Week 61 Email: Exchanges and Transfers

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, August 15, 2022
Subject: Exchanges and Transfers

Bonjour tout le monde! Comment vous-allez? I really hope that you guys are doing well. This week we found out transfer news and I did some exhanges. And as usual I didn't take many pictures haha, the ones that I have though I will attach them.

This week we started off with me doing an exchange with Elder Tumuteke. He is in the sector of Apedokoe (ah-peh-doe-quai) and it's the end of the transfer so I thought that we could do an exchange together before the transfer ends. We went up to my sector Sanguera (zan-gayr-uh) and we got to use the bikes! Over this past transfer we haven't been able to use them because my companion has a little difficulty with them but we still can walk so that's something. And it's weird to me saying this but I really missed being able to use the bikes. I didn't think that would be the case after Kpalime but I definately did haha. We kinda had all of our appointments fall through so we spent a second talking with people and visiting those people that hadn't come to church last Sunday. And then the day kinda got rocked. Because we have bikes, there is someone who comes and takes a look at them and helps us repair anything that isn't working eery transfer at least once. Well, we got a call from the other Elders telling us that we needed to come back to that apartment so that we could have our inspection and reperations. So we flew down the roads and came back to the apartment. These past few weeks the weather hasn't been too terrible and mostly comfortable but flying down a road and oing uphills too makes you really tired and sweaty haha. But it's okay, we made it back to the apartment in less than 20 minutes so they weren't waiting really long. I got to sit an "help" the mechanic look at the bikes. He first cleaned them with gas, that you woud put into a car, and then he did repairs and showed me how to do some simple stuff that should actually be realy helpful. Also, I don't think that it is really normal to wash a bicycle with gasoline, but I also don't know much about bicyles so someone that does should let me know! 

I got to go and do some baptismal interviews this week for the sisters too. The sisters are killing it over in their sector in all honesty. I feel like I am there all of the time to do interviews, but that's a good thing because that means that they are helping people progress in the gospel. I got to talk with 2 sisters and it was really good. I got to use the little Ewe (the native language here in Togo) that I know to kinda help one of the girls understand, but mainly her sister helped with the translation. It was a really sweet experience for me to get to talk to them. They are really amazing people and this past weekend they were able to make the baptismal covenants with their father in heaven!

The day after I got to be with the one and only Elder Kempe! We got to do an exchange together, since he is a Zone Leader and I'm a District Leader, and we got to have the MTC comps work together for a day. It was a really fun exchange and even more fun to really see how much we have grown over the past year of being in Africa. I can thankfully say that we actually understand French now too! That's aa blesing in itself haha. While in his sector, Agoe (ah-go-way), we were headed back to the apartment to eat food and stopped and got some food from one of the mamas who sells rice and beans on the side of the rode. Normally, for the amount of food that we got given we would have to each pay 500 cfa but we didn't even pay that for both of them together! I handed her a 1000 cfa and she gave me 600 cfa back. We ate really good to say the least. I also got to cop a book about President Nelson from the apartment there and have been reading it and I love it! (More on the later)

On Friday we woke up to find that it was HOT outside. You might be thinking that it's Africa and that it's going to be hot and while that is true, like I said a little bit before the weather has been comfortable and not terrible lately, but Friday it was immediate walking outside meant that you were sweating. My companion and I got to do our last planning of the transfer and then we headed out to sector. Here in Sanguera we have this massive family that we teach every Tuesday and Friday night. A lot of the kids are members but there is only 1 adult who is and the rest are all investigators. So we went and visited them and as usual we got some food. Porriage and scones. And then we shared a lesson on Spiritual Momentum based on the talk that President Nelson gave in conference in April. 

Saturday was even hotter than Friday, so temperatures were back to normal until it got to the evening. Then everything cooled off again and I actually thought that it was going to rain but it didn't sadly :/ We got transfer calls Saturday night too. I will be staying here in Sanguera for my 4th transfer (by the end of that it will be ablout 6 months in the same place) and my companion will be going to another sector. It's really sad because he is a very smart person and I have learned so much from him about the gospel and he has helped me in so many ways to grow my own testimony. But this move will be good for him too because he will be able to be closer to the dentist. He has an appointment this Friday to get 2 teeth removed so if you could please add him to your prayers to make sure that everything will go good and according to plan it would help a lot!

On Sunday we had a total of 13 investigators at church! That was really good for this week and I was really happy for them and to see all of that hard work pay off. Elder Ipatutele gave a really good testimony and there were many sad to see him leave. I am too.

Something funny that happened this week was yeasterday I was talking with Elder Proffit, the other american in the apartment, and a member from Apedokoe and we say this old guy not much taller than me on a motorcycle with a tire around his waist just transporting it back to his house. It wasn't a normal tire either, imagine a tire bigger than a trucks tire but not as big as ones that would be used for like mining vehicles. you could sit in it comfortably. The best part about it was that the first thing that came to my mind was "Dang dude, you got some good balance." not "That's something that you only see in Africa!" In fact that didn't even occur to me until Elder Proffit said that he wished he had taken a picture of it haha.

So this week, like I said, I have been reading a book about President Nelson entitled Russell . Nelson Father, Surgeon, Apostle. It was published in 2003 I think so it's as old as me! I have actually loved being able to read this book though, it's a biography and so I have been able to learn more about our prophet and him growing up and how he was prepared by the Lord to be His prophet here upon the earth. Because of this book my testimony of our living prophet has grown immensily over the past week. Not only did President Nelson lose his 5th daughter to cancer and later his first wife, he grew up in a family that wasn't really active in the church. When he was a young man he was baptised and he didn't go on a mission. Like many know he is a world renouned surgeon and has helped many people. In the book I read of an experiance that I had heard about somewhere before my mission but it was even cooler to read it in his own words. When Dr. Nelson was preforming a heart surgery that had never been done before he said that he had an image come to his mind. An image of where to place the stitches with dotted lines and everything! The Lord really, truly does look out for His children. There are so many more experiances that were shared, and I don't have the time to share them all so I invite you to read the book if you are interested. It is very amazing. I know that President Russell M. Nelson is the prophet of God here upon the earth today. I know that he was called of God to help His children prepare to meet Him in these last days. I know with all of my heart that He knows you and that He listens to every prayer you send. I know that President Nelson truly recieves revelation to lead and guide us. 

I love you guys! And I hope that you have an amazing week! I will catch ya next week

Photos:

A scenery 

Exchange with Elder Tumuteke