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!

Portals

Let’s see. This week was not the best. I had to spend most the week in the apartment because someone tried to poison me and I got super sick. I threw up a bunch and lost all my energy. To try to make me feel better Martial put on a concert, but the concert got a bit crazy. Lots of gold bond powder and pillows got thrown around.

We also tried to find a costume for Don Carlos Smith Band and went with the old man look.

I would like to talk about my portals theory. Here in Benin there are things called portals. Most probably due to Voodoo. You walk down a street and when you come to the end of the street you pop out in a weird place. This can work to your advantage. I used portals in Hevie to walk a distance that should take 45 mins in only 15 because I knew where all the portals were and which ones to take. They are often hidden in back roads and weird turns. Here is a story that happened this week to illustrate my point. There is a part of our sector called Wome and it is exactly like Hevie my old, red, villagy sector. We got a contact form someone who lived there. Usually when we get a contact, because there are no addresses, we get the person’s number, call them and find out a time they are available and get the name of the place they live. There aren’t any maps or signs. Maps are all in the heads of the locals. So, we get to Wome and ask where the place is. The people we asked cry out, “oh gosh it’s far. You can’t go there.” In our mission, it is illegal to take moto taxis and in this villiagy area there are no cars, only moto taxis. We tell them we are forced to walk. They do the catholic sign of the cross because we’re already dead and tell us where to walk. So, we walk down this one street forever then they tell us to take a right. We take the right, walk a ways, then they tell us to take another right and walk strait for another long time. We start wondering why on earth would they have us do that? If you can visualize what that looks like we just are taking the biggest U turn ever. So, we walked and walked and finally made it. It took us two hours to get there. When we arrived, we taught the family then we decided instead of going all the way around in the huge U shape, we would just cut straight across and save lots of time....... Famous last words. I have never been so lost on my mission. We walk into this weird jungle. We see all sorts of weird places and paintings. I’m sure we were the first missionaries to step foot in those secluded corners of this planet. I walked by some kids where I was the first white person they had seen and they stared in awe. It was nuts. After walking for a while we realized our plan was not working so we asked someone where the bridge that we took to get in and she cried even louder than the first lady. “What? That’s too far. You will never make it.” We are like well, we walked from that point to here today. She was baffled. How could we have done that? It’s like that place is miles and miles away. However, we asked the directions and they showed us the portals back home. So, after two hours out there, forty minutes of teaching and three and a half hours to walk back we made it home. I collapsed because I was still feeling a little sick before I went out that morning. I believe the only explanation for why we got so lost was portals and I learned to never try to make your own path, trust the locals, they know what’s up.

We had 9 investigators at church which was cool. Serge and his wife are getting married on Saturday which is exciting. Sadly, I didn’t do much else this week.

The "Old Man" costume for Don Carlos Smith Band

Me during the concert

After the concert

Kossi-Kossi

This week has been mostly focused on Serge and his family. We did lots of work and we got all the necessary papers sent in for his marriage. He and his wife were so grateful.

This week we wanted to start teaching Serge's wife, Miriss, because she has not yet been taught. The second counselor in the young women’s presidency, Cicile, said she wanted to come with us and I have a huge testimony of the importance of members in missionary work because everything Cicile said was perfect. She totally connected to Miriss and was able to share her own conversion story to help her with her worries. It is so crazy that we were just random strangers when Serge called us over and after a few weeks and teachings of Jesus Christ Serge has said we have become just as close as brothers to him and we will forever be a part of his family. I did not expect this to happen but I realize these are my brothers and sisters I knew them at one point. It was probably pre-destined that we would come to earth and meet each other. This experience with this family is too great to put into words but I’m so happy for them.

Segre, Miriss and their three kids all came to church together and they met the branch president. I was so happy to see a brand new family all smiling together. It’s a huge miracle and I know God was behind it all.

This week we went out into the sector a lot. We have some weird investigators for sure. One funny thing that I’ve noticed is that certain people watch Spanish or Indian soap operas religiously. If you come at a time they should be watching their soap opera they will chase you away or they will be angry and learn nothing. This happened to us this week with a young woman. She comes out and is like I’m mad at you, you came at the wrong time. I’m like you must have a soap opera and she says yes. Knowing the lesson would be pointless I told her to finish it then come back outside. So, we now have 45 minutes to kill in her back yard. We see a well with the inscription kossi kossi and a date. And we were super confused why they would have a grave stone on the side of a well and we assumed kossi kossi must have fallen in the well. We had some fun thinking up stories how this happened. Then we paid our respects to our good friend and brother kossi kossi. May he rest in peace and may someone do his genealogy.

We woke up today and there is something wrong with Martial’s shower and our room flooded. I took a pic, it’s hard to see but lots of Martial’s stuff got wet. There is no way to close off the water so it’s just kinda still filling up, Yikes, I don’t wanna know what it will look like when I get back.

We had an activity today. The first three zone activity since I got on the mission. It was super great. All the missionaries in Benin got together to play basketball, soccer, and football, eat atcheke and talk. It was great, everyone had a great time.

Martial likes pranks and this week he put a bunch of Gold bond powder in my fan and pranked me really good. I then blasted him with my bottle of that stuff. But, that stuff burns the eyes and throat like crazy. It was intense, but pretty harmless, I think.

I got a couple calls this week form people in Finagnon. I miss that place, it was fun. One of the investigators I taught there just got baptized. He is super cool and he called me up to say hi, he was another prepared person.

Time is coming to an end. It feels like just yesterday I got my son. Since then I’ve done Porto-Novo, Finagnon and now I’m about four and a half months from being home. I’m trying to make the most of my studies and finish strong. I also know my comp has to go to Togo next transfer so I wonder what new change will bring in two weeks.

My AKPAKPA zone tie that I ordered when I was with Segal came (a transfer later)

With Martial in the sector

Our room flooded

kossi kossi RIP

Tri-Zone Activity

Bed sheet curse

I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it, but today it was just too much. So, as you know I do laundry by hand and logically one of the hardest things to wash is bed sheets and because you need to dry them outside on the lines it’s always very dangerous. Every single time I’ve washed my sheets something horrible has happened and I’ve had to wash them again. No matter how great the weather looks, it seems to rain on them. If I’m super lucky on the weather they somehow fall on the ground or like in Porto-Novo I cleaned off all the wires I wanted to hang them on because they were dusty. Then right after that I ran bed sheets, except onto a different dirty line getting them dirty again. Today the wind magically un-did the clips and the sheets fell on the ground and I had to wash them again. So, I am permanently cursed by the laundry Gods and I don’t know why.

I want to write out a funny conversation we had with a lady we had an appointment with. We go to her house, knock on the door, a kid answers saying she is not there. We find a little cement spot outside her house to sit to plan a replacement when she calls. Here is how the call went:

“M” is Martial “I” is investigator

M. hello
I. hello did you pass by my house?
M. yes
I. Am I there?
M. I don’t know, are you there?
I. No, I’m not there
M. okay
I. But I’m coming back soon
M. Well, we’re still at your house, we could wait for you
I. No, it’s okay I’m not coming back soon

I talked a little bit about Frere Serge last week. The guy who came to church for the first time and bore his testimony. Well, we taught him more this week and I’ve never found someone more prepared for the gospel, he is fantastic. I feel the spirit so strong every time we teach him. He testifies how he has found his long-lost family and how he has found the gospel he has been searching to bring his family into. The coolest thing is we taught him about chastity because no one here is married legally and the church is holding a collective marriage at the Stake Center in two weeks to help make the civil marriage cheap because it is super expensive. We got him signed up for it and he was so thankful to have been given a chance to start living this commandment he knows God wants him to be living. He has wanted to get married but has never had the chance. But we’re giving it to him and he is so happy. He has finally found the true Christ and His church. He thanks us all the time. So, after the marriage we will baptize him, his wife and his two oldest kids. He has three kids but the youngest is not old enough. I’m so happy I got to be an instrument in God's hands because there was nothing I did. Really, this one was someone God had really prepared.

Quinn Dawson wrote in his weekly email, while serving in Sweden, that he doesn’t say it enough but he loves being a missionary. I thought about that because I don’t think I’ve ever really said that because my mission experience has been the hardest and there was also a bunch of really crappy things that happened this week but seeing Serge and the other little blessings of being here. So, there is a first time for everything. I do love being a missionary.

The dirty sheets

Taxi Ride: Ellison, Bein Aime, Martial, Me

Weird bruise on my nose

You don't win friends with salad

I have never liked salad, seems like animal food and, “you don’t win friends with salad”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Kj17oVHAk

However, salads here in Benin are some good stuff. It’s usually ten percent lettuce then a bunch of random things on top. Always a lot of spaghetti, dressing, fried bananas, potatoes, carrots, peas, all cut up. Sometimes fries, hard boiled eggs are always a part of it and often served with a side of turkey wing and bread. Just a funny thing you probably didn’t know. So here I can definitely have salads.

We had a cool experience this week. We were walking down the street and a little girl ran up to us asking us to follow her. She was sent by this man. He thought we were Jehovah Witness, as everyone does. We give him a brochure and fixed a time to go see him. He seemed somewhat interested in our first lesson and talked a lot. We didn’t know what to think but on Saturday we went back to teach him we taught about the Book of Mormon, gave him one, and invited him to come to church the next day. Sunday rolls around and he was there ten minutes early to church and it was a shock because rarely does anyone come to church on their first try. It was fast and testimony meeting and in the middle, he stands up and says he is new, this is his first time, but he knows that he has finally found the true church of Christ. So that was awesome. We will fix a baptism date with him, he seems awesome.

Not much else happened this week. We had zone conference which went over pretty well, president liked it. I got to see a baptism at Cococodji which was cool because everyone over there loves me. I’m feeling at home now the apartment is clean.

I am in my last 6 months of the mission so if the mission was high school I’m in my senior year and because I had no pics for the week I decided to do my senior mission pictures, I hope you enjoy.

Senior Mission Photo Shoot

I am learning guitar for "Don Carlos Smith" band