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
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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?
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?
Monday, September 8, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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
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
Monday, August 25, 2008
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
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
Monday, August 18, 2008
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
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
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