Eric's email of January 6th, 2010

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

(Hello everyone.  It is hot today.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Je vous aime,

-          Elder Eric Palmer

 

Hey Dad,

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

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

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

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

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer

 

Dear Mom,

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

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

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

Je t'aime,
- Elder Eric Palmer