October 28th

Dimenini everyone ?!

Oh my goodness what an awesome week.  We’ve been having a blast working with Elder VanAusdal as he waits for his visa to come.  You know how it works here, they tell you it will come on the 10^th and it doesn’t get there till next month.  So in the meantime, we’re just working hard as a thrio. 

I developed this pretty awful cold/cough that’s been with me for the last 5 or 6 days or so.  I don’t know how that works.  I work in 90-100 degree weather every day and I get a cold.  The only thing I can think of is that maybe I got really sweaty one day and came back into the air conditioned apartment (which really means that only our bedrooms are air conditioned, otherwise we’re sweaty cooks in the kitchen, but we can’t open the window or the awesome breeze will blow all our vegetable scraps and wrappers out of the garbage and make a mess). ANYway, it’s bothersome but I’m dealing with it.  Headaches aplenty.

We went home after Cyber and I made 160 cookies, so 32 per person.  Elder Thibault called me the cookie monster because I rationed them out so everyone gets an even share.  I was just upset because last time I only got like 5. So, cookie monster it is.

On Tuesday we talked with one of our recent convert families who are all under the age of like 25.  They’re the best.  They told us about how if you don’t do your homework the teacher makes you walk around the courtyard (full of broken glass and rocks) on your knees, or they whip you with a stick or any number of corporal punishments.  It’s ridiculous, but it makes America look insane.

Also, is there a word for someone who easily gets taken advantage of? Especially in the case of girls taking advantage of nice guys?  They call that mbutuku, but I couldn’t think of a word for it in English.

We had another great district meeting with the Gaileys and Sister Gailey shared a lesson on “Hastening the Work,” sharing a talk by S. Gifford Nelson.   I loved it.  Look it up!

Fidelis, an anglophone member took us a little behind his house to get a good look at the river.  Well, it wasn’t even like 2 minutes before we had left minor civilization and had entered complete jungle land.  It was like night and day.  No motos or cars, there was hardly a path for us to follow (but what was there was made out of cement that had been dumped in sacks and solidified) , tiny foot bridges with like 2 inches between the planks, and swamp land on either side of you for as far as the eye can see.  Even though we could barely even see the river, we had this incredible view of Mount Cameroon on the way back.  I’ll miss that mountain.  Look it up!

That same day, the power had gone off while we were gone and never came back on.  We basically didn’t sleep.  I rolled around in my sweat all night, only to finally get out of bed with the water gone, too.  It was horrible.  The worst part was the 2 kilos of meat that we had just gotten from the Gaileys the day before, which started to stink like rotting flesh.  Elder Gailey came to get it around 11, and then 10 minutes after he left the power came back on.  It’s so funny how demotivating something like that can be.  When you have an awful night’s sleep and then you have to go walk around all day, it’s really hard to convince yourself not to take a nap instead of studying or teaching.  It’s those days when you found out what kind of missionary you really are.  Diligence, or discouragement? Give it all or give it up?  I was happy to find that all of us still got up on time, did all our studies, and left on time to go do the Lord’s work!  There are certain blessings reserved for those days of diligence.  It’s funny, because ALL the next day we went from one ratez-vous to the next. 

Our first rendez-vous didn’t have a key to open her compound door for us.  Our second rendez-vous wasn’t there.  The third told us tomorrow.  The fourth had just left, the fifth wasn’t there, and the 6^th didn’t feel good.  We took a break to call all the people whose numbers we had received the last couple of days, as well as call all our recent converts who were out of town.  After that, we called and found a friend of ours to teach, and THEN that special blessing I was talking about came.  We went to see an anglophone friend of a member, who told us about how she had been raised with religious parents who forced her to come to church, where she saw pastors who didn’t live what they preached, which made her resent church to the point where she had given up on church and just stayed home by herself to read the Bible on her own.  Then she said, “but ever since I met you missionaries and since I started reading this book, I only feel peace and joy and I’m happy!”  So we asked what she thought those feelings meant and she said she thinks it means the church is true!  It was the best thing in the whole entire world.  There is nothing like an investigator that teaches herself.  I am in love with this work.  I could be spit on, beaten, burned, screamed at and whipped, but as long as I get just one person to say what Lucia the anglophone told me on Thursday then I would do it over and over and over forever!

Friday was split day.  I went out with Elder Davis into his sector and we got to see a ton of people.  The complete opposite of the day before.  The first guy was a member principal over this large school where several members actually work and whose kids attend.  We went in to visit one of the members’ class of 3 year olds and there was a naked boy running around who had apparently pooped everywhere.  It was funny because you would never, ever, ever see that back home haha.  He was playing with the other kids and it was totally normal.  For them.  In the principal member’s office he had a quote that said, in French, “Act as if everything depended on you, but behave yourself knowing that everything comes from God.”—Saint Augustin. Just some food for thought!

One lady we met with asked us if they “plant” snow like vegetables.  I was stunned.  She asked if it got to South Africa because white people brought it from America.  I really didn’t know what to say, so we had a science lesson and now she is up to speed with the water cycle. 

We stopped in to see a brother who is suffering from malaria (EVERYone is suffering from malaria.  You got a cough? Malaria.  Your tooth hurts? Malaria.  You’re having weird dreams? Malaria, AND a prophecy).  He asked us for a blessing, and asked me to give it.  Since I’ve been here I’ve noticed that the more I give blessings, the more I become confident following the voice of the Spirit.  Every blessing is different, and sometimes I’m worried that I screwed up or didn’t say something I wish I would’ve said, but every time I know it’s what that person needed to hear at that time.  I don’t know how to explain it, but my palms are less sweaty and my hands and knees don’t shake anymore haha.

There was the most beautiful scene off the balcony of a member’s house that night.  The sky was blue on top, but the elongated clouds across the sky had an undercarriage of orange and pink.  Bats and birds were flying across the sunset back to their nocturnal homes.  Mount Cameroon was looming in the distance between banana and palm trees that lined the sherbert horizon.  In the backyard of the neighbor in front was a group of Douala natives singing and dancing and chanting in preparation for the huge Douala festival the first Sunday of Decemeber.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I’m pretty sure it will be frozen in my memory forever.  I hope so, anyway! It was the epitome of my experience here in Douala.

On Saturday we went to Fidelis’ to help him pull weeds and move dirt around, for which he generously gave us sugar cane, bouille (boiled corn flour that you have to add 6-10 sugar cubes to for it to be edible), and let us hunt coconuts that we took home to make milk out of. 

Then we taught a half conscious Gustave who was on his 4^th day of fasting and had worked out that morning without drinking any water.  He was hardly comprehensible haha, but he’s gonna be ok.  Africa. 

We went to see our next rendez-vous who passed us as we were heading to his house, but we decided to go to his house anyway to say hi to his family (same family who told us about school punishments).  It was a good thing we did, because one of the sisters was really sick (malaria) and asked us for a blessing.  I got to do it again, but this time in French.  Same story as before.  Totally different blessing, but totally same Spirit.  Hopefully she gets better…I read a great talk by Elder Oaks about blessings and how it works.  I forget what it’s called, but it makes me feel less guilty if I give a belssing that doesn’t exactly go like I thought it would.  The will of God is something that everyone wishes he had slightly more control over haha.

Our last rendez-vous ended up teaching us about his philosophy on life, which is really Christ-like and all about service and not always accepting money for work he does and it would take an hour and a half to re-explain what he taught, but it was a beautiful way of living.  Very inspiring.  It was just a little hard to get focused when we first got there because he was playing a game on his computer where he was blowing up spiders with rocket launchers and machine guns, sooo yeah haha.  Africa.

Sunday was pretty great!  We had quite a lot of people at church.  Afterwards, one of the members invited us all over for burgers, rice and smoked pork, Pillsbury croissants, meat-filled beignets, homemade pineapple juice, and pineapple soaked in vanilla and lemon.  We probably ate at 1, and no one ate anything else the rest of the night.  They sent us off each with a sack of 5 more beignets.  It was the best meal I’ve head since…ever.  We learned that another member’s mom is 112 years old but didn’t get her national ID until she already had 6 kids.  Oh yeah she had 17 total.  Africa.

That brings us to today.  We went out and played soccer (another left footed, upper-right corner for this guy, to say nothing of the 29 missed shots, stack of horrible passes, etc…) and then the Gaileys came to give us transfer letters.  Elder Thibault has been here since April, so we all thought he was leaving.  Well guess what? He’s not, I am.  To CONGO.  To work with Elder Brockbank, who got here 3 transfers ago.  I’m filled with so many bittersweet feelings…no more speaking Douala, but I get to learn Kikongo.  No more guitar, but I heard there’s a sweet piano at the church.  No more soccer, but I guess they play basketball a lot.  I’m leaving a lot of people I’ve known for a long time, but I’m going down with Elder Morin and will probably get to see Elder Lundberg again.  New handshakes.  New French.  New people.  So many things that I won’t get to tell you about until I get there, which apprently is on Friday.  You can’t send packages there, so just send it to the same address I’ve given before and someone will bring it down to me if they ever come down from Cameroon.  I’m just working on accepting God’s will for me and trying to be excited about going to a new place. 

I hope you’re all having some sort of experience like that!  Once we learn to accept our situation (at least the ones we have absolutely no control over) and go with the flow, life becomes so much more carefree and easy to love.  So, just go with it!

 I love you all so much, you’re always in my thoughts and prayers.

Elder Garland 

October 21st

Good day to you all!

Well this whole mission thing keeps getting more and more interesting.  I’m still recovering from beach fever, but maybe by the time I’m totally cured we’ll get to go back.  We were all sunburnt and bronzed and beautiful all week, until the burns started to peel and the bronze turned back into normal white person in Africa look.

Anyway, we had this weird lesson with a less active member that we’ve been working with for a long time now where at first he was telling us all about his relationship problems and then gave us sweet rocks from Kribi and then he gave me a super legit vest that he had fitted for me.  It’s got this green and gold (go Bombers!) African fabric on the front, and the back is just a nice black vest fabric.  I love it.  I can’t wait to be able to wear it, because if I wore it around the sector I’m afraid I might draw attention to myself.  Well, I kindof already do that by speaking Douala with random people on the street and then everyone gets really excited and yells “makala!” which means white man and it becomes a pretty big deal so we have to get out quick.  I love it though. 

While we were at our member friend we got a phone call from Elder Gailey telling us that we’d be receiving a visitor—Elder Vanausdal, who just finished his 6 weeks at the MTC in Ghana !  He was supposed to go to Congo, but his visa didn’t go through, so they JUST started working on it.  The Gaileys said he’d be working with Elder Massé and moi for maybe 3 days, but we were all positive that he’d be here at least a week.  Five days later and we’ve confirmed our suspicions.  In fact, it looks like he might be here for much longer than that.  We’ll see though!  In any case, we had to rush home after our last rendez-vous to clean up the apartment a little bit and get him a bed set up and whatnot.  He showed up around 7 with the Gaileys, and there we were! There’s always this exciting air about new missionaries, which is hard to describe.  He’s adapting super fast, which I think comes from being in Ghana already for 6 weeks.  In fact, all the new missionaries are going through Ghana now, so no more super fresh zoobies experiencing serious culture shock when they get in the field.  I uh, ahem, like to think I wasn’t like that, but maybe I was haha.  Hey, you can’t blame me for being surprised when you see some one standing right on the side of the road peeing in a bush!

Anyway, we had a blast talking the new elder’s ear off, and even though he didn’t say a whole lot we were still excited to have him there.  He’s from Alaska, took 4 years of French in high school so speaks and understands pretty well, used to work at a reindeer farm, wrestled and played baseball, and has a girlfriend named Lauren.  Now you know everything!

Our first day with him may have been one of the most productive of my entire mission thus far.  We got to see every rendez-vous that we’d planned, contacted several people in between, and had an awesome time taking Elder Vanausdal through all the twists and turns in the sector.  It was just super fun.  We met the friend of one of our members who was really interested, met the brother of another member, set a baptismal date off the hip, etc. etc. etc.  Missionary mode—activated.  Annnddd I’m officially 10 times more nerdy than when I left.  There’s just something about missionary work…I don’t know.  Try it sometime, you’ll know what I mean!

Then our second day was fun but not so productive as Thursday.  We got to help our less active friend pull weeds and clean up his back yard for 4 hours this time (opposed to the six hour project we had a couple weeks ago in his front yard),  and I gave him my Manchester United jersey as a thank you for the vest, which he just loved.  We came home, cleaned and studied and went back out to teach a member’s sister, but no one responded to all our callings at the big gate in front of their compound (a lot of “houses” here are closed in one next to the other in a gated area in the middle of a “neighborhood”).  There was a big cement wall around the perimeter of the compound with some decorative rebar sticking out the stop, so I jumped up to see if I could see anyone, like any creepy missionary would do, and as the cement wall created new divits in my forearms I found our investigator standing a little bit inside, outside the door of another house.  I said, “Marie-Noelle, bonjour!” and she looked up and laughed and said she was waiting for the key but the person wasn’t home, so I dropped down off the wall (which she explained later to her sister as me “falling off the wall”) and we talked through the gate for a couple minutes and told her we could try to come back later.

We met with Marie-Anne after, who was preparing to get baptized the next day, to encourage her to stay strong despite the persecutions from her friends and cousin who thinks we are a secret dragon cult that eats babies.  I don’t even…anyway, she was really excited.

After our somewhat catastrophic baptismal interview with one of our other investigators we pushed his day back and started reteaching him basic principles that apparently he hadn’t understood, and we quickly got to the root of the problem—he just wanted to be able to defend himself with Bible scriptures when people asked why the heck he joined our church.  We did our best to help, but in the end we just told him that people had to understand that if they want to know why we believe what we believe then they need to ask God Himself if these things are true, and He would tell them.  He understood, and from there we were able to reset the date the day before his birthday, which means he’ll be confirmed on his birthday.  He was so excited to hear that.  Imagine a 50 some year-old guy being excited about his birthday haha. 

On Saturday we were waiting for the baptism when we found out that our less-active friend’s house had been broken into and all his money stolen, all in the morning when he left for work.  He was really shook up about it, and we didn’t know how to help.  It’s interesting, because he ended up telling us “yeah I don’t want problems with anyone, so I’m just gonna let it go and move on with life.  Before I joined this church I would’ve seeked justice and gone out for blood, but I just want to be a good example of Jesus.”  It was incredible.  Turns out his girlfriend stole half the money, and he still forgave her when she came begging for forgiveness—even though she never gave him back the money. 

Then we held Marie-Anne’s baptism, and it went flawlessly.  A lot of members had left to be with our recent convert Hortense at the funeral of her daughter/sister/cousin (it’s so hard to know how Africans are actually related…) who had died in a terrible car crash a week ago, but we still had a ton of people show up to support Marie-Anne.  Most people in the branch thought she was already a member because she’s been coming to church since like, Februrary or March, so they already considered her as a sister of the church.  It was so cool to see all of them there to support her.  Afterward we had little sandwiches and cups of teeth-staining folléré, this deep, deep red juice they make from a plant leaf and lots and lots of sugar that is to die for. 

We stayed after to talk with another recent convert who has read the Book of Mormon more than most people I know, and we had a great talk with him about what he wants most in life, which was to be the father he never had in his own life.  It was really sweet.  I took notes because I need to remember how to be a good dad when that time comes in what seems like forever from now.

Church was great.  Lots of new faces, all of them in our sector, which currently leaves us with absolutely no time to see anyone.  It’s the best problem we’ve ever had.  We spoke with Hortense after church about what had happened, and she was just so sad and cried the whole time and my poor little heart was breaking the whole time she told us about how she had tried to introduce the Gospel to her but now it was too late, but we had an awesome lesson about the plan of salvation and how she’ll have an opportunity to learn the Gospel now in the afterlife and that she still has a chance.  It was great, and I cried during her prayer at the end because she is so humble and I can’t even explain why exactly but you know how I am.  There’s something about someone who is so broken but is so determined to search for love and comfort from her Heavenly Father in an earnest and sincere prayer.  I had never heard anything like it; it was really moving.

We walked towards home and stopped by a members house and shared a lesson with several members and investigators who were already gathered together in study.  Elder Vanausdal had been pretty quiet during all our lessons except for when he would get called on to pray, and then during this last lesson someone asked him what he thought about faith and he just went off in great French and blew my mind, so he’s being quiet I think.  Then right around the corner from home this lady stopped us and gave us free ice cream and when we introduced ourselves she was like, oh yeah I've been to your church in Texas, it was wonderful!  Mind blown.  We gave her our number and invited her to come to church next week but she's going back to America in a month so we don't know what will happen but it was just really cool 

Two hours of weekly planning later and we were making dinner and getting ready for bed.  We got up early today to go play soccer with the Bonapriso elders, and after an hour and a half we ended up playing American football, too, with a ball that someone had brought from I don’t know wear but it was so fun.  In soccer I scored a goal off a steal in their half, but missed about 524 other opportunities but it’s ok because we still had fun.  I’m writing my name on the post before I leave, because I definitely earned it with all the times I’ve nailed it. 

That’s about it for the week!  I hope everyone who reads this is healthy and loving life, but if you’re not then take the example of dear Hortense and instead of drawing away from true happiness, which is only found in the Gospel of Jesus-Christ, EMBRACE IT!  Turn TO God and seek guidance from Him!  He knows you better than anyone else on the entire planet and knows exactly what you need to hear or do to make your life so much better.  Think about what your Savior would tell you.  I imagine it would sound something along the lines of what is found in Matthew 11:28-30 :)

I love you, and I’m praying for you.

Elder Garland

October 14th

Hey everybody ! How are y’all?!  That’s about as far as I can get from any form of English they have here.  I wish you could hear the Pidgin…it’s so funny but incomprehensible unless you look at it on paper.  Apparently they have a Bible in Pidgin, but I haven’t seen it yet.  I’ll let you know as soon as I do!

Anyway, what an awesome week.  We came back after writing home and made cookies all night, and this time they turned out delicious.  The next day was my birthday, which was formidable.  At 1 in the morning Elder Thibault set an alarm and woke me up to sing me happy birthday, and then he woke up really fast and brought me breakfast in bed, which was super nice, but I wanted to eat with everyone else so I just got up and went into the living room.  Then they brought me this awesome African vest they got from the marché which I love.  We had planned on a big service project for that morning, but after the 20 minute walk there they told us that it wasn’t going to start until later that afternoon, so we had to walk all the way back.  The Gaileys came over to bring us meat and cereal and gave me a Coke Zero and Twix.  So.  Good.  We walked out to see Fidelis, talked with him for a while, and then headed back to the other side of our sector to meet an investigator who ended up ratéing us.  We decided to see if by chance the branch president was at church so we could talk with him about some stuff, and it turns out he was there with some temperal affairs people from Kinshasa, one of them being this Québecois guy who knows Elder Gélinas’ family super well.  It was crazy.  Then we went to check on our next planned rendez-vous to see if he was home, but when we called he said he was at work and wouldn’t even be home until a couple hours after we had planned to meet with him—ratéd.  Instead, we walked out to another recent convert’s place and talked with him and his family for a while as they watched game 6 of the NBA Finals.  It was a pretty productive day haha. 

When we got home I made a huge cabbage/sausage dinner over rice by myself, which was surprising because usually Elder Massé helps me.  Well, after dinner one of the guys who ratéd us earlier came over with a big plastic box filled with crepes that he’d made because he felt bad.  Then Elder Davis and Elder Thibault attacked me while I was hanging up clothes to dry and pinned me to the ground and gave me 23 birthday spankings.  I haven’t been in quite that much pain in…years, probably.  It was horrible, but I was a good sport about it haha.  I learned why Elder Massé hadn’t helped me in the kitchen—I found a hidden note in the guitar that told me to check my camera, that led me to a box of crayons, to my soccer cleats, to a bag of cookies, to a box of cookies, and eventually to underneath my pillow where he had left me a really nice note and a pocket sized journal for a present.  It was so creative and nice and really heartwarming.  It made my birthday wonderful,  along with the present from my other companions.  Best birthday ever!

The rest of the week flew by.  We made of for that failed service project the next day when we went back to the same place and helped them tear down a tin fence/barrier/wall and pull weeds and paint and trim bushes and the like for like 4 hours, after which they fed us éru and watafufu.  Basically it was boiled flour mixed with plant stems and red oil haha.  Look it up!  We came home to change, went back out and finally got to see Marie Anne, this lady who’s been coming to church for like 8 months but hasn’t been able to be baptized because she was living with her son’s father but they’re not married.  Well, she moved out just recently and we set her a baptismal date and now she’s getting baptized Saturday!  I was super honored because she asked me to baptize her.  She is such an awesome person, I love her like a missionary loves his investigators-soon-to-be-converts. 

We went over to see Conrad, who was late getting home from work and was supposed to leave again for the city, but instead of letting us go he sat us down and had us watch le Tour de Cameroun as he took a shower and got ready to go.  It was actually really cool.  A Chinese guy was in first, a Japanese in second, and a French guy in third.  That’s about all I got out of that. 

On Thursday we got ratéd by the same guy again, so Massé and I sat down to do some planning, but this time a younger girl came over and asked us if we wanted to come sit outside of the sun and at the same time tell her about the Gospel, which was an awesome opportunity for us.  That kind of situation happens almost every day.  I’m so convinced that if someone doesn’t show up or cancels on us that someone else is almost always prepared to talk with us.  Since I’ve been here it’s happened on multiple occasions.  We just need to keep an eye out for them!

We were invited to consecrate a member’s new beignet stand, which was great.  He gave us some apricot jam filled beignets and crepes, which he sells for 15 and 20 cents respectively.  Everything here is so cheap, it’s a wonder they make any money off their businesses. 

After heading home, Elder Massé realized he didn’t have the key in his pocket anymore, but we were sure it fell out when he sat in this one couch at a friend’s house that totally collapsed on him, so we had to walk all the way back.  It turned out to be fantastic though, because she asked us for a blessing for her baby, and then right after that her neighbors who are members asked us to come over and pray for them and give one of them a blessing too.  The whole situation was just incredible, I loved it. It made coming home that much sweeter.

Friday was pretty normal.  We got to talk to a bunch of people and tell them that there’s no such thing as black magic and that witch doctors don’t have any power over you.  The way they defended themselves I felt like I had just told someone that the sky was green instead of blue and that their whole life was a lie.  The differences in culture are pretty intense, if you can believe it.  I am in Africa, after all.  Some traditions here come down for like 15 generations.  It’s kindof hard to break that!

Saturday was fun because we got to go over the bridge and have a zone teaching thing with the other elders and the Gaileys.  We talked a lot about doing effective planning and it was a great experience.  I learned a lot and was motivated to rededicate myself to the service.  Elder Massé and I took advantage of being in town to pick up some things that you can’t find on our side of the bridge like meat, spices, canned beans, sliced cheese, etc.  On the way back our taxi driver got pulled over and we had to get out and find another ride home, which was pretty inconvenient.  When we finally showed up at our friend’s house he was sleeping on the couch, so we took some funny pictures with him until we decided it was probably time to wake him up so we could talk about temples.  He got really excited to take us to some of his friends’ houses so we could teach them too, so we walked with him for the next couple hours meeting one friend after the other.  I love working with members.  They’re the best, and it’s so much easier to teach people when you’re with someone who can relate to the people you’re teaching.  One of his friends is a 26 year old park ranger/wildlife preserver and makes like $120,000 a year but lives in this really small apartment just saving up tons of money.  It’s crazy how far money can go here.  You could build an entire house with like $20,000. It’s hard not to consider coming back some day to build a summer home or something to bring my family to in the future…

We had a bittersweet Sunday.  One of our most recent converts called to tell us she couldn’t come to church because one of the little girls she lived with during the summer was in a terrible car crash and passed away that weekend so she would be dealing with funeral stuff all day.  It was really sad because I’m pretty sure I met that girl.  She was only 7 or 8 years old and a such a sweet girl.  The amount of death that these people live through is astounding.  A member of the family or a friend dies nearly every week, and it seems like they’ve almost become used to it, which is so sad.  The good news was that Marie Anne had an awesome baptismal interview with Elder Thibault, and then we came back for weekly planning and studies and whatnot. 

Yesterday was the real kicker.  I forgot to tell you last week that we were going to a new beach, which is why I wasn’t able to write!  We went to this Anglophone city called Limbé, where they had a huge black sand beach with volcanic rocks at the beach head.  All the missionaries piled in the Gailey’s truck and we left at 7 o’clock on the dime, and an hour later we were climbing out to visit this wildlife preservation center that was mostly centered on monkeys.  It was awesome.  I took a million pictures.  Then we went to the beach and played volleyball for like 5 hours with some random people from Lebanon and around Cameroon.  We had brought a soccer ball, but this guy came over right as we started playing and told us we couldn’t play volleyball with a soccer ball.  It was bad for the net.  Plus, that was the law.  Those are the rules that white people created.  If we wanted to play then we could rent a volleyball for $2 an hour.  Well that was ridiculous, but some guy came over who wanted to play and he told us he would pay so we could all play, which was really nice even though the worker was being absolutely ridiculous.  It was so much fun.  They Gaileys brought us lunch of PB&J’s and starbursts and skittles and a giant apple and banana bread and it was delicious.  I would have sworn I had teleported to Southern California.  Coming back, we realized it was all just a dream.  Even though everyone was super sun burnt on their legs and face and upper arms it just didn’t seem real at all.  I loved every second of it.  I wish we could open a branch down in Limbé… 

That brings me to the end of this dream week.  I hope you all had as good of a time as I did and that you’re living life to the fullest, but staying realistic and obedient, because honestly that’s what really keeps us happy!  Be nice to your siblings and parents and loved ones (after all, they’re called loved ones for a reason), and you’ll make each other happy. 

I love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a fantastic week and I hope to hear from you soon! :)

Elder Garland

August 5th

Bonjour to everyone !

It’s been another interesting week in Douala.  We didn’t have a whole lot of eye opening experiences, but we had some pretty cool things happen to us, so no worries. 

After a long, slow week last week we finally started off hot on Tuesday and got to teach a lot of people and contact a few others.  One of the contacts was awesome, and inspired a lesson I gave for our district meeting.  I was sitting in the front seat of a taxi on the way home from a failed rendez-vous, and Lundberg was behind me.  A woman gets in next to him, and a few seconds later I hear Lundberg say, “Hey I like your shoes!” The woman was so excited, and for the next 20 minutes we just chatted with her about everything, and eventually she asked us about why were there, etc. and it opened up a door for us to talk to her about the Church.  It just felt awesome.

On Wednesday I went on splits with Elder Stephens into my sector, which was sweet.  He’s an awesome missionary.  We were sitting down to eat chawarmas for lunch and I was telling him about how my pen bleeds through every paper, and seriously about 5 seconds later this little kid walked around the corner with a basket of pens on his head.   I think I scared him with how fast I jumped out of my chair and ran at him.  I’ve never been so excited to buy pens.

We had another really weird day on Thursday because of our district meeting, and consequently the next 3 rendez-vous we had planned all fell through.  We did get to go to a member’s house that night to eat hare from the forest, so that was a pretty sweet end to a bitter day. 

On Friday we got a call from a member asking us to meet him at the church, and when I got there I was surprised to see not him, but the first person we baptized back in March, Aldrich!  We’d been talking on the phone every now and then since he left, but it was so joyous to finally see him again.  I love surprises!  I was so happy.  We got to sit down and talk for a while, and then we walked him back to the Dim’s house and I had my crowning Douala speaking moment when I met their whole extended family and made them all 20 of them swoon with my Douala skills.  I think I used every word I knew, and they died haha.  I left that house a taller missionary.  Annndd then God humbled me again. The next day we got transfer letters.  I couldn’t sleep that whole night.  It was like I was 10 years old again on Christmas Eve, just thinking about everything that was go down the next day.  I even had a dream that I was leaving to Yaoundé.  Well, turns out I AM leaving, but only across the bridge to Bonabéri.  I was so disappointed, I could barely fake a happy face as I opened and read my transfer letter.  All the people I’ve been working with, all the members I’ve gotten to know, my companions.  I guess it was bound to happen eventually, but I was just really, really hoping it wouldn’t be this transfer.  There’s two new missionaries coming in to the apartment, and I would’ve loved to have worked with them.  The worst part is that they only gave me 3 days to say all my goodbyes, one of those days being Sunday, where we only ever have time to see the Tignyembs.  So basically I was depressed all Saturday, but since then I’ve been praying that I will have a better attitude about going to the other side.  I know I’ll still see my collegues, if only every other week or so.  It’s the members and friends of the church that I’ll miss the most. 

I got to say goodbye to most of my friends on Sunday, but not all of them.  It was really hard.  I tried to convince myself and them that I’ll be around, Bonabéri isn’t too far, so we’ll most likely see each other soon anyway, but I know it won’t be the case.  SIGH.  I’m sure I’ll love my new area and my new companion, Elder Massé.

Some other fun tidbits—I was talking to an old member when I see his eyes start to roll back, and I almost had a heart attack until I saw that he just fell asleep right in the middle of while I was talking.  While looking me right in the eyes.  And then suddenly he wakes right back up and says, “What were you saying? Sometimes I fall asleep like that, but don’t worry, just keep talking.”  It was so funny.  He didn’t do it again, but I couldn’t get over the fact that that’s the second time that someone’s fallen asleep while I was talking.  Apparently I’m either really boring or I have a really soothing voice.  Probably the former…

Anyway, we had an awesome Saturday despite the fact that all of our rendez-vous fell through again.  We had a baptism that didn’t start until an hour and a half until after it was supposed to (not that that’s irregular).  I love baptisms.  This one was especially beautiful.  A 60 some odd year old man getting into the water to make his covenants with God, with his 5 year old daughter on the stairs watching (I won’t talk about how she spent the hour and a half we waited spraying us with water and kicking and punching and smearing mud on my shirt).  Then he bore his testimony and it was so awesome.  I wish I had recorded it, because I’d show it to everyone!  You just can’t deny something like that.  It’s instant proof that this is the truth!  Some day everyone will know what I’m talking about.  Another quote someone said was, “the food that’s ready to eat now is smaller than what will come later,” talking about how baptism is only a taste of the blessings that are to come.  I love food analogies, but they make me hungry.  So afterwards we had some delicious meat balls (I think it was meat…) and rice and juice.  African hosts are unlike any other.

Anyway,  another of our appointments told us that she was actually on the other side of the country, so that was normal too.  And we met an apostle!  There’s a lot of them here, actually. He said he’s been in the ministry for 53 years, and was very proud of it.  He has churches all over Cameroon apparently.  He wasn’t as proud of the last apostle we met, and even accepted a brochure.  We’ll see where that leads.  Who knows, maybe he’ll be a real apostle some day!

Saturday night was very special.  The same member who fell asleep on me invited us to come to the beginning of his dowery process, which meant going to the wife’s parents’ house to present himself and take the list of everything he needs to buy for her in order to officially marry her traditionally.  When we got there, the whole family was there.  They split into two groups—we went with Randy (the member) and his two friends, and the fiancée and her family sat on the other side of the room.  We huddled into groups and one friend on our side was saying, “it’s not our move, we have to wait for them to start.” Eventually the dad from the other side stands up and says, “So! You’ve come into my home.  I’d like to know why!”  and then Randy’s friend was going to stand up and present Randy to the family because the man doesn’t do it himself.   But his friend only speaks English, so he turns to me and says, “I need you to translate everything for me.”  So on the spot I stood up with this other friend and translated for the whole family and told them that we were there because our friend wanted to ask for Kiki’s (the woman) hand in marriage.  So they huddle together for a few minutes and so do we until our guys go, “Ok, the ball is in their court!” until their side says, “well who’s your friend?”  And then everyone on their side goes, “it’s the white guy!” and everyone starts laughing.  It was hilarious.  But Randy stands up and presents himself, and then he gave them a gift of wine and whiskey, and then they welcomed us with a huge dinner as they went over the list with Randy.  It didn’t look too expensive! Four goats, wine, salt, blankets, new shoes, and a thousand dollars.  The cool thing is that they don’t actually have to complete the list to marry the daughter, but they just do what they can.  They’ll end up paying everything, but over time.  It was really exciting for me to be a part of it, and I was honored that he asked me to help.  Plus, we ate really well afterwards. 

Sunday was great.  It was hard saying bye to everyone, but they were all really encouraging.  I got to take a few pictures, and the Tignyembs made us Irish potatoes (cooked potatoes with tomatoes, onions, and green beans) that night and it was delicious. 

And now I’m here and it’s already Monday again.  I’m so sad to be leaving, but I’m really happy that I’m at least staying in Douala.  I love this city so much, and the people even more.  I’m excited to move out into the country where you walk everywhere and rarely hear any motorcycles or taxis.  I’m excited to have air conditioning, although we’re working with an African so most likely we won’t be using it very much.  They can’t put up with the cold at all, haha.

I would love your prayers right now.  We’re going into an area that neither I nor my companion know at all, so it’ll be really difficult to locate all the people that the other Elders were working with.  In either case, I will do my best to adapt to my new surroundings and keep my head up.  It’ll be a rough couple of weeks, but I’m sure that by the end of the month I’ll love it.  I will get to see the Tignyembs get married and baptized, for which I’m eternally grateful.  I’ll still see the other Elders from time to time, as well as the Gailey’s who I love dearly.  It’s a change, but I’ll take it on with open arms!

I love and care about you all so much, please keep in touch! Tell me about your lives! I know you’re having your own difficulties.  I will keep you in my prayers, but you can always look to your Heavenly Father for guidance.  I know He is there and that He loves and knows you more than anyone else on the planet!  He may just be waiting for you to ask Him for help.  Sometimes we need to show a little faith.  The blessings are there—we just need to ask for them! 

Have an awesome week,

Elder Garland 

August 12th

Une fois de plus bonjour tout le monde !!!

This has been one of the more interesting weeks of my mission.  Monday was my last P-Day in my sector, and since I only had another day to say all my goodbyes I tried to see one of our recent converts that night, but she wasn’t even there.  So to make up for my disappointment we set up an epic mattress fort in the hall and strung it with Christmas lights and it was amazing.  We tried sleeping under it, but aroudn 1 in the morning I woke up to about 1093 mostquitoes fighting for posession of my body, so I got up and to sleep in my normal bed.  It was pretty anticlamatic.

My last day in Akwa was pretty great.  I got to see Marcelle, who fed us of course and then gave me a Cameroun jersey which is sweet.  Then we saw Christiane and Nicole, and headed out with the Gaileys to pick up the new missionaries : Elders Wright and Beutler !  They’re both awesome.  So fresh.  So green.  And so tan...since we’ve been in the rainy season and they spent the MTC under the sun, they’re both more tan than we are.  It was weird.  But they’re excited to be here and ready to learn, which is great.  I’m excited to watch them grow!  I had another realization moment when I noticed that in just a few short months I’ll be one of the older missionaries in the field.  I’m alread the one who’s been in Douala the longest!  Everyone else has moved on.  This is my home.  I love it.  I’m so glad I stayed, even if it’s on the other side of the bridge. Everyone thinks we’ll still see each other, but in reality I’ll probably go another 3 transfers or so without seeing more than 2 or 3 people that I taught, and only because I’ll go to their baptisms (hopefully!). 

So I spent my first night in Bonabéri that night, where Andriamamonjy made us Malgash soup and I slept really well until our branch missionary Barthelemy started snoring and sniffing with an incredible force.  The next morning Elder Massé and I unscrewed the bunk beds and moved them into another room.  For Angy’s last day before going home to Madagascar we went back into Akwa and saw some of the people he taught, including some Malgash people he met a couple months ago.  When we walked into their shop I saw this really nice Nikon D7000 on the desk and said, “hey I’m sort of a photographer too!” and they started going off in Malgash, and Angy says, “they want you to help them take pictures of this hotel that they’re installing lights in...” sooo for the next 45 minutes we followed Angy’s friend around and he had me take pictures of the interieur and exterieur of this hotel.  Then they started asking me for tips on how to take a good picture and were ooh’ing and ahh’ing over the pictures I was taking, which were not by any means wonderful.  I felt really bad because it kindof turned into a ‘me show’ when it was Angy’s last day.  We got a Sprite out of it though, so it was totally worth it.  Then 3 more people that he wanted to see weren’t even home, but he said he had an awesome last day and thanked us for coming around with him.  P.S. one of our taxi drivers heard Elder Massé speaking English to us and asked him if by any chance he was a descendant of Hitler.  So that was pretty hilarious.

The next day we had a special zone conference in honor of Angy’s leaving, so we all talked about how much we loved him and had this big lunch before he was whisked away on a bus to Yaoundé to catch his final flight home.  It was nuts.  I’d never seen anyone die before (mission term for when someone goes home).  I cried, duh.  I’m not good at saying goodbye to people, especially orally.  I’m pretty good at waving, but don’t count on me opening my mouth because it will most likely be incomprehensible blubbering. 

When we got home Massé and I talked about how we wanted to organize our new sector which neither of us know, and we organized our new rooms and got really nerdy with our megadesk.  I was finally able to unpack everything and move in all my junk that I had gathered from Akwa.

Friday was the wedding.  We were told that it was moved from 2 to 11, so we left early, got there and found no one.  Right as we were walking in we got a call that it was actually at 2, so we went to my old apartment and they told us that we needed to be there at 1, but when we got there 2 hours later we were still the only ones.  More than an hour went by before the next people showed up, and another 2 hours before the Tignyembs finally came.  I’m used to African Standard Time, but that was ridiculous.  Patience is truly a vertu.  So we watched them get married by this old mayor guy and it was actually really sweet.  They were FINALLY married.  Everyone was cheering and laughing and crying (but I was all cried out from the day before) and it was just beautiful.  Afterwards one of our member friends bought us a little plate of crocodile to eat, which was delicious and tasted yes, just like chicken.  Oh and on the way home we saw a taxi that said on the bumper “My name is Jack Bauer.”  

Then came the baptism.  We got to meet some of our friends and members who live around the apartment before heading out there, but I’m still lost all day until we cross the bridge back into Akwa.  We were there on time at 2, and so was everyone else—BUT the married couple.  So for another, and I kid you not, THREE hours we waited for them to show up.  Why were they late? The wife was getting her hair done...right before getting dunked in a pool of water.  The ceremony lasted forever, but it was awesome.  Six baptisms, testimonies by the father and oldest daughter, another marriage ceremony before God where our Anglophone friend gave a talk that lasted way too long that thankfully he said he cut short due to lack of time that inlcuded things like, “your wife is like a television—you need to watch only her, and you need to love to watch your husband.  And love is like childhood—you need to learn to share,” among many other catchy phrases like that.  SO, 4 hours later everyone was surrounding a giant table eating lots of food and being happy and celebrating and it was so fun and so happy.  I loved every second of it after it finally started.  Oh and on the way home we saw a motorcycle carrying a guy who was balancing, no joke, another motorcycle across his lap.  #AFRICA

Sunday was great.  I met a lot of the members, despite the fact that no one asked me to bear my testimony during sacrament, and the warmth and love felt the same as it was back in Akwa, thank goodness.  The only problem was that I had split my middle finger across the finger print somehow, which made shaking everyone’s hand impossibly painful because they always do this snap at the end of the handshake right where I have the split. Otherwise, it was a great church service, except that priesthood is now at the end and they talk until like 12:30.  Everyone has to have the last word haha.

We taught a member’s friend, which was the first time Elder Massé and I got to teach together.  He’s a great missionary and teaches well, so I’m pumped to continue working with him. 

There are some things about Bonabéri that I appreciate more than Akwa.  For example, I haven’t taken a hot shower in the last 6 months, but I took my first one about 6 days ago.  It was a wonderful thing.  I forgot how awesome it was.  Another thing is air conditioning.  I don’t have to sleep with a fan, and mosquitos don’t really come into our apartment so no more annoying net all over my face at night.  I also get to sleep with the blanket that I brought, which was way too hot back in Akwa.  Since our sector is so small, we don’t take any taxis, but we walk everywhere.  I love that.  Since there’s no taxis and no traffic, there’s no noise at night including no karaoke and I sleep like a baby.  They make their own yogurt and eat it with cereal for breakfast instead of milk.  It’s delicious and now I know how to make yogurt :) Angy left his red fanny pack behind, so now I’m super stylin and my shirts aren’t half as nasty as they usually are after a day’s work.  I love my companions.  They’re super cooperative and reasonable and clean and nice and hilarious and charitable and hard workers.  I’m sure I’ll have more things to write about next week, but until then I want you to know that leaving behind a sector with converts and investigators and friends from church really, really, really sucks.  I miss them so much already.  I remember being in their position when the missionaries who taught me left, and it was really weird for me.  I love these people so much, I can’t even describe.  When you’re giving your all to something, heart and soul, and then you have to leave it behind you know what I’m talking about.  Thankfully I can still call and write them and they’re not too far!  It’ll be worse when I get transfered to Yaoundé or Congo or Gabon (which still isn’t open yet).  Just know that I miss them all because I’m putting my all into this work!  I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world (except maybe a Bigmac and strawberry shake oh my...), but I was thinking about why the heck wouldn’t I do that with everything I do back home?  I decided to put my everything into everything I do, and that way I’ll get the most out of this life.  I encourage you to do the same thing! If  you’re doing the dishes, wash the heck out of em! Why not?! Maybe I’m becoming a creepy missionary, but seriously!  Don’t do anything half axed !  Put your heart and soul into scrubbing that table, or vacuuming that floor, or making that sandwich, or swinging on that swing!  You will love it and you will love life.  Heck, I’m in one of the poorest places in the world, and these people LOVE life.  They are smiling and singing all day as they hang their clothes that they washed by hand and as they sweep their dirt floors.  What’s your excuse?

ALL my love,   

Elder Garland