December 30

Hey everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :) We’ve had some pretty awesome
holidays here in the Congo.  After writing home last week we almost
got run over by a speeding bulldozer going through the market.  I wish
I could capture the insanity that is Grand Marche...maybe you could
look it up?  Imagine a million Africans surrounding you and imagine
the smell as they dig out the gutters of sludge and trash.
Mmmmm....not exactly apple pie.

We spent all P-Day night making pies - cross weave apple, banana
cream, coconut cream, and chocolate pudding with a graham cracker
crust.  They were delicious, as expected.

On Christmas Eve we went out to the edge of the world, or at least
Pointe-Noire.  We got to the top of this hill, and on the other side
there were fields and little tiny shacks all the way to the horizon
where there was the jungle line.  It was awesome.  I want to go
contacting out there.  Maybe I'll bring a chimpanzee to church next
week!  Or maybe I'll get eaten by a leapord.

In the morning, the Bybees brought over materials for gingerbread
houses, which we made whilst listening to MOTAB Christmas music after
eating the most tasty chili and cornbread you can fathom.

We ran into an old investigator who instead of shaking our hands did
the African headbutt salutation.  You knock heads on the left, right,
and then in the middle.  It was sweet.  I was tempted to do a
traditional dance after but there were children and I didn't want to
scar them.

While we were walking through Fond Tie Tie (previously spelled Che Che
in my older letters but was wrong but that's how you say it so sorry)
I got whacked on the side of the head right on my cheek bone, and I
honestly thought someone punched me in the side of the face, so I
turned around to defend myself when it turns out a guy was just
walking through a very tightly packed public space with a bike with
training wheels on his head (of course).  And of course he had no idea
he just clocked me, so I couldn't exactly say anything.  It just hurt,
real bad.

The next day was CHRISTMAS!  We had Christmas hugs, and looked through
Elder Brockbank's Christmas presents, which was a calendar of pictures
and another picture book of him and his family at the 32 temples
they've been too across the U.S., it was so cool!  Plus I know what
everyone in his family looked like as far back as the early 90s.  We
decided to leave the apartment early to go wish some people Merry
Christmas before heading to the Bybees, so we made a little circuit
around our neighborhood (which took an hour and a half to complete).
Unfortunately, it felt like every time we stopped somewhere it was
like they felt obliged to give us something, which we hate.  They
already have so little, but they're incredibly generous.  So from one
family we got a giant papaya, and another gave us a liter of raw
honey.  We were extremely greatful.

We went over to the Bybees, which was the most stressful taxi ride of
my life.  I was charged with the banana cream pie, which became a
banana juice pie in the African heat.  It was nearly impossible to
hold in my lap as we went through the crazy traffic.  The driver was
slamming on his brakes and gunning it randomly, which almost made the
pie/juice spill into my lap every 5 seconds.  By the time we were
right in front of the Bybees the driver had noticed how stressed I was
and was now messing with me, purposefully trying to get the pie to
spill haha.  It was funny, but I also wanted to blow up at him...it
was such a beautiful pie haha.  We made it no problem though, and
exchanged secret Santa t-shirts, and I got this awesome yellow and red
cuneiform looking shirt from Elder Morin.  It's so legit, I love it.
We had a delicious dinner of chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed
veggies, salad, and then we pulled out the 5 pies.  Sister Bybee had
made a squash pie that was just like pumpkin pie and delicious.  We
separated to Skype home, so I went to the church with Elders Morin,
Lundberg, and Baker to take our turns.  While I was waiting I played
basketball with Elder Lundberg, and he destroyed me in Around the
World and Horse.  Then I had a wonderful time Skyping home with my
family with little to no problems with the connection, and I even
Skyped in my cuneiform shirt because I didn't wanna play basketball in
my shirt and tie.  Then we took a taxi home that smelled like a urinal
cake the whole time.  We drove past a bunch of booths where people
were taking Christmas pictures dressed in their finest and sprinkled
with this shiny dust/glitter.  That's the biggest tradition I could
see...people don't really celebrate here.  Even on New Year's, they
just do their own thing.

I got home and took a shower, and right as I stepped out the power
died, so Merry Christmas from the power company!

We ate our gingerbread houses the next day for lunch, and had an
awesome day walking everywhere in the sector.  No one ratéd us!  It
was perfect.  That night Elder Baker slipped on pineapple juice and
fell right on his butt.  Classic.  Only in Africa do you have to watch
out for pineapple and mango peals on the dirt...well maybe elsewhere,
but I've never been there.

Elder Brockbank and I went over to a less active member's place to
help her paint her little house black (black paint mixed with liquide
asphalt).  We planned on being there for 2 hours, and by the time we
checked the time it had already been 5.  It was crazy.  The one day
the sun was the only thing in the sky (lately it's been overcast and
ugly), we were outside the entire time.  We got so sunburned, but it
was great.  She was super thankful and came to church on Sunday, so it
was all worth it :)  Plus she fed us a baguette with sliced tomatoes
and eggs and margarine (no one can afford butter) and wait for it,
apricot jam...?  It was actually tasty.

Saturday was simple.  Met some cool new people, went to the other
elders' baptism and loved it, learned some new kikongo, ate some good
food, and that's about it!

Sunday was also pretty eventless.  The coolest thing that happened
besides taking the Sacrament was when we were walking to the "bus
station" (a bunch of taxis and buses lined up in the dirt with a
million people mosying about) we saw a caravan of taxis drive passed -
the first of which was carrying a band.  They were sitting on the hood
of the car playing trumpet, snare drum, and had a kick drum.  It was
crazy.  I loved it though.

ANYway I hope you all are having the best holidays of your life!  It's
such a wonderful time of the year, and despite the lack of decorations
and colors and snow and cold we still felt the Spirit and had a great
time together.  Be nice to your siblings and friends and parents!
That's what Christ asks us to do like 239 times in the scriptures.
I've been reading through the New Testament in French and it's awesome
to see the different translations.  Sometimes you get a new light shed
on scriptures that are different in English.  Same Gospel, same
Spirit, same Lord :)

I love you,

Elder Garland