Week 15 Email: Frere Rasta Man and LOTS OF RAIN

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, September 27, 2021
Subject: Frere Rasta man and LOTS OF RAIN

Bonjour tout le monde! Comment-allez vous?

This week was something interesting for sure haha. First off we had a whole bunch of rain just decide that it was time to come down so the work stopped for a little bit which felt like FOREVER. The senior couple came up this week too to do our inspection and I can gladly say that we passed hah. They go home soon but it has been really good to get to know them. And they know Herriman area so there's a chance they said that we might be able to talk when I get home! So that would be pretty cool. Then the day after we had the Zone Leaders come up and that was cool too. Elder Fowers is from Utah too so we got to talk about that and it was in Franglish (if that's even a thing). He goes home around december so there's still time to get to know his ideas for what to do out here in Africa so I'm looking forward to that. His companion is Elder Appiah and he's from Ghana. He speaks English too but he really encouraged me to speak French so I learned a lot more to say the least. This is his last few weeks here and it's sad because he's a pretty chill dude. And I guess Appiah is like Smith in America... you say your last name is Appiah and everyone knows that you're from Ghana haha. We played ping pong and talked while it was raining. Not gonna lie y'all, it's kinda nice when there are 4 Elders in an appartment.

On Tuesday we were going to go and teach an ami who has been having a hard time keeping lesson appointments but he promised us he would be there so we headed out and when we got fhere he wasn't there :/ but his mom was and she's a recent(ish) convert so we shared a message with her and I found Ramen!! I asked her how much for 1 package and she told me 100 XOF so I pulled out 3 little 100 Franc coins gave them to her and she loaded up the bag with way more than 3. The people here are seriously some of the best and nicest people ever!!

Saturday it decided to be like utah weather so I felt right at home. We woke up and went to one lesson with Frère Stanley, his mom asked us to teach him and he is progressing really well! Then after we went in search for a photocopy place because Elder Obeya needed a new album for his mission pics he's been printing off from another boutique here. That was a fiasco to say the least, riding bikes all around Kpalimé trying to find this place was a little hard. But we found it so all is well. We had a lesson with some kids that afternoon so we headed down there and I hot to lead the lesson! It was pretty cool. My French isn't perfect but they helped me to get my sentences to make sense. 2 of them are members and the other 2 are so close to baptism, we just need to have the branch open up again so they can go to sacrament meeting. (Keep in mind it is super hot and the sun is out right now) We had another lesson all the way at the entrance to Kpalimé, which is close to a 25 min bike ride so we started off on that adventure and then the rain came... again. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when we were teaching the kids and then all of a sudden just BAM! Clouds. So we turned back because when the rain comes in Africa there is nobody to teach and all of our amis decide to suut down their houses for the day/night. We got back to the appartement just in time. Once we set foot inside it's like someone turned on the power because it just poured.

Sunday we went to a members house for sacrament and that was really cool. I didn't get a picture of it but I will try next week. We had loads of teaching lessons so we were busy all day and since rhere wasn't any rain during the day yesterday we got to go to all of them!

Now onto the subject line. A little while ago my comp and I met this guy on the street and didn't get his name. Well when the senior couple came up here he was out front so we went out to see if we could teach him. Sadly though he just wanted money from us and wasn't interested in what we had to say. But Elder Obeya liked his bracelets so he had me ask him (because he only speaks English) where we could find them. And then on Friday Elder Obeya asks me if I remember where Frère Rasta Man said we could get them. I started dying of laughter on the inside because I was thinking the same thing but I didn't want to be rude. So it's safe to say that we have a new friend named Frère Rasta Man.

Spiritual thought for this week:

As I was sitting trying to figure out whag it was that I wanted to say for this one thing kept coming to my mind. "Love one another as Jesus loves you"

I will not lie to you guys, being in a whole new country with a very different culture has been challenging to get used to but as I have relied on the Lord to help me I have found a love dor the people here in Africa. And that love continues to grow each day. So for this week my invitation for all y'all is to "love one another as Jesus loves you"

I love you all! Thank you for your emails they are fun to read. Until next week...

Elder Garcia