C'est chaud eh?- Week 25

Bonjour tout le monde!

Probably most of you guys know already at this point but due to the COVID-19 situation in Cote d'Ivoire. All missionaries were ordered to return to their home countries to finish their mission. I got the call last Wednesday and since then it's been a "always be ready" type of thing. We tried leaving Saturday morning through South Africa but they closed its borders as we were checking into the airport. So we stayed the night at an apartment close by and then we were super bored all day. 

After a little walk to the beach with some fun pics we got the call and quickly got ready and headed to the mission office then to the airport. I see this whole thing as a blessing because the church snatched us business class seats so we were having a good time and I slept so well it was great.

After a four hour layover in Paris and then another in LAX, we finally arrived in the great valley. I honestly am still a little dumbfounded by everything after 7 months in Cote d'Ivoire. I miss it. My heart is still there and everything is surreal right now but Heavenly Father is looking out for me and for the countless other missionaries who are going through the same thing. The Lord's hand is in this. We just need to keep the faith and endure whatever comes our way. 

I love you all so much and I am eternally grateful for all of the fasts, prayers, and support that you have given me! We can do this guys! 

PHOTOS

1. One and only photo with my last comp Elder Colas! He's stuck there until Haiti opens back up in a couple weeks so I'm praying for his safe return as well.

2-4. Beach pics about an hour before getting the call to go home!

5. Basic name tag photo with a touch of Africa in it.

6. Church hooking us up with that business class seat. Church is true.

Baby Steps... -Week 24

BONJOUR

Tu es malade...(You are sick)

That's usually a low key insult here but it might turn into the more literal meaning nowadays because there something called the coronavirus that's going around right? I guess it's pretty serious or something...Blague! Haha no we are very aware of COVID-19 we're not that far out of the loop and it's been kind of a crazy week probably just like everyone else's week!

So yeah we have to stay clean and healthy, putting on hand sanitizer, not shaking hands(which is VERY common here), and staying away from sick people. So we've been like Bob Wiley over here and being scared to touch anything and very aware of germs..."Baby steps out to sector...baby steps taking their number...baby steps buying groceries..."

We also stopped having church over here too so that makes the work a little interesting. And we're still going to teach people and visit members but we just can't have much progression because going to church is kind of needed before the baptism but hey we'll find a way because the Lord provides a way to follow all of his commandments, even the sacrament. We'll probably have our amis go over to families to have authority to do the sacrament so that they can understand they importance of it and such.

Amongst all of the craziness, we had our transfers come this last Saturday! Elder Adams and I were expecting to stay together since we both recently came to this sector. But that doesn't stop revelation! So we got the call that I am now the Zone Leader for the brand new Selmer Zone! They recently split the stake here and with the new stake, they form a new zone for the missionaries!  So that was a very surprising but exciting call! It's going to be a lot more work and responsibility but I think it will help me keep my mind off of the craziness of the world. So that's my other "baby steps" that I'm taking going from junior comp to DL to ZL so like I'll be an apostle by the end of the year right??

I also got my new comp, Elder Colas! He's from Haiti which is great because Haitians are actually the best. You just need to meet one to get why haha but I'm really excited to learn a lot from him and do great things together!!

I know everyone's kind of having it a little rough in many different ways and I hope everyone has held fast to their faith and trust in the Lord to get through any trial that we may face in these times!

Bonne Santé!

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. Taking a ride on the classic scooter in africa! Kind of reminds me of the one's in Back to the Future that Marty took from the kids haha

2.  Celebratory milkshake for the end of the transfer!(They had hand sanitizer on every table)

3. Selmer Pic

4. Aftermath of a super heavy rainstorm. The road was completely flooded over and mud everywhere

5.  Sooo we kind of splurged on the African ties just in the rare case of somehow getting taken out of Cote d'Ivoire or something but I think we're staying here yay! Anyway this is my updated collection.

6. Pic with one of our amis who is about to be baptised Sr Akoutchi! I'm gonna miss her but I will surely be there for her baptism/confirmation

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Here Comes The Sun-Week 22

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille!

Je suis infiniment reconnaissant pour tout le monde qui me soutient et prie pour moi!

Okay yet again it has been a wonderful week being in the wonderful country of Côte d'Ivoire accomplishing this wonderful work of the Lord! Not a whole lot to report on this week but it still has been super great!

We did an exchange with our Dirigeants de Zone Wednesday and it was super fun! It's basically doing a sleepover sanctioned by the Lord so I love it! I went over to their sector with Elder Sintyl from Haiti and I learned a lot from him because he's only got a few months left and so he knows the ropes if you know what I mean. He gave me some super good tips to better teach and better lead my district which I gladly took because to be honest I kind of need it haha. 

We also had our Stake Conference but this one was special because they were dividing the stake to make another stake here in Yopougon! Our bishop was called as first counselor so I was so proud. Elder Martinez of the Area Presidency also gave a great talk about self-reliance!

Loving the Work! Fr Olivier is on his way to be baptised this Saturday! That'll be super exciting to see him start his journey along the covenant path! We also still have the Fr Yannick and Sr Akoutchi who are progressing very well and coming to church so we are planning on inviting them to be baptised this week! Fingers crossed!

That's pretty much it this week! I got a little sick on Saturday but I'm getting through it so it's all good! Love Y'all!

Sorry I accidentally left my camera at the apartment so no pics this week!

Elder Perkins

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Pic from his companions email!

Getting "Afreaked"- Week 21

The W in Africa stands for "water"

d'accord donc comment vas tout le monde? 

Yet another week in the beautiful dusty land of Côte d'Ivoire underneath the hot sun and another week of taking my doxy, speaking french, being called "le blanc" "le chinois" etc, bearing my testimony, talking to these amazing people and getting lost in their culture! Elder Adams and I came up with the phrase "Afreaked" meaning learning how to cook their food, buying random african stuff, and just loving being here all day everyday!

This week was really awesome because we had our zone conference with two other zones so I got to see so many of my fellow elders and sisters! First and foremost, the greatest thing that I learned during the conference was President Lewis' favorite movie...Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade! Like I respected him immensely before that but that just blew it through the roof. Okay in all honesty, I learned a lot about how I can have the vision for myself and also for my amis de l'église to continue to respect and make covenants with Heavenly Father. The road doesn't end at baptism, it's just the beginning just as it says in 2 Néphi 31! The temple is where we need to look forward to in order to endure to the end and continue on the covenant path! It got me even more excited for when the temple here is finished and I can take amis and convertis récents there to see the beauty and the Spirit that surrounds us when inside.

We found some awesome amis this week! Soeur Akoutchi came to church on her own last Sunday and we taught her the Plan of Salvation throughout the week and she understands and believes everything we teach her! Frère Fih lives in our same building and he doesn't want us to teach in his home because it's dirty so we just teach on our roof which is pretty cool and safe don't worry. Anyway, we gave him the Restoration brochure and he read all of it and had a bunch of awesome questions and we helped him understand everything. We mentioned how we had visited the Sacred Grove and the Hill Cumorah and he asked us to bear our testimonies about it and it was super spiritual and I know for a fact that he felt the Spirit tell him that we were telling the truth. Even in our limited french, we can testify that the events that happened there are true which is crazy! Gift of Tongues might be working double time but it works!

I hit my six month mark from when I entered the MTC on August 21st! I decided to just burn one of my boring america ties because I never wore it haha. 

There were a couple times this week where I was just sick of being hot, sweaty and sticky but it's honestly so strange how I forget about it so easily and just keep walking to the next lesson and teaching these amazing people. I honestly can't explain it, but I know that I am receiving strength everyday to keep going!

Okay that is my weekly report from the mission field! Love y'all

On est ensemble

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS: 

1-2. So a bird flew into our apartment while we were out and we spent a solid hour chasing it with bags trying to catch it. It eventually got exhausted and we grabbed it and let it loose outside.

4-6. Goodbye Boring America Tie! Hello Crazy Africa ties woohoo

7. Made some banana pancakes, pretended like it's the weekend, there's no need to go outside

Foutou and Flooding- Week 20

Hey Everybody it's nice and cool now! Come on out!-Suits On The Loose

Just so everyone knows...it's still hot in Cote d'Ivoire and actually despite what you may think, it's actually cooler outside than inside because there is zero air-conditioned houses and it gets crazy hot inside so everyone just hangs outside where it's definitely still hot but not as hot. 

So there is a bunch of stuff that happened this week so I'm going to try my best to cover it all because it's been a party with many ups and downs. We went over to an ami's house one morning to learn how to cook foutou! Foutou is basically like a banana paste that you eat by hand and dip in sauce. But it's super fun to make because you have a big wooden stick that you mash the bananas and other ingredients with. She let us do it for a little bit but she soon took over because we were pretty bad haha. After we had a bountiful meal with delicious foutou and probably the spiciest sauce I have ever eaten in my life and it was great! We also learned the secret of getting african women to just absolutely love you...talk about ivorian food. Once we bring up that we love foutou, attiéké, alocco, etc. they just go off about how to cook it and they invite us over to cook together or just give us free food. I really do want to learn how to cook more ivorian food so I can maybe cook it once I'm home whenever that happens haha. 

The other marvelous thing that occurred this week was when we woke up on Saturday morning to about three inches of water all over our apartment floor! Woohoo! It's kind of a long story haha. So to get water in our apartment, we need to go to the ground floor and turn on the machine to pump water up to our apartment. However, sometimes after a bit the water just stops running and so we forget to turn off the faucet. Well this particular night we had some plates that were blocking the sink drain and the water started going again during the middle of the night and so the sink overflowed and water got everywhere. Including flowing out our door and down the stairs. So we spent the whole morning just pushing all of the water off of our balcony and trying to save as much as we could. Some of the victims included our scriptures, our phone, magazines, and other stuff that just got destroyed. So that was a little bit of a bummer but after leaving our scriptures all day under a fan, they weren't completely ruined and now my triple combo has some dope battle scars now so that's just a constant reminder of a funny memory. We are borrowing an old phone from someone in our ward right now until the mission sends us another but we lost a lot of our contacts because some were saved to the phone and not the SIM card.  Luckily we were just cleaning the ward building that night so we didn't need our scriptures or phone. I was kind of in a downer mood for the rest of the day but luckily the next day was Sunday and I felt a lot of peace and comfort during the sacrament so I was feeling better after that. 

The work is going great! We set up a baptismal date for Frère Olivier for March 7th! He's an awesome ami because he is actually reading the Book of Mormon, understands and accepts what we teach, and has been coming to church by himself every week! He just seems so peaceful during church and it makes me so happy to seem it. We have another ami Frère Ivo who recently prayed to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he knows it's true! When he told me that I was a little dumbfounded and I was at a loss for words for a moment haha. What a special time to be a missionary honestly! To see people find the truth and the hope of something better in their lives!

We've had some more fun adventures that I might expound upon a little later because this is already pretty long haha but I got lots of pictures so be sure to check those out! I love you all and you guys are the best! God loves each and every one of you and never forget it! Also Happy Late Valentines Day! My valentine was the air conditioning unit in the clerk's office after a long sweaty day. 

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. Waiting for my turn to make some foutou!(pronounced footoo)

2. The whole gang!

3. The final product! The yellow balls on the table is foutou

4.  A common occurence on many school walls here in Côte d'ivoire. They love to paint disney and other cartoon characters and sometimes they are a little weird. Please zoom in haha

5. Happy Valentines Day! We got some sketchy ice cream to celebrate!

6-8. Tragedy and Aftermath of our little flooding incident!

9. So we went to change the water filter to discover that no one has changed it in probably a year. It's supposed to be changed every month...

10. Selfie with the chillest little kid in our ward. His name is Dylan and he wants us to teach him english and he asks us so many questions about America with which I willingly obliged to answer. 

Father, Guide My Sword- Week 19

Bonjour once again to my beloveds!

Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow has it been a week! My first week in a new sector, with a new companion, and as a district leader! There has been a lot of fun and crazy experiences so I'll just try to mention the biggest ones.

First off, the work has been kind of a grind this week because when I got here there was only a couple amis and Elder Adams wasn't here for a bunch of time before me so we spent a bunch of time finding members and doing OVB(tracting) to know the sector better and to also find some more people to teach. There were honestly some moments where we just left it in the hands of the Lord to guide us and I recalled the moment in the beloved film Princess Bride where Inigo Montoya prays to his father to "Guide His Sword" to find the man in black. And just as how his sword was guided to find the secret entrance to the Pit of Despair, we were guided to find the people who were prepared by the Lord and in their own spiritual pit of despair to show them this glorious gospel! I love feeling the power of my calling and being led by the Spirit in the street, in lessons, or in my studies.

Being district leader is actually amazing because you get a closer look at how this work functions and you have a bigger part in it! One of the best ways in my opinion is conducting baptismal interviews which I have already had the amazing pleasure to do! Once again I felt the Spirit with me as I helped the ami understand all of the questions and feeling inspired to ask other questions to make sure that she was truly ready to be baptised. It was hard for her to express herself but I could feel her sincerity and her testimony even in the few words she spoke and I felt right in passing her!

Teaching with Elder Adams is honestly so awesome because we're both not perfect at french of course but we strive to teach with unity and with the Spirit and I know that our amis are feeling the Spirit and learning so that's all that matters. I will always be comforted by the Brigham Young story of how it was just a simple and short testimony, not an eloquent speech, that truly converted him to the church. With that I know that it is by the spirit and not perfectly fluent french that we touch the hearts of those we teach!

That's really it for today! As always, thank you so much for your prayers and your support, some days I really need it!

PHOTOS:

1. Me in the alleyways of Selmer!

2. Found a new map for Call Of Duty: Zombies!

3. My tatooine sunset that I get every night. I just need one more sun!

4. Chillin like a villain

5. The REAL concrete jungle is here in Cote d'Ivoire

6. My new comp, Elder Adams!

7. Us about to drop the hottest album of 2020

Everybody Talks Too Much- Week 17

Bonjour tout le monde!

My beloved readers, I would like to inform you that despite my beliefs, I am not and probably will never get used to the heat and humidity here haha. We had the power go out a couple more times this week. One lasting all throughout the night, and I realized that the closest I'll ever get to swimming as a missionary is either in the baptismal font or lying in bed in my own sweat as my fan isn't working...Woohoo!

As my title suggests, if there's one thing African's like to do, it's talk. It started with a whisper or question, and that is when they talked for a very long time. We can ask a simple question like "Why do you think God wants us to pray?" and then they just go off for what feels like forever about a random story that's slightly connected to prayer. But we have to just sit there and listen respectfully. Half of the time I get distracted while they are talking by a kid or something and then by the time I get back into the conversation, I am completely lost. We have had to cut some people off a couple times because the rendez-vous went over due to their excessive comments. Even a prayer one time haha. We asked this old Catholic lady to pray and she prayed for probably ten minutes until my comp eventually said "Amen". It was hilarious.

The highlight of this week was probably my interview with President Lewis where we discussed the new rules and such and he gave me a lot of encouragement about continuing to be a faithful and obedient missionary throughout all of my mission. A task of which I will gladly strive to accomplish! Besides that we just continued the usual missionary grind of teaching, walking, sweating, repeat. We have a couple of amis who are actually showing a real interest in the church and the gospel and actually are reading the Book of Mormon so that keeps my spirits up. One frère that we have met only once showed up to church with his entire family which included who knows how many children. I sat by a lot of them during sacrament meeting which was a wonderful pleasure. However one tried to steal my mini hymnbook so maybe kids aren't completely innocent from sin?

That's really it for me this week! My language skills are still growing and I am far from fluency but at least I can teach and my amis actually understand me now so that has been very reassuring that I am really making a difference here. I am also still waiting for the hidden camera crew to come out and reveal that this has all been a Truman Show style filming for the next set of District videos and this has all been fake haha not really. Sometimes I do really wish I had a camera to look at whenever my comp or an ami says something weird and do the classic "Jim Glance" from The Office because believe me, it would happen A LOT.

Sorry the connection in this cyber is garbage so the photos are taking too long to load. Until next week!

P.S. RIP Kobe Bryant that was honestly so shocking. I hope his family and everybody else is doing okay.

Elder Perkins

I've added a couple pics from zone conference that President Lewis added till his blog. 

#1 MTC Companion Elder Young

#2 Elder Perkins Zone

Strike! Strike! Strike!- Week 16

 dit quoi? ça va?

This week was pretty awesome actually so buckle in because this one might be a little long.(Or you can just skip to the pictures like you probably do anyways haha) Well one fun thing that happened this week was that there was a transport strike for a couple days. So there wasn't any bakas or taxi bleus meaning we either had to walk or take a taxi rouge which is more expensive to get to district council, zone conference, etc. I don't know the exact reason for the strike but it was quickly resolved and it was all back to normal.

We had our baptismal service for Sr Flore on Saturday! This one was special because I performed the baptism! It was my first time doing a baptism here on my mission and in french but it went great! I was lucky to have an actually full font because for my first baptism the water was only half way up their shins so it took a couple tries but this time it was just under my waist so it was pretty easy. I think Africans have a tiny irrational fear of being fully immersed in water because everyone always seems pretty scared before the ordinance. Anyway Sr Flore's mother attended her baptism and came to church to see her confirmation and I think that it really got her to have the desire to be baptised. We have been teaching her for a while now and we wanted her to be baptised with her daughter but she said not until April for some reason but now she wants to be baptised at the beginning of February! I might not be here by then but still I'm glad for her decision. 

We had our zone conference on Wednesday and oh boy was it amazing! The central theme of it was really of God's love for us. Especially us as missionaries because we are accomplishing his work right now. Sister Lewis gave an amazing lesson about how we can always find the love of God to help us overcome the trials of missionaries and it was super spiritual for me because I am a firm believer in God's unconditional love for me and every single one of his children. Then President Lewis followed and basically used that platform of love to "crack the whip" so to speak. We went through a lot of the new missionary handbook together and he firmly stated which rules the mission in general doesn't follow and how we can get better as a whole mission. It wasn't like super strict or anything because he linked how we have commandments because God loves us and as missionaries, we have more rules because the Lord wants to protect us as we do his work. I loved it so much.

Some other fun things that happened this week was that I cut two people's hair this week which I wasn't really planning on. One was my zone leader, Elder Manges, who wanted a haircut before zone conference and he heard that I cut my own hair so he asked me. I reluctantly agreed because I had only cut hair three times before that and that was with me and my hair is relatively easier to cut. However it turned out pretty nice actually and he was very pleased with it. A couple days later, my companion out of the blue asked me to cut his hair too which was even more surprising because I have never cut an Africans hair before so I gave it a try. I was doing pretty good but then my comp accidentally shaved a big chunk from the top of his head so he had me just shave it all off so it turned out fine haha.

We went to the ward building Saturday night to clean it because it definitely needed it. There was another family there to clean it as well so together we grabbed the little hand held brooms and swept literally all of the floors on both floors and even outside in the courtyard as well. It was really dusty. And we were in our missionary attire and in case you forgot it's hot in Africa so by the end I was pretty filthy and I felt so gross and sweaty. But the building was super clean so it was worth it. Plus it was fun to hang with some little primary girls who marvelled the whole time that a white guy can sweep.

For closing, I AM LOVING IT HERE that's all. Also Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! That guy's the best am I right?

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. The baptism of Sr Flore!

2. Selfie with some other missionaries

3. Aftermath of my first haircut. Maybe I'll start charging

4. Working with the little ones one sweeping and making the church building clean!

5  This is how filthy my shirt was after cleaning. If it looks soaking wet to you...it is...and it didn't rain...

6. I don't know how or when this picture was taken but I love it. Africans love to pose for pictures.

Blessing Those Rains- Week 15

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE

It's weird looking back over the week and saying to myself, "Eh not much happened this week" but then I realised how funny it was to call a week as a missionary a normal week because EVERY week is an amazing growing and spiritual experience as I am becoming a better disciple of Christ and child of God. 

I would say that this week is one of the most progression in regards to my confidence in doing this work and in my french! My companion let me lead the sector this week which means I started all of the lessons and lead all of the planning and study sessions so it's like I was senior companion for the week. At first I was really stressed because I would teach and testify during the lessons but never really leading and deciding how each lesson will go. However, it was actually an awesome experience and I'm really feeling like I can actually do this for two years! I"m starting to feel like I can actually start teaching by the Spirit better rather than just worrying about my french the whole lesson.

The work is going great! We had our baptismal interview for Sr Flore and it went great! She is getting baptised this Saturday and I think I'll be the one to baptise her which will be an awesome opportunity to perform this sacred ordinance for her!

I gave a talk for one of my wards yesterday and it wasn't exactly the same as my last Dan Jones-ish talk but I still feel like I did a good job encouraging the members to share their love that comes with this Gospel. Even in my still limited french.

WEEKLY WISDOM: Usually the greatest things in this life come from the hardest things. When you encounter a problem, see it as an opportunity to learn and grow and not just sit and pout about it.

Je vous aime et n'oubliez pas que votre Père Céleste vous aime!

Elder Perkins

1- Companion time

2-4 The RHS, MDT friends kept gathering when they realize mini Kartch was there! Mini Kartch got to do Star's from Mean Girls on the big stage too!

I Like 7am Church??- Week 14

Bon Nouveux Année! 2020!!!

Wow it's honestly weird to start this new year know that I am going to be here for this entire year! Like this is the year that I can say I fully committed my life to this marvelous work! I am so grateful for this calling that I have and I love dedicating all of my time towards it! As with this new year comes the new starting times for all wards and one of my wards is now starting at 7h00 which is crazy. It's mostly because people don't like to be out and about around noon because it's so hot so everything is either in the morning or at night and mostly everyone either sleeps or eats inside their homes during the middle of the day. Anyway we got up at 6h00 like usual but then quickly got ready and left to get there on time and I was surprised to find that 7am church is actually awesome because there was no noise or loud music playing to detract from the Spirit since the sacrament room is under a pavilion outside. It was almost silent and it felt a little more familiar and I loved it!

In case you're wondering no I didn't really do much for New Years. My president made the day a cleaning day for our apartment and also just to keep us a little safe because people party hard for New Years here. Maybe even more than Christmas it's kind of weird. Anyway we finished out cleaning in like two hours since my apartment is puny and then we just sat around all day. Pretty boring. I got a lot of studying and other reading done but still I wanted to actually do stuff. I threw my tennis ball against the wall for a solid two hours.

Other highlights include the baptismal dates for Fr Durand and Sr Flore! They are set for the 1st of February so that's super exciting! I love bring souls unto Christ. It really makes all of the hardships worth it. We also visited our bishop and we learned that his house is literally like 20 feet from the coast and at the end of ou visit, a fishing boat came in and we got a huge bag of fish for 1000CFA(no that doesn't stand for Chick-fil-a I made sure) which is like 2 USD! Love this place. No matter how sketchy or dirty it is haha. The mother of our ami, Sr Flore, told me that after my mission I need to come back and marry her daughter so that was pretty awkward. Wasn't the first really and definitely won't be the last.

My comp has been really awesome in pushing me to lead lessons, talking on the phone, and talking to people instead of just standing there and it has really been helpful! My french and my confidence has greatly improved and I feel more and more like a real missionary. I am coming to move this work along more efficiently and also by the Spirit instead of just always worrying about what I am saying. I am truly grateful for the Gift of Tongues and also the Holy Ghost that constantly help me!

WEEKLY WISDOM: In the words of Oliver Cowdery, "These were days never to be forgotten" and also Andy from The Office, "I wish you could know that you were in the good old days before you leave them"(something like that haha) Cherish the days of happiness that you are in so that when you are in you bad days, you can look upon them and receive strength and hope and knowledge that things will get better. 

PHOTOS

1. Elder Fernando scaling and de-gutting the bag of fish we got. He didn't trust me to do it haha.

2. My trainer Elder Agbahounzo came back to my district to be my Zone Leader! I then made him fulfill his promise to take me to Picasso and get me ice cream haha

What A Wonderful Smell You've Discovered!- Week 13

Hello my wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and blessed friends and family!

Well not much has happened since I last wrote but I once again hope you all had a wonderful Christmas(And Star Wars) season! My above Star Wars reference is in relation to all of the wonderful smells of Africa that I discover nearly everyday. The other day we crossed over a river and I don't know what they put in it but I literally couldn't breathe so that was awesome haha.

So the night of Christmas Day, my Provo MTC MT, Elder F. Young headed back to my apartment with me for our companion exchange! Spending the day with Elder Young was awesome and we taught a lot of good lessons! A good chunk of the night was spent trying to find a contact that we got from a member. The member lives on the outskirts of my sector that I don't know super well so we had to get help from members to show us the way. The outcome was worth it though because the contact was super good and she's super interested. Also because she lives near the coast and the sun was setting so it was super jolie. The sunsets here often look like the classic Tatooine sunset and I love it. (No I don't miss Star Wars at all don't talk to me about it)

One beautiful thing about being a missionary during Christmas time is the outpouring of free food from the members. I think we had at least 5 mangez-vous which are rendez-vous(appointments) but all you really do is eat(mangez) a bunch of good food and then had around 4 meals dropped off at our apartment so it was a good full week of eating which I never will complain about. And you thought I would be starving here haha.

That's basically it for this week! I love you all and hope that you can feel the love and support from our Heavenly Father as I have here because I have come to realise more and more that the only true way to be happy in this life is when we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the center of our lives.

WEEKLY WISDOM:  Prepare for this next conference! Fortify your testimony of this church and of the Book Of Mormon and be ready for what's coming. Also my family shared a funny trailer for conference and I actually got the chills because this next conference will be "unforgettable"

PHOTOS

1. Thank you mangez-vous

2. Elder Young and I delighting ourselves in the huge Reeses that I got for Christmas!