E-mail dated 2/15/10

Well here we go again. Another monday and another day of nothing much to say. I don't really know what that means but the past couple of weeks I'm really struggling of what I should write. I'm currently in Freetown for a meeting today. I traveled yesterday after church and we are going back this evening.

The news of the mission was that the new mission president has been called. Like you said his name is President Roggia. He is from Texas and he is a retired military chaplian. I didn't know what a chaplain was either but it guess its a religious counselor in the military. Another retired military man for this mission. Elder Wire was also a former military man and he was perfect for the calling. I don't think I will ever meet this man but the news is still exciting. President Squires was saying he might not get to meet him either.

Ok, well I'm just going to be honest with you all. The reason my last couple of weeks was boring was because I didn't go anywhere. I was stuck in the apartment for six straight days because my companion was very sick. He had Typhoid and Malaria at the same time. Elder Lauti has never gotten sick in his life and he sure chose the wrong time to start getting sick. He had the same sickness about a month ago and he relapsed last week. Now you are prabably thinking typhoid and malaria is pretty serious, but its actually quite common among missionaries here. I've even had it and its not much fun at all. I'm still trying to figure out why we got a typhoid immunization if we can still get typhoid.

It all started last week Friday, when Elder Lauti had a really bad headache and a fever. The conditions did not improve and I ended up taking him to the hospital with sister squires last week monday (which was why I wasn't able to email on monday last week). Oh man, that hospital was quite an experience. I don't think those doctors knew what they were doing but the good thing was that they had a drip. Thankfully he started recovering on Tuesday and Wednesday and by thursday we were able to go out for half a day. Its actually all really funny now. Oh another part of it, when my companion was laying down with a high fever I fanned him for hours at a time to keep his fever down. I seriously got a blister from fanning him so much. The good news is that he is 100% better now so you don't have to worry. You can even emial sister squires and she will tell you its all true and we are being well taken care of.

Hopefully I will have more to talk about next week because I'm out of ideas for this week. Love you all.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life

PS HI KEVIN!!!

New e-mail address!!

The area office has asked that all missionaries begin using the myldsmail.net for emailing family. My new account is eric_degen@myldsmail.net. Please let all family members know. Remember that I can only respond to family members (extended included). I can receive mail from friends but don't expect a return email. Please begin using this account next week.

E-mail dated 2/9/10

Well, like you, I don't think I will have much to say today. This week wasn't really exciting. Let me start by answering your question about Sunday School. As missionaries we don't attend Sunday School, we attend the Gospel Essential Class (or as it is called here the investigators class). We use the gospel principles manual for this class and then we do the same thing in Elders Quorum. A couple of weeks ago, the leaders made a mistake and we read the same chapter for both classes. I believe that the actual Sunday school class is studying the Old Testament, but I've never attended so I'm not sure. You never know here.

So I have a random question. If you had to live without running water or power which one would you choose? I am currently without both and it is very obvious which one we need more. Living without power is easy, but living without water . . . It takes so much effort to go and get a bucket of water from the well. Needless to say our apartment was very dirty because of our laziness to get water from the well. I spent a lot of time cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom and they look so good now. Geez, that was probably the lamest paragraph I've every written. That's how exciting my week was.

Well, not much else happened this week and I'm out of things to say. I love you all and enjoy the week.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life

E-mail dated 2/1/10

Ok I can't really start emails very well so I'm just going to dive right into whats on my mind. Its kind of interesting as I look back on the progress of the mission since it was created 2 and a half years ago. Very gradually the Lord has revealed line upon line his will with this mission. When I first came the mission was focusing on finding the rich, the noble, the learned and wise to teach instead of the low class. Just before I came the focus was finding the less active members and for a long time we focused alot on reactivating the less active members. Early in 2009 the revelation came to the mission leaders that we needed to focus more on teaching familys. Not necessarily changing the focus but rather just adding to it. About October of 2009 the focus was added once more this time about member present lessons. One of the things we report each week is the number of lessons taught to investigators with a member present. This is what we are really focusing on right now here in Bo.

Once we recieved this focus we quickly made a plan to do the Lords will. Ever since October we have been doing our best to get our member present lessons to be more effective. The results have been miraculous. Gradually we are seeing a change in the members' helping us. Now that we have seen how effective member present lessons are we don't want anything else. That is really our goal. All member present lessons.

As I was pondering one morning the question came to my mind What do I want for these people here? Baptism did not come to my mind like it would in most missions. My answer would be to have the church so strong here that they could sustain a temple. They can't get a temple unless they first become strong enough to become wards and a stake. We have been called here to build these branches, not to baptize. Maybe one day 5 years from now the mission president will be telling the missionaries to baptize more, but for right now we need to build this kingdom. I know that member present lessons will do this faster than anything else.

We are still focusing on families. This Friday we had a baptism of the nine year old son,Emmanuel Songu, of our first counselor in the branch presidency. I have really enjoyed going to the house and teaching the whole family for the past 3 months. I don't know of anywhere else where the missionaries would spend three months to teach a nine year old. But we felt that it would strengthen the family and it has. As the father was present for all the lessons he is now helping us teach another family that lives nearby.

As for the rest of our investigators we are still teaching the Kinawa family. We are also trying to finish the Smith family and we started teaching Abu Kougbaka's family. We are teaching the Moigula family, and the Massaquoi family is helping us teach sister massaquoi's brother. I think I'm starting to get attached to this branch.

Well Elder Lauti and I are staying together for this next transfer which will be six more weeks. We are learning alot together and I'm excited for what the Lord wants us to do next. Thanks for the updates and have a great week.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life

E-mail dated 1/25/10

I don't really know where to start. This whole week was so busy it all kind of feels like a blur know. Well I guess I'll start with today. We had a super p-day today. All of the elders met at the chapel and Elder and Sister Jones came from Freetown to play some crazy games. We kind of split up into four groups and did some elementary school relay races. It might sound kind of dumb, but it was so much fun. To conclude we played a missionary version of the "Newlywed game". But since none of us are married we played it with our companions. That game is so much funnier when we give different answers. It was a nice break from the normal football game.

I really can't remember what else happened this week. We once again have a busy week planned ahead of us so my mind is on the future and not on the past. Man its a good thing that I write in my journal or else I would forget everything. oh wait i remember now. On Saturday our zone held a district Fireside for all the branches in Bo. The Fireside was directed towards helping members fulfill their missionary responsibilities. We discussed three different ways in which we as full time missionaries need the help of the members. The first was introducing friends and family to the church and referring them to the missionaries. The second was how the missionaries and the members can teach together. The third was how the members can fellowship the investigators and new faces in the church. We really need the members help (not just here in Sierra Leone but all over the world). We are really focusing on working with the members here and we were hoping this fireside would get them to help us even more.

Thanks for the updates on everyone and thats all I've got for this week.

Elder Degen
Rice is Life

E-mail dated 1/18/10

Hello there friends and family and neighbors and all peoples. This past week went by so fast. On tuesday Elder Lauti was still recovering from his sickness so we just took it easy and spent the afternoon inside the apartment planning for the upcoming events of the transfer. On Wednesday we had District Meeting and we had from noon to seven to proselyte. Almost all of our apointments bounced and we were left scrambling to find people to teach. On Thursdays we had exchanges out in Kenema. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Amoa-Ohenakwah from Ghana. He's a funny elder. Our service project was done with the Kenema Elders and we cleared the foundation of a house. This foundation was built at least two years ago and never finished. Some members own it and they now have the money to finish it. We cleared the weeds from the foundation of the house and brushed their property. It was alot of fun. On friday we had a Zone Conference. I got a big surprise when three of my christmas packages came. Woo! Thank you Crooks, Gram, and Grandma and Tammy Degen. Saturday we went on exchanges with the assistants. I went with my good friend Elder Stice. Sunday we went to church and right after the service Elder Lauti and I travelled to Freetown to attend a meeting for Today. Today we had the meeting and now I'm emailing. I guess that about explains my week. Something different every day this week. Thats why it went so fast.

I don't remember if I told you but President Squires has challenged all the missionaries to read the book of mormon before Easter. We are looking and marking 4 things. The references to Christ, His attributes, His words, and the doctrines and principles contained in the book of mormon. Now that I think about it I think I did tell you this last week. Oh, well. I'm still doing it. There are so many things we can learn from the book of mormon. I love it like crazy. The book of mormon really does have all the answers inside. Ok, maybe not all because we still have a need for modern revelation, but it has most of them. Our zone conference was centered on the book of mormon. It was so nice. President Squires gave a nice instruction but that is a different story for another day. I can't really describe what he talked about. It really wouldn't make any sense to you because you aren't here. so ask me later. he he he.

Yesterday in church while our branch was just finishing and the branch after us was just finishing sacrament meeting we saw like 10 americans walk out of the chapel. It scared the crap out of me. I was like what in the world are you doing here. I so used to being around Africans that just there presence intimidated me. Its going to be a funny site to see when americans will be around me all the time. I might pee my pants. I

love you all and enjoy the cold. Don't forget there is opposition in all things so you'll be wanting that cold when august reaches.

Elder Degen Rice is Life

PS Congrats on the baby Brendon and Melissa

PSS HOLY GOODNESS CJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for the mail. WHOOO!!

E-mail dated 1/12/10

Sorry about the shortness of the email yesterday. My companion was not feeling very well yesterday and he needed some rest so our emialing time got cut short. He is feeling much better this morning and with permission from the Mission President and orders from Sister Squires to take it easy today, we are now at the cafe.

This week was yet another normal week in the missionary work. Our apartment is going through a rough time as we still don't have running water or power (except the generator, which only runs for 3 hours in the evening). But we are all used to living like this so no problems. We ran into a couple of interesting less actives this week. One of them is named Elizabeth Allieu. She was the second counselor in the Relief Society Presidency and preparing to go to the temple when she fell less active. During her temple recommend interview with the mission president she got offended when she learned that she couldn't go unless she divorced her husband (because her husband has two wives). She has since fallen less active. When we went to visit her this week she got a little emotional with us. We could tell that she had a testimony but she was fighting it back.

We also ran into a return missionary who has since fallen less active. He was expecting the church to help him when he returned home to get his life in order. Of course thats not how the church works and he got offended when help didn't happen. He has since gotten another job with the help of another church and he is now attending that church. He to got a little emotional with us and we could tell that he to had a strong testimony and yet he was fighting it back.

The moral of the story is to LIVE YOUR TESTIMONY. When God, through the Holy Ghost, tells you something is true you had better live by it. Have faith that your decision will bless the rest of your life. We will still continue to work with these individuals and one day they will come back.

We had a neat lesson with the Kinawa family this week. We read with them the story of The Tree of Life from the Book of Mormon stories book. For the next lesson we blindfolded all the children (all 7 of them) and had them get from the stump to the papaya tree, with a small red "rod of iron" string. They all got excited and it was fun to watch them learn. We are still working with them and hopefully we can get the whole family on board before baptism. All the children came to chruch while the mother chose not to. The father was traveling in the village for work.

Everything else here is going good. I love you all and yes I can read emails from friends but don't expect a response. I can email extended family so keep em comin yance!!

Elder Degen

Rice is Life