Week 75 Email: Dynamic Duo?!?

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, November 21, 2022
Subject: The Dynamic Duo?!?

Bonjour/Bonsoir tout le monde! J'espère que cette semaine a passé bien. (I hope this week has gone well) For us here in Tabligbo we definitely had a week for sure haha. Let me tell you about it. 

So we started of on Tuesday with a district council. And that was really weird because we have 2 companionship in the District as of right now. It went well though, we listened to a talk by Elder Holland and then one of the other Elders mentioned a talk by Elder Ballard and we all talked about how we can exercise our live and faith while here. It was overall a great experience. Tuesday afternoon came around and we were able to really focus on some amis while trying our best to contact others. But sometimes people just don't pick up thier cellphones. We ended up doing a lot of member visits and went out to Amoussimé, which is about 5km from our appartment. For those of you like me 5km is about 3 miles. The problem with this here road is that it is all dirt and rock and people go flying by like it's a racecourse. And it's uphill both ways, with some downhill involved. It was a long ride but pretty worth it to go and talk to the members out there. Even if the bike seat has no padding at all :)

Wednesday was a great day of planning out the week again. With us being 3 people and 2 sectors we have used the planning sessions to really focus in on what it is that we can accomplish with members and amis and also as ourselves as we use our own efforts to work. We have become pretty used to how to work together so it was great to get everyone's input to how we should talk to this person or who we think could call another. And then I got to do some baptismal interviews! We do them by phone call here because we're so far away but it's okay because the Spirit is still there. It can be hard to understand sometimes but after we say the prayer the comprehension is there. We also went to the church to wait for a member to help us bit he was bust so we talked talked the newly called creak and I helped him translate somethings from English to French and then helped him with some member information. I honestly had no idea how much work a clerk does until this past Wednesday... it was also kind of fun to teach him keyboard shortcuts haha. We ended the night by calling those that were are school in the morning to get some lessons fixed with them. 

Thursday was a day to day the least haha. We started off as 3 and ended as 2. Hence the title of this week's email. So the morning started off normal we went to our lessons and visited the Elders Quorum president and gave a blessing and then came back to eat lunch. Well as we were getting ready to leave we get a message from the Zone Leaders saying that we need to go to Lomé (1½-2hrs away) ASAP. We'll we had lessons and baptismal interviews to do. One of my companions reminded the zls and then asked if we could do it tomorrow instead. We didn't get a response so we left towards our amis rathe than Lomé, a little difficult situation haha. When we were 5 minutes away from finishing our 45 minute bike ride we get a call saying to leave now. So we went all the way back to the apartment and called the taxi, who wouldn't pick up his phone , and then left. Well Elder Mahan ended up heading to Sanguéra and Elder Mbowa and I are still up here in Tabligbo. Thursday was alot of run around but in the end everything worked out thankfully haha. 

Friday was another kind of "planning day" we went out to sector with the intent to go here and there and here and there but we'll it didn't end up like that. It was more go far then short then close to that then far again and then come back at 9pm. I was tired to say the least but we were able to get everything done and the Lord gave us the strength and energy we needed to do so. 

Saturday was a lot of run around to visit amis from both sectors. We wanted to make sure that they knew that eventhough we were only 2 that we are here to help them still. We also had a coordination meeting that was pretty good as well. We actually talked about what we did and didn't do and came up with plans to figure out how we can accomplish what we want to. 

Sunday was kind of a fiasco at first but we got it into control. At church we had to go around and talk to lots of people that we didn't know to see if they were is because we don't know all of them so we went to try and figure it out. We ended up having lots of people that were inactive members coming back to church and it was good to get to talk with them for a second and get to know them. We met some new people too and I am looking forward to this week to get to be able to talk to them. We then went in the afternoon to visit a family and we talked with them about baptism. This family has been taking lessons with the missionnaires for a while but the mom and dad haven't shown a desire to come to church. Yesterday we had a baptismal service and thier kids were able to see it and then when they got home they told their parents about it. So when we came by we explained baptism and we also explained the importance of coming the Christ's church and see and experiencing for themselves how His restored Church differs from other churches. The Spiritt was string and I felt it testify to this family and touch thier hearts. If you could keep the family of Fr Joseph in your prayers it would be much appreciated. We ended the day with a mangez-vous with Maman Marguerite!! We ate la paate and then had some orange juice. It was really good haha. 

This week I just wanted to share a little bit of what I was studying. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma and I read the story if the sons of Mosiah and their teaching among the Lamanites. What really stood out to me was that even with thier hardships and difficulties, they still endured and they still went and taught. Aimons brothers got thrown into prison but when they got out they went right back to teaching because they knew that thier brethren needed to hear the words. And this past week Eldrr Mbowa, Elder Mahan and I did just that. We weren't thrown into prison but we had the difficulties of this world when it came to teaching. We came back to the apartment and we regrouped and then went back out and kept on talking with people. The Lord, just as He did with the sons of Mosiah, gave us strength and renewed energy to keep going. It can be like that sometimes in our lives as just people. We have challenges and hardships but The Lord will strengthen us and help us to do His work in the way that He needs it done. 

Thank you all for getting this far. If you skipped down here to see pictures I just have to say sorry. Sadly, there are no pictures this week I forgot in all honesty. 

I hope that you all have a great week and that you find a way to let the Lord prevail in something you are doing.

Beaucoup d'amour!!

~Elder Garcia