Baby Food

I saw a sign on the road this week that had an ad for English classes. It read SPEAK LEARN ENGLISH! with a phone number. I wonder what kind of quality class that’s gunna be.

I had a really cool testimony shared with me from one of our investigators named Mi__. She is an investigator with a lot of problems. Her husband is abusive and does not want her to leave his church. She has had several children die. Her husband does not support her financially, and her parents give her no help. When we first started teaching her she would spend the whole lesson crying. Martial and I had the idea to give her a priesthood blessing of comfort. After that she got pretty busy and we weren’t able to teach her for a while. Just this week Kerr and I got to see her again. And she bore a huge testimony about how the blessing we gave her changed her life. She said she sees the blessings of God in her life and she knows we are sent from God and if it weren’t for her husband she would be a member of our church and is praying for the Lord to soften the heart of her husband. I was touched to see how the priesthood I have was able to bless this sister.

Mi__ also could not believe we were only 20 years old. She says we act like were at least 30 which is crazy to think people here believe I’m that old. I guess I act old, but look young because she also kept asking us questions about what we eat so she could feed that to her kids so they can stay young looking like us. I told her it’s not what we eat it’s just who we are but she kept persisting so I gave her a word of wisdom brochure, I hope that helps.

This week we had another miracle. We had 11 investigators at sacrament meeting. I was so happy. Some were new, some were old. We found one new one that has been studying institute at the university here in Benin. I did not know we had institute of religion at that university but apparently, we do. He is super smart and is really interested in our message I’m very excited to teach him.

I’m also super excited for the progression of Serge and his family. Serge and his wife were here on Saturday to clean the church building with some other members and every time we go over there we are just so happy. They have become family and close friends and the’re so excited to become members of the church. Some of my biggest blessings on the mission will come from that family.

It’s been super hot this week so I have been talking in my sleep and sleep walking more as Elder Kerr has reported in the mornings. So that’s great, the heat messes with my sleep.

With Elder McKrola (the assistant)

Our little coffee table on which we eat

Mop to clean the floors

The drain that smells like poop (Most don't use toilet paper to save money, so in the shower, the extra poop washes off people into the drain.) I use toilet paper.

Weird slotted windows that we forget to close and the rain come in

And the floods came up

This week flew by because it was jam-packed with stuff. Every morning this week we had stuff to do as zone leaders. On Tuesday, we had district meeting with the elders in Calavi University. After the district meeting the craziest thing happened. We all walked to a restaurant after to eat ingame peele and I passed by a security guard for a house. I looked at him and recognized him, it was Hypolite! The very first person I baptized on my mission and in my life. He has now moved from Zogbo to Calavi and is right next to the church over there. I know he became inactive in Menotin because the church was too far away, But now he is super close by so I hope he can come back. Seeing him made me have hope that he can start respecting his baptism covenants. I worried about him a lot my whole mission. I have a picture with him below.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting with the sisters in Agla and the couple missionaries of the mission. The couple missionaries in Benin are the Walkers. They are super cool, they are from Canada.

On Thursday, we had zone conference which went well. We had some good lessons. Every zone conference as zone leaders feels like a test. President watches very closely how everything is run. It puts us under some pressure.

On Friday, I got to go to a village called Tori Bossito, sounds like Mexico, but it’s here. So right before I left Cococodji, Hypote and I found a couple that lived out there. It’s super far away so I never got to go see them but Hypote baptized the couple and their 13 kids giving enough members to create a group out there. It’s taken some time but Kerr and I went up there to do baptism interviews to get a bigger base of members to create a group. It is so cool to see the little seeds back when I was in Cococodji help the gospel to spread outside of Cotonou and Porto-Novo. The gospel is progressing here.

Right before we went to Tori one of the crazy, come out of nowhere African storms came. The sky got dark as night and it rained so hard. Sadly, we were in Cococodji and had left our windows open back home. Kerr’s bed got soaked and our room got flooded because of the high-speed rain. It felt like the second coming but God said he won’t destroy the earth by flood again, so I felt comforted. (Genesis 9:11) However, the streets of Benin got super flooded so we had to take lots of roundabout ways to get places but when we were coming home we got trapped before a great body of water. Our choices were to walk for twenty minutes around to find another way to the apartment or walk for two minutes straight ahead. It was dark and we were hungry. We did not have the faith of Jesus to walk on it, nor the faith of Moses to part it, or the time to build a boat like Noah, so we stepped it and trudged through, pics below.

We worked super hard this week and saw many miracles in the sector. We had two new people come to church, one of which is super prepared for the gospel. And we found two families that are very interested in our message.

A family in the ward lost their daughter to malaria this week and as a branch after church we all went over to their house to comfort them, sing hymns and pray together it was a cool experience to go support that family in this difficult time. I know the church is true and it teaches people to love others. I’m so grateful to be a missionary for this church.

I made Chicken Tetrazini African Style. Or at home we said Chicken tet, sure is gret (it rhymes) 

Reunion with Hypolite

Panorama of the incoming storm

The Floods

Bloody Ankles

Rainy season is starting which means the evil blood sucking parasites have many places to have children. My poor ankles can’t get a break. So many mosquito bites all the time. I have found the purpose of mosquitos in Gods creation of the earth is pure opposition (2 Nephi 2:11).

One of the joys of this mission are unexpected crazy people. I’ve shared some stories. We had another one last week. A huge mama sees us from afar, jumps up and runs toward us speaking in a broken English. “Oh, welcome to here. Oh, welcome. Do you come from New York or America? Wife me, wife me. I need to go with you.” She is saying this as she tries to grab us. I got the gist she wanted us to marry her. It was so random. I couldn’t stop laughing. I kept asking questions in English and she kept giving me weird responses. We finally gave her a word of wisdom brochure and left. Thank goodness for those experiences. Sometimes I feel too at ease here, I need those from time to time.

We had stake conference this past Sunday and it was super cool to see the Benin stake together. I have worked in five different branches and wards in Benin. I knew so many people that were there. Members I worked with, converts, and people I taught that were later converted. It was such a cool thing to see.

I got the chance to go on a split with Elder Bassett on his birthday. That was fun. We had a really good pizza at a place close to his apartment. The best pizza I’ve had since the US and we had a crappy pink birthday cake that was 100 percent Benin. Elder Bassett is a really good missionary.

I had a super spiritual experience a few weeks ago but I didn’t realize the full power of the experience till this week. So, the week I got food poisoning I was also feeling kind of down about the mission. Kind of wanting it to end. I was up all night praying to the porcelain gods. That morning I got a call from president saying he was thinking about me all last night and how could he help me with my spiritual and physical health. This hit me when I heard that story in conference by President Oaks in the priesthood session sharing a similar story about an elders quorum president. I realized that my mission president is called of God. Something I knew before, but have a greater confirmation of and I know he is righteously exercising his keys over his missionaries.

Another picture with Kerr in the Zem shirts

Stake Conference

Crappy Cake

Eating Pizza at Salsa

Me and Kerr outside Salsa

The zémidjan-man brotherhood

I have talked about motos before but I have become fascinated recently with the social impact and brother hood of what we call the zémidjan-man, zém for short. In Benin there are taxi motos. The drivers all wear these bright yellow shirts and pick people up with whatever they want to carry with them and bring it all to another spot. I have seen the craziest things on zéms. I’ve seen a family of five, another moto, huge mirrors, 12 chickens, 8 goats, refrigerators, huge mamas, and more. These men (moto drivers) are the heroes of Benin. Thy are more organized then the police force and catch many criminals in vigilantly justice. They are old and young, all men, and they all have had many great experiences. From morning till night, they ride. Who knows how long they have to live, because accidents are daily occurrences. I could go on and on about these fascinating people, but experiencing it yourself is so much better. Kerr and I saw a mama selling zémidjan-man shirts and we bought some to enter into the brotherhood. It was the best decision I have made. We wore those shirts into the office and the couple missionary and the president and his wife had some good laughs for sure because we all know these guys all so well.

This week we started teaching Serge's two oldest kids who can be baptized and teaching them has been an amazing experience because we get to see the faith and humility of these children. They are so smart. They eat up the gospel, they read the book of Mormon, they love meeting with the young men and young women at church. It makes me so happy to see them at church with their new-found family and friends. I know they will be some of my strongest converts for sure.

I have found it’s very easy to do contacting here if you and your companion are both white. Just the other day we stopped to talk to two men on the street while we were talking to them another guy stopped on his moto to listen. Then some kids came out and two other people started listening Little by little we were surrounded by 8 people and 6 kids and we gave out all the brochures we had. It was hilarious, we found the work here is just too easy. Normally people begin to talk to us for bad reason, like they want money or they want to go to the US and think we can help them. But the great thing is we have a true message and when they let us in and we show some members of the church to them they see that our church is actually true as well and we get some great investigators. So, my white skin is not all a curse.

One funny thing we find with people here is sometimes people will believe our message too fast. We went and taught this new investigator for the first timed named Am__ and he said he had read the brochure on the restoration already. We asked him how he felt he said he wanted a bigger book because the brochure was too small. Then we gave him a book of Mormon, he was so happy he immediately converted to the gospel and told us he is going to teach the truth of the book of Mormon to all his friends. We tell him to slow down and pray to get a testimony first, and he says he doesn’t need to pray, he has a testimony already. This is a very common occurrence. Sometimes it’s harder to get the people who already believe to actually believe then the nonbelievers.

Elder Kerr is all about eating good and eating healthy which is great because we have started eating amazing home cooked food. We had fried rice, hashbrowns, chicken spaghetti and many other flavorful dishes. He has opened me up to the amazing fruits we can find here too, so were eating that too. I’m very blessed.

Things are going great, I’m working hard and finishing my mission strong, making the most of every day.

With Elder Kerr

We make good food! One breakfast we had eggs and hash browns

In our zémidjan shirts

Someone burning stuff right next to our apartment

Pictures of zémidjan-man

Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today

This week was pretty exciting. We got to witness the marriage of Frere Serge and his wife Miriss. I was so happy for them. The decision they made to get married goes against many African social customs, but they understood how God’s laws comes before the laws of Men. They were so happy to get this chance.

Don Carlos Smith was put to an end this week as Martial got transferred to Togo. I’m now working with Elder Kerr, someone from my generation I’ve always wanted to work with. Elder Kerr is the son of Mayani. I never thought I would actually work with him but God was on our side. We are working hard to become the best missionaries we can be at the end of our missions. We each have four months left, so we're all about finishing strong.

Martial and I spent this week working really hard. We walked to Wake for the second time and that was rough, but this time it only took four hours. Martial made sure to do one last prank and when I laid down last night to go to sleep gold bond powder shot out of my fan, so he did get the last laugh in our prank war.

We also got to cram into the Stake Center to watch a little bit of general conference. I didn’t see much but it was cool the little bit I did see. My favorite thing ever was when President Nelson chastised all the priesthood brothers like a true Congolese would about how to bless people with the priesthood. This motivated me even more to do better studies.

Easter in Africa does not exist, oh wait it does, but it is so unrecognizable that I forgot it was Easter. We were walking down the street in the sector then coming towards us is a huge crowd of people in white robes following a small kid about twelve years old. The kid was carrying a full-blown cross, like dragging it just like Jesus did. I really hope they weren’t about to crucify that kid. They all bowed for a little bit and started praising him and singing. When we get closer we see he has a crown of fake thorns on his head. What all that was, I don’t know, but weirdness is normal, I forgot.

The marriage was a huge part the week not much else happened.

Wise, Ellison, Me

With Martial waiting for a taxi

Someone I taught with his friends from Finagnon. (Sorry the lighting is bad)

The Wedding Pictures

Week 83 and the second no Monday contact

Kaelyn here (Riley's mom) Back in week 50 there was a Monday where Riley was unable to write due to the internet connection. I didn't hear from him today. I don't know the reason why this time. I HATE not hearing from him. Hopefully he is able to write soon.

Update: I just heard from a mom of another missionary serving that it is a holiday there today. They will get to email tomorrow! Good news!