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-
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
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