November 3

My salutations are about to change to Lingala - I'm being transferred!  I'll tell you where in a minute...

We had quite the week. Again.  I admit things are going by a lot faster than they have been the last couple weeks.  I can't believe it's already November...on Tuesday we had the biggest rain storm since last May.  The worst part is that we decided to leave early so we could see some of our investigators before school, so we were in the rain literally all day.  Jhostavie came to work with us, too, poor guy.  His phone was ruined, but God will bless him so much.  When we showed up to our first rendezvous, she wasn't even at the house. 

It was too early for us to go to our next appointment, so we went down the railroad tracks to see Charly, our inactive friend who's been coming back to church!  He happened to have come home from work 15 minutes before we showed up, and then when we sat down with him it started to dump rain.  It was so loud that we had to shout-teach him.  I think the Spirit was there, though...it was kindof hard to tell haha.  It died down enough that we could talk like normal people after a while, and he was really thankful for our visit.  He was like, "Wait you can't go back out into the rain! You have to stay!"  But we just smiled and told him that's how we do, and stepped out into the storm, singing "Called to Serve" at the top of our lungs as we walked down the tracks.  It was pretty sweet.    

Across the tracks, our next rendezvous was literally in a house surrounded by a moat of water.  There was an unfinished wall of an unfinished house (welcome to Africa) that we jumped on to get closer to their land, but then we had to scale another wall, jump onto a corner of mud, and then his grandma came over and pulled down the metal sheet fence so we could come in.  Then we had to duck under a fallen shelter, jump on some planks of wood, and THEN we were at the house.  He was surprised to see us, but happy to have us come talk to him about obedience and reading the scriptures. 

On to our next rendezvous way back on the other side of KM4, but we stuck to the main road and grabbed tree branches to dump rain on each other.  We already soaked, now we were having fun with it.  People probably thought we were crazy.  Since we left early, we took a break for lunch and sat down in a bar with some old guys sharing a few beers and ordered chicken gizzard brochettes with kwanga.  One of the old guys was like, "You eat manioc...?  Hey!  Give him another one on me!" haha it was awesome.  I've grown to love casava...I wonder if I'll even find it in the States.  I guess we'll see in a month or so.

From there we went out to see another friend, who didn't end up being home.  We went to her parents' house deeper into the quartier, and that's where we started having problems.  People were setting up toll bridges to get across inaccessible parts of the quartier due to flooding.  We didn't have money for that, but when we would approach the bridge other people would come up and be like, "Come on, let them pass!  They're doing work for God!" and they would rip on the bridge guys until eventually they let us pass.  At another bridge further away, the guys absolutely refused to let us pass for free.  Someone tried to pay for us, but the bridge troll was really mean this time, so we tried to go around.  After an HOUR of trying different routes and alleys and backtracing, we were obliged to dive in up to our shins in the water.  It was uncomfortable, to say the least...I tried not to think about the countless microbes and critteres swimming around my toes as we went off to see Stanny in OCH.  They were so happy to see us, and though we were soaking wet they let us in their house.  The plastic chair I sat in quickly formed a pool of water right under my tush, so that was nice.  I was just happy to see them happy!  Plus, after asking God who should baptize and confirm him, Stanny had a dream that I baptized him, so that was pretty sweet.  We saw some more people, but that was the most tired I've been at the end of a day than I've been in a long time.  It was sweet and sour, but worth every minute.

At 4 in the morning I woke up to the flashlight tricking my brain into thinking it was already daytime.  Elder Sperry has no idea how it got turned on...so that was weird.  I got to sign up for all my classes 3 hours later, and they all went through as planned.  I only have class Tuesday, Wednesday night, and Thursday.  Perks of being a senior!  Then while we were making lunch Sister Bailey knocked on the door telling me my flight plans came in.  I may have ran down to their house.  To my surprise, my day's been moved up even further - I leave the 17th of December, a week before Christmas, to come home around 4 p.m. the 18th.  What was the most surprising was that my first flight left from Brazzaville, not Pointe-Noire...I wasn't sure what that meant, but I planned on asking President Monga during his visit for the weekend.

We went out to district meeting, came back and had studies, and then went out to teach.  Daniele wasn't home yet, so while we were waiting I gathered a group of kids who came to admire us and had them sit down, and then I proceeded to teach them the Restoration in Kikongo.  That was a blast.  I just asked them a bunch of questions and taught them about Christ and what He did for us.  It was really fun.  After Daniele's we went out to split at Grande Mosquee, but on the way we saw a semi truck load that had fallen off and literally pancaked a taxi on the road.  We don't know if anyone was in there, but we're hoping it was just parked...anyway, it was pretty crazy.  Lots of people were there to take pictures, but no one was helping anyone with anything.  Classic.  That night I had risotto and sweet and sour chicken with the Foucks elders and slept like a baby on Elder Johnston's box spring bed.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of working with Elder Naughton in their sector and got to do an interview which  turned into a birthday party.  We had cake and yoghurt, which gave me heartburn for the rest of the day.  It's ok though because it killed my appetite and I wasn't hungry when we were supposed to eat lunch and didn't have time.  I got to see a recent convert that Elder Sperry and I taught, Fall, out in the sticks.  He's still doing awesome, so that made me happy.  Another friend of theirs, Atchou (yes, like the sneeze), offered us some soda when we came over.  We finally came back to the apartment for "lunch," but only ended up eating a cookie.  It was awesome to just hang out with Elder Naughton and to teach with him.  He's a great missionary, and he'll make a great difference in Gabon when he gets his visa.  He's one of those guys I could hang out with and never get tired of haha.        

I've been learning how to bite my tongue recently.  It hasn't been easy, but I definitely feel a change in my heart towards the people who mock us.  It's been great.  I hope I can practice that back home. 

On Friday we met a guy who was in contact with my trainer, 3 years ago, and wants to come back to church.  He was born in Jamaica and raised in Liberia, so his English is pretty hilarious.  Sister Bailey gave us popcorn balls for Halloween, and to pay her back Elder Sperry and I went Trick Or Treating in African maman garb and gave them a plate of cookies.  They laughed pretty hard at our outfits.

We welcome President and Sister Monga on Saturday morning on our way to out, and then we went out to the baptism.  It went super smooth, both Stanny and Daniele.  They were so happy! :) 

Sunday was stressful, however.  A million people were there, and though sacrament was first there were lots of people.  After church President asked us to set apart 15 branch missionaries.  Then we had to see a bunch of investigators, and more people were asking me to solve all their problems that I don't know anything about.  It's nice to feel important though...I've just been here for too long haha.

Which brings me to my last point - President told me during breakfast this morning that I'm going to Brazzaville to end my mission.  I'll leave next Tuesday or Wednesday.  There will be many changes, but I'm excited.  I'm sad to leave the Baileys and the other elders, but I know the work will go forth here and that people will come to Christ.  Hopefully I'll have more information about my companion and all that jazz next week, but this is my last full week in Pointe-Noire, after a whole year of working here...anyway.  That's it.

Love you all.

Elder Garland