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