April 7

Hello again everybody!

Well we had quite the week.  It all started on Tuesday, April 1st,
when first my mind was blown by the fact that it is already April, and
then because we went to this Mercy Ships projection by our church.
(I'm sorry, I'm taking a quite aside to talk about this guy who came
to sit next to me who has clearly never used a computer in his entire
life.  He keeps asking how to click the mouse and type in the letters.
 He didn't know how to open the internet or where to go from there.
This is incredible and is unfolding out right in front of me.
Amazing.  I wish you could see this, seriously.)  James, our Israeli
friend, invited us to the projection because he'd seen one a couple
weeks ago and thought we'd enjoy it because there's Americans who are
there and we could talk to them.  So we showed up, and I first met
Mary, and then Joanne, who were two middle-aged women who were making
one of their first trips on land.  They usually just stay on the boat,
but they had a chance to come into the city, and ran into a couple
Mormon missionaries.  They were super nice!  It was the first time
that I'd spoken with a non-member American in 15 months.  I had no
idea what to say or anything, when all of the sudden Mary asks me to
bare her my testimony.  Well I couldn't have asked for a more perfect
opportunity to share the Restored Gospel, but instead I talked about
music and how I came to know God through worship, which ended up being
a pretty sweet experience anyway.  We watched a couple videos of
sharing the Gospel of Jesus-Christ with our friends, and that was
really cool.  When we got home, Elder Gelinas got a call from the
Baileys that he was going to leave for Gabon the next day at 9 in the
morning.  I was so excited that I was hugging him and clapping his
hand and all this jazz when I get a sly smile from him and a sick
feeling that it was April Fool's Day came over me.  Poisson d'avril.
DANGIT.  He April Fished me real good.  I was so mad though, because I
looked so dumb being so excited.  Alas.  It was a good one, I admit.
I got him back by setting his alarm for 4h30 though, and in a
punch-drunk voice whisper/said "poisson d'avril" as he laughed in bed.
 Unfortunately it was so hot that I couldn't fall back asleep for
another hour or so, so the joke ended up being on me haha.

The Baileys told us that the new missionary wouldn't come until the
weekend or Monday, so we were a little disappointed to have to wait.
In any case, on Wednesday I did my first zone training that  went
really well!  Great ideas on how to better ourselves and rededicate
our work to God.  Afterwards we went to go see our friend Darcine and
her kids, but this really drunk maman came and sat with us and kindof
ruined the lesson by telling us irrelevant stories and introduced
herself at least 15 times in 45 minutes.  She would be talking,
randomly stop and say, "I'm Mami Bea!"  And we'd say, "yeah you told
us like 3 minutes ago," and she'd just keep talking.  Then we went to
a member's house to eat mwambe, which is palm nuts that you smash and
boil and strain into a sauce and pour over chicken and rice.  It was
super good!  I really loved it.  The best part was that her neighbors
were over watching Parent Trap at the same time, sooo throw back!
Classic.  Then we found out that her neighbor has been coming to
church with her for the last year and hasn't been baptized, so we just
stepped out to talk to her mom and she told us to go ahead and baptize
her so that was awesome.  Lessons started two days later!

On Thursday we met with a less-active member who has been busy
recording a rap music video, which we weren't expecting much out of,
but turned out to be really cool! It's called "Petit Monde" by H2O, so
maybe that's on the internet, but I'm not sure.  It was awesome.  He's
going to be famous some day, and then I rapped for him in English and
he was amazed.  We're going to rap together I guess.  Keep an eye out
for Mundele na Ndombe!  Yannick, who was missing forever, finally came
back to meet us later that day, and it went great.  He's been 600 km
away, so we were happy to see him. That night we got a call from the
Baileys that in fact, Elder Etherington would land Friday afternoon
and we should come with them to pick him up! I was so excited.  I even
wrote in my journal "I'M SO EXCITED."

Friday came and we saw Darcine again and had a much better lesson on
the Word of Wisdom and the Plan of Salvation, and they were super
engaged, including the kids, so that was great.  Our member friend who
fed us had us over again to start teaching her neighbor, who's name is
Lovely (yes...I know), and she's only 11 but she's super smart and
asks great questions.  Then we walked over to the airport and waited
for my son to land.  We then waited an hour for his bags to come, and
then there he was!  He is a 6'1 operatic voice major ginger from
Oklahoma, so we are going to have a blast together.  He has 7 little
brothers and his baby sister was born the day he left the MTC!  AND he
has grandparents who live in Kennewick and relatives in Richland, so
if you know any Etheringtons say hi to them for me.  Anyway, he's
awesome already.  The Baileys took us out for dinner at this little
cafe across from the airport.  I had a delicious chawarma for the
first time since I left Douala, and then we had ice cream.  Real.
Strawberry. Ice cream.  It was so good I almost died of pure joy.  God
bless the Baileys and their generosity.

The next day we went out with Elder Etherington to teach a couple
people before heading to the church for 2 of my old investigators'
baptisms from Mpaka.  My son is awesome.  His French is fantastic.  He
has a great accent and not a bad vocabulary for his first day.  He is
not shy in lessons and is always willing to bare testimony and promise
blessings.  I love it.  He even asked this girl to be baptized on his
first day.  Awesome.  The baptisms went off with out a hitch.  Romelle
and Christelle, two girls who are 18 and 21 respectively who I taught
before coming to Aeroport, were so happy they were just crying all
over the place.  They had huge smiles the whole time.  It was  a
beautiful baptism.

On Sunday we had quite a few people at church, and we were fasting so
it was especially special.  After church we went to the Baileys to
break the fast and watch the Priesthood Session of General Conference,
which was incredible.  Elder Oaks blew my mind.  Hallstrom, Ridd,
Uchtdorf, Eyering and President Monson.  I always love listening to
the prophet.  He's so funny, too.  Anyway, I'm really looking forward
to being able to watch the rest of Conference when it gets here.  The
downsides of living in a 3rd world country...

I love you all.  I'm so excited to be here working for the Lord.  He
is watching over us all and blesses us beyond comprehension.  I
testify of His love for you and for ALL of His children!!!  He wants
you to be free to act for your own, but He wants you to choose the
right!  So for Pete's sake, choose the right :)

Have a wonderful week.  I know I will!

Elder Garland