Scrab the Beetle

Bonjour!

This has been quite the week.

First of all, on Tuesday we had District Council. Our district changed a little bit a couple of weeks ago, with the addition of Elder Osime, and his trainee. His trainee is coming straight from Online MTC, so he didn't get a reassignment or anything, which is crazy to think about, with almost everyone in the past year getting reassigned. However, I have heard of a lot more places opening up, which is good! The Zone Leaders came down to join us for district council, which was good. They shared some training, which is always good.

On Wednesday night, we found out that the next day we would be having a conference with Elder Martinez, the President of the Africa West Area, and his counselor, Elder Kacher, of the Seventy. Apparently, Elder Martinez was just flying through Togo, and had a long layover, and decided that he would call a last minute conference. He shared his conversion story, and how the power of the Holy Ghost impacted it. It was a really great teaching, and I got a lot out of it. Mostly because Elder Martinez doesn't speak French, so he gave it in English, and a translator provided the French haha. So, I definitely understood the English. Then, Elder Kacher, who speaks French, gave a teaching/question and answer, mostly about the importance of following rules.

Some good news this week, we got two people on date for baptism for next weekend! One of them is Godwin, who is Djo's son, the man we baptized about a month ago. When we asked the question, on Wednesday, of when he wanted to be baptized, he responded ''um, Thursday?'' So, I would say that he's pretty excited to be baptized. The other is Amasi, who is pretty elect, to say the least. She came to church last week, by herself. Then, when we taught her on Wednesday, for the first time, we put her one date to be baptized. She is super receptive, and I can tell that she really believes, and wants to be baptized.

Nothing too crazy happened this week, except something yesterday. So, when it was about time to leave for church, it started raining. I thought, ''no big deal, I'll just grab my umbrella.'' Welp, turns out I left that in North Carolina. I did have my rain jacket, but that didn't really help. We walked for 30 minutes in the rain to church, and by the time we got there, we were soaked. However, when church started, the rain stopped. But then, right as church was coming to an end, it started raining again. So, we walked back home for another 30 minutes in the rain. Fun times. I guess we are starting to enter the raining season here, so I'm guessing that will happen more often.

That's about it for me for this week. Hope everyone has a great week. Oh, and I actually have pictures this week!

Elder Orchard

 

 This is the edge of our area haha

 

My friend Scrab, the beetle

 

Elder Kazadi and I

 

 

6 Months and My Birthday!

Hello Everyone!

So, this was a pretty monumental week for me. First of all, last Tuesday, the 2nd, I officially hit 6 months on my mission. Only 18 left. Also, yesterday was my birthday! I turned 19, but I'm sure you could have guessed, it was like any normal day. My parents said that they'll bake me two cakes when I get back, for the two birthdays I'll have on my mission, so I've got that to look forward to haha!

It's been two weeks since I've updated you guys, but not too much has happened. A couple of weeks ago, I went on an exchange with one our zone leaders, who is American. It was awesome. He told me before the exchange that we were going to try to speak only in French, but that definitely didn't happen haha. We spoke in English the whole time, and that was nice. It was also nice to learn from someone that has been in the same situation that I'm in, and he was able to give me some great advice, in terms of learning French, and everything else.

Also, last week we had zone conference again. For zone conference, we had two elders staying with us, just for one night, because they're too far away to make the trip in the morning. They are the same Elders who stayed with us for last zone conference, so it was nice catching up with them. Zone conference was pretty good too. I didn't understand a ton of it, but I actually understood a lot more this time than I did last time! It was also nice to catch up with all the Elders that came in the same time as me, and see how they are doing. Also, they fed us lunch, and that was pretty good too haha.

As far as the people we are teaching, they are doing ok. We have a lot of people we are teaching, but not a lot that are progressing. Nobody wants to come to church for some reason. We did have a couple at church yesterday, so that was good. One of them is a younger girl, and she asked me yesterday ''When is your birthday?'' and I said ''umm, today'' and she didn't believe me because usually when you ask someone when their birthday is, they don't say today haha. 

Other than that, things are pretty normal. Sorry, I don't have any crazy stories from Africa this time, maybe next time. I hope everyone has a great day and a great week!

Elder Orchard

 

 

 

 

 Here is a picture of our apartment, from the front. Its pretty big haha

 

This was my birthday present this year. I'm starting to stock up the African style ties.

 

 Here is a screenshot of me getting to talk to my family on my birthday!

 

 When the other elders stayed at our apartment, we visited Sr. Aimee, and she wanted to arm wrestle lol