Nkela ?! How are you?! I realized I could start every letter home for the next 5 years with a new way to say hello, how cool is that?! Anyway, another crazy week gone by.  Next week I will have been on my mission for 4 months already.  Time is so slippery here.  It really isn’t a long time at all (although at times it may feel like it). 

Last Monday was a great day because after we left the cyber café we went to this shop where they sell fixed up American stuff and bought a guitar for a member.  This guy, Romeo, just shells out money to anyone and everyone, but he’s not even rich.  He just loves everyone, and says that every time he gives out money the Lord puts some back into his pocket, so he’ll just keep giving it away!  They were selling the guitars for 100,000 CFA (about 200 dollars), but I watched on the side as one of our recent converts bargained the price down to 80,000 (if you’re following the math, that’s 160 dollars ;) ).  It was pretty incredible, but that’s how buying anything is here.  You ask the price, they give it to you, and then you immediately shoot it down and give them your own, and they usually accept!  So I’ll probably be really confused when I go to the store when I get home and the cashier refused to lower the price of anything I’m trying to buy.  We’ll see if I can’t work any miracles at Good Will, Value Village, or D.I. though… anyway, I didn’t really get to play the guitar, because after we bought it we just walked it back to Romeo’s house.  Plus the strings weren’t very impressive, but it felt amazing to hold and play a GUITAR again.  I tried tuning it up a little, broke the high E string of course, and felt like an idiot, and would have bought new strings but Romeo ended up buying some more himself.  More about that later.

On Tuesday, I saw for the first time anyone kiss on the lips.  It was just a peck, but it looked so foreign because no one ever does that in public, which I’m quite thankful for.  Those poor missionaries back in the States, where there seems to be no shame on the subject.  Then again, people here just pee on the side of the road, walk around naked, or take a shower in front of their house without any concern for others watching.  Culture is such a funny thing.

We got to help move some boxes around at the church and called it service, so we scored some bonus points there!

Still learning Douala.  My favorite (only) phrase to say is “Mbape natondi abba gita !” which means, “I love God a lot, too!”

Elder Zurcher and I came back on Wednesday to make dinner (this delicious cabbage and sausage dish), and we got the rice washed and in the pot, started defrosting our sausage, cut up the cabbage, washed and quartered like 15 potatoes and put them in another pot, struck a match and lit the stove for about 15 seconds when the flame went out.  No more gas.  The other two tanks were out too.  It was too late to get more gas, and we were starving with nothing in the fridge.  It gave us the opportunity to go down to that restaurant behind us (you know, the one that blasts music until 4 in the morning) and buy some chicken wrap things, and while we were there we contacted the barman and his boss, so that was pretty cool!

I wish I could explain this situation that made me laugh until I cried and cried and cried in the middle of this lesson.  The member we were talking to just stopped talking and started laughing with me and then everyone was laughing until I got a hold of myself.  What happened was that one of our converts was talking about how important the Gospel was to her, and she said “what’s food next to Christ?” and this really old mama sitting next to her says, “c’est la caca.” (it’s poop) matter of factly and for some reason it was just the funniest thing in the whole world, and even writing about it is making me and Elder Zurcher laugh.  Oh ma vie.  Mama Marie.  She is a hoot and a holler.

We’ve just been meeting more and more awesome people every day.  I love it.  After every first contact with someone we’ll be talking afterward and say, “wow, that guy/girl was just incredible!” and then it happens again, and again, and again!  For example, we met this 76 year old man who was just so full of love for everyone, and he had this great life story that he told us about him traveling and experiencing everything, and he talked about love like I had never heard before.  I imagine that it’s only after having lived for so long that we really start to get a grip on what this “love” thing is, and only then do we start to understand the significance of the gift and sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God.  I hope I will remember to reflect on that when I reach that age, because for now my mind is blown to smithereens (who even says that anymore…?).

Friday was fantastic.  We went to Romeo’s (the guy who bought the guitar) house to help his family clean up some of the debris (which meant throwing all this garbage wood and rocks onto the side of the street, which people came out of nowhere to take for themselves) that they’ve been collecting for the last couple of months as they’ve done work on putting an addition on their house.  They actually live in something you would call a house.  I’ll take some pictures later.  I caught a mouse and let it into the sewer after 4 people tried to whack it with a shovel.  Their crazy cousin came over, and in an intoxicated stupor tried to tell them to stop working on the house.  Romeo’s wife just laughed and told us he’s not right in the head.  So there’s that.  Afterwards though, their parents invited us over for this big lunch of rice, pork, plantains, and ndolé.  Everyone was surprised when they started playing a Jim Reeves record, which would have put us all right back in the West if it wasn’t for the ndolé and plantains.  On our way back home, Romeo stopped us at this restaurant and gave us 3 huge platters of fish, plantains, and salad and a large sack of bread to go.  Just because.  We decided to put together little box dinners and give them to our guards outside.  They were ecstatic.  One of them took it and held it in the air like it was the World Cup. I almost cried.

“Mshasha” means “hello” In Bamoon !

On Saturday, right as we were about to leave, one of the taximen that we contacted knocked on our door!  He had walked from way far away to the church to find us, waited there for an hour until someone told him that we lived in Bali, about an hour’s walk from the church.  We went downstairs and chatted with him for a while, and he was really sincere about wanting to learn more, so we’re excited about that.

We took a taxi out into the boonies to visit an inactive recent convert, and on our way back we saw a squirrel! I’ve never seen one here, but apparently the further you go out of the city the more animals you’ll see that aren’t on sticks for sale.

One of our other recent converts asked us to come with him to visit his sister who’s in the hospital, which means that she was stuffed in a small room with about 5 beds that are crowded together, only separated by a mosquito net that hangs over the beds.  I was surprised to find IV stands in there.  They don’t have bathrooms inside, so you have to walk out of the building to another location to relieve yourself.  It was pretty sad, and I felt helpless as I just watched these poor people sit and suffer while I was perfectly healthy. Maybe TOO healthy.  Like I needed to share my healthiness with them but could do nothing about it.  Anyway, it was nice just to visit his sister and encourage her to stay strong.

We met Mama Marie’s maybe 4’ 8” friend with a humpback and eyes that look different directions, who was quick to cackle and came hobbling over to squeeze us with surprising strength.  She was so funny.  She loves the Bible, but there’s no way she could actually read it anymore.  As she slowly parted away, she kindof hop/fell across this little stream on the path, and we thought she was going to make it when she toppled backwards with her hands and feet sticking up into the air like one of those fainting goats.  At first we were really worried, but she cackled it off and we helped her back up and she walked away talking to herself, and then we thought it was really funny, and then we felt bad for laughing about it, but now we’re doing it again.  It’s a pretty vicious cycle.

Yesterday was nutso.  We left the apartment early to go to branch council, where after an hour we were given 5 words, and then we went to go greet people at the front.  Marius (the all-star, future apostle) came out and told us the power was out, but that we couldn’t get the generator back on with Romeo’s help, but he refused to do it because the last time he did everyone got mad at him for stepping into their calling.  We called the member, Njembelé, in charge of maintaining the building, but he wouldn’t pick up, so Romeo told Marius how to do it, and we got it started, but 2 minutes later the gas ran out.  By this time, Njembelé was at church and was mad at us for touching the generator, but we told him he wasn’t there so we just did the best we could.  Romeo came out and said he was on his way to get gas, but Njembelé said he wasn’t going to touch it.  Romeo left anyway, and while he was gone the President came out and told us to just stay calm so that the Spirit could guide the problem in a healthy manner, and he would go pray about whether we should put gas in it (because putting gas in it and running it might ruin the generator because the shelter they built around it was poor and made it so the smoke that was kicked out would be sucked back in, but not putting gas in it would mean no air conditioning and no lights during the sacrament).  While the President was praying, Romeo came back with gas, Njembelé went to stop him, Romeos wife got involved, and basically it was just a big mess of yelling and people were going to leave church and Maris the super star got everyone to calm down and stay at church, and then he proceeded to give another beautiful talk on trials and forgiveness just off the top of his head, quoting scriptures and prophets and what have you.  He is golden, I’m telling you. Anyway, we called Elder Gailey and had him come to the church so that we could all sit down and just work this problem out.  Two and a half hours later, Romeo and Njembelé were hugging, and there was just another huge weight lifted off our shoulders.  We’re pretty sure this will help the branch to finally get on its feet and start growing faster as the members agree to work in love with one another.

We went to Romeo’s afterwards and got the guitar to bring back to play on P-Day.  It was like Christmas.  After visiting another brother in the hospital, we got back to the apartment and I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.  I replaced the strings with these weird steel-plated strings, broke the high E string again, but replaced it with the old B string and it still sounds ok.   I played it until I was supposed to be in bed, and then reluctantly gave it up for sleep.  My fingers hurt so bad.  I realized that I haven’t seen the lines in the tips of my left fingers until now; they’re usually covered in smooth, dead skin.  Now, however, they’re beet red from playing all morning this morning, and they’ll probably be bleeding tonight.  I could die tonight and be totally happy. 

Life is good, God is great, and I hope you all are doing wonderful.  I miss and love you so much! Stay happy! You deserve to be! No one else is as you as you! Go out and change the world!

Until next time!

Elder Garland

Hola mis amigos !!

Yeah, that’s Spanish.  After we left the cyber café last week we stopped by a bookstore annndd I bought a book so I could study Spanish while my companions study French.  I’ve been reading it every day and I love it.  I’m going to finish it and hopefully get a dictionary, then I’ll go back and get the same book in German.  Maybe I’ll just stick with Spanish…we’ll see I guess!

Last Monday night was awesome, too.  We went out for our typical chawarma and one of the workers there offered us a drink.  He was way nice.  Then we went out to this ice cream parlor owned by some white guys, and that was really good, although kindof expensive.  Basically it was just nice to have ice cream for the first time in a while.

On Tuesday morning, the Gailey’s (the missionary couple) took Elder Zurcher and myself to Yaoundé  (Yah-oon-day) to renew his visa.  It’s the political capital (the president lives there) of the country, where Douala is the economic capital.  Yaoundé’s climate is so much more agreeable.  It’s always in the mid 80s to low 90s.  There are beautiful hills that surround the city, but I didn’t really get any good pictures so you’ll have to Google search it or something.  Maybe just imagine it.  There’s also this famous red mud/dust that covers all the roads, so that was pretty exciting.  All the missionaries there have red-tainted shirts, it’s pretty funny.  We get there and met up with them and the Whitesides, the other missionary couple to have burgers, which were surprisingly pretty good!  It was the first time I’ve had a coke since I left the MTC.  We went on splits with the other missionaries, and I had an awesome time with Elders Schmid and Johnston.  We visited an inactive guy who is really interested in serving a mission now.  He’s been playing professional soccer in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea for the last couple years.  His older brother runs a boutique and fed us beans and beignets - a very typical Cameroonian meal.  One of our investigators from Douala wanted to meet us at the church in Bastos, so we got to see him for a while as he told us about the incredible trials he’s been going through since he left.  It was awesome to see someone stay so strong even though at every turn they seem to be cursed with failure.  He’s one of my favorite people that I’ve met so far, so we’re really pulling and praying for him.

The elders bought us a pizza for dinner because they both had mangez-vous’s, and then we stayed up until midnight talking about video games.  I haven’t stayed up that late (at least not on purpose) since I left, so I felt like garbage the next morning, but I’ve since repented and gotten on with life.  We took care of the visa stuff, got on the bus to come home, during the whole ride of which we listened to Gospel music and people praying and preaching, it was so funny.  Then we got ratéd by one of our investigators, and made cheeseburgers for dinner. Great Tuesday.

Wednesday was crazy.  We invited our taximan to be baptized on our way to our first rendez-vous, he was so interested.  During our second to last rendez-vous is started pouring rain, so we got soaked as we ran home to get umbrellas, only to stay soaked as the rain continued to pour on our way to the last lesson of the night.  Thank goodness for my Chacos; they’ve really been holding out great, and I have a sweet tan line!  On our way home some random stranger waiting for a taxi called out “mormon!” as we were walking by, and turns out he was an inactive member who didn’t know where to find the church.  What a blessing!  It’s so amazing to just watch as the Lord dumps blessing after blessing on us, I can’t even believe it sometimes.

On Friday we made a goal to only speak French or Spanish for the whole week.  Obviously there have been times where English has slipped out, but for the most part we’ve done a great job of only speaking French! It’s given me the opportunity to practice my Spanish too, because Elder Gélinas took some Spanish in high school.  On our way home this old guy that we always say hi to stopped us and told us to wait while he gave us some avocados, just for no reason.  People here are so nice.  I just…what the heck!  Oh and we were fed njammanjamma again.  It was delicious.

On Saturday we got to work with one of our recent converts, Ezéchiel, who we swear will be called to be the first African apostle or something, he’s amazing.  We basically just let him teach the whole time, he’s so solid with the Gospel.  He is also really close friends with this Cameroonian superstar from the 90s called Petit Pays, and he already gave him a Book of Mormon and wants to bring us to his house to teach him.  We’re pretty ok with that.

The other elders in our apartment came back with a whole chicken and fried plantains that this random lady gave them, and then as we were preparing spaghetti a member knocked on our door to give us two big plates of coquille, pistache, and potatoes/manioc, basically all this delicious African food.  So we ate ok.  I got no sleep that night, however, thanks to this marriage going on downstairs behind the apartment.  They were blasting music until 4 in the morning.  It was awful.  Every blessing has its consequences I guess…

Then it rained all day, so we were worried that people weren’t going to come to church, but a good amount of investigators came in so that the whole room was filled.  It was incredible.  As we were welcoming people, these two police motos came screaming down the road, closely followed by three really legit cyclists, then a few seconds later a whole herd of cyclists.  It was so impressive, I wish I had my camera on me.  Turns out there was a race!  Dr. Samuel taught the English class, and he kept saying “latter-day senate,” and then compared reading the scriptures to being addicted to drugs, so that was pretty hilarious.

During my studies that morning, I was reading the scriptures when all these nonsensical thoughts started pouring into my head, and no matter what I did I couldn’t chase them.  I tried pushing through the verses, but I didn’t understand anything I read and it wasn’t working anyway.  I looked over and saw my personal hymnal, opened it to the first hymn I could find, stumbled on #54 (Nearer my God to thee in English), started humming it and reading the lyrics, and it worked like a charm.  My thoughts peaced out like mosquitoes in front of permetherin. I gained such a strong testimony for the power that hymns can have on the Spirit.  I’ve made it a personal goal to continue to understand the words that I sing from now on, and I would encourage you all to do the same!  

SUCH A GOOD WEEK.  I’m really excited for the upcoming weeks.  Lots of things happening: huge zone conference with President Jameson, transfers, baptisms, etc.  I will keep you all in touch with all my shenanigans, don’t worry.

I love you all so much! Read up on la charité in Mosiah 4. What a beautiful chapter. 

Hasta la proxima semana !

Elder Garland

 

Updates from Casey!

Jambayola everyone ?!

I could start the next 250 letters with a new way to say, “hello!” with all the different dialects that exist in Cameroon.  I’ve only heard of maybe 20 tops, and can only say a few words in each, but it’s still really fun.  The locals love when you say something to them in their dialect. 

Anyway, it’s been a great week.  We came back from writing home and took an hour and a half nap, my second one since I got here.  It turned out to be a really bad idea though, because we both laid in bed for at least that long after we needed to go to bed for real after dinner. It was really nice just to have a couple minutes with nothing to do.  I have no idea how I filled my time over the summer when I had no school.  I will suffer if I’m not constantly moving after 2 years of having every minute of every day planned out.

In our first taxi ride out into the sector, we were “randomly” pulled over to check the driver’s papers, but when he saw les blancs in the back seat, he asked us for ours too.  I’ve never even thought to carry papers on me, as we’ve never needed them and I don’t want my backpack to get jacked with my passport and visa inside.  The police officer told us that we were going to have to get out of the taxi and come with him to the immigration office where they would put us in jail until we got everything sorted out.  I wasn’t worried, and was kindof looking forward to a good story, because I knew we had the documents back at the apartment, but when we showed him our badges and explained that we’re just missionaries, he talked with his buddy and decided to let us go with a warning.  Dangit! Next time I’ll just get out of the car and ask him to cuff me. 

After we asked her how she felt about the things we were talking about, we had an investigator tell us during our second rendez-vous, “well I don’t know, I didn’t see anything, I just felt it in my heart that it’s true!” It was so cool to hear someone try to explain how they were feeling the Spirit.  I love explaining to them what they were feeling.  They always get really excited and go, yes, yes! that’s it!

I ate some ground nut soup with cocoyam fufu the other day! That was pretty good, but the fufu is always so heavy and there’s so much, so after a few bites it becomes hard to swallow.  I’ll have to learn how to prepare it so I can make it when I get back. Along with the rest of the food items I’ve been making a list of!

We met a guy from Chad, and he has this crazy accent, but he was very cool.  The next time we saw him, like two days later, he’d already read about 200 pages out of the Book of Mormon, and he was loving it! He came to church, and wants us to teach him and the rest of his family when we can.  Elder Zurcher and I are stoked.

Another mango fell from the tree as we were walking under it, so that’s pretty much all I need to say about that.

We were walking next to this “amusement park” when this young guy probably my age stopped us and asked who we were.  He followed us to the church and talked with us for the next 45 minutes, and explained how he’d never walked down that road before (neither had we!) and how he doesn’t think it was a coincidence that we met.  That kind of stuff happens all the time.  It’s just the most fascinating thing.  How could that not boost your testimony?!  For every bad thing that’s happened while I’ve been here, I’ve seen a hundred miracles.  

I tried a ginger drink.  It burns your throat and doesn’t taste very good.  Not recommended to the strong and healthy.

One of the members in the branch told us about how when she was 15 and 18 she was the women’s 100m champion of Cameroon.  She was offered several scholarships to different schools but her dad wanted her to get a real education, so she stopped running and starting playing handball, where she took second place in the Coupe de l’Afrique as their starting goalie.  What an all-star!

On Saturday we got to go to this little banana farm of hers to help pull out some of the reject trees so she could plant some more.  This is how it works: you plant a tree, and a main sprout comes out among a few smaller ones.  The more “rejetons” you have surrounding the main tree, the smaller and slower the main tree will grow.  But in order to plant another tree, you have to save one or two of the rejetons until it grows it’s own little bulb in the ground.  You should’ve seen the earth that we were tilling.  It is so so rich.  Jeanie would be so jealous! I wish I could send her a little package back of it.  She would love it.

One of the taxis we got into had Spongebob spray painted on the side.  That was cool, but the driver was kindof a sourkraut.

I found a rock in one of my cookies that I bought at a stand on the side of the street.

We had a baptism! Albert, a guy who Elder Zurcher and Elder Lafleur met on the road one day in December.  He had school and work on Sundays, so he could never come to church, and then one day he found out his older brother had a brain tumor and probably wasn’t going to survive, so he had to take care of him until he died.  It was really sad, but he stayed so strong the whole time, and we’ve been teaching him since the beginning of Februrary.  He bored his testimony after his baptism, and I was so proud of him.  It was so great.  It was just an awesome day.  He gave me the honor of confirming him the next day, and that was just merveilleux. 

After church we went to go find this family that’s been going through such a hard time for the last month.  Their neighbor (a middle-aged man) confessed his love for their daughter (who is 16), and it turned violent between him and the father, and it was just a crazy mess as they got kicked out of their house and needed to find a new place to live, etc. etc. etc.  As they were going through all this, but still asking us to come meet with them, the dad got a promotion at his work that doubled his income.  It was such a blessing.  They moved into their own little 2 room house with a bathroom, and we got to help him move in his bench, two chairs and a couple bags of clothes.  That was everything they owned.  It was another very humbling moment.  When we went to visit them last night, they weren’t there, but the family next door was, and we got to chat with Steve, Danny, Ryan, and Russell, a family of Cameroonians who love America.  It was awesome.  Out of nowhere, the neighbor of the family we’d been teaching before appears in front of us and says, “Christine (the mom of the family) is asking for you; follow me!”  She led us to the house they’d been staying at for the past month as they looked for a new home, and we got to sit down and chat with the mom and daughters about everything that had happened.  They were so happy to see us.  “Finally! Finally!” they kept saying.  We’re very excited to have them back on the map. 

That’s about everything excited that happened this week, other than the package that Elder Morin got in the mail: Easter candy! His brother had double zip-lock bagged a bunch of chocolates and other candies and put it one of those evelope packages with bubble wrap on the inside and wrapped the whole thing in scotch tape and it got here safe in sound after only 2 weeks.  So.  If you wanna send anything small like that, that would be an awesome way to do it :)

I love you all, I’m so appreciative for all your support.  I literally would not be here if it wasn’t for everyone reading this.  So, thank you, may God bless you, and may He bring me home safe and sound so I can embrace you!

Until next time!

Elder Garland

Africa 6th post

Hello again!

I apologize for the day wait on this letter, we were late getting home from the BEACH. So. Sorry. I’ll explain later.

Anyway, some cultural notes from this week.  People don’t believe in lines here.  If you’re standing at a window waiting for someone to take your bag, they’ll come up and stand as close to the front as possible, regardless of where you are.  I don’t know if they’re just clueless or that’s how it works here, but it was pretty funny as we stood there and watched 3 people come and get in front of us as we were checking bags in front of the grocery store.

Another thing: if you don’t understand right away, they come off as super frustrated and will shout at you so you understand, but they’re not actually upset.  I was so confused when I thought I offended this guy because I couldn’t understand what town he was from, so when he spelled it out like really sarcastically I felt like I offended him or something, but then he was laughing about it 5 seconds later.  I didn’t know whether to laugh with him or just look really confused or what.  My reaction was probably somewhere in between the two. 

I started learning another two dialects: Ewondo and Féfé, both of which are completely different.  It’s been so fun just asking people about their native tongues.  They are really excited to share with you how to say basic things like, “hello,” “how are you?” etc.  I love it.  It makes a great conversation topic in the taxis. 

We learned that one of our investigators used to sing and write music with this famous singer here called Petit Pays (look him up…?), and he knows Eto’o the famous soccer player for Cameroon.  I had a dream that we taught him the Law of Chastity, which went really well in my dream actually.  He said he would try to start going out with less women.  I don’t even know what he looks like.

I went on splits with Elder Morin, and he’s awesome.  We just talked the whole day about France and what it’s like to be a professor, and I felt bad because he never wanted to talk about himself.  He asked me like a zillion questions, and I was happy to respond.  He’s a great missionary, too, and it was super easy to teach side by side with him.  I feel so blessed to have such a great apartment of guys.

Elder Andriamamonjy made avocado juice for us the other night – it was heavenly.  All you do is blend 2 avocados with a couple spoonfulls of sugar and fill half the blender with water.  And it’s so good! Try it!

Elder Zurcher and I got to play with this little monkey at the house where we teach the Tignyemb family.  It was so funny because it hated us and loved anyone else who came near it.  Basically we think it’s because we’re white.  Who knew animals could be racist? It eventually took some peanuts from us, but whenever we got close it would slap at our hands and scream.  But it was still really cool to be up front and personal with a monkey! Probably won’t ever get that experience again.

We have this investigator who really wants to be baptized, but her husband was against her meeting with us.  We told her that if she wanted to be baptized she needed permission with her husband, and she got really upset and cried and set it wasn’t fair because it was a personal choice, etc. etc. etc., but that she would do it our way anyway and ask him.  We told her we would fast and pray so that he would say yes.  Her niece/neighbor, a member named Kédi, said he would never yes until his dying day.  Well, we prayed that night and got up the next morning to a text from Kédi that said she had had a dream that Marcelle (the woman who wants to be baptized) wanted to go on vacation with her friends but didn’t have the money for transport.  She knew one of her friends had money, but she was nervous to ask, but when she asked eventually the friend gave her the money.  She thought it was an answer that Marcelle’s husband would say yes, and turns out it was!  She asked that same night we talked and he said she could do whatever we wanted.  It was a huge blessing.  We were so excited that we fasted that day anyway just in thanks.  Let’s just say the pizza we made that night was heavenly. 

I made a tie! We found this really dirty, nasty dress smashed into the street, but the design on it was pretty sweet.  I stuffed it in my backpack in hopes of making a tie with it later.  I took an old tie of my companion’s and used the pad that was inside to fold the fabric around, and then I sewed it together.  It actually ended up looking pretty dang sweet!  Plus it was orange, sooo that’s the best part, other than the fact that I made it myself.  New hobby for when I go home…?

We saw this enormous tree that had fallen across the road on a car parked on the side of the street.  It was a disaster, and blocked the left side of the road, so naturally all the cars just started forcing themselves onto the opposite side into oncoming traffic.  People are pretty much used to that here anyway, so I guess it was normal. 

Sunday was fantastic.  We had 14 investigators at church, and we were actually missing quite a few others who were supposed to come.  It was formidable.  I got to bless the sacrament in French for the first time, and that was really cool too.  There were two Americans there from the Navy and Army just there on business with their respective branches, and it was great to speak real English with someone other than my companion, but I admit I felt like a social wall in between us.  I had no idea how to act around normal white people.  I feel much more comfortable slapping hands and throwing around African slang with the natives here than I do with my own kin.  What the heck.  We also had an investigator walk 2 hours to get to church, so that was awesome.  One of those guys that was just destined to meet the missionaries.  We love him already. 

Ok the most exciting part of our week was definitely going to the beach.  We got up at 6 to catch the bus by 7.  I should’ve known that African standard time even applies to public transportation.  That is to say, we got there by 6:45, the departure time had changed to 7:30, and then it didn’t leave till 8.  So we got to the beach town, Kribi, around 11.  We drove out a couple miles to the Chutes de Lobé, these falls that pour into a small bay.  It was beautiful.  Not very tall, but the view from across the bay was breathtaking.  I couldn’t take a picture that would justify what I could see with my eyes, as it is with a lot of things here.  Anyway, I took a ton of pictures anyway as we hiked up along the tumbling waters, and I’ll throw in a few for your pleasure.  We ate lunch at the base of the falls, and as the tide started to climb up the beach, we took out the soccer ball, frisbee, and Nerf football and played for the next hour or so on the beach.  I went for a run to see what was on the other side of the bay, and as I was running I just had the craziest realization that I AM IN AFRICA, RUNNING ON THE BEACH, WHAT THE.  I just stopped and started laughing because the idea seemed so ridiculous and surreal.  I could just see the map of the world, and could place myself right on the cost of Central Africa and it was just so funny to me.  I love it here.  What am I going to do when I have to talk with white people again…?

Our chauffers didn’t show up to pick us up for like an hour and a half after we were supposed to leave the beach, so by the time we got back to the bus there were people who had been waiting for over an hour to leave for home.  While we were waiting back on the beach, however, I got to play a little guitar! It was waaayyyy out of tune, the strings were rusted over 3 times, and it was tuned down about 9 steps, but it still felt so good just to hold in my hands.  The guy who it belonged to was really cool too.  A Rastafarian who believed in One Love, of course.  He loved to improvise singing and was actually wicked good at it.  It wasn’t long before we had to leave, unfortunately, but I was happy.  We crammed into an already packed bus, and I squeezed in the back with a middle-aged French man.  Here’s something to say about French culture: I talked with this man for over 3 hours as we drove home about just about everything.  Travel, food, religion, family, you name it.  When I got off and we shook hands, I still didn’t know his name.  I knew about his girlfriend, his work, what his life philosophy was, what his favorite meal was, where he’d been in the world, and didn’t know his name.  Either way, he was so cool. He looked exactly like my friend Baptiste, and acted the same too.  It was kindof trippy.  Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to our apartment sun weathered, exhausted but totally content. 

I love you all! Don’t hesitate to write me, even if I don’t get back to you.  I have less and less time to respond, but I can always read.  Thanks for everything you do.  Stay safe! Laugh, love, and pray often!

Elder Garland

5th post

Cher tout le monde,
It’s been an interesting week, like all of them before! I have all
these notes taken from Tuesday, and it turns out they’re all jokes
that I was writing down throughout the day.  Elder Morin, who replaced
Elder Lafleur, made these gangster jokes in the MTC that go something
like this: What did the gangster say when he saw everyone saluting the
flag? Disrespect! As in, this is respect. If you didn’t get it.
Anyway, I was coming up with these lame but amusing jokes while we
were in taxis and stuff (obviously I wasn’t thinking of them during
lessons………..), and I started changing it up a little.  What did the
Alaskan gangster say when he came to Africa? Snowhite! Like, there’s
no white…anyway. Go back a few weeks and you’ll read about how your
sense of humor changes on your mission.  We die here coming up with
these jokes.
On Wednesday we had a zone conference with the mission president,
President Jameson, and his wife.  All the elders from Bonabéri came
over to the couple missionaries’ (the Gaeley’s) house to meet us,
where we had this incredible meeting about what’s going on in the
mission, what’s to come, etc.  We talked about Gabon opening up after
the new couple gets here in May, and how only 4 missionaries will be
sent there, for the first time! I think it’d be so awesome to get sent
there, and I think it may happen before the end of my mission, but I
doubt I’ll be the first.  There’s others who’ve been here much longer
who will most likely be sent ahead of me.  I’m way excited for them,
whoever they are! Then President was talking about the mission being
split in the future!  We’ll be split down the Congo River, and will
turn into the Brazaaville and Kinshasa.  Since the North American
missionaries can’t go into the DRC anyway, it will make things much
easier for the presidents of the missions to manage everyone.  Since
President is being released in July, we’ll have a new mission
president, President Cook.  If the mission gets split after he gets
here, I’ll have a third president sometime down the road.  Things are
going to get super interesting here really soon.
President Jameson is an amazing person.  I had such a blast meeting
with him and talking about the work here and everything.  He’s very
inspiring, and it’s clear that he’s a man of God.  I could probably
talk with him all day.  And he’s hilarious, which makes him even more
incredible.  Anyway, we just had a great time together.  I only get to
meet with him two more times before he’s released, which is
unfortunate, but I’ll cherish each meeting.
That same day, I came down with some weird African cold.  I woke up,
went running, and was sneezing the whole time.  We came back, I kept
sneezing, my nose started running like a broken sprinkler (which
happened today actually), and my sinuses started going crazy. It
lasted all day.  I must’ve sneezed…200 times.  Maybe.
I realized that the Douala language sounds very similar to what the
Ewoks sound like in Star Wars.  For example, “have a good evening!” in
Douala is “ebyam yabwam!” and if you say that with an Ewok accent
(whatever that is) it sounds so funny.
I also learned that people here wear cologne not to attract the
opposite sex but to smell good for themselves.  It’s kindof funny.
Some of our investigators have started doing missionary work on their
own, and they ask us for more brochures and Books of Mormon to give
away.  It’s awesome.  They’re so excited about the Gospel, and they’ve
started sharing it with all their neighbors.  The only unfortunate
thing about it is that we just straight don’t have the time to teach
as many people as are interested.  Especially now. We have a chunk of
baptisms coming up, and we  really need to focus on those who are
preparing themselves for that commitment.
On Friday we went to teach an anglophone and his friend who are living
at a member’s house.  His wife fed us fufu, but this time it was made
with corn, so it was much more solid.  And they gave us a fork, which
made it much easier to eat.  It was called “fufu jammajamma,” and it
came with some sort of vegetable side.  But it was way good! The
member is a doctor with his own practice, and on the way back down to
catch a taxi home he asked us to give blessings to some of his
patients.  We went and met this older woman and her daughter, who were
both sick with something that I’ve never seen before.  The daughter’s
mouth was either really dry or white from the sickness, and the
maman’s right side of her body had started becoming paralyzed.  At
their request, we gave them a blessing, and when I opened my mouth to
start speaking English, French came out and it didn’t stop.  So I just
went with it and like always the Spirit guided my words without really
any thoughts on my part.  It’s such an incredible experience, giving a
blessing.  After the maman we were going to leave, but there was a
woman there who was a friend of the daughter, and she asked us on our
way out if we would give her a blessing of comfort.  So Elder Zurcher
gives me this big ol’ smile which apparently meant that I was supposed
to do it.  Again, just an amazing feeling came over me and I just
spoke whatever came through me by the Spirit.  The woman, after we
were done, just kept looking down and started shaking her head and
said, in French, “it’s like there’s something…” and brought her hands
up to her head, and she looked back up and thanked us a ton, and then
put her head back down and put her hands over her eyes as we were
walking out.  I wanted to stay and talk to her about what she was
feeling, but we really had to go.  I’m sure she’ll have her
opportunity to hear the Gospel soon, at least, I hope so!
Cameroonians always say “nous sommes (or ‘on est’) ensemble,” which
means, “we are together,” which I never heard in France, but I love
saying it, and love hearing it.
Oh man.  When I was sick, one of our investigators, Soeur Marlyse (the
one who got me the sanja), gave me a bottle with real honey in it.  It
was interesting tasting to say the least, but I mixed it with hot
water and it made my throat feel better.  But our member friend
Jeaques came over to help us teach one day, and he opened it to smell
it, and apparently didn’t close it all the way, because when we came
back from teaching there was about 50,000 ants marching from my desk,
down the leg, across the floor, and across the whole apartment to this
hole in the wall where they must live.  It was incredible.  I took a
video of them before we ended their crazy spree with permetherin.  The
pile they created after we swept them up was impressive.  It was
probably a good cup of dead, dry ants.  They harmless, but annoying.
Church was awesome this week.  We have an awesome member who is a
return missionary who just threw down on everyone about having phones
in church.  But he was so loving about it, I don’t even know how to
explain.  It was just an awesome talk, I was taking notes.
If there’s anything I’ve learned here, it’s that if you want something
to start at 6:00 here, you tell everyone to be there at 4:30.  It
takes so long for things to get started.  No one is ever on time, and
I’ve never seen anyone come early to anything.  It’s just the culture
here, so please be patient with me when I come back.  It’s very
possible that that rubs off on me…
There’s just so much happening here.  I believe it’s already been a
week, but I will always be amazed at how fast it’s going by.  I can’t
wait to write next week, I miss you all and think and pray about you
all the time.  Please keep in touch!
Boonya bwabwam (have a good day), je vous aime tellement (I love you
all so much) !
Elder Garland

4th post Africa

Abusine everyone ! (that’s Douala for good morning, though it may or may not be morning back home. I’ve learned it in like 3 other local dialects as well!  Because of the different tribes that existed before the French colonized the area, there’s a ton of “pateois” as they call it.  Everyone grows up and learns at least the tribal pateois of both their parents, French, and English.  It’s crazy!)

Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that it’s already P-Day again, although everytime it comes I’m confused as to where the week went.  The beginning of the week was pretty slow, actually, but then it picked up pretty quick when our water cut out again.  Which…doesn’t exactly make sense.  You’d think it would go by slower!  I think it’s just because we’ve been working super hard.  Elder Zurcher said he’s never had such good numbers (of people taught in a week), and he’s been out here for a year!  I’m excited to be a part of the miracle that’s happening out here.  It’s just fantastic, even though some times people blow us off or there’s a miscommunication or whatever.  We just keep our heads up and look for someone else who’s ready to hear the Gospel!

Speaking of miscommunication.  The phone service here is pretty awful.  Half of the time you try to call someone, either the network is busy or it won’t even ring.  It just says, “the person you are trying to reach is unavailable,” which is 90% the fault of the carrier, which is either a Cameroonian company called MTN or Orange, a French phone company. For whatever reason, they just have bad service out here. 

Anyway, I’ve picked up on some more cultural stuff and eaten some more traditional dishes that I’m sure you’ll love to hear about!  One thing I’ve noticed is that nearly every car is either a Toyota or a Mercedez-Benz.  I know I mentioned something about being surprised to find so many nice cars here, but I don’t think I realized that they were either one or the other.  There’s a handful of French brands (Peugeot, Renaut, and Citroen, though most are Peugeot), but literally out of 41 cars, 20 are Toyota, 17 are Mercedez-Benz, and the 4 that are left fall under other.  Who knows why.  I’ll do some research during the week and get back to you (maybe).

I ate “fufu” for the first time, which people raved about before I even got here.  Apparently I was the last one in the MTC to know that fufu was a big deal in Central Africa.  Soeur Marlyse made it for us, and it was…interesting!  It’s manioc that’s been cooked into a sort of booger ball that you pull chunks out of with your fingers, dip in a sauce (for us we had gumbo sauce, which was fish bits and something green, you’ll see a picture) that’s served on the same plate, and stick it all in your mouth.  She gave Elder Zurcher and I two booger balls a piece, each one of which could easily have been the size of a baseball.  It was so hard to even finish eating the first one, and I regretted to tell her that I just couldn’t force the second one down.  It was ok, but definitely not the best thing I’ve eaten here.  My companion said they make it super good in the Congo, where he spent 6 months of his mission already. 

I’ve also eaten this bongo tchopi sauce (which was black, and I have no idea what it was made of.  When we asked, Soeur Marlyse showed us what looked like a wooden spoon, and something else that I just had no idea what it was) with 4 different types of manioc/potato/root things that were super delicious.  Don’t forget the little fish that was thrown in the middle! 

We met this guy whose brother had joined the Church and told him about it, and he had a great feeling about it, especially when he started reading the Book of Mormon. Soon after though, he moved to Douala to start training to be a navigator for trade ships and left his book at home, and said he thirsted to find the church but had no idea where it was.  Then one day, he was out just looking for a car to buy for when he got back from training, and he looked across the street and saw our sign! He was so excited, came to church on Sunday, asked us to teach him, and wants to get baptized.  We went to teach him and ended up teaching him and like 5 other people.  It was so cool.  They gave us these sweet African hugs, which are like French bisous on the cheeks, but you hug from one side to the next.  It was awesome.

The mangos are falling off the trees here.  Have I already explained that?  And the trees are huge! I swear it’s the biggest fruit tree that exists.  We walk around and just stare at the trees in hopes that one will fall down.  It’s happened twice already!  One time we were jogging in the morning and one fell right in between both of us.  It would have hurt so bad if it had hit us because they fall from such a high distance. 

I’ve been having some pretty crazy dreams, like every night.  Sometimes about zombies, sometimes about French people, sometimes about Africans.  Normal “me” dreams.  That’s about it on that subject haha. You can read my journal if you want details.

For some reason, whenever we have a huge thunderstorm it always happens at like 3 in the morning.  The thunder wakes me up first, then I kindof sit up and think of how nice the wet breeze is that’s coming through the window, and then I realize it’s raining and shoot up to shut the windows so we don’t get all dirty. Then the thunder strikes again and shakes my bones and the whole apartment and scares the poop out of me.  Then I fall back asleep, wake up in the morning and it’s like nothing ever happened! That’s happened several times now.  How bizarre, how bizarre.

One time we went to teach this guy whose brother just died, and his little brother was sitting on the “porch” playing this game where he had a paper soccer goal folded up with the back in tact, a bent bottle cap in the middle standing up, and then he used a flat bottle cap to flick a pebble at the goal.  I couldn’t imagine amusing myself like that for so long.  They just use what they have to try to have fun, and it works for them.  Bottle caps litter the paths between quartiers, which are like neighborhoods if you could even call it that.  I would say we go door to door if there were even doors in some parts of the city.  Lots of people just have a curtain that hangs down from where the door is supposed to be.  I’ve learned to love a lot of things I didn’t really realize had any benefit back home.

Soeur Marlyse says I have pretty feet.  African feet, if you will.  No arc, just flat.  That’s the way they like them haha.  I have a sweet tan line from my Chacos, but also like a million mosquito bites.

One last thing I’ve noticed – false advertisement.  It’s kindof funny, but also makes you apprehensive about buying anything outside of a reputable store like Casino or something French based.  Even then we have to sift our flour for maggots; I found a few the other day.  It was a pleasant experience.  I guess the longer you’re here though, the less you care about what you eat.  Anyway, people make fake stuff all the time, like super cheap plastic Beats headphones, and soccer jerseys with names and numbers just taped on the back, or patches sewed into the sleeves.  One of our investigators showed us this skin product he’s going to put in the market, but on the label he put “made in South Africa” so he could get a leg up in competition.  We were like, yeah that’s not very honest, but he insists that everyone does stuff like that, so it’s ok.  He’s just playing it smart! Haha, people here are nutso, but we love them.

The longer I’m here, the more I love the people, despite their craziness sometimes.  People peeing in the middle of the road, no traffic rules, etc.  It’s great.  I don’t really wanna be transferred to a new city.  The people we teach have gotten kindof attached to us, and vice versa.  I guess that’s just the life of a missionary though, and it’s not like I plan on just cutting ties with all of them.  I’ll be back some day, and I’ll try to keep in touch as much as I can.

We have a baptism this weekend, and many more planned for the end of the month.  What a wonderful thing it is to bring others unto Christ.  I only have 22 months left as of next week.  What the hecky - Elder Zurcher.

Have I talked about him much? We get along like two peas in a pod.  He’s just the best.  He was exactly what I was hoping I wouldn’t have for a companion – 19 year old Utah born and raised Mormon who never left mom and dad’s to cook or clean for himself, and yet he’s everything I could have hoped for in a companion – dilligent, loving, funny, charitable, I don’t know.  He’s just the best.  I forget the age difference sometimes.  I forget the Utah thing sometimes.  He’s twice the missionary I am, if not more, and I wouldn’t want to have been trained by anyone else. 

Gotta run away, we’re going out to eat as a district tonight. 

Love you more than the polluted stars I rarely see and miss you more than grass I never see,

Dimala !

Elder Garland

P.S.

Here's my mailing address if you ever wanna try sending me a letter...

Elder Casey James Garland

B.P 3171

Douala, Cameroon

Africa

Africa 3rd post :)

Africa 3rd post

Hi Mom, ( everyone!)

Things have quickly fallen into a rhythm here.  I teach 3-4 lessons a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, but we’re always out and about.  Elder Lafleur left our trio on Friday, so Elder Zurcher and I have finally started our companionship for real ! It’s kindof funny that I’ve just started my « first » transfer after already being here for over 2 weeks.  That alone is crazy to think about.  On Wednesday I will be starting my 8th week in the mission, including the MTC. What the heck.  Time isn’t flying by, it’s at warp speed, and I’m somehow keeping up.  I’m hardly that tired when I wake up at 6 :30, and when I go to bed at 10 :30 I always crash into bed.  Anyway, all that to say that I know that 2 years is a long time, but before I know I’ll be on the plane home. 

We went without water in our apartment for 5 days.  We had to go down to the shop next door to by a bunch of bottled water just to stay alive.  Otherwise, we were sweaty, sticky, smelly, and just gross for the whole time because there wasn’t even water to take a bucket shower and we weren’t going to waste what we had to drink.   It was tempting though ! Finally, we were sitting down at breakfast, just totally in the slumps, because the power had been shutting off too, when we heard the water start to spurt out the faucet in our bathroom (which we left on so that we would know when it came back on) and everyone shot out of their chairs and started hollering.  It was so funny.  We did white kid dances for a while in celebration. We filled up all our bottles and jugs and cans and anything that would hold water for the next time it shut off.  Takiing a shower was heaven.  I’ve never appreciated running water so much.

On Friday I had my first African rainfall ! At first it was kinda light, and all at once it just started pouring down, torrential sheets of huge raindrops.  We stood out on the balcony and put our arms over the edge just to get a taste.  Let’s just say it was delicious.  It ended a lot sooner than I had hoped, and then when we went into our study room, the rain had battered the open window and shot dirt all over the place, so everything in there got filthy.  Totally worth it though.

There’s this funny thing that Cameroonians do when they’re on the phone, which is just hanging up as soon as they’re done talking to you.  They don’t say bye, *click* ! So you’ll say something like, ok we’ll see you tomorrow ! And they’ll just hang up.  At first it seems kindof rude, and then you just laugh because you’ve been in the sun for too long and your brain has lowered the bar for anything funny.  Anyway, if I do that when I get back, that’s why.

I’ve been eating a lot of tasty snacks like pig feet, chicken bones, goat skin, and fish eyes.  I’m surprised I haven’t had the opportunity to eat insects yet.  I’m sure it will come.  Everything has been a lot more scrumptious than I thought it would be, so I’m thankful for that.  I just smile, grab a huge forkful, and shove it in my mouth, and I’m usually pleasantly surprised.  I’ll have to feed you all a typical Cameroonian dinner when I get back ! All we really need are the leftovers from what they sell in the store, haha.

Another funny thing that I’ve noticed lately is all the naked hobos walking around.  One day we saw 3 different guys, just walking around butt-naked.  Usually their hair is all matted and unkempt, but one time I saw a guy who was bald.  I feel so bad, but it’s just so ridiculous that you kindof laugh it off and try to erase the scar that’s been etched into your brain forever.   I’m just trying to imagine these people in the States.  The « law » here is very much not present.  I’ve seen the police maybe 3 times the whole time I’ve been here, and only once in an SUV.  Like I’ve said before, traffic laws are limited to (and not always followed) driving on the right side of the street and stopped at stop lights.  That’s it.  Anything goes, especially in round abouts.  There’s no such thing as « right of way. »  Please make me drive with someone who has a brake on their side too when I get back.  I might need some adjusting to civilized driving conduct.

I got to try my hand at translating for the first time on Sunday for our senior couple sister, Sister Gailey.  She’s so nice.  Elder Zurcher and I went to Relief Society to translate for her.  It was really hard, actually.  Some people talk a lot fast than others, and some people use a lot different vocabulary than others.  And sometimes you just have no idea how to translate something.  As soon as you open your mouth to translate something, whatever they’re currently saying gets lost as you’re talking.  I’m amazed at professional translators, but I would love to train my ears to listen as I’m talking.  Future career possibility… ?

I went with Elder Zurcher to buy a sanja, which you’ll see in the pictures I’m attaching.  Sorry I don’t send very many by the way, they’re just really big and take a long time to send.  I’ll try to send more though ! It’s beautiful, and I feel like a boss when I’m wearing it.  They usually wear them when they have a special occasion like a baptism, a wedding, funeral, or something like that.  The men tie it off on the right side, the women on the left.  There’s usually a shirt and hat they wear too, but I haven’t gotten one yet.  I’m sure I’ll come back in a complete bobo by the time I’m done with the Lord’s work here. 

I’ve been learning some more Douala, and now a bit of Bassa.  It’s so fun.  I wish I had a book to study from, but I just take notes as they teach and go from that.  I did have a Bible in Douala, but I just copied down the Lord’s prayer and I’m currently working on that.  Apparently I pronounce it very well !  You’ll hear it when I get back ;)

Oh snap, I almost forgot about soccer.  We finally got to play on Saturday, and it was just flat insane.  It was on a damp sand « field » with no lines, and the goals were about a foot higher than they were supposed to be.  But we still had a nice ball to kick around, and the field wasn’t even that bad to play on.  It was basically like turf without the little black things that stick to your socks and follow you back home and get into everything you ever owned.  Sand can be washed out.  Anyway, my team of about 22 elected me captain for some reason and put me in the center as number 10 usually plays, and gave me a captain band to wear on my arm.  I tried telling them I didn’t deserve it, but they insisted.  On one of the first plays, I missed a header by like a foot off the right post.  I stole the ball once and was one on one with the goalie, but when I stole the ball it was rolling too fast for me to get to it before the goalie, so we collied on the ball and I went flying face first and slid in the sand for a good while.  By this time people had been lining the field to watch, and everyone started cheering, it was so fun.  That’s about all I did the hour that I played.  The missionary who transfered in and took Elder Lavering’s spot said that the guys on the sideline were saying « le blanc joue ! » which means, the white kid can play !  I was very proud haha.  My companion is a baller too.  I was happy to play with him, and everyone was talking about how they were surprised that white people could play soccer.  Which is funny, because the way our team played was to kick the ball as far as you can every time you get it.  There was no middle play.  And everyone yells at each other.  In the second half, a fight broke out and all the voices dropped about two octaves and everyone was yelling and holding people back and it was just nutso, in the words of my companion.  All in all, I had a great time and I can wait to play again in two weeks.  We had this big fish barbecue afterwards, and then I got to go to a baptism for the other branch.  It was a very special experience.  I love it.  I can’t wait to have my own.  You’ll be sure to hear all about it !

We wanted to visit a chocolate factory here, but you have to type up a request to visit with your name, phone number, e mail address, objective and purpose for visiting, and all this stuff before they will let you come in.  It’s kindof silly.  Elder Zurcher said they had to do that in Congo to be able to play on a grass field, but when they wrote it out on paper they wouldn’t even accept it.  How ridiculous is that ?!  Anyway, we’re still gonna try.

That’s about all I have for you, and I’m sorry that I left all my notes at home.  I’ll try to bring it next time so I can catch you up again !

I love and pray for you all.  Please keep me in your prayers, I need them every day.  You’ll hear from me next week !

Elder Garland