May 6

Omaki ! (Mbo for hello!)

So last Monday night I was in heaven.  We made chili and cornbread, and then got to jam on the guitar all night.  We were right about to go to bed when the power went off as we were all singing “hallelujah” together, but we kept playing in the dark.  Then I broke another string, and then we decided it was probably time to go to bed.  Unfortunately, the power didn’t come back on until 2 or 3 in the morning, so we didn’t even sleep. 

Tuesday was crazy filled with lessons, but it was awesome.  One of the people we tried teaching stopped mid-sentence to try this face cream from a street vendor as he was walking by.  For the next 15 minutes they debated prices and brands and how effective it was, and then finally she turned back to us and said, “I’m following.”  Ha!  Elder Zurcher and I had a good laugh about that. That same night, we had just gotten done teaching the restoration, concluding by encouraging him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and then we asked if he had any questions.  He said, “yes, a lot of churches say different things about this…but I want to know what you have to say.  Was Jesus really born on the 25th of December?! Why are there vegetarians when God says he gave us animals to eat?!” I had a hard time not face palming, but turns out he’s actually really interested, and has a baptismal date!

On Wednesday we were on our way to this woman’s house to ask why she’s been coming to church for the last 3 years but never got baptized, when we got a call from the secretary of the church asking when we were coming to his house.  We were so confused, but realized almost immediately that HIS wife was the lady we were going to see!  We had no idea.  It took us an hour to get to their house by taxi. We had spent all day trying to call people to teach, but since it was their Labor Day, everyone was out partying or hanging out with family or friends all day and didn’t have time to see us.  It made things really interesting when, after feasting on plantains, eggs, spaghetti, rice, oranges, papayas, coke, and djino (a fruit cocktail soda), we were walking back and people were all out on the streets just dancing and drinking and going crazy.  It was awesome.  But scary.  Several people tried to seduce us into dancing with them, but we held fast to our testimony and pushed through the crowds to nab a taxi.

I woke up at like 4 in the morning and mistook my companion’s fan for a small child carrying a baby.  It’s not the first time that’s happened.  Maybe I already wrote about confusing the mosquito nets for dead witches that had hung themselves? Or thought the bookshelf was a man just meandering about the room?  I actually got out of bed and went after him.  And last Thursday I tried to ask the fan what he wanted from us.  I’m just waiting for the next adventure I’ll go on within the boundries of my room.

Friday was crazy.  We had a zone conference, where we spoke with our branch presidents about how we can better integrate the less-active members, and the inactives, and it was outstanding.  I got to share a spiritual thought, so I chose to speak on the lost sheep parable, which I never really appreciated before.  With help from references that are listed in my French Bible, I compared the Matthew 18 and Luke 15 versions of the parable and talked on the two.  I ended with James 5:19-20 which is an awesome scripture on bringing lost souls back to Christ.  Anyway, I just had a great time studying that and sharing it.  That night we came back from teaching and one of the members had made us plantains, this peanut paste and what the call green vegetables, which are like…some sort of mix of green leaves haha, I don’t really know how to explain it any better than they do!

We had General Conference at the church the next day, which really poorly organized, but my companion and I showed up early to help string cordes across the room and hook up projectors and everything, and then the generator still wasn’t powerful enough to keep the lights and air conditioning on.  Basically the story from last Sunday still isn’t done.  But we’re working on it! Hopefully by the end of this week everyting will be finished.  In any case, I still got to watch the Saturday afternoon session of conference, which was so cool.  Like everyone’s been telling me, they spoke a lot about Africa and Africans, and I can basically just add my testimony to what they were saying.  People here have the least of what matters least and the most of what matters most.  I loved that! I think my favorite talk though was by Elder Bednar, which was about chastity.  Some favorite quotes he said were “love grows through righteous restraint”, and “chastity and vertu will be most precious above all things forever.”  I just thought that was the coolest thing.  I wish I could share what I shared with the family that we taught that to afterwards, but reading the words just won’t be the same.  I would encourage you all to look up that talk though, it’s so good!

On Sunday we showed up to church and the generator still wasn’t working, and the man in charge didn’t come until an hour and a half later. Finally, we just got everyone to go to their normal Sunday school classes and then held a testimony meeting in sacrament. It was impromptu, but Marius, the superman member who always saves the day, once again came to the rescue. We’re hoping that we will get to watch the rest of priesthood and the Sunday sessions next week, but who knows. Timing here just isn’t really anything that anyone cares about. One of those “European” fads I guess. After church we had a great experience where we got to visit a sick member with all the young single adults and sang hymns for like 30 minutes. They love to sing, especially hymns. They could sing all day! It was really heartwarming to see the sick brother just sitting their smiling as everyone was singing. We got to play the guitar again last night, and I didn’t break anymore strings, so that was nice. The Gailey’s, who I love more and more every day, had us over for waffles in their air-conditioned apartment for breakfast. It was heaven. I always have a single tearing rolling down my face as I walk out into the scalding sun, and it dries up faster than you can say “white man!” Another crazy week coming up as President Jameson is coming to town with all the elders from Yaoundé for back to back zone conferences and transfer letters. We have to host them for a couple days, so it’s gonna be nuts. Look forward to a lot of pictures though! Just a quick note about my companion – he’s the best. I couldn’t say enough about how great of a missionary he is, and just how awesome of a person. Just an honest working, doesn’t ever do anything 50%, quick to laugh and smile, says hi to everyone, talks to every taxi driver and person he sits next to. I love him. I’ll be sad if we get split up this transfer, but the odds are stacked that way. I’m profiting from every minute I can from him. I might be 2 years older, but he’s teaching me a ton about what it means to be a servant of the Lord. Osaymaka, I love and miss you all so much !!! Elder Garland