Sunday, May 14, 2017
Mother's Day Audio Recording
Monday, May 8, 2017
Freezing hot
Well this week we had some big rain storms in Benin which means the temperature drops a little bit in the day. At night, it always drops a few degrees. Now I have seen how much I have adapted to the mission because two nights this week I got cold. Like not just comfortable, but cold like my feet were cold I turned off my fan and shivered a little. You know what temperature it was? 86 degrees, the lowest temperature I’ve seen on the mission and that felt cold to me. It just shows living in 90's and 100's all day every day never stopping sweating really changes the body.
In the middle of this week we had a security meeting because we had some problems in the mission so the church sent two Nigerian experts to talk to all the missionaries about safety. It was kind of funny, because they only could speak in there weird Nigerian English and they chose elder Ellison to translate. He did a good job but there were some phrases that were kind of hard to translate with our vocabulary, like for example "sisters, if rape is attempted, one preventive measure is to defecate in your pants" but yeah this mission really isn’t too big into helping us with security. In Benin the vigilantly justice against stealing is nice to keep things a little bit safer, and if we follow the rules it should be okay. This mission has a habit of when the smoke detectors are low on batteries and make that little noise, the missionaries tend to bash them to pieces instead of replacing the battery. So the whole mission got a talking to for that but I, myself have seen three smoke detectors destroyed by the hands of tired missionaries.
This week I had an amazing occasion to teach primary with Elder Mayani. The primary in Cococodji is super crazy, as in super interesting. Every student could recite all the articles of faith in order at the same time and also they knew many stories in the book of Mormon and the Bible from memory. It was amazing to see how robotic they could recite answers as if all they do is memorize things. They don’t sing primary hymns their favorite hymns are the Christmas ones in the big hymn book so that’s what we sang. But being in there brought me back to my days in primary, even though it was completely different, the church has the same organization everywhere.
This Sunday I watched as they gave a baby blessing to a toddler who was a little too big to be held but they did in any way and he was squirming all over the place as they tried to bless him and all the other children of the dads in the circle were at their feet crying. It was quite a fiasco, but super fun to watch.
I have weekly experiences with an investigator in progress name Ro__, the son of the parents I baptized. He is super smart and was really hesitant to accept our message but little by little I see the lord blessing his life as he starts to change his life to better follow Jesus Christ. It’s really we invite and as he follows, he changes, it’s hard for him to see the change but we see it and it makes all the difference.
In the middle of this week we had a security meeting because we had some problems in the mission so the church sent two Nigerian experts to talk to all the missionaries about safety. It was kind of funny, because they only could speak in there weird Nigerian English and they chose elder Ellison to translate. He did a good job but there were some phrases that were kind of hard to translate with our vocabulary, like for example "sisters, if rape is attempted, one preventive measure is to defecate in your pants" but yeah this mission really isn’t too big into helping us with security. In Benin the vigilantly justice against stealing is nice to keep things a little bit safer, and if we follow the rules it should be okay. This mission has a habit of when the smoke detectors are low on batteries and make that little noise, the missionaries tend to bash them to pieces instead of replacing the battery. So the whole mission got a talking to for that but I, myself have seen three smoke detectors destroyed by the hands of tired missionaries.
This week I had an amazing occasion to teach primary with Elder Mayani. The primary in Cococodji is super crazy, as in super interesting. Every student could recite all the articles of faith in order at the same time and also they knew many stories in the book of Mormon and the Bible from memory. It was amazing to see how robotic they could recite answers as if all they do is memorize things. They don’t sing primary hymns their favorite hymns are the Christmas ones in the big hymn book so that’s what we sang. But being in there brought me back to my days in primary, even though it was completely different, the church has the same organization everywhere.
This Sunday I watched as they gave a baby blessing to a toddler who was a little too big to be held but they did in any way and he was squirming all over the place as they tried to bless him and all the other children of the dads in the circle were at their feet crying. It was quite a fiasco, but super fun to watch.
I have weekly experiences with an investigator in progress name Ro__, the son of the parents I baptized. He is super smart and was really hesitant to accept our message but little by little I see the lord blessing his life as he starts to change his life to better follow Jesus Christ. It’s really we invite and as he follows, he changes, it’s hard for him to see the change but we see it and it makes all the difference.
Mama Mi___ fed us pat and had us wear bibs so we didn't get our white shirts dirty
African Sunset
Ants got in my skittles, so I had to wash them
Monday, May 1, 2017
Licensed to kill
Well transfers were this week, and nothing changed so I’m am now a licensed killer hired by my mission president to kill missionaries. My second target is Elder Mayani, the Congolese. However, it should be great. It’s kind of funny to see these missionaries that have done two years in this mission. They are so adapted they are completely insane but that’s okay.
In this mission, we use gas stoves to cook everything, it’s a pain because when the gas can runs out we do a ton of exercise to walk the empty can to a gas place and pick up a new can, it’s painful, tiring and is a four man job in Cococodji. Our gas stove has had a leak for a while and now the stove is broken so we have done all our cooking in our rice cooker, a little crockpot shaped Chinese invention made to cook rice, and rice only. But we have been very experimental and have cooked spaghetti, eggs, sauces, turkey, fish, and many more foods in a machine that is only made to cook rice. The mission forces you to get creative and suffer just a little bit.
This week we did the best we could to do some work for the lord. It wasn’t all easy because as I said before no one is in my sector unless it’s a Wednesday or a Saturday like one day we called every single one of our investigators like 30 people and not one person was at home so we just went out and tried to find anybody to see. We found some people and new investigators and we were blessed, but it was not easy.
We also had a stake conference so I got to go back to my old sector/ ward of Menontin and I saw my converts that I baptized being super strong members and they work hard with the missionaries to bring in more people. Just seeing that made me so happy. I haven’t touched a lot of people’s lives like I thought I would but I have helped people change their own lives for themselves and that’s even better. It was a good week.
In this mission, we use gas stoves to cook everything, it’s a pain because when the gas can runs out we do a ton of exercise to walk the empty can to a gas place and pick up a new can, it’s painful, tiring and is a four man job in Cococodji. Our gas stove has had a leak for a while and now the stove is broken so we have done all our cooking in our rice cooker, a little crockpot shaped Chinese invention made to cook rice, and rice only. But we have been very experimental and have cooked spaghetti, eggs, sauces, turkey, fish, and many more foods in a machine that is only made to cook rice. The mission forces you to get creative and suffer just a little bit.
This week we did the best we could to do some work for the lord. It wasn’t all easy because as I said before no one is in my sector unless it’s a Wednesday or a Saturday like one day we called every single one of our investigators like 30 people and not one person was at home so we just went out and tried to find anybody to see. We found some people and new investigators and we were blessed, but it was not easy.
We also had a stake conference so I got to go back to my old sector/ ward of Menontin and I saw my converts that I baptized being super strong members and they work hard with the missionaries to bring in more people. Just seeing that made me so happy. I haven’t touched a lot of people’s lives like I thought I would but I have helped people change their own lives for themselves and that’s even better. It was a good week.
The Mi____at stake conference
A corn field in Benin, it made me think of Iowa
An old picture walking with Raveneau. (Taken by Ellison)
Chilling at the church with Mayani waiting for people that will never show up
Monday, April 24, 2017
Busy Superstition
Oh yeah, so this week I didn’t get sick! So already an amazing week so if any one was worried about me it’s all good I’m no longer sick. It’s just the normal day to day trials that are left. I had a pretty busy week teaching people and finding new investigators, my sector is really far away from the church so people have to use a lot of faith to come to church every week but while I was back with Raveneau we were up to 9 investigators that came to church in a week but just like that something happened and the third week Mayani was here we had not a single investigator at church, not one. Which was weird because there were some investigators that were so loyal they were treated as full time members they just weren’t baptized because of marriage problems, which is a huge deal here and it’s complicated and I wont explain all that in this email. Any way the problem was no one was coming to church and we didn’t know why.... well then we figured it out.
The culprit was yet again voodoo, weather you practice or not voodoo is real and people here are incredibly superstitious, especially in my sector where voodoo is rampant. And I think I already said this but like Benin is to voodoo as Utah is to Mormons. Like Salt Lake City has the big temple. That place where we put snakes on our shoulders is one of the big voodoo temples for the whole world, so yeah just keep in mind this country is the voodoo king.
I forgot if I put it in my last email but the president of the relief society in the ward of Cocococdji died a few weeks ago leaving behind a husband and three kids the youngest of which was a few weeks old. It was a very sad moment, but because all the investigators knew her so well and the church is still new to them they thought the church was cursed and they won’t come back... so that’s just great. Slowly we can try to re-explain to them the plan of salvation and stuff but it will be really hard to get them back because she is the fourth member to die in like four months. I don’t think the church is cursed but lots of people do.
There are also more and more inactive in our ward for one reason or another, Cococodji is the best ward in Benin yet really there are some big problems which is kind of sad, but I’m not losing hope and little by little were doing our best to touch lives and bring in those sheep that are beginning to stray, but there are many.
I also had a lesson where I really felt the spirt this week. Sure you would think as a missionary that should be normal but, here there are like no quiet places, a million distractions for the investigators idk it’s rare to really feel the spirit in a lesson, sadly but it’s just normal. However, we taught this investigator at the church building and wow, quiet really makes a difference. Every other church makes tons of noise when they want to pray it sounds more like they are dying rather than praying but really the great prophet Elijah was right when he said
"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."
The spirit doesn’t like lots of noise, but its a really noisy country, so we make do.
In other news I bought a watermelon because I was so sick of the same tastes in my mouth all the time, and now I have a firm testimony that genetically modified foods are a gift from God because the disappointment I felt from eating that thing they said was a watermelon was too great to bear, it was small it had more seeds than fruit and it all tasted as if it was that nasty watermelon close to the rind. So yeah, it was not the greatest experience, but pineapples here still beat America’s every time so it’s not all in vain. Love you all!
The culprit was yet again voodoo, weather you practice or not voodoo is real and people here are incredibly superstitious, especially in my sector where voodoo is rampant. And I think I already said this but like Benin is to voodoo as Utah is to Mormons. Like Salt Lake City has the big temple. That place where we put snakes on our shoulders is one of the big voodoo temples for the whole world, so yeah just keep in mind this country is the voodoo king.
I forgot if I put it in my last email but the president of the relief society in the ward of Cocococdji died a few weeks ago leaving behind a husband and three kids the youngest of which was a few weeks old. It was a very sad moment, but because all the investigators knew her so well and the church is still new to them they thought the church was cursed and they won’t come back... so that’s just great. Slowly we can try to re-explain to them the plan of salvation and stuff but it will be really hard to get them back because she is the fourth member to die in like four months. I don’t think the church is cursed but lots of people do.
There are also more and more inactive in our ward for one reason or another, Cococodji is the best ward in Benin yet really there are some big problems which is kind of sad, but I’m not losing hope and little by little were doing our best to touch lives and bring in those sheep that are beginning to stray, but there are many.
I also had a lesson where I really felt the spirt this week. Sure you would think as a missionary that should be normal but, here there are like no quiet places, a million distractions for the investigators idk it’s rare to really feel the spirit in a lesson, sadly but it’s just normal. However, we taught this investigator at the church building and wow, quiet really makes a difference. Every other church makes tons of noise when they want to pray it sounds more like they are dying rather than praying but really the great prophet Elijah was right when he said
"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."
The spirit doesn’t like lots of noise, but its a really noisy country, so we make do.
In other news I bought a watermelon because I was so sick of the same tastes in my mouth all the time, and now I have a firm testimony that genetically modified foods are a gift from God because the disappointment I felt from eating that thing they said was a watermelon was too great to bear, it was small it had more seeds than fruit and it all tasted as if it was that nasty watermelon close to the rind. So yeah, it was not the greatest experience, but pineapples here still beat America’s every time so it’s not all in vain. Love you all!
I bought a watermelon
Ellison, me, Ny
8 months baby!
Monday, April 17, 2017
Food poisoning and forgetting Easter
Yeah so this week sucked. It’s not that I have a bad attitude, I promise but it’s just fact. However even in the worst moments there are always blessings. We had a plumber come to the apartment and fix everything. I got to take my first shower in a month. I got to flush the toilet for the first time in 2 months and I got to drink filtered water for the first time in a week. However, this week I also threw up for the first time in five years. And I got sick, really sick. I guess I ate some bad eggs. Yeah I won’t give you all the details, but basically now I’m super hungry all the time but I have lost my appetite. And eating those bad eggs was about all I did to celebrate Easter because this country did absolutely nothing different. However, it’s all good I’m feeling better now. I should be ready to go out into the sector again this week, sorry there is not a ton of new news but I’m alive don’t worry too much about me.
Laying in my "sick bed"
The Cococodji version of the first presidency
The following pictures are before I got sick. Having fun with Ellison and Ny.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Everything is broken
I have little to no time this week to send things because at any moment a plumber could come to our apartment to fix everything that needs fixing, which is about everything in the apartment. There is just one toilet and one shower for the four or us. The shower has been broken for three weeks, the toilet for months. Just two days ago Ellison went to turn on the facet in the kitchen and tore the entire sink out the wall, water busted out the wall forever and flooded the kitchen until we could get the water shut off in the apartment. So, it’s important we get all that fixed.
I was sick for the first part of this week. And when you don’t work in Hevie on Wednesday nothing gets done. In in my sector, Hevie, you can get so much work done on Wednesday, I can’t believe it. Any way so yeah that was kind of my week not very productive sadly. It’s good I have two years so that I can work super hard another week to balance it out. But don’t worry I’m totally healthy now. I just got sick because I carried too much weight on my head, I was trying to go too African too fast and I got sick. I didn’t know it was possible to get sick form carrying stuff on your head but it’s a real deal, my neck still hurts a little it’s all good.
Also for an activity we went to Ouida again to touch the snakes so that’s why all the pictures.
I was sick for the first part of this week. And when you don’t work in Hevie on Wednesday nothing gets done. In in my sector, Hevie, you can get so much work done on Wednesday, I can’t believe it. Any way so yeah that was kind of my week not very productive sadly. It’s good I have two years so that I can work super hard another week to balance it out. But don’t worry I’m totally healthy now. I just got sick because I carried too much weight on my head, I was trying to go too African too fast and I got sick. I didn’t know it was possible to get sick form carrying stuff on your head but it’s a real deal, my neck still hurts a little it’s all good.
Also for an activity we went to Ouida again to touch the snakes so that’s why all the pictures.
Trying to jerry-rig something in the broken bathroom to get some type of filtered water
The shape is Benin
This is considered the door of no return for slaves
Monument celebrating Benin
SNAKES!
Monday, April 3, 2017
Finally!
Well this was a week full of craziness, but every week here is, so you could say it was a pretty normal week. When it gets really hot in my sleep I’ve been known to talk in French, or so people have been telling me. And this last week was a hot one so I did a lot of talking, I guess. It was really funny the things I said. Elder Ny has these phrases that he says all the time and we have all picked up on them and started saying them all the time, because we have a super tight district. Anyway I guess those phrases have entered into my sleep.
Every missionary has their “thing”, it’s hard to explain it, but from each companion you find what point of missionary work they like the best and what they are the best at doing. And for Mayani it is visiting members. Before I thought visiting the members was kind of a waste of time, if we don’t get contacts or have a reason for going, but my eyes have been opened. Mayani says it is his goal to see all the members in the ward that live in our sector, and I didn’t know how that would help but I followed him. But there is one thing, my sector is massive, incredibly massive, it would take years to visit all the parts but the first member on our list to visit was the bishop, and the bishop lives faraway. Super, super far away, but you know this mission there are no cars for missionaries so it was a whole day of walking, just to get to his house and back. I don’t know how many of miles but I know I was so wiped after going all the way out there. When we arrive at his house the bishop was so surprised to see missionaries because it has been two years since missionaries came to his house! Two years! And immediately this guy loved us because we made such an effort and I didn’t know this but we found out the bishop lost trust in missionaries because of the bad ones that have been in his ward for so long but for the first time in forever he came to our coordination meeting he is helping us with contacts he is coming to baptisms. We changed the bishop for the good and it was just because we paid him a visit, there is power in kindness people, lots of power.
This week was a happy week because we had a baptism that was long, long, awaited, The Mi____!!!! I’m so happy for them. The dad and the mom got baptized this Saturday sure the water has been cut in this whole city for a while and we had to fill up the baptismal font by getting water from the well filling up buckets putting them on our head and walking back to the ward building and filling up the font. It took many hours and we didn’t get to eat that day, but hey it was all worth it for the salvation of souls. Really I can’t say how happy I am.
Now we just have to teach their two sons, they are very smart and very firm in there beliefs and ask tons of really intelligent questions but it’s good. One day when they are converted they will be the strongest of members.
We did other things this week, I wish I could have seen conference but missionaries are not allowed to watch in this mission, we only got one session we could go to at the stake center but we had to pay our own transport to go. It was a little sad but its normal for this mission. And I’m also a little sick right now with a fever and headaches, but it’s not too bad so don’t worry about it.
Every missionary has their “thing”, it’s hard to explain it, but from each companion you find what point of missionary work they like the best and what they are the best at doing. And for Mayani it is visiting members. Before I thought visiting the members was kind of a waste of time, if we don’t get contacts or have a reason for going, but my eyes have been opened. Mayani says it is his goal to see all the members in the ward that live in our sector, and I didn’t know how that would help but I followed him. But there is one thing, my sector is massive, incredibly massive, it would take years to visit all the parts but the first member on our list to visit was the bishop, and the bishop lives faraway. Super, super far away, but you know this mission there are no cars for missionaries so it was a whole day of walking, just to get to his house and back. I don’t know how many of miles but I know I was so wiped after going all the way out there. When we arrive at his house the bishop was so surprised to see missionaries because it has been two years since missionaries came to his house! Two years! And immediately this guy loved us because we made such an effort and I didn’t know this but we found out the bishop lost trust in missionaries because of the bad ones that have been in his ward for so long but for the first time in forever he came to our coordination meeting he is helping us with contacts he is coming to baptisms. We changed the bishop for the good and it was just because we paid him a visit, there is power in kindness people, lots of power.
This week was a happy week because we had a baptism that was long, long, awaited, The Mi____!!!! I’m so happy for them. The dad and the mom got baptized this Saturday sure the water has been cut in this whole city for a while and we had to fill up the baptismal font by getting water from the well filling up buckets putting them on our head and walking back to the ward building and filling up the font. It took many hours and we didn’t get to eat that day, but hey it was all worth it for the salvation of souls. Really I can’t say how happy I am.
Now we just have to teach their two sons, they are very smart and very firm in there beliefs and ask tons of really intelligent questions but it’s good. One day when they are converted they will be the strongest of members.
We did other things this week, I wish I could have seen conference but missionaries are not allowed to watch in this mission, we only got one session we could go to at the stake center but we had to pay our own transport to go. It was a little sad but its normal for this mission. And I’m also a little sick right now with a fever and headaches, but it’s not too bad so don’t worry about it.
The Mi___ get baptized
Eating a huge stack of pancakes
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