A Child is Born

Bonjour from Côte d'Iviore! This week was great! For some reason the week felt like an eternity, even though the days passed quickly. Explain that for me? My new comp is super cool. Elder Agbahounzo. He's the chef du district in replacement of Elder Kalala. He's way cool, and I can joke around with him. Things are looking good in our companionship for the future, in the terms of teaching and helping people 

The only struggle is that now with an apartment of 6 elders there's lots of bickering between the other elders, but I won't get into that.

We had our Christmas activity on the 18th at Toit Rouge. The zones of Divo, Port Bouet, and Toit Rouge were there, which was way cool. We watched some church videos, did an object lesson with cups, and ate some pizza. It was a good activity. I got to see my MT's, Elder Godfrey, Gifford, and Erickson, which was really nice. I finally found a cantique; I've been searching for one ever since I got here. Overall, the activity was a great experience!

Elder Agbahounzo and I have been working hard this week, and we've found many new amis de l'eglise. One contact in particular is very promising. They're the Djehi family. The parents are married, which is very uncommon because of la dote, so I'd call that a miracle. They're a wonderful family, and I think that there's a good possibility that they'll be baptized. We also have Sr Adeline and Sr Marie Lue who are really interested and have a lot of questions. I'll probably have an update on their progress next week.

This year for light the world, a video was released, called "The Christ Child." The video is very well portrayed, I definitely would recommend watching it. It makes you think what it would have been like to be there. How amazing would it have been to have recognized the prophesied star and seen Jesus in the flesh? To have had the opportunity to see the Savior of mankind? I love the emotion portrayed in the video by the 3 wise men. It brings the foremost of them to tears of awe and joy, just to be in His presence. To finish, here's a real quick scripture from Isaiah:

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." (Isaiah 9:6)

He is the Gift. He is the Light, the Lamb of God, The Prince of Peace. Just like the shepherds, we have been called from our labor and given an opportunity to worship Him. For this special time of the year, we can center our thoughts and actions on Him. This Christmas, focus your thoughts on our Savior. He lives. He loves us. He is The Christ.

Merry Christmas everyone.

-Elder Lyman

• Cantique = hymnbook, and Elder Godfrey had an extra, so he gave it to Elder Lyman.

• The cup activity “lesson was that little by little we can learn to do things, not everything at once.”

• Elder Lyman hates it when the other Elders bicker and will go without food if that is what the bickering is over. Or he will make a spaghetti omelet. Or eat one of the dwindling number of protein bars we sent him.

• Elder Agbahounzo is a hard worker.

• Elder Lyman had to prove he was himself on Hangouts this week because last week someone hacked his email and was asking his friends and family to follow them and send money. Euros, of all things. They don't use Euros in his mission.

• The Elders don’t have to knock on doors because “everyone is always chilling out in the street”.

• “On the 15th, I remember specifically praying to find new people to teach, and that's when we found 7 in one day. So a lot of the new amis are from then, along with 3 contacts from members, 1 from OVB, and 1 from just the ami not being there.”

• If the sun is out Elder Lyman’s clothes take 20 minutes to dry on the line outside.

• Tomorrow (Tuesday) there will be a special 3-mission meeting. Elder Lyman's area is removed from the rest of the mission in the city-wide area so he feels that they aren't kept up-to-date with happenings, but he thinks the 3-mission meeting is a choral thing.

• chef du district = District Leader

• For newbies... la dote = "the bride price" which is a certain amount of money a man must pay the bride's father in order to marry her. Many people live together and consider themselves married without being legally married because of the cost of la dote.