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