Hey family,
I hope the email and internet everything will work fine this week. So, this week, especially yesterday, was AWESOME! And we also had zone conference this week. So I'll start by answering Dad's questions then talk about yesterday's awesome day.
(Do you have enough money?) Money is fine, no problems there. I actually have extra from the soutien (support) they give me that I gotta give back later today, so there are no problems there. And I was going to go buy my cleats today, but it is too rainy and we spent too much time playing football and rugby this morning.
My companion, Elder Lee, has just informed me that there is no daylight savings here.
I don't know the next Cameroonian holiday, but there was one on March 8th: International Women's Day. So its not just for Cameroon, but here the women with enough money buy an African dress and in the evening go party. But all day we could go around and say "bon fete" and everyone was happy.
My French is going very well I think. I don't want to brag or things like that of course, and obviously I still have a lot I can improve, but I understand pretty much everything people say and most often don't have any problems expressing what I want to. Especially during lessons with people, I find it to be the easiest there, because I talk about those things all the time, and because those are the things that are most important.
So now, Wednesday. The first great thing, is that we found a new building for the church in Bonabéri!!! I told you this at the beginning I think, but right now we are at a member's house, which is getting much too small and there is just too much noise there. But we've been really looking for a new place since before last zone conference, and on Saturday Elder Lee and I found a "grand apartement en etage", which is exactly what we had talked about. We sent the phone number to the Willis' that night, (Senior missionary couple who work with the Elders) and President and Sister Headlee went down there on Wednesday in the morning and they basically made the deal and got the keys to the place last night. And the other funny thing is that the guy who owns it is a member of the Church, who joined in France! I barely met him, but apparently he didn't know the church was here and hasn't been in a while. So that was random. But we've got to do some cleaning and fixing up before we get there, but in 2 or 3 Sundays we plan on being there.
The other sweet thing that happened Wednesday is we set a baptismal date for Robert. He has been taught since November, and has said one day he will be a member of the Church, but for some reason was not too worried about getting baptized. But we finally got him Wednesday, and he is preparing for baptism in May. And his nephew, Omega, and friend, Fred, who live with him are getting baptized in April. But that was great to finally get set.
Also, Tuesday was Zone Conference! Those are always awesome, because President Headlee is the man. There were lots of good things that I can't remember too well, but I wrote them down in my study journal so I can remember them later. But I remember the main point of President Headlee's lesson was about plain and precious truths, and how they are related to the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. And specifically he talked about prayer, and how in the Bible, it is extremely difficult to find all the "qualifications" to get an answer from prayer, but all the doctrine and knowledge was restored, thank goodness. Oh, and also all the elders from Yaoundé came down, so I got to see Elder Ternieden (Eric's first companion) who got transferred back up there, and now I think I've officially met all the missionaries for Cameroon. There is one, named Elder Hunter, who went to Woods Cross High, (Utah, where our family used to live and Eric would have attended this high school had we stayed) so that was cool to meet someone from where we used to live. We talked about "Classic Skating" and such. (Classic Skating was a skating rink in Bountiful Utah where Eric and his friends liked to hang out-they were in elementary school.)
And so my official spiritual thought of the week is brought to you by our wonderful ami de l'église, Emmanuel. Emmanuel is an anglophone preparing for baptism in April, and we finished teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Monday. And at the end of the lesson, Elder Lee asked him, "Why do you want to be baptized?" And he said, simply, "Because I want to be blessed, and so my family can be happy together." Something like that, but it was super simple, but probably the greatest response to that kind of question I have ever heard.
So that's about that. This week we will start cleaning the new church building, and hopefully not melt to death. We are also planning a missionary activity for Bonabéri at the end of this month. We are going to do branch Olympics, like tug of war, 3 legged race, things like that, and the theme will be unity. But I hope things continue to go well. Jacob good luck with the band concerts coming up. Andrea stop growing so fast. Scott don't die at school. Mom keep running the house so well, and Dad ne meurs pas au Ukrop's 10K. (Don't hurt yourself at the Ukrop's 10K)
Je vous aime bien,
- Eric
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