May 20

Irania everyone ! (Banso)

Today marks the beginning of my third transfer in Douala.  It is incredible how fast time is passing, but I’m just taking it in stride and trying to do the best I can while I can!  Not to mention I’m having the time of my life, so that’s probably what’s making it go by so dang fast.

Anyway, we were buying veggies at this street stand when we saw this this prickly pear, which they call “corassole,” if you wanna look it up.  I asked what it was called, and the vendor just picked one up and handed it to me and said, “if you like it maybe you’ll come back to buy one!” He was so nice.  I sent a picture of it too, but basically it’s this big pear like thing with little spikes on it.  It has no pit, but rather has little seeds that are surrounded by the fruit which tastes like starbursts.  So you should probably be jealous.

During one of our lessons, our investigator told us about this story of how his dead grandma visited him in a dream, but she looked a lot younger, had all her teeth, and her skin was really nice.  We hadn’t even talked about the spirit world yet, but he basically just explained what it would be like!  He was so excited when we explained afterwards where she was.  Then he told us another story about how when he was younger he worked on a cocoa farm for this man who, at the end, refused to pay him.  The farm actually belonged to our investigator’s dead grandpa, so he claimed to own a quarter of the field through birth right through his mom, who had 3 siblings.  Since normally the women didn’t inherit anything, the man who was making him work got really mad and threatened him, but our investigator wasn’t afraid.  Well one night his uncle knocked on his door at like 4 in the morning and had him come out to this big meeting of all the elders of the surrounding villages, where he sat down in the middle of them and they basically debated, and I quote, “eating” him.  He said that they didn’t mean eating him physically, but then asked us what DID they mean?!  Were these men also children of God?  It was such a random, extreme anecdote and we had no idea what to say.  So we did our best to explain how yes, God loves even them.  He was satisfied I think.

We went to visit an old friend of ours, this DJ turned hair stylist (which means you own a shack and a razor and people pay you 60 cents to shave their head down a little), who has been losing weight.  He told us that he took out a pair of jeans that he’s owned for the last THIRTY years and finally fits into them.  I wasn’t amazed by how much weight he’s lost as much as I couldn’t believe he’s owned a pair of jeans for 30 years.  It reminded me of how we see designer clothes allll over the place here : Gucci, Louis Vuillton, Coach, Chanel, Lucky, etc., but people wear that kind of stuff to work the fields in.  I asked a friend about it, and he said it’s not so much about what you’re wearing but THAT you’re wearing something.  I loved that.

I got to go on splits with my friend Elder Gélinas, the Québecois in our apartment.  Unfortunately, we didn’t really get to talk a lot because a member was our teaching with us, but it was still an awesome experience.  He’s a great missionary, and teaches super well.  It was a lot different being with a francophone, because you learn so much more about how you can better phrase certain parts of your teachings.  I learned a ton. While we were walking around, this man scooted across the street with flip flops on his hands, his legs and feet tucked under him in a sort of ball.  It’s one of those things that if you saw it back home you would be mortified, but is one of those daily phenomenons here.  You feel so bad for these sorts of people and can do nothing for them.  You kindof wonder how they grew up, the trials and persecutions they went through, and how (if at all) they keep their faith. 

We came to the home of a member to find their great grandma just sitting around the house, blind and alone, not really doing anything.  She was so content to hear us say “abusine maman !” and give us this big, toothless smile, eye open (the other sunk in) but not seeing.  In Cameroon, and in much of Africa, you don’t send your grandparents to retirement homes.  They don’t even have them to be sent to.  You just take care of them at your own home until they die.  I think the elderly know this though, because they’ve already lived it, so they don’t expect to be fed and babied while they’re home.  They’re just…there, in the corner, talking to themselves or sleeping or chewing on some leaves or something.  It’s both honorable and sad, but I respect them a lot for what they do.  I wonder what my parents would say if I proposed that idea to them.  I don’t wanna back myself into a corner though, sooo maybe I’ll just not say anything…

My beloved companion got a package from home and shared with us his chocolate covered almonds and sour gummy worms.  In other words, it was manna from heaven.  Candy is priceless.  Let’s just say I would rather have a pound of Butterfinger than a pound of diamonds.

I got denied a brochure for the first time on Friday night, getting out of the taxi.  After talking with our driver for like 20 minutes, he politely explained that he was happy just to talk and share ideas, but no thanks.  I was devastated.  How do you State-side Elders and Sisters do it?!  I kept the brochure in my hand while my companion helped me stay on my feet as we walked through the gate to our apartment (I may have been a little dramatic about it), but as we were walking in, a friend of one of the other tenants was walking out, so I just contacted him right there and he left with the brochure.  Elder Zurcher and I shared a jumping high five as we were walking up the stairs.  No one saw, so that’s probably for the best.

We had an incredible Saturday.  The Bonabéri elders had a baptism to which they invited us.  They had cut the water in that part of town, so they only had about shin-high water in the baptismal font.  It was just enough for the first sister to sit down and have the elder baptizing immerse her by laying her on her back.  The fun began when, as they were getting out, thick, black clouds started racing across the sky and immediately started dumping pouring rain, a fierce wind pushing it almost horizontal to the ground.  The second baptism, a little boy of maybe 10, was anxious to be baptized, so they went back into the font as the storm raged on.  It was the most memorable baptism of my life.  You couldn’t even hear the prayer.  It probably would’ve been enough to just say the prayer and leave the font, as both the child and the elder baptizing him were already completely soaked before going under the water.  I couldn’t help but record the scene.  It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, but the Spirit was still so strong.  After a while the rain died down and we were served beignets, roasted caramel peanuts, and this fried triangle snacks filled with meat and veggies called “pili pili.”  It was delicious, but didn’t exactly match the pineapple soda I was given as well.   

Afterwards, we went to the Akwa branch to host an activity celebrating the restoration of the Priesthood.  Elder Zurcher and I sat outside and welcomed people as they came in and played games with members from both branches.  We taught a guard who usually sits outside next door, but saw us and wanted to come chat.  He had tons of questions, and they all had to do with the Plan of Salvation, so we had an awesome lesson with him.  Everyone went upstairs where we projected “Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration.”  There were probably 50 or so people there, and if anyone left without having felt the Spirit I would have to ask what they were doing for the whole hour the movie was playing.  I watched it in English back in the MTC, but the Spirit in that room was so, so strong.  I left with a more firm testimony on the divine calling of Joseph Smith, and I would encourage anyone who doubts the revelations he received to watch that film! It’s seriously so powerful. 

On Sunday we welcomed several new investigators at church, and it was just a great Sabbath day.  Elder Zurcher and I taught a lesson on missionary work (easy but awesome) to the Anglophones who don’t actually speak American English, but it was so really good.  One of the investigators is the man who grew up in Cameroon but moved to New York, and then eventually Wisconsin and Chicago.  He knows everything I’ve ever known about my hometown, it was so cool to chat with him! And his English is more American than anything I’ve heard, so that was easy on the ears.  He said, “I’m a billion dollar person because I’m able,” which I found profound.  He walked a couple miles to come to church, because he said if he didn’t have taxi money he would be lying—he had his legs, which lots of people are sitting around hospitals begging for.  He’s fantastic.

Anyway, another transfer down.  Can’t believe it.  This one is over at the end of June, and then I will have already done a quarter of my mission!  It’s nuts.  I love it.  I love you.  I wish I knew everything about everyone of you and all your worries and burdens and sufferings and pains and problems so I could tell you that no matter what it was, Jesus Christ suffered below all of that and that your problems can be resolved through the Atonement.  If you don’t believe me, try applying it in your life and see if I’m just saying nonsense ;) 

Till next week!

Abeni !

Elder Garland

May 13

Omobusé everyone! (Abo dialect)

Wookelache ?! How are you?! This week was pretty fantastic.  Now that training is over (12 weeks of reviewing basically everything you learn in the MTC step by step and applying it into your missionary work), Elder Zurcher and I have had extra time to see people, which means we’re even more tired when we get home. 

On Tuesday we walked all the way from one side of town to the other at night, which was probably a really dumb idea, because we ended up going through poorly lit streets right by a mosque and through a market stuffed with people.  We were the only white people there, but I guess that’s normal.  I just mean that that made us an even bigger target at night.  Then, right when we get to the entrance of the neighborhood where we were going to teach, all the power shut off.  We kindof just looked at each other, shrugged, and stepped into the black abyss of a dirt road to go visit one of our investigators.  God must have been watching our backs the whole time, because I’m here today writing to you!  It was great lesson, and the good news is that while we were going through the market we found this cart loaded with huge red/green mangos from the north.  I’ve been dying to try one, but they’re like 500 francs (about a dollar) and you can get 6 smaller ones for that price anywhere else.  But my companion finally gave in and we bought one, and it was basically the most delicious thing that has ever entered my mouth, and there was so much of it.  So.  That was awesome.

As we were waiting for a taxi, a motorcycle guy pulled up and stopped right in front of me, and I just say, “no thanks,” but he kept staring at me.  I looked down and saw that it was a guy we always say hi to that works at the prison, and he just started laughing.  It was really funny (mostly for him).

On Wednesday night we were with some members when their power went out too, and I just kept talking and it was going great until I asked the Relief Society President a question and she took a little too long to respond.  We sat there for probably 15-20 seconds before her husband finally knocked her on the side and woke her up.  So that was pretty embarrassing.  Her grandson made up for it by farting while my companion was talking just a little later.  Where am I again…?

We got to go help a sister put doors on her house on Thursday, and walls on her bedroom.  She had been sleeping for months without walls!  She said, “Every night I just go to sleep praying that God will allow me to wake up the next day, and he always answers my prayers.”  It was incredible.  We got some pretty good sun, but I wish I had worn my shorts instead of my jeans, it was so heavy.  What was really amazing was watching these people create and build with little to no tools (there were two handsaws, a machete (of course), a crowbar, a hammer, a tape measure and a railroad spike with a handful of nails) using only scraps from someone else’s house.  They work very efficiently though!  And the machete?  It’s such a versatile tool.  I saw it used as scissors, a hammer, a saw, a crowbar, a chisel, a back scratcher, and a pencil.   Here’s the thing about working with them though: if you don’t get it right the first try, you give up the tool you were using to whoever was supervising you, and they “shot you how to do it” until they finish the job.  I’m pretty sure that phenomenon applies to all dads though ;) They fed us this delicious rice and pork (real pork this time) dish with half frozen follerie—this deep, deep red leaf boiled in water and mixed with tons of sugar to make a sort of juice.  It was delicious. We came back to the apartment to study, and I fell asleep kicked back against the wall with my feet up on the table after I ate a Snickers (which are surprisingly cheap here, from 300-500 CFA!). 

That night we prepared for 4 more elders to come down from Yaoundé, Hoiland, Massé, Schmid and Johnston.  They’re all really cool, and we made spaghetti together and just had a good time.  While Elder Gélinas was making peanut butter I heard him go, “Oh my…” and I immediately knew that he had pulled the blender up and the bottom had stayed in the machine because that had happened with Andriamamonjy when he was making coconut milk one day.  So I ran into the kitchen to see him in this stupor as he watched the peanut butter lava ooze out of the blender mountain and spread across the table.  I slapped him into consciousness and we started moving things around and cleaning up.  We didn’t end up losing that much in the end, but the blender got the worst of it.  We spent over an hour cleaning peanut butter out of it, and to this day it still leaks traces of peanut butter.  We haven’t dared turning it on yet...

On Friday I woke up and killed 7 mosquitoes before I left the room, and then we had a baptism!  Yvette, this really kind, shy girl about 26 years old who has grown up with her right foot upside down, if that makes sense.  She walks on the top of her foot, which makes it really hard to get around, but she has a great testimony of the restored Gospel.  We were so excited because she asked this doctor who’s been taking care of her for the last several months and trying to treat her foot to baptize her.  He’s incredible and has an even more impressive conversion story.  I may have mentioned it before, about how he had this crazy dream and reach under his bed and found a Book of Mormon in his hotel room in Germany?  It’s awesome to hear it from him.  Anyway, the baptism when super well!  On the way across the bridge to Bonabéri, we saw all these people out in boat/canoes diving into the water and coming back up with large buckets of sand into their boat/canoes.  Our taximan explained that they sell that sand to construction companies in town.  What a cool job that would be.  They carry around these loonnnggg bamboo polls that help them find the depth of the river and to push around with.

It took us over an hour of standing on the corner to get a taxi that was going back into Douala centre ville, so while we were waiting we skipped across the street (not literally, thank goodness) to this bakery and bought a hamburger sandwich with about an inch wide by 4 inches long strip of meat in between a baguette and a chocolate filled beignet, both of which were surprisingly good! That night we went to Marlyse, one of our recent converts, to pick up a meal order we had given her 6000 CFA to go to the market with, and she delivered!  She made us potatoes, fried plantains, fried fish, and rice for all 8 of us.  It was wicked good.  Then Elder Morin came back with a bag of beans and small beignets from another member, so we had this royal Cameroonian feast.  It was fantastic.  I should’ve taken a picture!   Anyway, we also learned from the elders who had been with President Jameson all day that there would be no transfer changes in Cameroon, which was an answer to lots of prayers!  Elder Zurcher and I will be together for another 6 weeks, and we’re really hoping that we’ll get to see the marriage and baptism of this family we’ve been teaching since I got here, and that he’s been teaching since November.  By the time he leaves, I’ll have been with him for 20 weeks! That’s pretty unusual unless you’re the assistant to the president, which no North Americans can be! We’re just super excited to keep working together.

Saturday was incredible.  We had zone conference with the president, during which we talked a lot about inactive members and how we can best help them, a little like last week.  I got to meet the other 6 elders who were in Bonabéri from Yaoundé—McGrath, Addington, Davis, Rambalosson, Hatch and Lundberg.  They’re all way cool.  I hadn’t seen that many white people in the same room since I left the MTC, so that was kinda weird.  We were 24 all together.  Sister Jameson talked to us about mission news.  There might be a new MTC going into Kinshasa, and the missionary couple is in Gabon, which means we might have missionaries there starting with the next transfer!  We can’t wait.  The story of how the church got there is so incredible.  The Lord just puts people in the right places at the right time.  The lady whose house is being rented out for the church meetings nursed the president’s wife back to health a while ago, so that’s why  we’re allowed in the country.  She’s been waiting for the missionaries since she called her son in Italy to find out if she should even rent out the house to this church she had never heard of when he said, “Mom, that’s the church I just joined!” Just an awesome story.

On Sunday we had no drama at church, which was a huge blessing.  We went to the Gaileys’ for banana splits and to Skype home, which was the highlight of the week.  It was such a blessing to see my family.  I’ve missed them so much, and even though the video cut out a couple of times, I wish I could’ve stayed for the rest of the night just to talk about everything I’ve been doing.  I’m just so thankful that the Internet even exists here so that I can talk to them!  That night we had a lovely dinner with the first counselor, the amazing Marius and his family.  He’s got such a cool story too, but I’m running out of time so I’ll have to save it for another day! 

I love YOU all so much and I hope you’re making the most out of your life! NOW is the time to prepare to meet your maker, and He can’t wait to see you face to face!  I wish I could share half the experiences I’ve had since I got here that have all testified of the truthfulness of these things, but I’ll just leave you to wonder and ponder and search for the truth on your own :)

Have a fantastic week!

Manke !

Elder Garland

May 6

Omaki ! (Mbo for hello!)

So last Monday night I was in heaven.  We made chili and cornbread, and then got to jam on the guitar all night.  We were right about to go to bed when the power went off as we were all singing “hallelujah” together, but we kept playing in the dark.  Then I broke another string, and then we decided it was probably time to go to bed.  Unfortunately, the power didn’t come back on until 2 or 3 in the morning, so we didn’t even sleep. 

Tuesday was crazy filled with lessons, but it was awesome.  One of the people we tried teaching stopped mid-sentence to try this face cream from a street vendor as he was walking by.  For the next 15 minutes they debated prices and brands and how effective it was, and then finally she turned back to us and said, “I’m following.”  Ha!  Elder Zurcher and I had a good laugh about that. That same night, we had just gotten done teaching the restoration, concluding by encouraging him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and then we asked if he had any questions.  He said, “yes, a lot of churches say different things about this…but I want to know what you have to say.  Was Jesus really born on the 25th of December?! Why are there vegetarians when God says he gave us animals to eat?!” I had a hard time not face palming, but turns out he’s actually really interested, and has a baptismal date!

On Wednesday we were on our way to this woman’s house to ask why she’s been coming to church for the last 3 years but never got baptized, when we got a call from the secretary of the church asking when we were coming to his house.  We were so confused, but realized almost immediately that HIS wife was the lady we were going to see!  We had no idea.  It took us an hour to get to their house by taxi. We had spent all day trying to call people to teach, but since it was their Labor Day, everyone was out partying or hanging out with family or friends all day and didn’t have time to see us.  It made things really interesting when, after feasting on plantains, eggs, spaghetti, rice, oranges, papayas, coke, and djino (a fruit cocktail soda), we were walking back and people were all out on the streets just dancing and drinking and going crazy.  It was awesome.  But scary.  Several people tried to seduce us into dancing with them, but we held fast to our testimony and pushed through the crowds to nab a taxi.

I woke up at like 4 in the morning and mistook my companion’s fan for a small child carrying a baby.  It’s not the first time that’s happened.  Maybe I already wrote about confusing the mosquito nets for dead witches that had hung themselves? Or thought the bookshelf was a man just meandering about the room?  I actually got out of bed and went after him.  And last Thursday I tried to ask the fan what he wanted from us.  I’m just waiting for the next adventure I’ll go on within the boundries of my room.

Friday was crazy.  We had a zone conference, where we spoke with our branch presidents about how we can better integrate the less-active members, and the inactives, and it was outstanding.  I got to share a spiritual thought, so I chose to speak on the lost sheep parable, which I never really appreciated before.  With help from references that are listed in my French Bible, I compared the Matthew 18 and Luke 15 versions of the parable and talked on the two.  I ended with James 5:19-20 which is an awesome scripture on bringing lost souls back to Christ.  Anyway, I just had a great time studying that and sharing it.  That night we came back from teaching and one of the members had made us plantains, this peanut paste and what the call green vegetables, which are like…some sort of mix of green leaves haha, I don’t really know how to explain it any better than they do!

We had General Conference at the church the next day, which really poorly organized, but my companion and I showed up early to help string cordes across the room and hook up projectors and everything, and then the generator still wasn’t powerful enough to keep the lights and air conditioning on.  Basically the story from last Sunday still isn’t done.  But we’re working on it! Hopefully by the end of this week everyting will be finished.  In any case, I still got to watch the Saturday afternoon session of conference, which was so cool.  Like everyone’s been telling me, they spoke a lot about Africa and Africans, and I can basically just add my testimony to what they were saying.  People here have the least of what matters least and the most of what matters most.  I loved that! I think my favorite talk though was by Elder Bednar, which was about chastity.  Some favorite quotes he said were “love grows through righteous restraint”, and “chastity and vertu will be most precious above all things forever.”  I just thought that was the coolest thing.  I wish I could share what I shared with the family that we taught that to afterwards, but reading the words just won’t be the same.  I would encourage you all to look up that talk though, it’s so good!

On Sunday we showed up to church and the generator still wasn’t working, and the man in charge didn’t come until an hour and a half later. Finally, we just got everyone to go to their normal Sunday school classes and then held a testimony meeting in sacrament. It was impromptu, but Marius, the superman member who always saves the day, once again came to the rescue. We’re hoping that we will get to watch the rest of priesthood and the Sunday sessions next week, but who knows. Timing here just isn’t really anything that anyone cares about. One of those “European” fads I guess. After church we had a great experience where we got to visit a sick member with all the young single adults and sang hymns for like 30 minutes. They love to sing, especially hymns. They could sing all day! It was really heartwarming to see the sick brother just sitting their smiling as everyone was singing. We got to play the guitar again last night, and I didn’t break anymore strings, so that was nice. The Gailey’s, who I love more and more every day, had us over for waffles in their air-conditioned apartment for breakfast. It was heaven. I always have a single tearing rolling down my face as I walk out into the scalding sun, and it dries up faster than you can say “white man!” Another crazy week coming up as President Jameson is coming to town with all the elders from Yaoundé for back to back zone conferences and transfer letters. We have to host them for a couple days, so it’s gonna be nuts. Look forward to a lot of pictures though! Just a quick note about my companion – he’s the best. I couldn’t say enough about how great of a missionary he is, and just how awesome of a person. Just an honest working, doesn’t ever do anything 50%, quick to laugh and smile, says hi to everyone, talks to every taxi driver and person he sits next to. I love him. I’ll be sad if we get split up this transfer, but the odds are stacked that way. I’m profiting from every minute I can from him. I might be 2 years older, but he’s teaching me a ton about what it means to be a servant of the Lord. Osaymaka, I love and miss you all so much !!! Elder Garland

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