Eric's email of January 20th, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                Je vous aime,

-          Elder Eric Palmer

Dad-

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

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

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

Mom-

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

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

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

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer