March 24

Woof. What a week!

Not much happened last Monday - my poor companion was sick to his
stomach so we had to take him back home and just hang out for a couple
hours while he rested.  We gave him a blessing and by Tuesday he was
all fun and games, smiles and Canadian.  Well he was always
Canadian...but...anyway, with all the time I had it gave me a chance
to make sweet and sour chicken and fried rice, and it was a huge
success!  No that's not a typical Congolese dish, but it is delicious.

On Tuesday we went to pay our electric bill at this super packed
DMV-like center where a million people are standing around 8 chairs
and waiting to be called from the one lady behind a glass wall.  We
were instructed by an 80 year old Morgan Freeman to put our paper
underneath an impossibly large stack of papers and waited patiently
with everyone else.  Morgan kept giving instructions to other people,
though he was waiting himself to pay.  With the rate of service we
estimated standing for about 3 hours, but imagine our surprise when
the woman behind the desk looks up at us 15 minutes later and points
to have us come forward.  I almost felt guilty, walking in front of
everyone else that was there before us.  Finally, backwards racism
worked out in our favor!  Really, God just answered our prayers so we
could go out and teach His children His Gospel.

I bought 2 50 CFA pens and lost one of them the same day and broke the
other one in half last night because I was so frustrated with its
awful quality, and then we went to see Elvis (yes. Elvis.), where I
took a bad step onto a ladder/bridge over a trash river and got my
entire right foot soaked in mud and gross.  Great start to a great
day!

We got to sit down with our blind grandma friend who only speaks
Kikongo, and she told us to come back the next day.  Even grandmas are
no respector of rendez-vous.

That day I met a guy named Mount Caramel and another one named Alas.
Incredible.

On Wednesday morning we went to teach Papy at the church, and while we
were sitting there a guy came in the gate and told us that he got in
from Brazzaville last night, when he was planning on killing himself
but then his friend invited him to come to Pointe-Noire.  The next day
he was looking for a place where he could get to know God and walked
in front of our church.  Surprise!  That happens probably every week,
and it NEVER gets old and blows my mind EVERY time.  God knows His
children!!!

We walked to this woman's house who had come to church to teach her
and her kids (one of whom looks like a 9 year old Italian version of
Emma Watson), and when we sat down the kids had these papers that they
had written on.  I thought they were maybe questions, and then they
blew my mind by recited the first 3 Articles of Faith that they had
learned on Sunday in Primary.  INCREDIBLE.  The woman, Darcine, said
that there was a new energy at home and that the kids were always
talking about church and what they learned and whatnot.  It was
awesome.  I loved it.  They are an adorable family and love the Gospel
already.

We went back to Maman Tete (the blind, couch-ridden woman) where they
fed us sakasaka (manioc leaves), cuanga (boiled manioc), boiled ripe
plantains (banana/potatoes), and beans mixed with cow liver
(delicious).  Meanwhile, the member who was translating for us put on
this weird vampire anime that was actually captivating, but also just
weird.  So I tried to focus on my liver chunks that were getting stuck
between my teeth.

Right as I finished putting my mind back together, we sat down with
our director friend James and he proceeded to blow my mind again.  Let
me break down a sliver of his story for you :  He was born and raised
in Israel, where from 7-18 he studied the word of God and aeronautical
engineering in a convent of wisemen and scholars.  When he left school
he did 2 years of mandatory military service.  His dad gave him $1,200
to do with what he would, and James decided to continue his work.  One
day, two of his life-long friends that he studied with and worked with
were asked to do a demonstration in a cockpit training excercise to
find the missing part so they could start the plane.  Suddenly the
cockpit exploded, and his two friends burned alive in front of him. He
left work and bummed around home for a year until his dad decided to
send him to visit his Martiniquese and Gabonese grandparents.  While
in Gabon, he's running on the beach and meets a black American English
teacher practicing karate, so he decides to watch and practice with
him.  Turns out the guy is a movie director, and trains James in that
art.  He leaves 5 years later and gives James a Handy Came to start
doing his own films.  He meets Steven Segal and the President's
daughter one day out of the blue.  Then James goes into the forest one
day looking for a scene to shoot this film, and finds instead a little
village of suspicious people who demand that he leaves.  Well he came
back later and spied on them with his camera, and found out that
they're child traffickers.  He does this huge bit on them, publishes
it, and it immediately reaches nationwide recognition.  The president
of Gabon invites him to dinner and gives him a briefcase of 3,000,000
CFA (about $6,000) to continue his work.  All of Central Africa starts
cracking down on child traffickers because of this movie James made.
It got so big that people started looking to kill James, so he had to
flee the country.  He goes to Angola, Cote d'Ivoir, Nigeria, just
about everywhere.  In Angola one day he is rounded up by the military
with a couple other foreigners at 4 in the morning, brought to the
beach and put on his knees with a gun to the back of his head.  He
asks the captor if he can say a prayer before he shoots him, and the
guy says that he hasn't been ordered to shoot yet, so if he thinks he
can pray before he shoots he was welcome.  As James is praying, the
guy kicks him in the butt and tells him to save himself, so James
scrambles away and doesn't know what happens to the others who were
gathered up.  James comes to Pointe-Noire and marries this girl, where
he loses two babies in child birth.  His wife left him 2 days before
he came to sit down with us. James Nehemiah - the most interesting man
on the planet.  Loves the church, is currently reading the Book of
Mormon, more to come.

Oh also, that morning I'd eaten (licked a dime size-dot off a spoon)
some homemade piment from a member, and 30 minutes later my knuckles
were burning and I had an itch in my side.  Africa.

We had district meeting on Friday, and then we went out to teach, as
per usual.  Our second rendez-vous said he wasn't available until 5,
so we decided to meet our last rendez-vous early.  We had actually
planned on seeing him at that time, but he never picked up his phone
when we needed to change times on him, so it worked out perfectly.  We
asked him what he remembered from the brochure we left him, and he
started reading a sentence out of the brochure, and gave this really
generic response about God and Jesus Christ and baptism - but when we
asked him why we needed to be baptized in OUR church he replied, "well
the others are missing the Priesthood, and there's 2 Priesthoods,
and..." and continued to teach US the Restoration and the Book of
Mormon and EVERYthing about it until we had nothing left to discuss
because he'd already talked about everything haha.  He got all this
information when he locked himself in his room for 4 days and read all
these Liahonas that another investigator gave him.  So, he's basically
perfect.  By the way, his name is Perfect.  Yep.  He is a top chef for
an oil company and is on/off two weeks.  So awesome.

We went to see that guy who told us he was available at 5, but he
didn't show up until 6h20.  Meanwhile, Papy explained the story of his
girlfriend/child and cried and it was amazing. He needs an "I'm a
Mormon" ad.  Eventually our investigator shows up, but it's not the
guy we were waiting for.  Turns out I had copied the number wrong from
Elder Gelinas, and we called another guy and totally blew off the
first one on accident.  Fortunately, the guy who came to see us was
super interested and is totally ready for the Gospel.  God is so funny
like that.

On Saturday our branch mission leader got married to a sister from the
Pointe-Noire branch.  The clouds were threating all morning, but we
prayed that it would rain sooner than later, and God answered our
prayers!  By the time the marriage started, it had already rained for
an hour and the clouds were all out of cloud tears.  The wedding was
beautiful.  The church was set up really nice, and President Caillet
got everything in order.  A lot of our investigators came, and I got
to see members from Mpaka, so that was nice.  President Caillet asked
us to help set up the food, even though by the time we went to eat
there was nothing left.  President Cook showed up and got to
participate as well, so that was really cool.  We only talked with him
for a few minutes before he left, but it's ok because we were supposed
to see him again Sunday.

I had peanut sauce before we left the apartment for church the next
day, and for the rest of the day I felt like it was sitting at the
bottom of my throat.  I just felt gross all day.  We had 18
investigators come to church, so that made me feel better.  Our Relief
Society President bore testimony on the Sacrament - her baby had never
had water before, but the day before church she came down with a fever
and she didn't have money for any medicine. When Sacrament meeting
rolled around the next day Sandrine (the RS president) prayed to God
and put all her faith in Him and gave her baby the water to sip from.
The next day her fever was gone!  I wish you could hear these people
tell the stories they have.  It seems so artificial typing it out, but
I promise the Spirit was so strong and everytime you hear a story like
that you know they're not pulling your leg.

President was doing interviews after church, but we got to see him at
the Baileys later that night when he was done.  They had prepared taco
salade, but I only had a couple bites of pineapple and bananas and
this caramel cookie bar that Sister Bailey made (oh...my...).  We got
to sit down with President and talk about casting our nets differently
and making our weaknesses strengths.  It was really cool (see Luke
5:1-9).  Everyone got an interview with President except me because I
was doing dishes with Elder Bailey, but it's ok because I got the
inside scoop on what's going on the next couple of weeks!  Elder
Gelinas will only be here for another week or so, and as soon as his
visa for Gabon comes in he's taking off.  We're also getting 2 new
elders from the MTC.  One is going to Cameroon, one is coming here.
I'll have a new companion, but I don't know if it will be someone I
already know or if I'm training.  I guess I'll find out in a couple
weeks.

Anyway, that's about it for this week!  I still feel gross, but maybe
it's because I haven't eaten anything but ice cream and cookies in the
last 24 hours.  In any case, I'll get over it and I'll get back to
work and it will be awesome!  I love this work, and I love you.  So
many people are ready to change and become better.  There's always
room for improvement!  I'm always looking to improve something myself.
 What can you do this week to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ?
It could be as simple as waking up 10 minutes earlier to do some
scripture studies or to exercise!  You'll be amazed at the results.
God is ready and willing to bless you.  Ask and ye shall receive,
knock and it shall be opened unto you! :)

Love,

Elder Garland