May 5

Hey everyone!!!

What a week.  I made a million cookies on Monday after getting our
groceries and then I told Elder Etherington all about Elemearth and
the Elering series, so that was fun.  I think I'm going to hire the
BYU Animation program to create something based on all that jazz.  I
have way too much time I guess (which is so not true...).
Anyway We had a short day on Tuesday because I had to go to this zone
mission council thing where we went to the Baileys for breakfast, and
then we Skyped with the mission president and all the other zone
leaders in Kinshasa and Brazzaville.  We couldn't really hear anything
unfortunately, but we got some key words here and there.  I got to see
Elder Baker and Elder Gélinas and Elder Lavering in Douala and Gabon
and Yaoundé respectively, so that was cool.  We stayed for lunch, and
then went out to teach Josué on the rails.  He's an awesome kid, and
is definitely ready for baptism this next Saturday.  Armel and Elvis,
the two friends we saw after Jos, are also going to be baptized on
Saturday.  It's going to be a great time.
I convinced Elder Wright that we could just work out in the apartment
and that way we'd have more time to do other stuff in the morning
(opposed to going out and running for 15-20 minutes) so we joined
Elder Johnston in his work out schedule.  Unfortunately we started
with probably the hardest leg work out I'd ever done in my life.  At
the time of course I felt solid, but about 5 minutes after I almost
fell getting out of the shower/tub because my legs almost collapsed
under me.  Well then I had to walk down a flight of uneven stairs, and
then walk around the sector all day.  It was incredible.  I'd never
felt that sore in my entire life.  Thank goodness I have God to ask
for strength!
Richman, one of our less-actives that we're seeing, didn't blow us off
this time, and we had an awesome lesson on the sabbath and how to keep
it holy.  I think he got the message!  We went out to see Darcine and
her family, and Darcine told us how she's brought cigarettes down from
25 to 10 in just 2 weeks.  Amazing.  Then I thought about how crazy it
is that I'm walking around telling people they should stop drinking
and smoking, and then how to do it.  Like, who am I to get people off
an addiction?!  I have no experience except the scriptures to
share...it's crazy, but it works so why the heck not share it with
everyone!
Then we met a taxi driver named Garden, so that was nice.
On Thursday we went on splits so I could interview some of the other
team's baptismal candidates and so Elder Johnston could interview
ours.  I went with Elder Wright into his sector and got to teach some
of the same people that I did last time, so that was cool.  Claude and
Yves, the two brothers I interviewed were both really great.  They'd
had some great experiences that made both of them believe that this
was the true Church.  I had a blast talking to them about it.  We
walked around looking for a recent convert, but he ended up not being
at the house.  As we were walking around these two girls walked by us
and said we were both very handsome, soooo yeah.  We got out of there
real quick like.
Sister Bailey brought us papaya/banana muffins on Friday for district
meeting.  That woman is a saint.  Then Elder Johnston taught an
awesome district meeting lesson about the Book of Mormon and how we
can use it to answer objections to the Church.  Basically it all comes
down to whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet.  Either this is the
true Church, or it's not!  It's black and white, and there's only one
way you can know for sure - by asking God.  What a cool message we
share with people.  "Hey, if you wanna know if our church is true,
just say a prayer!"  Who else does that?!?
On the way to our last appointment on Friday I asked le controlleur if
I could do his job, and he let me.  So for the next 10 minutes I was
doing the kissy noise and with my head out the side window waving my
hand towards the airport calling out "aéroport ! aéroport !"  It was
so fun.  I think I got about 147 people to die laughing on the side of
the road, not to mention the driver and his partner.  It was great.
This part-member family gave us some frozen bisap (or in Cameroun it
was "folléré," which is hibiscus flowers dried up, boiled, and mixed
with pineapple chunks, an abnormal amount of sugar and a little
strawberry or banana flavoring) on saturday.  It was a great start to
a great day.
Our investigator Parfait (yes, that means "perfect") was baptized
around 16h00.  He asked me to baptize him, and that was a huge honor.
The day before the baptism I was thinking about how wild it was that
this 40+ year old man would ask me, someone half his age, to
accomplish this saving ordinance for him.  That wasn't all, because
the next day he asked me to confirm him, too!  I just couldn't believe
it.  The more I think about it the more crazy it seems.  I really love
the man.  He'll be an incredible example for this country.  This is
the same guy that when we showed up to meet him for the first time he
had told us that after 4 days of locking himself in the room and
reading the Book of Mormon he decided it was true.  If he didn't have
to go through the missionary lessons I would've baptized him that
afternoon!  Since then he's quit smoking cold-turkey and done so many
other awesome things.  Now we're teaching his nephew and sister and
they're both progressing as well.  What a great blessing it is to
teach families.  There's a special spirit there in the home as
everyone learns together.
After the baptism we talked with our recent convert Van, and he's
doing great still.  We prepared for our fast by making a delicious
pizza.  We fasted this Sunday for the families of all the missionaries
and for the smooth transition of the new mission division.
We had 20 investigators come to church on Sunday.  It was wonderful.
We haven't gone under 20 in weeks...blessings of working hard!!!
Unfortunately we now have 0 time to see our recent converts...we're
trying our best, but it's just not feasible.  That's why members are
so important!  We were able to address that in branch council on
Saturday, but we're hoping that something takes action.  After
confirming Parfait, President Caillet asked us to stay on the stand to
help him in a baby blessing, so that was really fun.  The baby behaved
perfectly.  We stayed after sacrament to speak with Darcine's daughter
Maya, and then the Baileys drove us back to their place to break the
fast together.  They're so nice.  We had minestrone without the
noodles with bread, butter, honey, and papaya smoothies and ice cream
for dessert.  I love it here.  It hardly seems like Africa sometimes,
but then we go out and walk around in the sector and it brings me back
down to Earth.  We live in mansions compared to the other shacks we
visit.  Count your many blessings - you live in a country where the
power is on ALWAYS.  The water is ALWAYS running.  You have carpet and
dish washers and washing machines and dryers and refrigerators and
freezers and so many THINGS.  If I've learned anything out here it's
that we don't need all those "things".  We need the Lord, and we need
each other.  We need to love.  That requires no amount of money.  When
I was walking around with Elder Wright this guy stopped us and said,
"Why are you wasting your time here?  God left Africa.  He's in Europe
and America."  For the next 7-8 minutes we just stood there and told
him that God isn't going to ask for $10,000 at the gates of heaven.
All he requires is a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and you can't
buy that with money.  Christ Himself said that His kingdom is not of
this world.  After we were done the guy kept his eyes low, nodded his
head and said, "I understand..." and walked away, solemn and pensive.
If we could only get everyone here to understand that...God doesn't
care about money.  He cares about us!  His kids!  His work and His
glory is give US immortality and life eternal!  The only person who
ever had to pay any kind of price for that gift was Jesus Christ,
through His infinite Atonement.  What kind of sacrifices do we have to
make or prices to pay that are even close to comparison?  If we can
just accept God's will and submit ourselves His work...how much
happier could we be?  After all, "men are that they might have joy!"
I love this Gospel so much.  I wish with all my heart and soul that
you could witness the work that is being done in Africa, especially in
the Congo.
Some day Africans will lead the world in Church membership.  That is for sure.
I'm so excited to keep tabs on the growth here.  From branches to
wards to stakes to missions to temples!!!  Eternal families, one
"Parfait" investigator at a time :)
All my love,
Elder Garland

April 28

Mbote a benooo!!!

Well.  This week was once again nothing short of miraculous and
absolutely wild.  Welcome to Africa!  We started off hot with a day
where we saw everyone we planned on seeing, and even got to work with
one of our favorite branch missionaries Jhostavie.  He's this awesome
18 year old (as of today, actually!) kid who loves the Gospel and
basketball and English, which he speaks super well.  Great kid.  Love him.  Anyway he teaches me a lot of
munukutuba, so I'm getting better and better every week.  I can bare
my testimony, so that's a good start!

While we were waiting for Jhostavie in front of this enormous mosque
we had two different people come up to us at two different times to
tell us how they had seen or worked with missionaries before and
wanted to meet us again.  And they both spoke English.  No meat, nice
and clean.  It was just funny because we're there every week and no
one's ever come up to us before.  Well, at least not in English.

Otherwise, we're also working with a ton of people who are preparing
for baptism this month.  At least 14...One guy, a breakdancer named
Josué, even wanted to move up his date because he realized the Church
is true and doesn't need to wait anymore!  I love that.  It reminded
me of this scripture in D&C 6 I think that says "what greater witness
can you have from God?!" Awesome.

Since we were phoneless all day, after we were done we walked over to
the Baileys who had bought us a phone during the day and while we were
over there invited us to stay for dinner of sloppy joes and might as
well stay for cake and ice cream just because.  God bless them.  The
new phone is perfect, too.  Simple, easy to use.  Now we just need all
our numbers back...good thing I got Elder Etherington to take
everyone's number at church for French practice.  He's doing great -
little to no corrections on the numbers he took!

On Wednesday we got ratéd by a member, but got to see another guy who
lives across the street.  His name is Mylife.  Sweet kid.  Huge
underbite, but has a great testimony.  We just need to get him out of
his polygamous dad's house...

Anyway, we also heard the sweetest prayer by a 9 year old girl who
asked God to bless her single mother to find a man and to bless
herself that she would live to be 100 years old.  It was so hard not
to laugh.  Adorable.

We went on splits on Thursday.  I left my son with Elder Ndayizeye to
go work with Elder VanAusdal in Mpaka.  That's always a good time.  I
hadn't been back in over 6 weeks!  When I walked in and took a deep
breath I smelled Christmas and Thanksgiving.  One of those fun sensory
experiences that take you waayyy back.  We ate a delicious beef
stroganoff and I slept like a baby in my airconditioned room.
Unfortunately, I hadn't brought any of my sleepover stuff (razor,
change of clothes, deodorant, toothpaste) so I was pretty nasty the
next day.  I did get to shave with a blade, which I hadn't done in
forever.  I think the last time I shaved with anything other than an
electric razor was when I checked into BYU and before I took my
picture they asked me to shave the 8 hours of stubble I had from the
last night.  Good times.  Anyway, I know some of VanAusdal's
investigators and recent converts really well because I got to work
with them a couple times on splits during the last couple transfers.
Great people are scattered all over this city.  I'm glad I get to talk
with so many of them.  We rode in a bus from Ngoyo back to Fond Tie
Tie and I got to talk with these two mamans and the driver in
munikituba the whole time.  It's funny because as soon as you say
something like, "mbote!" or "afaso!" or "ba mundele me kwizawa!"
everyone just busts up laughing and I know I say that every week but I
can't get enough of it.

One of his investigators (to be baptized on Saturday!!!) is this
awesome 19 year old kid who moved from France.  He's wicked smart,
loves to read, and speaks the most beautiful French you ever heard.
Incredible.  Such a breath of fresh air haha.

On Friday I got to give the district meeting lesson on adjusting our
lessons to the needs of our investigators.  It was a great experience.
 I cried, of course, so I think that means the Spirit was there at
some point.  We went out teaching with Jhostavie again, and then we
came back and Elder Hatch had sent me a number from Cameroon because
someone tried to call me.  I called the number, and as soon as the
picked up I knew exactly who it was.  It was my friend Landry who is
one of the coolest guys I've ever met.  I worked with him with Elder
Zurcher.  He wanted to tell me some really good news, but wanted to
tell me in person so he asked when I was coming back to Cameroon so he
could tell me.  I didn't know what to tell him, but I really hope I
get to go back so I know what the heck happened with him!!!

Also we forced an 11 year old girl to let us help her do dishes haha,
so that was fun.  We basically just walked over and started doing them
without asking.  If you ask, they'll always say no.  So we just help!
They laugh and try to get you to stop but they'll eventually let you
do it if you just keep going.

It was Elder Ndayizeye's birthday on Saturday, and to celebrate that
night, we in Foucks ate ice cream and Oreos in his honor! He wasn't
there to enjoy the ice cream, but we told him all about it.  Earlier
that day I got to the baptism of an old investigator of mine,
Chaldrey.  She was great.  I'm so happy for all these people who are
taking on them the name of their Savior.  I always tell them it's like
they're wearing a soccer jersey with Jesus' name on the back for the
rest of their life and that everyone who sees them should know which
team they're representing.  That usually strikes home!  She's excited,
I'm excited, we're all excited.

I contacted our taximan on the way home in Munikituba also.  He was so
razzled.  He kept telling me it's the first time a white guy's ever
talked to him in his own language, and he wanted to know all about us
and asked us all these questions about our church and says he's gonna
come to the Mvoumvou branch.  His name was Dubernet...so...Africa.

On Sunday we had TWENTY FOUR investigators at church.  A million
people wanted to talk to us afterwards, including a member who wanted
a blessing, and then finally we got to talk with Parfait who is
getting ready for his own baptism, came back and were surprised by the
other elders with a delicious brinner of fatty pancakes and a pan of
eggs and fried bacon (bits).  We played catch phrase and had more ice
cream.  Life is good in the Congo.

I discovered some chaismus writing in Isaiah 2, which I couldn't find
in any other manual so I was pretty proud of that!  I'm sure someone's
found it before, but I was as stoked as a missionary can get.  It's
like the only thing I have to be excited about haha.  Cool scriptures,
cute prayers, baptisms, people coming to church...after all, what else
is there in life?

Well hey - I love and miss you all tons.  Mother's Day is coming up,
and that will be the last Skype session I have before I go home.
Crazy...less than 8 months now.  That's how long I was in France!  It
will fly by, then I will fly home, and I hope you will come to say
hello!  Anyway, that's a long ways away.  For now - I'm sold into this
work!!!

Have an awesome week.  Don't be down on life, because Christ is risen
and He's got something so much bigger in store for you if you give Him
a chance!  So, keep your head up, tackle your problems head on.  Put
on the armor of God and there's nothing that can stop you!!! And if
all that fails, for whatever it's worth know I love you and I'm
praying for you.

April 21

Hello to everyone!

Crazy week.  On Tuesday we went on splits, so I went with Elder Wright
in his sector and it was really fun.  On the way to our first
rendez-vous I asked the guy calling all the bus stops if I could do
his job, and he said yes.  So I leaned over out the window, started
making the kissy noise (it's a way to call people here.  I know.
Weird.) and hollering "Fond Tie Tie Fond Tie!!!"  The people in the
bus were dying.  People on the side of the street were dying.  I was
dying.  The driver was dying.  One guy actually called the bus over,
so I tapped on the roof and the driver pulled over, but thankfully we
stopped before he died completely.  The best part is that we had no
more places in the bus, so I called the bus over for no reason.  It's
ok because a maman in the front got out and let him in because she
thought it was so funny.  To avoid any certain deaths, however, I
decided to let the "controller" have his job back, to the dismay of
the passengers.  It was a good time haha.

Anyway, I met a lot of their investigators, one of whom I'd welcomed
at our church one day and redirected him to their church for the next
week.  He still remembered me!  Ulrich - the director of an elementary
school.  He's really cool.  On the way there we walked along this
river bed where there were 3 or 4 completed houses that had sunk 3/4
of the way into the river bed because every big rain the mud comes
through and covers everything in its path - even houses haha.  So that
was cool.  While we were sitting with Ulrich in the school, a kid came
in, grabbed a broken shovel and banged on it to call class.  African
school bells.  Awesome.

At the end of the day I did another baptismal interview with an 11
year girl who is as smart as I am, so that was a little unnerving.
She was so great.  Very intelligent.  Asked a lot of great questions.
She lives with her parents on the wharf, so our interview took place
on her cement floor by candlelight.  What a unique experience.  On the
way home we were backed up in traffic because, believe it or not,
there was just a tire sitting up in the middle of the road, and no one
wanted to move it.  Africa haha.

On Wednesday we went to a member's house to teach her husband and kid,
so that was fun.  They knew the missionaries a long time ago, but they
were just as excited to talk with us.  The member even offered an
interpretation to the dream I had about being a pilot.  She said
"maybe it just means you'll be a leader and help people find their way
and stuff like that!" so that was really cool to think about.  More
career opportunities...hmmm...

Their neighbors are also members, so we sat down with the mom of a
girl who's been coming to church for over a year and wants to be
baptized.  We asked if it was ok if we taught her daughter and she was
very happy to say yes.  She makes her own yoghurt and offered us some.
 So good.  She taught us how to make it, so I'm gonna try to do that
again.  It's been a while!  Oatmeal is getting a little old, too.  I'm
tired of sifting out little critters haha.

We did our weekly planning on Thursday, and got a phone call from the
Baileys telling us that Elder Gelinas got his visa and plane tickets
to Gabon and he would leaving for Libreville the next morning at 8! So
that was pretty abrupt!  We had our last full day together, and then
the Baileys fed us this delicious cajun chicken pasta and then took us
back to our apartment to help him pack and then they took him away!
It was so sudden.  I miss him already.

District meeting on Friday was great - the Baileys shared with us a
video on Easter called "Because of Him" which apparently was a huge
hit on YouTube!  Look it up if you can!  It's great.  Just a reminder
what He did for us.  Elder Etherington and I had our first full day
just the two of us (Will Smith anyone...?).  It started great - our
taximan gave us a free ride all the way out to Mpita (that means
nothing to you, but it was far), all because we talked to him about
the Gospel.  So many blessings for sharing your testimony!

President Cook came through on Saturday morning, so we met him for
lunch at the Baileys and had the best corn chowder of my entire life,
complete with homemade rolls and just so good. Cookies and brownies,
oh my.  I got to have an interview with President, and that's always
awesome.  We talked about Brazzaville being a possibility for the
Americans with our new mission president coming in July - his name is
still unknown, but we know he's from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, from Lumbumbashi and served in Cote d'Ivoire and speaks English
apparently.  That will be a crazy difference, but we're all excited.
It'll be sad to leave President though.  This will be my 3rd one.
Yikes.

We went from there to our baptism - brother Van.  It went smooth as
butter, as soon as everyone showed up to do their job! I was super
stressed because first the chairs weren't set up, and then Van wasn't
there, and then Ghostavie wasn't there to baptize him, and then Gracia
wasn't there to lead the service, and then and then and then and on
top of all of it President was there asking where everyone was.  But
everyone came eventually, and it was awesome.  I loved it.

Easter Sunday was awesome.  Well.  When we woke up in the morning, I
noticed that the kitchen door was open.  Then I saw Elder Wright and
Johnston's stuff out on the veranda.  Then I was suspicious, so I
asked Elder Wright who said he had no idea why it was out there.
Turns out we got robbed in the night.  Someone climbed up the balcony
from outside and came right in the kitchen, stole our DVD players,
took the other Elders' backpacks, emptied all the brochures and
scriptures, took our phones and Elder Etherington's watch.  The last
stuff was on our desk.  In our room.  So that was the creepiest part,
knowing that he'd come in our room and took stuff right next to us.
BUT we were super thankful that God protected us, and that the thief
didn't, for some reason, take any of the money that was on our desk or
the kitchen table or the other elders' desks.  World's worst thief.
Anyway.  We're safe, and we're locking our kitchen door, so it's ok.

We had 22 people at church.  Incredible.  We met new people and old
people and members and friends.  The President was in Dolisi...no news
on going up there yet.

I love you all and I'm thankful I lived to preach another day.  This
work is so great.  So many miracles and tender mercies.  Life is
wonderful and beautiful.  Stop to smell the roses (if you live in a
country that can grow them).

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Garland

April 14

Mbote a beno !!!

What a week.  We went to the beach after writing home last week and
spent a couple hours soaking in the sun with a bunch of naked Africans
who came screaming over to us when we pulled out the soccer ball and
the cooler of potatoe salad and ham and cheese sandwiches and
chips...we gave them the ball to play with and ate our food
tranquilly, though we had some stragglers who were eyeing us the whole
time.  Eventually, however, we got up and walked over to this
extremely long volleyball net (we drew our own lines, it's ok) and the
Baileys bought us drinks and we had a blast and got sun-blasted and it
was awesome.  I love Africa.  And I love the beach.  I just might be
in the best mission in the world!

Well on Tuesday we had a great time with Parfait again, except that
when we got there there was a movie on of a little kid looking at some
tablet thing, and I thought to myself, "that could definitely be
Ender's Game" and then the next scene there was Harrison Ford and I
said out loud, "THAT IS DEFINITELY ENDER'S GAME" which was followed by
Elder Gelinas', "Can you please turn off the TV?"  He saw the look in
my eyes haha.  It's ok because I usually would've done the same thing
except that was like my favorite book when I was a kid so I was rocked
a little more than I usually am :P

We went to see our recent convert Danny who speaks but you can't
understand him so you just keep going along anyway, and then we went
to sit down with Van, but he gave us the "I'm coming!" and 45 minutes
later showed up, so we didn't really have time to talk with him.
During those 45 minutes Elder Etherington explained that a new Pokémon
came out and Elder Gelinas and myself were enthralled all the way
until Van showed up.  Throwback.

On Wednesday I wrote out my testimony in Munikituba, so that was fun.
We went to Darcine's, but she wasn't there, but we got to talk to her
oldest daughter who is 17 but looks 23, which is weird because she
also wants to speak every language in the world and travel all over
the place and plays piano and writes music.  So we're already best
friends.  Also she wants to be baptized.  So we're especially best
friends.

Then we sat down with Papy at the church (the taxi which brought us
there, by the way, gave it to us for free in exchange for a brochure,
hallelujah) and talked about life and Jehovah and it was really great
until this big guy came through the gate to talk with us.  His name
was Rad.  He was super nice, so we invited him to sit down with us
while we were waiting for our next rendez-vous to show up.  By divine
Providence, he never did.  Rad sat down and introduced himself and
then I saw the tears well up in his eyes.  Oh no.  I had to fight
myself, and I had no idea why he was even about to cry.  Well he
starts to explain that a couple days ago the taxi company he worked
for (probably just some old guy who owns a couple cars) laid off
everyone, and so he had no more job.  Then the landlord of the house
he was renting threw him out of the house because he hadn't paid the
last 3 months' rent because the job he was working hadn't yet paid him
and then laid him off without paying him.  He had since been living on
the street with his wife and 4 kids, and was graciously welcomed by
some woman into her house for a couple days while he looked for money
to pay the other rent.  After those couple of days, however, Rad was
thrown out again with his family and since then he had been walking
around town looking for somebody to help or something to do to make
enough money to convince the woman to let them stay a little longer
until he was stable.  At the end of all this, we could only sit there
in agony, knowing we couldn't offer him money (according to our
rules).  We ended sharing some scriptures with him and offering
spiritual counsel, and inviting him to pray with us.  He said the
prayer, annndd I lost it.  It was probably the most sincere prayer
I've ever heard in my entire life, as he begged God to bless and watch
over his wife and kids, which he named off one by one, and asked for
the strength to continue looking and thanked God for the trials in his
life that would bring him closer to his Lord.  It was heart-wrenching,
lemme tell ya.  We said amen, and I stood up and gave the big man a
big hug.  We haven't seen him since, but we've been praying for him.

Thursday was sweet.  I went on splits with Elder Hatch, which is
always a pleasure.  He came over into his old sector to work with us,
so that was cool.  We saw Parfait again, and then on our way to see
Elvis and Armel we took a cent-cent taxi all the way to OCH, and from
the moment I sat in the taxi I asked the maman sitting next to me to
squeeze, because Elder Hatch is really tall.  I said the last part in
Kikongo, which got everyone's attention, and for the next 15 minutes I
chatted with and contacted the driver all in Munikituba! It was so
cool!!! I loved it.  I've been keeping a journal of phrases and
grammar and vocab, so I have several pages of notes.  I'm actually
getting pretty good! I'm excited to bear testimony when I get back ;)

Later that day we were talking to Raoul, a recent convert who had a
problem because this girl in his neighborhood recently told him she
loves him, and he didn't know what to do.  We had to have the dating
talk again.  Africans don't understand the concept of dating.  It's
really hard to explain, actually, haha.  We have to tell them that you
take time getting to know someone before you just invite them into
your house to make babies.  It was a great talk, and he was really
excited to try it out.  "What, you just...eat together?  Go on walks
together?" YES RAOUL!  It's that easy!  So funny.

Elder Johnston came into my sector on Friday for splits, but before we
had district meeting, and that was another great experience.  Sister
Bailey shared with us rice pudding, and then this amazing talk by Tad
R. Callister about being a consecrated missionary.  So good.  You
should all look it up, especially if you're a missionary!  Anyway, It
was the first time I've worked with Elder Johnston since we were on
splits with his trainer Elder Schmidt about a year ago, and he's
become a great missionary.  He knows his scriptures super well, and is
always ready to give an awesome example to help explain some principle
or another.  We added another 5 baptismal dates to our schedule when
we went back to Darcine's and talked to her kids and Yannick, her
cousin, about it.  Well, we were just talking about the Restoration
when Maya, Darcine's oldest daughter, says, "so what do I have to do
to get baptized!" High fives went all around.  Might've even been a
fist bump.

Saturday went by fast because of weekly planning and English class,
but it was great.  We went to the Beri family house hoping to find
maman Cecile, but we found one of her sons, Jean-Pape 23rd, the other
brother of "Stop" and "My Friend" who had recently been operated on
due to a hole in his stomach.  He was so happy to see us when we
walked up.  Maman wasn't there, but he had already pulled up chairs
for us, so we just sat down and chatted with him for a couple minutes.
 It was awesome.  And I quote, "I need to be baptized."  Welcome to
every day in Africa.

I tried to solve a problem with the computers in the genealogy center
in the church, but after 30 minutes on the phone with "IT" from
Kinshasa the problem still wasn't resolved, so I passed it on to
President Caillet so we could go home.  President Caillet was amazed
that someone could have access to the computer from all the way in
Kinshasa, "It's magic!" he said, with his deer in the headlights look.
 Hilarious.

The next day at church we found out that the problem still wasn't
solved, but it'll be ok.  Before church started, instead of welcoming
people Elder Hatch asked if I could do a baptismal interview for an
old investigator of mine.  I was so excited.  We went behind the
church and for a little over an hour just talked about the Savior and
the commandments and the sciptures and all these things that will draw
us closer to God.  In the end, she had a testimony that the things we
teach are true and I passed her for a baptism on Saturday.  It was so
cool! I'd never done that before, but I'm really excited to be able to
do it in the future.  These people have the most incredible
testimonies, and I'm super lucky to be able to listen to them through
their interviews.  We had a million people at church, LITERALLY.
People who were there for the first time, people who we thought had
disappeared, people who have been there forever, it was wonderful.  We
just kept tallying all the faces that walked in.  Papy the guardian
turned Mormon gave an incredible talk on being called to serve in the
Church.  He understands how to preach...it was quite the change in
pace from your average read from the Bible Dictionary talk haha.
Anyway, we got a lot of phone numbers for people in our branch and for
Mpaka, and afterwards talked with Gerlaine, Monami and Arreter and
Jean Pape 23rd's sister.  She's been at church for over a year now,
and finally realized on Sunday that she knows the church.  We helped
her come to that realization as we shared scriptures with her about
the Spirit and she said, "well that's what I've been feeling this
whole time!"  We were like "duhhh!" but ended up saying something a
little nicer.  BUT it's always such a cool experience to watch the
look on peoples' faces when they go from doubt to certainty.  Like a
gear in their head finally got rid of the pebble that's been holding
the correct functions from turning.  Bing!  Lights on, annndd action!

We got home that night and to celebrate another successful Sunday I
made a batch of 64 cookies, which we ate with ice cream last night.
Then it rained during the night, so I actually used my sheet to cover
me instead of just using it to cover my eyes!  It was a miracle.  God
knows us perfectly.

I'm so thankful for this work.  I'm thankful for all the people who
sacrificed so I could come out here.  You are all in my prayers every
day.  I love you and I'm so excited to be able to share more about it
with you on my return, whether it be in French or English.  The more I
read the scriptures and manuels like Preach My Gospel, the more I know
about the wonders of God and how marvelous His kingdom will be once it
is refined by the Refiner!  Can you imagine?! How beautiful is the
Earth already?  Now imagine it without all the trash and garbage and
filth and scum that we've brought here.  Ohhhh man will it be pretty.
I hope I'm still allowed to take pictures.  It will be undescribable
with words.

Have a wonderful week! :)