Sion Selmer! Week???

Hello everyone!! Thankfully, I'm not writing this email in a loud, sweaty, sketchy internet cafe, I'm writing it in the comfort of my apartment! The mission started using smartphones since last July so that means we're able to just use our phones to write and talk with friends and family! It's honestly a huge blessing because going to the cyber was always not so much fun for multiple reasons!

Anyway this week there was a lot of work for this part of the vineyard! Or as one of our member friends puts it, Sion Selmer! Sion is just Zion in french and Selmer is the name of the stake! I thought it was pretty catchy! We had a stake conference this past weekend which was super amazing! It did involve a lot of work on our part to organize all the missionaries to welcome everyone and see which people were amis and welcome them! Elder Klebingat of the area presidency presided and it was awesome to hear him speak twice! He was super encouraging to the members to be involved in missionary work, to know their divine heritage and potential, and just a little about the Second Coming which was interesting haha. President Lewis was there to translate for him as well! Overall it was a busy, crazy, but awesome weekend!

Other than that, the sector of Andokoi is popping off! We've been able to find a bunch of super elect people who already are wanting to be baptized, it's just teaching them and helping fully realize the importance of baptism with proper authority and such, but all in due time! We're teaching Herman right now and when we taught about the restoration and showed him the Ask of God video(another perk of having phones here), he definitely felt of the Spirit! We taught about the Book of Mormon as well and helped him understand the importance of it all so we're hoping he can really come to know for himself! He also is a barber so I'm probably going to have him cut my hair this week so stay tune for that next week!

Well my feet are always tired at the end of the day which I guess is a good thing but it's mostly because our sector is about the same size as three sectors combined! There's just a lot of markets in it so that's mostly the reason why. The members are pretty concentrated in one area but every now and then we have to trek over to someone's house or pay a taxi or baka to get over there. So it's either the expense of our worn out feet or the expense of our money haha

We went on some exchanges this week with the elders in our Zone. There's only two other elder companionships in our whole zone and then two sister companionships, making just ten missionaries in total. Pretty small but it's kinda nice because it's just one district so we see the whole Zone often! Anyway we were able to work in their areas and it was fun to see other parts of the Zone and work with other awesome missionaries!

Real quick scripture that I loved from Elder Klebingat's message. It's from James 4:7 and reads: "...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" HOW NEAT IS THAT if we are able to resist the devil and his cunning deceptions, he will literally FLEE from us. We are stronger than him! He has no power unless we give in to his lies! Stay strong my friends!

Well that's kinda it for the week! I'll see y'all next time!

Elder Perkins

The Prodigal Blanc Returns March 8, 2021...Almost a YEAR later!

Oh boy oh boy has it been a crazy past couple of weeks. There's been a lot happening mostly because I was able to actually return to Cote d'Ivoire! There were honestly so many moments and days where I thought I wasn't going back just to hear about something to give me more hope. Such as the day before I was going to leave I was told that I'm not going because I didn't have a Visa and then a day later I had it. I don't even think I could explain everything that went into me getting back so in brief it was a ginormous miracle and how grateful I am for it!

As I left my mission in Arizona, it's weird to say that I'm in a way grateful for COVID for giving me the chance to work in the States as well! I hope I was able to leave a mark on some of the people and missionaries there because I know they left a mark on me!

As the title suggests, the return to my original mission also brings back the iconic "Le Blanc!" that I'll be hearing constantly for the next five months!!! Along with that there's also the constant 32°C with 100% humidity, bucket showers, terrible smells, death defying traffic...the works. And let's not forget about THE FOOD. Definitely a highlight here as there's garba, foutou, bisap, sauce, etc!

I'll be honest the place is basically the exact same as I left it. Like actually because I was assigned to the same area I was in for a week before I had the leave! Andokoi! So in some ways it feels like I'm just picking up where I left off! Which is kind of weird because last time I was here I was just over six months into my mission and then now I have less than six months left of my mission...kinda crazy! My companion is Elder Owuor and he's from Kenya! Super amazing missionary as he knows the people and the language super well as he had to learn French as well. We speak in English sometimes but we're pretty good at keeping it French. 

My French is kinda slacking because it's been a year since I've had to actually speak it constantly in about a year but you know my comp and the people are patient with me so I should be too. I can't expect it to be just as good as it was before right away. The same as before I just need to be patient with myself and with others as I readjust!

Also like COVID isn't a thing here...like hardly anyone has to wear masks except at markets and chuch(supposedly). So yeah it's almost like COVID never happened here. Which is relieving but also pretty strange. Hopefully things back home return somewhat to normal before I come back because I'll probably be terrible at wearing masks again haha

It was SOOOOOOO good to see President and Sister Lewis again! I can't believe they have been here the whole time having to lead and care for this mission with so much crazy happening. I missed them and love them so much!

Ahhhhhh there's just so much to talk about but in short, I'm here, im working, im sweating, and I'm ready to give these next 5 months my all for Cote d'Ivoire! 

Elder Perkins 

PHOTOS

1. Me and my companion chic Elder Owuor!

2. Conseil de Dirigeants! It was a blast!

3. Selfie with the elders

4. I WAS ABLE TO SEE FRÈRE OLIVIER AGAIN. I'm working in the same stake as my old area, Selmer, so I was hoping to see him eventually and I did! Crazy grateful for his faith and perseverance!

The last two pictures are two other missionaries took from his mission...to give you a sense of the food and area.