Elder Palmer (back row, 6th from left) is serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa mission for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.


Eric returned home on August 27th, 2011!!!!!

He was transferred to Yaounde, Cameroon on August 13th, 2010.


Links listed on the left are from the senior couples and Mission President!

Comments in italics are clarifications from Mom.




Sunday, July 10, 2011

Eric's email of July 7th, 2011

If time goes by this fast after my mission too, I’ll be a grandpa in the rest home in no time.
            Had another pretty good week.  We now have 3 baptismal candidates.  The first one is Soeur Marie-Sylvie.  She’s the one that I thought has been ready for baptism for at least a month.  But like she said, she would tell us when she would be ready for baptism.  She’s getting ready for the 16th of July.  Elder Tingey is going to interview her on Sunday.  She is basically, legit.  And she is turning into a coordonnée machine.  Oh, and yesterday morning we also helped her wash oranges that she sells.  Interesting fact, she buys oranges that come from Nigeria, because a huge bag of them is 13000 francs, whereas the same huge bag of oranges from Cameroon are 20000 francs.  Allegedly, the oranges they grow in Cameroon are grown in some kind of fancy pants way.
            The other one getting ready for the 16th of July is Frère Morris.  He is a reading machine.  He has gotten through Jacob 5 now, not an easy one.  We are still working on getting to his house, but he said that his kids are going to start coming to Church.  And now I am very convinced that he has a legit testimony of the Restoration, to go along with his in depth understanding of everything we have taught him.
            The other one is Frère Remi.  He has a date for the 6th of August.  But, Elder Wagman and I haven’t even taught him yet.  He is the younger brother of Sister Bala, of Bastos 2.  He has been coming for about a month now, but he lived really far away, at a place called Nkol-Bisson.  Elder Tingey and Hansen have taught him a few times, and they taught him again on Sunday after church.  So they set a baptismal date with him, but found out that he is know living with the Bala family, which is in our sector.  We are going to see him of Saturday.  So I’ll tell you more about him next time.
            This evening we are all going over to the Thompsons for a 4th of July party thing.  Elder Tingey also thinks we are going to get transfer news, but I don’t think so.  I seriously can’t believe how fast this transfer went.  Oh, and also if I can’t still get this computer to send pictures, I’ll send some chez les Thompson. (No pictures)
            And on Saturday morning at 9 AM, we have having a short meeting with the new Président and Soeur Jameson!  And also, Elder Thompson has also informed me that I will also get my release interview this weekend, because right now President Jameson doesn’t plan on coming back before I go.  That was a surprise.  So I’ll also tell you about that next week.
            Elder Wagman and I will be going on splits again tomorrow.  One of us will work with Pierre Bissalla again, and the other will work with Brice Makanda.  And Bastos 2 has also started up choir again.  So in order for us to be able to be there for that, I got them to do splits with us once a week.  I think it is a fair trade.  I’m playing the piano of course.
            Elder Wagman and I have also narrowed down our teaching pool a little bit.  Just because our sector was so big and we had too many people to handle, we had to make some decisions.  So we have more focus now on those people who are progressing more than others.  Our new ami de l’Eglise Hervé came to church on Sunday, as well as Frère Victore, coordonnée from Frère Jean-Paul.  Oh, and we also noticed something really weird.  So our sector right now covers Bastos 2 and part of Bastos 1.  In Bastos 2, we have 8 investigators that our male, and zero that are women (except for a couple, but we haven’t seen them recently because they don’t really seem to care).  In Bastos 1, we have 9 investigators that are female, and 2 legitimate male investigators.  So the point is, it seems like in Bastos 2 we only teach men, in Bastos 1 we only teach women.  I don’t know why, but I thought that was interesting.
            Well that’s about it.  Oh, and I heard Elder Wilkins, (Eric's MTC Companion) who is in Pointe-Noire, finally got his flight plans.
 
Je vous aime bien,
- Elder Eric Palmer
 
(Our stake youth conference is next week and we are having a missionary theme.  Mark asked Eric what the youth need to know before their mission)  Yeah, Mom told me about that mission president thing.  The best thing I would tell them, is to read the whole Book of Mormon before their mission, and to study Preach My Gospel.  It would stink to do missionary work without the Book of Mormon.

(Mark wanted ti wish the Thompson's a "Happy Canada Day" and to find out if they watch one of our favorite TV shows from Canada, Corner Gas?)  I didn't see your Canada email til now.  But Elder Thompson asked me on Sunday (jokingly... I think...), "What's wrong with your dad?"  Basically, he was surprised that you watch Corner Gas.  So, that might answer your question.

Yes, we are to study our foreign language if we have one every day of our mission jusqu'à la fin. (To the end.)  And yes, I think I have improved from 6 months ago.  Recently, because I spent a day with Elder Thompson, I think I'm sounding better too.  He told me that the main improvement I could make is pronouncing "u", and make sure it doesn't sound like "ou".  He told me also that there is barely a difference between "u" and the "u" with a teepee accent.  I don't feel like figuring out how to type that letter right now.

ENREGISTRE MES COURS LE ONZE JUILLET!!!!!!! (Eric is reminding his father to register Eric for fall classes.)   I'm not sure if that is the most correct word.

Oh, and I also found out the name and artist of 1 of my 2 favorite African songs.  The artist is named "Alain Cave", and his song is called something like "Se Pa Pou Dat".  They guy who wrote it said he wasn't completely sure on the song name.  But you can look that up if you want.  He is a Cameroonian.  (We cannot figure out what this song means.)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer
 
(Have you heard from Spencer in New Zealand?  What are his plans after his mission?)  I haven't heard from Elder Aldridge in a while, he stopped emailing me cuz he said it was the mission rule.  I did send him a letter in the mail a couple of months ago, I hope it got to him.  I don't know how many letters have been sent from Cameroon to New Zealand.  So I don't know anything about him right now.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

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