Service is Great!

So, I got my BOX, thank you so much momma, all the missionaries loved
watching me open it haha and all the stuff that was inside. I am making
sure to share with everyone but gosh everything is so great! I did
not go hungry thanks to you momma. okay so i went a little hungry but
not TOO hungry  hahaha but it was amazing. thank you so much momma.
but here is a lil note to it, No more sunscreen, baby wipes, baby
powder, saline solution, hair gel, or bug spray will be necessary :)
seeing as I have not even opened the ones I came with. but thank you
so much momma. Love love love the snacks, GUM poptarts vitamins
protein bars, and PEANUT BBUTTTER :) so good momma thank you so much.
Oh and I loved the  Jesus pictures you posted all over it hahaha
:) mom you are honestly the best. thank you :)

But I just wanted to thank some wonderful people I got some mail from
this week!:) you people give me awesome stuff to look forward to every
week, and I am sooooo grateful! Gosh, i had a big ol pile of letters
when I got home and i was so happy.Thank you Thomas and Laura, JEN,
Rebecca, Aunt Deb, Katie (as well), Miranda, Rachel, Mr. WHITLEY,
Gabriella, MOMA, sisterdowd, and Casssy! the soccer highlights and
everything were great. The africans all ran away with it all and went
and locked themselves in their room reading all the highlights and the
transfers so they are very grateful and wanted me to tell you guys
thank you!:) Miranda, your letter was amazing, I was laughing the
whole time. Rebecca, I am glad that life is so exciting for you right
now ;) I love your letters and stories so much! thank you all for
taking your time to talk to me :)

So, on to another amazing week in the amazing mission field of the
amazing Sierra Leone. So lets start on a high note...and talk about
all the dead dogs I see in a day. There are DOGS EVERYEWHERE in this
country. They just roam around  and nobody really claims them. You can
on average see at least 10 on the street dead everyday...it is really
sad. :( i am sorry animal lovers...I am moved and I don't even like
dogs that much.

My fingernails are actually looking normal now...Before, i used to
bite them, but gosh you would never ever bite your nails after shaking
hands all day here haha, so they are actually growing for once in my
life :) so hidden blessings  right?

So there is a strange INDIAN/ Chinese culture here.Everyone loves their
music and their movies? its really quite strange. But, get on the
street or in a taxi and I have not heard a white musician/actor yet.
Not even American music for the most part. Mostly just Nigerian
rappers haha, which are suprisingly really good, and sound kinda like
American music,but like no cursing, as far as I can understand with
the slight langauge varients hahaha. So that is really interesting.
Speaking of taxis, we managed the impossible the other day, and fit 7
people in a taxi...with 2 obese people in the back....yes my face was
smashed against the window. what an intresting time :)

So,on Fridays, it is prayer day. So starting around  6 or so in the
morning, the Muslim chants start up, and people get out these giant
microphones and just yell for hours, and people grab their heads and
start yelling and bowing and wow its interesting hahaha but that goes on
pretty much all the day long. So its uh...rather peaceful to sit down
and listen to after a long nights sleep? Um...sure :)

Everyone here has the same last names forreals hahaha. There are SOOOO
many Conteh's Kamara, Kallon, Banguras. Wow like seriously I know 20
Contehs. and Muhamed....oh my gosh I have met at least 200 people with
the name Muhamed hahah gosh there is no orginality when it comes to
naming children here hahah :)

Oh, By the way, there is a cotton tree in our compound! MASSIVE.gosh
it is so sweet :) Hey, Miranda, here is some answers to some of your
questions. We started teaching women a lot this week, so yeah. Most
jobs I see are just lil markets on the side of the road, hawking in
some places, taxis and motorcycles everywhere, and manual labor for
very menial jobs (breaking rocks), everywhere. The people dress: well,
1 of every 5 people you see if wearing a socceer jersey. Young or old
male or female. They wear shorts, jeans, but every single shirt you
see is very faded, even the jersies you can't read the names anymore,
because the only way they wash is washboards which just grind the
material off, so yeah. Women will dress a lot in these long  dresses.
The city is pretty sweet at night. For such a giant
city there are not so many lights, but most people do have electricity
here, at least in the city area. Outskirts, not so much.

So, here is a great story about the baptisms yesterday...bet you never
heard a baptismal story like this. So, we joined with 6 other
missionaries for the baptism of 4 people. We had one young lady being
baptized by her brother, Her name is Sally Comeh, being baptized by
George. So, we have our opening hymn and all that stuff and then make
our way out back to the baptismal font. President and Sister Roggia were
with us as well. Took some pictures, then proceeded to the baptisms.
Elder Ngerem and I were the witnesses and the baptisms began. First,
was Sally. So they could not get it right for the 5 times they tried.
He grabbed her neck one time. He was like almost drowning her, and
could not get her all the way under with any of his attempts. It was
really sad because she was shaking so bad because she was so cold (and
you don't play when Africans are cold because they ALL get sick very
very easy if they are cold). So, President Roggia asked for Elder
Symons to baptize the young lady, which he did. He then baptized his
two young converts. Then the last companionship was baptizing a very
tall man....and uh I don't really know what happened. He said the
prayer...then slammed the man in the water very hard hahaha which
splashed me and Elder Ngerem al over, but he didn't go all the way
under. He also arose with a gash on his forhead which was bleeding
pretty quick :/ so I bet he won't forget that baptism. But, all in all
it was a very beautiful experience when it was all said and done and I
am very grateful that 4 wonderful people were able to accept this
amazing gospel and enter into the waters of baptism :)

The following day I gave a talk in Sacrament as well, :)

Oh, I also got kissed on Saturday by a drunk African...Yes, that was
very strange. He wanted us to teach his family but they were all
drunkie drunk so we gave them a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and tried to
depart and he gave me and my companion a hug and kissed our necks.
Very strange...very very strange experience....

I got to witness some awesome changes happening in the mission when I
was on my exchange with Elder Walker the other day. I think we took a
picture that went on the blog but who knows. Some sweet stuff is going
on in the mission and it is very exciting to witness :) wish I could
say more , but I'm really not sure if  I am supposed to so as for now I
will not.

I had an amazing spiritual experiene when I was with Elder Walker the
other day. I was telling Elder Walker (district Leader) that I wasn't
sure how to truly recognize if the spirit was in the lesson. The
lessons were going great and I don't know how they could go any
better, but how could I be positive the spirit was in the lesson?
so...I continued on with the day after not receiving a complete answer
to my question...So,we taught this one lady and I was bearing
testimony of a modern day prophet and when I finished she looked me in
the eyes (as if nobody else was in the room) and she was like I can feel
the Spirit testify to me what you said is true, and I can feel at this
very moment that you have the Spirit with you and it is very strong,
and I can feel it, and It is of our Heavenly Father....I was just like
uh...woah :) so of course, I recognized it as an answer to my prayer
to recognize the Spirit. It is not always a powerful impression, but
oftentimes just comes as a result of obedience and being a "good boy"
(see Elder Bednars talk on the 100 mark not, I think it is something
like that) :) so that was a great experience for me :) and I know the
Lord is in the work and is with me through whatever I may go through!
I am so grateful :)

By the way, random, but I sent a letter home to send to Thomas and
Laura :) yeah...

Service is truly amazing. The other day we went to a brand new area.
No missionaries have any records of having ever visited there, but I
felt promted that we should go and try. My companion wanted to...but
insisted the jounrey would be very difficult for the people from there,
but he is a great companion and Saidu decided to take us. So we met
one of his old friends who was out farming on the side of the
mountain. So we all grabbed his buckets and walked down about 300
yards to the lil riverish/lake and filled the buckets. along the way
these girls were all yelling at me "Pumwei, Whattin you do?" so I told
them that we were just helping water the plants, so they were
interested and we got like4 new investigators down there. Keeping in mind,
not akward anymore, but everyone down at the river was
naked...yeah...Thomas knows I bet, but gosh its like uh...your
naked...and you speak to me as if nothing is weird
here....yeah...still kinda weird. but we went on to teach the boy we
helped and even got to teach his family later in the week :) So I can
testify that service is divine, and the Lord wants us to give as
much service as we can. When we are in the service of man,we are only in
the service of our Heavenly Father.

I have been CRUISING through the Book of Mormon! Gosh I am already in
like Helaman hahaha.I am trying to finish so I can get started on the
New Testmant. But, I have received so much amazing personal revelation
reading and studying this time through. I have been using the manuals
and cross references and ah it just has been great. I have learned more
then all my studies combined before my mission :)

So, a hard experience this week. Apparently, (found out after an
exchange), one of our stubborn older investigators does not like me at
all. She says that I cannot speak Krio and does not want me to come
back to her house. So she said this while I was gone, so of course we
went to her house the next day. So we sat and waited and she came back
in the house and was just like, I will not listen to a word you say if
you do not speak in Krio, you might as well get outta of my house.
(keep in mind this is me trying to understand her krio, arm movements,
slash yelling hahah :) ) so I am just like "me no sabe nothing! Me only
sabe small small krio, but dis na de tru Gospel of jesus Christ, and
me sabe dis na tru bain bain. (so that is rougly interpreted as " I
don't understand anything! I only understand a lil krio, but I know
this gospel is true, and i know its very very true! )And she starts
laughing so hard, like rolling on the floor, and she just loved me
since that :) just smiles at me and tries to teach me Krio and at the
end of the lesson she wouldn't pray...but asked me to pray...in
Krio....So I knelt down...and did not say one word of my prayer
in Krio. As soon as the prayer ended I told her in straight English " I
will not pray to God in Krio if I don't even understand it myself, you
know what I am saying, he knows what Iam saying, that is all the
matters" and she did not argue at all (which is a first for this
stubborn woman) hahah so great times :) :) great great times. Ah, I
love the mission SOOOO much!:)

So please everybody, write my companion Elder Ngerem, Moma I know you
already did and gosh you have no idea what it meant to that poor guy.
He has nobody to mail,nobody to talk to. His family says they don't
want to distract him. So he even has permission to email anyone he
wants, but nobody emails him back. So please, anybody, please write
him at least a short letter, I know my momma knows the address so maybe
she can put it up. Thank you so much! you don't know how much it means.
NOTE FROM MOM:  I USED DEARELDER.COM TO SEND A LETTER
TO ELDER NGEREM - I DO NOT KNOW HIS EMAIL ADDRESS BUT
WILL TRY TO FIND IT.  IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL IF ANYONE
COULD SEND HIM A LETTER BY WAY OF DEARELDER.COM


Well,my time grows short. or shrinks short or something. I don't even
know anymore...but I love you all so much. Thinking about you guys
makes me so happy. I miss you guys lots but I know this is where I am
supposed to be. The mission is amazing. I urge everyone to go on one.
It truly will be the best 2 years of your life. It is hard! oh, it is
hard :) but it is oh sosososos worth it. I love you Family, I love you
friends. I love you all so very much. I will keep
you in my prayers everynight, especially my dear cousins serving in
Spain and China. I love you all. Have an amazing week!!!!!