Hello everyone!
Sorry about the wait...for two hours I was writing letters to everyone in the cyber cafe, and during my LAST letter BOOM, the power goes out and I lost everything. I screamed "NO!" and put my hands on my head, but it didn't work. All gone. I'll do my best to rewrite it all, but no guarentees that the witty lines will still be there.
Ok so! We got to have a zone conference with President Cook, and him and Sister Cook are just awesome. We love them already. We're excited to keep working with them.
On Tuesday we slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a car, and as we swerved out of the way we either hit a motorcycle or the motoguy rear ended us. Either way, he went flying off his bike with his passenger, and the taxi driver says "his fault, not mine!" and keeps driving. Well, a few minutes later the motoman comes screaming up in front of us and slows down until we were forced to stop, and then he comes up to the window screaming at the driver to get out of the car. Within about 30 seconds, FIFTEEN other motorcycles have stopped to join sides with either the taxi guy or the moto guy. We had people selling peanuts off the top of their heads joining the fight. So now we have two people who weren't even in the accident fighting against each other, and it was just too good to leave the scene. Meanwhile we were just sitting in the back waiting for it to be over so we could go. It wasn't until we decided to get out and find another taxi that everyone says, "oh, the whites are leaving," and our driver says, "where are you going?! we're leaving!" so finally we got on the road again. It was just hilarious.
We didn't get a lot of teaching done on Wednesday because we got on a 4 hour long bus ride to go to Yaounde to take care of those tricky carte de sejours that we were refused here in Douala last week *refer to the ridiculous story on my blog*. For 40 minutes we listened to one song with the same melody and beat about Nebuchadnezzar in pidgin English, so they say things like "where you people be going now?! We be go fo chop at mahket!" It's incomprehensible, I assure you. Imagine that in song form. About the King of Babylone. And his statues. Anyway, for the next several hours the two young women in front of me kept turning around and staring at me at random intervals. The one in front of me was in a permanent recline, and the guy behind me wouldn't let me lean back. Poor Elder Lundberg was squished between 4 giants in the back seat. Eventually we made it, and it was a pretty calm evening. The Whitesides, the missionary couple over there, gave us some money to buy chawarmas and a Coke, with a key to the missionaries' apartment. We were able to just unwind (you'd be surprised how stressful those bus rides are), and I had a funny realization that I was just chilling in an apartment in Central Africa enjoying a small sandwich and a Coke. No big deal. I feel like I'll never get over that. Elder Zurcher came home after an hour or so and we shared a brotherly embrace (more like a jumping, twirling bear hug). It was so good to see him again. We made pancakes and chatted all evening about investigators and other members and friends back in Douala and how he was getting used to people in Yaounde. He seems to be doing great.
On Thursday we got up, did our carte de sejours (I even got the girl there to smile) without a hassle, and were back in a bus home before I knew it. This time, however, we got to watch 4 hours of horrible African sitcoms with the volume up way too loud. I just stared out the window at the incredible sea of green that stretched all the way until we got into Douala. I spent the whole time thinking of ideas for a book idea, and the time went by pretty fast. At least it was more comfortable than the bus ride up. We got back and didn't have time to go out, so we just made a nice dinner for the elders who were still gone and had a nice night together.
Friday went by quick as well, without much incident. We got to see a bunch of people we hadn't seen in a while, but nothing really interesting happened.
We found out on Saturday that there are going to be big changes here in Douala next transfer! We're getting two more missionaries in our apartment, so we'll be six instead of four. It will make things tight, but it's a direct result of a little sit down I had with the mission president on Monday when I urged him to send more missionaries here to make up for the enormous sector that we have to take care of ourselves. I am so excited. Did I mention the two missionaries will be greenies?! So two people from here are training as well! I just can't get over it. Maybe it's a weirdo missionary thing, but I'm pumped.
Sunday was great. More less actives coming every week. Then Marius chastized everyone for coming late and leaving right after taking the sacrament. I love that man. He's so inspiring.
That's about it! Sorry for the lack of details on certain days, but like I said, I had already written everything out and my memory is rapidly deteriorating and being replaced by more recent memories. Thank goodness I keep a daily journal.
Did you know you are the most incredible thing on the planet?! I just think about the potential each one of us has and I get to excited to meet and get to know everyone and their talents and dreams. Please keep on fighting the good fight - you'll be eternally grateful you did in the end! I love you for who you are and what you can become. I know you can be better than what you were and I know you'll do your best to stay better if you put your trust in He who knows everything!
Have an amazing week, go do something nice for your neighbor, and say hi to your friends who don't know me for me. Tell them there's some guy in Central Africa who knows how to make their life infinitely better than it is, no matter what situation they're living in.
Elder Garland
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