The Last African Christmas

This week was kind of sad, because we had some disappointments. We met this super cool lady who really loved our message we have been teaching her. She is a widow and would read our brochures every night before going to bed. She came to church after our first lesson. It was two hours after church ended, but she still came. However, she just found out she has some friends or something in Senegal and will move there for 8 months, so we had to say good bye, which was rough.

We had some tough times in the sector not finding anyone who will progress however we were blessed with one Nigerian man who found us and really wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon. We taught him and he was so happy so we’re going to try to find one in English for him because all he wants is to read that book.

So, that was some of the ups and downs this Christmas season My comp Elder Kappel got really sick the last few days and couldn’t get out of bed. Luckily he is feeling better now which is a Christmas miracle!

This Christmas is a lot more festive than last years because I was blessed with the master cooking of Elder Uaua, a Tahitian who really likes to celebrate. We got tons of sodas and he made breaded chicken with sweet and sour sauce with some great rice and crepes for dessert and breakfast. Some of the best food I’ve eaten.

It’s really funny to see how Christmas is celebrated here. Not many things change other then there are random parades of people that walk down the streets blowing horns and playing drums. There were a few fireworks too but because this is highly Muslim populated area not much changed, kinda funny.

Nothing huge happened this week sadly, and we are going to have our Christmas party tomorrow so we will see if that is fun.

{Kaelyn here...Riley sent the letter as normal early Monday morning. Then a little later he CALLED HOME! It was so great to talk to him. We even got video chat to work for the first time.}

Call home for Christmas! (Kaelyn added this picture)

Our fridge stocked for Christmas

The water after washing my clothes

The Christmas Parades

Bringing the joy of Christmas to Islam

This week was the week before Christmas, but seriously this place does not change for Christmas. Luckily Elder Uaua had the Christmas spirit and put up some Christmas lights (pictured below) so we kinda were feeling the Christmas spirit.

We had a normal week in the sector just trying to find people. We found a few, and lots reject us. I have found this sector is highly Muslim populated, so that makes things interesting. I always said I wanted to teach a Muslim so I could help someone gain a testimony of Christ, which I had never done, and now about half of my investigators are nice Muslims that will let us talk to them. So, that is awesome. Maybe my wish will come true.

As the Christmas season comes around I’m thinking about doing more service. You would think I would find many service opportunities every day because everyone here does everything by hand. Well, that is true, however, no one wants to let us help because we are white and are dressed nice. Like people get mad at us for trying to help them. Even if they are struggling to carry something they would rather let the thing fall or they would rather die before letting us help them. Every time they DO let me help they are always surprised that a white person could know how to sweep or carry something. It’s really funny. They all applaud like it’s the first time I held a broom. I have found that people are used to just treating people that teach the gospel as “gods on earth” because that’s how the pastors like it. But we are not pastors. It’s weird when people treat us as if we are. They are surprised to find that we wash our own clothes and cook our own food. They say it is unjust for a man of god to do house work. It’s a weird culture thing. I work hard to get that out of peoples’ heads because just because you teach the gospel does not make you perfect, ever. I have a big testimony of this principal after coming here.

We had a dinner with a family this week to celebrate the holidays and I wore a traditional West African clothing made for me. It was super cool. We drank some of their flower fruit drink and it turned my poop blue, so that was crazy but I didn’t take a picture because that is gross.

Okay sorry if that was too personal or something just some of the adventures I’m having, nothing too spiritual yet because I’m working hard to find people but its coming along.

Christmas lights in the apartment

With Daniel

Me with kids in the sector

Boomba, traditional West African clothing

Me with Kappel in our boombas

Uaua, Kappel, Larson

Saying goodbye to Araphath, who is leaving for his mission to Nigeria

Two White Boys

Two white boys in Porto-Novo. One white boy is bad enough, but when you got two it’s a big deal. We got mobbed by kids this week coming out of school. They all needed to touch our skin, literally swarms of hundreds of kids around us all screaming “Yovo, Yovo!” It was kind of terrifying, but also kinda cool. I felt like a superhero even though we did nothing but give them handshakes and fist bumps.

Also, when you’re two white people, people become very interested in what you have to say, only because you are white, which is dumb. Because usually it’s for other reason than the gospel they talk to us. One girl just wanted a selfie with two white people to put on her profile picture. Another wanted us to take him to the US. There was one guy that called us over and said "you two are Americans, aren’t you?" and I said yes, and he said that he can tell anyone’s nationality by the way they walk, so that was weird. However, everyone wants to talk to us so that is a big bonus.

This week I got the common cold, which was kinda dumb because I was sniffing and coughing all week. Also, it is combined with the weird end of the world like dust fog called harmattan which is back to make everything dusty and I’m constantly sneezing.

The bane of my existence was the bathroom in this place. It had no toilet seat which was really difficult, for obvious reasons. However, I found a toilet seat today and put it on so it’s better now. I thought that was going to be a lasting problem, but it’s fixed already.

One of my favorite things about this apartment is Elder Daniel. He is a Nigerian. I think I mentioned him last week but he is just a really funny guy. He has some funny mannerisms that just crack me up and we get along great. He always will just walk in to the room and tell me something he wants to do. Like he walked in and said he wanted to get a haircut. I asked him if he needed me to go with him or something, but he didn’t, he just wanted to tell me. He is like that, he will just announce random things. He also had me go and buy some glasses for him because he has difficulty speaking French, but he wanted glasses. Not sunglasses but kinda grandma like clear glasses with no prescription. I got them for him and he uses them like reading glasses, like every time he needs to read he puts them on but in the day he doesn’t use them. It is weird because they have no prescription, but it is super funny. And finally, how he is with food. He always wants to try new things but when it gets down to eating it he never can. He will just go out on the street and see someone, buy something and is like “I want to try that.” He brings it over to me after buying it and says "I bought something I don’t know" and every time I tell him not to do that because he always puts it on a plate, gets ready to eat, then loses his appetite and eats bread, mayo and chocolate every night. Such a funny guy. I’ll try to get a pic with him for next week.

We found some pretty cool people in the sector this week. Actually, we found a widow that is super ready for the gospel and I love visiting widows because that is like a duty of the priesthood that is specifically mentioned in many scriptures, so that makes me feel good. We also met a Congolese Muslim who is interested too, so bunches of new experiences to be had in the dusty red-sand capital of Benin.

The toilet without a seat

Our cool curtains - planet design

Christmas decorations in Porto-Novo

Branch President's kid wearing my name-tag

Harmattan (Dry and Dusty)

Resurrection = time to hit people with sticks

This week I was lost in the shuffle, I got transferred to Benin and they brought visas for everyone going to Benin but poor little Elder Larson. So I had all my stuff packed and ready but I watched the bus I was supposed to be on pull away. I then stayed the rest of the week with the office elders in Togo, Elder Blum and Elder Terri.

It was fun to stay with them. They are very busy doing all sorts of little jobs, we got to see the senior couples apartment in Togo, and they made us banana bread, it was so good. I also helped Elder Blum clean his apartment because it was so nasty, so nasty. I worked for three days to clean it with Blum and we didn’t even finish.

Finally, on Saturday I got to head to Benin. I got picked up by the president of temporal affairs in Togo. His name is President Blaze. He is a good guy, but does not like to talk. So we did that long ride to the border in complete silence. After quite a few hours and one stop, because I had to pee really bad, I got to Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin. It’s a cool place, I always wanted to work here.

The apartment is a bunch of new things for me. I’m working with my first American, Elder Kappel from Arizona, who just finished his training. I’m living with a Nigerian named Elder Daniel. He is really funny. He does not speak French so I joke with him a ton because I only speak French with him, and he loves it. And there is also a Tahitian named Elder Uaua who is super chill and is pretty funny he speaks English just like a young American. It’s a chill apartment. Uaua is a great cook, he is just tired, so I’m gunna eat some more tomato sauce and rice but you know it’s not the Benin Cotonou mission without it.

I think the branch here is hilarious, it’s not super organized and the president is kinda crazy but it’s pretty fun. He wanted every single member of the branch to testify in sacrament meeting, even the kids. All the kids gave a very similar but funny testimony that went like this “I’m thankful to God for all He has done for me in the month of November. I know more blessings will come and I will give my testimony again for the month of December.” This testimony of multiple kids made me guess this is a pretty normal thing they do. Also the president of the relief society like went inactive right before I came so the president just came in and called whoever was sitting there to be the new one, kinda funny.

Anyway, also December is close to a voodoo holiday too I think. There are these guys that walk around Porto-Novo in bright costumes that cover their whole body and people say they are people risen from the dead and they have parades where people just surround the guy and grab sticks and just hit everyone they see with the sticks. So yeah what an amazing religious custom. We saw two of these parades in the two days I’ve been here.

Okay, haven’t yet worked in the sector because I just got here but I’m excited. There is a lot of work to be done.

Me and my new comp Elder Kappel

"A lizard in Togo"

This was in the apartment I stayed for a few days with Blum and Terri. Wait until the end. The lizard runs into the door. He did that like a thousand times.