November 4

Gotcha ! I’m still in Cameroon, but my papers are all in so my visa should be here by tomorrow or so, and then I’ll be out either Wednesday or Thursday.  So the NEXT letter you get will be in Congo.

In the meantime, we’ve been having an awesome week.  On Wednesday I got to see my first convert from Akwa, Aldrich.  He was in town for a couple days (he’s been up in Baminda finishing things from school) and wanted to see me before he went back, so he came all the way across the bridge to say hi.  He gave me a little Thai coin when I told him I was leaving for Congo.  It was so nice, I’m sure he really just wanted to give me anything so I could remember him so he grabbed the first thing in his pocket haha. 

That night the Gaileys came over to drop off a present—Elder Graham!  He was in passing on his way to Kinshasa; the first white missionary to ever make it there.  Since he’s finishing his mission and there’s this big mission conference in Kinshasa where Elder Bednar will come to speak (our side of the mission is never invited…), President gave him special permission to come down for a couple days so he could meet Elder Bednar before he goes home.  At the same time, Elder Bednar will be dedicating Gabon, which we’re all super excited about.  Sometime in the near future, the first missionaries will set foot in Gabon to preach the Gospel.  There will probably be two Africans and two North Americans, so we’re stoked.

Anyway, Elder Graham stayed the night with us.  We bought him beans and beignets and Djino and we chatted with him all night.  It was so good to see him; it had been several months.  Now it will be another 14 before I see him again :(

On Halloween we got to walk around with Elder Graham and say goodbye to some of his old friends and converts.  Their reactions to seeing him were classic.  It was a testimony to me of how much everyone loves him, and how hard he worked to earn their love.  I would hope that I work as hard as he did to earn that same love from the people I teach!  In the end, we were with a woman that Elder Graham had taught for a long time and then passed over to us, who we baptized, who was so happy to see Elder Graham that she just started crying.  She was SO happy, I wish I had recorded her reaction.  The Gaileys eventually came to pick him up though, and then she started crying again, but this time out of sadness.  Then Elder Graham started to cry, and then he started to pray but had to wait like 30 seconds after saying a broken “dear Heavenly Father,” so he could finish.  It was one of the saddest moments of my whole mission.  We shared a teary-eyed goodbye and then he was gone.

I had made plans with some of my converts from Akwa to see them on Friday, so I was really excited.  We sat down with Marcelle as her niece Kedi made us spaghetti omelettes (seriously just try it.  Cook some spaghetti.  Take a handful and mix it with two eggs, some diced onions, green peppers, and tomatoes.  Add a beef bouillion cube.  Fry it and let its succulence rock your newly africanized world), which of course were to die for.  We said a sad goodbye but I promised her, and a lot of other people, actually, that I’d come back to see them. 

The following story is real.  The next NINE people that we went to go see were all gone, had just left, were on vacation, or something that inhibited me from seeing them.  Lolita—gone, Madeleine—left, Yvette—just left, Philémon—working, Christiane—didn’t answer the door, Albert—not yet home, Rose—no one home, Roméo—just left.  It was the saddest thing of my life.  Something cool happened though as we were trecking back and forth across Douala.  We ran into this woman, Jackie, who lived for 12 years in Maryland and had been back for 5 and spoke with a perfect eastern US accent.  She had been to the church before but still thought we were all polygamists, something we straightened away immediately.  She even called New York “the Big Apple,” which made my day.  Then, as we were still talking, Lolita, the first convert I went to see, bumps into me holding Marius’ baby.  She led me across the street to say hi/bye to Sonya, the baby’s mom, who told us that Marius had just left, which didn’t surprise me in the least.  I was just happy to see a friendly face.  We went to the church to use the bathroom but it was locked, but lo and behold there was Marius and Victor (Mbenghe, the father of Gaetan, who I worked with a bunch when I first got to Douala, who left recently to Lumbumbashi on a mission) so I got to say some more goodbyes.  They are seriously some of my favorite people on the planet.  If you read any of my posts on Sunday from when I was still in Akwa it probably says something about Marius and being amazing.  Anyway, we decided to go back and try to see if Albert had come home yet, and right before we got there we got a call from Elder Thibault saying that Roméo was home and that his daughter needs my email address.  Well Albert still wasn’t home, so we walked all the way back to Roméo’s and were confused until he told us himself that he had seen us walking into his house, so his first thought was “I need to buy them a fish!” which he proceeded to do.  The woman didn’t wrap them up fast enough though, and by the time he ran to the house we had already given up hope and left.  He then ran down the street to see if we were at another friend’s place, then checked another place, then started calling everyone he knew in the area to see if we were there.  Eventually he called his daughter who is at school in Buea (pronounced Boy-ah) to call the other elders to call me to tell us he was home.  Apparently while he was on the phone with her she reminded him that she needs my email address, probably to apologize for never making me banane malaksé which she had promised when she lost a bet I made with a card trick, muahaha. 

Anyway, although now cold, the fish was delicious, as well as the Djino and baton de manioc that came on the side.  We left Roméo’s on a full stomach and headed to the Tignyemb’s, the family I taught with Elder Zurcher, whose parents got married and who were all baptized the next day.  I was really happy to see them.  They’d started putting pictures of Christ around there humble “living room” and had bought some new hymn books and scriptures.  I had to wait a while for everyone to get home, but it was a very pleasant reunion.  Right when we were about to leave they forced us to stay to eat ndolé and boiled plantains which was delicious.  We got home the latest we had ever been due to traffic across the bridge.  As we were walking, I stepped in a gutter going across the sidewalk and nearly spread my pearly whites all over the cement.  Luckily my Spiderman reflexes allowed me to catch myself before my face met pavement.  It was still super embarrassing, but I think it was dark enough that not a whole ton of people saw.  It’s just unfortunate because I’m white and stick out like a sore thumb, or palm in this case.  Basically, three mangez-vous in one day.  Not bad, as Barack Obama would say.  In a meme.

Marlyse, another one of my favorite people on Earth, demanded that we come over the next morning because we didn’t get to see her the day before.  Since we were already going into town to see one of my old investigators get baptized (Greenville, an anglophone who lives with Dr. Samuel who comes from forever away to church and to be taught) we decided it would be ok to see her.  She’s the best.  She made a wicked good ndolé and fried ripe plantains which is my all-time favorite thing to eat I decided, cooked up macabo and unripe plantains and bought us a Coke and it was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time.  She spoke to me in Douala for the majority of the time, but thankfully Yanu, another member, was there to help me work through it.  I learned a lot, but I still want a book.  I’ll be learning Kikongo soon enough, but I love Douala.  It’s such a fun language and is nothing like the other languages I’ve studied (did I mention I was studying a Russian/French dictionary for the last couple months?).  Anyway Douala is great, but learning it isn’t super convenient unless you’re constantly around someone who speaks the language and can explain different grammar rules and whatnot.  One could say, “alinghe se mba na na si bi topo na tila Douala bwam gita, nde emala onyolana na sengha son !”

We left Marlyse’s after seeing her kids Nina and Melchior for the last time and with more promises that I hope I can hold.  From there we walked to Greenville’s baptism, which didn’t actually start for another hour or so, but it was a great service anyway, and for some reason I was asked to give a short talk on the Restoration, which I did with pleasure.  The best part was when he bore his testimony at the end.  There is nothing so pure as the freshly acquired testimony of someone who has just been baptized.  I love it. 

Upon getting back we got to see Conrad and his little cousin, so that was nice.  We made a date to come back to help him with more yard work tomorrow.  That will be fun.  I’ll probably just end up pulling weeds again.

Sunday was fast Sunday, and that went super well.  I think there were 5 kids who got up to bear their testimonies, which is just about as pure as that of a new member’s.  Melchior surprised me by showing up to church in Bonabéri to say goodbye and he got up and bore his testimony too and talked about how much he loves me and Elder Zurcher and yes I cried, sorry.  Since it was my last chance to bear my testimony and to say goodbye, I shot up to the pulpit to bid the branch members adieu and to tell them what I know to be true.  For as rocky as my English talk was at the baptism (honestly, so hard to talk about the Gospel or pray in English, I had to get translations like 3 times), the Spirit led the words flow out super smooth in French, which I was very thankful for.  I got to take a lot of pictures with the members after church, even though I was sad that one of my converts wasn’t able to make it due to lack of means to get the hour and a half to church.  I probably won’t ever see her again, which breaks my poor little heart.  I had to call her and tell her that I wasn’t going to be there anymore and she promised she would do everthing she could to be at church, but in the end I didn’t get to say goodbye.  SAD.  I’m thankful for the people I was able to see though, and I’m looking forward to meeting new ones later this week!

 Other than that, we broke our fast with monster burritos that Elder Massé made with a half a kilo of beef roast and fajita sauce mix from Elder Davis.  DELICIOUS.  I ate 3 annnddd didn’t fall asleep till probably midnight, even though I went to bed early.  Then I woke up at 5:53 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep so I just laid there and thought about everything and nothing.  Then we got up and played soccer and it was really fun and I scored and started writing a poem and now I’m here!  I was really sad to say goodbye to the other elders (again), but most of them are young enough in the mission that I’ll probably get to see them again.  So it was more like a, “till next time!”

I don’t exactly want to leave, but at the same time I’m excited.  I’m just glad I’m not travelling alone.  Elder Morin will make an awesome travel companion.  Speaking of companions, Elder Massé is seriously a champion among champions.  He took 4 years of high school French, spent 2 weeks there and speaks amazingly.  He’s really easy to get along with and makes amazing food.  He learns things ridiculously fast like guitar and Russian and Italian and Douala.  He’s hilarious and has really great taste in music.  He has a great vocabulary and acts his age.  He’s obedient and has an awesome testimony.  He’s charitable and runs extremely fast.  He’s patient with my stubborness and showers every day and night.  He’s a hard worker and knows random facts about everything, like the technical term for your first poop ever.  It’s been a short 2 transfers but I’ve loved it.  I’ve loved him, and I really hope I’ll see him soon.

In the meantime, I hope you all are having an amazing life.  It’s so fun if you make it fun.  So why the heck would you not make it fun?!  Sure there are down in the dumps times, but even those can pass quickly if you are seriously determined to make the most out of life.  One of my most favorite quotes is by Elder Holland when he said, “However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”

I testify that that is true!  Go to Him who has felt all of your sufferings, afflictions and pains!  That is, if you want to make life the most enjoyable thing in the world :)

Also, I love you.

Elder Garland