May 13

Omobusé everyone! (Abo dialect)

Wookelache ?! How are you?! This week was pretty fantastic.  Now that training is over (12 weeks of reviewing basically everything you learn in the MTC step by step and applying it into your missionary work), Elder Zurcher and I have had extra time to see people, which means we’re even more tired when we get home. 

On Tuesday we walked all the way from one side of town to the other at night, which was probably a really dumb idea, because we ended up going through poorly lit streets right by a mosque and through a market stuffed with people.  We were the only white people there, but I guess that’s normal.  I just mean that that made us an even bigger target at night.  Then, right when we get to the entrance of the neighborhood where we were going to teach, all the power shut off.  We kindof just looked at each other, shrugged, and stepped into the black abyss of a dirt road to go visit one of our investigators.  God must have been watching our backs the whole time, because I’m here today writing to you!  It was great lesson, and the good news is that while we were going through the market we found this cart loaded with huge red/green mangos from the north.  I’ve been dying to try one, but they’re like 500 francs (about a dollar) and you can get 6 smaller ones for that price anywhere else.  But my companion finally gave in and we bought one, and it was basically the most delicious thing that has ever entered my mouth, and there was so much of it.  So.  That was awesome.

As we were waiting for a taxi, a motorcycle guy pulled up and stopped right in front of me, and I just say, “no thanks,” but he kept staring at me.  I looked down and saw that it was a guy we always say hi to that works at the prison, and he just started laughing.  It was really funny (mostly for him).

On Wednesday night we were with some members when their power went out too, and I just kept talking and it was going great until I asked the Relief Society President a question and she took a little too long to respond.  We sat there for probably 15-20 seconds before her husband finally knocked her on the side and woke her up.  So that was pretty embarrassing.  Her grandson made up for it by farting while my companion was talking just a little later.  Where am I again…?

We got to go help a sister put doors on her house on Thursday, and walls on her bedroom.  She had been sleeping for months without walls!  She said, “Every night I just go to sleep praying that God will allow me to wake up the next day, and he always answers my prayers.”  It was incredible.  We got some pretty good sun, but I wish I had worn my shorts instead of my jeans, it was so heavy.  What was really amazing was watching these people create and build with little to no tools (there were two handsaws, a machete (of course), a crowbar, a hammer, a tape measure and a railroad spike with a handful of nails) using only scraps from someone else’s house.  They work very efficiently though!  And the machete?  It’s such a versatile tool.  I saw it used as scissors, a hammer, a saw, a crowbar, a chisel, a back scratcher, and a pencil.   Here’s the thing about working with them though: if you don’t get it right the first try, you give up the tool you were using to whoever was supervising you, and they “shot you how to do it” until they finish the job.  I’m pretty sure that phenomenon applies to all dads though ;) They fed us this delicious rice and pork (real pork this time) dish with half frozen follerie—this deep, deep red leaf boiled in water and mixed with tons of sugar to make a sort of juice.  It was delicious. We came back to the apartment to study, and I fell asleep kicked back against the wall with my feet up on the table after I ate a Snickers (which are surprisingly cheap here, from 300-500 CFA!). 

That night we prepared for 4 more elders to come down from Yaoundé, Hoiland, Massé, Schmid and Johnston.  They’re all really cool, and we made spaghetti together and just had a good time.  While Elder Gélinas was making peanut butter I heard him go, “Oh my…” and I immediately knew that he had pulled the blender up and the bottom had stayed in the machine because that had happened with Andriamamonjy when he was making coconut milk one day.  So I ran into the kitchen to see him in this stupor as he watched the peanut butter lava ooze out of the blender mountain and spread across the table.  I slapped him into consciousness and we started moving things around and cleaning up.  We didn’t end up losing that much in the end, but the blender got the worst of it.  We spent over an hour cleaning peanut butter out of it, and to this day it still leaks traces of peanut butter.  We haven’t dared turning it on yet...

On Friday I woke up and killed 7 mosquitoes before I left the room, and then we had a baptism!  Yvette, this really kind, shy girl about 26 years old who has grown up with her right foot upside down, if that makes sense.  She walks on the top of her foot, which makes it really hard to get around, but she has a great testimony of the restored Gospel.  We were so excited because she asked this doctor who’s been taking care of her for the last several months and trying to treat her foot to baptize her.  He’s incredible and has an even more impressive conversion story.  I may have mentioned it before, about how he had this crazy dream and reach under his bed and found a Book of Mormon in his hotel room in Germany?  It’s awesome to hear it from him.  Anyway, the baptism when super well!  On the way across the bridge to Bonabéri, we saw all these people out in boat/canoes diving into the water and coming back up with large buckets of sand into their boat/canoes.  Our taximan explained that they sell that sand to construction companies in town.  What a cool job that would be.  They carry around these loonnnggg bamboo polls that help them find the depth of the river and to push around with.

It took us over an hour of standing on the corner to get a taxi that was going back into Douala centre ville, so while we were waiting we skipped across the street (not literally, thank goodness) to this bakery and bought a hamburger sandwich with about an inch wide by 4 inches long strip of meat in between a baguette and a chocolate filled beignet, both of which were surprisingly good! That night we went to Marlyse, one of our recent converts, to pick up a meal order we had given her 6000 CFA to go to the market with, and she delivered!  She made us potatoes, fried plantains, fried fish, and rice for all 8 of us.  It was wicked good.  Then Elder Morin came back with a bag of beans and small beignets from another member, so we had this royal Cameroonian feast.  It was fantastic.  I should’ve taken a picture!   Anyway, we also learned from the elders who had been with President Jameson all day that there would be no transfer changes in Cameroon, which was an answer to lots of prayers!  Elder Zurcher and I will be together for another 6 weeks, and we’re really hoping that we’ll get to see the marriage and baptism of this family we’ve been teaching since I got here, and that he’s been teaching since November.  By the time he leaves, I’ll have been with him for 20 weeks! That’s pretty unusual unless you’re the assistant to the president, which no North Americans can be! We’re just super excited to keep working together.

Saturday was incredible.  We had zone conference with the president, during which we talked a lot about inactive members and how we can best help them, a little like last week.  I got to meet the other 6 elders who were in Bonabéri from Yaoundé—McGrath, Addington, Davis, Rambalosson, Hatch and Lundberg.  They’re all way cool.  I hadn’t seen that many white people in the same room since I left the MTC, so that was kinda weird.  We were 24 all together.  Sister Jameson talked to us about mission news.  There might be a new MTC going into Kinshasa, and the missionary couple is in Gabon, which means we might have missionaries there starting with the next transfer!  We can’t wait.  The story of how the church got there is so incredible.  The Lord just puts people in the right places at the right time.  The lady whose house is being rented out for the church meetings nursed the president’s wife back to health a while ago, so that’s why  we’re allowed in the country.  She’s been waiting for the missionaries since she called her son in Italy to find out if she should even rent out the house to this church she had never heard of when he said, “Mom, that’s the church I just joined!” Just an awesome story.

On Sunday we had no drama at church, which was a huge blessing.  We went to the Gaileys’ for banana splits and to Skype home, which was the highlight of the week.  It was such a blessing to see my family.  I’ve missed them so much, and even though the video cut out a couple of times, I wish I could’ve stayed for the rest of the night just to talk about everything I’ve been doing.  I’m just so thankful that the Internet even exists here so that I can talk to them!  That night we had a lovely dinner with the first counselor, the amazing Marius and his family.  He’s got such a cool story too, but I’m running out of time so I’ll have to save it for another day! 

I love YOU all so much and I hope you’re making the most out of your life! NOW is the time to prepare to meet your maker, and He can’t wait to see you face to face!  I wish I could share half the experiences I’ve had since I got here that have all testified of the truthfulness of these things, but I’ll just leave you to wonder and ponder and search for the truth on your own :)

Have a fantastic week!

Manke !

Elder Garland