November 11

Mboté everyone!

What a crazy sauce week.

I am currently in Congo, scraping for time to write before the time
runs out, so I'll make it snappy!

On Tuesday we spent all morning helping Conrad clean up his front yard
(more pulling weeds), and then we said good bye to some more of our
investigators before heading back home.  On the way we helped this guy
push his car into his driveway, and then he walks with us for a few
steps, pulls aside and whispers "Elders, I'm from the Church, I just
got back from vacation of 50 days," but was trying to make it quiet so
his family didn't hear haha.  It was awesome, I love finding random
members like that.

We had our last district meeting on Wednesday, after which I got to
say good bye to more people because my visa officially came in and I
was due to leave Thursday at 12:30.  That night we were supposed to
have an awesome fish dinner with one of the members, but she ended up
feeling sick and made us fufu with gumbo sauce.  It's things like that
that made me realize God has a sense of humor.  That was my least
favorite meal at the beginning of my mission, and it became one of my
favorites by the end.

That night, the other elders and I watched 17 Miracles (AWESOME movie
if you've never seen it) and Elder Massé made brownies for everyone
which turned out to be probably the most delicious brownies I've ever
eaten.  Then I didn't sleep.

Thursday was when the real fun happened.  I played as much guitar as I
possibly could before the Gaileys came to take me and Elder Morin
away.  We said our goodbyes and drove off to the airport, where I
didn't even have to pay a dime for my bags.  We had a sad goodbye with
the Gaileys, and then we tried to get some Cameroonian jerseys before
getting on our plane.  We ended up not getting any, which is actually
good because they're even cheaper in Congo haha.  The security was
awesome.  They checked our bags, and Elder Morin was carrying a
Christmas package for Elder Lundberg.  They asked him what the package
was and he says, "I don't know, someone just gave it to me." haha, it
was so funny.  They were like, woaahhh you can't just take packages
from people! Then they opened it up and saw wrapping paper and let us
on without doing any more damage.  But if we were in America...haha
yeah you're done.

On the flight to Brazzaville (we saw Kinshasa and the Congo River!)
all the announcements were in English, French, and Lingala.  It was
awesome.  We ate a lunch of fried plantains, fish cubes, Coke, and
carrot salade.  Delicious.  When we landed, there were a bunch of
broken down planes growing trees that lined the airstrip.  Comforting.
They kicked us off the plane so we could go into the airport and get
back on the same plane 15 minutes later.  While we were waiting I
manage to karate chop myself in the throat with my extended backage
handle, so that was really embarrassing.  Then we were on the plane,
sitting next to the U.S. Ambassador for Congo, which made for an
interesting flight.  We landed in pouring rain, and after getting our
bags we met the Bybee's and the other elders who took us to our home,
which took 2 hours of traffic to get to.  We passed probably 7 or 8
broken down cars in the middle of the road.  Finally I was able to
relax.  Elder VanAusdal had prepared shepherd's pie because he
remembered me saying I wanted it really bad while we were still both
in Bonabéri.  He is an angel, and it was delicious.  I didn't have any
time to unpack, so I basically just took out my sheets and blanket and
fell asleep in another air conditioned bedroom (hallelujah, except the
power goes off about every other day and we sleep without AC).

On Friday I walked around with my new companion Elder Brockbank, who
is awesome, for probably 4 hours in the beach sand that makes up the
roads of our sector, as we got ratéd from rendez-vous to rendez-vous.
He taught me quite a bit of kikongo, and that has already proved
useful.  They yell at us all day, "mundele mundele!" which means
"white!" haha, it's adorable.  I imagine it'll get old here pretty
soon, but so far it's better than "hee haw!" or "chinois!".  We met
some of the members and investigators despite all the people who were
gone, and they're all really cool.  Finally I got to come home and
unpack and get organized.  Elder Baker made a delicious carbanara, but
the power went out, so we had to flip on the generator.  Unfortunately
we have to turn it off before we go to bed, but there are worse things
in the world, like a 9 day virus that keeps you in bed all day.

We finally got to watch Conference this weekend, it was AWESOME.  I
just love Conference.  I can't wait to get the Liahona and read all
the talks again.  Uchtdorf was on fire, like he always is.  Oh by the
way the church building is BEAUTIFUL.  They actually have a church
building and a huge front yard lined with beautiful flowers and other
foliage.  They have a cobblestone driveway and parking lot.  They have
a basketball court with backboards and nets.  They have a beautiful
sacrament room with an organ.  The branch president is an incredible
man.  He actually understands how the church works.  I'm so excited to
be here.

We taught English class after Conference and it was super fun.  It
reminded me of being in France.

Conference on Sunday was just as awesome.  We came home and planned
for the week and then we made chicken alfredo and then I made brownies
which turned pretty good considering I used chocolate milk powder for
cocoa powder haha.

ANYway I have a lot to talk about an no time to talk, so I'm sorry but
I'll probably have more time next week.  I love you all so much and I
promise the Spirit is universal no matter what country you're in or
what language you speak.  I love the Lord and I love His work.  I
can't wait to see you all again, but in the meantime, I'm doin pretty
good :) I hope and pray you are all as well!

Elder Garland