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
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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
Monday, July 7, 2008
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
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
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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
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
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