Family!

Hello family!

This week, was general conference weekend. IT was AMAZING! BUt the worst part of it was two things. One, no one knew that this was going to happen until monday nite, and two our phone was stolen. Other than that it was pretty good! This week was filled with lots of running and sweating, its the hottest it been on the mission, especially cause it rains in the morning and then sweltering hot during the day. Everynite I drink close to 2.5 litres just before bed. We had to warn all the members about General Conference and try to see all our friends. IT was fun! I did an exchange with Elder Richard this week, interesting fellow, he is going home in Decembre. Kinda weird doing exchanges with him, just cause he is older and a better missionary. This week we started teaching an English class, trying to find another approach to find MORE people. English class is funny, Bakanna calls Elder Stucki, 'teacherStucki' is this funny english accent, it makes me laugh! I dont know how much I am helping them, I was teaching them the alphabet, and for W I taught them it was 'double V' instead of correct proper english of 'double U' English doesnt make sense. But we taught them to pray in English! Papa Tépé is doing really well, we found a HUGE serivce project, the Elders are going to take out a huge mango tree! Seriously 80 ft high and we will do it with machettes and hack saws. All of our friends came to church, at least either sunday or saturday or both. I think for the most part they all enjoyed themselves. I really did! Right after we watched the Priesthood session we went out and tried to do some rendez-vous. Had an interesting experience. OH, this week we taught a buddhist, interesting fellow, told us he is a priest of some order and can make manifest Jesus in darkness and light. So many people believe/do wierd stuff. Hopefully they will see the light one day and rise from the darkness of their own ignorance and pride. Anyways I think thats all, hope you have a great day and rmemember who you are and that I loe you all soo much. During the talk of Eyring, he said something that made me smile, but the thought came to mind that next genral conference, i will see it with my family!

Elder Lee

Cantique °3‏

So how is everybody? sounds like is patchy patchy. Here things are terrible. Africas hourglass is broken, its leaking time everywhere and everyday it looses more time and less time do do anything. Its catastrophic. We had a good week, and everyday I realize how much i love this place, and especially the people! Incredible people with incredible faith!

This week was nuts, my comp was sick and trying to see everyone that we need to is a hard task, trying to make it from Casablanca to Akpamé everyday is quite the challenge and tiring! This week we made an 'american' dinner for Félice et Ayoko, we made pancakes. It was quite funny, seems like everytime we go there they feed us so it was our turn, Ayoko didnt know what to think about the whole cas. But they really loved it, I ended giving them that peanut butter that you sent me cause they were very attached to it. I love that family!

Et Papa Tépé brought his wife to church yesterday! That was incredible! He told her he needs to have her besi de him so that he can recieve all that His father hath! Petit really likes the 10 commandements I love teaching them cause everyone church going says they keep the commandements but no one knows them especially the first 4.

We have right now 8 people with baptismal dates and I hope we might get another 3 this week. The work is moving well, and its thanks to livre of Mormon! Gentil has been working with us alot, I love that kid, he is going to be a great missionary, but I told him he needs to finds us 9 families out in Adakpamé so that we can start a branch there, Im pretty certain by next month we will have 6 of those families!

So much happens and there is never enough time it seems I waste a lot of time here like everyday at the internet. Time is really broken and its deranging me alot. anyways right now I am reading in D&A, i love it, I am almost finished then I will read the old testament and then  can say I have read the entire standard works in french. D&A is a powerful book, its all Christ speaking to us today! I love rendering testimony, teaching is all good and fun and eventful but when it comes down to it I love just rendering a heartfelt testimony, and especially when our investigators do theirs! This work is divine! There is no question what I have seen,lived, heard will never be able to be written down, expect in the fleshy tablets of my heart. And it's going to stay there. It is true. God Lives. Jesus Chri st can save us if we repent and humble ourselves. Joseph saw God and Jesus Christ. This is truth and truth NEVER changes. Have a great week and I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Remember who you are!

Elder Lee

BIG NEWS! (Alyssa)

LEE FAMILY!!!

WOW can I just say you are amazing! this week I definitely received a package
for my Birthday! That was so sweet of you guys! I don´t know how to say thank
you enough!  It was perfect too, I have been missing orbit gum lately, the candy
is great, see the picture for the end results of the cake, and well i took the
bag of tootsie pops to a ward bon fire and all the little kids definitely mobbed
me for them! I felt like a human piñata! haha but i just wanted to say THANK YOU
SOOOOOOOOO MUCH !!! I hope that everything is going just peachy over their in
Texas! I was thinking about you  guys when we had a little photo shoot the other
day on our roof so that is why i have included a little bonus pic for Ya¨ll!!!
:)  also i thought i would forward you on my family letter for the week, because
just like the subjects says there is some BIG NEWS! at least for me...read on if
you would like...

But just in case i didn´t get my point accross...
THANKS AGAIN!!! you guys are GREAT!!! love ya´ll
-Hermana Alyssa Collette


Well, so I know it has only been a week since I last wrote everyone but I
just…well there is so much to tell! Changes are always a time of excitement and
suspense. All the missionaries gather around and it is almost like Christmas as
their eyes light up and they receive their new companions.  I guess the exciting
news isn’t that I have a change.  I am still going to be here in the capital and
will be training the nurse next change.  But, anyway so today was our little
orientation day for the newbies and I had to do my lil nursing spiel in front of
like 30 people…a little nerve-wrecking….but so we do it and it´s good, the
spirit was really strong in this conference for some reason, maybe it was
because our air conditioning broke and so we all were feeling a little more
extra ¨warmth¨.

After the presentation we left the room and started to, ya know, do nursing
stuff when president came out and called Hermana Hall and I into a quick
meeting.  I was a little worried because it was during the conference and you
don´t just miss that for anything because they are kinda a big deal. Anyway our
meeting…wow! it was intense. He told us, or rather called us, to learn a
language called K'ekchi. It is a very old, ancient Mayan dialect, and actually
it existed here even before Spanish did and officially now is a language!….. so
my deadline is set. Starting the first part of January until I end my mission I
will head to the real live jungle and be living much more primitively than here.
It is definitely a difficult place to live, a very hard language to learn and
speak and the most humble of people you could meet.

We will be opening new Hermana areas in some places where the elders aren’t able
to teach, and he was mentioning a lot about hygiene and just basic principles
like brushing your teeth that they are not quite living.  Also he mentioned that
the church has been thinking about doing a huge welfare project for the people
there and one day have a goal to bring them electricity (but we, as
missionaries, will be blessed to have it meanwhile) and so really there is no
way to even imagine the magnitude of the work that will be a part of! It just
makes me SOOO excited to even think about! Just to give you a little taste of
the language I will be speaking….or more like trying to speak :)

Lix Pabal Li Jesucristo Reheb Laj Tiquilal Sa Roso´Jiqueb Li Cutan = The Church
of Jesús Christ of Latter Day Saints. Also if you wanna say my name in K´ekchi,
you would say Laa´in lix kole´k which actually my name kole´k means ¨saved¨ so I
guess that is pretty sweet to think about the literal saving of souls that I
will be there to do!

So….I´m not going to lie, I was a little stunned when president told us, but
honestly, i felt the spirit was very strong and i knew immediately and you could
just feel that even though he was speaking, the words were not coming from him.
I really can´t describe how powerfully the spirit hit me and then just the most
overwhelming sense of peace, and confidence that I can do it, because that is
what he wants me to do! I remember about a week ago, President Torres asked me
about if I wanted to end my mission as the nurse. I just mentioned if he could
help out my ADD a little and switch me areas or ya know it would be nice if I
could leave the capital again.  But overall, I knew it had to be up to the
Revelation that he is entitled to receive for the mission.  I know that this
future is totally in the hands of God and i know that my president is really and
truly and inspired servant of the Lord!

I am not sure where I will go exactly, but its way up north, in the jungle, like
a 12 hour bus ride from the capital. It´s actually not as North as when I was in
Peten, but it´s more jungle-ish and so the windy bus ride will be longer! I am
pretty excited even though I don´t really know what kinds of adventures are in
store for us! Ya know opening this area and there are a lot of things planned
for the future up there that we dont know yet, but will be laying the groundwork
for and will probably in years to come change the life of the people there.
Sounds like a slight exaggeration, but our mission President has a pretty great
vision of the work that needs to be done here.

Anyway I guess now would be a good time so put in a few Christmas
suggestions…ummm well I have my chaco sandals somewhere and I was thinking if
you would send me those…or I don´t wanna sound demanding and say buy me other
ones, but that is exactly what I need.  And you see the reason is, well, when it
rains there and the streets flood, i´m just thinking my ¨attractive¨ shoes just
won´t cut it! Plus it is hotter than Hades up there and I won´t even want to
look at nylons.

I will still be hanging around the office for a bit, but just a heads up, for
when I leave because I will be out of the capital and out of easy mail and
package reception.  No worries I will still be able to e-mail! so. yeah. anyhoo,
i will write more when i know more.

love you all!!! good luck and i will write more next week or whenever i can....
I am so excited for this. wow. President compared us to the hijas de mosiah!
(the daughters of mosiah) haha
well, i guess bring it on, eh?
Love you and miss you all! Have a great week!

Lix Kole´k

The market bombed?‏

So this week has been everything plus tiring. And this week is going to get worse. BUT I LOVE BEING TIRED FOR THIS WORK! It is totally worth all the pain sleepless nites to see people really grasp this gospel, what light and what hope!!! Félice and Ayoko are moving along really well Félice is an inspired man, we come introduce a subject and he explains everything to us and then to his wife! They are amazing! Papa Tépé is the same thing, yesterday he came to church in a white shirt et tie! It was the first time and I told him he was looking beau, and he told me, yeah I know I am going to wear this until the day I die coming to church! He is the man! Our area is just amazing, and then President gave us another booming area cause we dont have enough missionnairies, so no rest for the weary!  Sunday was a missionary sunday, the first one ever here meaning the missionaries do all, sacrament the talks the lessons all. So I got to bless the sacrament, give 2 talks in two of the branches and teach sunday school twice. Then afterwards we went to the hospital to visit the mamma to Félice cause she is malade, and then we came into the apartment et were doing our weekly planning session we Elder richard who just got done talking to his parents(he is leaving in the next month so he got to call home and tell them when) but they told him that the stock market crashed and it was worse than when it bombed in 1930. We were pretty stunning, I started thinking about how to make a log cabin and start my propre jardin. Interesting thoughts, then this morning we found out that it was not like that. Well interesting enough, hope you all have a great day and remember who you are!  Love you much!!

Elder Lee

Blown Away...

Another week has gone by, another Zone Conference and another transfer.... someday too soon this will all be a memory... thats something scary... So this week has another eventful week here, Président Ayekoue came this week, our Zone Conference was really good, I had some questions I have been trying to find answers for and both President Ayekoue and President Dieudonné answered them during the conference, nothing happens by coincidence! It is really the work of the Lord! We had some AMAZINg food prepared by mama odette and some other sisters, even kaka one of my investigators that was baptised recently they all helped create the best food ever, Attiéké and Akumé! We had our first Branch conference this weekend, it was really neat thinking that we sustained all the church dirigeants with the the whole churxh the same day, hopefully we will get to watch con ference in the near future. But it was nice this week cause we were able to stay for all of church! Usually we leave after the sacrament so that we can fish for big fishes, but we stayed and assisted, it was really uplifting! Our area is doind really well, we decided this week that we are teaching the future patriarch of the church here, Papa Tépé. In Anciens class they talked about missionary work, and the people who talked the most we our investigators! Félice, Papa Tépé Edwardo all rendered powerful testimonies of missionary work and how it has affected them, all voluntary! they are such amazing people and I think the members hopefully will want to live the gospel and Share it! Well Vaida and Akpéné got baptised this weekend. THey are really sweet people! So for the transfer.... I am staying in Bé-kpota and sadly Elder howard is leaving, he is a good kid him. and I am recieving elder stucki, another old companion. I guess he is having a hard time right now, staying motviated and happy, so president asked if I would help him out, so it will be fun, he is a good kid just little down about missionary work, but we will trop busy to even think about that, because one this area is booming and two president gave us another quartier to do. C'est-à-dire my new area stretches from ghana boarder to other other extreme end lomé. It is jsut us two in this branch and there is more than enough work for three teams of elders: Im excited for it! And now he has asked us that we do missionary sundays, meaning that every second sunday the missionaries need to do all, teach bless the sacrament, give discourses, teach all the lessons, that a BIG order for two missionaries! And we hae to do it this weekend! We had 122 at church last week, last time it was like that we split the branch, the new branch that they created had 58 at church, they started at 40. so I will be so tired soon! After zone conference, sitting around all day I went and played with the national team of togo again, it brings back so good memories! Running around, shooting jumping falling and that good stuff! Well I better get going, souns like you are rendering lots of service, cutting down trees and cleaning up!  THat is awesome that amanda got a 30 on her ACT, I always knew she was more than blonde hair and shiny shoes!!! Anwyays have a great week and remember who you are love you tons!!!

AMour,
Elder Lee