Wow Jacob, you are turning into a basketball Jones, who plays well in crunch time. Make sure you record your highlights when they show them on Sportscenter. And Andrea, sorry your perfect season is over, but that's how most (or all) of my teams were, barely trying to get a few wins. Next time you should do a 360 dunk, Andrea, that should help. And Scott, Dad told me to ask you about your School of Rock dealio, so, dis-moi! (Tell me)
Yeah, last week I didnt get any time to send pictures, we had a special-ish district meeting with the zone leaders who came down from Yaoundé. But I'll do it this week.
Haven't gotten cleats yet, I was going to go today, but we ended up making a rendez-vous with this inactive member named Moise, who lives out in Bonabéri but works in town in Bonapriso. And since we are in Bonapriso today Elder Lee and I are going to go visit him with the Willis'. He's been a member since '07 or something like that, and apparently he was one of the biggest reasons the church got moved to Bonabéri, but he went inactive quickly. So hopefully it will go good, we just want to get to know him and find out his conversion story.
So let me see what questions I forgot to answer to Dad... Yes, I am writing in my journal, even though I don't like it. Sometimes its hard, because I get home and I have to help make dinner and do the area book and close our day and take a shower, and somehow write in my journal. But its going pretty good, and I very well could use another one, so that would be something good to send, thanks.
Alright, so about the Bonabéri activity-we got 63 people there, which is far more than ever come to church. Our record for church is only 46. We watched this movie called "Our Heavenly Father's Plan", a few people gave some testimonies, and we sang some songs, and Sister Willis made refreshments for after. The movie was made like 20 or so years ago.
Also this week we have set 4 baptismal dates! After almost a whole transfer with none. There are 4 people preparing to be baptized the 1st Saturday of April: Emmanuel, Ebanezar, Fred, and Omega. And I'll talk a little bit about these beautiful people.
So first is Emmanuel. Emmanuel is an anglophone who works on Ancienne Route (one of the 2 main roads in Bonabéri) and sells soya. And soya means meat on a stick. So he's a soya man. He also works next to a member of the church named Tumasang. And what happened with Emmanuel is that the missionary who I replaced here would just invite Emmanuel to church every week whenever they would go see Tumasang. And he never came, just saying there was "toooooo much sun" or "tooooo much rain" or "toooooooo much heat" or "toooooo much tired". But then one week he finally came, to our surprise, and said he liked it. And he came the following week, and bore his testimony! That was back in January, and he has been pretty consistent-ish with church since, and now with our goal for April we think he will come each week and read in his Book of Mormon. He is married also and has 2 kids, but right now his wife and one kid live back in the village. So we will also plan for his son here, Nelson, to get baptized.
Next, Ebanezar, whose name I don't really know how to spell. But often times we just call him Eb. Eb, is 78. Elder Lee told me he is by far the oldest person he has ever taught. And one day back when I was with Elder Ternieden we just met Eb en route one day, invited him to church, and he has come every week except one since. And he has super bad eyes, so he can barely read his Book of Mormon, but he is currently working his way through Alma 32 right now. Oh, and he is a Francophone.
Next is Fred. His real African name is Akama, but he told us to call him Fred, I don't know why. But he is hilarious. He lives with Omega, who I will talk about next. Fred always wears a cool hat. Another anglophone, actually wasn't even in our progressing investigators section, but since he gets taught with Omega, he was just at the right rendez-vous at the right time. So there will be a bit of work to do, but its sweet.
Lastly for now, Omega. Omega is 17, a francophone who speaks English well because he went to English school. He is the nephew of this guy Robert, who is the friend of Totto who is a member. And we also want Robert to prepare for baptism in April. But Omega is the man. He is still in secondary school, but he wants to do computer science for his job when he grows up. And basically he is the man, just because he gets everything and keeps his commitments.
So that's that for now, 2 of those are "families", with Emmanuel and his son Nelson, and Robert/Omega/Fred/Seignor (who is Robert's son who is 7 years old only). So it was a really great week, or at least since Monday. But its also like rainy season has started early, Saturday Sunday and Monday night, and knocked out the power each time. The biggest bummer about the power going out is no fridge, which means no cold drinks, which stinks. And no fans. But its not that bad, and its never out for more than a day.
So now I will share the spiritual thought. So last night we saw Sheila, Shilah, and Sheila, or Shilahs 1, 2, and 3. And we hadn't seen them forever. But we went to her place with "The Restoration" DVD. So we watched that, after Sheila 1 went and found a DVD player that worked. And basically that movie is awesome, because no matter where you are or who you are watching it with, you can feel the Spirit. It was only the first time I've watched that at an investigator's house, but I've decided we should do that once a week, for our sake. That way, even if we are having a crappy day and stuff, we can watch that and be happy again. And also, its really good for the investigators because its easy to understand Joseph Smith's story from it.
Well that is that, as some anglohpones say. Oh and this week was transfers again already, and I'm still here. Which I'm happy about, but transfers always keep things exciting. Anyways, I hope it snows enough for the kids to get another snow day. And you can also send some snow with the Willis' daughter if you want.
Je vous aime bien,
- Eric
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