E-mail dated 10/6/08

Family,

I really wish I could have heard conference. It sounds like it was awesome. (then again, when is conference not awesome) 80% of the churches population is within a day of the temple. I'm part of that 20 percent right now. It takes like a week to get to the temple for people here. One day (probably during the Millenium) Salone will have a temple. We probably won't get to watch conference until the end of October, and I will probably only get to watch one session. People here don't really understand the big words used in conference so their attention spans last for only one session. At least this is what older missionaries have told me.

This whole country is run on cell phones. I think I've seen one land-line the whole time i've been here. But you have to pre-pay instead of post-pay. It kind of stinks but oh well. As for this week we had about 30 appointments, but we worked just as hard if not harder. We are literally teaching all day. We only go out on monday evenings on p-day. Our investigators are no more than a 45 minutes walk from the chapel. So we walk alot. As for the petersons, they came in march and will be serving until next october. The usual 18 months for couple missionaries. I usually see them at least once a week.

Baptisms are usually combined with another branch. So we communicate with other missionaries to see if they are holding a service the same day we are. Since we are the only ones in the congo Cross branch and all Elders are assigned to one branch only it is common that I see investigators that I did not teach.Our last conference was on thursday. It was really good. I really liked what president squires told me. He told me to look back at the end of each day and look for the ways that the lord was helping us in the work. It reminded me of Pres Eyrings talk on his journal in last years conference. Wow, it really does humble you. Everyone should try it and write it in thier journals. How have you seen the Lords hand in your day today.

I'm sorry if it is short today but the internet is very crappy. I tried to send you a longer one earlier but the internet went down. So now I'm writing everything over again and my time is almost up. don't be upset. only joking.

Elder Degen