There's an awful lot you can tell about a person by their shoes

This week was pretty cool. It is super hard to work in the rain and mud but me and Hypote took to heart the principle of the lost sheep. We walked through water mid-way up our legs and through all sorts of mud to go see one person but she came to church which is super cool.

We had 7 investigators at church one was the little sister of Judith and another her friend. Now she is doing missionary work and is really getting involved in the church and seriously it is the best thing to see.

Elder Hypote got me this cool looking African shirt and it reminded me of religious clothing for other religions so on Tuesday when it poured all day long I took some fun photos with that thing.

I also worked super hard this week with Hypote and we found some great new investigators but something super sad happened to one of the most prepared investigators I had. He was sent back to his village by his boss because he decided to go to our church. It was so sad to say good bye we don’t know if we can bring him back to Cotonou because he is super far away and has nowhere to stay. He was just a week away from his baptism and the evil boss didn’t even pay his whole way home only half. He was left in the middle of nowhere he called us and we sent money through our phone to help him get home, but seriously it was such a sad day.

We have fun in our district we are eating a lot in the sector for some reason everyone we teach gives us food now and if you refuse anything is super rude.

Sorry not a whole lot was said this week the cyber is packed today and I have little time sorry.

Sunset in Africa

Our shoes after going out in the sector

Borrowing my companions shades

Helping Judith make pat

Doing the "Lionel" in the shirt Hypote gave me

Zen

A Change of Heart

This week was super cool. Last week I talked about leaving Congo, but really Mayani left on Tuesday. He will be missed, such a chill guy. This week I worked with Ellison and Ny till my companion came. I got to learn from them and they learned from me.

There are these weird insects with four wings and with a worm like body that come into the apartment by the dozens and fly around and drown in water and kill themselves by running into light bulbs and stuff.

Then my new companion came and we were super zealous together these first few days. We visited almost every member in our sector taught lessons like mad and fixed baptism dates like no other. It’s like we did one week’s worth of work in two days which was super fun.

I really thought I had more to say this week because it was so much stuff.

However I would just like to show that the sister we baptized last week strengthened my testimony so much of how this church can change people’s lives. She used to not smile a whole lot and she used to talk about having bad dreams and like a guilt that never left. Now she smiles all the time and says all her bad dreams have gone away.

She also could not speak French very well or read at all and we had to teach her every time with an interpreter. Now she speaks French and is starting to read and is growing her testimony as she reads the Book of Mormon each day. I’m so honored to have been an instrument in the hands of God to help and teach sister Judith. She is going through the big change of heart talked about in Alma 5:14. The lord knew she needed help and used me to help her. The gospel is true. And I love doing the Lord’s work.

Sorry not a lot of stories it seems when I get to Monday my head freezes a little especially when the week flew by.

A cool sunset

The day Mayani died

Weird bugs that come into our apartment

I made french toast

My new companion - Hypote

Leaving Congo

Transfers have happened and my good buddy Mayani is heading home. It has been a really good time with him. We got to finish our time together with a baptism of a super cool sister. I would use her name but on the blog it gets blocked out so it's kinda worthless. Anyway, she left a really bad relationship and many freindships in preperation to become a member, she is a super hard worker, and if she stays in the church everything in her life could change. She has already seen many changes.

I am staying in this village of Hevie for the transfer. After this transfer I will have done a fourth of my mission here. I will be working with the father of Ellison, Hypote, from the Ivory Coast. The apartment will be a family apartment with the Grandpa - Hypote, Dad - Ellison and the Son- Ny with just a random Elder Larson still there.

This week was packed with stuff. This last Monday we had an activity with President Morrin where we ate pizza and did skits.

Ellison got sick with some unknown sickness. Me and Mayani had to go on a huge adventure to get to the zone conference because our taxi didn't show up and it was pouring rain. It has been raining so much every road around is flooded, so to get to the cyber today we just had to walk right through the water.

I have been blessed to find some really prepared people to accept the gospel and I know a new family will soon be able to get married and join the church. Seeing the blessings of the gospel in other peoples lives is a super big testimony booster and somtimes I can see the change more than they can.

I did lots of other stuff this week, but the most important stuff has been said.

Getting soaked

The baptism

Eating at the ward mission leaders house

Are there seasons in Benin?

To answer my question I will say yes, there are seasons in Benin but not like you know. There is hot and humid with rain and there is hot and humid without rain. Sometimes it rains every once in a while sometimes it rains every day. For some reason the month of June it rains like every day which would seem nice because it gets colder but there is only one road to get to my sector and it’s dirt and my whole sector turns from dry desert into a mud slide. But we continue on destroying our shoes with mud up to our ankles.

Also, now is the season of corn. For some reason a bunch of corn stands have popped up everywhere. You can’t walk a few feet without seeing someone selling corn which is funny. I don’t know how any one wins when everyone sells the same thing right next to each other.

Despite the rain and the corn God continues to help his people! Normally when it rains no one comes to church and this Sunday it rained (it rained every day) but 9 investigators came to church and some of them were people I’ve wanted to come for forever. Like the husband of this person. There is a wife who brings their four little kids to church every week. Sometimes when they don’t have money for taxis they all take the one hour walk in the rain to come. I know it so tough on that family because these little kids are all wet, crying and tired when they get to church. But her faith is so strong she not baptized only because she is not married legally to her husband. So we just wanted the husband to come to church so we could help them get married, and this week he came. It is great seeing progress and that’s why I’m here.

I say time and time again the hardest thing on this mission is the food and the week before this I was forcing myself to eat the tomato sauce and rice so that I didn’t starve, but my brain and body kept refusing to take it in. So, this week we took a huge trip to the super market and I went ham buying all sorts of food. Yes, it was super expensive, well actually it was super cheap compared to America but living on 114 US dollars a month and with US priced food it was super expensive. But now I’m eating good until the food runs out... and I’m dreading that day.

But it was a very good week. I slept well I ate well and the work went well so I’m super blessed.

Some of the food I cooked this week. NOT RED SAUCE WITH RICE!

Teaching myself the piano

Teaching someone around a pile of "stuff"we helped her sort through to find seeds.

A bunch of pictures of my district (Ellison, Ny, Mayani, Larson) at the church.