Many are cold, but few are frozen

Bonjour from Côte d'Iviore! This week was pretty crazy. Because of New Year's, we didn't have many rendez-vous(lessons), because everyone was getting ready to celebrate, partying, or sleeping afterwards, and stuff like that. New Year's Eve we didn't really do anything. We just had the conseil du district (district meeting)and ate some food that members gave us (which by the way, did not sit well at all in my stomach, but that's a story for another time). That night, I went to sleep at about 22h00, so on time. I was hoping to be able to sleep through all the ruckus that the church next to us was gonna cause, but that definitely didn't happen. I woke up at about 23h50 to someone breaking our door down, yelling and screaming, and explosions. For the first 30 seconds, as my mind was waking up, I thought that some civil war was happening and that we were gonna die, or something like that. Thankfully, that is not what happened. What really happened was Elder Tehiva repetitively body-slamming our door, yelling "HAPPEE NEW YEER" as loud as he could, the church next to us was playing their music as loud as they possibly could, of course, Elder David and Elder Ngindu were singing hymns at the top of their lungs for who knows why, fireworks were exploding right outside our window, and lastly people were yelling and whooping at the church next to us. That was probably the worst sleep I've gotten here so far. But ça va aller, life's all about experience.

Okay, weathertime. For the first half of the week, the weather was normal, and the temperature was the consistent sauna feeling. The average day here. On jeudi, near the end of the day, Elder Agbahounzo and I were at sector, and all of a sudden, a cold, dry breeze came through. We stopped walking and thought wow, that's really nice. Even though it smells like all of the oh so wonderful smells of Africa, it's nice. Then, we continued on proselytizing and didn't think much of it. The next morning, I woke up absolutely freezing. I thought "that's weird." I looked over at my companion, and he was curled up in a ball, obviously not having the best time of his life. I wondered what is going on, why is it so cold. After I got out of bed, my blood started flowing, and it didn't feel as cold as before. I showered, and yeah the water was cold, as usual. I got out, and oh man. Ohhhohohhoh man. It. Was. COLD. That's the most miserable I've been here so far, that minute and a half running from the shower to our room. Something is definitely wrong here. Even though it's probably like a comfortable temperature back home, here it does not feel normal. The weather has continued like that ever since, and it's been nice at sector because now we don't sweat through our shirts, but at night it's uncomfortable for sure. That's the weather update for this week.

Elder Lyman and Elder Agbahounzo

 

 

A couple quick things:

-Elder Agbahounzo and I went to the "beach" with the Soeurs in our district. It was covered in trash and wasn't the best beach. But we took some pictures, and that was fun I guess.

These girls were selling Arachide and coconut shavings

 

 

-Elder David and Elder Ngindu moved out and went back to their apartment, so now it's an apartment of 4 again thankfully.

-Someone has been leaving half finished bananas in the kitchen overnight, and I've discovered the culprit. There's a family of rats that live above the kitchen. Which is super duper awesome.

That's it for random fun facts I think. Now it's time for big facts. On jeudi evening, Elder Agbahounzo and I got a call from the mission president. My comp was leaving Vridi1 to be the companion to the zone leader of Niangon Sud, which was the zone that he just left, and I was going to become district leader here, with Elder Palmer being my new companion. So yeah that was super unexpected and crazy, but hey, issall good now I guess. The next day, Elder Agbahounzo and I had our monthlyish interview with president, ate some pizza, and then I said goodbye. Elder Palmer came about half an hour later. He's from Blanding, Utah, and he finishes with his mission in exactly 4 weeks, so that'll be interesting. He's super cool, and we've been working hard! I'm excited to see what the future will bring.

Even though we didn't get to teach that much this week, I'll share a few experiences that happened. We taught Sr Adeline again on jeudi. She understands really well, and this time she asked questions about baptism, and how she could get baptized and stuff. Next time I'm hoping to ask her to be baptized. She also brought 3 of her non-member friends to church, which was super cool too. Another one of our ami's is also very interested. Fr Ette is a football trainer, and he's really cool. The only problem is that he talks way too much. Elder Palmer and I taught him on dimanche, and with how much he talked, you'd think he taught us, instead of the other way around. He's super cool though. I think he might get baptized too, but unfortunately he's moving soon, so I don't know how much we'll be able to do for him. Lastly, la famille Djehi. We didn't teach them this week, but we taught their daughter, Sr Esthel. They came to church again, and they're always so nice to us. It's so cool. I can't wait to teach them again this week, and really all of our ami's. It's such a blessing to be here.

My spiritual thought for this week is in 1 Nephi 15. Nephi is always teaching his brothers and having to deal with their shenanigans. This one comes from when Nephi is trying to explain the meaning of Lehi's dream to them. He explained some stuff to them, and they said (this is in my own words) Yeah, we don't understand, it's too hard. Nephi asks them, well, have you prayed about it? They said no, he won't show us, why do you think he would do that for us? Nephi said you guys, c'mon. It's not that hard. Then he said this:

"Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you" (1 Nephi 15:11).

There's a big lesson we can learn from this. Laman and Lemuel didn't believe that God would answer their prayers, or, they didn't have faith that he would answer. If they had faith, He would have answered their prayers. Every blessing and response from heaven is dependent on our faith. If we have faith and are living worthily, we have been promised the answers to our prayers and help in our lives. Often, in my experience at least, I haven't had the confidence in myself to ask for things or something like that. For example, when asked "who wants to have eternal life" everyone raises their hand. But when posed the question, "who thinks they'll get eternal life?" few people raise their hands. One of the adversary's grand schemes right now is undermining our self-confidence. Whether physically, intellectually, or spiritually, he works very hard to distract us from the fact that we're children of God, that we were created in His image, and that we have been promised His divine help. If we have weaknesses, he gave them to us so that through Him, we can become strong. There's a lot more I could say in this section, but I'll just keep it short. Don't compare yourselves to others. God has created you perfectly in His eyes. He loves you, along with all of the family and friends that He has placed in your life. When you have a question or a need, He will help you as long as you are doing your best to live worthily. All you have to do is believe in Him and that He will respond and help you.

I know personally that this is true. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, he's constantly waiting to bless us and help us, the only variable is us. As we try to grow closer to Him, He will come closer to us and we will feel His love. I love the mission, my comp, the ami's, members, and my calling. The food and the weather too. There's nowhere else I'd rather be right now than here. I love you guys, until next week!

Elder Lyman

Elder Tehiva fixed up the apartment's living room. It is super nice now.

President and Sister Lewis and their daughter visited Vridi1 for church

 

 

•Someone came and changed the water pressure at the apartment to showers are now possible. Even though they are cold.

•The rats scared Elder Palmer really bad. They scurried suddenly in the ceiling and he thought the ceiling was going to collapse and cave in on he and Elder Lyman. Then he realized it was rats...

•There isn't any bickering in the apartment anymore.