Eric's email of August 15th, 2011-ONLY 1 P-DAY LEFT!!

Frère Maurice vous salue.  (says hello)  We just saw him and his family do to a soirée familiale,(FHE) and while leaving he told us to greet the family.  That was a really fun family night.  We sang some hymns, including Elder Wagman’s favourite, number 199 in French, 307 in English.  (In Our Lovely Deseret) I have that song almost memorized now because Elder Wagman picks it at least every other day.  Anyways, in family night we also had a little lesson on how many great blessings we can get from family night, and played a game which involves stacking matches on a bottle.  I won once.  The family is progressing well, Frère Maurice got a calling as a teacher in Elders’ Quorum (his grandson raised his hand for “any opposed by the same sign”) and his wife and one daughter are getting ready for baptism this weekend.  They gave us sauce d’arachide afterwards, after we had already eaten Ndolé today.  I’m gonna explode.

We’ve also decided that going home from your mission is also like leaving for your mission.  At least Elder Wagman and Tingey and I said that when we left on our mission, it felt like it was never really going to happen, until the day of maybe, or even until after entering the MTC.  I know that’s how I felt before my mission, and that’s how I feel now about going home.

The missionaries also gave talks in Bastos 1 yesterday.  Elder Tingey talked about the Restoration, Elder Wagman talked about how to have an “effective Gospel study”, and Elder Prince gave a talk about obedience.  Mine was based kind of on a talk given in the April 2005 conference called “the worth of souls” by an Elder Hillard or something, and also used one of the stories Mom gave me before my mission about some of our ancestors.  I talked a bit about the story of Thomas McCann (Great-great....grandfather) and his wife and how they found the Church and all that.  I’ll be giving a probably similar talk in Bastos 2 this Sunday.

I scored 2 goals in soccer on Sunday.  I think those are the first goals I scored on my mission.

Elder Wagman is going to tell you about lots of cool stuff that happened.

On Friday we did exchanges, and I worked with Elder Nash, the district leader for Ekounou.  It turned into an interesting day.  We showed up to Jean-Paul’s house, and there was a party!  I think we met every Chadian living in Cameroon at that party.  It was for someone who got their diploma in medicine or something.  Lots of people wanted to take a picture with us, some of them got taken with my camera.  We also somehow got to teach a lesson to Richard, Jean-Paul’s son, and his brother Didier and a couple friends, and we got 2 coordonnées.  So, new finding method of the week, go to parties.

Elder Nash and I also visited a recent convert named Olivier.  I forgot if I told you about him already.  He’s awesome.  Right now he is attending Ekounou I, but we found out a couple weeks ago that he lives in Bastos II since 1 month ago.  He kind of moved without telling people.  But I interviewed Olivier back in May, and that may have been the “easiest” interview I did, meaning that he knew everything and had a real testimony too.  Now he is a branch missionary and works with the missionaries regularly and teaches on Sunday often.  When Elder Nash and I went to see him, he had books all over on the table from the Church, preparing for his lesson on Sunday.  He is the guardian for the apartment of the elders in Ekounou, and he started taking the lessons, because he found a Book of Mormon the missionaries had given to an old guardian, started reading it, then the missionaries saw him reading it and began teaching him.  I think since the first Sunday he came to Church, he hasn’t missed a day.  On Friday, he was almost done with the Doctrine and Covanents, and I bet by now he is finished, which means he has read all the canonized scriptures of the Church already.  He told me in his interview that he first saw the missionaries walking around in Bonabéri, before he came to Yaoundé, and we found out that was when I was in Bonabéri. (Eric's first area)  So, that was an awesome coincidence.  Ok, well I just said that all out of order, but simply, he is definitely changed because of the Gospel and truly lives it every day.

Hmm, what else… well, I can't think of anything else right now.  And I’m going to send this before the computers shut down again, like it happened last week, and the week before or something, so that I don’t lose all I wrote.

 

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

 

To Mom

(Do you want me to bring your saxophone back from Utah-Scott would like you to take one of his guitars to him at BYU.)  Yes I would like my saxophone back in Virginia, I was wondering where that was.  And I'll bring out a guitar for Scott if he wants.

 

 To Dad

 

I still have some euros that Grandma sent me in the MTC, so I should have cash for travels.

          I didn't see your bribe for Elder Tingey (to run with Eric who is training for the 1/2 marathon) until today, so I'll see what I can do.

Branch members teach institutue.

I'll be bring home souvenirs and things that are important to me, I'll be leaving lots of clothes and junk, especially missionary clothes.  Oh, that reminds me, did you answer my question about the iPod?  If I left the iPod for someone, would that be bad?  Also, a member of Bastos II that is preparing to leave on his mission in October could use a camera.  How important is it that I bring the camera home?  (Sois honnete).  (Be honest)

Yeah, I have no idea what you should be asking me.  Like I said, il ne me semble pas vraiement que je vais rentrer bientot.  (It doesn't seem real that I am going to be coming home soon.)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer