August 5th

Bonjour to everyone !

It’s been another interesting week in Douala.  We didn’t have a whole lot of eye opening experiences, but we had some pretty cool things happen to us, so no worries. 

After a long, slow week last week we finally started off hot on Tuesday and got to teach a lot of people and contact a few others.  One of the contacts was awesome, and inspired a lesson I gave for our district meeting.  I was sitting in the front seat of a taxi on the way home from a failed rendez-vous, and Lundberg was behind me.  A woman gets in next to him, and a few seconds later I hear Lundberg say, “Hey I like your shoes!” The woman was so excited, and for the next 20 minutes we just chatted with her about everything, and eventually she asked us about why were there, etc. and it opened up a door for us to talk to her about the Church.  It just felt awesome.

On Wednesday I went on splits with Elder Stephens into my sector, which was sweet.  He’s an awesome missionary.  We were sitting down to eat chawarmas for lunch and I was telling him about how my pen bleeds through every paper, and seriously about 5 seconds later this little kid walked around the corner with a basket of pens on his head.   I think I scared him with how fast I jumped out of my chair and ran at him.  I’ve never been so excited to buy pens.

We had another really weird day on Thursday because of our district meeting, and consequently the next 3 rendez-vous we had planned all fell through.  We did get to go to a member’s house that night to eat hare from the forest, so that was a pretty sweet end to a bitter day. 

On Friday we got a call from a member asking us to meet him at the church, and when I got there I was surprised to see not him, but the first person we baptized back in March, Aldrich!  We’d been talking on the phone every now and then since he left, but it was so joyous to finally see him again.  I love surprises!  I was so happy.  We got to sit down and talk for a while, and then we walked him back to the Dim’s house and I had my crowning Douala speaking moment when I met their whole extended family and made them all 20 of them swoon with my Douala skills.  I think I used every word I knew, and they died haha.  I left that house a taller missionary.  Annndd then God humbled me again. The next day we got transfer letters.  I couldn’t sleep that whole night.  It was like I was 10 years old again on Christmas Eve, just thinking about everything that was go down the next day.  I even had a dream that I was leaving to Yaoundé.  Well, turns out I AM leaving, but only across the bridge to Bonabéri.  I was so disappointed, I could barely fake a happy face as I opened and read my transfer letter.  All the people I’ve been working with, all the members I’ve gotten to know, my companions.  I guess it was bound to happen eventually, but I was just really, really hoping it wouldn’t be this transfer.  There’s two new missionaries coming in to the apartment, and I would’ve loved to have worked with them.  The worst part is that they only gave me 3 days to say all my goodbyes, one of those days being Sunday, where we only ever have time to see the Tignyembs.  So basically I was depressed all Saturday, but since then I’ve been praying that I will have a better attitude about going to the other side.  I know I’ll still see my collegues, if only every other week or so.  It’s the members and friends of the church that I’ll miss the most. 

I got to say goodbye to most of my friends on Sunday, but not all of them.  It was really hard.  I tried to convince myself and them that I’ll be around, Bonabéri isn’t too far, so we’ll most likely see each other soon anyway, but I know it won’t be the case.  SIGH.  I’m sure I’ll love my new area and my new companion, Elder Massé.

Some other fun tidbits—I was talking to an old member when I see his eyes start to roll back, and I almost had a heart attack until I saw that he just fell asleep right in the middle of while I was talking.  While looking me right in the eyes.  And then suddenly he wakes right back up and says, “What were you saying? Sometimes I fall asleep like that, but don’t worry, just keep talking.”  It was so funny.  He didn’t do it again, but I couldn’t get over the fact that that’s the second time that someone’s fallen asleep while I was talking.  Apparently I’m either really boring or I have a really soothing voice.  Probably the former…

Anyway, we had an awesome Saturday despite the fact that all of our rendez-vous fell through again.  We had a baptism that didn’t start until an hour and a half until after it was supposed to (not that that’s irregular).  I love baptisms.  This one was especially beautiful.  A 60 some odd year old man getting into the water to make his covenants with God, with his 5 year old daughter on the stairs watching (I won’t talk about how she spent the hour and a half we waited spraying us with water and kicking and punching and smearing mud on my shirt).  Then he bore his testimony and it was so awesome.  I wish I had recorded it, because I’d show it to everyone!  You just can’t deny something like that.  It’s instant proof that this is the truth!  Some day everyone will know what I’m talking about.  Another quote someone said was, “the food that’s ready to eat now is smaller than what will come later,” talking about how baptism is only a taste of the blessings that are to come.  I love food analogies, but they make me hungry.  So afterwards we had some delicious meat balls (I think it was meat…) and rice and juice.  African hosts are unlike any other.

Anyway,  another of our appointments told us that she was actually on the other side of the country, so that was normal too.  And we met an apostle!  There’s a lot of them here, actually. He said he’s been in the ministry for 53 years, and was very proud of it.  He has churches all over Cameroon apparently.  He wasn’t as proud of the last apostle we met, and even accepted a brochure.  We’ll see where that leads.  Who knows, maybe he’ll be a real apostle some day!

Saturday night was very special.  The same member who fell asleep on me invited us to come to the beginning of his dowery process, which meant going to the wife’s parents’ house to present himself and take the list of everything he needs to buy for her in order to officially marry her traditionally.  When we got there, the whole family was there.  They split into two groups—we went with Randy (the member) and his two friends, and the fiancée and her family sat on the other side of the room.  We huddled into groups and one friend on our side was saying, “it’s not our move, we have to wait for them to start.” Eventually the dad from the other side stands up and says, “So! You’ve come into my home.  I’d like to know why!”  and then Randy’s friend was going to stand up and present Randy to the family because the man doesn’t do it himself.   But his friend only speaks English, so he turns to me and says, “I need you to translate everything for me.”  So on the spot I stood up with this other friend and translated for the whole family and told them that we were there because our friend wanted to ask for Kiki’s (the woman) hand in marriage.  So they huddle together for a few minutes and so do we until our guys go, “Ok, the ball is in their court!” until their side says, “well who’s your friend?”  And then everyone on their side goes, “it’s the white guy!” and everyone starts laughing.  It was hilarious.  But Randy stands up and presents himself, and then he gave them a gift of wine and whiskey, and then they welcomed us with a huge dinner as they went over the list with Randy.  It didn’t look too expensive! Four goats, wine, salt, blankets, new shoes, and a thousand dollars.  The cool thing is that they don’t actually have to complete the list to marry the daughter, but they just do what they can.  They’ll end up paying everything, but over time.  It was really exciting for me to be a part of it, and I was honored that he asked me to help.  Plus, we ate really well afterwards. 

Sunday was great.  It was hard saying bye to everyone, but they were all really encouraging.  I got to take a few pictures, and the Tignyembs made us Irish potatoes (cooked potatoes with tomatoes, onions, and green beans) that night and it was delicious. 

And now I’m here and it’s already Monday again.  I’m so sad to be leaving, but I’m really happy that I’m at least staying in Douala.  I love this city so much, and the people even more.  I’m excited to move out into the country where you walk everywhere and rarely hear any motorcycles or taxis.  I’m excited to have air conditioning, although we’re working with an African so most likely we won’t be using it very much.  They can’t put up with the cold at all, haha.

I would love your prayers right now.  We’re going into an area that neither I nor my companion know at all, so it’ll be really difficult to locate all the people that the other Elders were working with.  In either case, I will do my best to adapt to my new surroundings and keep my head up.  It’ll be a rough couple of weeks, but I’m sure that by the end of the month I’ll love it.  I will get to see the Tignyembs get married and baptized, for which I’m eternally grateful.  I’ll still see the other Elders from time to time, as well as the Gailey’s who I love dearly.  It’s a change, but I’ll take it on with open arms!

I love and care about you all so much, please keep in touch! Tell me about your lives! I know you’re having your own difficulties.  I will keep you in my prayers, but you can always look to your Heavenly Father for guidance.  I know He is there and that He loves and knows you more than anyone else on the planet!  He may just be waiting for you to ask Him for help.  Sometimes we need to show a little faith.  The blessings are there—we just need to ask for them! 

Have an awesome week,

Elder Garland 

August 12th

Une fois de plus bonjour tout le monde !!!

This has been one of the more interesting weeks of my mission.  Monday was my last P-Day in my sector, and since I only had another day to say all my goodbyes I tried to see one of our recent converts that night, but she wasn’t even there.  So to make up for my disappointment we set up an epic mattress fort in the hall and strung it with Christmas lights and it was amazing.  We tried sleeping under it, but aroudn 1 in the morning I woke up to about 1093 mostquitoes fighting for posession of my body, so I got up and to sleep in my normal bed.  It was pretty anticlamatic.

My last day in Akwa was pretty great.  I got to see Marcelle, who fed us of course and then gave me a Cameroun jersey which is sweet.  Then we saw Christiane and Nicole, and headed out with the Gaileys to pick up the new missionaries : Elders Wright and Beutler !  They’re both awesome.  So fresh.  So green.  And so tan...since we’ve been in the rainy season and they spent the MTC under the sun, they’re both more tan than we are.  It was weird.  But they’re excited to be here and ready to learn, which is great.  I’m excited to watch them grow!  I had another realization moment when I noticed that in just a few short months I’ll be one of the older missionaries in the field.  I’m alread the one who’s been in Douala the longest!  Everyone else has moved on.  This is my home.  I love it.  I’m so glad I stayed, even if it’s on the other side of the bridge. Everyone thinks we’ll still see each other, but in reality I’ll probably go another 3 transfers or so without seeing more than 2 or 3 people that I taught, and only because I’ll go to their baptisms (hopefully!). 

So I spent my first night in Bonabéri that night, where Andriamamonjy made us Malgash soup and I slept really well until our branch missionary Barthelemy started snoring and sniffing with an incredible force.  The next morning Elder Massé and I unscrewed the bunk beds and moved them into another room.  For Angy’s last day before going home to Madagascar we went back into Akwa and saw some of the people he taught, including some Malgash people he met a couple months ago.  When we walked into their shop I saw this really nice Nikon D7000 on the desk and said, “hey I’m sort of a photographer too!” and they started going off in Malgash, and Angy says, “they want you to help them take pictures of this hotel that they’re installing lights in...” sooo for the next 45 minutes we followed Angy’s friend around and he had me take pictures of the interieur and exterieur of this hotel.  Then they started asking me for tips on how to take a good picture and were ooh’ing and ahh’ing over the pictures I was taking, which were not by any means wonderful.  I felt really bad because it kindof turned into a ‘me show’ when it was Angy’s last day.  We got a Sprite out of it though, so it was totally worth it.  Then 3 more people that he wanted to see weren’t even home, but he said he had an awesome last day and thanked us for coming around with him.  P.S. one of our taxi drivers heard Elder Massé speaking English to us and asked him if by any chance he was a descendant of Hitler.  So that was pretty hilarious.

The next day we had a special zone conference in honor of Angy’s leaving, so we all talked about how much we loved him and had this big lunch before he was whisked away on a bus to Yaoundé to catch his final flight home.  It was nuts.  I’d never seen anyone die before (mission term for when someone goes home).  I cried, duh.  I’m not good at saying goodbye to people, especially orally.  I’m pretty good at waving, but don’t count on me opening my mouth because it will most likely be incomprehensible blubbering. 

When we got home Massé and I talked about how we wanted to organize our new sector which neither of us know, and we organized our new rooms and got really nerdy with our megadesk.  I was finally able to unpack everything and move in all my junk that I had gathered from Akwa.

Friday was the wedding.  We were told that it was moved from 2 to 11, so we left early, got there and found no one.  Right as we were walking in we got a call that it was actually at 2, so we went to my old apartment and they told us that we needed to be there at 1, but when we got there 2 hours later we were still the only ones.  More than an hour went by before the next people showed up, and another 2 hours before the Tignyembs finally came.  I’m used to African Standard Time, but that was ridiculous.  Patience is truly a vertu.  So we watched them get married by this old mayor guy and it was actually really sweet.  They were FINALLY married.  Everyone was cheering and laughing and crying (but I was all cried out from the day before) and it was just beautiful.  Afterwards one of our member friends bought us a little plate of crocodile to eat, which was delicious and tasted yes, just like chicken.  Oh and on the way home we saw a taxi that said on the bumper “My name is Jack Bauer.”  

Then came the baptism.  We got to meet some of our friends and members who live around the apartment before heading out there, but I’m still lost all day until we cross the bridge back into Akwa.  We were there on time at 2, and so was everyone else—BUT the married couple.  So for another, and I kid you not, THREE hours we waited for them to show up.  Why were they late? The wife was getting her hair done...right before getting dunked in a pool of water.  The ceremony lasted forever, but it was awesome.  Six baptisms, testimonies by the father and oldest daughter, another marriage ceremony before God where our Anglophone friend gave a talk that lasted way too long that thankfully he said he cut short due to lack of time that inlcuded things like, “your wife is like a television—you need to watch only her, and you need to love to watch your husband.  And love is like childhood—you need to learn to share,” among many other catchy phrases like that.  SO, 4 hours later everyone was surrounding a giant table eating lots of food and being happy and celebrating and it was so fun and so happy.  I loved every second of it after it finally started.  Oh and on the way home we saw a motorcycle carrying a guy who was balancing, no joke, another motorcycle across his lap.  #AFRICA

Sunday was great.  I met a lot of the members, despite the fact that no one asked me to bear my testimony during sacrament, and the warmth and love felt the same as it was back in Akwa, thank goodness.  The only problem was that I had split my middle finger across the finger print somehow, which made shaking everyone’s hand impossibly painful because they always do this snap at the end of the handshake right where I have the split. Otherwise, it was a great church service, except that priesthood is now at the end and they talk until like 12:30.  Everyone has to have the last word haha.

We taught a member’s friend, which was the first time Elder Massé and I got to teach together.  He’s a great missionary and teaches well, so I’m pumped to continue working with him. 

There are some things about Bonabéri that I appreciate more than Akwa.  For example, I haven’t taken a hot shower in the last 6 months, but I took my first one about 6 days ago.  It was a wonderful thing.  I forgot how awesome it was.  Another thing is air conditioning.  I don’t have to sleep with a fan, and mosquitos don’t really come into our apartment so no more annoying net all over my face at night.  I also get to sleep with the blanket that I brought, which was way too hot back in Akwa.  Since our sector is so small, we don’t take any taxis, but we walk everywhere.  I love that.  Since there’s no taxis and no traffic, there’s no noise at night including no karaoke and I sleep like a baby.  They make their own yogurt and eat it with cereal for breakfast instead of milk.  It’s delicious and now I know how to make yogurt :) Angy left his red fanny pack behind, so now I’m super stylin and my shirts aren’t half as nasty as they usually are after a day’s work.  I love my companions.  They’re super cooperative and reasonable and clean and nice and hilarious and charitable and hard workers.  I’m sure I’ll have more things to write about next week, but until then I want you to know that leaving behind a sector with converts and investigators and friends from church really, really, really sucks.  I miss them so much already.  I remember being in their position when the missionaries who taught me left, and it was really weird for me.  I love these people so much, I can’t even describe.  When you’re giving your all to something, heart and soul, and then you have to leave it behind you know what I’m talking about.  Thankfully I can still call and write them and they’re not too far!  It’ll be worse when I get transfered to Yaoundé or Congo or Gabon (which still isn’t open yet).  Just know that I miss them all because I’m putting my all into this work!  I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world (except maybe a Bigmac and strawberry shake oh my...), but I was thinking about why the heck wouldn’t I do that with everything I do back home?  I decided to put my everything into everything I do, and that way I’ll get the most out of this life.  I encourage you to do the same thing! If  you’re doing the dishes, wash the heck out of em! Why not?! Maybe I’m becoming a creepy missionary, but seriously!  Don’t do anything half axed !  Put your heart and soul into scrubbing that table, or vacuuming that floor, or making that sandwich, or swinging on that swing!  You will love it and you will love life.  Heck, I’m in one of the poorest places in the world, and these people LOVE life.  They are smiling and singing all day as they hang their clothes that they washed by hand and as they sweep their dirt floors.  What’s your excuse?

ALL my love,   

Elder Garland

August 19th

Kiri ki mele everyone ?!

P-Days in Bonabéri are pretty sweet except for one thing – I had like 9 people that I didn’t get to respond to because the lady in the Cyber Café was kindof mean and kicked us out after exactly two hours, but otherwise we had an awesome day.  We went home and made an unreal amount of yogurt in our bath-like pot.  We filled 12 1.5 liter bottles.  It was a glorious week.  I also read all of the Petit Prince, which is a phenomenal book that I would recommend everyone to read!

We met the parents of a member who just left on a mission, and they’re really cool and love the missionaries but never really learned with them, so we’re giving it a shot.  I just love the idea of emailing our friend and telling him that we just baptized his parents.  The best part is that they’re Douala, so they love when we speak a little with them. 

The Gaileys came over for district meeting on Wednesday, but weren’t able to get us meat, so we were kindof in a rut for a couple days.  We’ve been eating a lot of rice and pasta with some combination of green peppers, tomatoes, and onions.  It’s always delicious, but I’ve learned that variety=sanity. 

One of our investigators is a guy whose biology professor recommended to all the students to check out a list of books that would help them complete the teachings from the Bible, and the Book of Mormon was on the list.  He searched for 6 months, but never found it until one day a year later he saw it in the window of a book store.  So he buys the book, and starts reading and loves it, until one day 5 YEARS later he’s sitting outside his house reading when a member neighbor of his walks by and says hey! I didn’t know you were a member.  He wasn’t, but was so excited to find that the church was in his neighborhood.  He knew where the church was, but never knew that it was associated with this book he loved so much.  It’s an awesome story.  God is awesome.  How He even works…I don’t even know.

We tried to get meat for ourselves because there’s no way that you can’t find any on this side of the bridge, but all we could find was goat meat.  So…we’ll just rely on the Gaileys.

I tied a French Cross with one hand while I was eating a sandwich with the other.  It was beautiful.

One day we were teaching Donald, the guy who bought the Book of Mormon, and he put on this Mormon Tabernacle Choir song on repeat for the next hour and 45 minutes while we talked.  “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” will never be the same for me.

We swept the dirt floor of a member’s house and washed some of his dishes on Friday, and that was a sweet experience.  Service, whether it be big or small, is always appreciated to the fullest extent here.  They literally took my camera out of my fancy fanny pack and started taking pictures because they thought it was so funny that 2 white guys were sweeping their floor.  People walking by were stopping to watch Elder Massé do dishes.  They thought it was hilarious.

On Saturday we walked so far, it was ridiculous, but it was great.  I haven’t taken a single taxi since I got here. 

This one woman from Congo loved the plan of salvation so much that right after we were done teaching her about it she claps her hands and says, “do it again! Do it again from the beginning!” It was probably the number one reaction I’ve had from anyone so far on the lessons we’ve taught.  Just absolutely priceless.

Sunday was normal.  We had a lot of people at our little branch, and even one of my converts came across the bridge to see me! It was so nice.  I miss them all so much.  I’ve gotten a couple different calls from members and people I’ve taught throughout the week just to say hi and that they miss me.  No one can make you feel as good as Africans can.  I imagine them sitting there thinking about what to do and then for some reason or another I come to mind and they call and the whole process makes me feel like a champion.  I love these people so much! I didn’t want to leave Akwa, but I’m pretty sure I just don’t ever want to leave Douala.  I’m sure the love is same everywhere here, but you never know! I’ve heard from several different missionaries that they’ve preferred Douala of the three cities.  Maybe I’ll just stay here until the end of my mission.  Pourquoi pas!

Anyway, I love and miss you all.  Time is passing so quickly and I know I’ll see you soon, so please be patient if I don’t respond to an email on time.  Remember that I’m in Africa and we’re not exactly up to speed with the rest of the world haha.  That being said, I’m having the time of my life.  There’s no where else I’d rather be that sweating bullets in a small cyber café surrounded by my African brothers and sisters.  Words are never enough to describe the experiences I’m having.  

Just recently I told someone that who you are is defined by what you do when you think no one is watching.  Remember that there’s always someone who knows what your every move, and He loves and cares about you more than you can even imagine! He knows you perfectly; more than you even know yourself! And his love for you is incomprehensible.  He is literally your Father in Heaven and  His biggest disire is to bring you back home to live with Him.  If you’re passing through difficult trials, know that He allows those to come so you can learn and grow.  Sometimes we can’t understand why, but the most important thing to remember is that He loves you know matter what! So what are you waiting for?! His arms are open and He’s waiting with a big ol’ smile on His face! Run to Him!!!

Elder Garland

August 26th

Hello again!

We had another slowish week because of work that they’ve been doing on the apartment and requiring us to stay there to make sure they didn’t steal anything.  We would split up the afternoon and the evening so we could each teach at least some people, but either way it made things pretty difficult for us.  I did get to trade a tie with a member though, so now I have a really sweet African tie that I’ve been dying to have since I got here.

Fidelis, the Anglophone who’s been showing us around Bonabéri for the last couple of weeks brought us more fabric, so I made him a skinny tie and I’ll make another one for my companion.  We got lost on Saturday just looking for a shortcut home and it brought us straight to the river at a point where trash had been flowing into the water, and sitting on top of everything were a couple sacks full of different dresses and shirts that some big mamas had thrown away but made for some sick ties, so I’m currently wearing a really sweet blue and orange and white butterfly pattern. 

I keep getting calls from my converts in Akwa and it makes me so happy to hear from them everytime.  I finally took an hour or so to call all my friends and it gave me a sort of spiritual high haha. I couldn’t get over how happy I was talking to them, and it’s only been like 3 weeks since I left.  I can only imagine how it will be in 18 months when I’m home and get a hold of them.

The guardian of our apartment is from the north and speaks this cool pateois that’s related to Toupuri, that kindof sounds like Arabic, and he’s been teaching a little of that to us.  It’s awesome, but not as cool as Douala.

We had another great district meeting with the Gaileys and talked about the origins of Preach My Gospel and we went over a lot of different quotes from the different prophets and Sister Gailey shared these toffees that she found who knows where that were delicious. 

Elder Massé and I walked an hour to get to a member’s house, which was crazy.  I love those walks though because it allows us to just talk and get to know each other better.  You really to get to know someone when you’re with them 24 hours a day haha.

One of the most fun days of the week was Friday when we got to work with Dekoumé, a 12 year old member who loves going out to teach with us.  He’s such a funny kid, but he’s also a great teacher.  He answers questions correctly and clearly.  We barely have to say anything!  Plus people yell at us less, so that’s nice.

It’s been raining all week.  Some of the shortcuts that we take were completely flooded, so we would have to turn all the way around and come back another way, which was still usually covered in water.  Basically I was soaked every day, and some kids broke my umbrella sooo yeah.  Haven’t bought a new one yet, but the rain is actually kindof nice.  It’s a change from the 290 degree weather that’s coming up in the next couple of months.  Hooray!

That day that we got lost we ended up contacting a table of drunk guys who at first condemned us for being polygamists, but after we explained that we weren’t they started saying, “well why not? The Bible says nothing against polygamy!” and went on to defend it.  Some people just want to fight for no reason haha. 

They replaced the light bulbs in our apartment, so now we don’t have to cook with a headlamp or read at night with a flashlight!

Fidelis gave me an Andrea Boccelli CD, so that took me back to being in 5^th grade when my teacher would play that to us as we read and did other quiet stuff. Mi piace bene.

We had a pretty great Sunday, but a lot of people were missing from church for whatever reason.  We came home and made tacos, and then Elder Massé surprised us with a pack of Taco Bell hot sauce that came in a package from his mom, so we feasted on those all night, accompanied by watermelon Sour Patch Kids. SO. GOOD.  Then Elder Thibault was joking about putting a mattress around himself and letting me kick him as he taught me kickboxing, but I made him do it, and it was awesome.  He taught me different combos and stuff and after an hour or so I decided I now want to be a kickboxer/pilot/author/professor/musician haha. I never thought punching the back of sandals could be so fun! Try it some time, you’ll know what I mean.

That’s about all the news from this week.  I realize my letters are getting a little shorter, but you know that the work is still progressing and the stories are still amazing and they are never ending and I just want you to come be a part of it with me! I dream of showing all my friends and family around the different quartiers here, walking through the shortcuts and meeting all the people we see every day.  I promise it would change your life! I know that the missionaries all over the world are going through similar experiences, even in the States.  No matter who you are or where you are, the work of God is the same and it will one day cover the entire earth!  I love missionaries and I love missionary work.  God has prepared so many people to accept this message, but sometimes they don’t know what they’re looking for—that’s where you come in! Open your mouth! Bear your testimony to anyone and everyone, because what do you have to lose?  True friends won’t reject you for what you believe in, even if they don’t buy it.  You don’t have to force your opinion on anyone, but a simple testimony of the plain and precious truths you know might flip someone’s world upside down. 

I love you and I know God loves you. 

Have a great week!

Elder Garland

September 2nd

Bonjour à tous !!!

What a crazy week.  It’s officially September, and I don’t even know where the time has gone.  In 5 weeks I will turn 23.  What the.  There are some really awesome things that happened this week, but  one of the number 1 contestants is the batch of 50 cookies that we made after writing home.  They were very nearly what I would find back home, so we had a pretty good nostalgia trip all night.  The cookies only lasted until two days later.  More to come tonight…

Another awesome thing happened the following day when we were led to an African book store by an investigator to find some kind of book that went from Douala to French so I could practice more efficiantly, but unfortunately it turned out to be a library that you needed to pay like 10,000 CFA (about $20) for the year to access.  Since we never know how long we’ll stay we decided not to subscribe.  The lady who offered us the tour in English was an Austrian with a thick accent and when we told her we were missionaries we got the first look of “seriously?” and she proceeded to tell us how she was Catholic and wanted to stay Catholic.  It was just funny because we’ve never run into anyone who was openly against being taught or knowing more about us.  White people. Pff. On the way out, this Prince who founded the book store/library walked in the door with a TV guy on his heels, and I heard him speaking Douala so as he was leaving I said “wala bwam!” which is roughly translated to, “have a nice day!”  That got his attention, and the TV guy next to him, who told us that he wanted to interview us the next day and we could tell him all about our mission and say some words in Douala and it would be fun.  I was so excited.

It never happened.

We had an awesome district meeting and Elder Gailey taught this wonderful lesson on faith, charity, and dilligence, but the way he teaches blows my mind every time.  I wish you could meet him.

Other than teaching so many cool people on Wednesday and Thursday nothing else really happened.  We got to go coconut hunting on Friday, which was super fun.  We climbed a really sketchy ladder about 10 feet up this tree, and then you use a 6 foot rebar pole with a bent hook in the end to reach up and hook the coconuts and pull them down.  Right onto your face.  It was actually really hard.  The coconuts didn’t wanna come down, except when Elder Massé was up there.  He pulled down 4, and I only got 1, but to be fair, 2 of the ones he pulled down were ones that I had loosened…EHEM.

On Saturday, we all got together to do the Helping Hands day of service throughout the church.  We met at the church and walked over to a bilingual elementary school to help scrub floors, draw water from wells, scrape off mold from walls with a machete, etc.  It ended with several bottles of folléré and sandwiches for everyone there.  When we left, we went to a member’s house only to continue in service as we diced up coconuts and took a wheelborrow out to get water from a nearby well.  As we were walking the wheelborrow, this group of teenagers took pictures of us with there cell phones.  I made sure to pause to lift up my sleeve so they could get a better shot of my muskles.  HA.  More like my big ol’ farmer’s tan.

We had great and bad news on Sunday at chuch.  One of our all-star investigators told us that she was moving back to Tiko to be with her kids during the school year, which started today, which is just wild.  But! She also said she would be coming all the way back to Douala every week to come to church, so she’s getting baptized on Saturday!  She also told us about this story of how, after we taught this big lesson on repentance and forgiveness, she called her ex-husband who abandoned her and her kids and moved back to Congo to tell him that she forgave him.  She tried describing the weight that came off her and the joy she felt but she just started crying.  It was beautiful.  I love this work!

Today is P-Day. I love P-Day.  The Bonapriso elders came across the bridge to play more soccer with us, and it was probably the most fun I’ve had since I got here.  We didn’t even win, but it was just us missionaries and 2 other members, so we played 6x6 on a small field and we were able to have fun and laugh about all the silly things that would happen instead of taking it way too seriously which happens 98% of the time when you play with the locals.  And I scored off a chest trap, one touch, upper right 90 soooooo no big deal but it was ESPN status.  Then we lost and I was humbled :(

It was just awesome to see the other missionaries.  I miss them a ton, but I’m really glad they’re not too far from us, and that I’ll get to see them again on Wednesday for zone conference!  President Cook is coming down with Elder Cook, the first councelor in the area presidency, and we’re going to have a blast. For 6 hours.  And then afterwards President asked me to translate for his wife as she taught the Relief Society auxiliaries, so that’s exciting. It will last all day, and I’ll be really tired, but I’m excited. 

HEY! I LOVE YOU! I hope you have an incredible week.  I hope you can find it in you to forgive those who have offended you.  Can you even imagine having the same experience that my soon-to-be-convert had?!  I promise that you can feel that, and that there’s nothing that God can’t fix in your life if you’ll look to Him for help!  Especially forgiving others.  Christ made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, but you can’t ask for forgiveness without forgiving others!  Try it out.  You’ll see the difference, and you’ll love it, and you will remember that moment and feeling forever.

Elder Garland

September 9th

Happy 8 months everyone!

I’ve officially been on my mission longer than I was in France, which means I’ve completed a third of my mission.  How crazy is that?! Time is no longer something I am even trying to understand.  Transfer letters come on Saturday already.  How the…I don’t even know anymore.

We had a great week.  All of our lessons went through without a hitch for 3 days in a row.  During one lesson on Tuesday a baby started crying hysterically across the little dirt path that separates the two house/shacks.  My companion was trying to read a passage in the Book of Mormon, so I bent my head and closed my eyes and started saying one of the most fervent, sincere prayers of my life that the Lord would comfort this poor baby.  Almost immediately, the screaming slowed to a whimper, and then was completely silent within maybe 10 seconds.  It was a huge testimony to me of the power of prayer, and that God does hear and answer us (sometimes immediately, sometimes on His own time ;) ).

 Wednesday was incredible.  We had the opportunity to meet with President Cook and Elder Cook of the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy !  We talked a lot about the importance of building a firm foundation of members here in countries where the Church is still in its infancy, and worked a lot through Preach My Gospel.  It was a great experience, and we ate homemade mac n’ cheese, fruit salad, 5 layer bean dip, and had fried ice cream for dessert.  When I’m at the Gailey’s I forget I’m in Africa.  We talked about how we can make our teaching more effective, which was great.  Six hours later we were meeting again for a little fireside among the two branches of Douala, which meant that I got to see the members of Akwa for the first time in about a month.  I was so happy to see everyone.  It meant so much to me to see my recent converts there participating actively in church activities.  That’s the most important thing for us missionaries—knowing that we can leave converts strong enough that they don’t need constant visits like before.  I was very proud that evening to see nearly all my converts there.

The rest of the week went by pretty uneventfully until Saturday, where we had two baptisms, one in Bonabéri and one in Akwa! Ortance, the Congolese woman who had an incredible conversion through the power of forgiveness, was baptized in the morning, and many members were there to support and also eat sandwiches and drink folléré afterwards.  We left to Akwa, where Elder Massé and I helped clean the church before the next baptism for an investigator of mine since April named Lolita, and then a woman and her grandson were baptized at the same time.  It was a beautiful thing.  We ate right after, so we had a double mangez-vous on Saturday which is also beautiful.  Throughout the whole day we had nothing but pure sunshine for the first time in months, and I got a wicked tan.  How many beautiful things can happen in one day?! Lemme tell ya.  Lots. God is wonderful.

On Sunday I confirmed Ortance a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we had an awesome lesson with her after church before she went back to her home in Tiko, this city about an hour away by bus.  I may or may not have taken a two hour nap after we got home while my companions prepared dinner.  I am a living witness that miracles DO happen. 

Every day I am whipped to near death with fatigue, and if I didn’t pray to have strength to make it through the week I know I would just fall day at the end of every day.  It’s so hard sometimes, but God lifts me up and uses me as an instrument in His own hands to do things I could never do on my own.  I’ll be a sad soul when I come back into the real world and take off my badge.  You’ve known some weird return missionaries? Wait till I get back.  Oh my hecky, I will rock your world.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! If you’re on the right path, stay on it! If you’re not, get back on! Life seems easier on the escalator, but if you always take the stairs you won’t have problem when the power goes out ;)

Elder Garland

September 16th

Lapia everyone !

As this week comes to a close, that marks the end of my fifth transfer.  My last companion, Elder Lundberg, is going back to Congo, but he’s the only one leaving.  It’s sad because he’ll most likely end his mission there, so we won’t get to see him again.  Otherwise, Elder Massé and I are excited to continue working together for at least another 6 weeks!

Every day seems to be more and more like the day before, so not a lot to note this week…on Tuesday, the most interesting thing that happened was that as we walked out of our second rendez-vous it started pouring rain, so for the next 30 minutes as we walked we got drenched.  And then it rained for the rest of the day, so by the time we got back we were soaked to the bone. 

On Wednesday I gave the lesson during district meeting about the importance of bearing testimonies, and then I cried so that’s normal.  We walked from there to meet up with a less active member an hour and a half away.  We thought we were lost, but every time we asked the place we were going everyone would just wave in the direction we were already heading and say, “just keep going!”  Finally we decided to give the guy a call so he could look for us at this landmark of a building that was a really cool Catholic parish/school, but as we were explaining where we were we ran out of credit. So we kept walking.  Finally we found the place, and paid a woman 100 CFA (like 20 cents) to use her phone for 15 seconds. 

On our way back home that evening we stopped by a recent convert’s house on a whim, and when we heard music blasting from his house we decided it would be funny to go in through the back door and scare him.  Well the joke was on us, because when we snuck inside he was standing in the middle of his living room butt nekked, drying himself off with a towel.  Lesson learned.  He said he saw us as we backed out of the house and thought we were robbers and he was going to get his “gun,” which was an “AK-47,” which we asked him to show us which was actually just a machete haha.  Anyway.  I’ve seen way too many naked people here. Don’t worry, the Church is still true.

We left our apartment two hours earlier than usual on Friday, and when we got back to eat and do language study I passed out for an hour and a half until my companion woke me up to go to our last rendez-vous.  I didn’t sleep that night.  Lesson learned.  So many lessons…

Last week we made cookies again, but I ruined it by not adding enough sugar, and when we realized that it was because we were measuring with a metal cup instead of an actual measuring cup it was too late, but we added more sugar anyway.  Then throughout the week we made batches of cookies and I ruined almost all of them by forgetting that they were in the oven.  So we took an exercise band and took the rock hard cookies and slingshotted them out the window into the field next to our house to help fertalize the soil of course. 

Sunday was a bit of a rollercoaster.  We were ecstatic to see our most recent convert still coming to church, and this time with news of bringing her sons soon.  We gave her 4 Books of Mormon and lots of brochures.  After church we made dinner and I was honored to give a blessing to a member who is starting school today.  Blessings get me every time.  It’s so cool to just open your mouth and listen as the words come out.  I love it.  He gave me a big hug, and not long after he left the other elders from Bonapriso came over to stay the night so they didn’t have the traverse the bridge in the morning traffic to come play soccer.  We ended up playing night soccer in this little patch of grass in front of our apartment building as it poured rain.  When we went back upstairs we realized that no one had extra clothes and we didn’t have towels, but we did our best with the fans we had to make everyone a little more comfortable.  They’re real troopers.  It’s always a blast getting see those guys.  It’s a breath of fresh air.  We played this morning, and this time I had a sweeettttt left footed, cross body flying volley off a cross that drilled the back of the tiny net.  Oh baby, it was slick.  African ESPN.  There were some people who came to watch us play (not every day that you see a bunch of white guys playing soccer in your neighborhood), and they were all imitating the goal after and smiling and laughing and it made me feel like a million bucks. 

The Gaileys came to watch us play for a couple minutes, then they gave out the transfer letters.  We were all shocked that Lundberg was being split with his trainee Elder Beutler.  Usually they stay together for two transfers.  Elder Nyom, the Cameroonian branch member that’s been living with us for the last six weeks is finally going back across the bridge to Akwa, and he’s being replaced by Elder Davis from Yaoundé.  It’ll be weird living with four Americans again, but I’m excited.

That’s about it! Time is still flying by.  In less than a month I’ll be 23.  Then it will be Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and then I will have already been here for a year.  Oh man. 

Don’t forget that I love each and every one of you and that I pray for you every day!  Sometimes it’s hard, but I promise that this mortal life is but an instant in the eternity that you have left to live!  Live it up while you’re here, but keep in mind that you have so much more to live for that comes AFTER this life that will depend on how you lived here on Earth.  Anyway, I know we’ll all end up in the Celestial Kingdom eventually, so I’m not worried :)

Elder Garland