Benin and Stuff, A lot of Stuff‏

H-ello

So this week FLEW by, seems weird that  Im sitting here writing again, so soon. But for updates well I got kicked out of my old cartier and now working in one that has been referred kindly as dead. So there is a lot of tracting and teaching and hoping people come to church. So not much new here just working and working and working and feeling tired all the time; But I found that when I eat fruit in the morning too that i feel a lot better and more energized! I also found my favorite drink ever, well my second favorite drink besides peach juice but thats its own category, but its called Malta Guinness! Its a malta drink that in non alcoholic and it is amazing  and gives you alot of energy after you have been tracting in the hot african sun for hours! Some of the elders like it, my companion doesnt but he gets a coke or something,  one thing that is really cool about here is that they sell pop soda whatever you call it, in glass bottles still, it really cool and its alot cheaper cuase you only buy the soda, like a bottle of pop is like 250 francs, or about 50 cents.
Danic now has a baptism date set for the 22 and he had he interviezw with Elder Bayly from togo cause his dad has like threee wives or something like that. Here is ghana , togo , and benin, is considered to be the polygomy captial of the world! So everwhere has there problems, and here is polygomy and vodo! So ithe other elders are going to move to another apartment and its on the 3 story like ours is and from ther you can look down into a vodo temple that is adjacent.
Also I have been adopted here. I am offically African! Yes mom, ido have another family here, but there are nothing like the the one i have in IDah... TEXAS! THey are a family we fou_nbd and there are 4 of them. THe speak NIirian English and french, and they take good care of us always having us over to eat , and stuff like thayt! THey whoole family isq going to bee batisped soon, i dont know when but sometime like the end of september beginning of oct! missionary work is fun. lot of work but its totally worth it so far! Well not much else to say, i was trying to attach a a photo of my new african family but this computer is.... african! so i will send it tonite at the couples; well have a good week and remember who you are! love ya!

love, elderly

My New African Family

So here is 

Moi

Arnold

Elder Foucher

Eric

Apolet

Hortance

They have an amazing view from the fourth floor of the city of Cotonou, always a good breeze up there. My Family, in AFRICA!!!!

Another Week in AFrIcA!!

So someone told me this week an interesting fact. It goes like this there are 52 weeks in a year, and we are here for two years so thats 104 weeks, so every week that is about 1% of your mission. So sitting here thinking what am I going to write, I say there went 1% of my mission,what do I want to say... Well here is the news for the week. We committed Danic to Baptism, which I am really excited for! He is really grasping thez gospel we are gonig to start teaching his wife this week too! Just ready to take off, I am very blessed to help him know. I really dont know what to say about this week, we had a lot of time to do tracting, and I learned some very personal stuff about this work, it is not mine, its His, when you try to do it on your knowledge, you are going to fail miserably, miserably! Once you humble yourself or get humbled, and turn to prayer with a sincere desire to do His will. AMAZING things happen, somethings I am not going even try to explain, but I want you guys to know that the power of prayer and following through with promptions, no matter how ridiculous they seem, you can do more good than you will ever know!
  We had alot of people come to church this week, new investigators, like 8 new ones! Amazing! We are really excited to blessed like we are, and so fast! But also there is a downside, and an upside we found out wednesday! So randomly, two new missionaries show up this wednesday! Totally out of the blue, just hey there are two new missionaries at the boader that you need to pick up. So now we have two new missionaries, Elder Howard, and Elder Picard. Elder Howard is from Bountiful, UT and Elder Picard is from Tahaiti, yes that right Tahaiti! I was pretty excited that we have an Elder from Tahaiti cause now when I go to Bora Bora I can see someone I know!! I really like both of them... but they took my cartier along with all my invstigators, I still will work with Danic and Serge, but the rest, gone. I really have miwed feelings cause the new cartier is dead, completely dead, and has been for a long time, so its going to get jumpstarted with a stick of Dynamite called Elder Foucher/Lee! A lot of work, but I am sad cause I really have drawn close to the people in my cartier especially my investigators, and its hard to leave them. Oh well just means I get to start over!
Thats about all I have this week I think, so I leave and I hope you guys all had an amazing week and will have an amazing week this week! remember who you are! love ya!

love
elderly

The baptism from last week, a family that is getting ready to go to the Temple!!!

Words cannot describe this face, is just Africa! I really liked it!!!!!

Baptisms and Fatigue‏

What an AWESOME week we had here! Probably the best week that I have had here, just one spiritual experience after another. It has been amazing! This week my companion and I worked really really hard, near the point of pure exhaustio!. I would have to say honestly week walked at least 15 miles a day, the bare mininium. Going from investigators houses to member houses to less active member houses, just a exhausting week. But with all that exhaustion it feels so GOOD, knowing that week gave it our all.
   Joseph Smith after he had seen the father and the Sonin the First Vision, he was completly exhausted and had to rest awhile before he could move. I really think spiritual experiences drain you like nothing else. Everynite when we came home, I about died, I wanted to eat but I was too tired to cook anything so I would go to bed. Just physically tired from walking in the blazing hot humid sun,mentally tired from thinking and speaking French, and spiritually exhausted!!! There are times when I swear I couldnt walk another mile, yet somehow I do, time and time again and I am still happy! Never has exhuastion felt soo good! Right now I am so tired, hardly can walk but I feel so good, I feel like a worn down missionary and that is what I want!! Hopefully we can continue to feel like this and eventually I will grow stronger!!!
  So like I mentioned this week it was a very BIG week for me, Elise and Michel were baptised!! I have been working with them since I got here and now they are baptised. A lot of fustration, work, sweat and spirit went into this. I didnt feel they were ready until I prayed and asked if they were. God answers prayers of the sincere in heart. That is one of the many many many lessons that I am learning!!! I used to think French hindered me from expressing how I feel, but I cant even express how I feel in English. If everyone felt I how feel sometimes, you couldnt doubt that feeling and knowing there is a god! We are litterally his Sons and Daughters and he Love us immensely!! A baptism is such a simple yet POWERFUL ordinance. I have been reading Jesus The Christ and this weeking I was reading about John the Baptist and memorizing the words for the baptism in French. I cant explain how it feels to know that the same authority that Jesus Christ and John the Baptist had exists today and for some reason I have been blessed by it. In French the baptismal prayer reads, Ayant reçu le authoritie du Jésus-Chirst, Je te baptise dans the nom du Pére, et du Fils, et du Sainte Esprit. I just marvel the simplicity yet the puissance of it all!! Amazing!
   This week we started teaching a person called eric. He is embo, meaning Nigerian and he is progressing really well. He came to church last Sunday, taught him this week and we invited him to come to the baptism, and he did! He wants to be baptised now! We also started teaching his family too! HIs house is really cool I will send a picture of it later. Danic finally came to church and I am so stoked cause he is probably our best investigator and amazingly smart. I talk alot about him cause is awesome! I dunno things are just starting to fall inplace now and its really cool to watch! Well I better get going, thanks for everything/ support and until next week remember who you are!

Love
Elderly

Aie Aie Aie... I love(HATE) French‏

Bonjour

Well whats new, I have a French companion and it sweet and bitter all at the same time! My French comprrhension has gone way up, self esteem up and down but overall, amazing! It was a very difficult week but a very rewarding week also.  We didnt teach alot of lessons this week cause this week I never had so many people not show up to appointments, at their houses! We had over 12 "rattiez-vous" this week. Horrible but I think it was a good week overall, alot of changes and I feel now like alot depends on me, anything I want to get done is up to me, and I really enjoy it. My companion is diffently one to follow, which for me will take some time getting used to cause I did all the following but now both of us have to do it. For example this Sunday was nuts, I was asked to teach the English class during Sunday School, then direct the Primary afterwards, and talk to all my investigators and try to schedule appointments, we didnt have all the investigators we wanted at church.
You remember Danic and Serge, well they didnt show up to church and it was very disappointing so tonight we are going to go find them and find out why. So this Saturday will be my first baptism I think! Which I am way excited for and I hope that everything will work out smoothly, we are trying to get the Dad to baptise them but he is refusing so I might get the chance!! It is so surreal that they are getting baptised cause I have taught them since I have been here and NOW they are ready for baptism, wow wo excited for them and they are even more excited than me and thats hard to do!

My French companion loves to eat sugar and sleep. I figured thats what they do, eat and sleep. All he eats is sugary stuff and pasta with ketchup, which by the way not bad, but he runs out of energy sometimes so I have to give him some of my energy which I have plenty of! I really enjoy being incharge of sorts. Its really wierd but very satisfying and the same time, I dunno if this is bad but I do like it. I decide how long we work, where we work and all this stuff I really dont know. Most of the time I make it up, or so I think and then something so amazing happens, we talk to this guy who give us a referral and this referral come to church! Stuff like this has started to happen in this companionship, cool spiritual things just happen everyday, and everytime it happens I am like wow, this is amazing! I dont know how to explain it except this is not my work, I am starting to see how I am only and instrument, a tabernacle of clay in the hand s of the Lord. And I think a huge huge part of that is obedience, actually I am pretty sure that has alot to do with it, as it says in d&c130 every blessing is predicated upon our obedience. diffently learning that and I hope I will continue to learn and notice these things. I want share just one experience, we were teaching Danic and he had a question concerning his uncle, we were teaching the plan of salvation, and his question was about life after death. It was kinda of a wierd question, then the idea came to mind, moroni 7 something, towards the beginning. I really sont know what it talked about in French except I about recieving good and bad, but it really really touched him and we kept referring back to it during the whole lesson and then he wrote it out on a paper cause he liked it soo soo much. I really dont know that scripture very well, and that chapter is one of my top three favorite chapters and I dunno it was just another testimony that I dont teach, its the spirit. I love it here!
So I played basketball again today and it felt really good to run and jump and run and shoot and run, running feels so good, I need to do it more! Still can dunk by the way!haha
Well I got to go to an appointment soon so I better finish up
love ya all and remember who you are and I will see you later

love
Elderly

This is Michel and Elise, they are getting baptised Saturday!!!! I am so excited for them, more pics next them!

This is me and the Couple, Elder and Sister Southam, and Kiki and Urbaine, both recently baptised and they are a couple of studs!!

I honestly have NO IDEA what kind of meat this was, very tough and weird, but you eat everything here, even the bone!!!