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!

So This is Christmas?- Week 12

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL!

What a special time of the year for all of us to turn outwards to others in service and love for each other! This being my first Christmas on the mission, I've gotten pretty trunky(homesick) since I'm missing traditions, reunions, and...Star Wars...BUT I have learned that this work and my sacred calling as a missionary is the best christmas gift that I could ever ask for and gives me more joy and satisfaction than any movie or wrapped package.

I'm writing today since I didn't have a lot of time to write on Monday so I thought I'd write y'all on this wonderful day! Just so y'all know, Christmas here is still super hot, humid, and sweaty. People don't really listen to Christmas music 24/7 here so I think I've only heard "All I want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carrey one time which amazes me. However at a Christmas Eve Party we had last night with other churches, one performed "You Raise Me Up" in English and another did Pentatonix's version of "Hallelujah" and they did pretty well! The missionaries prepared some hymns that we practiced these past few weeks but honestly they seemed a little lame compared to the other choirs. That's okay though we have the restored gospel so who's the real winner here?

This week has just been full of activities and fun times with other missionaries! Last Thursday we had a mission activity with President and Soeur Lewis and the highlight probably was that they had everyone how to do the cups thing from the "When I'm Gone" song so that was a vivid flashback to 2012 but it was actually pretty fun and I'm basically a master at it haha. We had a zone activity on monday which consisted of musical chairs, human foosball, and some awesome food! Then last night we had the multi-religious choir activity that I mentioned earlier which was a party.

This past week has been a little hard since I am basically leading the sector right now but I have learned a lot and my french has improved a lot! It has been fun though with all of my Provo Mt's in the same zone and Elder F. Young and I are going to do an exchange together tomorrow so that will be awesome!

The work has been a little slow lately since everyone is pretty busy and we have a lot of activities but the lessons have been going awesome! My new companion, Elder Fernando, is an awesome teacher and he gives me plenty of chances to teach and lead lessons so I am feeling more and more like an instrument in God's hands! We asked our ami, Fr Durand, is he was interested in being baptised and he said he was so hopefully that works out!

That's all I really have this week! I know everybody is pretty busy during this joyous season but just know I love you all and I pray for all of you to feel the love of Heavenly Father all year round!

WEEKLY WISDOM: "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more"- How The Grinch Stole Christmas

PHOTOS:

1. Asking Santa(aka my District Leader) what I want for Christmas

2. Selfie with some random kids haha

3. Selfie with my fellow Elders!

4. Merry Christmas You Filthy Animals

5. One of my Christmas presents from home was an 8oz. tub of Chik-fil-a sauce and it was so beautiful

6. Pagne Guys!

Treat Yoself- Week 11

BONJOUR ET JOYEUX NOËLLE

How's everybody doing this beautiful Christmas season? I hope everyone takes time to really appreciate this wonderful time of love and charity towards one another and knows the true meaning of Christmas!  As for me, I honestly forget that it's christmas sometimes due to the lack of snow and lack of radios blasting christmas music everywhere but we have a cool event on Christmas Eve with our mission, the east mission, and even other religions meeting together to

sing and rejoice in our Savior so that is something I'mvery much looking forward to! I also got roped into singing a duet of "The First Noel" for it  so that will be fun also!

This week has been a blast! The highlight was definitely that I had the opportunity to singing "La Paix Est En Christ"(Peace in Christ) for three different zone conferences comprising of 6 zones! About a month ago, Presiden Lewis asked if I would sing it and keep it a secret(especially from my mom) since it was the answer to a bunch of scripture clues that they have been giving every month. It was such a cool experience to already have opportunities to bear my testimony on my mission in French! There were also a lot of unseen perks from doing this haha. First off, since the standard of singing here is very very low, everyone was VERY impressed with my song and so everyone thinks I'm a professional singer or something haha. Also some Sister missionary is making me a cake so no complaints there. Also the pagne products dude heard me sing to and he gave me a free tie because he liked it so much!

That also lead to my Treat Yoself this week! When the Pagne guy gave me the free tie he also gave me a discount for an awesome pagne backpack so I couldn't resist and it's also Christmas so why not? Then I also decided to treat myself even more and get a whole roll of pagne and gave it to a tailor to make a complete custom outfit for me so I am really excited for that. I already know that I will be covered in pagne when I get home haha.

This Saturday was mutations(transfers)! My comp got transferred out so I'm staying in Beago with my new companion, Elder Fernando! He's from Benin and super chill so I think we'll get along fine! I've only been with him a couple hours but there's been no problems so far haha. It was sad to see Elder Agbahounzo leave though. We got super close this past week since my french has been getting a lot better so we joked around a lot and it was a party with him. With all of my singing and all, he started joking around with others that he is my manager and that if they want we to sing, they have to go through him so that was super funny. 

The work hit a little slump this week mostly due to the fact of how busy we were. It was pretty disappointing though because we had 3 baptisms lined up but they all fell through. Sr Flore accepted our baptism invitation but then her mom said she wasn't ready so we had to put it off for a while, then Sr Rochelle's mother said she couldn't be baptised right as we were about to invite her to be baptised, then Fr Odilo who has been progressing and coming to church every week for the past few months, suddenly decided to return to his Catholic church which was probably one of the most disheartening things so far on the mission. It was pretty hard and I was honestly pretty angry because I want to save these people's souls so bad and I want these people to accept the truth so bad! Hopefully they all work out eventually and my companion gave me good advice from Elder Bednar that this work doesn't really start until someone tells you no so I'm going to take that to heart and continue this work with boldness!

WEEKLY WISDOM: "Il est l'espoir quand tout est perdu  Il est ma force quand je n'en peux plus  Il est un rempart devant les tourments  Quand le monde est triste LA PAIX EST EN CHRIST"

There was a lot this week but I hope my emails give you a good sense of my adventures here in Cote d'Ivoire! I have my trials and difficulties for sure but this work and my love for it helps me overcome everything and I progress as a missionary and disciple of Christ!

PHOTOS

1. Last pic with my formateur!(I'll have a pic with my new comp next week!)

2. Zone Conference pic!https://youtu.be/lP42RvRp-DA

Canyons In The Sky- Week 10

Bonjour cher frères et soeurs!

Okay I'll get right to it one of my favorite things about Africa is the SKY. Literally the clouds are enormous and beautiful and I'm mesmerized every time I look up at the sky. I do miss the towering mountains of Utah but the sky always is changing and it's like a painting that changes every time you glance upwards it's amazing. I try and capture on my camera how pretty it gets but it's not the same.

So the most common form of transportation besides a normal taxi or walking is called a baka. It's just a huge van that they specially fitted to have as much seats as they can inside and then just pile people in. There's usually up to 12 people at a time in the baka at a time it is very squishy and sweaty but it's fun! I heard from a very reliable source that one missionary had a woman give birth in a baka while he was in it so that who knows I'll have to keep my guard up haha. You know for a fact that when I have a minivan for my future family I am calling it "Baka"

So on our way to our ward which started in ten minutes, we got a call from the bishopric asking for one of us to give a talk and the task fell on me since my comp gave the talk last time so during the beginning announcements, I chose the topic of missionary work and found 3 scriptures. That was probably the hardest and most stressful prayer I've ever given during the sacrament but I felt the comfort. When I got up to give my talk, I don't know if it was divine assistance or just dumb luck but the mic stopped working and it started pourring rain on the thin tin roof when I started my talk so basically nobody could hear me. I was trying my best and projecting a lot so people could hear me to no avail so they motioned me to go into the aisle. The rain died down a little but I still had to talk pretty loud and then my limited french didn't really help haha but I honestly felt so powerful haha. I felt I was on an apple crate giving a sermon like in the first picture of Preach My Gospel with Dan Jones raising a Book Of Mormon to the air it was awesome!

The French is honestly coming along no matter how many times I think it is hopeless and pointless. Everytime I get down about the language, I always somehow find comfort in a tender mercy that Heavenly Father has given me and I can always turn to him in prayer for comfort and prayer.

WEEKLY WISDOM: Elder Bednar taught that it is very important to know of the enabling power or "grace" of the Atonement, not just the redeeming power of the Atonement. The Atonement is not just for sinners, but also for saints who need the strength to overcome their trials and make their burdens seem light.

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. I managed to snag a picture from the back of a Baka. Hopefully that gives a sense of what it's like haha

2. It rained a lot that day and since there is no sewer system sometimes water blocks roads and even small alleyways. The response is to lay out cinder blocks as stepping stones.

3. Another attempt to capture the pretty sky here!

You Guys Like Chawarma?- Week 9

BONJOUR

Another week and another email from you pal Elder Perkins reporting from Cote d'Ivoire announcing that it has been another amazing week! And yes I finally had chawarma after so many years of seeing Avengers and it is super good!

We had the baptismal service for Frère Christ on Saturday! I got to be one of the witnesses and then also the next day I got to pass the sacrament to him right after being confirmed so it was the first time he took the sacrament as a member so that was special and he also got up and bore his short and sweet testimony afterwards. It was the strongest I have felt the Spirit in church and is one of the many memories that I will cherish from my mission.

This Saturday was the Annual Stake Relief Society Activity and I expected it to be something like in the movie the RM where they showcase ice sculptures or something but I was dead wrong. Basically every ward either did a little skit or a dance and they just blasted music the whole time and almost everyone was standing the whole time dancing so it was like a party and it lasted for 4 hours! Missionaries aren't allowed to dance so all of the missionaries were just in the back however the temptation was great to just jump up and start dancing haha. It was cool to see their culture a little more and get to know the members better. And afterward they had some super good food. The beauty of Africa is that for some dishes you eat with your hands and I love it. I was already a messy eater before my mission and it will only get worse hehe.

And now it's time for the fun Africa stories! First off people confuse us all of the time as missionaries from other churches which is probably pretty common for missionaries. The most we get is Jehovah's Witness but this week on two separate occasions people thought we were from the Anti-Christ church that is here and we immediately shot that down because we are the exact opposite of that haha. The power went out a total of who knows honestly this week so it was pretty hot. One night the power went out twice so I got barely any sleep. A lady stopped us in the middle of the road yesterday and invited us inside her house and introduced us to everyone because her son told her about how he sees us all of the time. The mother introduced us to her son Junio and said every time we walk by we have to come say hi so we definitely didn't say no. As we left the mom said to her son "Now you have a white friend"

WEEKLY WISDOM: LIGHT. THE. WORLD. Follow the calendar that the church sent out as much as you can and remember the true meaning of Christmas! 

Photos!

1. Picture at the Relief Society Party with some photobombers

2. CHAWARMA

3. Baptism pic with Fr Christ and Fr Elie, a nine year old from the ward that got baptised too!