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

Au Revoir Beago- Week 18

Bonjour chère frères et soeurs

This week has been super fun and crazy so let's dive in!

Well first off, we got our calls for transfers Saturday night and I was transferred to the sector Selmer in the Yopougon Attié Zone! I'm super excited for a change of scene but it was also pretty sad saying goodbye to all of my amis and the members that I have gotten to know so well. It was my first sector so they all remember when I was absolutely terrible at french and now I'm only slightly terrible at french haha.

 In addition to my transfer, in the words of Elder Van Pelt from the movie Best Two Years..."This is it elder...junior companion... to District Leader!" I am also the Chef de District! I am super excited to be able to advance this work and help others in my district as well! I think I'm most excited to conduct baptismal interviews because I can see and hear the testimonies of all of the baptismal candidates in my district and it is such an honor! With this calling comes power. And as we all know, with great power, comes great responsibility!

Another fun time was that we went to clean the ward building again with our zone leaders and also the young men of their ward. It was super fun because we deep cleaned it and also cut the grass around the baptismal font out back. They were using machetes and rakes so it was maybe a little dangerous but it was fun. There are pictures below.

Ah I forgot to talk about my new companion! He's Elder Adams and he's from Utah like me so it's going to be a party but we're still going to work hard obviously. He came a transfer after me so we're basically on the same level and I know that we both will great things together! 

It's kind of been a long and tiring day making my over here too haha. by the time I got to the general area of the apartment, my comp was actually at a different apartment because he couldn't be alone either but I didn't know that. The taxi dropped me off with all of my suitcases and I didn't know where to go. Luckily a kind old lady offered to watch my bags while I looked for the apartment. Now you may think that's unwise but that's what's great about africa is that people are actually super nice and trustworthy. I found the apartment but simply asking "Do you know where the whites live?" and I found it in probably 5 minutes haha. Like I said they weren't there so I went back to my bags which were still there of course and just sat in the shade for a bit until they came. It was a little stressful but it actually gave me a lot of confidence in the language so I see it as a blessing.

As always, I love my mission and my sacred calling as a servant of my Heavenly Father! Let this next transfer be amazing! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. A very common sign on many walls in Cote d'Ivoire. I would explain it but it's a little inappropriate haha. Basically in Cote d'ivoire, if you gotta go, you go. Use google translate to help you out haha

2. "Mowing" the weeds near the baptismal font.

3. Hard at work as always!

4. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED haha. They found a rat while mowing and the one with the machete was very quick to kill it. Maybe just don't zoom in haha

5. Dope pic with the boys haha

6. One of my favorite kids in Beago. Her name is Oskan and she's super hyper so it's hard to get a good pic but I tried.