Week 33 Email: To sum up this week...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, January 31, 2022
Subject: To sum up this week...

Bonjour tout le monde! J'espère que vous avez passé une bonne semaine. This week turned out to be one of my most favorites of my mission so far!

Tuesday Elder Meline and I went to district council and on on way there we couldn't find a taxi so we just walked but we had left at 9:30 so it gave us plenty of time to get to the church in bé-kpota by 10. In our district council we had an amazing lesson all about christ-like attributes and how we can apply them into our lives DAILY! We had to search for scriptures in the Book of Mormon to find examples of people living like Christ did and it was so cool! You can find anyone in any chapter basically, all you have to do is pick one haha. That afternoon we didn't have any rendez-vous so we went to Adakpame and started to just talk to people. We ended up going to a boutique of a member and found 2 new amis there within 10 minutes. It was pretty cool to see that even though we weren't actively trying to find people at that time that the Lord knew where we were and sent them to us to talk to. We also got stood up by an ami who speaks English but he promised that we could come by this week on Tuesday to have a lesson. 

On Wednesday we did a lot of contacting people that we met on the street. Just talking with them really. Not all the time talking about the gospel but still inviting them to come to church. It's really interesting how many people here have their eyes glued to you when you're 2 white people walking through the streets. I swear that if it's not the little kids screaming "YOVO YOVO BONSOIR" then it's the older generation just staring you down. But then you go and talk to then and they are caught off guard so you can get a good little laugh out of that. 

Thursday was another day of contacting in the morning and teaching one lesson. The lesson went alright but the maman wasn't 100% interested in what we were saying and by the end of it said that she would have to think about everything that we shared with her because she didn't want to leave the catholic church. It's sad when people say that after hearing the truth but everything happens in His time and His way so we have to take it as we get it. Thursday evening and night we actually had to call Elder Simon and ask him how to get to some places because they were marked weird on the map and there weren't any phone numbers. Thankfully he was in GOAT mode and helped us out a TON while we were looking for the amis. We ended up teaching some great lessons all centered around the Book of Mormon. I love those lessons because you can really see the simplicity of the true gospel when you can share it like that. We ended off the night by going to Anfame and having a coordination with the missionaries to talk about our amis and how we can get member help. I am hoping that some of the things we talked about will help us find more people here in Anfame.

Friday we had our first planning session and we got to celebrate Elder Meline being in Africa for a week! We made a goal to find more people with the help of members and try to just talk to everyone. So far so good on that count but it's only been a few days haha. We went and walked around Adakpame and saw a fist fight happening over a soccer ball so we decided that we should go the other way. We met a Jehovas Witness and he treated us like ki gs until he found out that we weren't part of his church. He then proceeded to yell at us to get out of his sight and he hoped that God would punish us for sharing the false news to the people of Africa. I was a little bummed out after that experience because it's never fun to get yelled out like that especially because there were lots of people who heard, so we went and walked away and actually got stopped by someone who knew the missionaries but never did any lessons. His name is Guy and he's pretty cool. He said that we couldn't talk that moment because he was at work and didn't want to get jnto trouble if his boss showed up but that he would try and find a free time in his schedule so that we could come and do lessons with him. We exchanged contacts and then went on another goose chase to find an ami. Except this time it was an error by me so I was mad at myself that I made it hard for other people too. Everything worked out though and we ended up finding Sœur Esther's house and I fixed the coordinates so that we could find it better next time. She was at work but we got told she would be coming back soon so we walked around  and talked with people but it was getting late so we headed over the the church to have another missionary council but this time for Adakpame. We didn't get fed this time but that's okay because we got to help teach seminary too. 

Saturday I sawa new part of Anfame that I hadn't seen before. The buildings looked decently built and had a tile finish kinda thing on them. (I'll put pictures below) we also went and talked to Sœur Dina nd Frère Louis and Elser Meline get sized up for an African shirt. We got to talk to Frère Justin too and he got us some juice that tasted pretty good. In Adakpame we went and talked with a member about some of her friends that have stopped coming to church and answering calls from us. She said they're just busy and hopefully soon they can come back so we're going to cross our fingers. Then as we were going to visit someone else we got stopped by some people and got to give the first lesson right there! Elder Meline taught a lot of it too and I'm impressed with his French. Only a week in Africa and he's able to get the gospel principles across for people to understand them. I'm happy that President Peoudfoot chose me to be his trainer because I learned a lot from him thag day. Study had and it's going to pay off. Then we got to talk to another guy as we were all walking down the street and he said that he was going to read the brochure and do it with his wife and his kids and his parents and anybody that he could find! It was really great. Miracles happen when you're least expecting them. 

Sunday was kinda a low day for me. I woke up and was sick so we had to stay at the apartment for the morning because I wasn't getting any better. But after lunch I had more strength and was able to keep food down so we went out to sector. And it was freaking great!! We both forgot the brochures of the first lesson and we found people in Anfame who said that they would try to come to church. Who knows tho? But with the brochures we just gave out slips of paper with our number and took their numbers and put them into the phone. And then that night we went over to a members house and she fed us food. She had made a peanut sauce with paat. It's the dough thing in the picture. Elder Meline was super excited to eat it and it was funny to watch because he couldn't figure out how you're supposed to eat it for a second. (Been there done that) but after a second her figured it out and actually beat me eating it which was surprising. 

This week I wanted to talk about the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith said that it is the keystone of our religion and rhjs week I was thinking a lot about that. I have had a testimony of the Book of Mormon from the first time that I read it and over these past however many months that I have been on my mission I have come to see that that has grown. The Book of Mormon isn't just another book that was written by someone here upon the earth. It was translated by an illiterate man by the power of God. It talks about the ancient Americans and their struggles with one another and the coming of Christ to America after his death in Jerusalem. It is quite literally another testament of Jesus Christ. And is the most correct book here upon the earth. Through the Book of Mormon I kkkw that we all can find happiness and joy in our lives and that we can get on the right path to make it back to our Heavenly Father after this life. This week I invite everyone (including myself) to read the Book of Mormon daily and truly study those words. I know that if you do this then you will feel the presence of God in your life through the day every day. 

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!! Feel free to email me I promise that I read every single one of them but I may not have time to respond :)

Signing off, 

Elder Garcia

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