Eric's email of July 22nd, 2010

Two emails put together-the first to Mom and siblings and the second to Mark.

Hey Kid! (His sister always starts her letter with "Hey Kid")

Well I got your guys' package this week! The one you sent to Douala. President Headlee brought it back down on his flight. So yeah, that was pretty sweet. I am going slowly through the candy, though, today is p=day though so I might have a feast, and if lots of other missionaries get into it, something bad could happen. And I also got the New Era Mom sent, thanks for that one also. Mom, you said you might try to send something to the Pointe-Noire PO Box, but you sent that here, didn't you? I think stuff like that in those envelopes should be fine. But yeah, merci beaucoup. I haven't read the soccer article. I started reading the other Ensign before the New Era, so I haven't read the soccer one yet, but I'll get there.

So food prep is going ok, I think I'm gonna start making peanut sauce more often, one because its delish, and two so I'll be able to prepare it bien myself soon. But it is possible to make fajitas, and there are actually 2 grocery store places here, and last week we baught Lebanese bread, which works. The 2 grocery stores are called "Park 'n' Shop" and "Casino's". They are pretty expensive, so we don't buy very much there. And as for milk, you can find some kind of real from-a-cow milk, but its weird and expensive. So one of the first things I eat when I get home is a fat bowl of sugary cereal with real, super cold milk.

Oh, and also thanks for the birthday card and the ties, I'm wearing the light blue one right now. And again I apologize, I didn't bring my camera today, because I went straight from the sector to the cyber café, so sorry. But Grandma did tell me about a hilarious picture of Dad trying to stack golf balls. (Family game night.) That would be nice to see. Oh, and also tell all the young men thanks for the stuff, I read all their letters, and I was going to write down the names of who wrote me so I could tell you to specifically thank them, but I forgot to do that. So I'll write it in my agenda to do it next week.

Je vous aime,
- Eric


Les Réponses Rapides:

So, for Pioneer Day, I don't really know what's happenning. I don't know if anyone even knows that its going to be Pioneer Day. Here, unlike Bonabéri, we the missionaries are out of the loop as for planning church lessons or activities, besides baptisms or "une activité missionaire", so I don't know if either of the branches is planning on doing anything pioneery.

So my shoes are fine, they don't look nearly as nice as they used to, but the brown shoes' sole started peeling, but back in Bonabéri I bought some super heavy duty super sticky super glue, squished it in between the shoe and the sole, and its held up so far. Speaking of those brown shoes, Elder Gates told me he has the same ones.

Socks are holding up pretty good-ish. I started with 2 pairs of each color, now it seems like I'm down to 1 and 1/2 of each color, but I got some for Christmas, and I steal them from other missionaries sometimes.

Alright, I'll think about what could be could to send that would be small, I'll get back to you on that. Elder Lee suggested an i-Pod or Sports Illustrated. I don't know.

So Elder Bally is from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. That's the capital. He also has his village somewhere, but I forgot the name. But Elder Bally is the only member in his family. He found the church when he was 12, and got baptized when he was 13. He told me he had neighbors that were members of the church, and he started hanging out with them for family night. Then from that, went to church and said he just liked how that family and the church prays (here, or maybe just in french "to pray" or "prier" can mean more than just say a pray, but just like how you worship or whatever). He said at first his parents would not give him permission to get baptized, but eventually they did. And so to this day he is still the only member of his family, and his parents weren't the biggest fans of him going on a mission, but obviously they came around again.

So that's pretty much his conversion story. He really likes deep doctrine and stuff like that, he loves reading "Doctrine du Salut" by Joseph Fielding Smith. So he knows more stuff like that than me. On Sunday night we had a weekly planning that basically turned into companionship inventory. I told President Headlee in my email to him this week that this will most likely be the most learning-filled transfer of my mission so far. So yeah, progress to be made there. But I don't know if I said this last week, but I have learned how to contact a lot better from Elder Bally.

Anyways, the funniest thing that someone said to me this week... so this is going to be a pretty weird something that I'll tell you. So for about the past couple weeks, some chick kept calling mine and Elder Bally's phone, and she would always ask for Elder Palmer. She would call and make her number unknown, to trick us or something. I remember at first I thought she said her name was Grace. I didn't know who she was, she would always tell us we have a rendezvous. But we don't, so I just told her to come to church if she wants to talk with the missionaries. But it was the worst Monday and Tuesday morning. Now this lady said she is called Divine, kept calling for Elder Palmer and said we had a rendezvous. But Tuesday morning she was calling like crazy, and Elder Bally just turned the phone off. But I turned it on, and told Elder Lee to answer it for me, and tell her to stop calling. So Elder Lee answers, she says its Divine, but she thinks its Elder Palmer. Elder Lee asks why she is calling and stuff like that. Then I don't here what she said, but in English Elder Lee said, "oh! well that's a big problem." and then he started laughing. He said he is not Elder Palmer, but Elder Palmer is not allowed to have friends like that, and than she didn't really say anything and hung up. After the call, Elder Lee said she was saying some stuff in french, but didn't understand her and told her he didn't understand, and then in English she said "I love you!". So yeah, after that she didn't call since, I think. Weird. It was pretty funny, though.

So this morning at 5:30 AM, we did something I hadn't done in a while. We played basketball! And on an awesome court that looks like NBA Street. I'm gonna take a picture of it for you, but its next to a little bar and a graffiti-ed wall and burning pile of garbage. And its euro-style. Ah, it was awesome. I shot horribly, I blame it on the slightly bent forward rim, but I literally missed 25 layups probably. I don't have any motor skills anymore. But we played 4 on 4 and Elder Gates even played with us. I'll just get you a picture so you can see its awesomeness.

Elder Gates shooting over all the younger Elders while wearing the same 1998 U of U champion T-shirt as Eric. No wonder Eric likes him so much.


We also had a mini zone conference Monday evening. One interesting thing, is that President says they are going to open up Gabon and the Central African Republic soon, as in this year! And that President could send North American missionaries to both of those places! So that would be cool beans.

So what could you send that would be small and nice... gosh, I don't know. I can't think of anything I don't have that I want or would be able to use. Sour Patch Kids are small and nice.

Well have fun adjusting back into Virginia. I can't believe its the end of July almost! Time to get ready for school soon for Andrea and Jacob and Scott!

Je vous aime,
- Elder Palme

Eric's email of July 15th, 2010

Well first off, all the dumb computers in this cyber café are dumb, so my usb thing doesn't fit in any computer. So next week I will just bring my chord to connect to the computer, so sorry I can't send any photos again today. I did take a lot of good ones. With the Gates' and the branch president of la branche d'Aéroport, Pres Caillet, we went up north somewhere for the first part of p-day. I had already gone there once with the Baxter's, but I didn't have a camera then, and we planned on playing American football. But like I said, next week I'll have some good pictures.

Oh, and I already told you that Elder Buck went the SUU, and lived on my same hall. And today we found out that we have a 3rd Thunderbird here! Elder Gates went to school at SUU as well!

So now on to Dad's questions. I don't really know what holidays people celebrate here. I know where the was the huge "enterrement" after the train accident, a whole lot of shops and boutiques and such were closed. That's not really a holiday, but people didn't work. Ah, I can't remember, but I feel like there was one since I got here. I bet wikipedia could help you, I know they do have an Independence Day. The World Cup is kind of like a holiday, you can always here the buzzing of the crowd.

So now that the World Cup is over, not that much has changed actually. We don't have to worry about scheduling rendezvous during matches anymore, but besides that not much else. I think after the last Africa team, Ghana, went down, so did some of the peoples' interest. Like Elder Bally, he told me he supported nobody, because there were no African countries left.

Thanks for reminding me about Pioneer day. I don't know if people at church have planned on teaching about that yet, but that would be something great for them. It just shows how many sacrifices some people made to have the church become the blessing it is today. But I bet they would relate to those stories, and it would also give them a little push, too.

So yeah, I still run in the mornings, but its harder to get some one to run with me. I started with Elder Ritchie and Elder Parsons, but Ritchie finished his mission and Parsons is in Bonabéri. Now I've gotten Elder Buck and Elder Lee. But I remember Elder Lee and I tried to do this in Bonabéri, and after 2 weeks we failed. I'm already used to this, but I don't know how long Elder Lee will last. He is a bit sick, so he's not going tomorrow, and Elder Buck needs to buy longer socks, because the back of his heel was bleeding at the end of Wednesday's run. But yeah, I still run. And I'll be ready for that 10k. When is the Ukrops 10k?

So the reason I took out some money, was for things to buy, that I don't buy with the missionary money, because they were basically souvenir type things, that will remain undisclosed at this time so you will be surprised later. But yeah, I got the 20,000 FCFA, and I don't think I got a service fee or anything.

So actually yeah, about Elder Leake's mission call. (A newly called missionary from our ward going to Mozambique.) I've pretty much told everyone in my apartement that I'll have another kid from my ward on the same continent as me. And I also know he'll love it. But I don't know much about it, I just asked Elder Chirwa, who is from Zambia, and he said right now "it's cold" there. I don't know how cold you Americans would think that is, but for me, one thing I wished I brought was a jacket, and I want to find a blanket or something for my bed, cuz I'm getting darn cold at night sometimes. But I should be able to find a jacket for cheap. But anyways, I was surprised but happy that Spencer got called to Africa too.

So yeah, Mom asked more about what I have been making. This week I got in a food group thing with Elder Lee and his comp, Elder Lamm, and Elder Tingey. I'll tell you what the food menu is for this week. Thursday: la sauce d'arachid (peanut sauce, and Elder Mbuyi is teaching us how to make it well tonight), Friday: mangezvous with "la maman des missionaries", a member at church, Saturday: burgers and fries, Sunday: Pizza (Elder Lee's specialty), Monday: Pres Headlee is taking us out because we will have a mini-zone conference, Tuesday: Spaghetti, Wednesday: Taco Goodness. So there's the diner menu. For breakfast, we plan on making pancakes, french toast (the Gates' found a really good bread place), or sandwiches from the guy by the round point by the apartement, or corn flakes with powder milk. So we are pretty much set. But thanks for the suggestions Mom, I plan on putting that fruit syrup suggestion into practice.

Elder Lee just said Dora the Explorer "is so fine". Don't worry, it was a joke. Dora the explorer was on the TV here, and Elder Lee has done 21 months on his mission, so he is starting to loose his marbles. Its good to be in the same apartement with him again, because we have fun, but are also missionaries when we need to. We always tell each other what NBA or NFL jerseys we saw during the day.

Anyways, life with Elder Bally is getting better. There are 2 Christlike attributes that I am working on, and will have to improve or I will go crazy. They are humility and patience. Humility, because Elder Bally has told me more than once basically that I'm not good at contacting, and that I don't retain scriptures well. He told me if I eat more chocolate, I will remember scripture references better. And patience, because he likes to teach his way, which is taking forever on one principal. Yesterday, we taught the ministry of Christ 4 times, and I was not enjoying it very much. Elder Bally knows a lot, and he knows a lot of Bible verses. It is taking us too long to get to the good stuff, like the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. And, he doesn't like companionship study very much, but this past week I got him to read with me in Prechez Mon Evangile (Preach my Gospel) after we planned the day. We started in chapter one, and hopefully I can help him and he can help me. He already knows pretty much every thing and every verse necessary, but I hope to help him learn to teach the ministry of Christ in 5 minutes. Normally, we spend 25 - 30 minutes on that. If I start, I teach it simply, talk about apostles and Christ giving power to them, and I like Ephesians 2:19-20, and then briefly the Atonement. But when I finish, he likes to talk about Luke 10:1 which talks of the 70 disciples and explain everything he knows. And I don't say this to sound like I know how to teach perfectly and stuff like that, but we need to get to the Restoration sooner, and not waste time on the seventy, or show every verse that God is not a spirit. So that's my big goal for Elder Bally and I. I know yours prayers would help.

But we do have a couple people progressing well. One is Frère Marley, he was a cordonnée from Salvy (a recent convert). He is progressing well, is programmed for the 7e of August to get baptized. And everything is good, we've almost taught everything, but there is one thing that I have also seen happen with several other people on my mission. Frère Marley lives with his brother, his older brother, I believe. And, his old brother has an unnecessary poster on his wall, no details needed, just know that it is something that does not invite the spirit. And so the day we fixed his baptism date, he asked what he needed to do to completely prepare himself. So we talked about faith, repentance, scripture study, church attendance, all that. And specifically, I told him he needs to take that poster off the wall. Then he informed me that it is his brother's. So I said ok, well why don't you ask your brother to take it down. He said, that would be very difficult. So I said, explain to him why he doesn't want that poster and even share your testimony a little bit. Then, Frère Marley, whom I love, went into "well, in Africa" mode. "Well, in Africa" is when people tell me that they don't know how things are done in America in my culture, but here that is not acceptable. He said, that that kind of stuff gives his brother and other people who choose that kind of stuff, and feeling of "orgeuil", which is like bad pride. And if he was to approach his brother about that, it would cause problems. After the lesson, I wrote in my agenda that "I'm sick of people fearing African culture more than God". Not to diss African culture, because that probably happens in New Zealand or Russia or Argentina or California or anywhere, but I hate that excuse. That makes me just think or the scripture that say "God is no respecter of persons", something like that. The commandments don't change according to what continent you live on.

But yeah, besides a few new challenges I'm having life is actually good. I'm actually happy right now. I've almost finished reading the Liahona general conference issue in french. I can pretty much read and understand everything now, unless its simply just a word I don't know. But yeah, the mission is the best.

Je vous aime,
- Eric

p.s. Jacob, I'll take you up on that (new speed slides at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho) and we are going off the top platform together at Lava Hot Springs when I get back.

p.p.s. Enjoy the vacation and tell everyone I love them!

Eric email of July 7, 2010

Hey Kids!

So before I forget, because I forgot last week. 2 weeks ago, I took out 20,000 FCFA from the bank with my debit card. I had been looking around other places to find out how much they would give me for my just normal American money. I thought I had found this one place that would give me about 525 CFA per dollar if I brought in $100 or more. But it turns out they want it only in the form of $100 bills, so for my five $20 bills they were only going to give me 400 CFA per dollar. Later I found one other place for 450 CFA per dollar. But yeah, I know I took that money out without telling you, but Dad you could check to see how much money that was in dollars and stuff. Dumb banks.

Well I'm glad everyone is enjoying vacation time, especially the Big J Ranch thing, (Bar J Ranch in Jackson Hole, WY) I remember that. And the food there. (Big chuck wagon dinner) Right now its 3 in the afternoon and I haven't eaten since this morning my bowl of corn flakes with powder milk and water. So that makes my stomach hurt to think about.

But things here are good, life with my new companion is going well. But there are differences than with other companions I've had before. But amazingly, I have been able to understand pretty much everything Elder Bally says the first or second time. I would have to definitely say that Mom's and everyone's prayers have helped with that. But sometimes the Congolese people have trouble understanding him, and Elder Bally also knows it himself, so he usually slows down a bit if he has to.

But I expect that Elder Bally and I will be able to learn a lot from each other too.

So yeah, things are going well and will improve I believe, just got to make sure those amis keep their commitments above all. Oh, and so you call someone from the Ivory Coast, or la Cote d'Ivoir, an "Ivoirian". Elder Bally has already served in both Kinshasa and Brazzaville, and this is now his second transfer here in Pointe-Noire. So yeah, that's that right now.

Oh yeah, and some other big news that I'm sure you will love to hear: the new couple arrived yesterday! At 5 AM! It is Elder and Soeur Gates. They are from Orange County, California. I haven't talked too much with them yet, but last night we went out to dinner at this place called "La Citronelle" (I got a cheeseburger and fries for 4,500) and I learned they grew up in Salt Lake City, both of them, and Elder Gates is a general contractor. But they will do great, and Sister Gates especially is excited it be here. And I apologize, cuw I wont be able to send photos this week, and I don't even have one with the Gates' yet, but this stupid computer I'm on was build weird so I can't plug in my USB thing. But next week I'll have pics of Elder Bally and the Gates' and cool choses (things) like that.

And so for the rest of this transfer: tomorrow, Elder Parsons is going up to Cameroon, to work in Bonabéri, my old place. At first we thought everyone was staying in Pointe-Noire, but that turned out not to be the case. And coming down to replace Elder Parsons is Elder Lee, my old comp! Elder Lee goes home in 2 transfers, so it will just be like the past 2 transfers I had with Elder Ritchie, living with a missionary who goes home soon, ugh. And tomorrow we also will get 3 brand new missionaries that land at 5 AM. I hear most are from Utah and Idaho. So yeah, that's the transfer. Exciting.

So with the mission split, (The Democratic Republic of Congo mission is now two missions) I don't know a lot about Louboumbashi because I never went there are knew anyone that went there. So I don't know about those cities at all. But our mission is still Douala (5 companionships), Yaoundé (6 companionships), Pointe-Noire (6 companionships), and Brazzaville and Kinshasa and others that I don't know. But I have heard from Elder Bally that President started having people look in Brazza for an area and apartement where North American elders could serve, so we could hear about that and some future mutation. (Right now North American Elders only serve in the cities of Douala, Yaounde and Pointe-Noire. African missionaries serve in the other cities in the DRC.)

Ok, Dad, so that spinach-like, grass-like thing you are talking about, I'm pretty sure its what they call, "saka saka", here (correct spelling). And I just got confirmation from Elder Mbuyi that "manioc" is spelled like that. But I think Dad is talking about "saka saka", which is called other things in different parts of Congo. But yeah, that stuff is good on rice. Its basically grass, when you look at it. I have a picture I'll send next week with both "saka saka" and "manioc". And Dad, you should go to that African food store and ask for manioc, I think that is a pretty universal term in Congo, at least.

But yeah, speaking of food, I'm not a good chef. I tried to make peanut sauce this week, but it was tooooo watery. It tasted ok, but toooooooo watery. Elder Mbuyi is going to make it tomorrow for the new elders and the Gates, so I'll watch a master at work. I also need to add some more things to my repertoire. I don't know how long I can go on pancakes and spaghetti and cereal and not good peanut sauce.

Well that's my life right now pretty much. I do wish that I could be out with all the family in Utah and Idaho and Wyoming with everyone. Tell everyone I say "mboté" (bonjour in Lingala) to everyone and that I love them.

Je vous aime,
- Eric

Eric's email of July 1, 2010

Hey, whats up?

(Do you know anyting about transfers?) So yeah, I've got transfer news. I'm staying in Pointe-Noire, but I'm changing sectors. Actually, I'm just going back to part that used to be in my sector my first transfer here, but we split it and gave it to a new companionship. But now I'll just be going on the other side of the grand avenue, and I'll have a new companion. His name is Elder Bally, he's from the Ivory Coast. He's already been in Pointe-Noire for a transfer, so I kind of know him, he's cool. The only potential issue, is that his French is hard to understand sometimes. I've heard that Ivory Coast French is different anyways, but that Elder Bally's accent is pretty heavy. But I bet I'll get used to it. And those transfers are in effect tomorrow. (Is your new companion in a past picture?) Yeah, I think I remember the picture, it is indoors, right? If it is that one, he is the African elder to the left of me. (See June 22nd posting.)

Alright, I'm gonna make a phone call real quick and get the mailing address for here:

Elder Eric Palmer
Eglise de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours
P.O. Box 1052
Pointe-Noire, Republique du Congo

So there you go. And I would probably follow the same rules for packages you would send to Douala, nothing too big. And make sure the name of the Church is on anything.

(Do you get The New Era? There is an article in June's edition about a soccer team.) No, we do not get the New Era, I don't think that is in French. I think the Liahona is the only thing translated into all these languages. But now inside the Liahona they have sections like the Friend and the New Era. But we pretty much only get the General Conference Liahonas, and they come a couple months late. So you can send me that article if you want, Mom.

(Mark's email)

So Congo, and pretty much anyone in Africa, is supporting Ghana. They will give you trash talk like they play on the Ghana national team themselves. Not everyone, but some people. I was hoping the USA would beat Ghana, so that no one could make fun of us, but that didn't happen, unfortunately. But if people here can cheer for anyone from Africa like that, I guess the American continent still has (or did have at least) Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

What is the weather like these days? And is it much different than what is going on in Cameroon? Does being on the other side of the equator make much of a difference?)The weather is actually kind of nice here. In the mornings when we run, its actually cold. Cold that I even want to wear a jacket sometimes. I might buy a light jacket sometime soon, by the way. Right now its cooler than Douala, but Yaoundé can still get cooler. I think mainly the other side of the equator just switches rainy season and dry season. Here its dry season, up in Cameroon its rainy season. (Speaking of other side of the equator, what direction does the water swirl when it goes down the drain? Clockwise or counter clockwise?) And I checked that water swirling thing, and I thought it was going to spin the other way. If you tell me in the next email what direction it spins up there, I'll check. One time I checked that by flushing the toilet, but it just looked like it flushed straight down to me.

(What side of the road do people drive on? I assume right… and that it’s the same across Africa.) In Africa, almost everyone drives on the right side of the road, like here in Congo and in Cameroon. But South Africa drives on the left, because England settled them, I guess, and I think Madagascar drives on the left. Might be others, but the most part is the right side of the road.

What are the three most common brands/models of cars in the Congo? Any makes that we wouldn’t recognize here in the states? Ah, Dad, you are asking car questions, and I have little to no knowledge on that. I do know that the taxis are all Toyota Corolla. Not the exact same as the scooter at home, (the teenager mobile) but they all say Toyota Corolla on them. I asked Elder Ritchie who is sitting next to me, and he says Toyota is the most common. One time I saw a Ford I think. But I haven't seen any brands that I've never heard of. Maybe some of the models are different, but I think all the brands here se trouvent aux Etats-Unis.

So biggest news is about the baptism from Saturday. Elder Parsons and I had 4 amis de l'église get baptized: Frère Matsinga, Frère Fabrice, Souer Berline, and Frère Boris. We were expecting two other people, but they were out of town for the weekend, because of a funeral, so hopefully they'll be there for the next service. But these new converts are going to be really strong members, I think. First off, Frère Matsinga could seriously be like Elders Quorum President if they needed him. Frère Fabrice is also just someone we found on the road one day who asked us who we were, and was pretty much already prepared by the Lord to change his life and keep all the commandments. I believe I have already recounted his story of smoking 10 times a day to nothing in 2 weeks. Those 2, Frère Matsinga and Frère Fabrice just need to lead their families into the church now. Since they are the cheifs of the family, they can help us talk to the whole family and lead them to church and stuff. Souer Berline is a yong womens age girl, who doesn't have a whole lot of facts and info from the Bible, but I think she basically just felt the Spirit at church and received a confirmation to her prayers that the Church is true. And then she followed it. It also helped that she has cousins and a grandma who are members of the church. And then Frère Boris, he's one who took some time and some exhorting to get his life in order, but it finally happened. We actually lost contact with him a couple months ago, but about 4 weeks ago, I saw him while we were in a taxi, he saw us, and I yelled out to him to be at church. He's been back at church ever since, he actually made a bunch of changes by himself since we lost contact, and we progressed smoothly to his baptism thankfully. The best thing all they can do now is be examples for their families.

Also for the baptism, the pump wasn't working. We had to fill up the indoor font by buckets. When we finally got more missionaries and people there to help us it wasn't bad, but at first things looked not so good. It would've been cool to have a beach baptism, maybe one day. But we got the font filled up even though we started about an hour late, then we had English class immediately after. This week I taught in English class numbers and date and time.

Well, I'll be a little bit sad to leave this sector. But the blessing is that I will see all the people who progress and that I like the best at church each Sunday at least. We have another family who is progressing nicely, and on Tuesday the father, Falvin, asked us "Qu'est-ce qu'on doit faire pour se faire baptiser?" That's always a question I like to be asked.

I also learned a couple good life skills this week. I learned how to make pancakes, and I learned how to make peanut sauce. For the pancakes I also learned how to make syrup, but its too runny (I don't know if Mom would have any idea how to made syrup more thick maybe?) And peanut sauce is a very African something. You buy this stuff that is basically peanut butter without sugar, and just make it like tomato sauce. Its really good just on rice. Oh, and Dad if you still know that African food store, you can go there and ask if they have stuff for peanut sauce. And one other thing that would be interesting if they had, is called "manioc". Not sure on spelling. But I don't know of a real African meal without manioc.

Well I hope you lucky dogs enjoy this family vacation dealio. I wish I could be there, and eat Oreos off my forehead. (Minute to Win It game with cousins) But thanks for all you do for me, and pray that I will receive the gift of interpretation of tongues.

Je vous aime,
- Eric

Eric's email of June 24th, 2010

So the package got there fine actually and they didn't have to pay that much. (Package from YM sent to Cameroon) I emailed Elder Lee in Douala and he says it was fine. Hopefully they just won't eat all my candy. But I don't know my mailing address right now, I'll write down to look it up an I'll tell you that next week. And just make sure that on all stuff anyone sends, they must write "Eglise de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours" after they put my name.

So the Congo and everyone in Africa I think likes the World Cup a lot, and people here pretty much just like any team from Africa, even though there aren't many doing very well. I think Ghana looks like the only African country to move on. But funny thing about la Coupe du Monde, last weekend we had a zone conference, and we were informed of something interesting: Pres Headlee said that we are allowed to watch some matches of the World Cup. I'm not lying, and I was surprised when he said that, too. So yeah, we actually watched Cameroon play Denmark last Saturday when Pres took us to dinner, and yesterday we watched that USA versus Algeria game. (Which the USA won!!!) Go USA! He told us to watch it with our amis de l'eglise or members. I guess Pres Headlee trusts us at least a little bit.

(Do you know exactly when the new senior couple will arrive?) From what I've heard, the senior couple will get here in the first half of July sometime, and the new batch of 10 North American missionaries will come around July 7th. Also they found a new missionary apartement here, and President is going to add one more equipe missionaire to make 6 total, and 2 of them will move into that new apartement next transfer. And this transfer only has one week left actually. That went by fast.

Alright, this computer is a little bit messed up, sometimes it freezes for a sec, and it flips around what I typed. Like if I try to type "eric", it will put "cire". So sorry for any typos.

So first, yes we are teaching still that lady who asked all those questions about Oliver Cowdery and stuff. And she is progressing great. Now we are teaching the whole family, the only person we are waiting for to come to church is the dad. He was gonna come last week, but then he got called somewhere for work. But that is often our best families we are teaching.

(So about how much did the new cell phone cost?) So the old fake phone I think cost 16000 FCFA, and the new real one we have cost 25000 FCFA. Parsons and I each ended up paying 2500 FCFA because the zone leader was only allowed to spend 20000, but that's ok, its better than any cell phone I had before. But here everyone uses "credit" to pay their phone calls and such. And that is just how much FCFA your phone has. You can choose to pay by the minute, and then its 99 francs a minute. Or you can pay by the second, I dont know how much that is. And our phone is MTN, thats our company, and we have "MTNZone", and depending on the time or something, its cheaper. If your phone says "MTNZONE 40%" like it does right now, its 40% cheaper, I don't know why.

Actually ,the most part of people in Congo and Cameroon have a cell phone. That's only the people in the cities, I don't know how many villagers have a phone, but almost every adult has a phone, and a good number of teenagers do too.

alright, this keyboard is driving me crazy, sorry for the errors. (I have been doing a lot of editing on this one.)

In French, a person from Congo is "Congolais(e)", and a person from Cameroon is "Camerounais(e)". Its like that with a big chunk of African countries.

(On any given Sunday, how many people are typically at Sacrament Meeting and what percent are members and what percent are amis de l’eglise?) On Sunday the chapel is pretty much filled, sometimes there are even 3 people squished on 2 seats. I would say 120 to 140, I don' know how accurate that is. I would say 15% percent, maybe more even are amis.*

One interesting thing I learned from the (zone) conference is the first ever missionary from Central African Republic is on his mission in Kinshasa, I believe. In his country, there should be full time missionaries there sometime soon. Also in July the Lubumbashi mission will exist. And this transfer there will be 27 new missionaries. And I did learn some stuff about transfers, that Elder Ritchie (zone leader) told me president told him during his last interview. But, I'll just tell you that stuff next week, when it is officially announced.

The baptism preparation is going well, we are looking at having 6 people. And as always, Frère Matinga is the man. He had his interview with Pres Headlee on Sunday, which he said was amazing. I've decided that after he is baptized, we will just have rendezvous where he teaches us. Also Frère Fabrice looks to be a go. There was some concern, because he had a World of Wisdom issue, smoking up to 10 times a day, but now he has replaced cigarettes with little green candies when he gets an urge to smoke. The first 5 days he smoked twice he said, and since then he ain't smoked nothin'. And all his interviews went well. Elder Parsons and I felt good about it, so why with hold blessings. And being baptized and confirmed will only help him to continue to have the strength to resist these temptations. And these two, Frère Matinga and Frère Fabrice, have also become friends at church. 2 spiritual giants.

Donc, je crois que c'est tout. Aussi, comme étude de langue, j'ai commencé au debut de "Ultimate French Review", et au fur et à mésure je ferrai chaque lécon. Bien que je doive ameliorer toujours, maintenant je peut me debrouiller en français, mais je veut bien parler français. Je n'aime pas le subjunctif.

Je vous aime,

- Eric

Pictures from Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo

Eric-first on the left, and his companion
Elder Parsons-third from the right, at a Baptism.

Eric on his 20th Birthday!

Church building in Pointe Noire, Congo

Eric's email of June 17th, 2010

Hello tout le monde.

So I'm going to go through and answer questions and what not, and also I'm going to attach some pictures, hopefully I can get a pretty good number. And this computer is confusing me, so we'll see what happens.

So yes, the World Cup is all over the place, one picture I have will show that. Also the internet café I am in right now is showing Nigeria versus Greece. And yeah, I remember the Priors, (family in the ward from South Africa) good for them. Hopefully one day they'll have the World Cup in the US so I can go to it. But that noise of the matches can give you a headache. There is a match on, pretty much everywhere here, unless you are in a peaceful, residential area.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to open the e-card, (for his birthday) but I'm gonna try again this week, because these computers are different-ish this week. They are in "ubuntu" mode or something, I learned about this at that computer class I took at SUU, but its kind of weird.

The English class is going well. Last Saturday we taught them how to pray in English, and since I'm the beginners class we just kept it as simple as possible. But there was a couple times where I forgot how to say something correctly in English. And you already know from my email last week that I don't speak very good English sometimes. When I talk with Elder Parsons or another English speaking missionary, I'm fine. But if we randomly find someone else who tries to speak English with us, I usually just get confused. But, yesterday I did teach someone from Nigeria, therefore the lesson was in English. And we were on splits, I was with Elder Mbuyi, who is from Kinshasa, but he speaks ok English. But at one point I couldn't remember how to say "alors" or "donc" in English, and Elder Mbuyi had to remind me (its "so", embarrassing).

I wrote Mr. Gates a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything back yet.

Yes, I can still write to Spencer and Sang, (friends on missions) but I have learned that Spencer aint gonna write to me no more. So now its kind of pointless for me to write to him, because he can't really respond to my questions or anything anyways, but I'll probably just copy and paste stuff I send to you at home. But whatever, c'est pas grave.

But that's great about Chris, (a young man from our ward who entered the MTC last week) I guess that means I've been on my mission for a little bit now.

So from what I hear, Bonabéri is going pretty good, but there wasn't anyone baptized this past month. I have heard that one person, Emmanuel, is doing awesome, and that his son Nelson is getting ready to get baptized in July. I do email Elder Lee (former companion) usually each week, he is still in Douala, so I know a little bit.

(Is it hard to get up in the morning or have you adjusted to the mission schedule?) So now I set my alarm for 5:15, because on the mornings when Elder Parsons and Elder Ritchie and I run, we have to start at 5:30, and it gets easier and easier, but there are still some mornings when its pretty darn hard to get up at that time. But once I get up and do something, I'm fine. I am looking forward to the day, though, when I sleep in til 7 or 7:30.

Alright, now I've figured this out a bit, I'll be sending those pictures in another email. Also, I heard that your package came today in Douala. They even called me to tell me not to have packages sent there anymore, because they had to pay 10000 CFA or something to get it. I just told them that's what the Willis' said to do. But they also said to make sure that the Church's name is on the package, because the p.o. box is for the Church, just as a reminder.

Well, thanks for the fat sports email Dad, haha. (Mark sent a detailed timeline of the Ute's invitation to the PAC 10 conference) Also Dad, Happy Fathers' Day! On Sunday! Thanks for the reminder on that Mom, and Elder Ritchie next to me reminded me again. Grandma also told me you have now been a bishop for over 5 years, dang! Do you think you will still be a bishop when I get home?

And thanks for the sports update and analysis of how it happened. I will try to keep my comment short, but I would say I am similarly pleased like Dad. Again, Grandma told me how excited Dad was on the phone about it.

Also, I don't see any "quick questions", (from Mark) so I'll just tell you what stuff is going on. Did splits twice this week. Tuesday I went with Elder Kesler, who is the district leader, and he is supposed to do splits with each missionary. It was a pretty good day. And then the next day I was with Elder Mbuyi, like I said, who is Kesler's companion. Its kind of weird to not be in your sector, because I'm pretty much clueless and don't know where I'm going, but its nice to do that every once in a while.

I taught the amis class for the Pointe-Noire branch on Sunday again. I taught on le jour du sabbat, (Sabbath Day) pretty basic. But now I actually kind of like to do that, because then I learn that principle really well and find cool scriptures on it and stuff. And I've learned its not really that hard to take 40 minutes to talk about one chapter of Principals of the Gospel. And one other plus, it counts as a lesson in the presence of a member!

Also, we have this ami de l'église named Fabrice. I think I've already talked about him, he is the man. So we had gotten through all the normal lessons, and we taught la Parole de Sagesse (Word of Wisdom) on time. His only problem is that he smokes, a lot. He said he picked it up from the military and never got over it, and that he even smokes up to 10 times a day, that's kind of a lot. We had fixed his baptismal date for the 26th of June, but now we'll have to put it in July. But we gave him the commitment to only smoke 5 times in a week, and he reported to us that he only smoked twice! He went from 10 a day to 2 in a week! Seriously, he is the man. He also bought a new Bible with an Apocrypha. He said he bought it because he wanted the stuff that is missing in other Bibles. So then we read D&C 91, to clarify that.

What else...one great success, with our friend Matinga, who is also the man, getting baptized one the 26th. His only problem, is that he likes to bear his testimony too often, and for too long of time. One time, we wanted to teach him la loi de chasteté (Chastity) and la parole de Sagess. (Word of Wisdom) Literally, all Elder Parsons said was the name of the commandment, la loi de chasteté, and then Frére Matinga went off for 40 minutes on some long story, which was good, but we really didn't have time for. So the next rendezvous, in order to get ready for his baptism, we had to teach him la parole de sagess, le jour du sabbat, and la dime, (tithing) in under an hour. It was hard, I seriously had to ask him to not bear his testimony, but we got all through it. That might not sound like much of a challenge, but it is with Frére Matinga. But this guy is probably the most ready-to-get-baptized person I've met.

Well that is pretty much life right now. Also Elder Ritchie is going home in 2 weeks, that's kind of weird, because he is the first missionary I know who I will experience him going home. And we also have zone conference this Saturday with mission president, so those are always good. I bet everyone is getting ready for summer, luckies.If you want, you can root for Boston for me, (NBA) and the USA in the World Cup.

Je vous aime,
- Elder Palmer

Eric's email of June 10th, 2010

Sorry I didn't acknowledge you being the first to wish me happy birthday last week Dad. So just for the record, Dad won. (His birthday was the 8th. He is now 20.)

So my birthday was pretty normal, I didn't really do anything. I did drink a Sprite in the morning for breakfast, so that wasn't normal. I think next Thursday we are going to go to a pizza place where there should be World Cup on. But I haven't really done anything yet.

And YES, the Congolese are into the World Cup. Even though their country didn't make it, everyone is going to watch it. Just goes to show how nearly the rest of the world besides the United States loves soccer. Even by the grand marché they are putting up a huge, like almost 3 stories tall big screen where the public can just come watch. That place is going to be packed. And I bet there will be a handful of taxi drivers who get in accidents while they are watching the game as they drive by.

(We asked Eric if he felt he was getting enough support in way of packages from us.) And yes, I saw that question from last week, but I ran out of time and forgot to send it cuz I was rushed. But yes I am definitely getting the support I need from my family. Packages are great and all, but the emails each week are the best I think. So don't worry about that at all.

And just so you know, unfortunately I don't thing that Hallmark card Mom emailed me is going to work because these computers don't have the correct flash player or whatever. I'll see what I can do, but its not looking good.

(Do you cook more in Congo than in Cameroon?) Here I probably do a little bit more cooking, because there were more places in Cameroon that I liked to eat at. But here we cook for ourselves pretty much every night. We usually keep it as easy as possible, like spaghetti or beans and rice and stuff. I'm too lazy to do fancy stuff.

(Was it hard to replace the cell phone that was stolen?) So it's not difficult at all to find a replacement phone. The zone leader got us one at grand marché, but it was a super fake Chinese Nokia, and people told us they had difficulties hearing us. So we got the zone leader go back today and get a real phone.

The baptism on Saturday went well even though it was smaller. But for the one on the 26e we will have a good number getting baptized. Last Saturday, we had one person, Frère Simon get baptized who has been an ami de l'église since forever. And also one other person, Frère Salvie, was someone Elder Parsons and I taught a lot, but lives in the part of our sector that we gave to one of the new companionships. But it was good.

After the baptism we had English class. The missionaries did it before, but stopped it, and now restarted it. We get a lot of people actually, and I got put in charge of the debutants, the beginners, which is the biggest class. I think we had about 30 people. A little bit intimidating. But it wasn't that bad. Elder Ritchie taught the beginners last time and he helped, so now I think I understand how I got to teach it. ("I understand how I got to teach it"-great grammar for an English teacher!) We taught them the basic stuff, greetings and such, next week we will teach them how to pray in English.

Also recently Elder Parsons and I have been really blessed to find good amis, people who have been really prepared by the Lord. One lady read the Joseph Smith testimony brochure so well, she asked us some questions that I had never heard before. I think I was able to answer all of them besides "what town was Oliver Cowdery from?" We taught her early today, and she had read the whole Plan of Salvation brochure, where she basically just taught it back to us.

Also "our main man" Frabrice is still progressing well, he has almost reached Alma in his Book of Mormon reading. Another person who is the husband of an inactive-ish member super analyzed the Joseph Smith brochure. Thank goodness for the Guide des Ecritures (Scripture Guide) after the Book of Mormon, which helped us answer his question about the prophet Elie. (Elijah)

So missionary work is great and getting better, pretty much all the missionaries are healthy now I think. Tonight after internet we are going to the beach to play football and soccer.

One interesting thing I don't know if I've mentioned. So people here, especially who live in the quartiers, don't see that many white people, which is why people just yell "mindelé" when they see us. And its people of all ages, like little kids, their older siblings, their parents, and their grandparents. But we also get called other things besides "mindelé" or "les blancs". (white) Next most often is "les chinoix", (Chinese) even adults call us that sometimes. Also, if they feel like being immature they call us "hee-haw", and the tone they use is, um, not nice. If Sang, or Elder Lee was here, (a friend who is Korean and serving in Oakland, CA) I don't know how he would like that. But today we got called a new one, some one at Fond Tie-Tie called us "egyptiens". (Egyptians) Its kind of interesting to see how many races people have thought I am.

Lets see, what else... oh, if you want to know about a really interesting religious fact here, you can do some research about a guy named William M. Branham. I don't know if I spelled that right, but that guy is suuuuuuper popular. Its interesting.

Well its weird to think I've already missed a whole school year. I'm sure the kids, especially Scott, are excited for it to end. Say hi to Dave and Uncle Mat when they come out. Thanks for the support, love you guys!

Je vous aime,
- Elder Palmer

Eric's email of June 3, 2010

Salut, la famille.
So today I don't have as much time, cuz Elder Parsons and I got behind schedule, so I got to do this fast if I want to answer everyone. So onto questions:

Do you think you got sick from drinking water or eating some food or were you sick? So the first time I was sick last week I think was just because my stomach didn't like the food that was made because it was too American or something. If that makes sense. And the second time I think I was sick, because I shake too many little kids' hands. So I do not do that anymore. And I do think the weight loss had been gradual-ish. Its probably picked up since I started running constantly, but I probably did lose more than normal with the unfortunate mishaps last week. Just so you know, I've leveled out at 161 lbs. pretty much. But I'm still the fattest in my apartment.

So yes, the Baxters and the Willis are gone by now, plus one elder I knew. Its weird, because they are the first missionaries I've known that have gone home. But for the new couple that comes in July, they will move into the other apartment in our parcel, if that's English. Basically chez-nous is two apartments stuck together. And when the new couple gets here they will stay in an apartment with the zone leader and his comp, and the other apartment will have the other 4 companionships.

(How big is Pointe-Noire compared to Richmond?) So Pointe-Noire is a pretty good sized city. I've heard the Republic of Congo has about 2 million people total, and there are basically only two big cities, Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville. And not much else. I think Richmond is bigger in population than Pointe-Noire, but you can go on wikipedia to confirm. But I know there's nearly 4x as many people in Virginia than all of the Republic of Congo.

Jacob, stop annoying Andrea. (Andrea was complaining about her brother.)

Alright, I just talked in English with Elder Parsons, and some french guy next to me looked at us really weird.

Anyways, so you know, yes I got the camera. So thanks a whole lot! And its a nice camera. I'll send a couple pictures today, but everything on that is fine, so yeah. Make sure to thank Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Stacey and everyone again. (And cousin Dave for taking it to Provo!)

Eric and Elder Parsons in their kitchen. Looks really clean!
Glad to see his face after hearing he was sick.

Oh, and a random side note. Elder Buck, (the new Elder who took the new camera to Eric) he went to SUU last fall! And, he lived in Juniper C-200, the same hall as me! So that was awesome. Right now he is kind of sick, but I've given him so many hugs, for bringing my camera and going to SUU.

So here there aren't any real movie theatres, from what I've noticed. There are smaller ones in the neighborhoods where people just find the way to get a TV or projector or something, and then some kind a movies. They also show football games often. But they have lots of American movies, maybe the most popular thing from America here is 24, the TV show. Elder Tumba always calls me "President Palmer" now, and a branch missionary calls me "David Palmer". So, they like their 24.

If I need to get cash, first I will use my real cash, because they give you a better exchange rate with the physical bills. They like that for some reason.

(What are the transportation differences between Cameroon and Ponte-Noire?) So there are some transportation differences in Pointe-Noire. In Bonabéri, there were taxis and lots and lots of moto bikes. Here, there are taxis, but zero motos. Here there are lots and lots of buses (and lots and lots of bad, careless drivers). Also in Cameroon all the taxis were yellow. Here the taxis and buses are blue. And in Brazzaville they are all green. I don't know why they are different. Also here I think transportation is a bit cheaper. We just took a bus from one end of Pointe-Noire to the other, that took over 30 minutes, and we paid 300 CFA for 2 people, which is about 60 cents.

So, this past week was good. Didn't get sick. Lots of people starting to progress. The only bad thing, is that I got stolen from. Again. At the same place, Fond Tie-Tie. Its the second biggest market here, and this time it was getting late, already about 7. And we were crossing a round point, trying not to get hit by cars. And this guy going the other way bumped into me, I assumed he was just trying to dodge cars or whatever. But my hands were full with my backpack and the other with bread. I have been carry the cell phone in my chest pocket, because Elder Parsons had lost it a few weeks ago in a taxi because it fell out of his pants pocket. But I walk a few steps after that guy bumped me, and noticed the phone and my badge were gone. So yeah. I think I've learned my lesson now. Pretty much, you can't carry anything in your shirt or pants pocket at Fond-Tie-Tie, and not put yourself at risk. Sow now I keep everything, everything in my bag, and carry it in front of me.

But missionary work is going well. Most of all with one ami, Fabrice. He is a 50+ year old guy, who just came up to us one day, asked us who we are, and we gave him a family brochure. Then a few days later, we walked by his house and he called us over, we taught him, and now he's been at church the past 2 Sundays. He is a stud. Elder Parsons always calls him "our main man" Fabrice. And its true. We gave him a Book of Mormon about a week and a half ago, and he has read from the beginning to Mosiah. He also got one of the new, sleek Principes de l'Evangile (Gospel Principles) books, and has read from the beginning to chapter 11. He's the man. Last rendezvous he explained to us the story and principles in Jacob chapter 7. I don't think I could say much more.

Also this Saturday we will have one person baptized, who has been an ami for at least 8 months now. But he works for the military, so he was sent on missions, worked Sundays and such. But he got a 30 day break, and is finally getting baptized. Most of all for Elder Parsons, that will be a happy day.

There is also another really good ami named Matinga. He's like Fabrice, pretty much already prepared by the Lord. He is now getting ready for baptism on the 26e of June. But right now, he is the only one coming to church. His wife had been at the village since the first rendezvous, when we talked about the Restoration. We had set Matingas baptismal date, but she did not get why she would have to be baptized again. So Matinga, who loves to expound and use scriptures, talked a lot. But we finally got her to not worry, and told her to forget about baptism, or the apostasy, and stuff like that. So we gave her the engagement to actually read the testimony of Joseph Smith, and to pray. And that's it. She was very much lest argumentative after, so hopefully she will just actually pray.

So that's pretty much my life right now. I'm just grateful to be able to be able to meet these people, and watch some of them take the restored Gospel and run with it. Hope everyone at home is doing well, try to stick out the rest of school!

Je vous aime vachement,
- Eric

Eric's email of May 27th, 2010

Alright, so I'm gonna do my question answering for each email, then tell you about my, um, interesting week I had.

First off, yes time definitely does move faster when I'm busy, and it just seems like each transfer I have goes by faster. Like I still feel new to Pointe-Noire, but I've already been here a transfer. Just compared to when I think of my first transfer back in Bonabéri with Elder T, compared to the one I just finished with Elder Parsons, that does not feel like the same amount of time.

(His saxophone teacher, Mr. Gates sent us an email this week.) Yes, I saw the email from Mr. Gates, and I already sent him one. That's lucky that he sent you one, I'll bet he's surprised to hear what I'm doing.

So for that youth class I taught last Sunday, there is a teacher called and such. But I think just every 3rd Sunday or something, they ask a missionary to teach that class. I don't know why, and the manual they gave me is called "Se Preparer pour l'Exaltation", which means "To Prepare Oneself for Exaltation", something like that. And I don't know why I'm using that manual. I felt like I should have been using some primary book, something to get their darn attention. But I think its an all youth class, from 12 and up. But I do know that often the older kids go to a different class so they can actually learn, probably.

Yeah, I still have my little notebook where I write down my (French) words I don't know. And today I actually gave the district meeting lesson, which we do in French, and one other missionary said he could tell I was looking in the dictionary, so I guess its helping. (Do any of the elders in your apartment speak English?) So of the elders here, there are 3 missionaries not from an English speaking place, one speaks pretty good-ish English, and the other 2 not really. So we speak most often French in the apartement. As for Elder Buck, (The new elder who is bringing Eric's camera) he's not here yet. I have been told he will get here tomorrow.

(Are you writing in your journal regularly?) My journal writing is better. I don't write daily because sometimes at night I'm too tired or lazy, but I would say I write a little more often than every other night. But I make sure I don't skip more than 2 nights, because then I might miss too much. But that's still something I can get better on. Also, I try to use good handwriting, but sometimes that doesn't happen, especially if its just before I go to bed. And I've had 4 comps: Elder Wilkins (MTC), Elder Terneiden and Elder Lee (Bonabéri), and now Elder Parsons (Pointe-Noire).

(We sent you a package-but shipped it to Cameroon.) I'll keep an eye out for the package that's coming, but I won't be surprised if I won't get it for a while. I say that, because President says he won't be coming back here until July, and he went to Cameroon at the beginning of the week. So unless he goes to Cameroon again before he comes to Pointe-Noire, I'll have to wait at least 2 months. But as long as it gets here, without stuff getting stolen, that will be good. And yes, I'm taking vitamins, using sunscreen, I got enough contact solution, all that kind of stuff is fine I would say. (Typical mom questions.)


(I am teaching a lesson about becoming a teacher. What helped you prepare to be a teacher?) So, what helped me the most in preparing to teach on my mission... I would say is studying the scriptures, most of all the Book of Mormon. What happens when you do that often, daily preferably, is that you are often reminded of Christ and what he has done for us. And then you learn the teachings and doctrines of the Church, and how it is unique from every other church on the Earth.

(Tell us more about the security at your apartment.) So the security for the house isn't really security, we just have a guy we call a guardien, who waters plants and sweeps up and stuff outside. And he usually comes in the morning around 8:30 and finishes before noon. So its not really security, but maintenance. But the complex in surrounded by a wall, with barbed wired stuff on top. I'll just send some pictures of it when I get a camera, I think that would be the best way to explain it. But its just our building, which are two apartements together, its not a neighborhood liked that. We are in a neighborhood, or a quartier, if tha'ts the same thing, but every house has its own walls around it.

(Tell us about the chapel you meet in.) So the chapel here is really, nice, but soon they are going to run out of space. The chapel probably fits 130, maybe, but each branch is getting filled up nearly to the max each Sunday. Its probably the same size as your chapel, if you do not open up the gym area. But it actually was built so that they could build more as the Church got bigger here. There isn't a gym or basketball hoop yet, but I actually think they do plan on having a cultural hall, even with a basketball hoop, at some point.

Since I've gotten my cleats, I think I've only used them twice, both times in Bonabéri, playing football once and American football. But now there are more missionaries, and so we will be playing soccer more often here, maybe even later today.

So about my flight from Douala, there was something that was very unusual that happened: it was on time. Basically every time before, it late. But both the Willis' and the Baxters were surprised it was on time. I think the name of the airlines was Trans Air Congo, something like that.

Alright, I think that was all the questions. So the first thing, was something I thought about this week, when we got the new elders. Its just about the diversity of the missionaries here, but all with the same purpose to share the Gospel. We have 4 missionaries from USA (all different states), 1 from Canada, 2 from Congo Kinshasa, 1 from the Ivory Coast, and 1 from Zambia. Plus we are all serving here in Congo Brazza, that makes 6 different countries. So that just shows how the Church really is true and the same everywhere. Just something interesting I thought about this week.

This week I also taught another lesson at church. In the branches here they have a class during Sunday school especially for amis de l'église and recent converts, and its usually a missionary or branch missionary who teaches it. And so it was just my turn this past Sunday, I taught on the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was pretty easy, at least compared to the lesson from the previous Sunday.

But one unfortunate thing was this week I got sick. Twice actually, on Friday and yesterday. It was only really that bad yesterday. We ended up staying in all day. But lets just say I weigh less than I did at the beginning of the week This morning I weighed 159.6 lbs, which is basically minus 20 lbs since the end of my MTC stay.

So that's pretty much things here, we also had to move rooms to make everything work with the Baxters leaving and the new missionaries. President also said there will be a new couple coming in July, so we only have to survive one transfer without a senior couple. And at the next transfer, we will be getting 10 new north American missionaires, not 20. But that's still kind of a lot. But it'll be good, lots of new areas opening up or getting split. I hope you guys have a good week, thanks all for writing me and everything you do!

Je vous aime,
- Elder Palmer

Eric's email of May 20th, 2010

Today I was able to catch Eric online and we were able to send a couple emails back and forth. It makes me feel like I am talking to him! We also had a short phone call from the Baxter's about replacing his camera-and they handed the phone to Eric for a very quick "Hello"

Alright Dad, I'll do my best to get these 6 questions from above answered:

1) So to go look for a camera, I'll be able to schedule time next pday to go looking and figure out what stores there are.
2) Right now in American dollars I have $146 I believe. I actually tried to go change some today, but they were only going to give me 400 CFA to the dollar, but if I brought $100 or more I could get 525 CFA for the dollar. And I think if I need more you can just make sure there is money on my debit card, because last week my companion used that to get money at an ATM thing.
3) I'm pretty sure I can use my debit card, but I don't know about the American Express. I'll try to find out.
4) I think that if I need more money, the best way would be through my debit card.
5) If you send me money, just send it in US dollars.
6) Ok, I don't see there being a need to send actually money in a package, so don't worry about that.

Alright, I found more than 6 questions up there. Wait never mind, that last one is too general, so I'll answer that in the email to mom probably after I answer the other quick questions.

(Eric was supposed to get himself soccer cleats right after Christmas. We questioned him several times about it, but never got an affirmative answer, until today!) Yes, I have already bought soccer cleats, I bought those back in Douala.

(What do you know about the new missionaries coming to Pointe Noire?) For the new missionaries, I have been told by many people, including the mission president, that at the beginning of July there will be 20 North American missionaries entering this mission. So that does not include the African missionaries that could come. But, we actually just got transfer news because the end of this week is the end of the transfer. And so I will be staying will Elder Parsons, but there will be 5 missionaries getting transferred here, and we will go from 3 companionships to 5 companionships. One of the 5 coming will also be a brand new missionary from North America, and there is one other brand new one going to Cameroon. But I don't know the exact day of the new missionaries' arrival.

Alright, I think those are all Dad's stuff, now I'll go make sure I look at all of Mom's.


(Do you have bugs in Pointe Noire and what are they?) So yeah, there are lots of bugs in Pointe-Noire, and the most annoying one is the mosquitos. Here I have to sleep under at least one sheet, because if I don't I'll just get bit all night, especially on the ankles. Its weird. There's also lots of flies, and some weird looking wasp things. And in the apartement we find the occasional cockroach.

Alright, I think that's all the ones I found in Mom's email. (His cousin Jeff just reached Argentina to start his mission.) That's really cool about Jeff, I have his email so I'll try to send him one again.

So things here are going well, like I said we got transfer news. That kind of stuff always keeps me from getting bored, I don't know why. Just the anticipation of a transfer is fun. And this transfer also went by really fast, I still kind of feel really new to Pointe-Noire.

But one new goal thing I started this week to help my french, is now I carry a petit cahier(small notebook) around in my pocket, and write down the words I want to say but don't know in french. At the end of the day I look them all up and write them down. And then I can go back and look at the words and not forget them so easily. I just started this yesterday, but here are the words I've written down and looked up so far:

to insult = insulter
to lactate = not found in our dictionary
a goat = une chèvre
a germ = un germe
extra = supplémentaire, de plus
a shot, injection = une piqure
a grill = un gril
a garlic = un ail
an amount = une quantité
to exchange = échanger

So yeah, I need to look in another dictionary to find "to lactate" in french, but I think this will help.

Also, last Sunday I taught the youth Sunday school last week. Elder Parsons warned me how hard it would be, but I didn't really understand til I actually taught the class. Its mostly because there is a group of 5 or 6 girls who just like to talk amongst themselves the whole darn time. (Girls are girls no matter where in the world they live!) And I also used really bad french one time, because I wrote on the board "qui est-moi", trying to say "who am I". But they let me know, and helped me change it to "qui suis-je". Dumb. The lesson was on testimonies, and we were reading in Matthew 16 when Christ asks his apostles who he is. And later we read a little in Alma 32, but I gave up on the reading and just drew a seed growing to a tree with fruit on the board. And when we got to the point when the tree had grown and producing fruit, I asked one kid what his favorite fruit was, and someone responded by saying "poulet!". Then the whole class started laughing, because poulet is chicken. (Once again, kids are kids no matter where they live.)

My food preparing skills have also gotten better. I can make oatmeal, spaghetti, rice, something with chicken,(something?) and hamburgers. And I keep asking one of the branch missionaries to give me his mom's recipe for saka-saka, which is something literally everyone eats here a lot. (Saka-saka is made from Cassava leaves, veggies and fish.) But he keeps forgetting, but I plan on adding that to my repertoire too

So as far as the missionary work and proselyting and such, this was more of a quiet week. But Elder Parsons and I have a new idea so that we get more cordonnées (referrals) and higher quality amis. We are going to work a bit more with the recent converts and finish up all their after baptism lessons in a timely manner, and let them invite family or friends or whoever to the lessons. Just the success rate with cordonnées compared to contacts made by missionaries is a lot better. And its makes our work easier. So hopefully that will work how I've thought it out.

Um, yeah. I think that's about everything notable. I just wrote to look for cameras in my agenda, so I won't forget. I hope everyone is still doing well, enjoying the end of school. I know Scott is enjoying the lighter work load after all his exams. Congratulations Andrea on bus safety, and Jacob at Busch Gardens! Also, I speak horrible English now.

Je vous aime,
-Eric

My email to Eric:
So, about the mosquitos-use repellent and do you have a mosquito net to sleep under?

Dad pulled a tick from behind Andrea's ear this morning-she has been "exploring" in the back yard a lot lately.

To lactate is- allaiter. (to nurse) Can also be a noun. Produire du lait means to make milk. And why did you need that verb?

Mom

Hey Mom, thanks for the french help. I wanted to know that word, because Elder Parsons and I were waiting for an ami to show up, and there were goats in their yard thing. And one was feeding the other, and so that's why I thought of goat and lactate.

There are no nets to sleep under, but as long as I have a fan on, the sheet works just fine. Thanks.

Je t'aime,
- Eric

Eric's email of May 13, 2010

So from Jacob's email, I understood almost everything, except the last sentence didn't make sense to me. So besides a few grammar errors, that was actually an ok translation.

So responses to (not so) quick questions from Dad:

So the church organization in Pointe-Noire: Here there are only 2 branches. I don't think we are part of any stake or district or anything, just the Pointe-Noire branch and the Aéroport branch. There are 3 missionary companionships, and Elder Parsons and I are the one that work in some of both. But today during district meeting, we actually spent time looking at the map and dividing the city in 6 secteurs. So it looks like that will happen and the end of next transfer, 3 companionships in each branch. And President has also said he is going to put another branch here soon, and also find another building or two. So things will start to grow a lot faster, from all that. I would say there are between 100 to 120 people that show up to each branch Sunday.

(Mark asked if they speak French French or African French.) So Congolese French, just uses France French. Also the same with Cameroon. We just say numbers in the normal France french way. But something I've kinda heard more about, is that France is still kinda in control of the french speaking African countries down here. Apparently the English speaking and Portuguese speaking countries of Africa are able to develop better and stuff, because England and Portugal and all those countries are out, completely. But from what I've heard, from many sources, is that France still influences a lot of stuff in Congo, and take a lot of the profit of things from these countries. Which explains a bit why Congo and other french speaking African countries are behind the others. That's just what some Congolese people and other missionaries told me.

Anyways, so about the camera. We actually didn't have time to go anywhere today, because we had to spend time getting a new phone. It fell out of Elder Parsons' pocket when we were getting out of a taxi. That was Tuesday, so Wednesday we went to the MTN (the big phone company here) store to get a new phone and our old number. But the line was over a 3 hour wait yesterday. We went today again, and got lucky because its some holiday that I forgot the name of, so there weren't very many people there. But to answer the question, no I didn't look at cameras.


(What is the weather like?) Right now in Pointe-Noire it is dry season. Here it is opposite of Cameroon, I think because we are on the other side of the equator. But dry season here isn't as harsh as in Douala. Here there is often a nice breeze and its just not as hot, thankfully. But I left Douala at the end of its dry season, and got to Pointe-Noire for the beginning of its dry season. And I'm told that dry season is much better here than rainy season, because during rainy season it is also hot and muggy.

Unfortunately, I cannot get the pamplemousse soda here. That was a brand called "Top", who had topamplemousse, topgrenadine, topanana and stuff. But that's a Cameroon brand, done by "les Brasseries du Cameroon". But here they still have Coca Cola, Sprite, and Fanta, so its fine. They do have more Fanta flavors here though, like strawberry, citron, and grenadine. I really like the strawberry one. One time I did see a few Mountain Dews in a boutique somewhere. Oh, and I forgot to tell Dad this. A couple p-days ago, in a "Park 'n' Shop", one of the two real kinda grocery stores, I found Perrier. And I got one. Still don't like it. Guess I'm still not old enough to like soda water.

So there's the questions. Lets see, what has happened since I talked to you all on the phone... On Mardi (Tuesdays) we did set a baptismal date with the mom and dad of a family. They are called Ruston and Ordre. Ruston, the father, we just saw on the road at the Poudrierre one day with his friend. Elder Parsons and I had no rendezvous scheduled, so we were looking, and they let us share our message with them. Ruston's wife Ordre, and about 4 other people ended up joining us. And that was about 2 and a half weeks ago. Then 2 Sundays ago, they came to church, I didn't see them there, because I was busy doing something else, but Elder Parsons saw and talked to them, but didn't recognize them exactly. But he did set up a rendezvous, and later that evening had an epiphany and remembered. So we taught them all about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and last week, they came to church again. And the past Sunday their branch watched a session of conference, and they both liked it, especially Ordre. But last week Souer Ordre had asked us "qu'est-ce que nous devons faire pour etre sauvé?". (What must we do to be saved?) Good question. So we started teaching the Gospel, taught faith and repentance at the end of last week. Then on Tuesday we talked about baptism. They both had many questions already about it. Talked about the restoration of the Priesthood and such, we had left them 2 Nephi 31 to read. And so at the end of the lesson we set a date for the 5th of June, yay! So they are awesome. The only problem, is that they are not actually married, which is a common thing here. The process to get married traditionally is complicated and expensive, and its not good to the family to skip traditional marriage and get civilly married. But the church (thanks to modern revelation, I assume) has said people in this situation can get baptized if the traditional marriage process has been started. And to do that, they have to do "la premiere presentation". This includes some food and drinks, unfortunately a good amount of wine, and things that the husband must present to the family of the wife. But once this first presentation has been done, the Church has said they can become members. So we will have to make sure Ruston and Ordre get going on that.

One other cool story. There is this one ami de l'église named Dieudonné Matinga. He is a cordonnée from some member, and he also has been at church the past 2 weeks. He already has a really strong testimony, kind of amazingly. But also on Tuesday, we had a lesson with him, just our second time, but we brought a Book of Mormon for him. And after we had explained the Book of Mormon, he told us about this dream he had had. Its a reoccurring dream every so often since '87, he said. And in the dream, and voice or person or something tells him to "read in the Gospel of Jesus", chapter 10 verse 16. The first time he had this dream, he woke up, and didn't really know what to do. He thought to read somewhere in the New Testament, but didn't know where. But then he had a friend, who told him, "well, which apostle was the beloved apostle of Christ?" or something like that. But that would be, John. So John, 10:16. That is the verse about "I have sheep not of this fold, but that will hear my voice", something like that. And so when Dieudonné told us in John, me and Elder Parsons looked at each other, because we knew. So after he was done explaining, we told him the real meaning of that verse, and read in 3 Nephi 15:21-24, where Christ explains exactly what he meant in John 10:16. So that was pretty amazing. And Frere Matinga was pretty excited about the Book of Mormon.

Well, I hope this week goes well for everyone. Oh, and one thing I forgot: so the Willis' leave at the end of the month, and so do the Baxters. From what I know, there will be another couple in Douala, but not here in Pointe-Noire. So that'll be a little bit of a bummer. So yeah, just wanted to mention that before I forgot. Enjoy the week, and thanks again for the emails, I really appreciate them. And I expect one from Andrea next week, because even Scott wrote me today, ha.

Je vous aime,
- Eric

Eric's email of May 6th, 2010

Alright family, so the camera thing is not too bad. I did backup a good amount of my photos, but I did lose some more recent ones because I hadn't backed up that recently. But yes I do still have the Wolverine, (small backup device) that just stays at the apartment. But I did send home the most important ones my last p-day in Douala, so ça va. And so from your suggestions, the first one could work. (Should we mail one, should we send one with a new missionary, can you buy one from a missionary that is leaving or can you get one there?) There is a way to ship stuff here, through DHL. I'm sure Dad has heard of it. DHL. I am told that its completely reliable, stuff doesn't get stolen. And it takes just about a week, only 1 week. But, as you would expect, it would be expensive. So that's one option. Another is one day I could go to a store and see how much cameras here are. There are some real stores, I don't know how expensive one would be, but maybe one p-day I could go check it out, see how much it would cost, and tell you. So I think those would be the best 2.

And I don't think there are any missionaries heading here in May. I have been informed that there will be 20 North American missionaries coming at the beginning of July. And right now there are 6 missionaries in Pointe-Noire, and President said he wants to put 12 here at that time. The Baxters will also be home at that point, so they will just keep the whole apartment and fit 6 more in like that. The Baxters live just next door, in the same little complex. So that's what I heard the plan is. And we calculated it and that should mean the new missionaries just entered the MTC yesterday.

And to get a camera from a missionary going home, there is only one here, Elder Ritchie. He goes home in July when the new wave comes, and his camera can't hold a charge. So that's my thoughts, and the Wolverine will be fine for a while.

So we will be calling home this Sunday, that came fast... Anyways, I will call you Sunday, around 19h30 or 7:30 PM, which is 2:30 PM chez-vous, si je ne me trompe pas. So I think that should work, right? Hopefully Dad can get home in time for that. But we couldn't call much later. Its a good thing you have morning church though. So that's that, I'll be calling with the stuff I used back at Christmas. Sunday 7:30 here, 2:30 there.

So "Afasso" means "bonjour", basically, but its a little different. Its like "bonjour" and "ça va?" squished into 1 word. So you say "afasso", and you respond by saying "ka bien", which is like "ça va bien". And the name of the language is called Mounoukoutouba, I think I spelled that right. Here in Congo things are a bit less complicated than in Cameroon. First off in Cameroon, there are 2 national languages, French and English. And so that kind of separates some people, even more when you add 200+ patuas. (Local languages) Here in Congo there are 4 national languages, but its less confusing, and I'll explain why. First there is French, which nearly everyone speaks, usually at least one person in each household. Also, Mounoukoutouba is one, which is a patua here, but it is also spoken by everybody (except the missionaries...). And 2 other languages whose name I don't know.

So this week I had one experience that stuck out, probably one of the best of my mission. Or at least one I doubt I will forget. So this took place Wednesday just around noon. Elder Parsons and I were at La Base, which is the cartier (neighborhood) around the church. We had some rendezvous planned, but most of them fell through. So we contacted a little and taught a couple lessons there. And we planned (holy cow, they just showed NBA highlights on the TV here in the internet café...) Ok, anyways, so we were planning on just contacting there for a couple more hours, but we were walking and we saw this guy with a pousse-pousse with a bunch of wood planks in it, taller than me. A pousse-pousse is just a cart people use to haul stuff with. Like the verb "pousser", to push. And so this guy was stuck trying to get over a curb thing, being helped by one other guy, and girl about my age, and a lady with her baby on her back. And so Elder Parsons and I went to help, because there was no way for them. So we eventually get it over the curb, and we continued to help him up a hill. And we keep going. One of the guys and the lady with a baby drop off. We continue. Then we take a little break, the guy who this belongs to asks us if we are Jehovah's Witnesses, we say no and explain who we are. And he tells us we are going to La Poudrierre, which is a little far. We normally take a 15 minute bus ride there. So we continue, and then the girl drops off, so its just me, Elder Parsons and him. And we get it all the way to his house, we are pretty darn tired and we sit down. And I see his foot, and he is bleeding, pretty bad. Turns out, he wasn't wearing shoes, geez. So it was right between his big toe, and he's still walking trying to get us chairs, but we are trying to get him to wash it and sit down. And then, he takes one step, and blood just squirts up out of his foot. And the other day Elder Parsons told me he doesn't like blood and that he has fainted before. So I'm there with a guy with a bleeding foot, and I'm hoping my companion doesn't pass out. But he finally washes it and wraps it, sits down, and we get him to prop it up on a chair. And then his wife gets us some water, which was heavenly. And then we teach him. It was kinda weird and I don't know if we were speaking the best French, because we were tired. So we just taught a short lesson with him and his wife. His name is Fifa, and her name is Jouria. And they seem really nice and such. But that was just a weird experience to contact a family.

So that is easily the most notable experience of the week. Today we also went with one of the branch presidents to the beach and stuff. We saw some historical spots of old slave places and stuff, not good. And by the name of this city, you can tell what those old slave traders thought. Anyways, it also made me really tired, I slept in the car ride home. Next week I'll try to send come pictures one of the other missionaries took. The internet café we go to is really nice, so yeah. I can't wait to talk to you guys on Sunday, try to enjoy the week back together at the house after vacation with friends and Puerto Rico.

Je vous aime,
- Eric

Eric's email of April 28th, 2010

Sorry this posting is late.

Afasso! (and then you say "ka bien")

So first off, this email will be kind of difficult, because I am using an English keyboard for some reason. I don't know why this computer has it, but its weird because I got pretty good on the French one. But so first, I want to respond to the question from Mom's email before I forget, about the mailing address. (No PO Box in Pointe Noire, still send packages/letters to Cameroon) If that is what the Willis' suggest, I think that would make sense. One elder here had recently received mail right before I came, that was dated in November. So I would say, the Willis' idea would work fine.

And so I'm glad that Mom and Dad are enjoying Puerto Rico, and actually I know plantains well! They aren't eaten that often here, but in Cameroon I ate them every time with fish and such, and I liked to dip them in pima (a very spicy pepper) sauce. At first I didn't like them, but I soon learned to. And rapelling that waterfall sounds sweet.

Wow, Père ne m'a que demandé deux quèstions! (Wow, Dad only asked me 2 questions!) So for the first one about the Mother's Day call, I don't know exactly yet, but I am pretty sure we will be doing it on Mother's Day, May 9th. And I plan on using the calling card. I will make sure I still have the info, and I'll let you know better next week.

The Zone Conference was awesome actually, and I will proceed to give the detailed review that Dad asked for. So, like I said, here we wake up at 5:30 AM, one hour earlier than normal. And so we woke up and then just got ready to leave, because the Baxters (Senior couple) said we were to leave at 6:30. (So I just stepped away from the computer for 10 minutes because someone came up and said he left his work on this computer. But then he figured out I speak English, no idea how he figured that out, but so I found out he is from Kentucky, and he knows of the Church. So that was random, but cool I thought.) But about zone conference, we got to the airport at 7:00 AM, and our flight left around 8 I think. But when we got to security, Elder Mbuyi and Elder Mafiya weren't let through. They are both from Kinshasa, but the guy didn't like their passport for some reason, even though they had gotten here fine. So we had to figure that out and decided to buy the necessary visa when we return, and got on our flight just before it left. So the flight only took about 40 minutes, just enough time for me to do a 3 star difficulty Sudoku, and then we landed.

When we arrived, there were already 2 people from the Church there with cars to pick us up. Oh, and I forgot to say, we flew to Brazzaville. And we held the zone conference in the stake center of Brazzaville, which was only about a 15 minute drive away from the airport on a bumpy unpaved road. So we get there, and there was about an hour before President and Elder Runland arrived, so we were talking and got to know all the missionaries of Brazzaville. And the conference consisted of the missionaries from Pointe-Noire, Brazzaville, and the assistants to the President. So there were us 6 elders from Pointe-Noire plus the Baxters, and 20 to 25 missionaries from Brazza. In Brazzaville the church is much bigger, they have a stake with 8 wards and 4 branches. In Pointe-Noire there are only 2 branches. But that's a big difference from Cameroon, in all of Cameroon there are 0 wards and 3 branches. Dang.

Anyways, the conference was great, even Elder Runland, who went on a Swedish speaking mission did it in French himself, and he got by. He did need a little help, but I was impressed with it, rather than having a translator. And also his wife did some, also in French. She said she had studied in school but forgot a lot, but she rarely needed our help. She did a lot better with French in school than I did. (Eric hated French in school.) But so we had our conference, and everyone was on a short schedule. The Headlees and Runlands had to leave pretty much immediately to catch the boat to get back to Kinshasa, and we had to leave to catch our flight. Side note, so Brazzaville and Kinshasa are right next to each other, its just the river (Congo) that divides the countries. But I was told if you took an airplane from Brazza to Kinshasa, it would take 15 minutes or less. But by using that ferry system, it took the Headlees and Runlands 2 and a half hours to cross. But one good thing, I caught President right before he left so I could get a missionary handbook in French, which made me happy.

So then we left immediatly for the airport at about 3:30, got there and had the same problem with Elder Mbuyi and Mafiya. Elder Ritchie told me it's because Brazzaville and Kinshasa don't like each other. Anyways, we eventually got past that again, and got to our flight. Another 40 minutes, another 3 star Sudoku puzzle, and we landed in Pointe-Noire at around 4:30. So we landed, and as planned we got the visa things for Mafiya and Mbuyi, and Elder Parsons and Elder Kessler and I talked about 90s music. Then we got their visas in about half an hour, got in the Baxters' truck, and went for ice cream. I got an ice cream cone with chocolate flavor and cheesecake flavor. It was richer than anything I had eaten in a while. Also the power went out twice while we were at the ice cream place. And I think that's about it.

So yeah, that was zone conference. I wrote down a lot of stuff I can't remember now, but the main thing I got from Elder Runland was the importance of having a good attitude. He talked about 2 parts of missionary work: the attitude & the work ethic. And you need to work hard and also have a positive attitude. You need both. If you only have one, or worse neither, good luck. But those 2 characteristics will make life better and missionary work progress well. So I gots to remember that.

Also today we got news that President Headlee is coming on Monday. I don't know exactly why, but that's cool. We didn't have time for interviews but hopefully we will Monday. Also, the beginning of July will be the end of a transfer, about a transfer and a half from now. And at that day, 2 North American missionaries will be going home plus the Baxters, and 20 (twenty) will be coming. So holy cow. And right now in Pointe-Noire there are 3 companionships, 6 elders (4 from the states and 2 from Kinshasa). And President also told the Baxters that he wants to put 12 missionaries in Pointe-Noire at that time. So that will be exciting, but also that means there will be a lot to do, and a lot of new missionaries. So yeah.

I think that's all the exciting news, maybe President will tell us more cool stuff on Monday. Mais, Mom et Dad, jouissez le reste de la voyage au Puerto Rico, et Scott et Jacob et Andrea, ne mourrez pas à l'école. (Mom and Dad, enjoy the rest of your trip to Puerto Rico, and Scott, Jacob and Andrea, don't die in school.)

And also, I am going to write this last thing in french, so that only one person gets upset or mad at a time: Mon appareil de photo a été volé. Pardonnez-moi. Vous pouvez me donner vos idées cette semaine, et nous pouvons mieur discuter cela le jour des mères. (This was to keep mom from getting upset, I guess. My camera was stolen. I'm sorry. You can tell me your ideas next week and we can discuss it on Mother's Day.)

Je vous aime,
- Eric