August 25

As you might've guessed, we had another great week.  Some funny stories to add! 

On Tuesday we were walking through the quartier when these 3 guys stop and they're like, "Hey man yo wussup bro"  and we say, "Oh hey not much!  Woah, nice Manchester United jersey!"  We get back - "hehehe yeeaahhh..." from all three of them.  So I'm like, "You a big Wayne Rooney fan?"  "Hehee yeaah yeaahh"  "Well that's great, where are you all headed?"  "Hehehehe yeaahhhhh...." "Well, see ya later!" "Yeeaahhh hehe yeaahhh"" It was the funniest thing...kinda hard to explain by email haha.  I'll have to recount that one when I get back.  Anyway, an instant classic between Elder Sperry and myself. "yeaahhh hehe..."

Then I saw a guy playing harmonica for the first time in 20 months.

On Wednesday we had district meeting with the Mpaka elders again, and I got to share a little message in honor of Elder Tweneboah's last day in Pointe-Noire.  He was really sad...he cried, I teared up (I don't know what's wrong with me, but I've been really good about not crying unreasonbly recently), and everyone was emotional to some extent.  Anyway, we took him to the airport after and said goodbye.  I still had Sister Bailey's delicious, pink rice krispies on my breath.  So...so good.  Paula Dean would've been proud of the butter content.

We went straight to Darcyne's new house, which is way nice, but a little further away than before.  Ok a lot further.  But still accessible!  They had prepared us a surprise plate of meats and cheeses to snack on, and then gave us a little sucker on the way out.  I just love that family.  Laura and Giorgio's dad came yesterday, so we might get to meet him on Wednesday.  Anyway, Darcyne is really happy to be in her own house away from the temptation and responsability of taking care of 10 other people in her parcelle from before.  She seems a lot more happy, anyway.  Thank goodness for the Gospel :)

We met these two new guys on Wednesday evening, Kelly and Desi, and they seem way nice.  I'll let you know the suite !

On Thursday, Van asked us to meet him impromptu to ask for advice about his job.  We're not really supposed to give personal advice, but because it happens so often (people trust the missionaries here more than their parents sometimes) I've learned how to veil an answer to their question by telling them to figure it out themselves through prayer and paying attention to the Spirit, fasting if necessary.  Funnily enough, they are always convinced that we told them what to do when in reality they end up answering themselves.  So when they're like, "Elders thank you so much for telling me what to do!" we just refer them to God and tell them to thank Him instead, because in the end He's the one doing all the talking!  You can have the same experience, you know!  If you've ever been stuck between left and right, maybe all you have to do is ask God which road to take and listen carefully for a response.  Don't just hang up the phone when you say "amen", but listen to heart...when He's talking to you!  Yes, like the song.  Anyway.  Van was satisfied with our answer and figured it out.  On his own!

We had an interesting Friday.  After our first rendez-vous fell through, we walked all the way to our second meeting so we could try and discover any new shortcuts.  It worked!  We found this cool road that we'll probably never take again, but it was worth the walk.  Then we walked all the way back to KM4, walked all the way to Malala only to be ratéd, and finally caught a bus to Mayinga to see Darcyne again.  On the bus ride up I got to chat in kikongo with the passengers, and gave away a ton of brochures amidst people cracking up over the fact that a mundele can speak their language.  The controller even gave me a 100 CFA discount! :)  On the way back, we had another chat with the other 20 people in the bus, pulled out scriptures, gave out brochures, said a few words in munukutuba, got everyone to laugh, and made a delicious shmorgishborg to start our fast.  We walked around 6.5 miles that day. 

Saturday was awesome.  We had planned a huge Helping Hands activity at the beach, but the plan was to walk there from the church.  We didn't know just how far it was, and since everyone walks suuuppeerrr slow, we ended up burning everyone to the beach.  No one was there, so we decided to look for the people who'd went ahead in the Bailey's car (mostly just kids) and kept walking down the beach.  For the next 45 minutes.  It was awful.  My left hip is officially out of service from having walked on a sloped sandy beach for nearly an hour.  It was totally worth it though - we found 2 huge onions washed in from the tide, a tiny squid, a weird fish with shiny skin, and lots of cool shells.  When we did meet up with everyone (there were tons of people there!!!), we each got a trash bag and started picking up.  Except me - I helped the Baileys translate for this guy who wanted to sell them nativity scenes from Niger.  Elder Bailey comes over and he's like, this guy looks familiar.  Well, turns out it was THE SAME GUY who sold them a nativity scene in COTE D'IVOIRE! 3 YEARS AGO!  It was incredible!  And he still tried selling them another one!  Hilarious.  Then these a nice Chinese couple introduced themselves to us, asking where we were from.  I got to give my first brochure to a Chinese guy, even though he told us they weren't Christian.  It's ok.  Still counts! :)  During this whole time, my companion and I were fasting for one of our investigators.  Imagine our disappointment when they broke out the sandwiches and drinks.  We just held onto ours for dinner.  After the service project we went back home, taught Paco's neighbor Godthanks (I know), and crashed back at the apartment for studies.  We were whipped beyond tired.  It was hard to stay awake as I finished reading the Old Testament in Munukutuba, but I finally got that out of the way!  On to the New Testament...

We had a great Sunday.  There were 20 investigators at church, and 5 of them were new faces.  Sooo many people want to learn about the Gospel, it's a huge blessing to be overwhelmed with investigators.  We got to sit down with one of them after church, and walked over to Dieu-Merci's house to ask permission from his mom to keep teaching him because he's only 14.  She was more than happy to allow us to keep seeing him.  What a relief!  He's easily been one of our best amis.  What a funny kid.  He even makes jokes about his own name.  He says it's because when his mom gave birth she was praying that it was a boy because she had already had 5 girls.  Then he comes out and says, "ohh Dieu merci!!"  So...thus the name. 

That's about all the news I have for this week...I'm starting transfer number 14, leaving me with a little less than 4 months until the end of my mission.  It's...scary, to say the least.  Especially if I leave and go to a new sector, because that always makes the time go by even faster.  Meh.  We'll see.  Elder Masse and Gelinas go home in 6 weeks.  I can't imagine being in their shoes!!!  It'll happen soon enough I guess.  Not looking forward to it!  Maybe I'll get ebola and they'll just send me to France to finish my mission haha.

Anyway, I love you all, I pray for you all, and I can't wait to see you all! :)

Have an amazing week!!!

Elder Garland

August 18

Ookkkk here we go, 30 minutes!

We had a great week.  Again.  I know I know, how can we have so much fun and be so happy so often?!?!  It's all in the attitude.  Elder Sperry is helping me be less sarcastic, which has helped a lot.  So I'm just happy like...all the time haha.  I love my companion.  We had a couple rough days as far as teaching goes, but we got to do a lot of service this week, thus making up for the lack thereof for the last couple months. 

We were at the Beri family's house on Tuesday night and here's how it usually goes - we show up while Maman Cecile is preparing, and we just sit right down and start washing all her dishes, which she laughs hysterically about but lets us do it.  Then we chat in kikongo for a while and laugh at my companion because he doesn't understand.  Then we feel bad so we tell him everything we're saying.  Then he says something in kikongo and everyone busts up laughing.  We get up to leave, but Maman Cecile makes us stay to eat roasted peanuts and manioc roots.  Elder Sperry is deathly allergic to peanuts, so I eat his share and feel really great.  All of that happens probably 2-3 times a week haha.

On Wednesday, the Foucks elders were having their apartment painted, so we went to Mpaka again for District Meeting.  Elder Masse talked to us about loving our investigators - even if they don't follow through with their commitments.  It was great.  Again - changing my attitude !  We came home and met back with our new favorite maman Janette.  We had this great talk on repentance and forgiveness.  It's cool to see that people of ALL ages can still embrace the Gospel and change their lives.  It's not too late!  We got to sit down with Jhostavie's uncle who thinks we're all Free-Masons (remember, that's a bad thing here because they think they sacrifice babies) and tell him about the church and how we're actually nice.  It was really great.

We walked around with Paco on Thursday and he helped us a lot.  As per usual.

Friday was Independence Day!  Happy 54 years Congo!  You're...getting there haha.  Staying positive.  We met up with Darcyne at her house and found out they were planning on moving Saturday, so we took a rendezvous to come back to help.  We went back to Janette's and helped her move bricks (again - hilarious, chatting in kikongo, neighbors laughing/dying, etc.) and tear down this little kiosk she used to have to sell bread but is now using the wood to cover an old gazebo of hers. 

On Saturday morning we left early to help Darcyne move out.  It took us 4 hours to help her take all her stuff out of the house and stack it all in her...driveway...? Anyway, we had to leave to get ready for the baptism at 3, and as we were walking out, the moving truck was pulling in.  We'll have to wait till next Wednesday to see the new house. 

The baptism was incredible.  Sister Padma from the Mpaka branch had waited over a year for that day.  It was a marvelous service.  She wanted to bear her testimony afterwards, but because it wasn't in the program President Caillet nixed it.  Sooo as soon as the closing prayer was offered, I got up and announced that she was going to bear her testimony.  A) I wanted to hear it B) it was HER baptism.  And her testimony was beautiful and she cried and other people cried. Miraculously I survived.

Lots of people were at church on Sunday.  New faces, old faces.  New faces that were just straight old.  We sat down with one of our baptismal candidates, met Paco's neighbor who loved church, ate leftover bread and spaghetti, made corn chowder, went to bed full.   I wish I had more cool things to write about this week, but time is lacking...maybe some day you'll get to read my journal when I type it up and publish it on the internetz.

So.  I love you.  Have a great week.

Oh by the way, Elder Sperry and I are officially together for another transfer.  Woop woop!!!  That means that, if I leave after this next transfer, I will have spent a year here.  Yikes. 

Ok.  Byo.

Elder Garland

August 11

Well, it's been an incredible week.  As always.

We got to go to the beach last Monday, and right when we got there to start playing volleyball a guy comes up and he's like, "Yeah hi, my car is on the beach like a hundred yards that way and I was hoping you could help me pull it back up here?"  So we're thinking alright, 10 minutes and we'll be back on the court.  We start driving, and once we're on the beach (inching forward, mind you), we can't even see the guy's car.  So we ask again, "Oh it's just right up there!"  20 minutes later we are just barely coming up on the car.  He was probably 3 miles out, stuck in the sand.  His friend had suffered a serious laceration from trying to pull out the car himself.  We attached it to Elder Bailey's truck with a piece of plastic, it seemed, and moved the car about 10 feet before we all realized there was no way it was going to work.  We had to leave the guy, but at least he was in a better place.  By the time we got back it'd been probably an hour and a half.  We went straight to the beach and played some soccer with random people who were walking by.  We also enjoyed the best lemon bars and chocolate cake you've never had.

On Tuesday morning I found out from Elder Bailey that President had never heard anything about us watching Disney videos and was totally against it!  I was seriously misled, but at least now we know.  It was fun while it lasted...

Later that day we were walking down the street when a bus driver sees us and shouts "I love you!" in the funniest accent ever.  We died laughing.  We met one of our recent convert's mom and introduced her to the church - she was thrilled, but she's leaving to Angola this week so we left her some information on the churches over there.  So cool.  

I'm trying to keep this short because we're at the Bailey's, but ummm on Wednesday we had district meeting, and then I stayed in the apartment with Elder Bybee while Elder Johnston went with Elder Sperry to do Fall's interview.  The electrician and plumber were both there, and they both said they'd be 10 minutes, but if you know Africans you won't be surprised when I say that 2 hours later they were finally packing up to leave.  Elder Bybee and I passed the time catching up and getting to know each other better.  He's an awesome kid, and turns out we like a lot of the same things.  Finally, we got to leave and see some people they've been teaching.  Elder Bybee's French is awesome for only having been out for a couple transfers.  He speaks well and understands just about everything.  It made teaching really easy.  We went out to the outskirts of town so I could interview two of their candidates, and when we got there it was way late.  The walk was super pretty - they live on this big hill that overlooks the ocean.  Unfortunately, by the time we turned around to walk back down it was already night, so I couldn't really see anything.  We decided that I would just stay the night instead of meeting back with the other elders like we were planning on.  I ended up making chili for everyone (an Elder Garland special, if I do say so myself - and I do) and had about the worst night's sleep ever.  Elder Johnston doesn't sleep with a fan, so it was hot.  To make it less hot they open the windows, which let in mosquitos and makes every plane that flies overhead sound like it's going to slam into the building.  The church bells behind the apartment go off every 15 minutes.  So.  You get the idea.

I did get to call a recent convert of mine from Douala, who is doing great.  Two of her sons have since been baptized, and a third son has a date in a week.  I was so proud, and thankful for the missionaries over there.  There is a very special love that missionaries have for their converts...it's hard to explain, but it's...tangible, I don't know.  

It was nice to be back in my sector with Elder Sperry, my son.  We're getting along famously.  He had a great day, no ratez-vous or anything.  The next day was even more full of surprises.  One of our recent converts cancelled on us first thing in the morning, so we got to see a new maman we've been teaching.  Fall wasn't picking up that morning, but texted us as we were on our way to his house to see if he'd be there, so that worked out nicely.  He said that he wanted to be baptized the next day, Saturday, because his birthday was on Sunday and he wanted to be confirmed on his birthday.  Because his baptismal interview went so well, we agreed!  So we called everyone we needed to call so there were people at the baptism.  Darcyne's family isn't leaving as soon as we thought they were, so we got to see them for a while before heading out to Tchimbamba.  Our first contact rendezvous cancelled on us, but as we were walking a younger guy wanted to sit down with us, so that was surprise number 3.  We got to see Lovely before heading out to Fond Tie-Tie to walk to the Elders' apartment to do exchanges again.

It was nice to be back in Mpaka - it still smells like Christmas every time I walk in there haha.  Elder Tripp made us this great white sauce pasta thing while Massé and I caught up like old chums.  He's just great.  It was nice to talk about people we used to teach and the other missionaries I haven't met.  Since the air conditioner wasn't working in Massé's room we decided to throw all our mattresses in the ice box room and slept together.  Elder Ralison told us about the Kinshasa mission - it's very much not like ours haha.  I'm glad I am where I am.  Good, obedient Elders.  

Elder Ralison showed me how to make real, boulangerie bread the next morning, so that was awesome.  He is such a bag full of surprises himself.  I went out with Massé to show people he didn't know were in his sector.  We walked a ton, which is normal, but it was nice.  I got to see Chaldrey, one of my recent converts, and she's doing awesome.  I guess the missionaries are teaching her sisters now as well, so that's awesome.  Eventually I got to do an interview for Célestin, and awesome 53 year old man who's had so many experiences leading to his discovery of the Church.  I had an amazing time sharing with him, and I'm excited to see him baptized.  We went back to the church to be on time for Fall's baptism, but he didn't even come until half an hour after it was supposed to start. *sigh* at least he came haha.  He brought two friends, and honored me with the chance to baptize him, and confirm him the next day.  I'll never get over that...like, who am I to do that for you?!  Alas.  Amazing.  I taught English class, which is always a lot of fun, and got a coordonnée out of it.  But not for us :( but it's ok.  

Sunday was smooth.  Lots of people at church, and a special primary program for sacrament.  I had a very picturesque scene that I will never forget as I was sitting off to the side of the congregation between Laura (Darcyne's 9 year old daughter) and the Relief Society President's 4 year old, helping them sing "I Am A Child Of God" with the rest of the assembly.  As the first verse was underway, my eyes were drawn up to look into the crowd.  In the front row, a 25 year old brother was helping the same Relief Society President's other laughing baby girl stand on her feet as he sat, and as he looked down on her, eyebrows arched, had the biggest smile on his already enormous face.  Towards the back row sat Maya, and as they sang "des parents si gentils..." (parents so kind), Maya sang with a smile to her mom.  Other people were just sitting there, eyes and expressions so full of joy.  The happiness in the atmosphere was so thick you could've cut a slice right out of the air, it was so completely enveloping.  In that moment there was nowhere else I would've rather been in the whole world.  I wish for your owns sakes that you will have a similar experience some day.  Or maybe you've already had that happen to you - I would love to hear about it!  

After church and meetings and whatnot I called the Tignyemb family in Douala just to hear each of their 7 voices for at least a minute a piece.  It was fantastic. I love them all so much.  I keep praying that I'll make it back to Yaoundé or Douala some day but...I'm starting to realize that God will go ahead and send me wherever He needs me, regardless of my own will.  We gave one of the loaves of bread that I made to the Baileys, then we made a great sweet and sour chicken and I baked the rest of the cookies.  We're in Africa, but not of Africa.

I wish I had more time to explain every detail of my crazy life here.  Some day you'll have the opportunity to sit down with me and get it all - emotion in the voice (and eyes, ahem...), hand gestures, the whole lot.  Story time with Elder Garland is no small event haha.  Anyway, I love you, I'm praying for you.

Elder Garland

August 4

Yikes, not much time left.  Here we go, diving in!

Last Monday we were disappointed when we showed up to play volleyball and found no one on the court.  After a few minutes we trecked back through the quartier to home.  On the way we saw this dinosaur of a maman hauling a bag attached to her head and laying on her back and moving about 6 inches an hour, so we just took the bag off her head and asked her where she was going.  Well, she didn't speak French, so I had the opportunity to talk with her the whole way in Munukutuba - it's finally paying off!  Turns out she's the same maman who lives in one of our recent convert's parcelle, so that was fun.  Now we are her children and she is so happy to see us when we come visit our convert. 

That night we ate cajun chicken pasta with the Baileys and had FHE with Max and his son from the Pointe-Noire branch and then we watched Hercules - in French.  Hades is sooo hard to understand haha. 

We had district meeting over at the Foucks apartment and Elder Johnston talked about gratitude.  I loved what Sister Bailey shared by an unknown author - "gratitude is what makes what you have enough."  So that made me thankful for a lot of things. 

We had to drop a recent convert because he's too active - I know, what a wonderful problem.  We just have so many people to teach that we needed to liberate our program a little bit, so we told him how awesome he is and that we'd come by every now and then.  He's great.

On Friday we got to teach some great people, one of whom was an old maman who stopped us on our way to Darcyne's one day because she thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses, but then when we talked with her for a while she said she wanted us to come over some time.  Turns out she doesn't live too far from some of our other investigators, so we called her randomly one day and got to sit down with her.  She's way nice - an empty nester and widow of 8 years with too much time on her hands.  You could tell she missed having company - she was so excited to have us there and talked our ears off about her kids.  Hopefully we'll get to keep teaching her! 

We left to go to Laura's 9th birthday party.  I'd prepared 33 peanut butter cookies for them, but they weren't really ready when we got there, so Maya asked if we could show her a couple of chords on her new guitar.  I accidentally accepted.  Dangit...Elder Sperry and I switched off playing guitar and talking to Maya about church and stuff for the next 2 hours.  Woops.  Won't make that mistake again haha.  Laura was adorable though, and right when we were about to leave to make curfew the mamans who'd been preparing dinner since we got there told us we had to eat before we left.  They ended up packing us a sack dinner - pasta salade, rice, cake and candy, and Elder Sperry's new favorite meal - sakasaka !  Just kidding.  We didn't know it was prepared with peanut oil, sooo he took a pea-sized bite and his throat started swelling, moved into his stomach and gave him serious heart burn.  Poor kid.  He had a rough night, but he's ok :)  I offered to eat his cake for him, but he refused. 

The next day we went to participate in the branch soccer activity against this shipping company DHL.  Naturally, everyone was 2 hours late, but it was really fun.  The studs on my right cleat came completely off, so I ended up playing half the match barefoot.  I had one good shot on goal, but their goalie was wicked good and made a great stop.  No world cup appearance for me.  I tumbled once or twice and now I have a pretty good raspberry on my knee, but I tied my hanky around it so it wouldn't bleed through my church pants haha.  We ended up losing 2-1, but it was fun and everyone played with good sportsmanship.  Everyone came back to the church to share a sandwich, coke and little cake as we introduced our new friends to the church.  We're slowly getting the word out that we don't actually sacrifice babies or do witchcraft and wizardry.  No, the Church is Jesus Christ is not Hogwarts, thank you.

We made an enormous shepherd's pie to start our fast, but I wasn't very hungry, so I ended up breaking my fast with it the next day. 

Speaking of which, we had a great sabbath.  Lots of people at church, and lots of new faces.  Elder Sperry rocked his testimony in solid French - I was so proud.  He made everyone laugh.  I love my companion.

After church we sat down with one of our best investigators, Fall, and went over the baptismal interview questions with him.  He was fantastic.  We could baptize him on Saturday, but we'll probably wait till next week so we can finalize some of the lessons with him and give him plenty of time to reflect on his decision to join the Church of Christ.  One of Jhostavie's cousins came to church despite threats from his older sisters that they would beat him if he came again.  He's the smartest 12 year old I've ever met.  He spoke French super well and behaved like a normal kid should.  I was way impressed.  He loves church, so hopefully we'll be able to get his dad's permission to keep teaching him. 

I learned some things last night that answered in part my fast.  As a mission we were fasting to better understand God's will for us personally in the creation of a district here in Pointe-Noire.  I found out that I'll be here for at least another transfer after this one ends in 3 weeks, which will allow me to finish training Elder Sperry, which makes me super happy.  He's been an answer to many prayers.  What a wonderful kid.  We've been talking recently about why you would ever refuse the Gospel.  We can't come up with any good reasons haha. God's like, "Hey here's the best thing that ever happened to you!" and people are like, "Nahhh." I'll never understand.

The good news (ha, get it? Gospel means good news...ha....ha.....) is that it's ALWAYS available! Even if you say no a thousand times you can always say yes in the end.  I love that.  Even if you say yes, and then afterwards change your mind, you can STILL come back.  I will never forget Elder Holland's invitation to come back to the light, because there is NO depth of darkness you can reach that is further than the Light of Christ can shine.  Sometimes we have to climb a great distance to get back, but it's always worth it.

I love you.  I love this Gospel.  Have you ever read Jesus the Christ?  In the words of my trainer, holy cats.  It's the greatest thing since scalloped potatoes (which says a LOT if I do say so myself).  Give it a read.  James E. Talmage opens up a can of knowledge you didn't know was available.  So many knowledges to be had in that book.  I'm almost halfway done and have so much more to learn.  ANYway, have a great week! :)

God loves you!  You're His child!

Elder Garland

July 28

I only have so much longer, but I'll do the best with the time I have left.  We went to our normal Cyber today but it was closed because of Ramadan.  So we walked through a crowd of probably 2000 Muslims in Grand Marche, and it was really cool!  They're very peaceful in the Congo - there's not any animosity between Christians or Muslims, thankfully.  I've always appreciated that about living here.  Anyway, so basically we had to find a new place to write, and found this nice little place right by our house.  Convenient, cheap, and fast.

Last week after coming home I was only able to do so much with my pulled back, so we took advantage of the new rules concerning PDays and asked the Baileys if we could watch the Lion King with them on their computer.  They graciously accepted and even made popcorn and instead of waiting for us to make dinner just offered us some leftover chicken noodle soup.  Angels, I'm tellin ya.  It was so fun.  I laughed at jokes I'd never noticed, I cried at nostalgic moments, it was just a hallubaloo (sp?).

Otherwise, we had quite the week.  We got stood up a couple times, but that's pretty much normal.  After seeing some of the few people who got to see, we were planning on visiting a recent convert but when we showed up there were a couple of their kids in a giant pit digging out trash.  We promptly put our bags down and jumped 6 feet into the pit to help them.  It was gross, shoveling out years' worth of trash into big sacks, but it actually felt really good on my back and hands to hold a shovel and do some physical labor.  Plus, everyone thought it was just hilarious to see white people working.

We went out to Mpaka for district meeting, which is always fun.  Despite the set back in time, we were able to see all the people we wanted to after getting back.  The best part was meeting Van's younger siblings at his mom's house by Fall (another investigator) and becoming immediate best friends with them.  His mom wasn't there, but now her kids love us.  The youngest son's name is Monfils - yes, Myson.  Hilarious.  While we were waiting for Van to bring us to his house, we met the King of France - a crazy hobo man who doubles as the nicest guy you ever met.  He happens to also be the father of several political figures including Barak Obama and Nicolas Sarcozy.  He speaks fluent English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and was 96 years old.  Despite the fact that he couldn't have been more than 40 or 50, he correctly told us that his birthday was in 1918.  He was walking around with an empty paint bucket, and wearing a black, old-timey Napoleon Bonapart hat that said "King of France" on it.  He asked if we had Cameroonian parents, asked how are families were doing, then was outta there.  He was so nice, and didn't ask for anything.  I hope we see him again.  I wanna get a picture, at least.  It's not every day that you meet royalty!

We helped Sister Bailey translate as she trained the newly called young women's presidency, when after an hour they finally showed up.  Otherwise, nothing big really happened that day.

Friday was one of our best proselyting days ever.  We set Sophie's baptismal date for the next Saturday when she told us there was nothing left that was holding her back.  We sat down with and were able to strengthen a less-active guy that we're starting to work with.  Lovely is just as lovely as ever.  We went back to Van's house and got to sit down with his mom this time, only after having a dance and drawing contest with her kids.  She's super nice and received us really well.  We also met Van's older sister, sooo we've got another family to work with! :)  It was a wonderful day.

On Saturday one of the investigators I worked with for a long time in this sector who had moved away and has been working with Elder Etherington and Elder Naughton was supposed to be baptized, but unfortunately he didn't show up - until 4 and a half hours later haha.  Sooo he'll be baptized next week probably.  Great guy.  We skipped out of the opening exercises of the marriage of a couple we didn't know to go visit Doretta in her new home and to ask her to set up a Family Home Evening that we could assist and teach a friend of hers, and came back to the church just in time to grab a bite to eat and a Sprite and mingle with the members and friends who were there to celebrate with us.  Glade (pronounce Glad), one of our investigators even came and we were able to pull him inside before English class to talk with him about the Plan of Salvation.  It was awesome.  He asked some great questions and then we went to English Class.  I was requested to teach, and had a blast doing so.  We only had a few people there, but hopefully one of them will turn into a new investigator!  This girl who had spent 3 years in South Africa, whose mom heard about the free classes at the church and told her she can't forget her English so she needs to come talk with us.  We were like well hey, we'll just kill two birds with one stone and teach you the Gospel in English! :)  I think she was kinda creeped out, but I also think I made enough jokes that she'll come back next week and we'll be able to set up a program with her haha.

We also made the most fantastic mac 'n cheese you never had - white cheddar, onions and garlic, bacon...what more could you ask for?

Otherwise, Sunday was great.  While we were welcoming people outside Cecile, our recent convert, came up and gave me this book (a condensed, Catholic picture/story book of the Bible) in munukutuba!  The same one that Elder Johnston has and that I was drooling over a couple weeks ago!  I was so excited and so thankful.  I've been pouring over it since yesterday.  There's a lot of great stuff, and I understand a lot, but a lot of it is pretty old kikongo according to Paco and Jhostavie (with whom I often speak kikongo).  It's ok, no one in the States will know the difference haha. 

I try not to think about the impending doom on my departure, but the weeks just fly by without me noticing, and soon enough I'll leave the Congo with only 2-3 transfers left.  Elders Masse and Gelinas go home in 2 months, and then I'm the oldest in the mission with Elder Hatch.  Incredible.  All that being said, all my thoughts and efforts are focused first and foremost on our investigators and their spiritual well-being, as well as our recent converts.  There are prayers being sent your way as well, don't you worry.  You are loved all across the world, how cool is that?  Even all across the universe, if you consider that Heavenly Father loves you as well! :)  That's a lot of ground to cover.  Good thing His love is infinite in length, depth, width, and height!  Not to mention the other units of measure!  It's just great.  Why would  you not want to be a part of the most amazing organization on the planet where you know where you come from, who you are and where you're going after you pass from this life into the next?  It's baffling.  Well anyway.  I love you.  I miss you.  I'll see you soon!

Elder Garland

July 21

Not much time, so these interesting moments will have to do!

Last Sunday we had a great FHE with Max and Lody's family again from
Pointe-Noire.  We ate peanuts, different salades, sakasaka, pig feet,
intestines and beans (my favorite), rice, and salted smoked fish.
Delicious.  The best part was an ice cold Coke to chase everything
down.  Especially the intestines.  They're a lovely family, and super
generous with what they don't even have.

On Tuesday we finally met President Monga and his wife.  They are
truly a delight.  It was like sitting down with Santa and Mrs. Clause.
He is an African version of the man with a bowl full of jelly.  His
laugh is explosive and contagious, and everything is hilarious to him.
We get along just famously.  We had a wonderful meeting and then ate a
delicious meal with the Baileys.

We got a call early Wednesday morning from Elder Bailey that he was
going to be set apart as a mission president counselor by President
before the latter left for Cameroon, which will make things so much
easier on President's load.  It will allow Elder Bailey to do
Melchisidek Priesthood interviews and all sorts of stuff that normally
president would have to do.  We got to assist in his setting apart,
which was beautifully spoken by President in English even.  What a
wonderful man.  We had an amazing lesson on temples with Sophie, and
she was so excited she was asking us about lists of all the temples in
the world.  At Prudence's, her son Nephi stood up, walked over to us,
and then just started peeing all over the floor.  What does Prudence
do?  Picks him up, whipes the pee up with a rag, and puts Nephi back
down where he was.  Hilarious.  We also got to force service on the
Beri family as we did dishes for them and talked about temples as
well.

Elder Bailey called us downstairs again on Thursday so he could talk
to us about this great vision he had for the work here in Pointe-Noire
concerning the creation of a district, and we had an awesome talk
about Alma 26 - a beautiful chapter on missionary work.  We decided to
call for a special zone fast on Sunday and had everyone in on the same
page - how we could better understand the Lord's will for us as
missionaries, how we could be more effective instruments in His hands,
and how the district could be best created.  Then I got goosebumps on
Thursday because of the cool weather for the first time since I left
the SLC airport.  It's getting sooo nice here, I'm loving it.

I had a wonderful experience on Friday when, before leaving the house,
I prayed to have charity for people.  The craziest thing happened - it
worked!  We even got a free ride from right outside our place by a
nice Lebanese man on his way to a construction site at the airport,
where we happened to be going.  Then, throughout the whole day, as
kids would "hee haw!" us and "mundele!" and "good morning! how hare
you fine fanks an jou!" all I would do is laugh and wave and say hee
haw back or something that made them laugh too!  Another kid came up
to us and was really rude and annoying about "hey i'm hungry give me
money hey, hey, hey give me money white guy hey hey hey ehye" and all
I could get out was, "oh!" and that was it!  No sarcastic response, no
nothing.  It was amazing.  Knock and you shall receive indeed!  It
just FELT like it was such a happy day.  I don't know how to explain
it.  It was great.

We had an interesting Saturday when we went out with Elder Bailey to
assist at the Pointe-Noire baptism and talk with the new Loandjili
branch presidency (which is on fire, by the way) about the vision that
Elder Bailey had.  It was great.  When we eventually got back to the
church at the Base, the institute was preparing their graduation
ceremony, so we were invited to participate.  It was classic.
Sketches, songs, dances, faulty music systems and all the like.  I
loved it.  Especially when one of the guys had a joke to tell about
what you call someone who only speaks one language - an American,
because what missionary speaks French before he comes on his mission?
I very proudly stood up and, in Kikongo, said, "I learned French
before I came to Congo, and now I'm trilingual - I can speak English,
French, and Kikongo!" and the crowd went wild.  It was, I think, my
crowning non-spiritual moment haha.

Recently I've been thinking about how long I've spent here in the
Congo and how I just want to get back to Cameroon and was kindof
packing my bags mentally when, that morning I was reading in the
Liahona about how we need to "act in this country as if for years" and
I applied to my current life.  I decided that God was reminding me
that I need to work here as if I would be here till the end of my
mission and refocus my efforts on the people I've been working with
since I got here.  It was a wonderful inspiration.  I've been having
more and more of those as I've been concentrating more on my scripture
studies and studies outside the Canon.  What a blessing it's been to
have the Liahona and Missionary Library.  I also finished Our Heritage
and restarted Jesus the Christ.  Incredible.

We had our fast (to prepare I made bread bowls and corn chowder), and
it went super well.  We broke it together as a zone after a testimony
meeting at the Bailey's.  It was great to hear everyone's experiences
reading Alma 26 and praying for guidance.  Amazing.  Then we had
lasagne and garlic bread and fruit salade and beans and brownies a la
mode and hot fudge and then I blew up.  So worth it.  I got a call
from Elder Brockbank in Yaounde informing me that we were now allowed
to watch Disney movies on P-Day in French.  Incredible.  My mission is
getting better and better with each transfer.  I'm loving life, and I
love you.  I hope you've been having as many spiritual experiences as
you are fun, temporal experiences!  I would love to hear about them as
well.  You might even be an answer to my prayers! :)

Have an amazing week!

Elder Garland

July 14

Another wonderful week.

Elder Sperry and I went to go meet up with an investigator after
writing home last week to play some backyard volleyball, and ended up
stumbling upon a club of kids who are all really talented - the first
organized volleyball group I've played with in 18 and a half months!!!
 It was super fun.  I loved it, and they loved having us there.  It
was difficult in the hard sand, but it felt good to get a good smash
in once or twice and to hear the kids say "ba mundele zaba kusala !!"
which means "the white guys know how to do it!"

Otherwise, we had an interesting week.  I especially enjoyed my
studies this week.  I realized that eternel life and a life of sin are
separated by a cross - a.k.a. immorTality vs. immorality.  I thought I
was so clever haha.

I got to call the new missionaries who came in to replace Hatch,
Wright, and VanAusdal on Tuesday night to welcome them to Pointe
Noire.  I spoke with Elder Naughton, Elder Tripp, and my good friend
Elder Massé.  It was wonderful to hear from all of them, the first two
who I didn't know before seem so nice.  After meeting them a few days
later, my suspicions were confirmed - they're both wonderful
missionaries.  On Wednesday we reconfirmed Sophie's, our French
friend, baptism by going over the interview questions with her.  She's
only had great experiences throughout her studies of the Gospel,
especially in the Book of Mormon.

We had a rough day on Thursday when we were ratéd by two of our first
contact lessons, but since Gracia decided to walk around with us he
was able to lead us to a family of less-actives that lived in our
sector.  They were super nice, and we had an awesome lesson on the
sacrament and scripture studies before heading out to see a house full
of recent converts and still converts-to-be.  Missionary work from
over a year ago led a man to share the Gospel with his friend,
Parfait, who then brought us home and introduced us to members of his
family, and because of that we were able to welcome 6 people to
baptism, including the man who came in contact with the church
originally.  There's still 2 nephews who are now on board and ready to
join the church!  Incredible.

On Thursday night the elders of Foucks (Bybee, Naughton, and
Etherington) prepared the most delicious brinner ever while I got to
know Elder Naughton some more.  He's a gymnast from Snowflake and
previously Mesa, Arizona, so we had a lot to talk about.  Great guy.
I'm excited to keep chatting with him.

On Friday I left the sector in the hands of my wonderful companion to
lead Elder Johnston around so he could do Sophie's interview.  Well, I
got a call as I was studying a condensed version of the Bible in
Munikituba from my companion that Sophie had texted us and wanted to
postpone her baptism as she seeks to reach out and forgive people who
had offended her, notably her ex-boyfriend who came with her to
Africa.  We were really proud of her and of course told her that's
exactly what she would do.  She's experiencing real conversion, which
is the most important thing.

Meanwhile, I walked around with Elder Bybee in his sector and got to
do some baptismal interviews myself.  One of them was from a taxi
contact that Elder Hatch and I had given to Elder Johnston like 6
months earlier, so I was super happy to meet the person being
baptized.  I also met a member whose aunt lives in our sector and
whose friend is less-active and lives near us, so I got a couple
numbers even out of my own sector haha.

That night I got a call from an old investigator looking for Elder
Morin who I happened to know from Douala, so we had a great chat and I
went through a brief nostalgic period as I thought about Douala and
all the people I used to know and love there.  I have a feeling that
I'll be back in Cameroon before too long, that this might be my last 6
weeks in the Congo...

On Saturday we walked out passed the airport to say goodbye to one of
our favorite members who is leaving permanently to Brazzaville.  It's
the same lady who helped us teach her neighbor, Lovely.  I was super
sad to see her leaving...she cried when we showed up :(  She'll be ok.
She's even taking Lovely with her for a couple months.  Sad.

We walked back to the church, got a text from our long lost friend
James, who says he's still thinking about and praying for us.  Love
that guy, but I haven't sat down with him since Elder Gelinas left...

Louis-Andre, Mpaka's baptismal candidate who moved into our sector,
was baptized and that was a great service.  I got to be a witness and
give the talk on the Restoration.  I also got to see Elder Masse for
the first time in over 8 months and have a great talk with him, and
then meet in person Elder Tripp, who is a sweet kid from Heber City,
Utah.  I had a blast seeing Masse again.  He looks great, and it
sounds like he's been doing awesome since going back to Yaoundé.  I'm
excited to spend a couple weeks visiting with him and the other newer
elders.

After the baptism we held a little activity where we showed the short
movie on the Restoration, answered questions from investigators that
we invited and then watched the Testments.  The last scene when the
Savior comes gets me every time.  The Relief Society sisters spent
several hours (especially our recent convert Darcyne) getting
groceries, preparing, and cooking little sandwiches and other
appetizers and drinks for afterwards.  It was delicious, and we got a
couple numbers from investigators who showed up for the first time.

The repairmen finally came and fixed out air conditioner in the "big"
room in our apartment, so we finally got to work and moved all of our
kitchen stuff out and took apart and set back up the bunk beds where
the kitchen was.  It was so much better to have a bigger kitchen, and
for the first time in 6 weeks we didn't sleep on the floor.  What a
blessing it is to have a real bed again.  I'll never complain about
where I'm sleeping again!

We had a good amount of people at church on Sunday, though I'm pretty
sure half of our members are still confused about what time church
starts since we changed to the morning wave.  We started church with 4
people, but ended with close to a 100.  People were showing up in
sweater vests, sweatshirts, zippies, pull overs, hoodies, sweats,
scarves, beanies, among other winter clothes.  It was hilarious.  It's
in the low to mid 70s, and the people here are freezing cold.  They
light fires on the side of the street to gather around to keep warm.
I admit that with a breeze that's coming in off the ocean there have
been times where, after walking around for an hour, the cold sweat
gives me the chills, but more often than not I'm still sweating.  It's
been infinitely nicer than before, however.  It has been such a
blessing to sleep with my fleece blanket.  I sleep like a baby.  Not
that you care so much, but...if you had put that same blanket on me at
night 3 months ago I would've died of heat stroke, no joke.  I could
live here during the summer.

This week I read through and finished "Our Search For Happiness" by M.
Russell Ballard, and loved it.  A basic view of doctrine for those who
are unfamiliar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
and a wonderful testimony of a living apostle.  It's a short read, and
I would recommend it to any of my friends or family who want to know
about what we believe (if they don't feel like asking me first!)
without the pressure of talking to missionaries.  After I was done I
was convinced to read through "Our Heritage" which I haven't finished
yet, but which has blown my mind as far as the sacrifices the early
pioneers made to prepare future generations of saints.  It's an
unbiased history of the founding of the church in America and other
countries in the 19th century.  Incredible.  Whether or not you are a
member of the church, if you want to read several touching stories of
sacrifice and unparalelled sefless love, read that book!!!

I wish I could show how much I love you all outside of this simple
letter.  I guess it will have to wait another 159 days...

Be safe, go out and meet your neighbors, pick up some trash on your
street, make the world a better place one wrapper at a time.

Elder Garland

July 7

Mbote a beno ay !!

First things first - I love my companion Elder Sperry.  He's just
awesome haha.  I don't have enough good things to say about him.  He's
a real trooper, and I've never met anyone that sweats as much as I do
until him.  We're two peas in a pod.

Being zone leader has its set-backs as far as teaching goes.  I just
have to do a lot of stuff outside my own sector at the price of time
seeing my own investigators.  I do love it though!  On Tuesday, for
example, I went out to Elder Wright's new sector to do an interview
for one his old (literally she's over 60) investigators.  She was a
hoot.  She had her first kid when she was 13...I guess that's Africa
in the 1960s for you!  Well I guess it hasn't really changed
much...ANYway, we went out to go prepare one of our baptismal
candidates and at the same time interview another one who has been an
investigator for probably 2 years.  I've seen a lot of people get
baptized after being investigators for a long time, now that I think
about it.  Anyway, because of traffic we were held back and didn't get
to see one of our recent converts, and Elder Bailey wanted to show
Elder Sperry the beach and pick up some shelves we had ordered from a
local artisan.  When we were done, we one of our other recent converts
then ratéd us at the church.  While we were waiting for her, we got to
play basketball with these Canadian kids who live in the quartier.  It
was really fun.  I'm trying to wiggle my way into getting back to
their house to talk with their mom again who seems to be under the
impression that the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible (which it
doesn't).  Since our convert never came, we stopped at another
investigator's house on the way home and got to sit down with her and
talk about the plan of salvation, which is one of my favorite lessons
to teach.  It answers so many questions!

When, eventually, we did get home, we offered to make the Baileys
dinner, so we got to work making sweet and sour chicken with fried
rice, and it turned out delicious of course.  Sister Bailey provided a
banana cream pie - SO GOOD.  Side note - I had been reading and
finished "The Great Apostasy" by James E. Talmage.  Genius.  You
should read it, if only for a history lesson.

On Wednesday we had district meeting over in Mpaka.  I stole a bunch
of Elder VanAusdal's recipes because I happened to be in the loop that
he was going to be leaving Pointe-Noire for Yaoundé and I had to take
advantage of my visit before he left.  I'll sure miss that kid.  We
got to visit a new investigator, Fall, and then teach the Plan of
Salvation again to Sophie, who is still on route to be baptized on
Saturday.  We ended up teaching Darcyne's brother and neighbor at the
same time, so that was cool.  That night when we got back we heard
from the Baileys that Elder Rakotonindriana was called to be the new
Assistant to the President in Brazzaville and that he was leaving
Thursday afternoon, so that was just nuts.

We changed our schedule around a little bit on Thursday so we could
see him off in the afternoon and then do studies and whatnot.  On our
way back in the morning we came across these mamas and a huge pile of
tree bark that they were going to load up into a wheelbarrow and take
into their parcelle, so we just started picking up wood and bringing
it ourselves.  They thought it was hilarious.  The wood pile was a lot
bigger than I thought haha, so we ended up being there for like half
an hour, and the wood got all over our clothes and whatnot, but it was
totally worth it.  They tried to give us 500 francs but we told them
we wanted to help just to help!   I think that may be the first time
they'd ever heard that haha.

It was very appropriate with my studies that morning, because I'm
reading in Jacob 5 about the analogy of the olive tree, and there's
this passage from verse 21-23 where the Master of the vineyard says to
his servant "Behold the tree" after his servant asks why He planted
the tree in such a barren spot of land.  The tree had surprisingly
brought forth much fruit!  I applied that to missionary
work...sometimes we think "what the heck am I doing here/nothing is
working/the people don't care" but if we take the time to prune, dig,
and nourish them with the Word then one day we'll step back and behold
the tree and all the fruit it produced!  I don't know, I thought it
was cool haha.

Sister Bailey made us another lasagna to share for lunch with Rako
before he left for Brazzaville.  It was good to see before he left.  I
love that kid.  His name is Sonny, and he lives up to his name's sake.
Always laughing, always smiling.  He'll make a great AP.

Otherwise, we got to see some of our other recent converts before the
day was over, and that's always a great way to spend the day :)

On Friday I went out with Elder Bailey to do another special case
interview with this guy that Elder VanAusdal sent us, and that went
really well.  He was all set to be baptized, but eventually called and
asked if we could push it back a week so his family could be there. No
problem.  I'm starting to get to know this other part of town pretty
well - the other half of Mpita.  Darcyne lives at one end, but we've
got quite a few people to see in this new part!  I love getting to
know more of the city.  It makes me feel more at home.  Are there
parts of your city that you don't know?  Go get to know them!  There's
something homey about it haha.

After seeing Sophie and Lovely, we all got together in Mpaka to
celebrate the 4th.  The Baileys had made potato salad, and I made
burger sliders while VanAusdal made the buns.  We had a few drinks and
sang the national anthem, chatted for a while and then closed with
"America the Beautiful."  I had to be careful about not thinking too
much about the lyrics or I would've cried like I did last year, but
thank goodness I made it out ok.  I welled up, but none escaped.
Whew!  For dessert Elder VanAusdal made an apple pie and Elder Wright
made oatmeal cookies.  Delicious on all accounts.  Happy Independence
Day everyone!

We had our baptism on Saturday with no flaws.  Didier (a.k.a.
Gierdano) and Hughes were both there on time, which is always the
biggest worry.  Didier asked me to baptize him...what an honor.  I'll
never get over that.  He had this sweet frohawk goin on so I had to
give him an extra shove when he was in the water, but he got down ok
haha.

Afterwards we helped set up and prepare for another wedding - brother
Léandre from the Mpaka branch.  A wonderful man, one of Pointe-Noire's
best.  He had everyone in the church for some reason, and of course
there was no room, so we had a million chairs going down the hall.
They gave some talks and then everyone took their chair outside anyway
to watch them get presents.  It was a beautiful ceremony, as always.
It marks one of the very few times I've seen Africans kiss.  The other
5 times were 5 other weddings haha.  By the way, this couple that just
got married had been preparing for the last TWELVE years to earn
enough money to pay the dote and everything.  So.  Be patient in your
afflictions.  We had some nice fish and chicken and rice to finish the
evening, so we didn't have to make dinner at the apartment, yay!

We had a crazy fast Sunday.  Fortunately, after about 11 I wasn't
hungry at all for the rest of the day.  It made it a lot easier to
focus on the Spirit of the sacrament meeting and the other classes.
We welcomed several new people to church and had to sent out referrals
to their respective missionaries and get directions for the ones who
belonged to us.  I had to organize with the Relief Society president
for an activity we're putting on Saturday (we're going to show the
video on Restoration and the Testaments) so they could make some bisap
(Camerounian folléré which is like hibiscus flower juice, and tangawis
which is frozen ginger drink, and maybe some sandwiches.  We had
coordination meeting with Alain, who is awesome.  By the time we were
done with church and meetings, all our investigators and people we
wanted to maybe sit down with afterwards were gone, so we walked Paco
and Jhostavie, two of our finest branch missionaries home.  They asked
us a lot of questions about dating, so that was hilarious.  They
thought you had to ask the branch president if you could go on a date
haha.  Anyway, we ended up teaching Paco's sister, and that was
awesome.  While we were on our way out, we met an old investigator
(he's only 18, but Elder Hatch used to teach him with Elder Morin) who
happens to play volleyball, which we'd been looking to do since we
found out that we both love to play, so we made plans to come back on
P-Day to knock a ball around with his club.

Then Elder Sperry noticed his tie clip was missing, which was not
awesome.  Bless his heart, he said a quick prayer and we started
looking in the sand.  I immediately thought that there was no way we
were going to find it.  Anything shiny would've been immediately
lifted by a child or anyone who spotted it.  Plus, it was gold, so it
would've been really hard to see.  We'd covered a lot of ground, which
lowered the odds even more.  All these factors went off in my head and
I decided it was gone before we even took the first step.  I wanted to
help, however, so we started combing the sand with our eyes and
covering our tracks and asking people around to let us know if they
saw anything.  Poor Elder Sperry was so bummed about losing it.  We
looked around for probably 20 minutes, started walking back, decided
to look one more time, and then we left, no luck.  We had walked
probably half way home when my companion says, "do you think we could
look just one more time?" He really liked that tie clip haha.  I said
yeah of course, and we walked maybe 15 steps when he turns around,
holding the clip in his hands!  Turns out it was clipped into his
shirt, right over his belt.  There is NO way that that could've
just...happened!  I think there was a lesson to learn from his finding
it.  We talked about how attached he was to it and how losing it
would've seriously jeopardized his feeling the Spirit during his fast
and on the Sabbath, so we concluded that maybe he shouldn't wear that
clip anymore until he goes home haha.  We ended up getting called back
to the church by one of our recent converts to deal with a personal
problem, and then she was an hour and a half late, but it was ok
because we got to talk about the Atonement and how we've felt it at
different times in our life and all the struggles we have had.  It was
a great bonding time, I really appreciated it.  Now we've connected on
just about every level.  I just need to cry with him and we're golden
haha.  That'd probably be uncomfortable so...maybe not.  Well, it's
bound to happen, who am I kidding.

Anyway, I love you all.  Thanks for sticking through your trials.
Elder Sperry shared this thought with me that I love - "Don't tell the
Lord about the power of your storm, tell the storm about the power of
your Lord."  I'll let you think about that this week.

June 30

Here we go, another week on the way.

We went out to the beach with the Baileys after writing home, and
that's always fun.  We played a little volleyball and had a drink,
cookies, and watermelon for break.  It's just nice to stand in the
sand that isn't in the middle of the quartier.

The next day, after seeing all the people we needed to see, we went to
the airport to pick up the new elders Nzema and Sperry.  Elder Hatch
moved into Mpaka again with his new Zambian companion, who is super
smiley and nice and speaks great English, and I went back with Elder
Sperry to our apartment above the Bailey's.  Before going home, the
Baileys treated us to a chawarma at that really nice restaurant in
front of the airport.  Never have I eaten as good of a chawarma.
Elder Sperry is a wonderful kid.  He's like 6'2, and build like a
Tongan, even though he's white!  His mom is from Tonga and his dad
from Utah.  They met at BYU Hawaii and moved back to Utah after they
were married.  Elder Sperry's first name is Tauafanga (his friends
call him Fanga) and coupled with the rest of his name it means "Tower
of Excellence."  Tell me that is not the most incredible name you've
ever heard haha.  Amazing.

We went out to district meeting in Foucks on Wednesday to learn about
prayer from Elder Johnston.  Great lesson.  Our first rendezvous
together, we went to Darcyne's and for the first time sat down with
Sophie, our white French friend who lives there.  She said she'd been
reading through the Book of Mormon, was already in 1 Nephi 17, and
from that moment continued to blow our minds.  We talked about the
nature of God, prophets, and the Atonement of Christ, and the whole
time she was pulling references from the chapters she'd read in the
Book of Mormon.  I didn't know what to say.  I was just laughing and
saying "OUI!" the whole time.  It was amazing.  We invited her to try
asking God to forgive her, because she said that she'd tried forgiving
herself (which indeed is important) but that every time that guilt
would inevitably come back to her.  We promised that if she asked God,
because of the Atonement, that guilt could go away forever! She
promised she would try.  INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE.  I
couldn't stop smiling, even after we left.  We walked to see Cecile,
who was preparing for baptism with her older cousin Gerlene.  She's
doing great.  We walked into Monami's house looking for him and found
his 25 year old friends playing the original Mario from NES on the TV.
So...if that gives you an idea where I am.

I've developed this nasty cold which has made me super tired,
coughing, sneezing, and running my nose for the last 5 days now, and
kept me awake for a few nights.  Alas, I asked God to give me a hand
out in the sector and He provided.  Miraculously I made it through
every day.  Elder Bailey stocked me up with some magic medecine which
I thrived off of until it started going away.  Thank goodness for
pharmacists !

On Thursday we had weekly planning, went over and saw some great
recent converts, and went back to Cecile's to confirm plans and get
her ready for her interview.

Then we split on Friday, so I worked with Elder Johnston in our sector
so he could do interviews for us.  We went back to Darcyne's and found
Sophie again, where we finished talking about the Great Apostasy, the
Restoration and the Book of Mormon.  And then she did what I thought I
would never get any white people to do and accepted to be baptized.
We said maybe the end of July or beginning of August would be good,
but she was like, "well I'll probably finish the Book of Mormon next
week so I'm counting on being ready even by the 12th." SHE SET HER OWN
DATE!  Extraordinary.  I was histerical, but the good kind.  Mostly I
just couldn't believe it.  We got to meet a couple more people, but
for probably 2 and a half hours the next 8-10 people we tried seeing
weren't home or weren't available.  So we walked, and walked, and
walked.  Meanwhile I was suffering and dragging my feet one after the
other.  But I made it!  And we still had time to make a delicious
shepherd's pie before I crashed at like 9 when Elder Bailey gave me
some Nyquil.  Delicious.

President had come while we were making dinner, so it was nice to see
him and Sister Cook, even though I couldn't give them hugs, haha.  We
got up at 5:30 the next day to be at the basketball court by 6 to play
with President and all the other elders.  It was a blast.  President
threw down on all of us, it was awesome.  Lefties...we practiced our
choir piece, went home, showered and changed, and came back for the
baptism by 10.  Despite the gross retard of our candidates (turns out
they don't have a clock at their house or any time-telling device)
everything went really well; Gerlene was finally baptized after a
year's worth of investigation and neglect from past missionaries, and
Cecile went with her.  It was a beautiful ceremony, as it always is.
President got to speak, and his words were comforting.  We stuck
around for English class, which Sophie came for and got a private
lesson because not many other people came and those who did were all
advanced.  She's more advanced in the scriptures than a lot of others
though, that's for sure!

Sunday came around and we had branch conference at this beautiful
conference center at a hotel.  It was a lot bigger than I thought it
would be.  We welcomed a ton of members from across the city, sang our
piece for everyone and made president cry.  It was an arrangement of
"come thou fount" which happens to be his favorite hymn.  After
teaching a new investigator, Fall, we went home and President asked us
to sing it to him again - twice, haha.  It went really well, except I
couldn't finish the second time we sang because these weird pipes in
my eyes suddenly came loose and I had to spend the second half of the
song working on closing them up.  The rest of the elders carried it on
well, thank goodness.  We helped Sister Bailey make a fantastic
lasagna from scratch (minus the noodles) and then had caramel apple
cheesecake bars with ice cream, otherwise known as heaven on a plate.
We said our goodbyes to President and Sister Cook, which made those
eye pipes come loose again, and then they were gone!  I wish I had
more time to write about how wonderful they both are.  They have so
many things on their plate...5 countries and over 200 missionaries,
not to mention all the branch, ward, and stake leaders and members.
Lord knows how they make it day by day.  Anyway, I was inspired the
last year we served together and I hope to become as good of a
missionary as he is some day when I'm maybe as old :)

Otherwise, we're all excited to receive the new mission president.  As
of Tuesday, I'll officially be in the Republic of Congo Brazzaville
Mission.  Crazy.  I'll love it though.  I love you already!  I hope
you have a great week.  Say a prayer for this mission...we'll need all
we can get during this transition period!!!

Kilimbu ya kaka,

Elder Garland

June 23

What a stressful week.  But!  Also sweet.  But!  Also stressful haha.

Tuesday was especially crazy towards the end of the day.  We were waiting for a bus on the side of the road when, after we realized we wouldn't get to our rendezvous on time if we kept waiting, we called a taxi.  There were a few other people waiting for a bus, so we asked if this man if he wanted a ride while we were going out there, and he graciously accepted.  Then, this other random girl kinda just followed suite, which wouldn't have been annoying had she asked or anything.   Alas - we just let her get in without bothering her.  She did say thank you when she got out, so that was nice haha.  

Later, we were walking along the railroads (imagine train tracks going through a jungle village and that's where I was) when we came up on this group of maybe 30-40 half naked men yelling about nothing to no one, standing in the middle of the tracks.  They were all wielding either a shovel, axe, or machete.  Only one of them started yelling after us, but we took the first alley we could to get outta there.  Thank goodness no one followed us!  I still have no idea why they were there...

Anyway, we also went out to see a less-active member who is a rapper.  His music is actually way good, and we asked him for a CD.  He said of course! and tagged on something at the end that I didn't understand, but walked back to his music boutique and put down a beat.  Our branch missionary was like, "did you understand what he said?  He said he'd give you one if you free style."  So...we couldn't deny him!  In the middle of a busy quartier, two white missionaries started throwing down.  The crowds came, and while one was free-styling the other was handing out brochures.  It actually proved to be an excellent finding method!  So, if any of you are lacking investigators, set up a couple speakers in the middle of a neighborhood and start a beat.  They will come.  Needless to say, we got our CD haha.  He asked us if we could lay down a track with him sometime next week, but we'll see if we have time.  So many people to teach...

Wednesday was pretty much normal.  I actually don't have anything special to say about that day.  We split at Darcyne's so Elder Hatch could go over the baptismal questions with Darcyne's oldest daughter Maya.  We got called by an old investigator who wanted to sit down with us, which we did, and then he didn't come to church again on Sunday.  Laaammmeee.

We had a good day on Thursday.  It was one of our recent convert's birthday, so we brought her a couple peanut butter cookies made by yours truly.  You would've thought it was OUR party though, because when we got to her house they brought out sodas for us and a couple bowls of crackers.  So nice.  Her older cousin told us he wanted to be baptized but didn't come to church because he shaved the sides of his head and now has this sweet mohawk thing and he was embarrassed.  We told him to come anyway, which he did!  Armel told us about this sweet missionary experience he had, which was way cool.  If he wasn't already 30 he would have made an awesome full-time missionary.  

President Caillet called us and asked us to come all the way back to the Bailey's so we could give him the keys to the car to pick up the couple from the airport, so that took a chunk out of our day.  When we got back, the Baileys were home and we were so happy to see them.  They'd been in Kinshasa the whole week for a couple's conference, but came back Thursday night.  They'd let us stay in their house while they were gone, so we had a nice bed to sleep on and a sweet stove to use.  Then they blew our minds with some information on transfers.  They said that two new missionaries would be coming on Tuesday, and that I would be training one of them, Elder Sparry, who is Samoan, and that Elder Hatch would be going up to Douala with the other, Elder Nzema, to train him.  Incredible.  So that's the next adventure - training again!  Hatch will have to go back to Mpaka so I can start training, but there's nothing over there, so that's kinda frustrating.  BUT! I'm so excited to train again.  I loved working with Elder Etherington, I'm sure I'll love Elder Sperry.  I'll let you know next week how that goes, because he's coming in tomorrow night!!!

We were basically inside all day Friday due to A) zone training, B) choir practice (the missionaries are putting on a number for the President's goodbye weekend), and C) weekly planning.  Hatch and I led a great training, and received some awesome input from the other missionaries.  I love all the guys here, they're all hard workers and are fun to work with!  After the choir practice we went out to set up for Maya's baptism, which went super smoothly.  Against our wishes, she asked me to baptize and confirm her...we were hoping it would be a member or someone else that'd been coming to teach with us, but we couldn't exactly tell her no.  So, I got to participate in that, which was very special.  Which also means that that whole family (minus the absent father) has been baptized! :) Now we're working on her white, French friend Sophie, who came to participate in the baptism, and their neighbor Audrey.  The work will go forward, even if it's just one person at a time!  

We even sat down with Cécile Beri, who told us that she wants to be baptized with her aunt Gerlène next weekend, so now we have another two baptisms set for next weekend.  It's just incredible.  They'll be confirmed water's edge because Sunday is a multi-branch conference, so no time for other stuffz.  

Saturday was a sweet end to a long awaited marriage between two lovely members of the Aéroport branch : Rémy and Doretta.  I've been working with them since I was in Mpaka with Elder Brockbank.  If you've been reading since then, it was their house that we painted black with paint mixed with tar all day.  Anyway, in the morning we came to the church to help set up, and then the celebration was supposed to start at 4, so we went around saying hi to everyone and giving all the members missionary homework.  We brought 85 brochures and gave each member a brochure to give to someone who wasn't a member.  It was sweet!  All of them were out of our hands after probably an hour.  Better in someone's home than in ours!  The married couple didn't show up until 6:30, and by that time the sun was already most of the way down, so we didn't get a lot of good pictures.  We did get some referrals though!  And we were invited to come into the kitchen while President Caillet was making a speech to eat before everyone else.  We had roasted fish balls, fried chicken and fried plantain chips, fruit salade, sandwiches, and a weird tomato/apple kebab.  Over all, it was delicious.  I brought home a couple Pepsi's too, because I hadn't seen that since forever.  On our way out we got to take a picture with and congratulate the happy couple.  They were all smiles, it was beautiful.  I wish I would've gotten a picture of Doretta's hair...they way to do it up for special occasions is just hilarious, but they love it.  Maybe you can Google that sometime haha.

On Sunday, we were especially stressed when not only Sophie come, but this other older French guy!  I totally judged him though, because we'd seen him at the arts festival that we went to a couple weeks ago, and he was kinda creeping on Maya.  But when Elder Hatch and I went to sit down in Elder's Quorum, there he was following along with the Ensign.  Then, when the teacher asked a question and no one responded, he raised his hand and gave an excellent answer.  Then, in the Gospel Principles class, we were talking about fasting, and both he AND Sophie were giving these great answers and participating so well!  It was amazing.  Who knew there were religious French people in the world?!  I'd almost forgot!  The rest of church went really well.  Great talks were given.  Afterwards we practiced with a real piano the choir piece we were working on, and then we walked home with Sister Bailey so Elder Bailey could do a special interview with Elder Johnston for Gerlène, who passed with flying colors.  We'll have a great weekend! 

And that's about it!  A lot of stuff happening, but we're going with the flow.  With the mission split, which is next week, 24 new elders will be coming into the mission.  How many are going to Brazzaville and how many to our side I have no idea.  All I know is that things are about to get crazy!!!

I love you all, I pray for you all, I can't wait to be with you all! 

Have an outstanding week.

Elder Garland

June 16

Salut !!

Just another crazy week in Congo.  This week was no exception, as the
Baileys prepared to leave for Kinshasa and confided the house to us on
Thursday.  On Tuesday, however, we had a pretty normal day.  We
prepared our kikongo speaking friend for her baptismal interview, and
got to help another recent convert dig a well in his back yard using a
very long 2x2 piece of wood attached to what looked like a garden
watering can with the bottom blown out.  In a little over 3 hours they
had already dug like 15 feet deep and had reached fresh water.
Incredible.  The earth here is divine.

We went over the baptismal questions with some other investigators in
preparation for their interview Thursday, and then we went to the
market to get some veggies because no one was available on Monday.  I
even got the mamans to forward me the veggies until next week.  We've
got friends in the market haha.

We had some extra time when we got back, so we decided to make some
more friends with our neighbors.  We met Muhammed, our Senegalese
boutique friend to the left, who gave us a free Coke just because.  So
nice.  He left his wife and kids in Senegal to make money here, which
he sends back home every now and then.  He sleeps in his boutique.
Our other boutique friend, Ngodai, is also from Senegal, but no free
stuff from him.  It was nice to just say hi though.  We also got free
beignets from these mamans in front of Muhammed's.  Way too greasy,
but they were very nice haha.

When we got home there was an enormous huntsman spider chillin in our
stairwell, so I speared it with a brand new plastic broom that the
Baileys bought us.  The spider died, at the cost of the broom, which
exploded in half when it came crashing down with the dead spider.

On Wednesday we followed the Baileys to Mpaka for their district
meeting, and that was really cool.  Elder Rako talked about focusing
on the Spirit during lessons and helping our investigators recognize
the Spirit.  It was cool!  We saw Maya for a few minutes to ask if she
still wanted to be baptized on Saturday, which she did!  The best part
of the day was when we saw Gerlene, an ancient investigator that for
some reason was never baptized.  We finally started working with her,
got her to fast to overcome some difficulties she was having, and then
she had this amazing experience fasting and told us how things were
just started to work themselves out.  Incredible.  God is working so
hard with the people here.  It's awesome to watch!  Afterwards, we
were invited by President Mabiyala to go consecrate a member's house
while we were getting ratéd by an ami, so that was a really sweet
experience too.  I didn't even know the lady, but when we got there
she asked me to say the prayer.  It was probably one of the most
sincere prayers I've ever said in my life.  What a wonderful
experience.  To thank us, she offered to feed us trois pièces, which
is a meal consisting of smoked fish, peanut butter, and grass
clippings (essentially).  BUT!  It was delicious. She topped it off
with a Coke.  What a nice woman.

On Thursday, we split so Elder Johnston could come do our interview in
our sector with me while Hatch went with Elder Bybee in their sector.
I got to teach some people while Elder Johnston was interviewing, so I
wasn't just doinking around like I probably would have done at the
beginning of my mission.  I was happy to see progression haha.
Anyway, Helena, Glad, and Belna all passed their interviews.  Maya
went partying the other weekend, so she has another week or so to
think about what she really wants.  She was super upset to find out
that she wouldn't be baptized on Saturday, but I think she understands
why.  At least she was upset!  That's a good start haha.  After we did
all the interviews, Elder Johnston and I went over to check on our
Canadian friends in the same quartier as the church.  When we got
there, the mom let us in no problem!  She invited us to sit down in
her kitchen to chat with her and her cook, Hervé.  For the next hour
or so we just talked about where she came from, what she's doing here,
etc. etc. etc.  She's a really motivated woman.  She's here only to
help orphaned children.  One of those people who doesn't only talk
about doing stuff, but ACTUALLY does it.  They have a lot of land here
that they're planning on building a little village for orphans.  It's
pretty impressive.  We just have some different ideas on the nature of
God and our destination as children of God, but she said she would
love to have us come back to keep talking about it.

I made Elder Johnston make us his secret vegetable sauce.  Delicious.

Friday was...not so productive haha.  We had zone council for 4 hours,
throughout which we understood one word in ever 500 or so.  So
basically it was a big waste of time, but we asked for a resume so we
could actually base zone training off of something tangible.  We did
have time to go see Divine at Lisa's house, which ended up being one
of the most trying moments of my mission.  We walked in, and Leonard,
Lisa's dad, was watching Cameroun play against Mexico.  We sat down,
asked if Divine was there, and when she came out I had to make the
decision to take our lesson outside.  I could've just as easily
suggested we watch a few minutes of the game together, but alas...I
knew what was the right thing to do.  God blessed us though, because
after we sat down with Lovely and headed home, the last 5 minutes were
playing on a TV right next to our house.  We got to watch the Lions
lose, but I was happy just to see a couple passes and Eto'o play.

We had a fulfilling Saturday.  We left early to go see Maya and
console her about her baptism, but we were able to help her understand
why we were pushing it back.  In the end, she understood and is still
motivated to push for next week.  We went straight to the church to
start filling the font, set up the chairs and sweep/mop to make the
place spiffy for the baptism.  Everyone came on time, including
President Caillet and Alain, which was a miracle in itself.  Everyone
was changed, sitting down and ready to party by 3.  I don't know if
that's ever happened in the history of my mission.  It was as smooth
as the Président butter that the Baileys bought us.  We were supposed
to meet with Josué after, but he left before we could chat with him.
While we were looking for him we got a call from Maya asking us to
come to this festival of arts that her mom (Darcyne) was cooking at.
We were really pressed for time, but for the sake of making our recent
and soon to be convert happy we took a taxi out there with all the
baptismal clothes.  When we got to the door of the complex there were
people standing at the door as if you were supposed to pay, but due to
our extreme confidence and God we just walked up, said excuse me, and
walked in like a couple of bosses that knew/owned the place.  We were
surprised to find that not only were we not the only white people, but
there was a pretty even spread of white and African.  Incredible.  It
was the most amount of white people I've seen in the same place at the
same time.  They even have kids!  For some reason I've always thought
that the white people who were here are just here by themselves.
Nope.  Bonafide white kids running around.  Darcyne was especially
happy to see us.  She was all smiles.  She wanted to offer us
something to eat but we had to tell her hello and goodbye.  Sophie,
our French friend, was there as well, so that was nice.  We went home,
made delicious corn chowder, and slept with beautiful air
conditioning.

On Sunday our recently baptized friends were confirmed with no
problems.  Helena asked me to confirm her, which is always an
incredible experience.  I think it was the most comfortable I've been
confirming someone/giving a blessing.  The words just come out the
more you base yourself on the Spirit and not on your own words.  It
was very sweet, very tender.  I loved a talk that a member gave.  He
said that "humility is what makes people shine."  I love that!  It's
so true.  After walking around for an hour and a half looking for a
less-active member we finally found her.  We had no more time and she
wasn't available to talk with us, but she was really happy to see that
people still cared about her.  At least we got her phone number!  We
got home, planned for today, and made delicious chili and corn bread.

New people I've met this week - Krishna, Hosanna, and Millecent (One
thousand hundred).  So yeah.

I love you all.  Have a wonderful week.  You're the best of the best!
Be safe.  I want to see you when I get back, so I'll do the same.

All my love,

Elder Garland