E-mail dated 12/29/08

Hey guys,

My week went by very well with the highlight of course being the phone call from home. Not much new to report as you just spoke with me on Thursday, so hopefully I can send a picture after this email. keep your fingers crossed. It sounds like the rest of the Christmas day was awesome. You are exactly right about the Christmas memories are way more important than the gifts. Thats kind of why Christmas this year didn't seem like christmas. But it was sure nice to be out in the mission field for Christmas. I keep telling myself, that all missionaries over the world have the Christmas spirit year round. We are all giving what is most important to us to others. I can't think of any better gift than the gift of the gospel.

To answer your question: after that phone call we had one more appointment, where we read the account of the saviors birth in Luke 2 and enjoyed a meal with the Ansumana family. In the evening I listened to the tape. Thanks a bunch. I absolutely loved hearing from everyone (even though some of the songs were . . .well crappy). You suprised me by getting everyone from Miro and some members of the ward. Josh Lang I love you man and I understood nothing you said. I hope you weren't calling me any names in Albanian. Mariama and Miro have letters on the way. Thanks again to everyone who contributed on the tape and for the gifts. I think we are going to try and make a tape back, but I'm not sure how its going to get to you. We'll try for you. Hey, I even thought of a better idea, you can now send me tapes in the packages. or do I have the only recording device? Oh well.

The only things that I think I need now are some more battries. The pajama's were sweet, but I'm never sleeping in them here. We have named our room in the apartment "the oven", and it is nothing less than that.Thanks for everything again. GO UTES this week.

Elder Degen

Fam-a-lam-a-bam-bam,

OK so first things first. The phone call on Christmas (dun-dun-na-na) . . Well I didn't get any news from President. So that means I had to ask the others how they did it last year. You will be calling us on our cell phone. You might want to do your research on the best way to call. Some parents called through the internet (not sure how that works). Some bought international calling cards. Any way you choose just as long as you call. I don't really care what time you call, because I don't think we are doing much on christmas. Call inbetween 8:30 am and 9am MST. Just whenever you are ready. Don't be scared if my companion answers the phone. As for the time limit. Since I didn't get any instructions, its up to you as to how long you want to talk.

This past week was the coolest week ever!!! correction . . coolest week on mission!!! All the Elders in Sierra Leone gathered for two days of service and fun. Yup all 30 Elders in this country. We sang carols at a couple of roundabouts in town for a couple of hours in town. We cleaned a college campus by picking up trash and cutting down the bush. Afterwards we were allowed to play football (soccer to you) Wow, it felt so good to run. The next day we went to the chimpanzee park. This park was awesome. I saw some cool animals finally. I took some sweet pictures and hopefully I can send some. We also watched a sweet movie called "The Ultimate Gift". Wow, it is like my new favorite movie. Adam, take your date to watch it somewhere. We even had pizza for dinner. This pizza was probably the equivalent of a microwave pizza, but it tasted soooooo good.

That basically sums up my week of fun. Back to business this week. The only problem is that over half of our branch has traveled up to the provinces for the holidays. I'm not really sure how our numbers will be like this week, but probably not so good. Reserve all other questions for Thursday. I hope it works.I think that is about it. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Elder Degen

The loudest family in the neighborhood,

My week went by really quick. I guess that is because I had to say good bye to all the members of my last branch and then pack all my things. My new branch is HILL STATION. The name holds true, HILLs are abundant here. I don't know if I ever mentioned, but proselyting here is like going on a day long hike up and down mountains. Especially now. But the work must go on. Chruch on sunday was pretty much the same old same old. I played the Piano, bore my testimony and taught the investigator class. I really didn't move far. Congo Cross and hill Station share borders, but I probably won't see some of the members of the congo cross branch ever again. My new apartment is sweet. Only four of us, but I love them all. Elder Moser (from Weber), Elder Ukpong (from Nigeria) and Elder Amegayie (from Ghana). My companion has been out for 10 months and he is really sweet. We get along very well. He is a chef. Yeah!! Elder Kpodi is still in Congo Cross.

This week will be a fun one. We have the Christmas zone conference on friday. We are having a combined zone service project on thursday. So that takes two days out of the work. But we need to have some kind of fun. Since we didn't do anything for thanksgiving we make up for it with a service project. Whoo!! I still haven't recieved any information yet on the phone call home. But I'm sure we will get all the info on Friday. I'm pretty sure we will email you the number next week and tell you the time to call our cell phone. But you will find out next week for sure.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 12/8/08

Fam,

Well it sounds like things are going as usual. I had a pretty normal week as well. But this coming week will definitly be different. I got the news from the Zone Leaders on Saturday night that I'm going to be transferred on Wednesday. I will be staying in Freetown just moving to a different apartment and a different branch. I will greatly miss congo Cross. The new branch is called Hill Station and it actually borders congo cross. I'm sad because I won't see the great members of this branch anymore. I'm also sad that I will miss a baptism of the family I was talking about last week. The person that is replacing me is straight from the MTC. The lucky sucker will be getting 7 baptisms his first weekend in Sierra Leone. And I taught them all with Elder Kpodi. All is well though. I know my new companion very well. His name is Elder Amagayie (Om-a-guy) from Ghana. We will get along just fine. My new area is actually the area that President Squires and the couples live. I will be seeing alot of them.

I had a really neat experience yesterday. After the sunday service the Petersons escorted us to our Primary Presidents house. The purpose of the trip was to give the Primary Presidents mother a wheelchair. This mother was confined to her room and couldn't walk. I don't know how long she had been in there but when we met her, it looked like it had been a couple of years since she had seen the sun. We presented the wheelchair to her and helped her in and wheeled her outside on the front porch. I can not describe the happiness that she felt. Her face lit up instantly and life was brought back into her life. She was singing as the little children were wheeling her around "I'm so happy, I'm so happy". The smallest things can make the biggest difference. That is what missionary work is all about-making differences in the lives of others, one at a time. This wheelchair probably only allowed her to move around the compound that she is living in and we only saw her move 30 ft. But that small difference changed her life. I will never forget the happiness on that old womans face.

I have not recieved any information on Christmas yet. Gas here has dropped from 15000 a gallon to 12500. (from $5 to about $4.15). Which is good because transportation is now 700 leones a ride. (it was 1000). I'm glad to hear that gas is going down all over the world. Whoo!! Everything I eat hear you would think is gross. Believe me. But I really enjoy it. The only thing I'm sick of is having rice and stew in the morning. Any other time rice isn't bad.

Seasons here are rainy and dry. That is what they teach in school. Oh and the windy season, which is starting now. I'm so happy to. The breeze feels good. But every african thinks its cold. I seriously see them wearing beanies and winter coats now. Crazy. I just shake my head and say "you want to go to America?"Kalli has a letter on the way. I sent it a little late.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 12/1/08

Family of the Degens,

So there were these two muffins . . . . ha ha. You guys are not serious. CJ told me the joke and I give him all the credit. that man is the funniest man alive.

OK so the spiritual story of the week. I can truly see that the Lords hand is in our work. For the past month we have been teaching a mother and her two youngest sons. Her husband is in America and is a member. The family has been progressing slowly partially because they were preparing for the father to come back on the 21 of November. While is this process they moved and we had no idea where they were living. Heavenly father guided us right into the youngest son on thursday afternoon. He led us to the new house and we were greeted very friendly. The father introduced us to the rest of the family (which we didn't know existed) and is eagerly awaiting us to baptize all six of them. The whole family was at church on sunday and they all seem anxious to be baptized. we would have never found them had we not run into that small boy.

That man who quit his job was baptized saturday with is two children. It was pretty good. I did recieve the Halloween candy about the 10 of november. It is all gone right now. Thanks. the chocolate was melted but it all goes the same place right. I also recieved sherries package about the 25 of October. Thanks again.

five things I'm grateful for:1) my relationship with God and Jesus Christ2) my relationship with my family3) my relationship with friends/investigators4) the knowledge we as latter day saints have5) my health

My branch never was split. I'm not really sure what is going on with that. maybe all I heard was a rumor. But I don't think we are spliting anytime soon. I'm teaching the primary children the christmas songs in the primary book. They are having their primary program the sunday before christmas. I've got to get them ready. Have a great week.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/24/08

Fam,

I'll start off the week by saying go utes!!!!!! The news of Utah beating, not only beating but demolishing BYU is sweet music to my ears. Every four years the Utes will go Undefeated, or maybe its the years that Adam and I go on missions. Either way GO UTES!!!!

The highlight of my week was Sunday. One of our investigators surprised us by coming to church. This man, Sorie Kamara, is about 42 and has 4 children. He has been out of a job for a really long time and the week that he was supposed to be baptized he got a job. He was supposed to be baptized on the 15th of November and he got the job on the 12th. This man had come a long way in order to qualify for baptism, he was the one that we helped quit smoking. The only problem with this job is that he would be working every day from dawn til dusk. We actually didn't see him for about ten days. We were suprised to see him at church on Sunday because of this situation. He told us that he had quit his job. We asked him why out of curiosity and he replied so he could attend church on Sundays. he said this job didn't even pay that well and it left him with no time to raise his children. He said he knew that Lord would provide another way. Wow! What great faith. We should be baptizing him and two of his children this Saturday.

Questions. As far as I know there is no such thing as Thanksgiving here. In Liberia they had thanksgiving two weeks ago. I will be proselyting as normal on Thursday. Challenges from the dry season. The humidity and the dust. Everything is so dusty now. My shoes have a thick coat of dust on them every day I return to the apartment. Pres. Squires hasn't given any information about christmas yet. I'll let you know when he does.

Sorry thats all I've got this week.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/17/08

Good Morning,

Another week gone by in the mission field. I'm happy to say that the highlight of my week was the baptism held on Saturday. The best part about the baptism was when we asked them to bear testimony of their conversion. I was truly touched because they testified of how this gospel has helped change thier lives. They thanked Elder Kpodi and myself for teaching them and I knew that they were truly ready for this gospel. One sister mentioned how she wanted nothing to do with "latter-day" church when she moved to freetown. But with the help of the missionaries and her family she began to feel the truthfullness of the gospel.

My week has been once again hot. I would rather be wet from the rain than from my sweat, because the rain doesn't make me stink. When we have investigators at church we get all there information in the investigator class (gospel essentials class back at home). Most of them don't have any questions, they just came because someone brought them there. The hard part is finding their houses. Nothing is labeled here so if we don't know the name of the street we have to ask some one. And the possibility of that person knowing where number 72a is, is not very likely. But that doesn't stop them from trying to help us. They usually point us in a direction. So, usually what happens is we walk back and forth on the same street looking for this silly house (you would think 72 would be next to 71, nope) until we get tired. And in this heat we get tired quick.

Yes we are still busy. We still teach plenty of lessons a week. And I'm not sure if I will remain after this transfer. And there are not three areas in the mission, there are 3 cities. We have 26 areas in our mission (10 of them are in freetown).

I have not driven a car since I got here. And the only possible way that I will is if I become an AP, because they are the only missionaries that are allowed to drive the van. Most of the African Missionaries can't drive anyway, so even the AP's sometimes don't drive because they don't know how. Any zoos here. The only zoo I know of is the chimpanzee park. We are actually working out a p-day activity to go there. There is really not anything close to a zoo back at home.

Thats about it for the week. Sorry if it is not long enough for you, but its better than nothing. Enjoy the big game this week. I'm not wearing blue at all this week.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 11/10/08

Family, How is everyone doing? From the sound of it everyone is getting sick. As for me I am sick free. Malaria is not a life long disease, which means I won't be coming home from getting sick. Its kind of like the flu to us. It comes, its not fun, and then it goes.

So this week for me was pretty good. If I didn't know any better I would have thought that all of africa won the presidential election in America. I heard it all this week. "We won the election" "Its the Black house now" and many many others. It is so ridiculous that people here focus more on American politics that thier own countries problems. People now think that Sierra Leone will be better because Barak Obama will be president. It doesn't make any sense to me either.

It is getting really hot now. The rainy season is officially done and now we are in the "dry season". But the funny thing is I am never dry. My shirt is soaked in sweat about 2 minutes into each and every day. And climbing the hills doesn't make it any cooler. Nonetheless (scriptural transition) the work must go on.

I had a cool experience on Thursday. Elder Kpodi and I decided to have a companionship service project for the people that live around the chapel. We bought brooms (which is a bundle of sticks tied together and the only way to sweep is to bend down) and went and visited all the members, less actives, and investigators and asked them what we could do to help. Most of them would tell us nothing but that didn't stop us from helping them. We eventually just started to pick up the trash around thier houses (if you can call them houses) and pulling unwanted plants around the area. The response we got was pretty amazing. Most of them were very curious as to why we were doing this. We contacted over 50 people in the 3 hours of cleaning. some people mocked us of course and some were very grateful. Either way we drew alot of attention to ourselves. One of the ones we contacted we ended up teaching a couple days later and she came to church on Sunday. Service is truly a powerful tool.

We had District Conference here in freetown this past weekend (like stake conference). For the Sunday session the brethren in salt lake sent a disc focused specifically on africa. I was too busy ushering the people in to sit but the attendance was so good. We had almost all of our baptismal candidates there (5 out of 7). They should all be baptized this Saturday, or at least that is the plan. Well I hope you have a great week.

Elder Degen

PS GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

E-mail dated 11/3/08

Of course I had malaria. Everyone here gets it at one time or another. The symptoms are fever, chills, aches all over your body, throwing up, and my favorite runny stomach (diarrea). It actually wasn't to bad but it just lingered for alot longer than it should have. But I'm back to 100 percent now so no worries. My companion got malaria once back at his home and he is terrified of it. He won't sleep unless his mosquito net is up.

I learned something at zone conference this past thursday. An Elder was giving instruction on adjusting to the need of investigators. As missionaries we make a lesson plan for every lesson that we teach and I'm telling you from experience that we don't always teach what we plan. This elder made it very clear that planning gives us the spirit, which in turn helps us adjust to meet the needs of our investigators. I realized that I was in a little bit of a slump the last two weeks (partly because I was sick) because I didn't feel like I was teaching by the spirit. I was getting very comfortable with myself and my knowledge of the lessons that I actually started to rely on my own understanding of the lessons and wasn't teaching with the spirit. I realized then that it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have, it will do nothing for you if you don't rely on the spirit. We should always ask ourselves Am I relying on the spirit or my own understanding? If the answer is different than the spirit, then an adjustment needs to be made.

Story of the week. On Saturday we met with one of our investigators who is having a problem with the Word of Wisdom. When we arrived we found him reading from the Book of Mormon (yay) but he was using a cigarette as the bookmark (no). We made him make an agreement with us that everytime we see him smoking we can take the cigarettes away. My companion took the two he had at the time and smashed them on the ground right in front of him. We gave him some scriptures that can help him and told him that If he wants to stop it all depends on him. He came to church the next day and is really progressing. He has a strong desire to change and wants to make his life better. We'll see how his smoking problem goes this week, but I have confidence that he will stop soon.

Elder Degen

PS GO UTES AND JAZZ!

Eric and his companion Elder Sadre at the beach in August.

E-mail dated 10/27/08 - Yikes! Malaria!!

Hello Family,

I'm glad to hear that your week went by fast. Mine on the other hand went by very slow. I'm not going to lie but last week was crappy. But please don't worry about me (MOM). Last week Saturday I got Malaria (gasp gasp). Let me tell you that it is not fun to get. I didn't recover as quick as i should have and we concluded that I also had a bacteria infection. Last week was very tiring and I didn't take the time to rest that I needed. Which only made the problem worse. I learned from my mistake and on Saturday I took the whole day to rest from my labors. I feel so much better now and you really have no need to worry. But it really made me even more grateful for many things, as if coming to africa hasn't done that enough already. I am really grateful for my health, especially now that it is better. I was also very humbled as to how important it is to have you body feeling well to be more spiritual. Reminded me of the promise at the end of the word of wisdom. nothing is temporal to God, all things are spiritual. But please don't fret, All is well with me now.

I have been studying to doctrine and covenants and I read something yesterday that was really good. Look at the beginning of D&C 58 about adversity. I've also learned so much a bout the history of the church while studying. Man it would have been terrible to be an early saint. They went through so much. Like before the whole walking across the plains thing. I got to watch the last session of conference and half of the first session. (in that order, don't ask me why) I absolutely loved them. I can't wait to get the ensign to read all the words of the prophets, seers, and revelators. My favorite (so far) was the talk by Neil L Anderson. It was about not knowing everything but knowing enough. Wow that story about the deaf child was amazing.

Questions: Yes I have a zone conference this week. Tell Sherrie I recieved her package last week and thank you very much. Put something for Elder Kpodi inside. Just put whatever and I'll share it with everyone. The rain is slowly going away (which means its hotter than . . .. .well you know)

(1) It is hot at night. Expecially when the power is gone because the fan can't work without power. (2) Pizza might be the thing I want most when I get back (3) I can speak Krio, but I only do it to those that can't understand English (4) I'll let you know how they celebrate Christmas here in a couple months from now.

Have a good one

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 10/20/08

Degen Family:

How are we doing this week? From what it sounds things are going very well. Sorry you couldn't go to St. George and enjoy, but hanging out ht home is just as fun. So before I answer questions this time I'm going to go over my week and maybe some of your questions will be answered whilst you read. Elder Kpodi and I are finding ways to make the work progress here and we found a way to teach even more lessons in one day. We went on splits with branch missionaries for the whole day on wednesday. Combined we ended up teaching eleven lessons. The branch missionary I went with introduced me to this white couple from Kentucky (Yes pa, Kentucky) who are here helping to solve the child malnutrution problem. The are planning to set up a factory that produces a formula to help the children with malnutrition. They will stay here as long as it takes (bless their hearts). I had the opportunity to teach them the first lesson. It was very weird teaching a non-seirra leonean. I'm pretty sure I was called to teach the africans and not americans. but all the same we will see if we can help them in thier efforts to make this country better.

The rest of the week wasn't bad. I went on splits a couple of other days with the District and Zone leader. Today for P-day we played volleyball and ate fufu (some food that none of you would ever eat). There are 4 couples in this mission. 2 in freetown and two in liberia.

I need a washing machine, air conditioner, milk, ice cream, pizza, 24 power, and running water all the time for Christmas. But that is not possible so make sure you send me some contact solution. don't forget the contact solution.

I haven't seen any snakes yet. I've seen plenty of frogs. We have cockroaches in the apartment. I see geckos in the apartment sometimes too. I've never seen monkeys running the streets. Of course its lawful to have them as pets. I know of some missionaries in the past that have had them as pets. And people here love to eat them. I'm getting plenty to eat. I've gained like 5 pounds. Everything else is fine. I'm glad to hear to great news about the utes (grandpa is rolling over in his grave right now, laurie and brittany at the game?).

I love you all.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 10/13/08

Degen family:

Wow snow!! I hope your ready for winter. As for me I will be enjoying the rain for another month or so. October is actually the month of thunder and lightning. HOLY COW can it thunder here. I swear world war three had broken out and every country had decided to attack Sierra Leone (I'm not quite sure why they would). Man it was loud. Yesterday we had a huge storm coming in and Elder Kpodi and I did not want to be caught in it so we began to go back to the apartment early. We didn't quite make it so we began to run to not get to soaked. That is actually a common sight with us in the rainy season.

As for the spiritual aspect of it: We had 2 more baptized on Saturday. Marie Kargbo and Elizabeth Wilkinson. I actually performed the baptisms again and it went very well. They both showed up to church on Sunday and both recieved the Holy Ghost.

Oh another thing we did this week. we had a zone service project at the Cemetery. first of all cemetery's here in Africa are not as nice as cemetery's in Utah. This country has alot of problems with the living to worry about so the dead are kind of in a mess. 12 missionaries cleaned one corner of the cemetery for four hours. 8 of them had cutlasses (they look exactly like swords) and they were cutting down all the green so they could see the gravestones. I was stuck pulling weeds for four hours around the headstones. It was actually fun and it looked so much better. It was just a funny sight to see 8 missionaries with swords attacking anything green in front of them.

Kalli I'm pretty sure Halloween isn't celebrated over here. thanksgiving is not either. but I will try and do something to celebrate them anyway. I hear alot about American Politics over here. For some reason they would rather talk about american politics than sierra leone politics. Don't ask me why.

Thank you for the information about my friends. I don't really hear from anyone but family. So Grady got his call. Sweet. I do hear from CJ as Lisa forwards me his emails. And we both write each other. Sonja as well. Thank you for all the information and I hope you have a great week.

Elder Degen

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

Eric's e-mail from 9/29/08

Greetings from Freetown,

Ok, so let me first try and answer all of your eleventy-billion questions. My week was great thanks for asking. The most exciting part of my week was definitely the baptism we had on Saturday. We baptized a young boy of 16 yrs old who is amazingly educated for this country. His name is Wusu Samura and he is the son of the Man we baptized 2 weeks ago. Now the whole family is baptized and active. Now the fun part was filling the font before the service. Water here is not always running so in order for anyone to have water in case the pump is locked then you need a huge tank of water that you can draw out of. Well, the tank was not full at the chapel at belliar park (the font is outside) so we could not fill the font. We had to go to the Mission office, which is next door, and steal the water from thier tank to fill the baptismal font . . . Bucket by Bucket. It took like an hour for 8 of us to fill the baptismal font. But we were determinded to baptized these people so we were working hard in our shirts and ties. I actually got to baptize this time and it was pretty sweet.

When we are teaching someone we usually extend the commitment either during the first or second lesson. Now people here learn slowly so we split the first and second lessons into 4 different lessons. So we usually extend the invitation when we start the Plan of Salvation. Their response? Well they have two choices - yes or no. Mostly everyone will say yes, but its up to us to determine whether they will remain active after they are baptized. Teaching straight out of preach my gospel - like having the book in front of me, No. But all of our lessons are derived from it. We teach each lesson differently according to the needs of the investigators. Does it still rain alot - Yes, people here tell me that august is the worst month for rain, but I'm pretty sure September stole the crown from august this year. I'm used to being wet all the time and it really doesn't bother me.

How does Freetown dispose of Garbage? Well in a perfect world we would have trash cans and a dump but this city has NO trash cans so that means that their is trash everywhere. People here litter like its nothing. Our apartment has made friends with the neighbors so we give them our leftover rice in exchange that they take out our trash. Where they take it I don't know but as long as it out of our apartment I'm happy. Other apartments burn their trash, which if jimmy and cj were with me that would probably not be a good thing.

My Krio is coming along just fine. It comes and goes. Some days I can speak it like a Sierra Leonian and others . . . not so much. Krio is dominant in freetown. If i ever go to Bo then the dominant language is Mende but everyone can speak english as well. In Liberia everyone speaks English so no worries.

Elder Kpodi and I get along just fine. We both have a desire to work really hard and our numbers this week showed. We taught 35 lessons this week!!! We had a branch conference this week so our attendance was just shy of 200. We had 41 investigators at church. We have another busy week planned in teaching all of these new investigators.

Mom I'm fine, to answer your last question. This internet is really slow today so I'm not even going to try to send pictures. Osh ya.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 9/22/08

Hello there,

My week was very fine thank you very much. I recieved a new companion this week as Elder Sadare was transferred to Monrovia. My new companions name is Elder Kpodi (the K is silent) from Liberia. (Sadare was from Nigeria). I am enjoying the change as he is a great teacher. He came in March and is only 3 months older than me on mission. He is like 25 yrs old and I am enjoying. We had three leave our apartment and three more come in. We now have four americans in the apartment and two Liberians. So my week was pretty much a farwell tour for Elder Sadare, as he tried to visit every member of our branch in two days. He had been in this area since the beginning of February so it was time for him to leave. Now i am leading around my new companion showing him around the area and telling him who we need to teach. It is kind of weird because he is still my senior companion.

I don't really have any exciting stories like what happened to us last week, but yes Elder Stice and I were the ones Elder Peterson was talking about. We did have an all African service project on Saturday and All the church members in the Freetown District cleaned the streets of Freetown up from all the litter. It looks much better now. I

do get to go to the primary often. I am currently teaching the primary a new song every week. Last week I taught them "Book of Mormon Stories". Its hard for them to learn songs they have never heard of so because I am the only one that knows the tune I go and teach them how to sing. Every week. I love it.

Elder Degen

Eric's e-mail dated 9/15/08 - Not too chatty this week!

Hello guys,

My week was great this past week. We ended it with another baptism. This time it was an older gentleman, who in my opinion will serve as a branch president one day. The other baptism was a sister of a member. Sunday was also a good day. Most of our recent converts came to church and we were also blessed with some new investigators that visited the church as well. My companion, Elder Sadare, is going to be leaving me on Wednesday for Liberia. So that means I will be getting a new companion this week. I'll find out if that is a good thing by this time next week.

So I have a story to tell but sadly its not as good through email as it would be if I were telling it. But I will try. So on thursday it rained extremely hard. Elder Stice and I (I was on splits that day) decided to wait it out and sat in an investigators house for like an hour. We realized that it was not going to stop and we needed to start heading back to the apartment because it was getting dark. We had no choice but to trek in the rain. Lets just say that the closer we got to the apartment the worse the rain got. It started out that the water was up to my ankles, then it got up to my knees. By the end of it I was wading in water that was just below my waist. Now that I look back it is very humorous, but at the time. . . . no. I will never forget that day. And the crappy thing was that we only taught two lessons that day and we got filthy dirty.

I won't need a copy of the conference because we get the ensign. we will watch conference on discs like a month after it happens. We have a freezer in our apartment so our water is either frozen or warm depending of if we have power. There is absolutley no milk in this country. Unless you count the powder or the condensed milk. Maybe rechargeable battries would be nice, so i guess go ahead and send them for christmas. I don't need another memory card yet. For the rest of the day we are going to family home evening with a member family tonight. And i'm sure tomorrow we will be visiting almost every member in our branch for my companion to say good-bye.

Elder Degen

PS. Go utes. I am sorry to hear about Sis Nunley. Dad how was work today?

E-mail dated 9/7/08

Family,

That is cool that the Utes won again. I had a feeling that this season was going to be a good one. And Utah State next . . please we might as well play Murray. Once again, I think that this job change is awesome. It really makes me eager to work with Miro when I get back. Dad you are going to love it. The people you are going to be working with are really good people (excpet for milt and his cussin). I want to hear about it and any other changes with work. And sure, send me your talks for stake conference. I want to hear some deep doctrines. I am finding that I am having so many questions that I know you could answer but your not here. Don't worry we will have discussions when we get back.

To answer your questions. I gave the scriptures to the mission president when I first arrived and he made sure it got to mariamas boyfriend. I actually met him yesterday and he was wearing a university of utah tie. he said thank you and i told him to find me when ever mariama comes back to sierra leone. We always have new investigators every week but the important thing is progressing investigators. And we actually have two progressing to baptism this weekend. One of them is a great man, whose wife has been a member for quite sometime. He was not ready to be baptized when she was but that didn't stop previous missionaries from trying. This sister had actually fallen inactive by the time that I came and we had no knowledge if she was a member or not. While working on a tracting list (finding less-actives) we came across this sister and invited her back to church. She came and this time brought her husband and he is so humble and willing to change I can tell that the Lord has prepared him for bright things in this country. The other baptism is a young woman who is a neighbor of one of our members. Her understanding is slow but she is keeping her commitments and she is ready for baptism. One thing about teaching here is that you have to put everything in simple terms. Part of the reason is that we are teaching young adults and the other reason is that this Krio is like impossible to explain deep things. The krio vocabulary is about 1/10th of the english vocabulary. But the work is still progressing.

We actually had a zone conference on saturday because the second counciler in the Africa West Presidency was visiting. Elder Golden is from South Africa and I really enjoyed his teachings. I learned a lot from this doctrinal man and I hope to put his teachings into practice. So that means I recieved your letter with the schedules on saturday. but the bad thing is that our next conference isn't until october. Oh well. That is all I have for today and have a great week.

Elder Degen.

Eric's e-mail dated 9/1/08

Holy Crap,

My UTES!!!!!!!!!!! ha, Michigan!! Were they ranked when we beat them? Were we supposed to win? who do we play next? That is wonderful. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAA. I am screaming on the inside right now ( if it were to be vocal that would attract way to much attention, white man screaming at a computer monitor?) Oh baby. I am sure we will be ranked now. oh and go justin.

Matthew, my man. I heard it was good. I am way excited to hear about Canada and what missionary life is like there. Enjoy your last week at home and I want your writing address and your email address as soon as possible.

I am sorry to hear that Jessica passed away. I didn't really know her that well but death is never a fun thing to endure. President monson talks about death in Augusts Ensign. I know that heavenly father loves jessica and her family and I hope that it brings them closer together in this time of trial. Let the family know that I love them and pray for them.

Yes I did recieve my package this week. I got a backpack, cd player, journal, and 4 bags of goodies. and a letter. Thank you so much. my companion wants to know how much he needs to pay me so just let me know. I i don't really "need" anything because my basic needs are covered-food, clothing, and shelter.

So my saturday was good as well. WE baptized 4 young people into the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. I was a long day because we started the day with a service project at 7 in the morning. We cleaned a hospital and let me tell you I never want to go to a hospital here. But it is clean now. Sharing testimony is powerful. We went to go and visit one of our baptism candidates after the service and we met with his uncle. We briefly had talked to him before and gave him some pamphlets to read. Suprisingly when we met with him again he had many questions about joseph smith and the book of mormon. We took the opportunity to teach him the first lesson, but he seem unsatisfied with his questions. He persisted in asking more questions. We answered a couple but he still wasn't accepting. I began to bear testimony about joseph smith and the book of mormon and after his questions had ceased. he committed to pray and read the BOM. But I was amazed at how effective a testimony can be. it reminds me of what preach my gospel says "teach and testify, there is no better combination"

The Church is true. Oh and president Golden is coming to visit the mission on saturday. i think you said you know him. that is neat and i will let you know how it goes. i love you and good bye.

Elder Degen

Eric's e-mail dated 8/25/08

Hello,

Another week has come and gone. Man, the weeks really fly by. Something about missionary work is that the days go by slow but the weeks go by fast. It doesn't make much sense but it is completely true. Weeks when we have zone conference make the week go by even faster because they usually take the whole day. I have not yet recieved the package because the post office was on strike because they haven't been paid in like 6 months. But the Petersons told me today that its opened back up and they will personally deliver it when it arrives. Thank you for the letter. Even though it was dated July 17 or something like that it is still good to hear from you and the sports world.

What are sundays like? Well our service starts at 9, so we arrive at the chapel by no later than 8:30. Yesterday after service I set up the appointments for the next couple days and we actually taught one of our investigators about prayer. I then stayed for another 30 minutes teaching a couple members how to play the keyboard. I am not the teacher that grandpa was and people here learn very slow. I don't think they understand that playing the piano takes a long time to learn and its not something I can teach in just one sitting. From then until 4 or so, we go out and visit the members and investigators that did not come to church, or something like unto it. Sundays are not productive days here in Sierra Leone so our day ends at 5. We usually go over to a members house to eat dinner at 4 every sunday. We then have a weekly planning session like we are supposed to in Preach My Gospel. So Sundays for me are nothing like they are in the states. Like I've said before, this mission is very unique in almost all aspects. Everywhere else in the world sundays are prime proselyting times, but not here.

How is my Krio coming? I can understand everyone now and I'm beginning to incorporate the deep Krio words into my speech. It is very hard to express myself (especially my testimony) because the vocabulary is like one-tenth of the English vocabulary. I've learned how to explain extremely complicated things in very simple terms, like the Atonment. Speaking the Krio is fun when the people are excited that you can speak their language, but if they begin to tell my I'm wrong, it just destroys your confidence and you don't feel like speaking it anymore. I can speak it fine, where others can understand me but I'm still a long way from speaking it well.

My companion is convinced that he will be leaving me this transfer, as he has been in this area since the beginning of february. He has never been to the US but he wants to attend BYUI when he gets of his mission. We'll see what really happens as the next few weeks play on.

CJ and I try and communicated through e-mail but it really doesn't work. I got a letter from him about a month ago. But I think we both know that it is going to be hard to keep in touch everyweek. Don't worry, we'll still be the same after we see each other for like 30 seconds.

So on Saturday it literally rained all flipping day long. We even delayed going out as we had hopes that it would soon cease. We were wrong and began walking in the rain. By the end of the day I was so wet. Especially my feet. I don't care if everything on me is wet as long as my feet are dry. But when my feet are wet the day is no fun. We were able to accomplish some things though, so its not like it was a wasted day. Oh sweet Salone. You don't mess with August here. Anywho, have a great week and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH AND GAVIN. I love you all.

Elder Degen

E-mail from Eric dated 8/18/08

Family:

Oh the last week of summer. I remember how that feels. It is your last week of freedom for 9 months! ha ha. Mom, what are you going to do with all your free time?

To explain my pictures now. One was of Grandma Jah, who we baptized on July 26. One was of me being carried by a random man across a river. This river is one that we used to be able to cross but because of the increased rain it has gotten bigger. We usually just wait and act like we are going to cross on our own and someone will usually come to help us. The last picture was that pig, not a dog, that we ate about a month ago. Our samoan Elder chopped it up into small pieces and it roasted in a Dutch Oven for 3 hours. that was not my apartment.

The olympics are talked about here and when power is here, the members usually have it on. We watch for like 3 minutes before teaching. I hope that isn't breaking a rule, but it is hard to resist, not only for us but for the person we are teaching. I haven't seen anything exciting though. That is cool that Micheal Phelps won 8 medals.

Couper is going to Washington. I told him before I left that he was staying in the United States and he had nothing to worry about. November is coming quick. Cj got his call this same week last year and he didn't leave until Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, its coming up soon. (sorry, missionaries don't really have holidays to look forward to here).

Once again happy Birthday to Brittany last Saturday. Good night you got a crap load of stuff. I would be grateful and thats all i'm going to say.

Now to the questions. I have a zone conference this week and I hope to receive that package. Please don't tell me you spent like hundreds of dollars on this package. I did receive dad's letter from last time and it was nice to know that I have two parents. haha just kidding. Joshua I sleep in a bed like at home, but I don't have a matress, rather a big foam pad like grandma uses for sleepovers. Its kinda hard but it feels so good after walking in the sun all day. We cook on a gas stove all the time. Its exactly like the ones we use when we go camping. Although before I came the missionaries were using charcoal and dutch ovens to cook.

Everything is fine here. Just a heads up for next time, send double AA battries ( the ones here last me exactly one picture on my camera, no joke). I just put my last pair in my camera today. My branch has not been split yet, i'm not sure when that will happen. probably sometime next month. Tracting, yeah right. That would be absolutely pointless. Everyone here would listen to us but they would do nothing about it. We only teach member referrals. P-days usually consist of relaxing because honestly there is not much to do. Although I had a fun one today as we went to the beach to play rugby and soccer. I have never been so tempted to go swimming in my life. The water felt so good on my feet. I do my shopping on the street. Deodorant is still have plenty of and I will deal with that problem when it comes. I know they have it but i don't know how much. Things here don't have a set price, and you can talk them down on everything.

This week was my All-American week. I was on splits for pretty much the whole week. I just happened to receive a fellow american companion each time. From tuesday after noon to friday I was with 3 different missionaries. It was really cool to see how each missionary does it differently but if they have the spirit they will be effective no matter what. I was running my area as my companion (who is the district leader) went to the other areas. I enjoyed it very much, but I also realized how much I have bonded with my companion. I love the guy. Have a great week.

Elder Degen

Pictures & E-mail from Eric on 8/11/08

My dearest family

Another monday, another day of rain. It has begun to rain everyday now. I am reminded of that picture of Adam on his mission when he got caught in the rain. That is me everyday. Ah, its fun. This week was pretty normal for me as well. Nothing too exciting happened. But we have picked up a few more investigators, which is awesome. Every member here has someone in there family that is not a member of the church. Like this past week we picked up two husbands that weren't members but the wives were. So most of our new investigators are from part-member families. Its our job as missionaries to pick the best ones to teach because not everyone is ready for this gospel yet. We pick the educated and the ones that best understand our message. I love it here because our investigators find us, and we don't really have to find the investigators. This mission is very unique in that aspect. It is also very unique because we can teach muslims. Sierra leone is very religious tolerant and we are allowed to teach muslims if they wish. We talk with muslims all the time and we invite them to church. We don't begin teaching until we know that they are serious, because everyone here would listen to us.

I have a cool experience that has nothing to do with missionary work. After we visited a members home that lives right next to the bay, we decided to enjoy the view of the ocean. About 4-5 boys about 12 or 13 yrs old walked by us with fishing equipment. They needed to cross the river that flowed into the bay in order to get to thier destination.. To cross was very difficult and required a lot of skill if they didn't want to get soaking wet. The first boy that went (who happened to be dumb, meaning that he couldn't talk) crossed the river after some time. He managed to cross without getting wet and the other boys tossed the equipment to him so they could cross. After he set the equipment down he turned to watch the others. Immediately he noticed that they would struggle and began to get in the water. He was in the water about chest high and he helped the other boys by showing them which foot to use and where to put their hands. He even carried some of the smaller boys across to the spot. I thought nothing of this until my companion mentioned that this boy taught us a great lesson. He did exactly what Christ does for each and every one of us. he shows us the way, which is perfect because he did not get wet. But instead of watching us struggle he was willing to get wet for the others and help them get to the other side. Its so true and it is amazing that this principle was taught to me by a small boy.

Sounds like youth conference was awesome. And the olympics have started, sweet. How did Deron and Booz do? Who do they play next? And not only does China have 20% of the worlds population, Asia has 60% of the worlds population and most of them don't have the gospel. I'm pretty sure the Lord will open that area up when we are ready. I know for a fact that the Kingdom needs to be strengthened in other places first.

I eat just fine. Its not like i'm starving or anything. I get 445,000 Leones a month and most of that is for food. That is about 140 dollars. 3000 leones to the dollar. I eat some bananas but they are kind of expensive. Some missionaries in our apartment came from Bo and the fruit in bo is so much cheaper. they refuse to buy fruit here and it has kind of stuck with us new missionaries. I haven't got sick yet (is that the right answer?) And oh my gosh I drink pop everyday. Before I came here I didn't like drinking pop, now I drink so much. If I come back fat, that is why. If I am thirsty in the day I have 2 choices. Nasty water that has so much bleach in it, or soda. So naturally I drink soda.

Elder Degen

E-mail dated 8/4/08

Hello,

How is the summer going? You know that school starts soon. ha ha. I won't be going to school for the first time since I was like 4. And it feels awesome. Life is so much easier when you are devoting all of your time and attention to the Lord. It sounds like you had a fun week last week. I hope you told Brad and Wendy hello for me. Oh, and Alex. Wow, you guys have gone fishing alot. and you have nothing to show for it this time. Too bad. And what it this not being able to get over the wake on water ski's? Just kidding I don't think I can get up on water skis, but I can get up on the wakeboard, just ask the bishop. Gavin can wear my University of Utah tie if he wants, he has my permission.

Mat my boy, how is the preparing going. You should probably email me or something before you leave because i'm not really sure if we are going to be able to talk much once you become canadian.

So my week was very nice. I guess i'm always going to have a nice week as long as I work. Teaching those investigators went well, as long as stregthening the recent converts. We actually picked up 2 really good investigators from a member referral. These 2 are living with the Saffa family and the family wanted us to come and teach them (Kalli, this family has a pet monkey so I see it very often. but it is scared of me, like i'm white or something). Ahmed and Bintu are thier names and they recieved our message very well. meaning that they kept thier commitments about praying and reading from the book of mormon. They came to church yesterday and both of them bore testimony about thier experience of meeting with us. The girl, Bintu, even had a dream about how she came to know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. It is even more amazing because they are 16 and 17 yrs old. I've kind of noticed that the youth here are extremely strong. I love the youth in our branch. I know that one day they will be leading this country for the church, and i'm honored to be able to work with them.

We did have a zone conference this week, just like I promised. These zone conferences are held at the mission home and it is actually both zones in freetown. our zone has 10 missionaries and the other zone has 8. If you count the AP's and the 2 couples we have even more. I absolutely love these zone conferences because I learn so much. I have such a strong desire to apply these teachings in daily life just like the people did after hearing King Benjamin (holy crap, I'm comparing everything to the Book of Mormon, I must be a missionary). The Spirit is so strong as we Elders of Isreal gather. And it didn't hurt that I got mail. Yay. I finally got to read about the celtics comeback in game 4. Both of your letters you mailed to Ghana finally caught up with me along with an additional one. Thank you. I enjoyed them all.

My companion did not get transferred, actually our whole zone stayed the same. I didn't expect any change this time. Although the congo Cross branch that I'm assigned to is going to be split soon. I'm not sure what that means for me, but I figure I'll be here awhile.

Now to answer all your other questions. I email for one hour each monday (except the day I sent pictures, it took a little longer). It is usually enough time because I learned how to type fast from you. Really if you just look at mom type you will be inspired to type faster. How we eat now, hmm. Breakfast is prepared by us every morning (rice with a sauce that includes corned beef and beens....yum). Lunch and dinner are up in the air everynight. We hope that someone will feed us. If not then we buy food off the street. I do some of my shopping at what we would call a gas station. But normally I buy off the streets.

Have I seen anymore monkeys? Yes. Not big ones. And I haven't seen any other animals other than dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and lizards. I'm pretty sure I saw more wild animals in Utah than I have here. It rained almost everyday here, but it wasn't to bad and I got the raincoat from my apartment, as it was provided by the mission.I hope you have an enjoyable week.

Elder Degen

Eric's e-mail dated 7/28/08

Kushe,

That is a greeting in Krio, and I hear it all day long. It sounds like everyone back at home is having a good time. I am glad that Brittany and Gavin are taking advantage of the great youth activities. Scout camp and girls camp don't really exist here. And Gavin only 5 merit badges? I think I did 7. But hey, remember if you don't do them at the camp then you will have to do them at home, which isn't fun. And I've never been to girls camp so I can't really comment on it, sorry Britt. So it rained in Utah.

I remember when it rained back at home, it was kind of an event. Here it is just normal life. I have to wear a rain coat most days because it pretty much rains all day. And we are in the heart of the rainy season. August is the worst month, or so I hear. It is very common to see the streets flooded, which makes it fun to get to our appointments. its kind of like a video game, where we are avoiding the big puddles of water. This city has huge gutters, like 2 feet wide and 3 feet deep but even then, the water still overflows onto the street. And since this whole city is one big rock it all flows toward the ocean. Even though I wear a raincoat I still get wet because it is still hot here, so I sweat like crazy with the coat on. Its a good thing my shoes are waterproof because wearing wet shoes would really not be fun. Just ask my companion.

So I had a very busy week this week. On Wednesday I went on splits with Elder Albright (he is my MTC mate, we came the same day). Which was really fun to see how someone else is coping with this mission. The reason for the split was his companion is the zone leader and we needed to get some investigators interviewed for baptism. It really helped me with my Krio because neither of us could speak it very well. It comes gradually, I learn a new word everyday. But I really enjoyed teaching with elder Albright.

We had a baptism on Saturday. We had 3 scheduled but only 2 were baptized. The other one, A-boy, was not baptized because our branch president did not want him to get baptized because he is going to school in a couple months where a place the church is not yet established. It really makes no sense to me, but I must obey my priesthood leaders. The others were named Tamba Kamara, and this old Grandma, we call here Grandma Jah. This Grandma has a son that is a member of the church but is less active. They live together and Elder Sadare has been in contact with this family for quite sometime. While we were trying to reactivate this family the grandma sat in on the lesson. We were reminding them of the covenant they made at baptism and the importance of taking the sacrament each week. We were reading in Mosiah 18, and this grandma expressed a great desire to be baptized. So we began teaching her and she was baptized on Saturday. This woman was all but dead according to Elder Peterson, but in Elder Sadare gave her a blessing some time ago and this gospel has literally brought her new life. You can see the change, she has been born again. Although at her age she is very fragile, so getting her under the water was tricky. Elder Jackson pulled a good manuever and kind of bear hugged her and took her down. I was kind of scared for her, but looking back it was kind of funny to watch.

The other man, Tamba Kamara, was contacted before I came. I only taught him from lesson 3 on. He is an amazing carpenter. Pretty much everything he builds is by hand tools and they are amazing. It was a really neat experience to witness this baptism. I know that Lord provided us with this success and I can't take any of the credit. We have plenty more investigators. You wanted the names so here they are. Amadu, Fatmata Sesay, Racheal, Mabinti, and Agnes. Those are the ones we are going to focus on this week. Transfers are every 6 weeks. So in a week and a half.

I don't think I'm going anywhere because my branch is actually going to be split soon. If anyone were to go it would be my companion, who has been in this area since january. I recieve mail every 3 week at zone conferences. we have a zone conference this week so I will let you know next week what I recieved. I think I answered all the questions and my spiritual suggestion of the week is to study the sacrament prayers. I love you all and Remember what you stand for.

Elder Degen

E-mail from Eric dated 7/21/08

Ah . . the good old days of camping. And by that I mean relaxing. Now imagine if you had to live like that. All the time. it makes me laugh at how much i would complain before. Now what I wouldn't give for them now. Like a washing machine, or a dish washer. Ah its funny. Kalli, that is awesome that you caught a fish. Now do you remember how that fish smelt. That is kinda what this city smells like. But you get used to it after a while, considering fish are everywhere. The way that they are prepared to eat is very different from what you would do. basically just throw it in a pot and let it cook. Then eat the fish right of the bones. Yes, i've done that many times. Have fun at the 24th of july parade. i'm glad that I'll be proselyting that day. ha ha only joking.

This week was a very interesting one for me. It was kind of a roller coaster week but me being a positive guy, I will only focus on the positive things. We went on splits this week. We haven't done them until now because I was still learning my area, but I felt comfortable enough and we had enough work to do so we went ahead and did it. I realized this week that the spirit really does direct me in the work. When the responsibility of being the missionary ( as I was with a branch member, waiting for his mission call) was upon me I could feel the spirit directing me as to what I need to say to be the most effective. With my companion I kind of rely on him more than the spirit. But without him all I could rely on was the spirit. And I realized that the spirit has been directing me the whole time that i've been out here. I kind of had a moment when I looked back as when I first left home and up to this point. I really have learned so much, especially on how to rely on the spirit. It makes a huge difference in missionary work, and I'm guessing that it will make a huge difference in anybody's life - on a mission or not.

We didn't have the baptism last week but it will be held this week. We have 4 to be baptized and none of them are related. a 14 yr old boy, a 20 yr old boy, a man in his 40's and a really really old grandmother. All of these were contacted from member referrals. That is huge because they already have a friend or a family member that will push them to come to church and guide them in the process.

I decided that in order for someone to really understand what this place is like you have to visit it for yourself. Everyday I see or hear something new. I feel that you just really can't describe this place by words or pictures. You have to live it. But I hope you have just a little taste of what its like here, as not everyone can visit here. To answer your questions concerning the wash. oh man, just be grateful for washing machines. If you ever hate doing the laundry, try to do it without the machine. Then you will never complain again. My clothes do get clean, but they don't have that smell like it just came out of the dryer. But at least it doesn't stink anymore. Drying can take a couple of hours if the sun is out or a couple of days if it rains alot. And let me tell you that the heavy part of the rainy season has arrived. I'm told that it will rain everyday from now until august. So far it has held true. Think of the hardest its rained in utah. Now imagine like that for say 3 hours. Then the rain lets up and it kind of mists - like in hawaii. So staying dry, meh, doesn't really exist now. Drying my clothes, well as long as they are not soaking i'll be alright. Its not like they are completely out in the open, they are on our balcony hanging on the line, with a roof over it. Lets just say my shirts get 2 or 3 days out of them before they need to be washed.

Today we had a super p-day. All of our zone and all of the kissy zone met up and played futball (soccer silly). The field was pretty much on a huge rock. like the top of angels landing without the big drop off. Oh and it was raining. It was so much fun. I even scored once. woo! its very different to play on concrete than grass. the ball bounces like crazy. Oh, and for lunch we ate a pig. Like no joke, I watched the Elders from Wellington bring the skinned pig to the apartment and Elder Schwenke from samoa chopped the pig up into little pieces with a huge knife and we threw in on the dutch oven for three hours. where else does that happen.

I hope you guys have great week. Read Elder Bednars talk on Prayer from the last general conference. maybe make it the lesson for family night tonight. It is so good and everyone needs to improve their prayers.

Elder Degen

Eric's e-mail dated 7/14/08

Hi guys,

Well it sounds like all is well back at home. I had a pretty good week this week. With the highlight being interviews with president squires. He cleared up alot of the questions I had concerning this mission. This mission is so unique, i'm pretty sure that there is no other mission like it. I was a little confused as to why we were spending so much time with less active and recent converts and even with the members and not more time with investigators. I learned that we could probably baptize 10 a month if we wanted but the problem is after baptism these new members don't have leaders to continue there development in the gospel. The missionaries teach on a commitment and follow up basis and after the missionaries have taught them all that they should that commitment and follow up pattern is delegated to the leaders. If you bring people in and can't keep them, then why bring them in? So our focus is to build leaders. We Elders have home teaching assignments, so we can teach people how to teach. President said that as long as this country doesn't work to build its leaders the spirituality will not rise. The members here have a very simple knowledge of the gospel, not unlike our youth in Utah. That made me feel better that my work was actually for the good. But we were also counseled to always have 7-8 progressing investigators. And we do have 7 investigators right now. We have to be careful who we teach because we need to take this message to the "rich" (president preferres self-reliant) first and then to the poor. All of our investigators except 2 are member referrals. Our baptismal dates will have to be pushed back for now, but we have some more promising investigators that we should commit to baptism this week. Especially that young man that I mentioned last week.

He has 2 member friends that introduced him to us. Those 2 member friends weren't there on Sunday, but he was. This young man's parents have passed away and he is working to try and go to school. He came to me with questions about his reading in the book of mormon and seemed really excited to get the answer. He put forth the effort and it is paying off. I cant wait to teach him more. It is amazing that the Lord won't reveal anything to you until you put forth the effort. That is why we all must gain our own testimonies by asking even though you can live righteously off the testimonies of you parents. I had to do it as well, and once I did I never questioned my knowledge and testimony of my Savior. Elder and Sister Peterson are actually assigned to serve in our branch at Congo Cross. This congo Cross branc is one of the strongest branches in Sierra Leone. There is actually talk of spliting the branch soon because we had over 100 attend church last week. I have learned that you must always be prepared when attending church. I had to teach Sunday School this week and it has been known for elders to give talks randomly in sacrament meeting.

Ah. . tell brittany that I learned to drive that car in less than a week then I had to drive to work every day. Its not bad, you just have to do it. And what the heck, no dating high school graduates.

Anyone can be a missionary. Especially the primary children. I think they know more about what is right but its the adults that influence them. I think that is one reason why Christ loved the children so much.

I love spike.

I get plenty to eat here. Although the variety in food is not as broad but hey, food is food. I usually like to eat cookies from the lebanese store (they call them biscuits here). I have eaten so many different kinds of food. Like Fufu. imagine a ball of dough on a plate. in a bowl next to it is soup with meat and leaves. I take a small bit of the dough in my hands and dip it in the soup grabbing as much as I can with my fingers. Oh and did I mention that everything here is hot. like spicy hot. Holy crap we had this soup yesterday that was like liquid pepper. and it doesn't help that the only thing to drink was soda. Carbonation does not help cool a hot mouth. We usually eat from a big bowl and all of us go at it. Like today, we ate from the biggest bowl (we had rice) and all 12 of us in our zone ate this big mound of rice. it was actually kind of funny to see.I sleep alright I guess. Its 8 hours but its on a hard matress. I used to never wake up in the night. now I wake up all night long. But I have gotten used to it. Its not like I can complain because it is better than sleepin on what some of the people sleep on here. Alright have a great week and I'm glad to hear that our scripture study is getting better.

Elder Degen

E-mail from Eric dated 7/7/08

Hello Family,

Wow it sounds like the 4th of july was the same old same old. man what I wouldn't do for a Burger though. I hope you beat Joshua this year mom, but I'm pretty sure that joshua beat you again. Ha. I was busy working for the Lord here and my companion reminded me that it was the fourth of July. Wow time goes fast. I have been through so many experiences in just this small span. There is no work at MIRO because the customers know that thier best worker is in Africa. Biscuit.

Yes I do teach the missionary lessons but not very often. Our focus is on the Recent converts and the less active with a little time devoted to members. The members have good leaders now, but we are building future leaders. We are supposed to be focusing half of our time on investigators and half on less active, but as for now most of our time is focused on the less active. I am trying really hard to make it half and half by finding new people to teach. We had a man Tamba Kamara, who commited to baptism this week. Which was really neat. We also have a man named Amadu that we met at church last week and he comes with his 2 friends. I hope and pray that he will follow our council and find out for himself if what we are teaching is true. If his friends help him he will come around.

So this week for me was interesting. On saturday we were stuck in the apartment all day because Sierra Leone was having a local election. I guess people can get a little crazy on election day. Its not like they've had trouble with government before. But all went well as far as I can tell. I spent the whole day studying and washing clothes. Wow, I think everyone should have a complete day devoted to study. I learned a bunch. fasting is way harder in africa because we eat rice (which doesn't last long) and then we walk in the heat all day. Holy crap, I don't know how I made it through the day yesterday.

Lets see, no I have not recieved any letters yet, I believe I only get them every 3 weeks. I'm not really sure but oh well, what can you do. I don't really know why you ask if I want to print my emials. i could for like 1500 leones. but hey I can read them on the screen just fine. Tell everybody hello for me.

I love you all and Remember D&C 90:24

ELDER DEGEN

Picture taken the day Eric arrived in Sierra Leone with President and Sister Squires

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

Eric is now in Sierra Leone!

Hey guys,

I made it safely to Sierra Leone. I am in the Mission Home right now, we just had dinner. We had an interesting experience getting here. The airport almost didn't let us on the plane because it was full. But Brother Engemann worked his magic and got us back on the plane, in first class. It was pretty sweet. Once we arrived in Sierra Leone, we weren't quite yet in Freetown. I already love it here. The people are more friendly than in Ghana, and from what I've seen so far, Sierra Leone is much greener than Ghana. Ghana was kinda brown and it reminded me of a humid St. George. We didn't get to ride the helicopter over to the mission home because it wasn't really working. So we got to take the hovercraft instead. Yeah, an actual hovercraft that like hovered over the water. That took like and hour to get over the bay. An Elder had met us at the airport and guided us across the bay to greet us with President Squires.

I learned that we make 52 elders in the mission and it is spread out in 4 disticts across the two countries. I'm not sure where I'll be serving first but I will find out shortly, probably tomorrow. P-day is on monday so if the internet cafe's are running that is when you will hear from me next. So if you don't hear from me then the internet is down so don't worry. I love you all and i'm so glad that i'm finally here. Have a great week.

Elder Degen

Eric's latest e-mail dated 6/22/08

All is well here in the Ghana MTC. All of the Elders are really excited to get out and start preaching the gospel though. I have loved my stay here in the MTC and will miss all of the good friends that I have made here. I have learned how to say hello in 5 different languages, including one of the tribal languages in Ghana.

My schedule here in the MTC is very busy. I am actually in class for most of the day with a devotional here and there. I get up at 6:30 have breakfast at 7 study for an hour. class until noon. lunch for 45 minutes. class til 4. then we have activity time every day. during activity time we get the chance to play basketball, futball, ping pong, or volleyball. I enjoy playing all as you can probably guess. Playing basketball isn't as popular here because the Africans are not very good at it. I love playing volleyball with the Tongan Elders, we dominate the game. The most popular game is of course soccer. I have only played a couple of times but I have left my mark with some goals. they don't really trust us white people until we score. The elders that play ping pong are really good. they would give the chinese a run for there money. We then have dinner at 5. class until 9:30. then bed at 10. I know it sounds boring, but there is alot of excitement going on all the time.

I got the chance to go to the temple again this week. It sadened me that I won't be able to go back for a couple of years, but I think i'll be alright. We also had a great experience to going out and tracting with my MTC companion for 2 1/2 hours. We ended up teaching the first lesson 4 times. This catholic lady seemed interested and we left her a copy of the book of mormon. Africa is really like the 1800's with cell phones and cars. chickens and goats are running around everywhere. and People are everywhere carrying baskets of who knows what on their heads. We will get to go back tracting in the same area tomorrow to teach that same lady. I hope all will go well before we leave her for the ghana missionaries.

I leave for Sierra Leone on Tuesday. I'm not really sure when I will arrive but I'm sure you will know about it from somebody. I think that the Sierra Leone p-day is on mondays but I could be wrong.

My companion sends his best reguards. As he is standing right behind me reading everyword I type. He is a great guy even though he doesn't smile any of his pictures. He will be going back to Nigeria to serve. He loves music and can sing and play the piano very well. Thanks for telling me about the Celtics. This is the first time I have heard and all the American elders shouted for joy, while all the african elders looked at us funny. I think the draft is this week, tell the jazz to draft Roy Hibbert from Georgetown. I love you all and have a great week.

Elder Degen

First E-mail from Eric dated

Why Hello again, All is well here in Ghana. I am learning so much at a very rapid pace. I am in class ALL DAY LONG. i'm being serious. My companion is from Nigeria. His name is Elder Iyiewuare (pronounced ee-eh-wahr-ee). We get along just fine. He has a great knowledge of the Bible as do most of the African Elders. He will be serving in Nigeria. There are only 32 of us missionaries here. all but 8 are native africans. We have a couple of Elders from Tonga. I am loving it here! These africans are very enjoyable to be around. I have made some great friends that I probably won't ever see again as only 5 of us are going to the Sierra Leone mission. The food here is pretty good, i guess.

I swear they try and find ways to have rice in every meal and in every form. Like today, we had rice cereal. no really the rice was in some warm milk. I was so grateful for the night we had speghetti and ice cream. Ice cream tastes so good when you haven't had it in a while, and because it is the coldest thing I have touched since i've been here.

My teaching skills have improved so much. We have already covered Lesson 1 and this week we will finish the rest of the Lessons. President Harmon is awesome. He truly is a man of God. This is his third mission (France and Madagascar). We have already been to the temple once and we get to go again next week. It was probably the coolest thing ever. We got to do two endowment sessions and I loved them both. It is a very small temple. Most of the african Elders took out their own endowments when we went. I love it here. I will get to email you next week from this address, and from there on out i'm not really sure. my bag did come, but not until sunday night. all is well. I love you all. ELDER DEGEN

American Elders arriving in Ghana on 6/6/08 with President and Sister Harmon