometimes.

On Friday we made a goal to only speak French or Spanish for the whole week.  Obviously there have been times where English has slipped out, but for the most part we’ve done a great job of only speaking French! It’s given me the opportunity to practice my Spanish too, because Elder Gélinas took some Spanish in high school.  On our way home this old guy that we always say hi to stopped us and told us to wait while he gave us some avocados, just for no reason.  People here are so nice.  I just…what the heck!  Oh and we were fed njammanjamma again.  It was delicious.

On Saturday we got to work with one of our recent converts, Ezéchiel, who we swear will be called to be the first African apostle or something, he’s amazing.  We basically just let him teach the whole time, he’s so solid with the Gospel.  He is also really close friends with this Cameroonian superstar from the 90s called Petit Pays, and he already gave him a Book of Mormon and wants to bring us to his house to teach him.  We’re pretty ok with that.

The other elders in our apartment came back with a whole chicken and fried plantains that this random lady gave them, and then as we were preparing spaghetti a member knocked on our door to give us two big plates of coquille, pistache, and potatoes/manioc, basically all this delicious African food.  So we ate ok.  I got no sleep that night, however, thanks to this marriage going on downstairs behind the apartment.  They were blasting music until 4 in the morning.  It was awful.  Every blessing has its consequences I guess…

Then it rained all day, so we were worried that people weren’t going to come to church, but a good amount of investigators came in so that the whole room was filled.  It was incredible.  As we were welcoming people, these two police motos came screaming down the road, closely followed by three really legit cyclists, then a few seconds later a whole herd of cyclists.  It was so impressive, I wish I had my camera on me.  Turns out there was a race!  Dr. Samuel taught the English class, and he kept saying “latter-day senate,” and then compared reading the scriptures to being addicted to drugs, so that was pretty hilarious.

During my studies that morning, I was reading the scriptures when all these nonsensical thoughts started pouring into my head, and no matter what I did I couldn’t chase them.  I tried pushing through the verses, but I didn’t understand anything I read and it wasn’t working anyway.  I looked over and saw my personal hymnal, opened it to the first hymn I could find, stumbled on #54 (Nearer my God to thee in English), started humming it and reading the lyrics, and it worked like a charm.  My thoughts peaced out like mosquitoes in front of permetherin. I gained such a strong testimony for the power that hymns can have on the Spirit.  I’ve made it a personal goal to continue to understand the words that I sing from now on, and I would encourage you all to do the same!  

SUCH A GOOD WEEK.  I’m really excited for the upcoming weeks.  Lots of things happening: huge zone conference with President Jameson, transfers, baptisms, etc.  I will keep you all in touch with all my shenanigans, don’t worry.

I love you all so much! Read up on la charité in Mosiah 4. What a beautiful chapter. 

Hasta la proxima semana !

Elder Garland