Week 79 Email: DASSA

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, December 19, 2022
Subject: DASSA

Bonjour tout le monde! Well I don't even know really where to start this week haha. There has been so much that has happened and I have loved every single second of it!!! 

So last Monday I did a really long drive to get over to Benin with 8 other missionaries. It was really weird to be in a car for as long as we were but at the same time it was cool because I hadn't seen it all before. We spent iterally the whole day inside of a "bus" but it was really cool because we were all talking and wondering what Benin would be like (at least those of us who hadn't even seen Benin in anything other than pictures). When we got to Benin we met up with the assistants to the President and an office elder. President and Sister Proudfoot were there too and we got a little tour of the Mission Office, it was really weird to see that not going to lie. There was a real kitchen there with oven and countertop space and it was just weird haha. That night we went to another apartment in a sector called Agla because I had a loong drive ahead of me and the other Elders that were with us were basically on the same road as we were. We went and got some chwarma... and I don't know if it was because I was hungry or what but that was actually really good and the sauce was delicious. 

We woke up at 6:30 the next morning and got a visit from the assistants + Elder Hansen while they came to drop off some mattresses and fans so that they could sleep there that night with new missionaries. We then got picked up by Wolfgang, he's the bus driver, and headed back to the Mission Office. There we got into our taxi and had a 2 ½ hour drive up to Bohicon to do our District Council and also meet up with my companion and als leave Elder Ilunga behind with Elder Trenum. We chilled in Bohicon for a while and then headed up to my sector Dassa (last week I think I spelled it wrong, oops) which was another 2 hour car ride. I sat in a car a lot this past week haha. My new companion is Elder Kyungu, he's also from Congo, Kinsasha and he's really awesome. He also makes some of the best foufou Congolais that I have had on my mission/life so we are eating good. Don't worry though because we work out 2 times a day to get rid of the foufou fat. 

For the rest of the week we walked a ton and contacted even more. I don't know if my faithful keens are going to make it to the rest of my mission at this point but tha's all in the testimony right? I met some of our amis that we are teaching, and thy are pretty cool. There are 2 people here on baptismal date and we found a little area really close to our new branch building that feels liek it's going to give some good people. The group is made up of 5 members and then the missionaries and the amis that come to church. It was really cool to see the faith of everyone that was at church on Sundya because eventhough there were only 9 of us the Spirit was super stong and everyone was really attentive. I already know that I am absolutely going to love my time here in Dassa.

Dassa reaminds me a lot of my training sector Kpalime. There area a lot of boutiques on the side of the road and the people here are pretty nice. They don't speak Ewe here in Benin it's Fon (phone)  but even in Dassa they speak another language called Idadja (e-da-ja) so I am in the process of learning yet another language haha. There is a lot more Voodoo too. I think that I have seen more flags here that I ever saw in Togo. Kinda creepy but really cool at the same time. You aso have to present and say that you aren't a Jehovas Witness here because apparently the people don't like them very much. Overall, Benin seems a lot more developed and there is a lot more things here. It is like Togo but like the Older Sibling that is really cool and has money and a car to drive you around haha. 

Thanks for reading this week! Hopefully it's not too long haha! If you have any questions send me an email, things that might be crazy are pretty normal to me now so I don't really include them. Or jsut send me one to say hey too, that works :)

Beaucoup D'amour,

~Elder Garcia