May 12

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Incredible week. We started off hot by deep cleaning our front room
and balcony.  It was awesome.  I love clean things...I took a break
with Elder Wright to go out and see if we couldn't find a guitar to
play.  We walked around for about 15 minutes, getting about 15
different sets of directions and finding nothing until finally I found
one!  It was a beautiful acoustic/electric sunburst Yahama that was
fresh in the box, but the strings were wrapped up and he didn't wanna
let me take it off so I could play...so we went out to look for
another place.  While we were wandering around I got an emergency call
from one of our baptismal candidates, so I brought Elder Wright with
me to visit him.  It was weird being in our civies out in the sector.
I felt like people were looking at us differently.  Anyway, our
investigator was fine; he just wanted to know if he should go to the
burial of his grandpa or get baptized on Saturday.  We told him to
pray about it, but of course we'd be willing to push back his baptism
a week or two if he needed.  Then we went home!  It was worth showing
him that we actually cared about him, because heck, we do!

Tuesday was Elder Etherington's birthday, but I felt bad because we
went on splits so Elder Johnston could do an interview for us.  I did
get up and make him pancakes for breakfast though, and those turned
out pretty good!  I went with Elder Johnston into our sector and we
got to see some of the people we were preparing for Saturday.  Before
we went home I had to pick up a résumé from the Bailey's of last
weeks' zone council thing so I could make sure I was covering
everything in our zone conference the next day.  When we went over
there, of course they had something for us to eat - grilled cheese...I
hadn't had that since Bonapriso over a year ago.  I can't believe it's
been that long...anyway, it was delicious of course, so we got another
one.  Don't let anyone scare you about going to the Congo...you are
well taken care of here.  We swung by a recent convert's house on the
way home and chatted with him for a few minutes.  He basically just
asked us how he can get married, soooo that was a short conversation
haha.

My first zone conference as a solo zone leader went pretty well I
think!  I had Elder Hatch join me in the teaching part, which I was
super thankful for.  Three hours is a long time for one person to be
talking by themselves...we mixed it up anyway by having the other
elders share different passages and thoughts from the scriptures and
whatnot, so it went pretty great.  We decided how we could be better
missionaries and what could we work on etc. etc. etc., so yeah!
Afterwards the Baileys fed us the most delicious meatloaf and mashed
potatoes you've ever had.  I died and was brought back to life by the
Oreo ice cream cake that we had for dessert.  Man alive was that
good...unfortunately, we had to walk another 45 minutes to our next
rendezvous, but in the end I think it was good for us.  More people
are preparing for baptism, making 13 total by the end of the month.
Incredible!  We had another 18 people at church, which was short of
what we were hoping for, but it's ok.  It's still a lot haha.

On Thursday we went on splits again, and I went again with Elder
Johnston into his sector this time so I could interview a guy for his
baptism.  It was an awesome day.  I saw for the first time since I got
to Africa someone stop at a stop sign before continuing.  It was a
breathtaking experience.  Following traffic laws...not the most
popular thing here haha.  While we were walking around looking for our
last rendezvous we passed a guy standing talking to his friend holding
a guitar.  I was like, "Ahhh I'd love to ask that guy to play..." and
then Elder Johnston looked at me and stopped and turned around, so we
walked back and contacted him!  He never got the hint to let me try
his guitar or play for us himself haha, but he said we could take an
appointment and come to his house (which is in our sector!) and he'd
play us something!  I'm excited to follow up on that.  I'm having
dreams about playing guitar.  It's driving me crazy.  I miss it so
bad, but it'll be ok.

We went to our typical Wednesday/Friday route, saw Darcyne and her
family, Liza and her family, and Lovely to prepare them all for their
respective baptisms.  We got to walk around with Jhostavie again,
which is always a good time.  He's a funny kid.

That night after we got back the power went out around midnight.  We
went down to turn on the generator but their was some African real
life soap opera going on right outside the door, so we had to wait
like 15 minutes for them to clear out.  When I got back upstairs to
lay down I couldn't for the life of me fall asleep.  So around 2 I
finally passed out from exhaustion, but the next morning I was so
tired.

The good news is that we had a really cool activity to participate in
the next day!  We left the apartment around 8 to get to the church to
help President Caillet and the Baileys set up for this
multi-denomination youth conference to help church leaders share ideas
on how to best teach the youth.  When we showed up the Bybees were
there to greet us!  It was so good to see them, even if it was only
for a couple hours.  Elder Johnston and I were charged with welcoming
the church leaders at the big gate, but while we were there Paco came
up to us and asked if we could help him teach his friend who had
recently become Branhamist and wanted to ask us a bunch of questions.
We left and talked with him for a couple hours, but it didn't seem
like he really wanted to know what we teach but wanted to contest, so
we eventually left without having really gotten anywhere in helping
understand our message.

We came back to participate in the very end of the conference, but
enjoyed a nice sandwich and strawberry Fanta with the others on the
basketball court.  We talked with some scouts who had come, and then
prepared for our own baptism for Armel and Elvis.  It went perfectly,
except that when we were all finally changed and ready to start we
looked in and saw a little girl messing with the font plug and saw
that all the water had been drained.  She claimed to have done
nothing, but the fact was that the water was gone and takes normally 2
hours to fill...but!  God took care of us.  We got the hose in there
and used buckets to start filling it.  For 30 minutes the rest of us
sang some different hymns, and then we were ready to go!  It was
great.  Elder Etherington baptized Elvis; I was so proud.  I got in
and stood with Armel and only then did I realize just how big he is.
He's probably 6'4 or 5 and weighs at least 100 kg.  Alas, another
miracle, he went down and came back up with no problems.  It was a
wonderful service, after which I interviewed an old investigator of
mine from Mpaka that Elder Hatch has kept teaching.  She'll be
baptized next Saturday with Lovely and Cedric and Lisa from our
branch.  We've been having some awesome success the last couple of
months.  Probably the second best highlight of the day was after all
that, there was a guy from English class who wanted to meet with us,
and his name was Leroi, which literally means, "the king," soooo we're
trying to get Elvis AND TheKing baptized.  All we need is a Presley
and we'll have the Trinity of Rock and Roll at church! :)

Sunday was awesome as well.  Like I said, 18 people at church is still
miraculous.  Our taxi driver on the way was like, "Hey I know some of
your members.  I wanna get baptized!"  So, welcome to Africa.

We sat down with Parfait's nephew and prepared him for his interview
on Wednesday, and then chatted with Gerlène after church, which went
super well, too.  Hopefully she can get on board with baptism soon.
We came straight back to the Bailey's to get ready for Skype, and the
Baileys were already to feed us chicken noodle soup.  I got to talk
with my family for a few minutes and it was heavenly.  I can't believe
the next time I see them it will be in the airport...AHH!!!  Time has
just flown on by.  Weird.

Anyway, it was a great week.  I love you, I pray for you, and I can't
wait to see you.  Please be safe and take care of yourself!  God gave
you a body.  Don't mess with it - it's already got divine potential!
:)

Jour a kaka !

Elder Garland