February 17

Hello, mbote, bonjour !!

This week was once again crazy.  We didn't get to see as many people
because President came through!  He had to leave his country, visit
TWO other countries in our mission, and then come through our town.  I
had a great time speaking with him, especially over breakfast on
Tuesday.  The Baileys invited us over for a real American breakfast -
eggs, ham, pancakes, and potatoes.  I didn't need to eat for the rest
of the day.  America.

We were walking around looking for someone to teach when, naturally,
we were stopped by a couple people who invited us to sit down with
them to tell them about why we're here.  One of the ladies was from
Cameroon!  Unfortunately, she didn't speak Douala, but it was still
awesome to have her speak with a Camerounian accent.  I love it. I
miss it.

On Wednesday we had zone conference with President, and it was
awesome, obviously, and very inspiring.  We talked about dedicating
ourselves to the work like a temple is dedicated, and we talked about
how our mission had 127 BAPTISMS in one weekend, and how we have
600-700 invesitgators at church every Sunday (50 of them in one branch
in Gabon!!!).  They also told us this story about how the members in
Central African Republic have been suffering with no food or water
because of the dictator who took power recently.  The branch president
in the CAR wrote president on Wednesday, who wrote Elder Hamilton of
the 70, who wrote Elder Bednar, who then wrote President Monson, who
then held a special prayer with all the members of the 12 in the
temple on Thursday.  THE NEXT DAY, the dictator was chased out of the
CAR after holding power for months, and the members were receiving
aid.  INCREDIBLE.  AMAZING.  THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!  Oh and I decided I
need to start exercising again...unrelated.

Anyway we had a great time with the Cooks, and I bonded with Sister
Cook when she found out that I know how to crochet.    We got stuck in
traffic on the way home for 2 hours, so we didn't get to see anyone
that day :(

Thursday was great though.  We sat down with this investigator who was
pretty interested and agreed to be baptized on our first sit-down with
her, but we sealed the deal when, after asking her about how she felt
about her baptism she said, "well I've been holding something against
someone for a long time and it's been weighing me down, but otherwise
I feel great."  So out of nowhere I remembered this verse in Mark 15
that talks about how if we want God to forgive us, we need to forgive
others, so I shared it with her.  And then she started crying and
don't take this wrong but it was awesome!  The Spirit was so strong
and I KNOW she felt it!  She looked up after a couple minutes, wiped
her eyes and said, "ok, I'm ready!"  IT WAS SO COOL!!!  We high fived
and fist pumped when she got up to get another tissue.  So.

Later that day we saw a pokemon skirt, so that was probably the best
thing that happened to me all week (just kidding, but seriously...how
cool is that.).

We went over to our recent convert's house, but she was watching
cartoons (she's 11) and her mom wasn't home, so she told us to come
back on Friday because she was busy haha.  I love kids.  She was
watching this show Kirikou, which is the story of this tiny naked baby
African child who rides on the head of a giraffe and discovers the
Savannah and asks his creepy grandpa that lives in an ice cave
(random?) why certain animals are a certain way.  It was actually
really educational and showed live videos of lions, alligators,
hippos, rhinos, chameleons, giraffes, zebras, and vultures!  We
learned a lot before we decided mom probably wasn't going to show up.

We met some cool people when we were back home with 15 minutes left in
our day and we decided to just stand on the side of the road and hand
out family brochures to people as they walked by.  Africans are the
best, no doubt in my mind.

Gaston (a recent convert) had us come to his place to meet this kid he
took under his wing to teach him the Gospel, and he's an all-star
already.  Arian.  His bottome jaw comes out like an inch more than it
should, but he's stellar.  We walked for over an hour to go see the
little girl who told us to come back and when we got there no one was
home, so that was awful.  We took a taxi all the way back because we
weren't about to walk for another hour, and we met this man with a
perfectly coiffed salt and pepper goatee.  He was way cool!

We walked up the hill to Loussala to see two other people who blew us
off (unintentionally) because of work or something, but I got to eat a
palm nut out of it.  It was basically a tiny coconut!  Not as sweet,
but similar.  And very crunchy.  And hard to swallow.  And not very
good...so not really at all like a coconut.  But for some reason I was
reminded of coconuts, so maybe just try one for yourself.

On Saturday we walked another long distance only to be ratéd.  We went
straight to the baptism of one of our guardians, who was super
excited.  It was awesome, and then I got to teach some little kids how
to play basketball.  I had forgotten it was Valentine's Day until
Sister Bailey showed up with a tub of what she called Bishop's
Brownies, which were absolutely to die for.  God bless America, and
God bless Sister Bailey.  I also got a call from my Congolese convert
in Douala, Hortense, and that made my day.  I loved talking to her.
She's the most jolly woman ever, and she was so excited to speak in
kituba with me haha.

We had another great Sunday, with 28 investigators at church between
the two companionships.  The branch presidency had great talks on
being at church on time (a serious problem here haha), and sitting in
families in sacrament.  Awesome talks.  I also saw someone taking
notes on a piece of cardboard, so there's that.  We came back, did
studies, and then Hatch and I went out to find this woman we met last
week, and ended up finding two more women.  For some reason those are
the only people I find...so I just stopped asking questions and
started accepting what God sends me!  We met a guy named Christ and a
girl named Belphaine - and no, that's not a normal name, that's just
Congo.

Elder VanAusdal made chimichangas the size of my head, so he's truly
outdone himself.

Also we were playing basketball, first to 11, and we were at 10, and I
had a break away on a steal and dunked it for the win, so that never
happens and it was basically a miracle.

We're going to the beach later, so that's exciting.  I'm wearing my
"digital music victim" shirt, which is also exciting.

I love you all.  I love the work I'm doing.  The harder I work, the
more motivated I become.  I'm even trying to become a morning person
and wake up half an hour earlier, so look out world!  It's all in the
head, it's all in the head...

Have an incredible week filled with miracles and blessings and hot chocolate! :)

Elder Garland