Eric's e-mail dated 3/23/09

Whats up guys?

That for that temperature update now I'll give you mine. It is so hot right now. March is the hottest month in West Africa and it is holding true to its name. It gets hotter back at home (but we have air conditioning) but we sweat eleventy billion times more over here. I have no pity for your weather.

This week went by pretty good. We worked hard and it showed on Sunday. I'm not going to lie, but time just seems to all get muddled into one. I have no clue what I'm going to say this week. hmm. . . maybe I'll just answer your questions and something will come to me.

So Sister Wires emailed you. [She and her husband are assigned to Liberia]. That is cool. I have absolutely zero idea as to where they live, i've never been to there house. They are from Kanab. They have been out over a year now. They are assigned to wherever they want to go. They just help out all the missionaries in Liberia. On Thursday they took us out to dinner to an American Restaurant. That is one thing that Liberia has that Sierra Leone doesn't have, is American Food. The best part was that they paid for us. Whoo.

The teaching this week wasn't to bad. We tried to get referrals from members, but the members didn't pull through this week. They still have the assignment. Once again, we want the members to give us a referral that would be willing to act upon the message. We could honestly teach anyone, but no one would do anything about it. I think most people just want to have white people as thier friends. The people that really are interested are intimidated to talk to us for the very same reason, we are white. Our branch has about 300 members, but our attendance on Sunday was 102 (last week was 77). So we have lots of less actives who know absolutely nothing about the church, so we have to treat them like investigators. The less actives are more stubborn than the investigators and they need constant encouragement. Honestly you should be very grateful for home teaching and visiting teaching because quite honestly no one really does that here. The only ones that visit people are the missionaries. Just another example of how the missionaries are running the church over here. The leadership of the branch is alright. They are friendly and love the missionaries but sometimes I question whether they are doing their job. I've got to much to worry about them. The chapel is about a 5-10 minute walk from the apartment. And yes we are very close to the beach, its in my area.

Wow, I kind of went on a tirade of all the problems that I'm trying to fix. Sorry, if that sounded negative. I honestly love it here, but sometimes I can wonder . . . oh well, they are doing the best they can.

Happy Birthday this week Pops. Everyone enjoy the vacation.

Elder Degen