November 25

Hello again everyone!

What a great week.  I love the Congo.  I love Africa, basically.
Central Africa, anyway.

Last Monday after writing home we got all our groceries, came home and
made food for a potluck that we threw over at the other apartment.  It
was super fun to sit around with the other elders and just chat about
life and whatnot.

On Tuesday we ran into some guy on the side of the road who came up to
us while we were walking and who first blessed us, then sent us on a
mission, then tried to give us 500 CFA (a dollar), then told us he's
seen the glory of God.  It was a very interesting experience.  He
proceeded to put his hand on my badge, then told me to hold out my
right hand, then said, "you see that?" and said nothing more about it.
 Then he asked if we wanted to be visionaries.  When we said we were
just missionaries he said, "that's right" and continued on his merry
way.  I wonder sometimes about what these kinds of people do in their
free time, or what they're like at Christmas parties...

Anyway, on Wednesday we were taking a taxi and you always cram as many
people as possible in the car, so Elder Brockbank and I were first in
the back, and then a girl sat next to us, and then this big fat guy
stands next to the door, looks at us and goes "well that's not right.
that's not going to work! you guys have to get out." and basically
tried to convince us that since there were two of us we had to leave,
because otherwise he wouldn't fit in the car.  It was hilarious.  Like
it was our problem that he was too fat to get in the car.  Eventually
he got mad and walked away, yelling at us in kikongo, which is
typical.

Speaking of kikongo, I'm still learning a ton! I even ordered a taxi
in kikongo today to get home.  It's awesome.  Elder VanAusdal made
biscuits and gravy.  He's awesome.

On Thursday we got a yogurt cup from a recent convert which was super
delicious and inspired me to change the recipe I've been using.  I'm
hoping I can still replicate it back home.  Some of the ingredients
don't match.  Powdered milk, for example.  I don't even remember what
liquide milk tastes like...

Another investigator gave us a dogbowl of little crunchy things
that...looked like dogfood, but were really good.  I promised I'd give
her some cookies that I'd made.  That night we made "shmorgishborg"
which is chili on rice on french fries and tastes like the angel
Gabriel himself made it.

Friday was pretty normal except I met some random Cameroonian from
Baminda in the market.  We stopped and talked to him for a while and
invited him to church and I invited him to make us njammanjamma, but
not really.  We did talk about it though.  So good.  I swear I'm going
to take random leaves off random trees from back home, wash them, boil
them, and mash them up and you will see how delicious these countries
are.

On Saturday we went to the church to teach English, but no one came to
our class and we had to wait for the other companionship to finish
teaching their class so Elder Brockbank and I played piano.  One more
talent of my companion's: he's a musical genius.  I could listen to
him play piano all day, and then he will completely turn it around and
talk about football and wrestling.  Crazy. People are so talented.  Oh
and that investigator I promised cookies to came to English class and
I forgot her cookies and then she wasn't at church sooo I ate them.
All of them.  But I plan on making more so it's ok.

Church is always great and runs like a normal American Sunday.  We
came home and made shepherd's pie and watched the Best Two Years which
was hilarious and wonderful and we went to bed and woke up and played
basketball and here I am!

Thank you for being incredible.  I know you're incredible because you
are the spiritual offspring of God, your Heavenly Father, and he wants
you to be "perfect, even as {He} is perfect!"  God wouldn't give us
commandments that are impossible to accomplish, which means you are
capable of becoming perfect! Jesus Christ Himself followed that
example, and asked us to do everything He did.  That means that
miracles exist.  That means that baptism is essential to enter into
the kingdom of God.  That means that the Atonement is real, and that,
brothers and sisters, is the most important fact of all.  It is the
most important event that has ever, or will ever take place on this
earth.  Without it, we would be a lost cause, drowning in the guilt of
our daily wrongdoings that weigh us down when we are not repentant.
But the Atonement DID happen and we CAN be saved, if we choose to be.
Christ took our sins on Him, but not our responsability.  You are
saved when you accept Him as your Saviour and Redeemer apply the
principles that He taught us through example and scripture.  The best
part is that it's free!  All He asks is a broken heart and a contrite
spirit.  I promise it is real.  I live it, and I love it, and you can
too.  It is never too late.

Elder Garland

November 18

Ok so I have 30 minutes to write about the week, which usually takes
me an hour, so here we go...

I made yogurt and hamburgers Monday night, and they both turned out
delicious, not bad for my first time!

On Tuesday we had a full load of people to see, which was a great
change of pace from working in Douala.  I love it.  Elder Brockbank is
a really hard worker, which I love.  We bought ourselves a mango off
the street and got yelled at by a few people for standing in the shade
to eat it.  Apparently that's rude, but only if you're white haha.

During one of our lessons I had a heart-wrenching experience where I
was talking to a woman who was sewing and not really paying attention,
and then right outside a child starting screaming as his mother
mercilessly wailed on him with some stick or another.  My heart sank,
my stomach churned, and though my mouth was producing words I was
silently praying for the poor soul.  It's one of those culture things
that I don't think I'll ever be ok with or ever get used to.  I
absolutely hate it.  Anyway.  Needless to say we didn't spend much
more time at that lesson.

Wednesday was nice because the Bybees brought us these oat-flour
muffins that were actually quite tasty.  They don't eat chocolate or
sugar or white flour, but they're awesome and have the greatest
stories about working in Kinshasa as the Public Affaires couple.

We walked about 45 minutes down these railroad tracks to get to one of
our sectors, it was crazy.  I'm learning so much Kikongo so fast.
It's different here because EVERYone speaks it.  In Douala there were
like 20 different languages, and you never know where someone is from.
 But we call our taxis in kikongo and order food and do a lot more, so
it's been really fun.  I'm loving it.

That night Elder VanAusdal made this delicious sweet and sour chicken
and fried rice that I died for.  Chicken is something that you can't
find in Cameroon for cheap, and here it's the cheapest meal.  We eat a
lot of chicken.

We had a great district meeting on Thursday, and then went out for the
day.  On our way to our first rendez-vous this maman holding a table
on her head with one hand and holding a giant water jug in the other
hand made a B line for me and started yelling at me in a mix of
incomprhensible French and kikongo.  She shoved the jug in my face and
was very upset but I had no idea why.  We just kept walking while she
yelled threats at us over her shoulder.  It was one of my more fun
moments.

During another rendez-vous the investigator took a picture of us while
we were talking, and then we heard the very obvious CLICK of her phone
as she took another one while we were praying.  It was hilarious.

I started exercising again, but not like I used to.  My companion has
this daily program that ressembles something like P90-X so it's been
really intense and let's just say I didn't have the easiest time for
the first two days haha.

The only thing that happened on Friday was that we sat down with a
friend of an investigator or turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness,
and...we all know how that ended.

We had two baptisms on Saturday, so we had a great day.  We also teach
English on Saturday nights, and it's been a great experience so far.
It reminds me of teaching in France, but with the intelligence of
teaching my students at BYU.  I've loved it so far.  I hope I continue
to love it.

Sunday was as awesome as it always is.  We had a lot of people at
church and then we went home and planned for the week and ate
pancakes.

Now it's Monday and I won when we played bump during basketball so I'm
kindof stoked about that.  I do miss playing soccer though, so I hope
I can motivate everyone to play next week.  I'll keep you posted!

The Congo is awesome.  There are enormous piles of trash everywhere.
I walk around on beach sand everywhere.  The taxis are blue.  The
people are hilarious.  The food is delicious (saka saka, cuanga,
bisap, etc.).  My companions are incredible missionaries.  The work is
progressing at an unprecedented speed.  We literally do not have time
to see all the people who want to learn.  I miss you all, but I am so
busy here that I've come to learn what it means to lose yourself in
the work.  Whenever I hear from you it lifts my spirits and reminds me
that there is still a life for me after I get home, but I'm not
exactly looking forward to it.  Maybe it's because I know my time
isn't nearly close to being up.  I love it here.  I have seen miracle
after miracle after miracle.  I can say with assurance and pure
conviction that God exists.  He knows you.  He loves you.  He cares
about you.  Pray to Him and tell Him how you feel about Him!

I love you too, even though that might have a little less impact haha.
 Be nice to your brothers and sisters and parents and I will see you
soon enough! :)

Elder Garland

November 11

Mboté everyone!

What a crazy sauce week.

I am currently in Congo, scraping for time to write before the time
runs out, so I'll make it snappy!

On Tuesday we spent all morning helping Conrad clean up his front yard
(more pulling weeds), and then we said good bye to some more of our
investigators before heading back home.  On the way we helped this guy
push his car into his driveway, and then he walks with us for a few
steps, pulls aside and whispers "Elders, I'm from the Church, I just
got back from vacation of 50 days," but was trying to make it quiet so
his family didn't hear haha.  It was awesome, I love finding random
members like that.

We had our last district meeting on Wednesday, after which I got to
say good bye to more people because my visa officially came in and I
was due to leave Thursday at 12:30.  That night we were supposed to
have an awesome fish dinner with one of the members, but she ended up
feeling sick and made us fufu with gumbo sauce.  It's things like that
that made me realize God has a sense of humor.  That was my least
favorite meal at the beginning of my mission, and it became one of my
favorites by the end.

That night, the other elders and I watched 17 Miracles (AWESOME movie
if you've never seen it) and Elder Massé made brownies for everyone
which turned out to be probably the most delicious brownies I've ever
eaten.  Then I didn't sleep.

Thursday was when the real fun happened.  I played as much guitar as I
possibly could before the Gaileys came to take me and Elder Morin
away.  We said our goodbyes and drove off to the airport, where I
didn't even have to pay a dime for my bags.  We had a sad goodbye with
the Gaileys, and then we tried to get some Cameroonian jerseys before
getting on our plane.  We ended up not getting any, which is actually
good because they're even cheaper in Congo haha.  The security was
awesome.  They checked our bags, and Elder Morin was carrying a
Christmas package for Elder Lundberg.  They asked him what the package
was and he says, "I don't know, someone just gave it to me." haha, it
was so funny.  They were like, woaahhh you can't just take packages
from people! Then they opened it up and saw wrapping paper and let us
on without doing any more damage.  But if we were in America...haha
yeah you're done.

On the flight to Brazzaville (we saw Kinshasa and the Congo River!)
all the announcements were in English, French, and Lingala.  It was
awesome.  We ate a lunch of fried plantains, fish cubes, Coke, and
carrot salade.  Delicious.  When we landed, there were a bunch of
broken down planes growing trees that lined the airstrip.  Comforting.
They kicked us off the plane so we could go into the airport and get
back on the same plane 15 minutes later.  While we were waiting I
manage to karate chop myself in the throat with my extended backage
handle, so that was really embarrassing.  Then we were on the plane,
sitting next to the U.S. Ambassador for Congo, which made for an
interesting flight.  We landed in pouring rain, and after getting our
bags we met the Bybee's and the other elders who took us to our home,
which took 2 hours of traffic to get to.  We passed probably 7 or 8
broken down cars in the middle of the road.  Finally I was able to
relax.  Elder VanAusdal had prepared shepherd's pie because he
remembered me saying I wanted it really bad while we were still both
in Bonabéri.  He is an angel, and it was delicious.  I didn't have any
time to unpack, so I basically just took out my sheets and blanket and
fell asleep in another air conditioned bedroom (hallelujah, except the
power goes off about every other day and we sleep without AC).

On Friday I walked around with my new companion Elder Brockbank, who
is awesome, for probably 4 hours in the beach sand that makes up the
roads of our sector, as we got ratéd from rendez-vous to rendez-vous.
He taught me quite a bit of kikongo, and that has already proved
useful.  They yell at us all day, "mundele mundele!" which means
"white!" haha, it's adorable.  I imagine it'll get old here pretty
soon, but so far it's better than "hee haw!" or "chinois!".  We met
some of the members and investigators despite all the people who were
gone, and they're all really cool.  Finally I got to come home and
unpack and get organized.  Elder Baker made a delicious carbanara, but
the power went out, so we had to flip on the generator.  Unfortunately
we have to turn it off before we go to bed, but there are worse things
in the world, like a 9 day virus that keeps you in bed all day.

We finally got to watch Conference this weekend, it was AWESOME.  I
just love Conference.  I can't wait to get the Liahona and read all
the talks again.  Uchtdorf was on fire, like he always is.  Oh by the
way the church building is BEAUTIFUL.  They actually have a church
building and a huge front yard lined with beautiful flowers and other
foliage.  They have a cobblestone driveway and parking lot.  They have
a basketball court with backboards and nets.  They have a beautiful
sacrament room with an organ.  The branch president is an incredible
man.  He actually understands how the church works.  I'm so excited to
be here.

We taught English class after Conference and it was super fun.  It
reminded me of being in France.

Conference on Sunday was just as awesome.  We came home and planned
for the week and then we made chicken alfredo and then I made brownies
which turned pretty good considering I used chocolate milk powder for
cocoa powder haha.

ANYway I have a lot to talk about an no time to talk, so I'm sorry but
I'll probably have more time next week.  I love you all so much and I
promise the Spirit is universal no matter what country you're in or
what language you speak.  I love the Lord and I love His work.  I
can't wait to see you all again, but in the meantime, I'm doin pretty
good :) I hope and pray you are all as well!

Elder Garland

November 4

Gotcha ! I’m still in Cameroon, but my papers are all in so my visa should be here by tomorrow or so, and then I’ll be out either Wednesday or Thursday.  So the NEXT letter you get will be in Congo.

In the meantime, we’ve been having an awesome week.  On Wednesday I got to see my first convert from Akwa, Aldrich.  He was in town for a couple days (he’s been up in Baminda finishing things from school) and wanted to see me before he went back, so he came all the way across the bridge to say hi.  He gave me a little Thai coin when I told him I was leaving for Congo.  It was so nice, I’m sure he really just wanted to give me anything so I could remember him so he grabbed the first thing in his pocket haha. 

That night the Gaileys came over to drop off a present—Elder Graham!  He was in passing on his way to Kinshasa; the first white missionary to ever make it there.  Since he’s finishing his mission and there’s this big mission conference in Kinshasa where Elder Bednar will come to speak (our side of the mission is never invited…), President gave him special permission to come down for a couple days so he could meet Elder Bednar before he goes home.  At the same time, Elder Bednar will be dedicating Gabon, which we’re all super excited about.  Sometime in the near future, the first missionaries will set foot in Gabon to preach the Gospel.  There will probably be two Africans and two North Americans, so we’re stoked.

Anyway, Elder Graham stayed the night with us.  We bought him beans and beignets and Djino and we chatted with him all night.  It was so good to see him; it had been several months.  Now it will be another 14 before I see him again :(

On Halloween we got to walk around with Elder Graham and say goodbye to some of his old friends and converts.  Their reactions to seeing him were classic.  It was a testimony to me of how much everyone loves him, and how hard he worked to earn their love.  I would hope that I work as hard as he did to earn that same love from the people I teach!  In the end, we were with a woman that Elder Graham had taught for a long time and then passed over to us, who we baptized, who was so happy to see Elder Graham that she just started crying.  She was SO happy, I wish I had recorded her reaction.  The Gaileys eventually came to pick him up though, and then she started crying again, but this time out of sadness.  Then Elder Graham started to cry, and then he started to pray but had to wait like 30 seconds after saying a broken “dear Heavenly Father,” so he could finish.  It was one of the saddest moments of my whole mission.  We shared a teary-eyed goodbye and then he was gone.

I had made plans with some of my converts from Akwa to see them on Friday, so I was really excited.  We sat down with Marcelle as her niece Kedi made us spaghetti omelettes (seriously just try it.  Cook some spaghetti.  Take a handful and mix it with two eggs, some diced onions, green peppers, and tomatoes.  Add a beef bouillion cube.  Fry it and let its succulence rock your newly africanized world), which of course were to die for.  We said a sad goodbye but I promised her, and a lot of other people, actually, that I’d come back to see them. 

The following story is real.  The next NINE people that we went to go see were all gone, had just left, were on vacation, or something that inhibited me from seeing them.  Lolita—gone, Madeleine—left, Yvette—just left, Philémon—working, Christiane—didn’t answer the door, Albert—not yet home, Rose—no one home, Roméo—just left.  It was the saddest thing of my life.  Something cool happened though as we were trecking back and forth across Douala.  We ran into this woman, Jackie, who lived for 12 years in Maryland and had been back for 5 and spoke with a perfect eastern US accent.  She had been to the church before but still thought we were all polygamists, something we straightened away immediately.  She even called New York “the Big Apple,” which made my day.  Then, as we were still talking, Lolita, the first convert I went to see, bumps into me holding Marius’ baby.  She led me across the street to say hi/bye to Sonya, the baby’s mom, who told us that Marius had just left, which didn’t surprise me in the least.  I was just happy to see a friendly face.  We went to the church to use the bathroom but it was locked, but lo and behold there was Marius and Victor (Mbenghe, the father of Gaetan, who I worked with a bunch when I first got to Douala, who left recently to Lumbumbashi on a mission) so I got to say some more goodbyes.  They are seriously some of my favorite people on the planet.  If you read any of my posts on Sunday from when I was still in Akwa it probably says something about Marius and being amazing.  Anyway, we decided to go back and try to see if Albert had come home yet, and right before we got there we got a call from Elder Thibault saying that Roméo was home and that his daughter needs my email address.  Well Albert still wasn’t home, so we walked all the way back to Roméo’s and were confused until he told us himself that he had seen us walking into his house, so his first thought was “I need to buy them a fish!” which he proceeded to do.  The woman didn’t wrap them up fast enough though, and by the time he ran to the house we had already given up hope and left.  He then ran down the street to see if we were at another friend’s place, then checked another place, then started calling everyone he knew in the area to see if we were there.  Eventually he called his daughter who is at school in Buea (pronounced Boy-ah) to call the other elders to call me to tell us he was home.  Apparently while he was on the phone with her she reminded him that she needs my email address, probably to apologize for never making me banane malaksé which she had promised when she lost a bet I made with a card trick, muahaha. 

Anyway, although now cold, the fish was delicious, as well as the Djino and baton de manioc that came on the side.  We left Roméo’s on a full stomach and headed to the Tignyemb’s, the family I taught with Elder Zurcher, whose parents got married and who were all baptized the next day.  I was really happy to see them.  They’d started putting pictures of Christ around there humble “living room” and had bought some new hymn books and scriptures.  I had to wait a while for everyone to get home, but it was a very pleasant reunion.  Right when we were about to leave they forced us to stay to eat ndolé and boiled plantains which was delicious.  We got home the latest we had ever been due to traffic across the bridge.  As we were walking, I stepped in a gutter going across the sidewalk and nearly spread my pearly whites all over the cement.  Luckily my Spiderman reflexes allowed me to catch myself before my face met pavement.  It was still super embarrassing, but I think it was dark enough that not a whole ton of people saw.  It’s just unfortunate because I’m white and stick out like a sore thumb, or palm in this case.  Basically, three mangez-vous in one day.  Not bad, as Barack Obama would say.  In a meme.

Marlyse, another one of my favorite people on Earth, demanded that we come over the next morning because we didn’t get to see her the day before.  Since we were already going into town to see one of my old investigators get baptized (Greenville, an anglophone who lives with Dr. Samuel who comes from forever away to church and to be taught) we decided it would be ok to see her.  She’s the best.  She made a wicked good ndolé and fried ripe plantains which is my all-time favorite thing to eat I decided, cooked up macabo and unripe plantains and bought us a Coke and it was one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time.  She spoke to me in Douala for the majority of the time, but thankfully Yanu, another member, was there to help me work through it.  I learned a lot, but I still want a book.  I’ll be learning Kikongo soon enough, but I love Douala.  It’s such a fun language and is nothing like the other languages I’ve studied (did I mention I was studying a Russian/French dictionary for the last couple months?).  Anyway Douala is great, but learning it isn’t super convenient unless you’re constantly around someone who speaks the language and can explain different grammar rules and whatnot.  One could say, “alinghe se mba na na si bi topo na tila Douala bwam gita, nde emala onyolana na sengha son !”

We left Marlyse’s after seeing her kids Nina and Melchior for the last time and with more promises that I hope I can hold.  From there we walked to Greenville’s baptism, which didn’t actually start for another hour or so, but it was a great service anyway, and for some reason I was asked to give a short talk on the Restoration, which I did with pleasure.  The best part was when he bore his testimony at the end.  There is nothing so pure as the freshly acquired testimony of someone who has just been baptized.  I love it. 

Upon getting back we got to see Conrad and his little cousin, so that was nice.  We made a date to come back to help him with more yard work tomorrow.  That will be fun.  I’ll probably just end up pulling weeds again.

Sunday was fast Sunday, and that went super well.  I think there were 5 kids who got up to bear their testimonies, which is just about as pure as that of a new member’s.  Melchior surprised me by showing up to church in Bonabéri to say goodbye and he got up and bore his testimony too and talked about how much he loves me and Elder Zurcher and yes I cried, sorry.  Since it was my last chance to bear my testimony and to say goodbye, I shot up to the pulpit to bid the branch members adieu and to tell them what I know to be true.  For as rocky as my English talk was at the baptism (honestly, so hard to talk about the Gospel or pray in English, I had to get translations like 3 times), the Spirit led the words flow out super smooth in French, which I was very thankful for.  I got to take a lot of pictures with the members after church, even though I was sad that one of my converts wasn’t able to make it due to lack of means to get the hour and a half to church.  I probably won’t ever see her again, which breaks my poor little heart.  I had to call her and tell her that I wasn’t going to be there anymore and she promised she would do everthing she could to be at church, but in the end I didn’t get to say goodbye.  SAD.  I’m thankful for the people I was able to see though, and I’m looking forward to meeting new ones later this week!

 Other than that, we broke our fast with monster burritos that Elder Massé made with a half a kilo of beef roast and fajita sauce mix from Elder Davis.  DELICIOUS.  I ate 3 annnddd didn’t fall asleep till probably midnight, even though I went to bed early.  Then I woke up at 5:53 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep so I just laid there and thought about everything and nothing.  Then we got up and played soccer and it was really fun and I scored and started writing a poem and now I’m here!  I was really sad to say goodbye to the other elders (again), but most of them are young enough in the mission that I’ll probably get to see them again.  So it was more like a, “till next time!”

I don’t exactly want to leave, but at the same time I’m excited.  I’m just glad I’m not travelling alone.  Elder Morin will make an awesome travel companion.  Speaking of companions, Elder Massé is seriously a champion among champions.  He took 4 years of high school French, spent 2 weeks there and speaks amazingly.  He’s really easy to get along with and makes amazing food.  He learns things ridiculously fast like guitar and Russian and Italian and Douala.  He’s hilarious and has really great taste in music.  He has a great vocabulary and acts his age.  He’s obedient and has an awesome testimony.  He’s charitable and runs extremely fast.  He’s patient with my stubborness and showers every day and night.  He’s a hard worker and knows random facts about everything, like the technical term for your first poop ever.  It’s been a short 2 transfers but I’ve loved it.  I’ve loved him, and I really hope I’ll see him soon.

In the meantime, I hope you all are having an amazing life.  It’s so fun if you make it fun.  So why the heck would you not make it fun?!  Sure there are down in the dumps times, but even those can pass quickly if you are seriously determined to make the most out of life.  One of my most favorite quotes is by Elder Holland when he said, “However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”

I testify that that is true!  Go to Him who has felt all of your sufferings, afflictions and pains!  That is, if you want to make life the most enjoyable thing in the world :)

Also, I love you.

Elder Garland