Hello tout le monde.
So I'm going to go through and answer questions and what not, and also I'm going to attach some pictures, hopefully I can get a pretty good number. And this computer is confusing me, so we'll see what happens.
So yes, the World Cup is all over the place, one picture I have will show that. Also the internet café I am in right now is showing Nigeria versus Greece. And yeah, I remember the Priors, (family in the ward from South Africa) good for them. Hopefully one day they'll have the World Cup in the US so I can go to it. But that noise of the matches can give you a headache. There is a match on, pretty much everywhere here, unless you are in a peaceful, residential area.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to open the e-card, (for his birthday) but I'm gonna try again this week, because these computers are different-ish this week. They are in "ubuntu" mode or something, I learned about this at that computer class I took at SUU, but its kind of weird.
The English class is going well. Last Saturday we taught them how to pray in English, and since I'm the beginners class we just kept it as simple as possible. But there was a couple times where I forgot how to say something correctly in English. And you already know from my email last week that I don't speak very good English sometimes. When I talk with Elder Parsons or another English speaking missionary, I'm fine. But if we randomly find someone else who tries to speak English with us, I usually just get confused. But, yesterday I did teach someone from Nigeria, therefore the lesson was in English. And we were on splits, I was with Elder Mbuyi, who is from Kinshasa, but he speaks ok English. But at one point I couldn't remember how to say "alors" or "donc" in English, and Elder Mbuyi had to remind me (its "so", embarrassing).
I wrote Mr. Gates a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything back yet.
Yes, I can still write to Spencer and Sang, (friends on missions) but I have learned that Spencer aint gonna write to me no more. So now its kind of pointless for me to write to him, because he can't really respond to my questions or anything anyways, but I'll probably just copy and paste stuff I send to you at home. But whatever, c'est pas grave.
But that's great about Chris, (a young man from our ward who entered the MTC last week) I guess that means I've been on my mission for a little bit now.
So from what I hear, Bonabéri is going pretty good, but there wasn't anyone baptized this past month. I have heard that one person, Emmanuel, is doing awesome, and that his son Nelson is getting ready to get baptized in July. I do email Elder Lee (former companion) usually each week, he is still in Douala, so I know a little bit.
(Is it hard to get up in the morning or have you adjusted to the mission schedule?) So now I set my alarm for 5:15, because on the mornings when Elder Parsons and Elder Ritchie and I run, we have to start at 5:30, and it gets easier and easier, but there are still some mornings when its pretty darn hard to get up at that time. But once I get up and do something, I'm fine. I am looking forward to the day, though, when I sleep in til 7 or 7:30.
Alright, now I've figured this out a bit, I'll be sending those pictures in another email. Also, I heard that your package came today in Douala. They even called me to tell me not to have packages sent there anymore, because they had to pay 10000 CFA or something to get it. I just told them that's what the Willis' said to do. But they also said to make sure that the Church's name is on the package, because the p.o. box is for the Church, just as a reminder.
Well, thanks for the fat sports email Dad, haha. (Mark sent a detailed timeline of the Ute's invitation to the PAC 10 conference) Also Dad, Happy Fathers' Day! On Sunday! Thanks for the reminder on that Mom, and Elder Ritchie next to me reminded me again. Grandma also told me you have now been a bishop for over 5 years, dang! Do you think you will still be a bishop when I get home?
And thanks for the sports update and analysis of how it happened. I will try to keep my comment short, but I would say I am similarly pleased like Dad. Again, Grandma told me how excited Dad was on the phone about it.
Also, I don't see any "quick questions", (from Mark) so I'll just tell you what stuff is going on. Did splits twice this week. Tuesday I went with Elder Kesler, who is the district leader, and he is supposed to do splits with each missionary. It was a pretty good day. And then the next day I was with Elder Mbuyi, like I said, who is Kesler's companion. Its kind of weird to not be in your sector, because I'm pretty much clueless and don't know where I'm going, but its nice to do that every once in a while.
I taught the amis class for the Pointe-Noire branch on Sunday again. I taught on le jour du sabbat, (Sabbath Day) pretty basic. But now I actually kind of like to do that, because then I learn that principle really well and find cool scriptures on it and stuff. And I've learned its not really that hard to take 40 minutes to talk about one chapter of Principals of the Gospel. And one other plus, it counts as a lesson in the presence of a member!
Also, we have this ami de l'église named Fabrice. I think I've already talked about him, he is the man. So we had gotten through all the normal lessons, and we taught la Parole de Sagesse (Word of Wisdom) on time. His only problem is that he smokes, a lot. He said he picked it up from the military and never got over it, and that he even smokes up to 10 times a day, that's kind of a lot. We had fixed his baptismal date for the 26th of June, but now we'll have to put it in July. But we gave him the commitment to only smoke 5 times in a week, and he reported to us that he only smoked twice! He went from 10 a day to 2 in a week! Seriously, he is the man. He also bought a new Bible with an Apocrypha. He said he bought it because he wanted the stuff that is missing in other Bibles. So then we read D&C 91, to clarify that.
What else...one great success, with our friend Matinga, who is also the man, getting baptized one the 26th. His only problem, is that he likes to bear his testimony too often, and for too long of time. One time, we wanted to teach him la loi de chasteté (Chastity) and la parole de Sagess. (Word of Wisdom) Literally, all Elder Parsons said was the name of the commandment, la loi de chasteté, and then Frére Matinga went off for 40 minutes on some long story, which was good, but we really didn't have time for. So the next rendezvous, in order to get ready for his baptism, we had to teach him la parole de sagess, le jour du sabbat, and la dime, (tithing) in under an hour. It was hard, I seriously had to ask him to not bear his testimony, but we got all through it. That might not sound like much of a challenge, but it is with Frére Matinga. But this guy is probably the most ready-to-get-baptized person I've met.
Well that is pretty much life right now. Also Elder Ritchie is going home in 2 weeks, that's kind of weird, because he is the first missionary I know who I will experience him going home. And we also have zone conference this Saturday with mission president, so those are always good. I bet everyone is getting ready for summer, luckies.If you want, you can root for Boston for me, (NBA) and the USA in the World Cup.
Je vous aime,
- Elder Palmer
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