Alma 26 just all of it

Bonjour à tous! This week has been pretty fun with it being transfers and getting my trainee. I hope everyone is doing great and has had a great start to their summer! I hear it's pretty hot over their which is funny because the rains have cooled it off over hear so we're fine over here now!

So here's my week! Since I didn't get my trainee until Thursday night,  I was put together with the district leader in my old zone, who is training as well. Elder Doudou, an Ivorian, will go down in my mission history as my 3-day companion lol. I was in his area so it was fun to get to know some new people! 

Okay so Thursday night was when I finally got my trainee! His name is Elder Okojie and he's from Nigeria! I've only been with him a couple days but its already been fun! Being from Nigeria, he speaks English and is learning French, which makes it fun for me because I have to basically carry everything for a little bit while he gets adjusted. Awesome! But he's super humble, honest, and sweet and I'm so grateful for the short time I'll be spending with him!

My new area of Kouté is pretty cool! It literally borders my training area so I know it pretty well. Back in my training, we didn't have phones with the area maps so we would just work wherever the people lived who came to our church building. Meaning we would teach people that actually lived in the Kouté area instead of Beago. It's just funny to think that while I was working in my training, I was also working in my last area, unbeknownst to me!

Honestly, it's been a little hard coming into an area where work hasn't been done in a while. There wasn't much to go off of so we were just trying to call everyone on the short list of amis and potentials we have  and also the ward leaders. It was funny since I was using some Stateside mission tactics in getting into contact with people so that took me back! Probably the first time since I've been here that there's been more calls than lessons in the schedule haha. This week is going to explode with new amis and much potential as we are seeing amis, members, and finding people along the way! I love this work!

So I have some roommates now! Elder Angerbauer(we have the same birthday) and Elder Kaba(a super chill Congolese) are gonna make my last transfer super fun! The apartment is way nice, mostly due to the washing machine so my hand washing days are behind me at last! 

Anyway, as I'm looking at a little over a month to go, I've been pondering and thinking a lot of what my mission means to me. And it's been really hard. I have so many thoughts, experiences, stories, etc. that I have seen shape and refine me, but it's so difficult to really express everything my actual thoughts on all this. I'm going to spend most nights in my journal to really spend time trying to get my thoughts down on what this all means to me now and in the years to come! All I can say right now is that I LOVE my mission. No regrets. No second thoughts. Only joy and glory that comes from the Almighty!

Keep it real my friends. Don't forget who you are and what you stand for. Choose the right. Put your shoulder to the wheel. Push along. Push along.

Elder Perkins

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The Final Countdown, Goodbye Andokoi

Hello everyone! It's been a fun week and I hope everyone had a great Father's Day! Seems like yesterday was Mother's Day so that shows how fast time is going by! Anyways I love my papa who has taught me so much! Thanks for giving me a love for nature and all of God's creations! And thanks for your support in my soccer games, musicals, and especially my mission!

So today starts my last transfer or six weeks of my mission, which means there's gonna be a lot of lasts coming up here pretty soon such as last area, last comp, etc. However, I'm really excited for this last transfer because I have been called to train an new missionary! President Lewis is an inspired man because that's lowkey what I wanted even though I never told him hehe. I don't know who I'm training yet, since the missionaries arent coming in until Thursday. But it will most likely be and African who speaks French so I'm excited to leave my last imprints on the mission! I'll be in the zone of Yopougon Attié in the Kouté ward.

Sadly, this means that I will be leaving Andokoi and the Selmer Zone. I've been here for 4 months so basically everyone knows who I am especially the kids and it's been a good time. There's a lot of special and super prepared people here and I'm excited to see when they get baptized! I'm also leaving the Zone and all the missionaries have been a blast to work with. I'm grateful for my companion, Elder Owuor, who was so helpful in me getting used to African life once again and finding so much joy in the work and in the people!

On another note, we had an awesome conference with Elder Vinson this week! He was the old area president for west africa so he knows what's up! Including french which was cool to listen to with his Australian accent! We had a mini meeting right before with the mission leaders and him and he was so loving and supportive of us as missionaries so it was such a treat! We also were able to sing a little musical number for him which by african standards was pretty dang good honestly. It was also cool to see so many missionaries, both from my mission and Abidjan East! 

Oh yeah I almost forgot, so the old president of Cote d'Ivoire just got out of prison where he's been for the last 10 years and came home last thursday. We were all pretty aware of it because everyone was talking about it since everyone loved him I guess. Even President Lewis let us know that we would probably be asked to go to our apartments during the day to avoid riots and such. It was pretty interesting to follow but overall it wasn't too bad. There was some looting and theft in other, more sketchy, parts of abidjan, but where we were was pretty calm. Mostly just big groups of people running around singing which is chill. We were told to go inside at lunchtime but after a couple hours they said it was fine to go back outside so we did and nothing bad happened!

Anyway I'm excited for this new transfer to start as a trainer! How fitting that I'm becoming a (mission) dad around Father's Day! Anyway I know that these next weeks will be going by super fast as I'm training and doubling into a new area so before I know it I'll be home...yako pour moi eh?

Elder Perkins

PHOTOS

1. Rose Kinneth is a wild child but super fun! She stole my glasses though...

2. Got those (totally real)Gucci flip flops so what else do I really need from Africa?

3. Comp Selfie in a green part of our area!

4-7 Pics from conference with my fellow APM missioanries, my mts where we'll all be on the same plane going home, temple pic and choir pic!

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Pretty Fingers

Good morning brothers and sisters. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to write this email to you on this beautiful monday morning. For those who dont know me, I'm Elder Perkins and this is my weekly email.

I hope everyone had a great week! Things have been pretty nice over here. Mostly because it's been raining a lot more so it's been a lot cooler! Yay! It's honestly still pretty hot and humid but all the Ivorians think its freezing and are wearing hoodies and sweaters...if only they knew! 

Speaking of Ivorians, I dont know if they are just way too nice for their own good, very observant, or just plain creepy because it's happened multiple times where I've been complimented on my fingers...so maybe I should go into like hand modeling for men or something.

We had zone conference this week! It's super hype to see a wonderful group of missionaries ready to learn! My comp and I were in charge of getting food for our zone so we got tchep(basically just chicken with special rice and cooked vegetables) with fruit and soda and we dined like kings! We also learned a lot about consecration and Sister Lewis challenged us to find ways of how we can give EVERYTHING to the Lord!

Sunday we had ward conference for Andokoi and it was pretty neat because there was a lot more people there than usual! Most of them we stake leaders but a lot more members came nonetheless and a lot of amis were able to come, some for the first time! So it was pretty great! 

It was also pretty funny as we were going back out to sector after church with a member to visit her home. So a soccer player for the Ivorian nation team who is actually from Andokoi decided to come to town to play at the big dirt field in our area, which is also right next to the members house. So we tried walking by but the field was completely filled with people, including soldiers with AKs and tear gas so we were like NOPE and had to take the long way around. Pretty cool though!

Oh yeah funny thought I had yesterday. We watched the weekly missionary devotional(which are always phenomenal by the way) with Elder and Sister Christofferson. Sister Christofferson started and gave a really cool talk about how we need to unpack our bags and our hearts to fully settle into mission life and gave awesome examples of the saints in Kirtland, Ammon, and of course us missionaries! I really loved it but afterwards I had the thought "next time I unpack my bags, I'll be home lol" so that gave me a good laugh haha. I felt like I just got here honestly so it feels weird that I'm prepping to go home already. My fam got my flight plans last week so I'll be home Tuesday night, August 3rd! Crazy!

Sorry if this one turned a little long and I've been getting a little lazy with pictures so there's not even a temptation of at least scrolling through my email briefly just to look at my pictures haha but I wish everyone the best and to never forget that God loves you!

On est ensemble

Elder Perkins

Photos

We went by a part in our sector that we've honestly never been to before since it's huge and it was actually super pretty with lots of green and trees! So we decided to take some picture but none of them really turned out well but here they are nonetheless!

The Big 20

Heyo everybody! A lots happened this week and I honestly dont have the time to go over everything in this email but as many of you are aware yes today is my birthday and now I'm starting with the third decade of my life. The last two have been fun, and I can't wait to see how much my life changes in the coming years! I'm mostly just avoiding native ivorians today because the birthday tradition here is to dump a bunch of dirty water on the person whose birthday it is haha. Thanks everyone for the sweet birthday wishes!

We had a baptism this past Saturday! Frère Kouadio is an amazing person who could've been baptized a month ago but he's just been busy! I was able to baptize him and it was another great experience! He's already told us that he wants to share the gospel with his family! Which is great because he has like 8 kids who have children of their own! Pics below.

I also had interviews with President Lewis and Counseil des Dirigeants(MLC) this week! It was great to learn so much from such an inspired man and his completely amazing wife who are examples to me in almost every aspect of my life!

My day was mostly filled with shopping, talking with family, and meetings today so I wasn't able to really do anything today special. We're planning on going to a nice restaurant tonight so that's hype! 

That's mostly it for this week! My time here is still winding down and I'm excited and scared but it's all according to God's plan for me!

From papa: Today is Elder P's 20th birthday! If you have a minute, please wish him a happy birthday with an email to kartchner.perkins@missionary.org, or on Facebook.

Thanks for supporting him!

Mike