. Elder Eric Palmer

Last Entry-from home on August 28th, 2011

2011-09-10T17:08:00.001+01:00

Jacob, Elder Palmer and Andrea at the Charlottesville, VA airport
(Sorry it is blurry, I must have been excited or something!)

Well, this is my last “missionary” entry. I’m at home right now, its not that weird, except Andrea and Jacob are huge, and there are a lot of screens to look at, like this computer and my cell phone and TVs and stuff. And these jeans I’m wearing feel kind of weird.

So, my last week in the mission field was great. On Monday, we went to Marche Central to shop and tried to get everything done for the whole week like packing and cleaning so that we wouldn’t have to worry about that later. I think we did a pretty good job.

Tuesday seemed like a pretty normal day. Just taught rendezvous and fixed appointments with those people to say goodbye and show them the new missionaries. Oh, and we also had a perfect day, meaning no rattezvous, or in other terms, no appointments falling through. We did have a mangezvous at the end of the day, with food prepared by Soeur Charlotte and Soeur Gwet, and it was really good, except for the meat. It had huge bones, but it was Frere Patrick’s falt because he is the one that chose it.

Wednesday was good, started out with a rendezvous with Mireille, Paulin’s wife. She had been sick recently, so we gave her a blessing. Then we saw Andre, a coordonnee from the Tobe family. That was a good lesson, because we had 2 members there, and they both shared a sweet testimony about the family, and one had just been back from the temple to be sealed to hers.

Then there was a young single adults activity, and one of the reasons it was held was to dire aurevoir a Elder Palmer. There was a games section and a talent show after. The games included a sack race, arm wrestling, eating contest (that Elder Tingey won), and such things. Then the talent show basically consisted of lipsyncing to songs, and some dancing. The real singing I heard was done by Frere Simplice, who is being very well intergrated and integrating himself. He, I can say, rapped this song about the last jugement. The chorus was basically “les catholiques attendent ce jour, les presbetyriens attendent ce jour, les muselmans attendent ce jour” etc, with everyone saying “attendant ce jour” together. He was the best I would say, because he was the only one that sang for real. And Elder Tingey and I sang the romantic peanut butter & jelly song, and I played guitar.

Then, the rest of the week basically consisted of saying aurevoir to people. Wednesday evening, Elder Wagman and I went to see the Longla family, and Frere Jacques. Then Thursday, after a get together breakfast in Ekounou for the last zone gathering, Elder Wagman and Elder Prince worked together, and I worked with Elder Tingey. And also Frere Junior of Bastos 2 worked with us. Thursday we saw the people of Bastos 1 in Messassi and Emana, and the last one was Soeur Therese in Citee Verte. We had an interesting visit to (a different) Frere Simplice, of the Bastos 1 branch presidency. There was a somewhat heated discussion in mostly dialect happening, while us 3 at yams and sweet potatoes with a mushroom sauce. Very interesting, and extremely filling. Junior said he could understand the conversation, but he didn’t tell us anything.

Then Friday, it was Elder Hansen and Elder Tingey and I, kind of a lot. After our morning rung, we left early, because we had to go au village to see Soeur Salome. Then we went to say goodbye to people in Bastos 2, and also show Elder Hansen his new sector. Oh, and another interesting fact: so officially everytime I left a sector on my mission, my companion also got transferred and they sent in 2 new ones. I was never on the other end of that, but I imagine it wouldn’t be easy. But Friday included our normal route, with short sweet visits. Frere Olivier, the recent convert, spent most of the day with us. He is awesome, and the only difficult thing though is he speaks really fast. The 2^nd to last one was with la famille du Frere Maurice. They gave us Eru. I ate a lot. Too much actually, which would later prove some discomfort during travels. Then at the end, we had to go see Brother Ndiemboh, the very last visit. And I cut it close, I had basically enough time to go home and shower and finish pakcing and then go.

And the plane flights were not fun. But that’s not that important, or interesting. But, thanks to some tricky maneuvering of Dad, I flew home to Charlottesville last night, because Richmond was shut down due to a hurricane. (Hurricane Irene-closed down the Richmond airport one hour after Eric left Yaounde. We were on hold with the airlines for 11 hours and 45 minutes before we could change his flight from Philadelphia into Charlottesville. He beat us there and was the only person in the airport, so our welcome home signs were anti-climatic.)

So, that’s that. I got released today by President Mullins. I don’t feel that out of place, but it is kind of confusing thinking and talking about school and just other life things that I have to do this week. Jacob just called me to food. So, l’Eglise est vraie.

Je vous aime tous,

- (Unfortunately the former) Elder Palmer

LAST EMAIL!!!! Eric's email of August 22, 2011

2011-08-27T03:45:00.000+01:00

Darn, we almost got out of doing internet. The first time we came here the power was out. So we went home so that I could start doing my bags. But then the power came back on, then we walked back up the street, and now we have to do internet.

So, Saturday was an awesome day. We had Mormon Helping Hands, I think that happened in many countries in Africa on that day. Here in Yaoundé, we went to Hopital Central to clean up the grounds. Outside the fence there was loooooooootttttssssssss of tall grass and weeds, and we chopped it down Cameroonian style. That means with machetes. I’m not very good at that. We chopped it all up, and they left it to dry and will burn it later. At the end the mayor of something came to thank us I think. We also got to where those yellow jerseys that say “Mormons aux Mains Serviables”.

After the service project, Elder Wagman and I went home and studied a bit and got the baptism ready. There were 3 people baptized from our zone. The wife and daughter of frère Maurice were baptized. Maurice got there literally right before the actual ordinance, then we took pictures again so he would be in them. He had come to the service project, and had to rush back home and then come back for the baptism. The other one baptized was a Frère Christian. When he first got to Yaoundé, he had basically lost everything, his dad had died and a whole bunch of stuff and had nowhere to stay. And he is only a 19 year old kid. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but he somehow found his mom who he had never met since he could remember. But for some reason he couldn’t stay with her and she couldn’t really help him. So he found a job and has his own little place somewhere. And also, when I interviewed him, I realized he also had a legit testimony of the Restored Gospel. So, it was a good baptism.

We also got transfer info that day after the baptism. And, that was weird, and a huge bummer, that my name wasn’t on the list anymore. And, as has always happened my entire mission, my companion is also transferred then same time that I leave. We call that getting white washed. When I left Bonabéri, Elder Lee got transferred. When I got transferred to a different sector in Pointe-Noire, Elder Parsons left. When I left Pointe-Noire, Elder Bally left. And now when I go home, Elder Wagman gets transferred to Ekounou, to work with Elder Prince. So, for the 16^th time, it goes to show that transfers are unpredictable. The older 3 elders here will be training, and Elder Tingey is becoming zone leader.

Now, after the baptism it gets really interesting. A member who is visiting Cameroon, went to take us to see a few family members. We thought it was going to be quick getting there, and a short visit to let them know that new missionaries next week can come. Well, there was a lot of traffic, followed by a 20 minute walk, followed by us having to eat some beignets and bananas. So, the point is that took a lot longer than thought, and we wanted to go visit Maurice’s family that evening. Then, trying to get out of the quartier, thinking that I knew the way, but didn’t, we ran into a Frère Joseph, a recent convert in Ekounou that I interviewed for his baptism. I recognized him the second I saw him, and the first thing he said to me was “Elder Palmer, tu me vois dans les problèmes”. (Do you see my problem?) Another member in Ekounou had had an accident that day, and was in a little hospital right there. So, we talked for a sec, then went in, and we gave her a blessing. She was very grateful, and then we continued on our way because it was getting dark. I don’t know how long Joseph was standing in the road and such. But Elder Wagman and I thought we were getting lost, but ran right into the person who needed some help. Pretty cool.

Then, it was already dark when we found the main road, and since their light isn’t too good at Maurice’s house, we thought it was too late and we’d go by a different day. But when I called him, he said “Non, on vous attend!”. (No. Come in) So, we went there, talked about the surprise of Elder Wagman’s transfer, talked about the confirmation that would happen le lendemain, and then gave us some delicious sauce tomate. So, it was a very long, unorthodox day. But a very good one.

So yeah, that’s the highlights of the week. I had my last district meeting last night. I was on the lesson, we listened to a talk from the April 2009 General Conference that I had listened to earlier on the iPod about change. Pretty much everyone in the zone is having a significant change, so it wasn’t completely selfish of me. Sister Thompson gave me a worm bomb and malaria medicine for when I get home that I have to keep taking for 1 months. (A worm bomb?????)

Well, maybe it feels like I’m coming home a little bit more. We went to do the almost last shopping today. I started packing, hope to get that done tonight so that I don’t have to worry about it. So, I guess this is my last mission email. Unfortunatley I don’t have anything super profound to say. If I do, its basically that l’Eglise est vraie.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(I saw more pictures of the temple trip on the Thompson's blog-)Frère Jacques... there Frère Jacques that I talked about, that got baptized by Elder Tingey and I, didnt go to the temple. Probably another one.

(Do you have ice cream in Cameroon?) Yes we have ice cream. Elder Wagman bought some today to splurg since I'm dying.

(Please call us from Brussels) I think its ok to call, but I'll check with the Thompsons.

This will be the first time I wear my suit since I landed in Douala.

(Do you know if there are any new missionaries coming?) There are 3 newbs coming to Yaoundé, 2 coming to Douala.

I did my talk, but it was short. I played for the choir, who sang numeéro 32 in french. Oui, we had a baptism.

Well... on se voit.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Palmer

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

2011-08-17T02:41:00.000+01:00

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

Eric's email of August 8th, 2011-ONLY 2 P-DAY'S LEFT!!

2011-08-09T14:56:00.002+01:00

Well, as you will read in Elder Wagman's email, at our normal cyber the darn power went out after 15 minutes. So, I'm not going to rewrite all that I had. Here is the basic summary.

- Frère Patrice goes to Douala tomorrow for one month to visit the family. He also plans on introducing his family to the Church and the missionaries. Today we had a lesson where each person shared a favorite scripture. I shared Ether 12:27, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Patrice shared the parable of the talents in Matthew 25,(too long to add) and Elder Wagman shared Alma 17:2-3. "Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." I gave him one of the small cantiques. (French Hymnbook) Patrice bore an awesome testimony.

- The family of Frère Maurice is doing very well. His wife and one daughter are coming to Church and have a baptismal date for the 20th of this month. The rest of the family comes to the lessons, but not Church yet. Frère Maurice and one daughter attend institute.

- Had zone conference on Thursday about Ch.13 of Preach My Gospel. I learned that being a new convert is like being a new missionary in Cameroon. So, its not that hard for me anymore to imagine how hard or weird it is for a new convert. And a new missionary and a new convert need the same 3 things according to President Hinckley to stay, I think. We also had surprise interviews with Président Jameson via Skype.

- We are working with branch missionaries more that ever, thanks to summer vacation.

- Mormon Helping Hands is supposed to happen here on the 20th.

- Struggling.... I bought trucs(stuff) today. I've got some cool clothes things for guys. But, I wasn't sure if an african woman's dress would ever get worn. If you do want one (Mom) you can tell me and I'll get it, but I wasn't sure if you would.

- L'Eglise est vraie. (The Church is true)

Je vous aime,
- Elder Palmer

To Mom:

(Scott, Eric's brother, is going to college in 2 weeks and is feeling all grown up. Did you feel grown up before you started college?) Yes I felt grown up at college, but probably didn't act like it very much. Now I feel more grown up, and hope I act a little bit more like it.

(What things did you wish you had taken for the dorms?) For stuff for the dorm that I forgot that would be nice... no idea. I only know what a missionary needs.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

Ok, just so you know, my running kind of got messed up. Actually really messed up. We had an unexpected mid-transfer transfer, where my running partner got put in the other apartment in Yaoundé. And, everyone else in my apartement right now is being too lazy to go running with me. I'll probably start running about the apartement building, because I convinced Elder Tingey to come out with me. Running in circles stinks though, espcially when its not that big. So, I'll do my best.

Ok, for the quick questions.

1. I don't have any questions.

2. you can resend the calling card info if you want, just to be safe.

3. Yeah, we went souvenir shopping today. I think the most painful is over.

4. Yes I'm healthy, just got jipped on the running thing. Will do with the electronics.

5. Yeah, and I need to get my drivers liscence renewed. If its easier that Jacob keeps that cell phone, that works. Just so you know, I've been converted to your provident living, so whatever is cheapest. (Eric is pretty cheap already, soooo......)

6. That sample note works for me, I only have 5 minutes left. Would "missionary work" not be better than "voluntary work" is my only idea. And maybe "science" is better than "biology", because I don't know if that's exactly what I want to focus on. But those are just little things. That example sounds good. It feels weird to have to try to talk to people about something that's not the Restored Gospel. I don't have a resumé, but maybe there is one in Mom's folder of my stuff. But that's a great idea, thanks for helping me get on the ball. I hope I answered all the questions.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of August 1, 2011 (Only 3 p-days left!!!)

2011-08-01T22:39:00.004+01:00

Elder Palmer and a convert from Bonaberi-

Eric's first area. Eric taught him at the

beginning of his mission.

We just went to the souvenir marché place. Not my favorite place to go shopping. I’ll be happy to shop at Walmart and be left alone while I shop, and won’t have to discuss my price of everything. I didn’t buy that much, but got some ideas for stuff I’ll probably buy later. In case I didn’t already ask, if someone has an idea of something cool to get let me know. Because I don’t have any ideas.

Oh, and Elder Wagman bought a sword there.

So for missionary work, things are going really well with Maurice’s family. We were about to extend the baptismal invitation last time, but some young man who came in at the end asked an unusual question, and we had already been there for a while, and the family decided to answer his question. But that is our goal this week. As usual, Maurice’s wife and one of his daughters seem to be the most interested. Those 3 came to church again this week. Since it was the 5^th Sunday, during the first block the Société de Secours and the Collège des Anciens were combined. The branch president gave the lesson, which was titled “Fortifier le marriage grace à la foi et le prière”. Both Maurice and his wife participated and such. If you didn’t know them, you would think they were both longtime members. Maurice and his daughter have also started attending institute, where they are studying the Presidents of the Church.

We also started teaching the wife of Frère Paulin, a recent convert who was baptized in May or something. I saw her once at his baptism, but hadn’t since her since and wondered why. But we finally went and taught her one Wednesday. So, the most awesome thing is, that they are actually like a real couple. Elder Wagman said they were “cute”, but I don’t like to say that word. And her husband had actually taught her a lot about the Church already, and she knew Joseph Smith’s story and all that. The only reason she isn’t coming to Church yet is because of her current job, but she is searching so that by the end of the year she’ll have a job to be able to come to Church on Sunday. But she said she already knows the Church is true, because her husband changed from being an awesome person to an even more awesome person, and talked about how lucky she is. So, that’s legit.

We also had a throwdown about the Word of Wisdom this week. I don’t like arguing. Or Bible bashing or whatever you want to call it. We didn’t really Bible bash that much, but the guy didn’t want to understand, and his member friend who introduced him to us said “écoute, tu ne comprends meme pas ce qu’ils dissent” around 20 times. It was kind of funny. He also explained some things in their dialect.

We also had an educational meeting with a member named Papa François. He was baptized back in 2008, but some months after his baptism, he got really sick and can hardly walk now, which keeps him from coming to Church. But, his story on how he found the Church is awesome. One day when he was entering his house, he saw 2 Elders talking to someone, and he asked them “vous etes les quis?”, or who are you in cameroonian. Papa François told us that they answered him by saying “nous sommes les mormons”. Papa François said, “ah, bon… Entrez”. And they taught him for the first time that day. Hey said that a few months before, he had bought a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing Handel’s Messiah. He remembered the name Mormon, and the rest is history. So, we will now have a new zone goal: whenever someone asks who we are, we will say “nous sommes les mormons”.

Thursday we’ll be having zone conference. President Jameson told me to do it on Ch. 13 of Preach My Gospel. Elder and Sister Thompson will be teaching some stuff, as well as me, and also Frère Michel Olinga, who finished his mission last year and is now in Ekounou 2’s branch presidency. And because of Frère Olinga and another missionary who is francophone, the most part of this conference will be in French. The only other zone conference I had like that was the one in Brazzaville.

We had a really good lesson with Frère Patrice, but it wasn’t on anything in the Preach My Gospel lessons. We talked about Provident Living basically. I bet if Dad was there, he could have talked for hours.

We also helped a lady crack nuts open this week. (Not quite sure....)

And now my return date seems farther away than it did last transfer. Its weird.

Um, I think that’s about it. The Book of Mormon is true.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom

(How many members/families went on the temple trip (for info on the temple trip, look up the Thompson's blog - I will never complain about traffic to the DC temple again!)) I'm not sure how many members, but in Bastos 2 I think 5 families/couples got sealed.

(You can save room in your suitcase home by not bringing missionary supplies home.) Yeah, I'm not going to bring home that much. But, remember the iPod mini and speaker Dad got for me? How important is it that I bring that home?

(Andrea got contacts this week-how old were you when you got contacts?) I think I was in 8th grade when I got contacts, because I had a jazz band concert just after getting them, and I think I was playing the bari sax. I don't remember how look it took to get used to them, though.

(Which bedroom do you want to be in when you get home-with Jacob or on your own?) For the rooms, Andrea is on the top floor, and Jacob is back in our old room, right? I don't really have a preference, I can move back in with Jacob.

(I broke my Kindle this week-do you know what that is?) No idea what a Kindle is. Is my iPod still in tact, though? (Yes, the iPod is fine, just huge in comparison to the new models.)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad (self explanatory)

I'll take whatever calling someone gives me.

I'll help you install whatever flooring you want.

Yeah, I think I'll be good for cash. Yes I have me credit cards.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of July 25th, 2011

2011-07-28T14:46:00.002+01:00

Charles (young man from Bastos 2) and Elder Palmer walking
in Emana village. Picture by Elder Tingey.

I’ll be glad to not have on official p-day after my mission. They are always rushed and give me a headache. I didn’t have time to go to the marché to go souvenir shopping. We’re gonna do it next week. And, if anyone has any ideas of stuff they would want or what I could get, you can tell me.

This is a marché

So, on Saturday we had a baptism! Frère Maurice got baptized. One of his daughters attended his baptism, and then his wife came to Church on Sunday. But I almost had a heart attack at Church, because Maurice didn’t get there until the opening hymn was being sung. Afterwards he explained to me, and it turns out that they got in the taxi to come to Church, and while they were in the taxi, they realized they forgot their money. He said thankfully they had a nice chauffeur, but it still took them a long time to fix that and get to Church. I was just glad he came to get confirmed. And, again this Sunday his wife and that daughter came to Church all together! And we are (finally!) going to their house on Tuesday to meet the whole family.

Elder Palmer, Maurice's daughter Grace,
Frère Maurice, Elder Wagman

Also, lots of members of Bastos 2 went to the temple in Nigeria this week. The Thompsons went with them, so I bet there will be more pictures and stories on their blog soon. But the members got home, according to several reports, between 1AM and 4 AM. And their church starts at 9, but they all came. From behind the piano, I saw some people laughing during the last talk. I think its because the branch presidency was falling asleep. But I just had an awesome feeling during Bastos 2. I’m very excited for their testimony meeting next week.

With the new transfer, we also fixed our sectors, so that Elder Wagman and I are only Bastos 2, Elder Tingey and Elder Hansen are only Bastos 1. Even though they have a lot more people to see, and have a nearly impossible job, it makes our life easier now, and will make theirs easier at some point in the future. But I will miss those quartiers and some of those people. I’ll have to visit them before I leave.

Elder Wagman & Elder Palmer

Having p-day on Monday is different, but kind of nice. The week still went by really fast, but I couldn’t really tell the difference between Tuesday or Saturday.

With the new sectors, we have had some time now to find new people. I’ve realized that here it is really easy to find people and even start teaching them. But it is really difficult to help them progress. So, we have already lots of new people, but now the hard part is next.

We have made progress with Frère Jean-Paul and his huge family. We have a baptism date with his wife and 2 more of his kids. And nearly the entire family was at church on Sunday, a total of 12 came. So yeah, there’s even more than that.

Um, I’m trying to think of other things… I have another chord to connect my camera, so I’m going to try to send pictures again. Also, for the marathon training, Elder Hansen and I decided that on my last p-day, since there is a 6 mile run on the program, we are going to wake up and run to the other missionary apartement. And when we get there they will have breakfast waiting for us. I’m pretty sure it will be 6 miles.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of July 14th 2011

2011-07-20T03:11:00.000+01:00

So last p-day’s 4th of July party (that took place on the 7th of July) was nice. We went to the Thompson's in the evening, and ate Americans’ favorite food: Mexican food! I also came in half way a game of Quiddler. I took over for Elder Hansen, who wasn’t enjoying the game very much. He was already very behind, and there were only 2 hands left, so I still lost miserably. But I will be expecting to have a Quiddler throw down, especially with Grandma Carlene.

Then on Saturday we got to meet Président and Soeur Jameson! Sister Jamerson reminds me of Sister Willis. Not just because they have similar hairstyles, but their comportement too, which is a good thing. And I think you’ve read the little biography thing when they got called on a mission, so I won't repeat those details. We just had a little meeting on Saturday morning from 9 to 11 to get to know them. I opened it and then bore my testimony and turned the time over to them. President Jameson told us how when he was on his mission, that when the mission president got changed in the middle of it, some missionaries were wondering what would happen and if things would change and etc. So, he compared it to when Josué (Joshua) replaced Moses. Not to put him on the same plane as them or whatever, but we read some verses at the end of Deuteronomy and at the beginning of Josué. We read the phrase “fortifie-toi” and “prends courage”(be strong and of good courage) about half a dozen time. Well, I don’t think I’m explaining this as good as President Jameson did, so the point of the story is this: it’s a new era, but don’t freak out and just keep working. Yeah.

Also, I got my exit interview. President Jameson isn’t sure that he will be coming back before I go, so we did it after the meeting on Saturday. Basically, we talked about how my testimony has grown on my mission, a bit about the Atonement and the Doctrine of Christ, and marriage (oh la vache!). (holy cow) But not very much about that last one. He basically told me, that it’s not a race, but also don’t put it off because it’s very important. And, I got a new temple recommend! And its in French, so that’s cool. He also explained to me, that when he was a stake president, he got a letter in the mail, informing him that he would be released in a couple months. So, with the knowledge that the end was coming, he still had to “sprint across the finish line”, comme on le dit souvent. (as the saying goes) So, even though I’ve had my release interview, I still got lots of time to do lots of work.

Also, a funny thing happened to Elder Wagman that Saturday afternoon. I don’t know if he will share this in his email. He was a good sport about it though. We were walking in Manguier, which is a very muddy quartier. It was after it had rained. So it was even more muddy and slippery than usual, and at one point, there was a river flowing through the quarter, where there hadn’t been one last time I was there. The water was going down slowly, but most of the path was covered in water. But we still wanted to get to our rendezvous on time. So, Elder Wagman went for it, only seeing pieces of land every once in a while. What we didn’t know, was that to the left was a very sudden slope. As Elder Wagman was walking, he stepped a little bit too far to the left, lost his footing, and fell about stomach deep into the muddy water. So, we got to the next piece of visible dry-ish ground, waited there a little bit, some guy led us a different way to where we wanted to go, then we found our way back to our rendezvous with Frère Patrice (who is doing his final exams at Université de Soie this week), and then he got him some soap to kind of wash his shirt. So that was a funny and educating experience.

Bastos 2 has also started up the choir again. And of course, I’m playing piano. I don’t know what they are going to do for piano players when I leave. On Sunday they sang, “Oui, Je Crois en Christ” or “I Believe in Christ” with all 4 parts. This Sunday we are supposed to sing “Si l’Envie Nous Prend de Blamer” or “Brightly Beams our Father’s Mercy”. We need to find some easy hymns to do. Or if you know any hymn arrangements that has an easy singing part, that could help us. I don’t know how to lead a choir.

Oh, and we also got transfer news on Monday, and guess what! No changes in Yaoundé! So, I’ll be finishing with Elder Wagman, and 9 transfers in Bastos! But, we will make the complete transition into Bastos 2, and starting from next week, those other quartiers of Bastos 1 we will give to Elder Tingey and Elder Hansen.

Also, we may or may not have a baptism on Saturday. Soeur Marie-Sylvie is ready, but we are just waiting for her husband to come and talk to the branch president. He gave his OK for her to be baptized, but he wants to come talk to one of the responsables first, which is normal. And Frère Maurice, is the maybe. President Jameson told us that when he was in Lubumbashi, several times he found that the father would come into the Church, and say that his family would follow him later. So, he encouraged us as companions to read the Family: Proclamation to the World brochure together (which we finished in our comp study today), and focus more on the family. So, that is basically the situation with Frère Maurice. His baptism had been planned for this Saturday, and we didn’t get a rendezvous at his house with his family until this Friday. So, Elder Thompson basically told us to follow the Spirit. And, Elder Wagman and I were planning on doing splits that day. So, its kind of complicated, and we’ll see what happens.

Last thing I have time to write about, is Frère Jean de Dieu. He came to Church for the first time on Sunday last weekend, even in a white shirt and tie! He told us he loved the classes and such. On Tuesday we talked about the rest of the 1^st lesson, he told us about dreams he has had, and the common thing he learns in every dream, is that he should read the Book of Mormon more and more! So I would say those are good dreams. He absorbs everything we teach, and accepted the baptismal invitation for August 6^th, horray! He’s the man, because even though he his having family and financial problems, he said “je n’aime pas me plaindre." (I don't like to complain) I would say he has a bit of room to complain and be down, but he isn’t. He told us its even hard to find food sometimes right now, and he has to look for a new place to live, but he smiles and laughs during our rendezvous, and told us he can’t go back because of how marvelous this message he has found is.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

p.s. I have one question, because there is a member here who goes to Angola sometimes. Where is Elder Leake? Because I think Angola is in the Mozambique mission.

Oh, and one more thing. From now one, p-day is Monday. So the next time Elder Wagman and I will do internet is not this Monday, but the next one.

To Mark:

Yeah, last week I realized I forgot to report on running. So the week before, we ran on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. This week so far on Monday and Wednesday, and we played a bit of basketball this morning. We keep missing Tuesday, because Monday my alarm resets because I have to take the "puce" (I have no idea) out of the phone and put in another one to send a text message to the assistants to send in the weekly numbers, and when I put the old one in it resets the alarm and everything, and I forget. But I had one question. Are there going to be any hills in this marathon or training? Because here, we rarely run on flat ground, up and down, up and down. I hope I don't get shin splints. At the end there is a big up. Its hard. And I think our run right now is a bit over 2 miles.

Je n' ai mange aucun moule ici. Je crois qu'ils existent, la plupart de la nourriture européenne est ici, mais nous n'en mangeons pas.

Last words of wisdom... did I already say read the Book of Mormon a lot?

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Anne:

(It is Youth conference this weekend-next year will probably be Trek-do you want to help?) VERY YES!!!! I would want to help with trek next year. I was actually talking about that with the others here the other day.

(What is the translation of song "Se Pa Pou Dat) I have no idea what that song is about, its not in French. (It is his favorite Cameroonian pop song)
That scripture would be like Cameroon, just leaving out a few other details. (Mosiah 18-waters of Mormon)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of July 7th, 2011

2011-07-10T23:47:00.000+01:00

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 16^th 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 16^th 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 6^th 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 4^th 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

Eric's Email of June 30, 2011

2011-07-03T14:45:00.000+01:00

Well, if I can't get my darn camera to get pictures on this computer this time, I don't know what to do. I plugged the camera in with a USB thing and its not recognizing.

So, you may have gotten an email from the Thompson's yesterday. So, I type my email 1 and a half times, the computers died on us twice, and eventually couldn't even stay on for more than 2 seconds. Basically, I was in the process of telling you about Tuesday, which was one of the most unique days of my mission. Elder Thompson was my comp that day because Elder Wagman was malade. (sick) It was sweet, because I got driven around all day.

I think we had a total of 7 rendezvous that day. 2 members were very ravi-ed to have Elder Thompson in their home. A new person showed up to the church, and it was basically a perfect lesson that they should've filmed for "The District" movies. Too bad most of my lessons are like that. Also had some not good lessons that day, including one with a former catholic who turned not-christian and didn't want to listen. One of those wanting to die moments. Um, Elder Thompson has an awesome accent.

Like you know, the Headlees went home. We are now under the jurisdiction of the Jamesons. I think we are supposed to see them next weekend. Oh, and Elder Acorda (previous companion) goes home soon, but hopefully we'll go down to Douala for President Jameson, and I could see him before he goes home, as well and Elder Mbuyi (know him from Pointe-Noire) and people in Douala one more time.

Um, what else can I tell you really quick. So today was good. Recently we've been getting Bonabéri style numbers. Not quite as much as there, that means lots of lessons. But we are getting more recently. We saw recent convert, Soeur Nina today. She is getting ready to teach the lesson to la Societé de Secours on Sunday, her first time to do her calling as a teacher. And its ironic, because her lesson is in the book "La Sainte des Derniers Jours", Ch. 33, which is called "Se Préparer à Enseigner". So the first thing she will teach is how to prepare to teach. Weird.

Oh, and just so Dad knows, Elder Hansen and I have been running. (In training for the 1/2 marathon) We went every day since Monday except Thursday. Elder Hansen guesses that it could be 2 miles. And we added a little bit on the end, so I think that is a safe guess. Today, I actually didn't want to die at the end, which was nice. Elder Hansen did cross country in high school, and he said he never ran the length of a half marathon. Hmmm.

Well, that's about it. I've never had Na'an (Indian bread-we love it at home) according to my knowledge. I'll keep trying with pictures, sorry. (Do you have enough contacts/solution for the rest of your mission?) Contacts and all that will be fine. Did we buy my 6 months extra of contacts, because I'm going to have a whole box of each left over? (Do you remember the flash flood in Star Vally-it is very wet there again this year) Yes I remember that flash flood. That was a long time ago. Are you sure I was only 6. When did they move into that cabin, because I still remember the mushroom cabin. (Island Park, Id) Oh, and the baptism will be on the 16th instead of the 2nd, we are planning on having Marie-Sylvie and Maurice.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's Email of June 23, 2011

2011-06-24T21:26:00.004+01:00

Alright, I just barely took a picture with Elder Wagman, so I’ll send the picture maintenant là. (Now. But he didn't send it.)

So we just had a good lesson with a Soeur. Some of her problems or grudges she had again some people I think have been solved, and she isn’t sick right now, so she’s happy and didn’t chew me out too much today. I think, basically we just need to have to most spiritually possible lessons for a while. Apparently last week the Relief Society President Soeur Therèse, and Soeur Patricia visited her, and after a long visit, the sister was happy, and she said one day she would be baptized in the Church. And, Preach My Gospel says to have spiritual lessons, talk and testify about the Restoration beaucoup. So, I think that’s what we are gonna do.

We also saw Soeur Christine and her 3 sons before her today. They are fine, and especially her oldest son, Ignace, seems to be liking Church a lot. Even a Sunday when Christine didn’t come, Ignace came by himself. He has been ordained a deacon, wears his shirt and tie to Church, and found a bag for his Book of Mormon. So that’s cool.

We also had our last zone conference with President and Sister Headlee. In less than 2 weeks they should be chez eux. (Home) It was a really good zone conference. President Headlee got a DVD of a talk that Elder Holland gave somewhat recently at the MTC. My favorite thing is how he applied the last chapter of John to us. How, after Christ was resurrected and all this stuff, the apostles didn’t really know what to do, and then Peter who was basically chief, said “let’s go fishing”. So they went fishing all night, didn’t get anything, then a man on the shore yelled out and said to cast their net to the right side I think, and they did, and they caught so many fish they couldn’t pull it in. Then one of the apostles said, “It’s Him”. Then Peter jumped over board and swam to the shore to get to Jesus. Then, Jesus basically told him, that he can’t go back. Peter can't go back to fishing. And that’s when Peter became, well, converted I can say. And so, Elder Holland basically told us all, missionaries, that after our mission, that we can’t go back to fishing. So, that’s what stuck with me from zone conference.

We also have a baptismal date for Frère Morris still for July 2^nd. And Elder Wagman corrected me and said that its spelled Maurice in French, but I still like Morris. I think I talked about him last week. Out of all the people I’ve met and taught, he is one of the best who have understood the Restoration. I also believe now that he is receiving a testimony of that, because of the way he talks about it. But especially about the restoration of the Priesthood. And he is now in the book of Jacob.

We also went au-champ-ing again this week. But it was kind of weird, it was an ami de l’église who lives just behind in the Church. So we were still in town in the quarter, but there was this random piece of place where they made a champ. But, it was the same as any other time spent au champ. I’m grateful for lawn mowers.

We have another new good investigator named Frère Pascal. I like his French. He has spent time in many European countries, so I guess that’s what influenced the way he talks. Last Sunday we saw him on the road after Church. He said he was going to come to Church, but then he didn’t. Il nous a dit, “J’étais Presque empeché”. (He said, "I was almost prevented") I wondered why if he was just “presque” empeché-ed, why didn’t he come? Yesterday we asked him again, he said the “il meurt d’envie”(he was dying of envy) to come. If you heard his voice, it probably would be as amusing to you as it is to me. I imagine that is what a French mob boss would sound like. And, he is also progressing nicely.

On Tuesday we also did a split. Elder Wagman worked with Pierre Bissalla, a 17 year old convert of about 3 or so years. He is a branch missionary, and knows how to explain the Restoration really well. I worked with his older brother, Jean Bissalla, whose 19 and Elder Wilkins baptized about 6 months ago. He doesn’t know as much as Pierre yet, but he has a really good testimony he shares about his family. And then around 4 o’clock, Jean had to leave, but thankfully our 3 30 rendezvous was with Frère Martial, another member. So he replaced Jean as my companion for the rest of the day. Martial is also the man, and gave us about 4 coordonnées since last Monday. He is also apparently engaged to a member of the Church from Angola, and they plan on getting married in the temple sometime soon.

So, c’est ça. And Elder WAgman and I are on diner tonight, so I got to send this and get out of here.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

Well, Mom, somebody built this stupid computer dumb, and my thumb drive can't fit into the slot, because the hardware was built dumb. So, I'll finish emails here and see if there is a different kind of computer in this darn cyber. (No pictures)

(Do you walk or take taxis more? Do the taxis ever brake down?) Here in Yaoundé we take more taxis than any other sector I've seen. They have never broken down for me.

(Did you get to Morris' house yet?) We haven't met Morris at his house or with his family yet. But he wants to be baptized, so we are making progress, and either us or some branch leaders will get to his house soon I believe.

Je t'aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

Answer to question number 1 about CNU. Nope, no thought at all. (School in Newport News)

(Are you serious about training for the half marathon?) OK, for the half-marathon, I'm in. I'll plan on starting to do our running again next week, Monday Wednesday and Friday. I'm now living with Elder Hansen, Elder Tingey's companion. He did cross country in high school, and Elder Buck once went on a run with him, and told me he wanted to die. So, I bet Elder Hansen will be willing to do that with me.

(Have you heard about the Book of Mormon musical in NYC? You may get questions about it on your flight home) And about the 3rd question, no I don't care at all. Yes, Grandpa Jerry mentioned one time, so I knew about. Simplement, je n'en ai rien à dire. (Simply, I have nothing to say)

Oh, and Scott didn't email, and I wanted to know what reading water meters means. (Scott's great summer job)

Je t'aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of June 17th, 2011

2011-06-16T19:22:00.000+01:00

Ma vie, oh ma vie. (My life, oh my life)

So , I understand that you have my flight plans. That's weird.

Elder Wagman and I are still doing good, still very busy. But I think we are soon going to do an overhaul of our sector, if that is the right word. We just need to change a few things in our program, and a few people we see in order to work more efficiently.

Yesterday we did exchanges, I went and worked in Ekounou with Elder Nash, the District Leader out there. It was my first time to work out there. It was a pretty good day. When it rains out there, it gets very muddy. And I thought some of my sector was far away, but then Elder Nash took me to this quartier called Tropicana. I have no idea how far off the map we were. I thought Elder Wagman and I had some far away quartiers, but I’m pretty sure they beat us. And there is another one even farther where some members live. And also, it started raining like a monster a little bit before we were getting ready to leave. We ended up not getting out of there until 6:30, missed our 6 o'clock rendezvous. Took us at least half an hour to get a taxi to take us, then there was traffic, then we finally got out and had to walk about 15 more minutes home, and got back around 8 30. Maybe its because we sat in traffic for so long, but I’m still amazed how far away that place was.

Also, I had to save Elder Nash from getting kissed by some lady. We were walking to our 1^st rendezvous, and some lady shoved us en route and asked where we are going. I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure she was under the influence of something. So, we told her we had to go, then she said something that basically meant, “ok, but a kiss first”. Then she went in for Elder Nash, and almost got him, but then I kind of grabbed her on the arm, Elder Nash started going. Then she tried to get me, I walked away and she hit me on the back a few times, but thankfully we got away without any smooches. That would be awkward to have an interview with President Headlee 2 days after a some random lady kissed us.

Speaking of President, he should now be in Yaoundé. He missed his 7 AM bus in Douala, but was supposed to leave at 12. We are getting our last interviews and zone conference from President and Sister Headlee tomorrow, because in July we get the new President and Sister Jameson! And today Elder Thompson told me that President Jameson is already scheduled to come here on July 9^th, before this transfer ends. 2 visits from mission presidents in 1 transfer, hurray!

Elder Wagman and I also fixed 2 baptismal dates this week! Well, maybe 1 and 2/3. The first was Frère Morris. He got started with Elders Buck and Garner. So we have learned a lot more about his life in the past few rendezvous. He lives with his wife and 6 children, but we haven’t met any of them yet because he only likes to see us at the Church. Before Morris was married, he lived in the United States, I forgot exactly where. But after a few years, he went home to Cameroon for some reason, but he was very well off. Then, I believe within the last 5-ish years, he pretty much lost everything. He was living in Douala in a nice house, even had 2 cars. But for some reason he lost pretty much everything, sold one car, the other got stolen, sold his house and lost his other belongings and had to move to Yaoundé, and now he is living in very humble conditions. But, he doesn’t complain. He reads the Book of Mormon a lot, is now about to start the book of Jacob. He has been in a lot of churches, most recently in Douala was in a church called “le Combat Spirituel”, and said he has been baptized many times. So he easily accepted the first invitation to get baptized. But recently we have talked about the Priesthood and Apostasy and Restoration and now he understands a lot. There was even another person we were teaching on Tuesday while we were waiting for him, and when Morris came, he started answering his questions perfectly. So, now he understands a lot, especially the importance of the Priesthood. He still doesn’t want us to come to his house yet, mainly I think because it’s a very humble home, and we are American, I’m not sure. But, je crois que ça va aller. (I believe we will go there.)

The other one is Soeur Marie-Sylvie, whom I believe I have spoken much about. She is ready for baptism. She is more ready than some of the people that are already baptized. But Elder Tingey and Elder Wagman saw her yesterday when I was in Ekounou. Elder Wagman said they didn’t do a lot of talking, but they read the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon. He said that Marie-Sylvie did most of the talking, I’m not sure about what. But they got to the subject of baptism, and invited her to be baptized on July 3^rd (when they should have said July 2^nd, but we’ll fix that later). From what I’ve understood, she accepted, but then at the end said “je vais vous dire si je serai prête”. (I will tell you when I am ready.) She is ready!

Oh, and I forgot if I told you, but Soeur Nina, the recent convert and daughter of Salomé, got a calling 2 Sundays ago as a teacher in the Relief Society.

And last Sunday the missionaries gave talks in Bastos 1. Mine was based on the “Lift where you stand” talk by Uchtdorf from 2008, with something I found in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, in chapter 27 that I found, that I thought was important for our branch. And since Elder Nsimba is gone, I replaced him as the last speaker when the missionaries talk, which means I have the most time. I still had 25 minutes when it got to me, so I bet that was the longest talk I ever gave.

And Sunday after Church, we went around with an old missionary from here that came back to do some kind of hunting thing in the south of Cameroon. He was known as Elder Ward, so I guess I should address him now as Brother Ward. We went to visit some of the old people he taught in Bastos 2. His French is still pretty good. I hope I’ll do that one day. (I know Dad wants to do it with him!!!)

Je vous aime,

-Elder Eric Palmer

To Mark:

Yeah, 2 nights ago when Elder Thompson was taking me out to Ekounou he got a call from President Headlee, and I talked to him and he told me about my flight plans. So yes, I've decided that I'll go home at the normal time, and yeah, I wanted to ask if there would be a way to get with Scott in early September.

And for the JSarge classes, yes, sign me up for those that we talked about.

(What are you bringing home?) For what I'm bringing home, I have no idea yet. I do need to do some more souvenir shopping, but I haven't thought a lot about it yet. I do have 2 more booboos that I know that I'll be bringing home that I am waiting for Soeur Therèse to finish. Is there anything that anyone wants? Even ask the Dajeu family if there is something Cameroonian that they can't get that I could bring home. Especially anything that concerns Cameroonian food.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Anne

(Pictures?) So, in advance I will have to apologize. I don't really have any excuse, but I just don't have my camera. I already wrote it in very big letters for next Thursday.

Yes, I still have vitamins and take them nearly every day.

(Why do people walk around with their chickens? Are they going to the butcher or are they worried that someone will steal them if they leave them at home?) As for chickens and such, I have no idea. There are some things that happen in this country, and I have no idea how or why.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of June 9th, 2011

2011-06-11T12:58:00.000+01:00

Well, Elder Wagman (new companion) and I were just au village. We got a rattezvous (rendezvous that fell through), had a good chunk of time and decided to go see an investigator we hadn’t seen in a while. Her name is Soeur Marie-Susanne, she was a coordonnée from Soeur Marie-Sylvie. She loves the Church, and has apparently had visions that the Church is true and that she needs go get baptized there. But she has some weird ideas, today we spent our whole time explaining the nature of our Heavenly Father. Also on the taxi ride out, while I was on the phone with Soeur Thompson, a weirdy guy kept buggin’ Elder Wagman for some money so he could get some palm wine. That stuff looks gross.

So the transfer happened last Friday, but not without some confusion. We sent 3 elders down to Douala on Thursday, and expected to get 3 that same day. But in the afternoon, the Thompsons told us that the Douala elders wouldn’t be coming up until the next day, due to some miscommunication. So I stayed with Elder Tingey and Elder Prince for that day. The new ones were supposed to arrive Friday between 1 and 2, so I arranged my program, planned to teach a lesson before with Elder Thompson, get Elder Wagman and the others, then finish the day I had planned. I should have known that something would go wrong. Elder Wagman and co. were supposed to leave Douala at 9AM, but didn’t leave until 12:15PM. Also, my rendezvous Elder Thompson and I had at the church turned out to be a rattezvous. It seems that the only transfer that happens without a problem, is a transfer where no one gets moved.

So about Elder Wagman. He is from Athens, Georgia. But he lived in a whole bunch of places because his dad worked in the Air Force, but then retired and moved to their homeland of Georgia and got a job at the University of Georgia. I also learned that they have some foster children, and have taken care of many children since Elder Wagman was born. We were in Pointe-Noire together for 1 transfer, but he lived in a different apartement so we didn’t talk too much. He started his mission with Elder Tingey, when we got 10 missionaries in 1 transfer. He just did 3 transfers in Bonabéri, so he told me a bit about whats happening down there. (Eric's first area) From what he told me, it looks like almost all of the people that were baptized when I was there are still active, and Frère Léonel (baptized my second weekend there) has the Melchezidek Priesthood.

We had a baptism last weekend as well. Soeur Melanie, she was pretty much taught everything before Elder Tingey and I took over. She's the one that traveled and we lost contact for almost a month, but came back and immediately asked us about baptism. She actually came to the last baptism in May, thinking she was going to get baptiszd. Unfortunately she hadn’t done her interview yet. But she was baptized and confirmed last weekend. I blew it and didn’t tell her at the service before she left, so we had to go find her after the service on Saturday, because she had always been attending Bastos 1, but she lives in Bastos 2. We went right after the baptism, she wasn’t there. We went and taught the rest of our rendezvous, then came back at the end of the day, thankfully found her there, and explained to her why she should come to Bastos 2. It ended up being an expensive error. Then we saw her on Tuesday, and her main problem is she is looking for a new job. He current one doesn’t pay well and just isn’t a good job, and Monday and Tuesday all day she wasn’t able to get her merchandise. So Elder Wagman and I taught about la loi de la dîme. (the law of tithing) I hope she understood, because we drilled the blessings of that commandment into her head. In Gospel Principles in the tithing section, there is a quote by President Hinckley, which is my favourite thing to read and teach about tithing.

We have been informed that President and Sister Headlee will be here next weekend for the last time. Man, I can't believe they are almost done. Zone conference will be on the 17^th. I hope they get that darn Bonabéri branch organized.

Elder Thompsons told me he emailed Dad, right? He told me that the mission office people say that my release date is August 31^st. (release date still being discussed)

Yesterday Elder Wagman and I also had a cruddy situation turn into a good, a really good experience. We just had had a rendezvous with an investigator, that basically, she chastised us and the Church and I didn’t even know how to answer, and I thought for a moment that was going to be the last time we stepped foot in her house. Enfin, (however) we will go back, but I was frustrated and dépassé-ed. I think he means depressed) Then we were supposed to get to church for our missionary coordination meeting, but on the way our DMB called and cancelled. We had a rendezvous fixed after, but we still had an hour of time, and we literally had no one else to see in the quarter we were in, or anywhere close. So, Elder Wagman suggested we do what a missionary does when there is nothing left, contacting. I hadn’t done that in a while since Elder Tingey and I had been so booked, and I was still frustrated from the last rendezvous. But we went and started contacted, and something amazing happened. No, we didn’t find a golden investigator, we didn’t even get invited into anyone's house. But I remember after the second house we rang the door of, I felt a lot better. I don’t exactly know why, because contacting isn’t always the most exciting or rewarding thing we do. But after our second house, we had had a conversation briefly about the Restoration, and the lady told me to go read some Bible scriptures when I got home, specifically Revelation 12:7 and the following verses, and 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Ok, well Elder Thompson just called me, and he got an email from Sister Headlee saying that my release date is August 26^th, and that they have me flying home to Richmond, Virginia. Je vais voir ce que vous m’avez écrit, d’abord. (I am going to see what you wrote to me, first.)

Je vous aime bien,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(Did you do anything special for your birthday-a treat perhaps?) Um, for my birthday, I think the only extra was that I got Elder Wagman to buy a Sprite with our money. And that happens from time to time, but this time I could justify it.

But these past 2 birthdays were probably the most uneventful birthdays ever. Except Elder Tingey and Hansen bought pizza from Pizza Roma, the only pizza place in Yaoundé. Its pretty good, kind of thin, though. And today, Elder Tingey bought me a SpongeBob pen that lights up when you write at the supermarché.

(Did you get the package?) Yes, I got the package. And I think right now, I have more normal shirts that I would even need in normal life. With all the shirts that have been sent to me, and some jerseys that I accumulated on my mission, I think I have about 20 normal shirts right now. Too much. But thank you for the VCU shirt, (final four) Elder Tingey was jealous.

(Does Elder Wagman speak French with a Georgia accent?) If I remember correctly, I don't think Elder Wagman has a Georgia accent. Things are good with him, I'm learning a lot. It amazes me that I can always learn something new or do something a little different. Elder Tingey and I were together forever I realized, so its weird to be with someone with a different personality.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mark:

In Cameroon, there probably is a drinking age, but no one enforces it. Or there is none at all. There are probably a lot of laws I don't know, by they aren't well enforced.

As for age in the branch, I was thinking about that the other day. In Bastos one, I wouldn't be surprised if all the members of the branch presidency are older than you, I know at least 2 are. The other branch seems to be a bit younger. It seems people here die younger, or the ones that don't get old as can be. (hmmmm, I wonder how old that is?)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of June 2nd, 2011

2011-06-05T13:40:00.000+01:00

Oh, before I forget, I have a very important question to ask you. Yesterday Elder Thompson told me that the Church Travel people emailed him, and said they need to know which airport I will fly into when I come home. I don’t know if this whole possibility of going to Salt Lake is still there, so I told them I’ll ask you. So, if you get this in time you can tell me if you know already. Or you can tell the Thompsons if its later in the day or sometime soon. I can't believe these things about going home are starting…

We got transfers ! And guess what, I’m staying ! Guess what else, so is Elder Tingey! But guess what one more time… we are each getting a new companion. So Elder Nsimba and Elder Prince both got transferred. Elder Nsimba is going back to Kinshasa to be a zone leader with Elder Tumba, who lived with me in Pointe-Noire. And Elder Prince is just going to the other side of Yaoundé, at Ekounou, to be with Elder Roldan. And Elder Tingey is taking over Nsimba and Prince’s old sector, and he will be with Elder Hansen, who did 3 transfers in Douala, but started his mission in Ekounou. And me, I’ll be with Elder Wagman. He was in Pointe-Noire for 1 transfer when I was there, but recently has been in Bonabéri. He didn’t live with me in Pointe-Noire, so I didn’t get to now him that much. I know he’s from Georgia. I hear he speaks French good. (well) And they were supposed to get here today, but there was some kind of miscommunication, and the Douala Elders aren’t coming up until tomorrow. So right now Elder Prince and Tingey and I are together until the rest of them get here. Oh yeah, and Elder Tingey will be district leader for Bastos!

We got the transfers on Saturday. We all got together at the Thompson's that evening. Since Elder Tingey and I are overbooked à la folie, (like crazy) we had our first rendezvous at 8 in the morning and had ones fixed until 5:00, then we had to be at the Thompson's at 6:30. I’m really interested to talk to other missionaries and see what it was like for them. Grandma Diane always tells me how lucky I am to be teaching so much. I know it’s a blessing, but its tiring sometimes, and I wish I could have more study time. Anyways… Elder Tingey keeps copying my email.

I finished the Livre de Mormon this past week! I don’t know if I have anything to say that I already haven’t said. All I know, is that the quote by Joseph Smith in the book’s introduction is true 100%. (I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.)

We learned something interesting about one of out investigators last week. Soeur Fridoline, who is the coordonnée from Maman Natalie, has been progressing a bit, but kind of slowly. But last week, she asked for a new Book of Mormon, because someone took hers. She wouldn’t tell us who, she just said someone took it and won't give it back. But she said she wants to start from page one and “connaitre vraiment ce qu’il y a dedans”. (really know what was inside) So we gave her another, and from what she said I felt like she had a bigger desire than before to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Later that weekend, we were at Maman Natalie’s house with her daughter, Mireille. And Mireille told us really what happened with her first Book of Mormon. Basically, the “apostle” from her old Church saw her Book of Mormon, and was upset that she had it, and wanted to tear it up, but just took it from her instead. So, I guess that when the leader at her church did that, it created some interest for her to read it, since there was something in there he didn’t want her to read. So, that whole ordeal could turn out to be very good for her.

Today is also a national holiday here. It’s the Ascension of Christ after his resurrection, so I guess in Cameroon that is a national holiday.

Man. Writing an email is difficult… We have a new group of investigators. They were a coordonnée from Soeur Ruth, a branch missionary in Bastos 2. She referred us to her neighbor, Cedric, whose nickname is Chinois. And the second time we went to see Cedrice, he went and presented us to his soccer team. And so now we are teaching about 6 of them on a regular basis. The 2 that are the most interested are Cedric, and Achoo. I think they keep giving us their football name or nickname. One day we asked for Cedric, and no one knew who that was, but they all knew who Chinois is. Another one told us his name is Ballack, who is a German football player. Anyways, Chinois and Achoo are the most interested, and they both said they want to attend church this weekend.

And I almost forgot, but we are having a baptism this weekend, and Elder Tingey and I have one candidate. Its Soeur Melanie, the one that got taught a lot by Elder Buck and Elder Garner. She finally came back a couple weeks ago, so we are just tying up the loose ends. She reads the Book of Mormon a lot, though. We saw her 2 Tuesdays ago, and she was reading about Abinadi in the book of Mosiah. Then on that Friday, she was already well into Alma. She told us that one time she had a dream where Nephi appeared to her and told her to keep reading the Book of Mormon.

Well that’s about it. And I got news that the (birthday) package got to Douala last week, so I should get it tomorrow. I can't believe its June.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Anne:

Well, I dont have much time and I didn't find any questions. Just remember to figure out which airport I'm coming home to.

(It's been awhile since we have seen pictures!) I forgot my camera, but next week I'll bring a lot. If Elder Tingey sends pictures I'll get him to send them to you.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Palmer

To Mark:

I said transfer, right?

(Do Senior Missionaries get transferred? How much longer do the Thompsons have on their mission?) I've never heard of any couple missionaries getting transferred. They have 10 or 11 months left.

(Do you have any plans for your birthday?) I don't have any big plans. I'm excited to read to conference Liahona. Elder Wagman's birthday is allegedly on the 10th of June, so maybe we'll have to do something.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of May 26th, 2011

2011-05-28T01:16:00.001+01:00

Well, this dumb computer is being a pain in the rear, and I can't figure out how to change the darn language. So this could be painfully full of typos, sorry.

Today we were originally going to get the transfers. But last night the Thompsons called and said they don’t get the letters until Saturday, so now we have to wait 2 more days. The Thompsons invited us over for an “end of transfer” dinner, so that means it’ll be a big one. Some speculation has been made. You’ll just have to find out next week though.

So, Elder Tingey and I are officially overbooked. Personal and comp study have taken a hit, as well as a few other things, like my sanity. But, I prefer to have this problem rather than the opposite. On Saturday we had a baptism-we had 2 candidates baptized! First one was Soeur Nina, the daughter of Soeur Salome. She was originally scheduled for the 7^th of May so I’m glad she got it done this time, and I also know her mother was very happy, who also gave a wonderful talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. The other was the oldest son of Soeur Christine, Frere Ignace! We weren’t even expecting that he would get baptized, but what a wonderful surprise! We did service chez eux (their house) in the morning, and in the afternoon he came to the baptism by himself. And on Sunday, the whole family showed up, early even! So on Sunday that whole family of Christine, including her sons Ignace and Sebastien got confirmed. So, that is a huge worry off our shoulders.

There was another lady that showed up to get baptized, but we had to push her to the next one. Her name is Soeur Melanie (different than the one I’ve already told you about), who was an investigator from Elder Buck and Elder Garner that we got. But right before last transfer, she voyaged without telling the missionaries, and her phone is broken. Luckily we saw her 2 weekends ago, and she had just gotten back from her trip. She didn’t come to church the next Sunday due to rain, and her phone was still broken and wasn’t at her house when we stopped by. But, she did remember the baptismal date she had set when Buck and Garner were there, but she didn’t know what time. So she showed up at church at 9 AM, and only found the young men of Bastos 2. Then she left, and came back right when the service was ending. Also, she hadn’t done her interview yet. So I was happy that she had remember her baptismal date and done so much to be baptized, so I’m confident she'll be ready for the next one.

Law and Order in French is on the TV in this cyber café. Ou, en d’autres termes, Loi et Ordre.

Soeur Marie Sylvie is still progressing well. We read with her Acts 8:26-40. I think she's ready for baptism, more ready than a few other people I’ve seen get baptized. And thanks to la Societe de Secours, (Relief Society) she’ll be well taken care of. And another Soeur that lives at Messassi, Soeur Honorine, asked us what are the interdictions, or, um, forbidden things in order to be baptized. We explained the word of wisdom and all those, she accepted them. I asked her at the beginning if she had prayed to know if our message is true, and she said, “C’est vrai, non!”, (that's true, no?) in a tone suggesting that I just asked a dumb question with an obvious answer. The Relief Society is growing very nicely, and Messassi especially could have 3 solid new members close together with les Soeurs, Nina, Marie-Sylvie, and Honorine.

Just so you know, District Meetings with only 4 missionaries is a little less exciting. But the apartment is a lot more peaceful.

Well, we started internet late, and we're on dinner tonight. I think the transfer is supposed to happen on June 3^rd, so even if I unfortunately get transferred (because at this point if its up to me I would choose to stay), you should get one more email from me while I’m still in this area.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

(The cashier at Wal-Mart who helped me today was from Kinshasa, DRC!) First off; unfortunately I have not yet been to Kinshasa. I have been to Brazzaville, and saw Kinshasa from the airplane.

(Sarah Anderson is coming home in June!) What the nut!? Sarah Anderson is already getting home? When did she leave on her mission?

(We donated the swing set from the backyard. Any idea on what to do in that space?) No, I don't have any ideas for that empty backyard space. My head is too full.

(Our RS is serving lunch for zone conference on Friday. It is the fourth day of zone conferences in our building. We assume it is several zones. How long is your zone conference?) Our zone conference started at 3 PM and went til about 7:30, then ate and such. But when President comes it is usually a bit longer, but normally we still have time to go teach a couple rendezvous. Was the mission president there? (Yes)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Ekeh... as the Cameroonians say. Thats like saying, "oh la vache" (Holy Cow-his response to Mark's new calling in the Stake Presidency.)

Elder Tingey had been predicting all week that you would be in the presidency, but he said you were going to be president.

(Which stereo types from last week did you think were inaccurate because compared to Cameroonians, Americans are rich and fat etc...) Inaccurate ones, hmmm... I don't know, since there are a lot of Americans, there are certain ones that fit each stereotype, but not tout le monde, (everybody) as some people think.

(Elder Dajeu has returned from his mission in Rochester-he is originally from Cameroon. Eric and Louis emailed.) Elder Dajeu and I sent an email a couple times the past few transfers. Last week I emailed his father to ask which Cameroonian foods his wife knows how to prepare.

(Do kids in Cameroon get a long summer break like we do?) Kids in Cameroon have roughly the same school schedule, but sometimes in August there is what they call the "rattrapage", if you need to redo some tests or classes.

Je t'aime et bonne chance,
-Elder Eric Palmer

Eric' email of May 20, 2011

2011-05-20T21:32:00.002+01:00

Eric's p-day was today, Friday May 20th instead of yesterday:

Well, we found out today, that if I grew out my beard, it would be
red.  I thought that was interesting.
        Anyways, things less interesting than that, is that today is la Fete
Nationale au Cameroun, or we can say that it’s Independence Day.  But
this one is special, because it is to celebrate the 50th Anniversary
of the Reunification of Cameroon, but some Anglophones told me that
the Francophones mixed up the date.  Nonetheless, the Reunification is
celebrated today.  And that is why we changed pday to today, because
many people were not going to be free.
        We also had zone conference on Wednesday.  The lesson that President
Headlee asked me to prepare was on the Area Book and Reporting Tools,
and the Weekly Planning Session.  And actually it was called a
“workshop”, instead of a lesson.  At first I was afraid that it was
going to be super boring, but I don’t think it was that bad.  The one
thing I do need to work on in zone conference’s, is projecting the
amount of time for each element, because I keep underestimating the
time needed by a lot.  Elder Thompson taught a lesson about How to
Begin Teaching, and explained to us “entrer sans frapper”, (enter without

knocking) which is something we should not do.  We watched to clips

in “the District 2” DVD to help.  I swear the sister missionaries are

always the good examples in those clips, and the elders are the ones that
"need improvement”.  And we also found out the transfer should happen
sometime around June 3rd.  I also delegated the fun part of zone
conference to Elder Tingey, and he had us play Jeopardy.  The
categories were: Area Book & Weekly Planning, The First Presidency,
Book of Mormon, and French Verbs.  It was good.  My team…won.
        Yesterday Elder Tingey and I also got called to fix someone’s
daughter.  We were at Messassi having a lesson with Soeur Marie-Sylvie
(who is still progressing wonderfully) and a couple other people.  So
as we were getting near the end of the lesson, some lady walked in and
greeted us all.  I assumed she was a friend of someone that lived
there.  But then, she just started talking to us about how she has
some problems with one of her daughters, etc.  She said she had seen
us a few times, and thought since we are young like her daughter, we
could knock some sense in to her, if that is the right translation.
So, we presented our self a little and offered the help we can give.
Then, she excused herself for coming into a house of people she didn’t
even know, except she said she had recognized Marie-Sylvie from a
hospital one time.  So she must have really wanted to talk to us if
she just entered the house of someone she didn’t know.  So she left,
and after we finished our rendezvous with Marie-Sylvie & co., we
walked to where she lived, she saw us and showed us her house.  Oh,
and her name is Chantalle, and we found 2 of her daughters and 2 other
youngens.  So, we had an ok lesson, got to know them.  Except at one
point it started raining, and made it hard to hear.  One of her
daughters asked me, “Vous buvez l’alcool?” (Do you drink alcohol?).

I thought she had said,“Tu partais à l’école?” (You have left school?).

And I answered yes.  Thankfully, Elder Tingey understood and was

surprised by my answer, and quickly corrected me.  We’ll see them again

on Monday.
        Brother Patrice (friend of newly reactive member Brother Gildas) is
also progressing wonderfully, as in as wonderfully as Sister
Marie-Sylvie.  Last Friday, we sang a hymn and opened with a prayer.
And Patrice, anticipating that we were going to ask, “Avez-vous des
questions?”, (Do you have any questions?) said right after the prayer

that he had no questions, but had a testimony to share.  That caught

our attention.  He said that 2 nights before, he was praying before

going to bed, and during his prayer he asked about the Church and what

we teach.  Then he said,that he felt something he never had felt before,

it was a good feeling, and the thoughts “Thomas S. Monson est un vrai

prophète” (Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet) and “L’Eglise est vraie”

(The church is true) kept running through his head, and that he even
started crying a bit.  The next morning he woke up Gildas early and
told him what happened, and the next day he told us his experience.  I
felt like I was in Preach My Gospel in the story under “Listening”,
especially because there were some people’s children making a bunch of
noise.
        Its raining hard right now.  I hope the connection doesn’t go out.
        Oh, and we are also getting ready for a baptism tomorrow.  We have 2
candidates.  One is Soeur Nina, the daughter of Soeur Salome.  I felt
really good in her lessons this week and actually believed her when
she said she wanted to be baptized.  And the other is Ignace, the son
of Christine.  And Christine and both her sons are planning on getting
confirmed this Sunday.  She said last Sunday they all got ready, and
around 11:30, it started raining really hard, and that she didn’t have
an umbrella and she didn’t want to go out in the rain with Martin, her
3 month old baby.  She expressed a real want to be confirmed, and
feels kind of sad about how she hasn’t been confirmed and doing all
she wants to in Church.  Again, I’m really grateful how the Relief
Society has supported her.  This week if it starts raining hard before
church again, we are just going to go get her.
        Well, that’s about it.  Everyone enjoy their last month or less of
their respective school.

Je vous aime,
-       Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

For the burger restaurant, I would be willing to work there.  I don't
know why not.  I'm not saying to sign me up right now for 40 hours a
week.  But I don't think that would be awkward.  Sounds like it could
be a good idea.

I think I could do that running program, probably do the long runs on
pday, just have to find someone to do them with me.  Finding someone
will probably be the biggest challenge.  (1/2 marathon training)

Ok, lots of people here hove lots of weird preconceived notions about
Americans, and other people.  Weird one from just today, is that a guy
stopped us and asked about the water filtering system that he heard
existed in Asia, Europe, and the USA, something to do with osmosis
water.  I told him I have no idea, but gave him a Restoration
brochure.  Other notions include: money, being fat, can't speak
anything but English, only eat food that is in cans and such.  Not
everyone thinks all that, but different people have different notions.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of May11th, 2011

2011-05-15T03:47:00.000+01:00

Well, its weird that my last phone call home is done. It didn’t even feel like that long between Christmas and Mother’s Day. And the time I have left is smaller than the time between those 2 phone calls. Its weird/scary/exciting. In fact, 2 years doesn’t even feel like a long time at all, really.

So right now, nothing too out of the ordinary is happening. We are just very busy, and getting ready for a baptism the 21^st of this month. But, there is one wonderful thing happening in Bastos 1. La Societé de Secours (Relief Society) is working wonderfully. They have have a full presidency, Soeur Therèse is la Présidente, the 1re Conseillère is Soeur Thamar, 2e Conseillère is Sister Ndongo, and now they even have a secretaire, Soeur Philomen, who was baptized just last month. And its not only them that are working well together, but all of the sisters together. On Sunday, Soeur Therèse went with the branch president's wife to go visit Soeur Christine, who got sick after her baptism and still hasn’t gotten confirmed. And on Saturday, Soeur Therèse and Soeur Patricia (who works with us a lot to see amis in Emana and Etoudi) are going to go visit Christine and some of our amis de l’Eglise, like Melanie and Marie-Sylvie. I already know that without the Relief Society’s help, we would not have been able to progress well with Christine and Melanie. So, I’m very grateful for the work they are doing.

I also did a baptismal interview yesterday for Elders Nsimba and Prince. The young man I interviewed is named Genesis. I interviewed him last month, but we decided to wait and prepare more for his baptism. But yesterday, right when we started, I felt different than last time, and was already almost certain that he was ready this time. So I was mostly glad that he had prepared himself and received a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon.

The only really other things I have to talk about are out amis. Soeur Nina, the daughter of Salomé, is progressing well to baptism still. Sœur Marie-Sylvie is doing very, very well. Yesterday she got her Doctrine et Alliances, and kissed it when she got it. She has an awesome testimony. They only thing right now, is she thinks she needs more preparation before baptism. I think she is completely ready to be baptized now. She even stopped selling phone credit and fruit in front of her house on Sunday. Elder Tingey also thinks she is ready. Anytime now, she should become a member. And Sister Therèse and Soeur Patricia will see her this weekend, so I think that will really help her.

There is another family in Bastos 2 we have now, la famille du frère Jean-Paul. Last month 4 of their kids got baptized. There is one more that comes to Church but is still not baptized. Apparently she is not wanting to be baptized because her mother (who is not yet a member but comes to church each week) is recommending her not to do it. So, we are going to try to make the mother happy and do some service for her.

With Soeur Melanie, we have finally figured out the real problems. And the key is the Book of Mormon, but she says she is still not interested at all in reading it. So we are going to start at the beginning, the very beginning, and start reading with her. She is a unique investigator.

Longla family is doing ok. Rigobert and Melkior passed the Sacrament last week! And the father says he will talk to his wife about baptism, because he wants to wait until October when he will be off from work. As we try to explain the blessings of baptism and the temple, he kind of understands, but then seems to forget the next rendezvous. And in general, most of the Anglophones aren’t very happy right now since the translation in sacrament meeting stopped.

A member that just came back, frère Gildas, got a calling to be teacher. And his friend, Frère Patrice, is progressing pretty well, but he doesn’t understand how someone could prophecy and also have free agency. He’s thinking too hard.

We are also planning a soirée familiale chez Frère Ndzana at Etoudi this Monday. We are expecting a large turnout.

In my ready I have read through Ether 11. The book of Ether is basically the entire Book of Mormon in 30-ish pages.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(What time was it when you went to bed after our phone call?) After the phone call, I went to bed near 1 AM. But surprisingly I didnt feel more tired than usual, because I feel kind of tired all the time.

(How many times have you been to the gorilla park?) I have been to the gorilla park 2 times only. (Did you know about the dental clinic held at the church?) And yes, they announced the dental clinic for about a month. But we didn't go to it.

(Scott is going to Prom and Party All Night this weekend. Do you remember where yours were held?) My party all night was at the school, and the dance was at the Omni Hotel or something like that.

After the Book of Mormon, I'll probably just continue the Doctrine and Covanents. I want to read that whole book from page zero until the end. I'll have to finish it after my mission, though.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

There have been a few members asking me something recently. A few, mainly the Longla family, asked for "gospel music" so that they could learn hymns. I don't know if it would be a pain to get a few Mormon Tabernacle Choir CDs that I could give to a few people. That's the only request I could make. And Elder Tingey isn't making any suggestions because he thinks he won't be with me when the package gets here.

In Cameroon, there are only officially organized branches in Douala (soon to be 2) and Yaoundé (4). But when I was in Douala there was some guy in the Southwest who had found the Church in Russia, and was trying to teach a Gospel Principles class a such. And I heard that there was a handful of people in Limbé meeting as the church kind of. In Congo-Brazza, there are 2, soon to be 3 branches in Pointe-Noire. In Brazzaville there is 1 stake. I don't think the church is anywhere else for the moment.

No questions about internships or college and stuff?

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Phone Call on Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T23:01:00.000+01:00

We had a great call with Eric on Mother's Day-He sounds great. Because he and his companion are serving in two branches, they are at church all day. Our church is in the afternoon, so we called him around 9:30 his time. Everyone had a chance to talk, including his grandparents!

Eric's email of May 5th, 2011

2011-05-07T14:16:00.000+01:00

Before I forget, because I forgot last week, Bonne Anniveraire à Mom!

Also today is exactly 1 year for Elder Tingey! He started his mission on May 5^th, 2010. I remember when I hit one year… I was here in Yaoundé! And that doesn’t seem that long ago.

So this past week was very busy and eventful. On Saturday we went au champ with Soeur Marie again. Pretty much did the same thing, I spent most of my time with Elder Nsimba using machetes to clear out the field. There were lots of bugs. We didn’t get stuck in the rain though, but it didn’t get too hot either. I noticed that when she works au champ, she doesn’t wear any shoes. Or socks.

After church on Sunday, we went to the Longla house, and we taught Rigobert and Melkior how to tie a tie. It was kind of hard for Melkior because he is pretty short. And their father also stopped drinking coffee at work. Thankfully his kids persuaded him to drink nesquik instead. He told us he started drinking that, and at first he thought it was going to make him throw up. I don’t know why, but he was grateful that it wasn’t going to be as painful as he thought.

We have been doing English class the past couple weeks. We do it each Wednesday at 4. I taught yesterday, and we learned about the body parts. Elder Tingey thinks that bellybutton was not a correct word to teach, and made me teach them “navel” instead. But we had the best turnout so far yesterday, by the end we had 10 people.

Are sector is also ginormouse. I spelled that wrong. I don’t really know how to explain it, but we are all over the place. We have to do a good job of scheduling our rendezvous’ in order to work as efficiently as possible. A few of our people literally live au village. Like yesterday we went to see Soeur Salomé because there a few people out there who want to talk to us, and one already got a Livre de Mormon. Its really beautiful out there. I wish that my whole sector was like that. I’ve got a picture to send. And, we had a good lesson. At first I thought her friends weren’t understanding much or anything, but when we explained about why there are so many churches to day, I think they had an epiphany of some kind.

We do have another investigator who is starting to progress really well, le Frère Patrice. He is a coordonnée from a member who starting coming back to church recently, Frère Gildas. But on Sunday Patrice came to church even though Gildas didn’t, which really impressed me.

And we have another new amie that was a coordonnée from Marie-Sylvie (who is also progressing very well towards baptism), named Soeur Marie-Susanne. She lives au village, at Nyom. But, I have really high hopes for her. We have only had 2 lessons so far, but she loves the story of Joseph Smith. She said about 7 months ago she stopped going to churches at all, and said she asks the Lord to show her the truth and is waiting for it. The main thing is she lives faaaaaaaaaar. So as she gets a testimony I believe that will help her overcome the distance and find what she is looking for.

In the Book of Mormon, I just finished the Book of Mormon. And I learned mostly a lot about why the Book of Mormon came forth and the role it plays in God’s plan. My favorite chapter was Mormon 9, lots of good scriptures I can use as a missionary. Sometimes it seems like that book is forgotten, at least to me. And even though I’ve read it before, this time I learned a bunch that I never noticed before.

Today I am also going to send a letter to Elder Lee in California and Elder Aldridge in New Zealand. I wonder how many letters have been sent from Cameroon to New Zealand. And have been sent and have made it.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

(Anything you want for your birthday?) Besides candy, I don't think there is anything I want or need.

(What is a DMB from your last letter?) A DMB is a dirigeant de mission de branche. Or branch mission leader. We do have branch missionaries, but we don't do splits very often, but they do have other people they visit and come with us sometimes. Yes, the baptism happens at the church, they built a baptismal font out back.

(Do you think you will meet the new mission president?) Yeah, I will meet the new mission president. We will see President and Sister Headlee one more time between the 13th and 18th of June, and then President and Sister Jameson come on July 1st. So I assume I'll see him. Someone needs to give me a release interview.

(When should we call you for Mother's Day?) Alright, well I don't think that you could have a worse time for church. Because here we have church with Bastos 2 from 9h00 to 12h00, then Bastos 1 from 13h00 to 16h00. And then you are in church when it is 18h00 to 21h00 here. Alright... hold on. I'll send another email in a sec.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

(Anyone here that you want to say goodbye to before the annual exodus of students?) Honestly I cant remember who is there and who isn't and who is leaving and such. So just say au revoir to anyone you feel like I should.

(When to phone.) 3-4 my time is not good. We finish sacrament meeting at 4, and we have a meeting with the branch president right after church. So I called the Thompsons, and we decided this. So you will get out of church at 9 PM my time. So since you are calling my phone, you can just call me whenever you get home. We decided that even though it'll be a little late that would work the best. So don't worry about calling too late, just call whenever you get home from church, which should mean something around 9 30 my time, n'est-ce pas?

And tell Scott he blew it somehow this week.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of April 28th, 2011

2011-05-04T21:23:00.001+01:00

Elder Tingey and I seriously just spent at least 4 hours cleaning our apartement and stuff. Right now I am probably cleaner than I have been in a long time.

This morning we also went to play basketball by Carrefour Etoudi. When we first got there, there was just us 2 and a few young kids. But then a couple other people about our age showed up, so we played 2 on 2. One was 6’3”, and the other was around 6’7”. I played with the taller one. And, even though we have been doing running and such, I’m still out of shape. After about the 3^rd game, I was ready for a breather, but no one else was. In total we played 6 games, we only won 2. Except for the second game, I was pretty useless. But we stayed in the other games, mostly because this guy could dunk and also shoot 3s. Elder Tingey wasn’t very happy with his teammate, though. His teammate would not agree with me that Michael Jordan would choose a layup (or dunk in his case) than a 3 pointer if he had the choice.

So we watched General Conference last weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I watched it all in French. And honestly, it was pretty hard to focus. But after I asked Elder Nsimba if he understood everything well, and he said no. The sound quality wasn’t very good, I think they duct taped a microphone to the projecter. We had a good number of people show up, including a handful of amis de l’Eglise.

Sunday after conference, the Cleverlys invited us to Easter diner. I have now spent parts of 3 major holidays at the Cleverlys: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. I think the only one left in that top tier that we could get invited over for is the 4^th of July. This time we ate lamb, potatoes, deviled eggs, and something that Elder Tingey thinks is pudding, but I think it could be something else, but it was really good.

We have also officially started the new transfer. Elder Tingey and I are in charge of all of Bastos 2 and the north part of Bastos 1, y compris Emana, Messassi, et Olembé (Comprising Emana, Messassi and Olembe). So we have lots of work. But one thing that will help us a lot, is in Bastos 2 we have a DMB and branch missionaries, and a weekly coordination meeting. This is seriously the first time my whole mission that I’ve actually had all these things, so for that I am very grateful.

We are getting ready for a baptism on May 7^th. Elder Tingey and I have 3 candidates. The first is Frère Isaac. He’s in Bastos 2, so I just barely met him. Apparently he has known the Church for a while, and his wife, Soeur Cicile (spelling?) is a member. The 2nd is Soeur Nina, la fille de la Soeur Salomé. We have been teaching her for about 2 months now, and even though she lives far away in Messassi, she has come to Church every week she has been in town. And the 3^rd is Frère Ignace, the oldest son of Soeur Christine. So this Sunday Christine and her other son, Sebastian, should get confirmed, and the following weekend her oldest son.

Its also weird to only have 2 missionary companionships in the apartement. A lot quieter. Except for my first apartement in Bonabéri, I’ve lived in apartements with 3 companionships, and even one transfer in Pointe-Noire, inbetween the Baxters and the Gates, we had 5 companionships in a double apartement. It also gives us a little more cleaning on pday. And we have to cook more often, but less food.

We also learned that President and Sister Headlee will be next coming to Cameroon between the 13^th and the 18^th of June. So I will be running another zone conference before then, that we scheduled for the 18^th of May. I assume that will be the last time we see the Headlees, because I think at the beginning of July the new President and Sister Jameson arrive.

We also watched some old General Conferences with the Longla and the Ndiemboh families (the 2 anlgophone families). That especially helped the father of the Longla family to understand more about the temple and its importance. With Marie-Sylvie, she is progressing really well. But now since she wants to be baptized, we need to try to get her to go to Bastos 1 which is her real branch, but so far she has been attending Bastos 2 because she likes the morning. And there are a few other members who have been attending branches they don’t live in. Elder Thompson told me you have to get permission from the 1^st Presidency to attend a branch other than the one you live in as an actual member of that branch.

And there are about 10 other people that I could talk about, but we don’t have time. But I’m glad to be busy.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Any advice for Elder Schmidt...(future DRC missionary) bring durable shoes, if you carry your camera with you during the day, put it somewhere deep in your bag, take your doxy everyday, ummmmm, let me think...

(Are you taking care of yoursel?) I think I'm (barely) getting enough sleep, but I have started eating healthier. Today I figured out a new good meal, that is a combo of spagomellettes and and avocado salad thing. And I have been doing really well on vitamin taking.

And yes, when Elder Nash came up I got the package, everyone enjoyed the Reese's and candy. And I also got 2 letters from Bishop Carter, one dated in February and the other in March, so thank him for those.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of April 21st, 2011

2011-04-22T20:44:00.004+01:00

Well, there's no connection right now, so we decided to type up our email and hopefully later today we’ll be able to send it.

Yesterday, no wait, Tuesday we went au champ. We went to help an investigator that we found about a transfer ago. Actually, she found us. We were walking to see Soeur Nina at Messassi, and this lady called us over and told us she had a bunch of problems. She talks a lot. Her name is Soeur Marie, and her sister Marie-Sylvie is progressing very well. Marie-Sylvie has been to church 3 times and participated a lot in the Relief Society activity a couple weeks ago. Soeur Marie has been to church just once. But she told us she needed un coup de main at her champ, so we went. And her champ is in a weird spot. She must have picked it because its close, but it is on a steep hill. I’ll send pictures of it sometime. So we went and got there around 7 AM and it was really foggy, and around 8:30 is started pouring rain. But I prefer the fog and rain rather than heat. But we worked for about 4 hours, Elder Garner broke 2 hoes, and I only got 1 blister.

Here is the farm. Once again, it is fuzzy,

but you get the idea.

Last Saturday we also went au village again to see brother Etienne at Nkol-Ondom. The elders quorum scheduled an activity chez Etienne that basically was a family home evening. I think the main purpose was to help Etienne’s wife feel welcomed and try to get her in the church. Etienne is an awesome member, Sunday School President, but his wife doesn't have really interest in the church yet. But it was nice to go with some of the members, including Maman Natalie, Souer Mireille, Soeur Therese (the new Relief Society President) and a few other people.

The new transfer starts tomorrow, and we got the news last weekend, and guess what! I’m staying! Guess what else! So is Elder Tingey! So we are going to do 4 transfers together. 24 weeks together. And I will do transfer number 7 in this sector. 36 weeks in this sector. So I’ve been here since the middle of August ’10 and will be here at least until the beginning of June ’11. That is basically the whole school year. But, both the missionaries in Bastos 2, Elder Buck and Elder Garner got transferred, and no one is coming to replace them. So we decided that Elder Tingey and I would keep just a few of our quarters in Basots 1, and take over Bastos 2. So its kind of like a transfer, but not really. Just adding another branch to the progressing investigators we already have. So we’ll be busy! Bettter overscheduled than not have enough to do.

I think this shows the Elders in the apartment.

Notice the wall of shoes.

Oh, duh. We also had a baptism on Saturday. In total there were 19 people baptized, so I think that's the biggest one I have been apart of. Soeur Venessa, who is the niece of Frere Ndzana got baptized.

Soeur Vanessa and Frere Ndzana

And Soeur Christine got baptized with just one of her sons, Frere Sebastien. Her older son, Frere Ignace, was too sick and didn't come. But then apparently Soeur Christine got sick and couldn't come to church Sunday to get confirmed. The baptismal font got filled up the day before, and it was pretty cold by the time we did the baptisms, so that might unfortunately be what got her sick again. And this weekend we are watching general conference, so she will have to get confirmed the next Sunday. So, prayers for her will help.

Eric holding Aloha (a boy from the orphanage), Sebastien,

Christine holding Marin, Elder Tingey

I also went to another new quarter, the one after Messassi. Its called Olembe. Its nice and calm like Messassi, even a little bit more. There is one more quarter after Olembe, I forgot its name, but after that quarter you are officially outside of Yaounde boundaries. But, the people we see out in Messassi and Olembe come to church nearly every week, and there are a couple members that live at Obala, which is very much outside of Yaounde, but the pay 500 francs each way each Sunday to come to church. Ca m’encourage.

Well, I’m trying to think if there is anything notable... As usual, the Book of Mormon is awesome. Today I just read 3 Nephi 11, and I’m really excited to read these following chapters because this time around I'm understanding a lot better than ever, and so I bet I'll learn some pretty cool stuff.

Well, I heard that the internet is back, so I’m gonna give this a try.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

      (We pulled the lawnmower out this week. Are you excited to come home and mow the lawn again?) Actually yes I will be excited to mow the lawn and do yard work and such. This morning we actually did a power clean of our apartment, and it made me want to do something like clean the garage Saturday morning and listen to Car Talk.

      Anyways, Christine has 3 sons: Ignace (12), Sebastien, (9), Martin (3 months-ish)

(     Our ward is participating in a service project on the James River at the end of April and we get to wear the yellow t-shirts. Do you have a yellow t-shirt?) For the yellow shirts the Church sends, I've never got those, but they did get them in Pointe-Noire for their service project right after I left, so Elder Tingey has one. We were supposed to do one here, but it was postponed a few times then just canceled. Somebody never signed something in order for us to get permission to give the free service. I don't get what goes on sometimes.

(     Did you get the package yet? I want to know if the Reeses made it or if they are melted.) And I fully expect to get the package on Monday, because a missionary will come up here on the bus from Douala due to transfers. So next week I'll tell you about the Reeses.

     Je t'aime,
-    Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of April 14th, 2011

2011-04-14T18:49:00.000+01:00

Well being zone leader keeps you busy. Yesterday we had zone conference, and the past week I spent pretty much all my study time and such planning for that. Our lesson was on the Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion. I had gotten this lesson plan that I think came with the new District 2 DVDs, and it had a bunch of scriptures and Preach My Gospel passages. I decided to split it up and each person in the zone had a scripture and a question to answer. But I didn't really realize how it all fit together until we actually learned it during the zone conference. I realized the first piece talked about what we need to do as missionaries to qualify for the Spirit, the second part was what the Spirit can do in lessons and in the conversion process, and the last part was what a person must do and feel to be converted. And the last part we learned with Alma 32:26-37, and this time I understood a lot better the what one must « feel » part.

And I’ve also spent a lot of time doing baptismal interviews this week. At this rate this will be the largest baptism of my mission, I think. I spent 10 hours at the Church again on Sunday. Ça fatigue. (So tiring) Tuesday we went out to Ekounou to do interviews for Elder Kabwika and Elder Waite. And today I’ll be finishing up the last couple interviews with Elder Nsimba.

We also have been informed that on Saturday we will receive any transfer info, and that it will take place on the 22nd of this month. Elder Tingey keeps predicting that we will go on number 4 together.

So for this weekend Elder Tingey and I have 4 candidates for baptism. 1 is the neice of Frère Ndzana, Soeur Venessa, who is 12 years old. Her uncle started coming back last general conference when Elder Tingey and I just called him to invite him, and then his niece started coming with him. So I think its nice to get more members of a family in the Church.

Our other 3 candidates are Soeur Christine and her 3 children. This one I’m am really excited for, because like I’ve said, things haven't been easy for her since I’ve known her, with her mother passing away and having her new baby. She first talked with the missionaries a few weeks before I got to Yaoundé, so she's been an investigator a long time. But she has already been well integrated, she helped out with the Relief Society party last weekend, she has visiting teachers that visit her. So everything has been put in place, and I’m hoping like crazy that it happens this time.

We also received an amazing new investigator from Maman Natalie, the old Relief Society president. We taught her the first time Monday afternoon, her name is Soeur Fridoline. We taught about the Restoration and a bit of the Book of Mormon. Maman Natalie was also with us, and she bore her testimony a lot. Soeur Fridoline was first impressed when Maman Natalie showed her 1 Corinthians 15:29, because she had never heard of that or ever heard it taught. So when explained that a bit, Maman Natalie shared about her wonderful experience at the temple. We also read 1 Peter 3:18-19 and James 5:14-15, and was very impressed by all these things in the Bible that she had never understood or even heard of before. So I learned that sometimes it is effective to use the Bible to show the things that the complete knowledge has been restored of, but references to them are sitting right under their nose! We saw her again Tuesday, and we asked her if she prayed, and she said yes and she got an answer! She’s planning on coming the church on Sunday, and well see her again tomorrow.

Yesterday Elder Tingey and I also had a ground breaking lesson with Daniel, dad of the Longla family. It had been brought to our attention that he may have a Word of Wisdom issue still. So we reviewed it, and he said that alcohol was no problem, but that the big one to overcome now is coffee ! I wondered how in the world that could be. But he said often at his job, their boss offers them some coffee when they work late. I think we spent almost 30 minutes talking about coffee. He didn't understand why just one spoonful mixed in with milk once a week at the jobsite was a problem. He didn't think it was possible to deny that offer from his employer. We talked about 2 other members we know who work for the same society. We tried everything, especially the temple, but he wasn't budging. Even nesquik. But thankfully 2 of his kids were there : Melkior and Queentine. Eventually they just asked/begged him to just try. And with a few more words and a bit of silence, he accepted. I think if his kids weren't there, we would have had no chance.

Alright, well I got to hurry and finish up because we had a busy p-day. We went to the gorilla park again today, so I’ll try to send some photos that Elder Tingey took. And then we got to go finish baptismal interviews and go shopping.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Picture of the Zone at the Gorilla Park

Too bad it is fuzzy

To Mom:

I don't think there is nearly as much pollen here as in Virginia. I never wake up to see cars covered in it.

(We are removing the swingset in the backyard and I asked Eric what we should put in its place.) Since its not big enough for a basketball (court), I'll have to think about it more.

I forgot to say this I think, but one of Elder Tingeys friends is in the Richmond, Virginia mission. His name is Elder Fergeson, so watch out for him.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of April 7th, 2011

2011-04-08T03:05:00.001+01:00

Elder Tingey and I just got done with our first rendezvous of they day with Frère Celestin. It was only our second time teaching him. In our first lesson we talked about the Restoration, and he accepted the invitation of “lorsque vous arrivez a la connaissance de le veracite de ce message, vous ferez-vous baptiser....?”, (when you come to a knowledge of the truth of this message, will you be baptized?) but he put the accent on the “as he comes to a knowledge...”. Today we watched the Restoration DVD with him. He wanted to rip it onto his computer, but we told him there is a copyright.

Ok, this might have lots of typos, because I’ve gotten used to the French keyboard. But this one is English/Arabic, so I’m getting kind of confused.

Daniel Ndiemboh is progressing very well. He came to church the first time of Sunday. He pulled up on his motorcycle with 2 of his daughters on back. But the best thing was that he shared a testimony in Sacrament meeting! After the first person he got up, introduced himself, and talked about what he had received from the missionaries at his house. He also spoke of one time when Elder Tingey and I gave him a blessing for his back pains, and by the end of the lesson he was pretty much healed. And he said that he wishes to come back and stay in this church, and that his family does the same. I would say, that is a good sign of progression. We will see him tonight, and we hope to set a baptismal date with him.

There will also be a party for the Relief Society this Saturday, with all 4 branches of Yaounde. We have invited all of our amis de l’Eglise, and we are expecting a very large turnout. More people seem to want to come to the party on Saturday than to Church on Sunday.

We have also had a change in the branch here. We used to be doing translation and such during Sacrament meetings, and there used to be separate English and French Relief Society and Elders’ Quorum. But we discussed it a bit at the last zone conference, and President Headlee officially told our branch to stop separating those classes, and no more translation during sacrament meeting. But they still have English Sunday School. And the translation was becoming bothersome, 2 Sundays ago they cut out a whole talk and 1 hymn because all the time was gone already.

Soeur Christine and her 2 children are getting closer to their batpism on the 16^th. Elder Nsimba will do their interviews tomorrow. I pray like crazy that they make it this time. And the niece of Frere Ndzana is also getting ready to get baptized the 16^th.

Tonight we also plan on having the best lesson ever with the Longla family. We have confirmed that the entire family will be home, and we are going to talk about the temple and eternal families. The father has already asked if he can change his religion to this church, we know that the mom loves what she already knows about the temple, and the oldest daughter said she will be baptised after her exams, which have her go to church even on the weekends. So we plan on getting the entire family engaged together, so that they can receive the eternal family blessings of the temple. And that would help us get future anglophone leaders in Yaounde!

We also watched the Saturday morning session and Priesthood session last weekend. The connection was good so we got video. So where in the world is Meridien, Idaho? (New temple announced for Meridian, which is a burb of Boise.) And also, are there any plans to ever get a temple in Richmond, or anywhere in Virginia? We also saw one of the very recently returned missionaries singing in the choir in the Priesthood session, Elder Wilkinson.

Also later today, Elder Tingey and I are going to go try to play basketball at le palais du sport that the chinese built here. Many people have told us that the outdoor stuff is free. Too bad I’m horrible at basketball now, Scott and Jacob are going to spank me when I get back.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Mark emailed Eric that he (Mark) needed to brush up on his French for his upcoming trip with Jacob next week, so Eric is "helping" him by writing to him in French:

(Mark told Eric that next week he and Jacob will be getting up at the same time as Eric because they will be in the same time zone)

Vous allez vous lever a 6h30 aussi? (You are going to wake up at 6:30 too?)

Je ne vais ecrire qu'en francais pour t'aider. Et je vais employer le passe simple. (I will write in French to help you. And I will use "passe simple" - a complicated verb tense.)

Le Cameroun and le Congo Brazza furent colonizés par la France, alors on dit quatre-vingt-dix ici. Mais a Kinshasa on dit nonant et telles choses. Et tu me le demandas deja. (Cameroon and Congo Brazza were colonized by France, so they say four-twenty-ten (to say the number 90). But Kinshasa says ninety. And you have asked me this question before.)

Oui, j'aimerais etre entraineur pour l'equipe de Jacob. Mais ne dit-il pas qu'il ne veut plus jouer au foot? (Yes, I would help coach Jacob. But I thought he didn't want to play soccer.)

Nous recommencames a faire la course trois fois par semaine. Maintenat nous faisons un mile ( je ne le connais pas en francais) et demi. J'y serai pret. Mais le marathon se fera en mars? Serai-j'en Virginie? (We started running again three times a week. Right now we go 1 1/2 miles. I will be ready. (To run the 1/2 marathon with Mark in the fall.) But isn't the marathon in March? Will I still be in Virginia?)

Je vais reflechir a ce que je voudrais pour mon anniversaire. (I will think about what I want for my birthday.)

Well, I probably complicated that french too much and made some errors, so bonne chance.

Ok, I'll be ready for that, but I'll have to just gradually increase the distance. And how do you prevent side aches?

And I just looked at the blog, and I thought it was funny that everyone else in that main picture has gone home or been transferred except me.
Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

Alright, I don't know if Scott just doesn't write, or has Dad's "insanity" syndrome (doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results), because I got no email from him, neither Jacob this week. If he sent it to my fastmail again, I don't even know what to say then.

That question was in English, by the Longla children. (What is our faith and abundant life in a pluralistic world?)

They package has not yet arrived chez moi, and I don't have my camera this week, I'll bring it next time.

Also, do you want me to call on Mother's Day on Sunday evening again?

Je t'aime,
- Elder Palmer

Eric's email of March 31st, 2011

2011-03-31T23:40:00.000+01:00

Hello tout le monde,

Today I am on a exchange with Elder Waite, who arrived in Cameroon about a week and a half ago. He is from Fredonia, Arizona, which is very near the Utah border. We actually started the exchange yesterday, but Elder Tingey and Elder Kabwika are in Ekounou, the other side of Yaoundé, and we’ll switch back this evening when they come into town.

So for the zone leader stuff, its kind of tiring. We will be having April’s zone conference on the 13^th, and (with the help of the Thompsons) I’ve started to plan it. We will be learning about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. And you get asked lots of questions and people want you to make decisions, and you are supposed to deal with problems and such. So just gives me a bit more to do. And I did my first baptismal interviews on Sunday, which was a cool experience. Sunday I spent 10 straight hours at Church. I imagine it is was Dad must have felt like.

The Longla family is doing really well. On Tuesday we had a lesson with the kids, and their mother was outside preparing food. They had asked a question about celestial marriage, and then we sang “Families can be together forever”. When we were singing, their mother stopped and came in and listened, and she said she liked that song very much. We’ve been talking about the temple a lot with them, which seems to be the thing that will get this whole family in the Church together. Their father really wants to get baptized now, and also wants to send his parents' and grandparents' names into the temple so that someone can perform their baptisms and ordinances on their behalf.

And one of their sons, Rigobert, asked us a very unique question on Tuesday, and neither Elder Tingey nor I had the answer to it. His question was, "What is our faith and abundant life in a pluralistic world?" He had written it out exactly like that on their chalk board before we came. He said he read “pluralistic world” somewhere in the Bible, and will find us the exact verse next time. And enlightenment on this subject would be useful.

Last Friday we went au village to go au champ-ing. The village was called Aka. It was actually outside of the Yaoundé city limits, we had to ask the Thompsons for permission, and they said ok. We went with Soeur Philomen, who should be baptized soon and is being taught by Elder Nsimba and Elder Prince. Her mother lives at Aka, and we all went to go plant cassava. It was really nice and peaceful out there. But our service had a big impact on Soeur Philomen’s husband, Frère Oscar, who has known about the Church since 1993, but never got baptized. Elder Nsimba told us that the next day they met with Frère Oscar, and he said he wanted to be baptized and live the commandments and come to church with his family.

Soeur Christine and her kids came to Church on Sunday. Her new child is 2 months old today, and she and her 2 older children are getting ready for the 16 of April. I hope so bad that she keeps coming to church and gets baptized, because she has been an investigator since before I got here, which means 8 months-ish. And with her mother passing away and having her new baby, she had lots of trials, and it would be wonderful if she got through it all and was baptized.

We also started teaching an old investigator again, Frère Ghislain. He is the son of the member from France who came to the viewing of General Conference last fall with another one of his sons. We hadn’t seen them in almost 3 months, but apparently Ghislain came to the church looking for us, and one of the branch presidency members of the other branch told me he came. He already recognizes something different about this Church and our message, and I hope this time we progress more.

And la Soeur Nina, daughter of Soeur Salomé accepted our baptismal invitation this week, but she did not say if it would be in April. And we also set a baptismal date for the 16^th of April for the niece of a member we reactivated recently, Frère Ndzana. She has been coming with her uncle to church the past few months, but because of school and other things, we could never catch her at the house. But now they are having what we call spring break, which is 2 weeks for them. We saw her yesterday, and got her a Book of Mormon, and at the end of the lesson she asked her uncle in pas-toi when we are going to baptize her.

And I saw earlier this week the gas price, and if I remember correctly it was 520 francs for 1 liter of gas. So Scott can convert that to compare with the gas price over there.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

p.s. Have you decided if I’m flying home to Salt Lake City or to Richmond yet?

To Mom:

Darn it, the crtl+F isn't working like on the other computers, so if I miss a question, sorry.

(Are the YW and YM programs functioning in the branch?) The programs like YM and YW function ok, but not all the way yet. The problem is getting people to activities not on Sunday. They don't have mutual or whatever like they do chez nous, at least not in Cameroon. Maybe in Kinshasa and places with stakes they do. But its hard to get people to come to church during the week.

(Are other churches able to have youth programs?) And I don't really know about other churches. I heard they have like a primary on Sunday and stuff, they have lots of prayer meetings or deliverances during the week.

(What do you like about being Zone Leader? What don't you like?) Things I like being about zone leader... I don't know. I don't think there is stuff that I don't like, I'm learning a lot and how to handle different situation and what not. I haven't not liked anything yet.

(Did you get the package yet? What do you want for your birthday?) Didn't get the package yet, maybe its in Douala, though. And for my birthday, I don't know. I don't think there is anything that could get sent in a package that I really need or want. I'll think.

Je t'aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

I know what chouette is and means, (cool) but have never heard anyone say it outside of the MTC. Maybe they say it in France, though.

(Will you get to watch General Conference this weekend?) We will be going to the Thompsons Saturday and Sunday evening to watch a session of conference each night. Saturday morning session starts here at 17h00. Then probably a month later we will have the DVDs and watch all the sessions one weekend at the chapel. I just barely finished reading the last conference Liahona, which we got 4 months after conference had finished. For some reason it is a pain in the kaboose to get Liahonas here.

Je t'aime et bonne chance au 10k. (Good luck in the 10k Monument Avenue 10K this weekend.))

- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of March 24th, 2011

2011-03-29T19:21:00.001+01:00

Bonjour. It’s very bright today. And hot. It seems to be like that after a big storm, which we had last night. And last night I fell asleep with my contacts in because I was too tired to wait for someone else to get out of the bathroom. And this cyber café is showing Recess (an old Disney cartoon) in french.

Anyways, Saturday we had a baptismal service, and Rigobert, Melkior, and Queentine got baptized. I’ll send a picture. We also got a good turnout to the baptism, probably the best turnout I’ve seen since I’ve been here. We even got the presidents of the Young Men and The Young Women, and the entire Longla family plus 3 other friends of theirs. And another amie de l’Eglise showed up, la Soeur Nina. So I was glad so many people showed up to show their support. The only complaint we got was why they couldn’t take pictures of the baptism taking place. Oh, and also Blaise gave a talk on baptism at the service, so that was great too.

Then Sunday after church, the Longlas invited the missionaries over again to celebrate the baptism. Celebrating is something very important to them. But this time there were a lot more people, and they had more of their friends, a couple sisters from the ward were there, including the Young Women's President, so that's good that they are getting integrated into the branch. And this time Elder Tingey and I also provided some refreshement, we made pizza. It received a much better reaction than what Elder Tingey told me happenned in Pointe-Noire. Yesterday Sister Victorine, the mother, asked for the recipe for pizza.

We had another good lesson with the Ndiemboh family, but now its down to mostly just the father and one of the daughters that comes to each rendezvous. But the dad is understanding the Book of Mormon amazingly well. Last time we saw him, he had almost finished the first book of Nephi. And he asked us some questions, and recited to us everything he had read. He explained all that happened with Lehi and family voyaging in the desert, and he even told us the names of the places that Lehi named, like Bountiful and such. And he does that without the book or any notes. I definitely don't have the names of all those places memorized. And he even told us the exact verse where he figured out why Lehi and family was eating in the desert without having to cook their meat, and everyone was healthy and everything. Then I was looking at the book, and he wasn't, but he cited the reference for the verse where it says the Lord made their meat sweet or something so that they wouldn't have to cook it, something like 1 Nephi 17:12. I think.

La Soeur Nina is also progressing very well. She has now been to church the past 3 Sundays and attended the baptismal service. And she lives at Messassi, which is not close to the church. But just like her mother, Soeur Salomé, who is already a member, she comes each week without fail. So that is a good sign. Soeur Nina has already testified to us that the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. Yesterday we invited her to be baptized the 16th of April. She thought for a minute, and said next rendezvous she will tell us her answer.

And yesterday after seeing Nina, we went and saw her mother, Soeur Salomé. Soeur Nina is living in her mother's old house, and her mother told us she moved to Nkol-Ondom. That is where Frère Etienne lives, out in the bush, I sent a picture of his house a week or 2 ago. So at Messassi we take a car for 150 francs per person. But to get to where Salomé lives now, we took the car to the end of its route, which is about twice as far as where brother Etienne lives, then we had to walk for 15 more minutes. She actually lives in the quarter after Nkol-Ondom, which is called Lendom. It was far. I don't know if you tried to find a map of Yaoundé on the internet if you could find these places, but I would suggest trying it. For reference, the missionaries and the church are in Bastos, and all these other places are on the far north boundary of Yaoundé. I’m not even sure if Lendom is considered to be part of Yaoundé. But despite the distance, it was beautiful and peaceful out there. I’d want to live out there, if I could have a car.

And the end of yesterday we had a very interesting lesson with the Longla family (Blaise’s family). At first it started off very boring. Elder Tingey and I planned on talking about service in the Church, one of the 5th lesson principles. I could tell that the family, especially Rigobert was very bored with it. It wasn't that interesting to me, either. But then Rigobert told us we had a question about the Aaronic Priesthood. So then we talked about some really interesting things, and read in the Doctrine and Covenants that they got last weekend. And we even ended up talking about the angels Gabriel and Michael, and who they were when they lived on earth. Thank goodness for modern revelation and the Bible dictionary. The reading assignments we left them were the books of Moses and Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Its cool to discuss those kind of things, because the Word of Wisdom and the apostasy can get boring after so many times.

On Monday we had a soirée familiale (family night) with Soeur Agnèsse and her 2 children. She has been a member for nearly 10 years I think, and she is originally from Rwanda. After the lesson, we taught them the table hockey game that you play with 3 coins. I don't really know how to explain, but the activity we wanted to do fell through. So I remembered that game that we played in middle school a lot, and they loved it.

So that's about it. A new missionary arrived yesterday, he is working in Ekounou, the other side of town, and is being trained by Elder Kabwika. His name is Elder Waite, he is from Arizona. I haven't met him yet, but we should see him today. From what we’ve been told, we won't have any more new missionaries until July.

And enjoy conference for me, luckies.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

p.s. this week Elder Nsimba also taught me the phrase « né d’un chien ! » I wonder if Dad knows that one...

To Mom:

I did not see any of the parade for Women's Day. (See the Thompson's blog for pictures of the parade.)

And Dad told me about Scott getting into Virginia Tech, but Scott didnt tell me. It's time to chatier (chastise) him, thats 2 or 3 weeks with no email. I'll chatier him too.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Still to Mom who "caught" him online....

Elder Tingey was in charge of making the pizza, but I helped.

This is being dumb, its not letting me send a picture. I'll try in a different email.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric' email of March 17th, 2011

2011-03-17T23:35:00.003+01:00

Frère Etienne and me at his house. His quartier is called "Nkol-Ndom",
something like that. From our apartement its about 20 something minutes north,
pretty much au village. If I were to live in Cameroon,that is the
kind of place I would like to live in.

Pday again...

Since Saturday, We’ve had a lot of extra curricular activites. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Headlee. I just asked him about that college question that Dad asked me about, and some questions I had about zone leader stuff. One quuestion was about « un rapport d’Excellence » (report of excellence) that that paper I got mentioned. President Headlee said he had no idea what that is, so I don't have to worry about it. He also told me to get comfortable through April and May, so we’ll see how long I stay here.

We then had zone conference Wednesday morning. It was the first one that I conducted, but that's about all I did. The next one in April will be my responsibilty, though. We learned that by May, Gabon will be okay-ed for missionaries, and about 6 months after that a senior couple and full-time missionaries should be there. So probably after I’m gone.

President taught us the Doctrine of Christ, I heard him give me this lesson early in my mission. We read 2 Nephi 31, and talked about the 8 covenants from baptism to eternal marriage that we make to qualify for exaltation. Yeah. It probably would sound more exciting to you if you were there, especially because President Headlee never runs out of things to say and knows a whole lot of random things.

We also watched episode 2 of the District 2. This time, I learned how to react when someone actually accepts a baptismal invitation. Because in the movie, 2 elders extended the invitation, the person accepted, and then the elders were a bit surprised and sat there with their mouths slightly opened, not knowing what to say. Its not bad to have silence, but we discussed it and said we could also express what we feel and the joy that gives us, and there are also the blessings we can promise them. So silence is good, but don't look like an idiot either.

3 of Blaise’s younger siblings are getting ready to be baptized this Saturday : Rigobert, Melkior, and Queentine. And Blaise is going to give one of the talks! But on Monday evening we had a slight scare. Daniel, the father said he was going to plead to Elder Tingey and me like Abraham pleaded to the Lord about sparing Sodom and Gommorah if he could find a few righteous people. One of their relatives, who does not live in Yaoundé, was very happy that those children were going to be baptized, but she also wanted to be there for it so that they could celebrate together. But she lives in Limbé, which is pretty far, and wasn’t planning on coming until July. So some wanted to push the baptism back to July. So after Daniel finished pleading his case, Elder Tingey and I talked a little about why baptism is important, and the blessing of the gift of the Holy Ghost and such. There were also 2 other relatives there, from the Ndiemboh family, and they were talking in patoi for a while. I don't know exactly what was said, but the father, and finally the mother, were ok with the baptism happenning this weekend. Especially the mother didn't want to do it without this other family member, but some of the children weren't very happy. But the mother accepted when she asked if Elder Tingey and I would still be here in July, and we said we don't know, we could get transferred. I don't know if the importance of baptism has been completely understood yet.

Not much else really notable happened. Later today we have a rendezvous with Soeur Melanie, who is prooving to be hard to crack. She doesn't like it when the answer to her questions are « get baptized » or « receive the gift of the Holy Ghost » or « go to Church ». But we have been seeing her with a member, Soeur Patricia, who is helping a lot. But still, lots of work to do.

Also Elder Tukuafu left yesterday, and Elder Buck came over to our apartement. He's the one that went to SUU and lived on the same hall as me the following year. He and Elder Tingey and I plan on starting to do some running. Horray. And I also need to thank Sister Warnick for her letter I got this week. And I wonder how many times Scott has gotten marked late. (Sister Warnick was Eric's seminary teacher and is currently Scott's seminary teacher.) Well I can't believe its March, and that school isn't far from being out. Don't have too much senioritis, Scott.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(How was the pig roast last week? How long did it take to roast the pig? Had Elder Tingey ever roasted a pig before?) The pig roast was ok, but I did have some rumbly stomach afterwards. I don't think I'll do that again, at least here. It took a few hours to roast, I didn't stay the whole time. And I think it was Elder Tingey's first time to roast one.

(Last week Eric wrote about a letter he received from Elder Lee-I thought he was referring to one of his past companions. I wondered if he was keeping in touch with past comps who have gone home.) That letter I got was from Elder Lee the Korean in our ward, not Elder Lee who was my companion. But today I did get and email from Elder Ternieden, my trainer.

(How much is gas in Cameroon?) Sorry I forgot about gas prices, but I wrote it down again.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

J'aime mieux assister à la Paroisse d'Innsbrook. (I would rather go to the Innsbrook Ward-when he gets back.)

Je crois que mes chausseurs oranges suffiront jusqu'à la fin de ma mission. Et sinon je trouverai quelque chose. (I think my orange (running) shoes will last through my mission. If not, I will get some other ones.)

Et je n'ai ni vu ni entendu dire de line de zip au Cameroun. Et si j'en trouvais, je n'y ferais pas confiance. (I have not seen a zip line in Cameroon. I would not trust it if I did.)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of March 12th, 2011

2011-03-12T19:27:00.004+01:00

So this week we changed p-day to Saturday, because we wanted to do a pig roast today. So that's why I’m emailing you today instead of Thursday, but that's just for this week. They are roasting the pig right now at the apartement building, plus they got 4 chickens. Its a lot of work. I’ll send a picture, plus lots of other ones, since I forgot again last week, sorry Mom.

A pig on a stick, Elder Tingey and Elder Palmer in his usual "thumbs up" pose

Things are still going well. We got transfer info on Wednesday. I didn't get transferred, neither did Elder Tingey. So we are going to do a 3rd transfer together, and this will be my sixth transfer in this sector. But I did get called to be zone leader for Yaoundé. So far the responsibilities that I know of are sending in numbers, some baptismal interviews, attend district meetings in the zone, and set a good example of course. There are some other things that I forgot right now, but I’ll ask President Headlee because he is coming next week. And it also says that the zone leaders have a meeting every first Tuesday of the month at noon with the mission president. But, I don't think they are going to fly me down to Kinshasa for that.

One of our new investigators is named Nina, she is the daughter of Soeur Salomé, who has been a member for about a year now. We are still at the beginning with her, but she seems ready to do the things necessary to receive an answer to her prayers and receive the blessings of the gospel. She has told us that she has lots of problems, but hasn't told us what they are at all, but she wants to know how to resolve them. But the best thing here is helping families come into the Church together. She hast kept all of her commitments so far, so its looking good.

Another new family, which was a coordonnée from Blaise’s younger sister Blandine, is also starting to progress well. They are from the same village as Blaise’s family, and on Wednesday we had a really great experience with them. We were waiting for the father of the family, Daniel, to come out, because he had been resting his back that he had injured the day before lifting something heavy. He couldn't even really sit down straight. So Elder Tingey and I decided to teach the Restoration and such and put a special emphasis on the Priesthood. So we taught everything and such, and we finished by reading James 5:14-15, which talks about blessing the sick. And so after we read that, the father said, «you better not leave today without giving me one of those blessings ! » So we did, and after the blessing they had some more questions and we probably talked for about 15 or 20 more minutes, and at the end brother Daniel gave us a testimony, as he called it. He looked a lot more comfortable than before and said much of the pain was gone and that he felt a big difference than how he felt earlier.

The same day, Wednesday, we had a very, very unique experience with Soeur Melanie. When we got to her quartier, her husband was leaving, but he told us that his wife was feeling sick. When we got there, Souer Patricia, a member, was already there talking a bit with her, but Melanie was not doing well at all. We talked for just a little bit, but realized she wasn't in a very good state to talk that day. So we asked if we could give her a blessing and she said yes. So we gave her a blessing, and right after her blessing, something that I have never experienced before happened. I’m not going to write exactly what happened in this email, its all in my journal in detail. It was something very good. I’ll just say now that le ministère d’anges (ministering of angels) is something real. Now she is getting ready for baptism and I see some good things ahead.

One of the members we are trying to reactivate, Soeur Melanie (a different Melanie of course), gave birth on Wednesday, and we saw her new daughter on Thursday. Its her second daughter, she is named Calin, something like that. It is pronounced Calving without the « v ».

Three of Blaise’s younger siblings are getting baptized a week from today : Rigobert, Melchior, and Queentine. And this time the timing worked out so that the father will get off a bit early Saturday afternoon and will have a day off on Sunday so that he can see their confirmation. And this morning I went with Elder Prince to go learn how to make Eru. I also learned how to spell it correctly, with a u, not an o. Here are all the ingredients : waterleaf,(spinach) cow skin (and meat and/intestines if you choose so), eru (looks like grass), fish that has been dried and then smoked, seasoning cubes (normal flavor), onions, water, piment (also learned this week that it is not pima), shrimp (optional), salt, some shrimp flavored seasoning cube, and red oil (a lot). Maybe you can imagine that a bit better now. Blaise’s mom, Sister Victorine, makes the best eru I’ve eaten, so hopefully I won't mess it up too bad. And I also learned how to make fufu.

All right, I’m going to send some photos now.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

(To Mom:)

(How much is gas in Cameroon? It is $3.31 here in VA, much more in CA where Aunt Karen lives.)

I will look this week to see how much gas costs here.

If you haven't sent the package yet, Elder Tingey and I could each use a "Reese's FastBreak".

(What are bobos and where do you wear them?) I think you actually spell it "Boubou", and I don't have any pictures still. You where them when you live in Africa. (I meant where on your body do you wear them, not in which country!)

OK, this is a picture of some men wearing Boubous.

(Have you had Ero since you over-ate it?) The first time I had eru since my last overdose was today, when I went and learned to make eru.

(I noticed you were wearing yellow shoes in one of your hiking pictures. When did you get those shoes?) Those yellow shoes are that color because of Yaoundé's red dirt. I think they are more orange. I bought them in Pointe-Noire for running, because the only other shoes I had were hurting. These ones are starting to fall apart, but I think they will make it to the end of the mission.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

Well president will be coming next week and on Tuesday we will get interviewed. Oh, and I completely forgot! Maybe you already know this, but the new mission president for here got announced, it will be President Jameson. You should be able to read about him in the Church news somewhere.

So the one thing that I am very confident and feel good about is staying in Richmond that first semester, and working and doing some J-Sarge.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of March 3rd, 2011

2011-03-03T15:43:00.000+01:00

Well well well, another pday already.

So this week Elder Tingey and I decided to make a more conscience effort to work with members . Sometimes its been easy and members just happen to be there to help us. But the past few weeks, our numbers in that section were really, um, unpleasant, and I think it was affecting the progression of some investigators. So Monday we made a list of members to see and start working with. And I can say that we have already seen one miracle from it. Monday we went to visit Soeur Patricia, who has been a member for about 6 years. And the next day we saw la Soeur Melanie with her. And Soeur Patricia did something I think would have been impossible for Elder Tingey and me. She invited Soeur Melanie to the activity of la Societé de Secours this Saturday, and Soeur Melanie also said yes, a real yes!

Also in relation with our working more with members, we have been getting more coordonnées. The past few weeks we were doing a lot better on asking, but still not getting too many. But half way through this week and we have already passed what we got the 2 past weeks combined.

Last Saturday there was another football match, Bastos vs Ekounou. I played a bit, until I went up to head the ball, and some guy took my legs out from under me. Ekounou won 3 to 1. I was on the Bastos side.

Frère Jacques is progressing very nicely in the Church. He was baptized the 5th January, and about 3 weeks ago he got a calling as a teacher in Sunday School. He traveled to Douala the past two weeks, but was back on Sunday, and he will been teaching in Sunday School this week. It’ll be the 10th lesson in the Nouveaux Testament, something called « prenez mon joug sur vous... », (Take my yoke upon you) something like that. I assume you are studying the same thing in Sunday School, right?

I’m still winning the area book/asking for coordonnées challenge.

Yesterday, I overloaded my system, by eating too much ero. So, for breakfast we didn't have anything really, except for some ero that an investigator gave Elder Tingey and I the day before. So I had that for breakfast. Then, I had the genius idea of going to Sister Victorine’s (Blaise’s mom) place to eat ero after district meeting. I wanted to do that so that we could talk to her and figure out why she doesn't come to church with her kids. I don't know what I imagined was going to happen, but it wasn't very effective. We got stuck inside her sister’s boutique waiting for the rain to lessen, and there were 7 people squished in there, so we didn't get to talk to her that much, but she did say she will come to church Sunday. But I ate another plate of ero there. But then we went to see the rest of her family later in the evening, and she had left Elder Tingey and I another plate of ero to eat. So after that lesson, we had to eat more. We didn't even make dinner last night because we were so full. I don't want to eat ero for the rest of the transfer, at least. But Sister Victorine did say I could come learn how to make ero one day, maybe I’ll do it next pday.

Now I’m through Alma 28 in the Book of Mormon. This is the 3rd time I’ve read the Book of Mormon during my mission, but this time I am understanding things that I never noticed before at all. At when I read it, compared to maybe the Old Testament, its like night and day. I’ve also started reading the Ancien Testament (in French) during down time, and I’m about 4/5 done with Genesis. Its not easy. Some really weird things are written there. And it just blows my mind when people read the Book of Mormon and don't feel the same way about it that I do. Incroyable.

Also, there is one other random thing I studied lately. 1 John 5:6-8. I first noticed this when I compared King James version to my Louis Segond. In Kings James, it talks about the 3 that bear witness in heaven, and the 3 that bear witness on Earth. In french though, it just talks about 3 that bear witness, not specifying in heaven or on Earth. And I’ve also looked in some other people’s Bibles, and no other ones are like King James. Even yesterday I looked in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible and in the Good News Bible, and its like in french. And I didn't see any Joseph Smith translation, so I don't know if that means that the King James version is correct or what. So yeah, just some other random nugget there.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Dad,
(Are you getting close to another transfer day? Do you think you’ll still be staying in Yaounde?) Next transfer is somewhere around March 19th. Elder Tukuafu goes home the 16th. I imagine that by this time in 2 pdays I will know about transfers. I can't say if I'll get transferred, but I will have done 5 transfers in one sector, which is the longest I've done anywhere, but I've heard of plenty people doing longer. I don't know.

(Is there such a thing as daylight savings time in Cameroon?) There is no such thing as Daylight Savings time here.

Whoops, hit the wrong button.

(When was the last time you ran and for how far? (4.75 miles for me this morning)) Honestly, I haven't been running since the end of December. 1 reason I could blame that on no one else in my apartement who will run with me. But I also haven't tried too much since Elder Kesler went home. And I cant really gauge how far, but less than what you ran.

And one other question, not that I'm trunky or anything. But you already did that research stuff for doing J-Sarg and then going to SUU in January. What about if I were to go to BYU in January, would it be the same thing? C'est-à-dire, would the stuff transfer the same?

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Mom,

I bet Scott is super excited for getting into BYU and how its going to be, but chatiez him for me because he didn't email me.

Yes I remember Sister Sedwick. (The PA who cleared Eric for his mission after mono.) And I also remember that she told me they have some friends that are or were in Cameroon. But the city she told me they were in is in the north, unfortunately the church isn't there.

(Has Sister Theresa finished the bobos?) No, Sister Thérèse (Theresa) hasnt finished my bobos yet.

Do I need anything... contact solution is the only thing I'm running low on. And I haven't found any yet, so I could us some of that.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

(Eric's email arrived very early this morning and I was able to ask a few follow up questions- Were you ok when you were tripped up at the soccer game?) Yeah, I was ok except for my elbow was bleeding and there was a kind of bruise on my lower left back at the point of collision with the ground. But some guy stretched me out.

(What are your plans for the day?) Today for pday, I have on our pday list to: develop photos, write letters, shop 4 food, do internet, go to the bank, clean the apartement, teach Tim (the marine at the American embassy), play football or basketball, and I learned that the Thompsons invited us to watch a movie at the end of the day.

Voilà notre plan. (That's our plan)

Eric's email of February 24th, 2011

2011-03-03T15:22:00.003+01:00

Well, I just got back from the most tiring hike it seems like I’ve ever done. This is the second consecutive pday of going hiking, and I don't really plan on doing it again en mission. When we got back I fell asleep on the floor for about an hour. But, its nice to see le village and things like that, its really peaceful. Today the trail we took reminded me of being on trek.

Look! Eric is wearing the hat we bought for him!!!!

Anyways, one person who is progressing really well is Rigobert, the 14 year old brother of Blaise. Recently, our investigators have been having a hard time coming to church, and it seems like the only one who has been reliable each Sunday is Rigobert. And for the past 3 Sundays from my knowledge, he has walked from his home to church. I would guess that takes around 25 minutes. Those are the kinds of sacrifices that I know people will be greatly blessed for, and it also strengthens my testimony.

Elder Tingey and I also had an interesting lesson with Soeur Melanie. She is having a lot put on her shoulders right now, and we are doing our best to help her help herself by practicing the Gospel. Recently we have also been putting an even bigger accent on commitments and such, and the other day I invited her to prepare to be baptized. It actually was a really helpful experience to her progression, but not in the way you would think. Literally the instant I finished asking her to be baptized, she immediately said no, very firmly. In short, though, that invitation or something made her open up and let Elder Tingey and I understand a lot more about Soeur Melanie.

Wow, I almost forgot, Sunday morning we had a very, very unique experience. A few new amis de l’eglise, who are friends of Soeur Melanie, invited us to their church. We accepted for some reason. Their church is called “La Cathedrale de la Foi”, or the cathedral of faith. Le pasteur principal s’apelle Dr. Rev. Dieunedort. Maybe they have a website, I don't know. Basically it was very different from how we do church. Drums and guitars were involved. I had a slight headache after the service. It made me very grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I think rainy season has also officially commenced. Now every 2 out of 3 days we get rain. I like the rainy days better than the dry ones, because the days after a big rain, il fait tellement chaud. (It is very hot)

Tuesday, Elder Tingey went down to Douala with a couple other missionaires and the Thompsons to get their carte de sejours, their identity thing. But they brought back up my actual official card, so I’m legit now! But that day I worked with Elder Nsimba. He knows a lot. I don't think there is a question you could ask him without getting an answer.

Elder Tingey and I also made a new goal, to help us improve 2 things we can improve. This goal helps us ask for more referalls, and make sure we do our area book each night. The rule is, during the day we keep track of how many times we ask for coordonnees, and whoever has the least has to do the area book. I've been winning so far. Still waiting to get that golden coordonnee, but our area book is being kept up better.

And finally, I can't believe that in a few days will be my 18^th month mark. No comment. (Grandma Carlene asked why Eric said "no comment".) I said "no comment" I think, because if I think about it too much I'll just get trunky. Because 6 months is not a lot of time, especially if it goes by as fast as the past 6 months.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

W (Pictures of a soccer game were posted on the Thompson's blog, and Eric was in the picture. I asked if he played.) Well, I didn't play in that soccer game, there were a billion people there. So Elder Prince and I went and helped the Relief Society clean the chapel. And Cameroonians play soccer with there hands, c'est-a-dire they foul too much. Not all, but too many.

(Are you aware of the fighting going on in Libya?) I did hear about stuff happening in Libya and everywhere. And on Wednesday morning, Elder Thompson told us that the church or someone sent out a warning to Cameroon for us. We were told not to go anywhere near any big crowds, because it could be some kind of riot thing. It was mostly going to happen in Douala, and possible downtown in Yaounde. Elder Tingey and I have both the President's house and the main Congress building in our sector, but we didn't see anything. But those seem like they would be places where people would do that kind of thing. On va voir.

(Each week I remind him to take his malaria meds, vitamins and all that Mom jazz.) And yes, I'm doing all those things, except I could probably increase my veggie intake. I plan on making beef stew this week, I found the recipe on the back of a Western Family seasoning packet.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of February 17, 2011

2011-02-17T17:42:00.000+01:00

Its hot today. I just came from the marché with Elder Garner. We went and met Sister Thérèse (the won who became the new Relief Society Présidente) to go pick out some fabric, because she is going to make me a couple outfit things. I think she called them bobos. (We will want pictures of that!)

This morning, our district also went on a hike. We were going to go up by Mount Fébé again, but instead we took a different route and found this little quartier that was pretty much the village. It was nice and peaceful, though. It makes me want to live in Wyoming when I grow up. I left my camera so that it wouldn't get stolen at the marché, but I’ll send pictures of it next week.

One of our investigators, Sister Nicoline, is progressing pretty well. The past few times we have seen her, she has shared her testimony and how she has changed since she has started talking with us. Yesterday she even said she wanted her shildren to grow up in this church, and that her oldest son who is about 7 I think, makes sure that they pray as a family together every night before sleeping. And, she also found a job this week. She has a friend who works somehow with the president of Cameroon or at least in his huge house, and she said that today she would start cooking food there.

And there is one other person that we usually teach with Nicoline. His name is Josie, Elder Tingey and I taught him once, but he actually lives in the other branch so Elder Tukuafu and Elder Garner teach him at his house. But he usually shows up to Nicoline’s place when we are there. He is getting ready for baptism on the 5th of March, but wants to be baptized yesterday. He watched a movie with the others about John Tanner, who was apparently baptized the same day that he first received the Restored Gospel. And Josie wanted to know why he couldnt be baptized that day as well, but said he’ll be patient. And he also helps because sometimes he explains what we say in pigin english if other people don't understand.

I don't have my planner with me, so I’m struggling to think of the things that happenned... On Monday I believe that the rainy season started. Right after Elder Tingey and I finished weekly planning, it started raining, hard. I like rainy season, except for when it rains hard one day, then the next day it doesn't rain, but the sun is out and it is super hot.

Blaise’s family is still doing well, they have started to try to do family scripture study each day. But we will be pushing their baptism to March, because we had some kind of miscommunication. 2 of the 3 thought the baptism was to be March 18th, not this Friday. And also, the mother is traveling this weekend, and another family thing will be hapenning on Friday, so they will decide on a day in March.

Wow, it is really hot in the cyber café. And the darn Disney channel is on in french here, and its distracting/annoying.

The branch also redid the home teaching lists. They assigned two elders to work with a missionary companioship. So this Sunday we will going home teaching with someone after church. Hopefully it will work this time, because it has been almost non-existent in the past.

Well, thats all that is coming to mind right now. I’m up to Alma 18 now in the Book of Mormon, and I’ve been finding a lot of great missionary things by Alma and Amulek and Ammon. Especially what they did so that people would listen to them in the first place.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

No, I cannot believe that in a year we will be waiting for Scott's call.

(There is an interesting thing happening on Jeopardy right now with a super computer playing the all-time champ. Do you remember Jeopardy?) I never really watched Jeopardy.

(Last week you talked abut a movie "District 2." What is that?) The District 2 is not like the RM, its a real church movie that is made to go along with Preach My Gospel.

Haven't had a dehydration headache in a long time. (Good!)

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad:

No, there isn't a train network here. We take taxis everywhere, and if we go from Yaoundé to Douala we take a bus.

I never got to see that Christmas eCard, everytime I tried to open it, the computer said it didn't have the right program thing to show it. (Jib Jab)

( Is there a large Catholic population in Cameroon? If so, is Mardi Gras celebrated?) Yes, there are a lot a lot a lot of Catholics here. I think it was the first Christian church to come here. But I don't know about Mardi Gras, I don't remember anything happening last year for it.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of february 10th, 2011

2011-02-10T20:17:00.005+01:00

So we are doing internet a bit earlier today because we have some early rendezvous, and we also officially split our sector with Elder Nsimba and Elder Prince. Before, when we first put in a 2^nd companionship in Bastos 1, they didn't really split it, except for 2 quartiers that are far away. And we found out that we were teaching some people in the same places, so to be more efficient and save transport money we made an official line on our map of Yaoundé to split our sectors. I don't know why they didn't do that in the first place. So today I am also with Elder Nsimba, and Elder Tingey is with Elder Prince so we can show each other the amis de l’Eglise that live in quartiers that are getting switched.

With Blaise, we have been talking a lot about the temple. He wishes that there was one in Cameroon, but luckily the one in Nigeria isn't that far, so he's already preparing to get his temple recommend next year January. And also his mother, Victorine, was very happy when she found out she could be baptized for her family members that have passed away without being baptized.

Saturday we also had the baptismal service for la Souer Marina! She is the daughter of la Souer Odette who has been coming back to church just this year. Elder Tingey baptized her, everything went smoothly. Except when we did her paper, we found out that she wasn't 10 like we had been told, but was only 8, as in within the past 2 months she just turned 8. So she wasn't counted as a convert baptism, but I’m glad that we weren't preparing a 7 year old for baptism.

We also had dinner with President and Sister Headlee Saturday night. He came up that day, and left Sunday at 13h00. So we just saw him at dinner, which was at this chinese restaurant near our apartement. And it wasn't like Panda Express, but real, never-before-seen chinese food. It was mostly good, but there were some weird things.

Frère Jacques is progressing a lot as well. Last Sunday he was the star of sacrament meeting. He blessed the sacrament, got a calling as a teacher in Sunday School, and also bore his testimony. I especially liked his testimony, because it was short and simple, and said he knows that both the Church and the Book of Mormon are true.

We also committed the Longla family (Blaise’s family) to start doing daily family prayer and scripture study. About half of them have been reading the Book of Mormon by themselves, so to get everyone involved we talked about the blessings of reading it together. I think right now that everyone likes the missionaries and the Church, but not everyone has completely felt from the Spirit that it is the true Church. And that will start with a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so what better thing to do than read it as a family ?

With our sector split, we have been able to do a lot less traveling, and on Tuesday we even spent the whole day in Emana and surrounding quartiers. Emana is seriously the hottest, dustiest place I've ever been, and I thought it was going to be a long, long day, but it actually was a very spiritual and effective one, especially 2 rendezvous.

The first one was with Sister Nicoline. We started the lesson with her and her friend, Glory, and within about 10 minutes 5 other people joined us. And we talked about the apostasy and restoration, because Nicoline had a question about re-baptism, and it almost turned into a train wreck. Some people where not happy when we said the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only one with the Priesthood. But then, in an amazing turn of events, Nicoline said we are not here to argue, but bore testimony on how she has been happier and a better Christian ever since she started coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, and then one other friend, Josie, who is an investigator of the elders in Bastos 2 who was present, explained and bore testimony about the Book of Mormon in pigion english. Enfin, (finally) we ended up giving out 3 Books of Mormon and every commandment brochure we had, and we still owe some people tomorrow when we go again. So that was pretty amazing.

The other really good lesson was with la Soeur Melanie, who came to church for the 2^nd time on Sunday, but has been having problems reading the Book of Mormon. But on Tuesday, she finally read the whole chapter Elder Tingey had given her, and had about 10 questions to ask us. For her, its been good to see a change, because at first she was very skeptical and unsure about what she said. But when she asked us all her questions about baptism and such last time, I felt like she has started to trust us more, and more importantly believe the Book of Mormon is true.

We also had our zone conference yesterday, and we watched clips from « The District 2 ». I never got to see the first one in the MTC for some reason, so I’ll probably rent it from Blockbuster when I’m home. But it was really educational and really interesting. It was educational, mostly because I learned this time about the importance of listening to amis rather than just talking to them, and saw examples of good (and not so good) ways to extend baptism and reading the Book of Mormon commitments. And it was interesting mainly to see missionaries in the USA and what its like.

We also got the Liahonas of November, December, and January at zone conference that President had brought up from Kinshasa. So now 4 months after conference I get to read what happened and what was said, yay!

And I also got 2 packages last week, one from you guys and one from the Young Women's, and I also got a card from Hayound, so tell everyone thanks for me s’il vous plait.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(Have you been to Mount Febe before and have you visited the hotel there?) So the first time that I went with Elder Acorda, we spent probably 25 to 30 minutes to walk up there. But last time we just took a taxi. And we've never been in the hotel, its expensive and I don't have anything to do there, but it is definitely the best hotel in town, probably in the country.

Eric meditating upon scripture on Mount Fébé

(How are all the new elders-have any of them served in Younde before?) The new missionaries are doing good, its all their first time in Yaoundé. Elder Prince, the brand spankin' new missionary, was glad when he found that we live in an apartement and not a shack.

(With all of your translating, how is your French? Is Cameroon French different than Congo French?) I think my French is getting better, including my accent. I don't know if I said this already, but one time a taxi man said I sound like a black man when I speak French, not a French person. So at least its not an American accent. Cameroonian French is different than Congo French, partly because they say "ça" a whole lot, while French people and even Congo people don't say it as much. The only Canadian elder I knew that knew anything about French before his mission was Elder Ternieden, but he didn't say it was too different.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

To Dad

(What’s the record for a missionary staying in one area?) So to answer the transfer question, 4 transfers is a long time, especially from what I have heard about missionaries in other missions. But here I know 2 missionaries who recently went home, and they both did 8 transfers in 1 sector. So 8 times 6 weeks = 48 weeks. Holy cow, that is pretty much 1 year. I'm going to do at least 5 transfers times 6 weeks = 30 weeks, which is over half a year, which is long enough.

(I haven’t asked about weather in awhile… what’s it like these days? North of the equator, so it is “winter,” correct?) Right now it is starting rainy season. People told me that would start in March, but it came early this year I guess. I like rainy season, especially the beginning, because it doesn't rain constantly, but it is a lot cooler in general. That whole winer/fall/spring/summer doesn't exist here.

(Update me on the pair of shoes that hadn’t ever been shined… is that still the case? If so, are they even wearable at this point?) So I actually have shined those pair of shoes twice now myself, and they are very wearable.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of February 3rd, 2011

2011-02-04T22:52:00.006+01:00

Well, we just got back from Mount Fébé. We went up there before Elder Hancock and Elder Kapelé left, and tomorrow Elder Lamb and Elder Hansen will leave Yaoundé too. Replacing them respectively will be Elder Garner, Elder Kabwika, Elder Prince (brand new !) and Elder Larsen.

The Bastos District before the last transfer

Also, Elder Tingey and I are the only companionship staying together on our side of the mission, out of 13 companionships.

This past week we spent a lot of time with Marina, the 10 year old who will be baptized this weekend. I like teaching kids, because the lessons are super simple, and they usually understand pretty easily. Or at least that's what they say to us.

Saturday we played soccer again, and we went with Blaise. I got put in goal, and I stink at goalie. One person knocked it over my head from half field because I came out a little bit. But at least since I am so horrible in goal, they don't put me in anymore.

Speaking of Blaise, he also gave us a coordonnée of one of his friends who lives in Madrid, Spain. So if Elder Pericle (a member from our ward serving in Madrid, Spain) gets a Cameroonian coordonnée, that's probably him !

And sorry, I forgot my camera, so I won't be able to send photos, but next week I will have a lot to send.

Elder Tingey and I have also continued with Blaise’s family, and on Monday we set a baptismal date for 3 of his younger siblings. His parents and one other sister are going to take a bit more time, but are getting ready probably for sometime in March. So the good thing is that the whole family is committed to being baptized, which will give them the greatest chance to progress towards the temple and all the blessings of the Restored Gospel together.

I also got out of translating in Sacrament meeting, and the other missionaries split it between themselves, and I just played the piano. But I did end up translating for Sunday School. It was the 5th Sunday, so the branch presidency taught everyone, anglophones and francophones. So I was translating from French to English, and vice versa. It kind of messed with my head.

We also helped the Thompsons’ (senior couple) move into their new apartement. I didn't even know they were moving until they said they wanted our help last weekend. So now, since I’ve been in Cameroon, all the missionary apartements, including the senior couples’, have changed except for the missionary apartement on the other side of Yaoundé and the couple apartement in Douala. I don't like to move a lot.

Elder Tingey and I also had a nice surprise on Tuesday. We went back to see a lady we contacted about a month ago named Soeur Catherine. We hadn't been able to see her regularly because she was out of town and was also sick. But Tuesday was the first time we saw her for probably more than 2 weeks, and we asked her how her Book of Mormon reading was coming, and she said she loved it ! She talked about Nephi and Mosiah and Moroni, and pretty much read the whole thing! She says she studies it with her Bible and everything.

I’ve also learned that I say one phrase in french a lot : « c’est bien ». Its just like saying « alright » or « okay », I don't really know how to explain it, but I just say it without thinking. But I noticed this, because Soeur Melanie pointed it out. She said to me, « tout est bien chez toi ». Even when she told me how she still isn't really interested in the Book of Mormon, I said « c’est bien » just as a reaction or whatever. Its not bien that she isn't interested in the Book of Mormon, but I just said it. That was the first time she pointed it out. I’ve realized its hard for me not to say it.

Elder Tingey also played 15 holes of golf today with Elder Hancock, and Tim from the American embassy, this morning. I was too lazy/tired, and I’m not good anyways at golf. I can do that at home, so I'd rather rest on p-day.

Also, for the je-ne-sais-combien-th time, (I don't know how many-th time) the Book of Mormon is the best. I’m at the beginning of Alma now, and I’m finding stuff that I never knew existed in it. And I also just finished the Part A of « Devoirs et Bénédictions de la Pretrise », (Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood) learned a lot there too.

Je vous aime tous,

- Elder Eric Palmer

To Mom:

(Do your ankles still crack when you walk?)

My ankles don't crack when I walk anymore, I think, but I can still crack them at will.
(Have you heard about the protests in Tunisia and Egypt?)
I heard about something crazy going on in Egypt, but didn't know anything about it.
(Did you get the package yet?)
Haven't got the package yet. I assume you sent it to Douala, so I'll either get it this weekend when the missionaries and the Headlees come up, or will have to wait a bit.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Dad,

Was their lots of participation or precipitation in that storm?
(Mark was on a late flight home from Houston, dodging the big storm and typed " I was watching New Orleans weather because a big storm was headed their way but temperatures were supposed to be in the mid-sixties to seventy but with lots of participation.")
Send me a picture of Andrea in that hat. Where did she get it?

(Andrea in her "raccoon" hat-she wears it everywhere!)

Well I don't know why you thought I was getting transferred. Still in the Bastos 1 branch in Yaoundé with Elder Tingey, starting transfer #5 here. Sorry for no exciting news there.
(How does the church's welfare program work in Cameroon? (Can you tell Mark was the bishop?))
I don't really have any idea how it works here for the welfare program. I assume it has something to do with paying tithing.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of January 27th, 2011

2011-01-29T02:59:00.006+01:00

Well, we are waiting for the internet connection to get fixed,
so I’m just writing on Microsoft Word now. Hopefully well get
connection sometime today.

First things first, Blaise got baptized on Saturday ! And most
of his family came to see it. And on Sunday he got confirmed
and even was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. And on Sunday
night he invited all the missionaries to his house, so we had a
lesson with all 6 Bastos missionaries and then we ate. His
family prepared a tomatoe sauce that we ate on spaghetti and
rice, and there were also plantains and pate d’arachide, which
is basically peanut butter, but this one had a little bit of
pima in it, and we ate it with the plantains. It was actually
good.

Blaise and most of his family at his baptism

We also got Blaise in a tie, but it was a pink tie (that Elder
Tingey gave him for his birthday in December) with a brown
shirt.

Last Friday we also found some community service to do. Earlier
in the week, Elder Tingey and I were walking and had no
appointment, and these guys working construction called us over
and told us to help, so we helped them a little, but then came
back Friday all 6 of us. I think we might have been too many.
We helped carry bricks down to the base, we filled up buckets
with mortar and carrie dhtem around, helped place some bricks on
walls. Nothing fancy.

We also did exchanges on Tuesday, and I worked with Elder Lamb
in my sector. Tuesday is pretty much our only completely
proselyting day this week, so we had to get a lot done. We got
8 lessons, 5 of them where after baptism. And we finished the
day with Blaise’s family, and talked about baptism. And so the
whole family has committed to prepare for baptism, but the only
problem right now is the dad’s work. We are going to have to
get creative, but they are planning on getting baptized as a
family in February.

Yesterday Elder Tingey and I set another date for the 5th of
February. I think I told you about it last week, Elder Acorda
and I started visiting an inactive member named Odette, and she
has been at church the past 3 Sundays now. But she has a 10
year old daughter named Marina, and last week she asked us to
donner les cours du bapteme a sa fille. (would we teach her
daughter about baptism.) And we asked Marina if
she wants to be baptized the 5th or the 19th of February, and
she chose the 5th. So we are seeing her pretty much every day,
but she has been to primary for years with her older sister,
Abbi, so she’ll be ready.

We have also continued with another really good investigator, la
Soeur Melanie, who was a coordonnée from one of the branch
presidency members. At first, she was open to talking with us,
and coming to church every once and a while, but also staying
catholic. But now, she is more willing to fully look into the
church. But right now she is not having an easy time. She has
had some health problems for almost 2 years, she recently had a
15 month old child pass away, just got news that she needs to
find a new house by February because they are going to knock
hers down, and her husband is on crutches because he got hit by
a taxi about 7 months ago. So yeah, elle a besain de
l’Evangile. (She really needs the Gospel.) The thing that is
stopping her from progressing right now, is she says she isn't
interested in the Book of Mormon. That each time she picks
it up, she gets tired, and wants to turn on the TV or something.
She herself has even said that its "un esprit satanique" that is
keeping her from reading. But I feel like once she gets over
this and actually sees what's in the Book of Mormon,
she’ll have a breakthrough, if I may say so. But, shes got
a lot on her plate right now.

Tonight the Thompsons also invited us for diner, so I’m assuming
we will get transfer info then. I’ve already been here 4
transfers, and the assistants to President told Elder Tukuafu
that "beaucoup entre nous seront mutés" (Many of us will be
transferred.) Scaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrryyyyyy!

I bet you will be surprised when I tell you this, but I weight
185 lbs. You can choose to publish that or not. (I chose to publish.)
But Elder Tingey and Elder Lamb and I talked about starting to run, but
then we whimped out. We decided we would rather do all our
studies than go running 3 times a week, and I would probably be
super tired during the day. So I still have the goal to do 100
pushups a day, I do it almost each day.

Well hopefully the internet comes back at some point so I can
send this. I hope everyone is back into the groove of school by
now. So...yeah.

Je vous aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

p.s. This might be the only email that will get through today, so sorry
if I don't respond to your personal emails.
--

Hey Mom,

(Good choice in answering Mom's questions when you have limited time!)

(How do you think it would be different if we had letters instead of email?)

I think the main problem with letters here would be how inconsistent
receiving and sending would be.

This building stuff wasn't that hard, we didn't hear gloves of anything.

I have baptism pictures, but there's no way they will get sent this
week due to the connection, sorry, I'll send them next week.

Eric's email of January 20th, 2011

2011-01-20T18:08:00.002+01:00

Oh la vache. (Holy Cow) Its kind of hot today. This morning we went golfing at the Yaoundé Golf Club. We did just the driving range. Since I was never really good at golf, I was as good as I normally am, which isn't very good. It cost us 10,000 CFA for 10 buckets, and 5,000 CFA to rent one bag of clubs. Elder Tingey is really good, though.

Blaise is getting ready for his baptism this Saturday, he has prepared himself very well, and his whole family plans on being there for his baptism. Theres not really much to say about him, about how happy he was after his interview and such. Getting his whole family into the Church with him will probably our biggest goal.

Who also set another baptismal date, for the daughter of a less active member who has become active again this month. Her name is Soeur Odette, she has been baptized for about 10 years, but stopped coming due to some certain problems. But Elder Acorda and I had been visitng her since November, and she has been back to church the 2 past Sundays. We have just been reviewing the lessons with her, and yesterday we talked about baptism. Odette has a daughter who is 10, who had been coming to church with her older sister for a long, long time. But I never really thought to asked if her 10 year old daughter was baptized until yesterday, and she hasn't been. Her name is Melanie. And it was Soeur Odette who brought that up without us even asking, so its good to see that not only is she ok with her daughter getting baptized, but actually wants that to happen.

Today we will also be teaching a marine at the American Embassy, before playing football. His name is Tim, he's from Minnesota and has been coming to church with the Clerverly’s for 2 to 3 months now. We taught him for the first time last Thursday. He seemed happy when we asked him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, I think he didn't know what to expect from us, but was content with that.

Elder Tingey and I also helped a few guys building an apartement building on Tuesday. We were walking by, just contacting, and one yelled at us and told us to come help. We had about an hour, so we did. They were kind of suprised that we actually accepted. We are going back tomorrow morning to do our weekly service with them. There are building a 5+ story building just out of cinder blocks, and making the cinder blocks themselves. Its hard work.

I also gave a talk on Sunday, along with Elder Tingey and Elder Nsimba. Elder Tingey’s was about Alma 37:6-7, mine was about home teaching, and Elder Nsimba talked about la diligence au service du Seigneur. We had to give it in french and english, and so the talks were pretty short, especially mine.

Well, unfortunately I just got a call from Tim, and he’s busy with something, so now were gonna have to reschedule that.

We also worked with Frère Etienne this week, and he helped us a lot. Even though the rendezvous took a little bit longer than we expected, I belive the people we taught received the message a lot better because Etienne was there. The first family we taught, Etienne talked at least half the time, and the wife especially opened up a lot more that time. And then we saw an inactive-ish member, Frère Ndzana, we just reviewed faith and repentance. His aunt, who isn't a member, was there, and she participated in the lesson and Ndzana and Etienne started talking to her about the church, and Ndzana basically taught the 1st lesson and half of the 2^nd lesson. When he gets going on his testimony, there's no stopping him.

Elder Thompson also told us that transfers will be on the 4th of January, one week later that it was normally going to be. But sometime soon I’ll find out if I’ll stay here, this is the end of my 4th transfer in Bastos 1, and I’ve never done more than 4 transfers in a sector, but I think I might stay. I dunno.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Dad-

And if you are asking, my waist size probably is 34 by now. Mmmmmmmmmm, Ero.........(A Cameroonian dish Eric likes a lot.)

Yes, I believe that one has to pay even for padded envelopes. And that reminds me, I still owe both the Thompsons and the Gates some money.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Mom-

Hey, thanks for the Priesthood line! I think Elder Tingey's is about the same size. And if you send a package, and already haven't, could I somehow get the family calendar for this year?

And also, can you ask exactly which mission Jeff is in? Elder Tingey has a friend somewhere in Argentina, too.

Last night we got fed at Blaise's house, in english its called "jumping rice", but people generally call it something else that doesn't really register in my head. But usually when I eat Cameroonian food, its Ero right now. I've also emailed Elder Dajeu in New York a little bit, (Elder Dajeu is from Cameroon, his family lives in our stake, and he is currently serving a mission in New York State) and asked him if his mom knows how to make Ero and Ndolé, and he said yes! So I'm going to have to learn how to make those things.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of January 13th, 2011

2011-01-14T02:39:00.000+01:00

Well, I looked at my planner for this week, and I didn't see many exciting things to write about. But I'll do my best to not make this a boring email.

First highlight, is that Jacques got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! And he even wore the white shirt we got him for Christmas to Church, now we just need to get him to wear the tie with it. The baptism went well, actually started ontime. It wasn’t that hectic, because he was the only one getting baptized. And on Sunday he got sustained a member and also ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. So things are just continueing normally, not much to say.

Blaise and his family are also doing well, Blaise is getting ready for his interview on Saturday, and we are planning on his family getting ready to be baptized in February. Blaise’s only problem right now is his job, it made him miss church last week. So we talked about the importance of the Sacrament and such, and so he said he will make it at least to that meeting on Sundays. And Blaise even talked about how he would be interested in serving a mission. He's on the edge of the age limit, but we can really see that he is becoming converted to the Restored Gospel. We also presented the father, Daniel, to Bro. Cleverly, who works at the embassy and lives just across the street from where Daniel works. And we also visited Daniel with Bro. Ndongo, and they became friends very quickly and such.

On Saturday, we played soccer with some of the members, mostly young men. But President Balla, who is the branch president of the other ward was there, and he was the other team’s player-coach. I stink though. I think mostly because I'm not used to running. So in my head I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but my body didn’t always want to cooperate.

We also changed the time our branch starts, we are the afternoon now, 1 PM to 4 PM. It’s the first time on my mission where I have not been required to show up to church at 8 or 9 AM. So one good thing is that we get to keep our normal study schedule. But now we've got to figure out what to do in between 11 AM and 1 PM.

I had another obstacle while translating on Sunday. An Anglophone named Sister Elizabeth quoted some words from a hymn that I didn’t know. It was something about “the rocks of ages”, I don’t know. But when she saw that I was stumped, she just went off herself and translated what that was supposed to mean in French. We should just get one of our bilingual Anglophones to translate as their calling.

We have also continued to look for service, because according to the white handbook, going au-champing every week is not the ideal form of service. So we've talked to some one at a school, but then we realized that la bible blanche says not to do service at schools, and then an American language center wanted more commitment that we can give. So yeah, we are still on the search.

Oh, and one other really cool thing happened on Sunday. The branch reorganized a few auxileries, and one was the relief society. La nouvelle presidente is la Soeur Therese. She has now been baptized for 2 months, was a coordonnee that Elder Acorda and I got, and after one meeting sent over to Elder Lamb and Elder Kesler. But, she is solid.

Alright, well I have to hurry up and check emails, because at 1:30 we are seeing Blaise and his father, and then I want to get Ero, my favorite Cameroonian food, and then we have a rendezvous with a marine at the American embassy at 4, and then football at 5. Wish me luck, especially with the rendezvous.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Dear Mom,

First thing, is I do still have my passport with me in my "important stuff" folder. (Cousin Jeff, in Argentina, doesn't know where his passport is, so I was worried.)

Thanks for the piano advice. (He is tired of playing the piano all the time.)

(Do many people in Cameroon smoke?) Yes Jacques was the only one baptized, and yes a lot of people smoke in Cameroon. And every pack of cigarettes has a huge lable on them that says "smoking is damaging to your health and can lead to death and/or serious illness", something like that.

So In Blaise's family, there is their mom and dad, then Blaise is 24, Blandine 19, Ghislen 17-ish, Rigobert 15-ish, Melchior 14, Queentine 13. They all live together, their mom, Victorine sells food, the dad, Daniel, is a guardien, and Blaise works at the supermarche called DOVV.

(What is in achoo besides beff skin?) I don't really have any idea about what is in achoo, so I'll ask. And we don't eat that often with amis or members, maybe twice a month.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of January 6th, 2010

2011-01-07T23:31:00.000+01:00

Salut, tout le monde. Il fait chaud aujourd’hui.

(Hello everyone. It is hot today.)

So I’ll start off with Jacques. We saw him Monday, finished the last few things for the 4^th lesson about commandments and such, so it looks like he will be good for his baptism on Saturday! The only thing, is that the elders in Ekounou (other side of Yaoundé) were planning on having baptisms, and their branch was to be in charge of the service, but recently we found out that they won't have any baptisms, so now we are in charge of it. And so we are just scrambling to put together a baptismal service, but its not that hard thankfully. I’ll end up playing piano, as usual. But Jacques is doing really well still. Its been pretty smooth with him. Especially since he told us he was able to quit smoking a year ago. Maybe that was one of the ways the Lord prepared him to receive the Restored Gospel.

Blaise and family are still doing well. Blaise and his dad had to work all day Sunday, but his younger siblings Rigobert, Blandine, and Queentine all came to church. I think I told you that Blaise has a baptism date for the 22^nd of January, and now we are wanting to extend that invitation to the whole family, but there are a few kinks to work out. Mainly, its that Daniel, the father, has a weird work program of 5 days working and 1 day off, which allows him to be available only 1 of every 6 Sundays, something like that. But when we saw them on New Year’s Day, they gave us some Cameroonian food, and I don’t know if Elder Tingey really likes it yet. They gave us a dish called “achoo”, I like it, but not many other missionaries do. It was a struggle for Elder Tingey, but he got through it, even at the piece of beef skin. (Couldn't find a picture or description, but I don't know if I could eat it. Eric is like Mikey, he'll eat anything.)

Also continued doing translation in Sacrament meeting. Last week was testimonies, so it wasn’t very hard. But I did get stumped on one word that Président Gwet said, which was “un tamis”. I wonder if dad knows that one. He explained it to me, and I still didn’t get it, neither did the Anglophones. But then he continued his thing and we he used the example of “un tamis”, and some Anglophones figured out he was talking about a sifter. So that was the first time where I was completely stumped doing translating, but now I learned a new word.

But during testimony meeting, la Soeur Brigitte gave my favorite one. She is a recent convert, coming up on a year sometime soon, and we visit her once a week. She has always been kind of quiet, but I have seen a difference in her interest in the scriptures and the Church and such since my arrival and now. And on Sunday it was the first time I really heard her bear her testimony, and it was an awesome testimony. She was a little nervous, I think, it was really simple, saying what she is grateful for, but I just felt really good while translating for her.

We also had zone conference on Tuesday, and President Headlee even “skype”-ed in and talked to us for about 20 minutes. He was in somewhere in DRC, we think Kenanga, organizing a stake. But he talked about 2 main goals. The first was to make sure that every day, we talk to many people about the church, whether while traveling in between rendezvous or real contacting, and to tell 10 new people a day about the Church and who we are. And the other was about distributing Books of Mormon, giving out at least 4 a week. Elder and Sister Thompson talked about obedience and being enthusiastic, and our district leaders, Elder Nsimba and Elder Kapele, talked about similar things to what President Headlee said, about finding and that often times we don’t know know what effect our talking to one person could do in many years, and such things. And Elder Tukuafu, who is zone leader, talked about how the Gospel changes lives, I remember specifically reading Alma 7:11-13. So that was our zone conference. They are always good, because at least I just feel remotivated to go and work hard afterwards, no matter what we talk about.

We had another “perfect day” yesterday, which means zero rattezvous, and got 8 lessons. Half of our lessons where with recent converts/inactives. With those who have gone inactive, we've decided to just start reviewing the lessons, and so far it seems to be helping more than just random spiritual thoughts. Its like those reviews remind them or wake up their testimony that they may have forgotten about a little.

And finally, right now in my studies I’ve just finished Mosiah chapter 2. So I read all those little Enos to Words of Mormon books. And I continue to see a lot of things that I've never noticed before. I’m moving really slowly, because of all of the stuff I mark and stuff, but its pretty amazing how nearly every page I can find something I could use in one of the missionary lessons.

So I hope everyone is adjusting to school again, unless you got more snow days. Make sure to read your scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon!

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Dad,

Well, tell mom thanks for making me and Elder Tingey excited about some big Jazz news, because usually Mom only talks about them if something great hapenned. Just kidding. But that did happen.

For the priesthood line, if you find the Elder one, that would be nice to have. Elder Tingey has a little laminated thing. But its not a pressing need or anything, but thanks for the High Priest one!

Unfortunately no, we did not play in the real Omnisport professional stadium. But around it, there are at least half a dozen dirt soccer fields, and a couple basketball courts. But someone told us that tickets to soccer games are cheap, so if the occasion presents itself, we might go.

In Cameroon, we use DD/MM/YYYY, so today is 6/1/11.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Dear Mom,

So yeah, that was me in the glasses. They are Elder Thompson's, and I wore them because the sun was in my eyes while I was playing the piano. And if you watch well, I was a split second behind Elder Tukuagu and everyone, because I didn't learn it very well, so Spencer (friend serving a mission in New Zealand) will have to help me learn it again.

And I haven't seen Adam yet since Elder Tingey got here. So pray for that.

(Why are Blaise's lessons so good?) And Blaise's lessons are good, mostly just because I feel good and so I know the Spirit is there. Thats pretty much the main reason why.

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of January 1, 2011

2011-01-04T22:05:00.007+01:00

Elder Palmer and Elder Tingey on their apartment

patio in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Well, I realized today that I do not know how to play sports anymore. I am completely useless in basketball, I’m still ok at soccer but each time I shoot its pathetic. But we did play football at the American embassy, and I did have 5 touchdowns, but next time I’ll probably play like garbage.

So I’m writing you today (January 1) instead of on Thursday, because we switched our pday to today, because today is not a very effective day to work, because everyone will be partying. People here party more on New Years Day rather than on New Years Eve. But yesterday in the afternoon we had an activity, it was basically a talent show. The missionaries sang a medley of "Army of Helaman" and "Called to Serve." And at the end we did a New Zealand Hakka that Elder Tukuafu taught us. Then I played the piano for the choir again, and also another mom and daughter who sang “Teach Me to Walk in …”, its page 195 in French. By the end I was running out of gas, I plan on taking a break from all that piano playing for a while.

Then we went over to the Thompsons, played some games and watched some “Mormon Messages” and such. And we got home late, I was originally planning on going to bed early for New Years, but that didn’t happen. But still woke up at 6:30, went and played soccer at Omnisport, and tonight we will go visit Jacques and then Blaise’s family.

One goal I have made recently is to call my companion and other missionaries “elder” rather than “dude”. Its hard, but I think I’m starting to make progress now. Its like dude is just something stuck in my head that I saw for no reason sometimes.

On Tuesday this week, we had a “perfect day”, which is the equivalent in missionary work to a perfect game in baseball. Kind of. Basically it means we saw and taught all of our rendezvous and did not get any rattezvous. It is a rare event. And then we almost had another perfect day on Wednesday, we had taught 5 of our 6 lessons, and then a few minutes before the last one, Elder Tingey said, “It might be another perfect day again!”. Well, then our last rendezvous ratté-ed us. Il l’a maudit.

Elder Tingey and I have also found lots more Anglophones, due to a line of coordonnées given to us. We first started teaching a lady named Sister Hariette, then started teaching her with her neighbor Brother Fidelice. Then at our 3rd rendezvous, their friend Sister Glory was there. The next day we went and visited her, and she invited her friend Sister Nicoline. And that night, after teaching Sisters Glory and Nicoline, we got a call from a guy named Brother Josie, who got our number from Glory. And we have now also taught Brother Josie and his brother, Brother Elvis. Horray coordonnées, and horray Anglophones.

So Jacques is still progressing well. For Christmas Elder Tingey and I gave him a white shirt and tie. But for some reason the next day at church he didn’t wear them, even though I tied the tie for him. A bit disappointing, but all well. On Tuesday Elder Nsimba, our district leader, did his interview, and said he is good to go. During his interview I tried to read Genesis on the front porch, and then a bunch of quartier kids came up and wanted to play with me, and then fight me and jump on me. So I spent about 20 minutes fending them off, and my shirt got filthy. But it was worth it. Now we just need Jacques to wear his white shirt and tie tomorrow to Church.

Blaise's family is still progressing very well also. And we even fixed a baptismal date for Blaise, then 22e of Janvier. I think the lessons we have with him are some of the best of my mission. Elder Thompson even sat in on one, and told us later how impressed he was with Blaise and his progression. I have finally also learned everyones name in the family, there is Papa Daniel and Mama Victorine, and their 6 children: Blaise, Blandine, Ghislen, Rigobert, Melchior, and Queentine. The whole family sits in on lessons, most have already attended church, and especially Rigobert and Queentine are interested and read the Book of Mormon, and told us they will be at church on Sunday. Its awesome teaching a complete family.

And I would like to ask one question, that I believe I might have asked a while ago. Could you (probably Dad) get me my Priesthood line? I ask again, because Elder Tingey has his and pulled it out in a lesson once.

Well, have fun going back to school, unless you have snowdays again. Oh, and I also got a letter this week, with notes from the Hickeys, the Bertonneaus, the Hielesens, and the CTR 5s, so make sure to thank them for me. And Sister Bertonneau asked whot kind of candy to send in a young womens package. Tell her any candy is good, but that Starbursts and Sour Patch Kids are good too.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Mom,

The choir is ok, there are about 10 people from Bastos 2, and a few missionaries came in to help, mostly with the bass.

And I haven't really bought any Christmas present for myself yet, I dont know if I will. The (Utah ) Jazz t-shirt fits very well, and some other missionaries are jelous of it.

So thanks for everything, and the prayers, especially for Jacques!

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Dad,

So I haven't make any specific new years resolutions. But I did recently make that goal to say "elder" rather than "dude". About a month ago I made a goal to do 100 push-ups each morning, but the last 2 weeks I've slacked off bad, so I'll re-make that goal.

Vai Sikehema reminder to send me those articles.

And Ill go tell Scott to man up now. (Mark is trying to convince Scott to train for the 10K with him.)
Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Eric's email of December 23rd, 2010

2010-12-29T05:11:00.000+01:00

Joyeux Noel !

I can't really believe its Christmas again already . It just crept up on me. And before I forget, we need to get the phone call set up. So as I’m looking at my program, I’m thinking Saturday evening, which is Christmas, would be good in my schedule. I think it could be around 7 or 8 PM, and I believe that you are 6 hours behind me? Tell me what you think about that. I can be flexible. And also we have the option of using Skype to call you at the Thomspons’, what about that? But I'm thinking the best would be Christmas evening (here) I'll call you real quick with my phone and then you could call me back.

So first, I’ll tell you about my new comp. His name is Elder Tingey, he is from Kaysville, Utah, he started his mission back in the beginning of May this year. He already did 4 transfers in Pointe-Noire, and he arrived last Friday night. He already speaks French really well, and is confident and such when we contact and when we teach. He is also the first companion that I have had that is taller than me, I believe. So yeah, things are going really good. I'll send a picture next week. Oh yeah, and Elder Buck also came up from Pointe-Noire. He's the one who went to SUU as well.

Last Friday I didn’t have a comp, because Acorda was gone Thursday morning and Tingey came Friday night, so I worked with Patrick from Bastos 2. I had worked with him when Acorda was sick one time. And a miracle happened that day! We had a rendezvous with Blaise at the church, and while Patrick and I were waiting for Blaise, Adam showed up! Adam is the the one from Sudan who you got the Arabic Book of Mormon for. Unfortunately, I didn’t have it that day, and Adam still doesn’t have a phone and is working a lot outside of town. But I was glad to see he is still alive. I just got to make sure I get that Book of Mormon to him.

Also last week we played American football and basketball. We will be playing football again tonight, but last week there was a pretty bad injury. I was guarding this one guy, and he was playing really hard. I thought he was playing too hard. But then at the end of the first drive, he caught a touchdown over me, but then the second he turned around there was a stone wall. And he hit it with his face. I thought football was over, I was surprised that he wasn’t bleeding. It looked really bad. He tried to play a few more plays, but then he left, which was probably the right thing to do. He had a fat black eye. But, its good to play some sports again, because now we have more people that want to. I stink, though.

We had a second rendezvousu with all of Blaise’s family. We even brought them a 2^nd Book of Mormon because they didn’t all have time to read it. One of his younger brothers already finished 1^st Nephi, and the dad takes in to work each day. This Sunday the dad will get off work, so the family told us they will be at church Sunday, as well. They are doing great. Its much better to teach a whole family than just random people.

Jacques is also doing very well. We are getting ready for his interview soon. And luckily he is only having to work a half day on Christmas Eve, so he will attend the activity Friday at 16h00.

We have also done lots of contacting recently, and yesterday we did something that I had never done before. We got rid of all of our French brochures. We had to stop and reload before doing anything else. It was a good and a bad thing.

Everyone in Bastos 1 and Bastos 2 has now found out that I play the piano, so I have now been recruited to play piano in the choir that will perform this weekend and the next weekend and church activities. Its good I guess. By the end of my mission I will be able to play probably over 95% of the cantiques well enough. I think Ive decided the hardest one is page 41, its called “Pour Tous Les Saints”, its in English too. (For All the Saints, Hymn #82)

As for my studies, I think I may have found out who my favourite Book of Mormon prophet person is. They would ask us that in seminary and stuff, I would probably just say “Nephi” or “Moroni”, I don’t know. But right now, I think my favorite guy in the Book of Mormon is Jacob. I just finished reading his book, and I found a lot of stuff that I have never really noticed before. And I really like the story in Jacob 7, where he destroys Sherem. Pretty awesome.

Alright, I think that’s about it for me. Et je dois souhaiter des bonnes anniversaires à Dad et à Scott ! (And I need to wish Dad and Scott Happy Birthday) I can't believe Scotts gonna be 18 and Dads gonna be, well, yeah. Have a Happy (Anglophones say that rather than “Merry” here) Christmas, and let me know about that phone call.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Hey Dad,

So if you text me there would be no problem, and that would cost me nothing to receive. But I think a safe time to say would be 7:30 my time, which will be 1:30 chez vous, because we will go see some people Christmas afternoon/evening.

But would it be ok if I just call you real quick when I'm ready, and then you call me back? That's what we did on Mothers' Day last time.

For Christmas Eve, we will actually be going au champing-ing, with Maman Natalie. Then we will get back and have a couple rendezvous, and then the Elders Quorum will be doing an activity about the birth of Christ at 4, and then we are going over to the Thompsons. And the elders from Ekounou (other side of Yaoundé) will sleep at our apartement, wake up, open some presents, eat breakfast at the Thomspons', go play basketball, go to the Cleverly's, and then visit some people. I think that is our Christmas plan.

Will I buy myself a Christmas gift... maybe. It might well come in the form of food.

Je t'aime,

- Elder Eric

Hey Mom,

(Mom knows some Tingey's from High School) So I just asked Elder Tingey, and he said he thinks Craig Tingey is his second cousin or something, but he knows hims probably. He said his whole family is from Bountiful and Kaysville and such places.

Alright, I don't see many questions either. I'm excited to talk to you too, I said that Sunday evening here would be best for me. I'll plan on calling you between 7 and 8 my time and then you can call me right back.

Je t'aime,

- Elder Eric

Eric's email of December 16th, 2010

2010-12-29T04:53:00.000+01:00

I know I usually have lots of typos, but today I'm on an English keyboard, so I apologize in advance because I've gotten used to the French one.

First off is transfers, which have already started to happen! This morning Elder Acorda was shipped off to Bonaberi, so I've spent the day with Elder Lamb, because his comp (Elder Kesler) is flying home this weekend with 3 others, including Elder Parsons who I served with in Pointe-Noire. Our comps will arrive tomorrow at 19h00, and we will work with branch members during the day. I’ll be working with Patrick again, I think I already sent a picture of him a few weeks ago. But my new comp will be Elder Tingey, who I knew for 1 transfer in Pointe-Noire. He is from Kaysville, Utah. He is tall and good at basketball. I can't remember anything else right now, but we got along great before, and he likes the Jazz too, so we just have to not talk about sports together all the time. Me and Elder Lee had that problem at first, but then we made some companionship rules, and there were no problems, so I imagine we will have to do the same kind of thing.

As for our amis de l’eglise, Blaise and Jacques are still the 2 most progressing ones. One Tuesday we were able to meet Blaise’s family, they were really nice and fed us ero. Ero is basically grass clippings cooked in oil and pima, and is actually very good. His family was very welcoming, understood well and accepted to pray. The father has a rough work schedule, he works 7 days and then gets 1 day off, so normally its only 1 of every 7 Sundays that he is free. So well see. Blaise is still progressing well, and he had talked a lot about the Book of Mormon to his family.

Jacques is still progressing, still preparing for the 8th of January. He always does his reading assignments, and usually has a really profound question each time that I don’t have an answer to, which ends with him saying, “ca, ce n’est plus le religion, c’est la science", (it's not religion anymore, it's science) and then we move on. We should be doing his interview next week. We are about to finish the 3rd lesson, so yeah. He’s good.

Acorda and I also contacted a famille from Kinshasa on Sunday. We just had a short lesson about the 1st vision, I only think 1 or 2 people really understood or payed attention. But I was able to use my Lingala skills, which are limited to one or two words. I said “mbote”, which is like bonjour. I’m glad I remember that at least.

I also received some wonderful news on Monday when Fred from Bonaberi called me. He informed me that Robert got baptized last weekend! Robert is someone that I had worked a lot with with both Elder Ternieden and Elder Lee. (First area on his mission) I looked in an old planner, and it was almost 1 year ago that we had our first rendezvous with Robert. I wrote and sent a letter with Acorda for him. So that made me happy.

Last Friday we also held our mission conference. Sister Headlee gave a great lesson on how music effects us and what kind we should be listening too. President Headlee taught us about “Teaching People, Not Lessons”. Embarrassingly, I can't really remember that many details, so its a good thing I wrote those down in my study journal. But I also did get an interview with him on Saturday morning, my first one in 5 transfers. I did talk to him a bit about some goals that Acorda and I had set, and then pretty much fail at achieving this last transfer. He talked to me about expectations, the expectations that missionaries have for their sector and those they teach. I guess it was pretty related to his lesson, focusing on people and not numbers and such. I don’t know, but I did feel better after it.

Elder Acorda and I did meet a guy from Greece the other day. He was on the other side of the road, and yelled, “etes-vous les mormons?” So we talked a little, he said he lived in Salt Lake City for a year, he works with the Orthodox church, and he said he knows everything about theology. I asked if he would want to talk to us, and he said no and told me the same thing again. And then today Elder Lamb and I ran into him again in DOVV, the supermarche. His accent is different from what I'm used to, so I only understood about ¾ of what he said, but something about polygamy. I told him that it ended 120 years ago. I don’t know if he believed me.

So now that my 3 transfers with Elder Acorda are up, I think the biggest thing I learned from him is charity. He is always ready to help or serve someone. Even if I had made him upset or things like that, he was even charitable to me. So that's what I learned, even though we had some challenges together, he taught me a lot.

Recently in the Book of Mormon I've been reading Jacob. Tomorrow I will start chapter 5, so we will see if I still like it after tomorrow, but this time I've seen a lot that I never really noticed before. I think the favorite passage I've found is Jacob 1:17-19, its about the priesthood, and how to get the authority and then the power. ("Wherefore I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errandfrom the Lord. For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi. And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.") There were lots of really good ones too, though.

Today at 17h00 we are going to go play American football at the embassy. Hopefully. We called Bro. Clerverly who works there, and he said he would get us on the list. And this will also help fellowship a couple marines who have started to be a little interested in the Church. They came to church last Sunday with the Cleverly family.

And yesterday I bought 2 soccer jerseys for 5000 CFA. That's $5 a jersey. And today, when Elder Lamb and I went to develop photos, we saw the same one in this guy's shop, and he told me he sells them at 20,000 CFA each. So he's trying to sell at $40 what I bought at $5 off the side of the road. (The cheap gene rears it's head.)

I assume everyone is finishing school tomorrow, luckies. I cant believe Christmas and the end of the year is coming up so fast. Ah, dang it, and I forgot to talk about the Christmas phone call. So, tell me when it would be good for you. I assume the evening one day will work best for me. And the evening here is I think 6 hours ahead of you. President says it doesn’t even have to be on Christmas, so if Dad and Scott’s birthday or another day is better, just let me know.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric Palmer

Dear Mom,

(How many missionaries are going home this transfer?) So in our town we only had 2 going home, but 4 total from North America. We have heard that in 6 weeks we will get 1 new missionary named Elder Prince. Thats all I know about that right now.

(Will the branch do anything to celebrate Christmas?) I know our elders quorum is having some Christmas thing on the 24th at 4 oclock. Thats about it, I think. (Have you noticed any Christmas songs that are different than ours?) And in the French hymn book there are a few that aren't in the English book. Like, "il est ne le divin enfant" (He is born the divine Christ Child) or "Noel Nouvelet" (typo?), that Dad might know. And theres others like "Angels We Have Heard on High", which in French has 5 verses and the first half of the song's melody is a bit different.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

Dear Dad,

I actually did backup my whole memory card this morning to the Wolverine. There will be much organizing to do when I get back, though.

I'm completely fine cash wise. Too much cash.

Yes, rainy season has been over for a few weeks now. Here dry season get pretty hot during the day, not like Douala though. I still think in Cameroon I prefer rainy over dry season, just because I don't like that heat. Pointe-Noire had the best weather, though, because during dry season its cool. But I've heard, because luckily I wasn't there, that in Pointe-Noire during rainy season its very hot and like enfer. (Hades)

Je t'aime,
- Eric

p.s. no Andrea email this week?

Eric's email of December 10, 2010

2010-12-12T20:23:00.005+01:00

Good Morning ! Thats what all the francophone kids say to us. Apparently they don't teach them when to say good afternoon and such. And even sometimes anglophones say good morning in the afternoon.

So recently we have found some new amis, and some are progressing quit well. One is named Soeur Jeanne. We contacted her 2 Saturdays ago, and most of all she was very interested in the Book of Mormon. We weren't able to see her again until last Friday, but we lent her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and committed her to come to church. Unfortunately, she fell through on her church commitment, but yesterday we saw her and asked about her reading. And she showed us that she was already to Alma 3! At first I was kind of skeptical, but after asking a few questions, I realize she actually did read all that in under a week! I think she read kind of quickly and didn't get every detail, but that's still amazing. And because of her Book of Mormon progress, I forgot to be devasted that she didn't come to church, but she's been recommited to come this Sunday.

Also, our anglophone investigator Blaise is progressing very well. On Sunday we watched a Stake Conference that was done for the whole south eastern-ish Africa area, in the which Elder Oaks and Elder Packer spoke. Blaise enjoyed it very much, and asked if he could get a copy of it. In his Book of Mormon he is going much slower, but is understanding very well. Sunday was also fast and testimony meeting, and after Blaise asked Elder Acorda if he could have bore his testimony. So he says he’ll probably do it next month. And he's lucky, because the missionaries and the Thompsons go to DOVV, his store, often, and ask him about his Book of Mormon reading and such almost daily.

Elder Acorda and I also fixed a baptism date this week ! And its a baptism date that I am actually very confident will go through. I say that, because recently we have made a few, but they kept falling through or being pushed back because the necessary preperations aren't being made. Anyways, its a baptismal date for the 8th of January with Frère Jacques. I think I told you about the guy we contacted who looks like Parker Froelich, right ? Well that's him ! He has been to church every Sunday for over a month now (and even gets to church on time !), keeps all his commitments, and from the beginning has been discussing baptism. And I can also tell that he pays attention in church, because he wasn't very happy when we informed him that there is not yet a temple in Cameroon. But its people like Jacques, or Soeur Therèse (did I tell you about her ? coordonnée that Elder Kesler and Elder Lamb baptized last month) that motivate me to do door to door contacting, or go see coordonnées no matter who they come from, because you never can know how the Lord is going to prepare someone for the Restored Gospel.

We also went « au-champing » again this week, again with Sister Ndongo. We went to her farm about a month ago and just did a bunch of weeding. This time we did a little bit more weeding, but mostly harvested corn. Actually here in English corn is called « maize », but we kept forgetting, and Sister Ndongo didn't know what we meant by « corn ». I wore my hat, just so Mom knows. Didn't get nearly as many red spots as I did last time.

So about the Stake Conference we watched last Sunday, it was something they recorded in Salt Lake City and sent DVDs to us. Along with Elders Oaks and Packer, someone from the 70 spoke and someone from the General Young Womens Presidency spoke. But my favorite thing was said by both Elder Oaks and Elder Packer. They talked a bit about African traditions. That there are good things, and that there are bad things. They stated simply, that if there is any part of one’s culture that helps one practice the Gospel, they should keep it in one’s family. But, if there is any part of culture or tradition that is in any way contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, one must get rid of it. Sometimes I don't think that is completely understood, so I’m glad 2 apostles said it.

Finally, President Headlee came to Yaoundé today, and tomorrow we will have a mission conference. I think I will have an interview with President for the first time in 5 transfers ! We are also anxious to hear about transfers. That will happen sometime at the end of next week, and I don't know if we'll get the info this week or next, but because no one in all of Cameroon and Pointe-Noire go transferred last time, President told us that there will be big changes this time, especially because 4 elders will go home next week, including our current zone and district leaders.

And so if my calculations are correct, next week will be the last week of school before Christmas break ? I hope everyone’s concerts and end of year shpeels are going well. Also Elder Thompson dropped off some mail today and told me I have a good amount. I haven't been back to the apartement yet, but he did tell me there was an Arab Book of Mormon. But thanks for everything you do, and I love you very much !

Love,

- Elder Eric

Hey Mom,

How did I know you were going to tell me to where my hat when I go "au-champing"? (I always tell him to wear his hat....)

Beignets are basically small doughnuts with no hole. Just fried dough. (See picture)

This is me with the lady that sells beans & beignets each morning.

I eat there 5 or 6 mornings a week, and only spend 40 cents!

And now I've actually worn the long-sleeved shirt 2 times, and each because it was kind of "cold". Its not anything like what you are having now, but it actually was kind of chilly. I felt weird wearing it, but unusually comfy at the same time. (See below)

And the red soda did actually come out of my shirt. (Spilled on his shirt by a child at the orphanage.) I left it on the back porch for about a week (because I forgot about it) in a bucket full of soapy water, then I put it in the washing machine, and now I can't even tell which one was stained. C'est un miracle! Malgré que je n'aie pas eu de foi. (It's a miracle. Even though I didn't have faith.) But when he spilled it on me, he was just standing in front of me, and I asked him, "est-ce que tu va cracher dans mon jus?" (Are you going to spit in my drink?) Then he said no, and punched my drink.

(I told Eric a young man from our ward just arrived in the Mozambique mission where they have AC units in their bedrooms.) Yeah, we don't have any ACs. But we don't really need them. They would be really nice in Douala, but we just get by with fans.

(Describe the supermarket.) DOVV, Blaise's supermarché, is more like a Food Lion than a 7-11. Its pretty nice, actually.

(How do you study the Book of Mormon?) So when I study, things that stand our to me are commandements and blessings. I underline commandments in blue and blessings in red. And then anything in a missionary lesson sticks out, because nearly every gospel principle in my mind fits into missionary lesson 1 to 5, or a Christlike Virtue. (Do you read your scriptures in English or French?) And I just study in French now, but I have a dictionary close by. Especially when I was reading the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

Hey Dad,

I don't know the details about the call yet, (Christmas Day call) but just in case, send me the calling card info, and I'll look in my stache. And last time, I called you on the cell phone and you called me right back. Can you tell me how much that cost, just so I could know if that may have been a little bit cheaper?

And thanks for the Wolverine reminder, I'll backup up my card tonight because it has been a while.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

p.s. go D-Will (Utah Jazz)

p.s.s. and there is an elder in my apartement from Idaho who is a cocky sports fan. So I hope he won't have a reason to talk trash to me. (Boise State will play the University of Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.)

Eric's email of December 2nd, 2010

2010-12-12T19:52:00.003+01:00

La zone de Yaoundé

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to live a normal American life again, because I usually get a little headache just from looking at this computer screen once a week. And its a good thing I love you guys so much, or I probably would just stop doing emails. And also Mom and Dad would probably get upset if I sent nothing.

Well this morning we went to the Gorilla Park in Yaoundé. Actually its outside of Yaoundé, took us about an hour and a half to get there, it was pretty similar to the one I went to in Limbé with the Willis’. But here, the monkeys throw more stuff at you. I got a few videos. Some of the stuff gets through the fence, too. But we saw gorillas, chimpanzees and all that. Some of them are really athletic. Also, Sister Thompson brought us all lunches, and she brought Shasta Root Beer from the American store ! That was the first time I think I had had that on my mission. It made me burp a lot. I’ll send some pictures.

Eric and Bobo a 12 year old gorilla

Last week for Thanksgiving, we ended up eating chicken, mashed potatoes, pie (Sister Thompson used squash to make something like pumpkin pie), veggies, things like that. I ate a lot of mashed potatoes. And then on Saturday we went again to this orphanage that the missionaries have known long before I got here, and they invited us to go there. We couldn't stay very long, and they hadn't finished preparing the food before we left, but one of the kids did spill Top Grenadine all over my shirt. That is a red soda. I don't know if I’m going to get that out. You couldn't really tell from a distance so I ended up wearing that stained shirt the rest of the day. It was kind of weird, because there were several non-Cameroonians, so I just felt out of place, and never knew whether the speak French or English. I just ended up playing this scripture golf game with Elder Kesler.

Last Friday Elder Acorda and I went on splits. It ended up being a bigger headache than I was expecting. The member I was to work with showed up about 30 minutes late at the church, and he came with no tie, and I barely convinced him to tuck in his darn shirt. I think it stayed tucked until for 1 lesson, then he took it out. And then at our second lesson, we taught a referral given by another member, so the member friend was there. And after that appointment, the person I was supposed to work with all day said he had to be somewhere at 3, and needed to leave. Good thing the other member said he could work with me the rest of the day, or I would have been in trouble. After that, it was a pretty smooth day, but I was getting kind of frustrated at first. We did it because we have found lots of inactives lately, and I thought that would be the most effective way to handle it, but that wasn't completely true.

But, Elder Acorda and I have received one new, really good investigator. His name is Blaise. He works at the new supermarché called « DOVV » that is near our apartement, so all the missionaries go there often. But we met him the first time we went to Dovv, he works at the veggie section, and was really interested in who we were. We have only met with him twice so far, but he is progressing really well. And all the missionaries know him, so they can remind him frequently to read his Book of Mormon and come to church. He has committed to come to church this Sunday, and if he is as sincere as he really is, he should know sooner rather than later the truth of the Restoration. And he's an anglophone !

Last Saturday we were supposed to go au champ-ing again, but we didn't realize the rain would stop all work. It was kind of raining when we left, and Maman Natalie doesn't have a phone, so we decided to go anyway. When we got there, she was very surprised we had come in the rain, and was even more upset that we were wet. She thought we were going to get malaria. I think people here have less tolerance for rain, because if it rains long enough or hard enough, life stops. So, we ended up just singing a few hymns with Maman Natalie and her family, then went back home. All well.

Something weird, and kind of random, but an investigator called us on Sunday, and told me that her family thinks that I’m her husband. Awkward.

I don't know if you’ll believe this, but I weigh 80 kg right now. The cell phone told me that is about 176 lbs. I remember in Pointe-Noire, the least I ever weighed was 155, after I had thrown up a few times one week. But now, Cameroon is making me fatter. At this rate, I’ll weigh more at the end of my mission than at the beginning. (We think his calculations are incorrect.) Embarassing.

Also, President Headlee is coming a week from today, and a week from tomorrow we will have a mission conference ! Maybe I’ll get an interview with President for the first time since I was with Elder Parsons in Congo !

Also, I received a package from you this week. I haven't opened it yet, because I don't know if its for Christmas or not. (It is! We are so happy he got it in time!) It said there is a t-shirt and letters in it. So let me know when I’m supposed to open it. Also, there are 3 other packages that arrived in Douala, and due to what the post office does around this time or year, they charged 11,000 CFA extra to get them out, so I’ll pay that with the American money I have. I assume those are Christmas packages, too ?

And so to finish, this transfer my appreciation for the Book of Mormon has grown and grown. I realize why PMG says to use it as our main source for teaching the restored Gospel.And right now as I go through it, I’m underlining all the commandments in blue and all the blessings in red, and I’m understanding it better than ever. I know that it is the most correct book of any book on the earth. And I’m sad when investigators are incrédule about the Book of Mormon, because they have no idea what huge blessing they are missing.

Je vous aime,

- Elder Eric

      The new apartment is fine, except the water issue. I think it may be resolved now, but seriously the plumber guys were there every morning, and then every evening a pipe would bust in a different spot. Its not that far from the old one, and we hired someone with a big truck to move us. With just the Thompson's truck, that would've been a pain. And yes, my shower time has greatly decreased, but when I do have warm water I am more likely to take my time.

      (How many missionaries are in your apartment?) And actually right now there a 6 missionaries, but after this transfer we think there will only be 4 due to missionaries going home. The missionaries right now are me, Elders Acorda, Kesler, Lamb, Wilkins, and Hancock.

      Of course I remember Scott in that primary program. (Eric played the piano for their ward primary program. I reminded him of a funny story about his brother, Scott.)

J     Je t'aime,
-     Eric

      Holy cow... (sports reaction) (BYU v Utah game)

So as for college, I've realized one thing I really miss is science. So I'm almost completely sure that I want to do something science related. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of my counselor at SUU. Did you ever try to get on the my SUU account? But yeah, I love science.

     Je t'aime,
-    Eric

Eric's email of November 25th, 2010-Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T03:58:00.001+01:00

BON…. THANKSGIVING ! I don’t know what to say in french.

So this past week was an eventful one. Oh, and before I forget, we got an email from the senior couple in Douala today. And they said, since it is the holidays, the postal service people in Douala charge a whole lot of money for customs, and they even said they put armed gaurds there and such, so they said right now they charge too much for packages. They said it would be a good idea if no one sent anymore packages until after the holidays. So I forgot if you said you already sent a Christmas package or something, so don’t send it if you already haven’t. And when any package gets sent make sure not to put it in a box, but those big envelope things, just a reminder.

But in lieu (honor) of the holiday, we played football this morning! I am happy Thanksgiving is on pday. We played American football this morning. Personally I didn’t do too much on offense, but I did have 2 interceptions, ran 1 back for a touchdown. And my team, the Bastos district, won in the college football style overtime. One of my interceptions was while I was guarding Elder Lamb, who was a running back at BYU. It was mostly the quarterback’s fault, but still.

I forgot to tell you last week, but we moved apartements. I didn’t really want to, because we lost our whole Friday moving stuff, and we still have to go back on Monday to finish it. I think we moved because the apartement had become more expensive and our water kept going out and such. But then, our new apartement barely had any water until yesterday we they came and fixed a bunch of things. I took a warm shower for the first time in 2 months maybe. Our new apartement is nice, but a little bit smaller. It feels like a hotel, though. And for some reason the washing machine is leaking all over. And there is a school right next door, and also a café resto (restaurant) that plays annoying music during the day, but thankfully we usually aren’t there. But its nice, I’m just glad we got all the moving junk out of the way. (For pictures of the move, see Elder and Sister Thompson's blog listed on the left sidebar.)

On Sunday I played piano during the sacrament meetings for Bastos 1 and Bastos 2. During Bastos 1 I played for the primary program, which actually went very well. During the sacrament meeting it went better than any of the times we practiced it. And then during Bastos 2 we came back so that I could play the piano for Elder Thomspon and a young man while they sang “Beautiful Zion”, pg. 44 in English. I’ve gotten pretty good at sight reading hymns.

Elder Acorda and I did have a nice lesson with a recent convert named Brigitte. We had been struggling what to teach her this week, because she knows everything already. But Elder Acorda decided to share something in D&C 137 or somewhere around there, and then Soeur Brigitte told us she found an answer to a question she had had for a long time. It was about what happens to small children who die before being baptized and such? Where would they go? And she told us how happy she was to get that answer. Blessings of the Restoration!

On Sunday we were invited by a new investigator named Samuel to go to this prayer-group-church-thing that he attends on Sunday evenings. So we went, and it was people of different churches and such, but they all spoke the same language. We got there late, but they still let us say a few words. But the most interesting thing, was the one person shared a dream he had had. In this dream, he saw a white hand, then a less white hand, then a black hand all reach and out touch each other. But he said that that evening was the accomplishment of the that dream, when Elder Acorda (the less white hand) and me (the white hand) came to their meeting. So it was cool to go to their meeting, and we did get 2 coordonnées, which was our goal. 1 of the guys we took contact with was the one who had the dream. On Tuesday we even saw him again and taught him the Restoration. We won't be able to go back this Sunday, (to the prayer meeting) but if we do, we plan on presenting the Book of Mormon. I’m interested to see how they would react.

So we found about 5 more inactive members to see this week. Seriously, if a good chunk of the inactives that are in Yaoundé got reactivated, Bastos 1 could have a fully functioning branch and then create a whole new branch. Its kind of sad how many people have gone inactive, and also frustrating. Our teaching pool has gotten so filled up, that I think for at least once a week from now on we will have to go on splits. Tomorrow we will be doing so to increase the number of people we can see. One person will be Frère Patrick, who I worked with last week. I don’t want to say that we shouldn’t contact any new people, but we have to just be very selective on how many new people we begin to teach regularly.

One of the inactive members is an Anglophone named Gillorine. I have never met any one else in the world like Gillorine. The first question he asked me, is what is the Urim and Thummin, and then what is a breastplate? He got baptized and taught by Elder Ternieden and Elder Parsons when they were together here in Yaoundé. But according to Gillorine, he got discouraged and such and stopped paying tithing. But he came to church last week, also with a friend, and we went and saw him on Tuesday. Lets just say that he is very challenging to work with. He sometimes has really good questions, then has really off topic questions, mostly about where to get “the breastplate”. I think that the best thing he will be able to do to get answers to his questions is to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. Tuesday night, I literally thought my head was about to explode.

Yesterday we also had our zone conference. We played scripture golf, where each person takes a turn reading a chapter heading, and everyone else has to guess which chapter they read from. I don’t know why its called golf, because the highest score wins. 10 points if you get the book and chapter, 5 points if you got the book and are within 5 chapters, and 1 point if you just get the book. And it was only from the Book of Mormon. We went around twice, and I got 2nd both times, 65 points then 67. But anyways, we actually learned about the Book of Mormon. I have learned about that a lot recently, because Elder Kesler gave a lesson on it a few weeks back, Elder Acorda and I have been reading about it in PMG (Preach My Gospel) Ch. 5 in comp study, and then that was our subject for Zone Conference. Basically, the Book of Mormon is the key to everything. Part of me wants to just carry around a Book of Mormon all day and nothing else.

I hope your Thanksgiving goes wonderfully, and if no one besides Dad eats the yams, you can send me some! And know that I am thankful for this Church, this mission, and of course for all of you!

Je vous aime,

- Eric

(To Mom)

Hey Mom,

So for dinner tonight we are actually going to eat at our new apartement. So thankfully we got the water issue fixed. I really don't know what we are going to eat, but I do know that Sister Thompson is going to do chicken and some kind of pie. Elder Acorda knows lots of food kitchen stuff, so I'll probably just go and help him with whatever he decided. But they told me candy yams would be too hard...

So when you go au champ-ing, you use your hands or a machete type thing. That's about it. Or a shovel thing. And I think we were planting manioc, or cassava.

And just so you know, I have been wearing my hat a lot more, and we will be going au champ-ing with Maman Natalie again Saturday, so I'll be sure to bring it.

(Can we send some money to help with the customs?) And don't worry about the package thing, but it might just get left in the post office for a while.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

(To Dad)

Yeah, I told Mom the Thanksgiving plans. Which was, I don't really know, except there will be chicken and pie by Sister Thompson. Next year I want to eat a whole pan of candied yams by myself.

I'll ask the Thomspsons if they have a blog at dinner tonight.

I also remember that I suggested cranberry, but no one said they knew where to get it. So I don't know how this dinner will be.

Just so you know, I might have cried if the Utes lost again, so thank goodness.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

(This one was to Scott who felt compelled to tell him that Katelyn, who Eric traveled to Provo to date while attending SUU, had turned in her mission papers.)

Hey nut, I knew Katelyn was going to turn in her mission papers ever since we dated in college. So sorry, but no shock to me there. The mission is seriously the best thing ever, and I hope to death that you are preparing to go on one yourself!

Je t'aime,
- Eric