Hmm . . . This is weird. It feels like there is more information in this email than the phone call yesterday. Maybe next time you should put it on speakerphone so everyone can hear me and ask me questions. Just a thought. I was kind of bummed that it was only a short time, but being obedient forces Heavenly Father to bless us. If only everyone could understand that. "O that I were an angel!" Thanks for agreeing and helping me be obedient, I didn't realize how great of a blessing that has been until I've been teaching people about obedience.

It sounds like you got a lot of nifty stuff for mothers day. How blessed you are. We should all be careful not to put to much attention to worldly things (not that you do, but i've been thinking alot about this lately). We should be careful not to fall into that cycle of pride that we read about over and over again in the Book of Mormon. Oh, if only we, as members of the church, would use the Book of Mormon more. This cycle of pride is constantly going on in the world today. Right now America is enjoying prosperity and Africa is in poverty but things could change depending on our obedience and pride. Another thing I've realized that all, yes all, the commandments are there to keep our families together. Families are a great blessing that we all take for granted. Imagine having no-one at home to email on mondays (like my companion) and not being able to write letters (he is the only member of his family and none of the members know where his family is) Most of the African missionaries are like that. We should do all we can to keep our families in tact. Oh, the importance of the family. Sorry to sound preachy, but I haven't had a spiritual email in a while.

Our baptism is still on Schedule for the 23 of May. We have to travel to the next branch over-paynesville- which is about a 15 minute taxi ride. Yes, we teach as much as in Freetown. But its not a matter of how much we teach, its how effectively we teach.

Well it sounds like everyone is doing great and I hope you all have a very wonderful-fantastic-super-dee-duper week.

Elder Degen