Eric's e-mail dated 6/30/08

Eric has been assigned to serve in Freetown and, for now, has internet service. Yea! He has no restrictions on who he can and cannot e-mail right now so if you would like to send him a message his e-mail address is eric_goutes@msn.com. He sounds great! Here it is:

Dear Family and Friends:

Happy monday peoples. So I am in Freetown right now, serving in the Congo Cross branch. There are only five zones in the whole mission. 2 of them in freetown, one in bo, and two in monrovia. So those will be the only places I will serve unless we expand, which is possible. My companion is Elder Sadare. He is from Nigeria as well. He actually looks kinda scary but he is like a black shrek. He is really cool to be around and we get along very well. I have been thrust into a completely different world. Everyone here speaks Krio, and yes, I am learning it on the fly. So far I can understand most people but I can't speak it very well yet. But I am learning. It is like broken English, but if you are not used to it, you won't be able to understand anything. I feel like a pirate when I speak in Krio. Savvy?

I am in an apartment with 6 Elders total. Elders Olaveson and cooper, and Elders Jackson and Kargna. Jackson and Olaveson are from the United States, with Olaveson being my white brother. The other two elders are from liberia. I get along with all of them very well. I am sleeping in a mosquito net everynight, and it doesn't bother me at all because without it the mosquito's would attack me. or maybe i'm just so paranoid about them that I psychologically need the net. I have had rice EVERYMEAL. And you all would think that what I am eating is weird. On top of the rice we usually have some sort of leave (cassava, potatoe, or green) and it looks really nasty. but it actually tastes pretty good. most of the food is really really spicy, so i will have to get used to that. The apartment we live in is one of the nicer buildings in freetown. after seeing what the members live in i'd say i'm pretty lucky. For the african elders this kind of living is a step up, but for the american elders it is a big step down. even with that step down, we are still living pretty good for the conditions. aparently I came at a good time because the gas just barely game, before that the elders were cooking with charcoal.

President Squires is awesome. I loved the small amount of time I got to spend with him. He really knows what he is doing. He told us that our purpose here as missionaries is to build the kingdom, not necessarily get baptisms. Sierra Leone doesn't need converts, they need leaders. So our time this week has been spent visiting the Less Active and Recent Converts, and not so much in finding people to teach. This is something that I will have to adjust to. but the members I have met here so far are really awesome. We had 100 people attend our branch this sunday, which is apparently pretty good. Our church is very small compared to yours at home. It is three stories with the chapel on the third floor. Which is really neat because when the windows are open you have an awesome view towards the ocean. in fact freetwon is kinda like a valley that leads right into the ocean. The whole city seems to be on a mountain. It looks really sweet. I can see the ocean from just about any street in my area.

We had a super p-day today, which means that our whole zone spent the day together, playing volleyball and basketball (but the basketball wasn't competitive, its kinda like playing with joshua's third grade team.) I hope I answered all of your questions. Oh Elder Sadare has been out since last april. I have seen so many things but I don't think I could explain them all. This city is very different from home, but I have adjusted already. The language will come over time. Oh, we come in from proselyting when it gets dark. not because of safety reasons but because the city doesn't always have power (or the people don't have lights) and we kinda need to see them in order to teach or read our scriptures. it really is the rainy season, because it rains alot. not heavy rain all the time but it can happen.

I learned something in church on Sunday. We need to have better family scripture study. My suggestion for the week is to read the scriptures and then discuss them. have the person who reads talk about what the read after they read. i hope that makes sense. And everyone needs to have a good attitude about it.

I think that is about it for this week. President Squires didn't say anything about not having friends email me. so that means that anyone can email me on this email address. the myldsmail.net service doesn't really work here in sierra leone. so if anyone wants to talk to me let them email me. because writing letters apparently takes a long time to get to me. I have only gotten one from you and one from sherrie. But don't worry about me, i'm fine here camping in africa. everything is great.

Elder Degen