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
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
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
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
Monday, November 24, 2008
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
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
Monday, November 17, 2008
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
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
Monday, November 10, 2008
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, November 3, 2008
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!
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!
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