.....December 21-December 28.....

hello again everyone!!

let me just start by saying that as uneventful as my christmas was, talking to you all could not have been more amazing. it definitely gave me the strength i needed to finish this last week of 2009. you all sounded great.

so not much has happened since i last talked to you all, so this email will be fairly short.

we have another district meeting on tuesday, which is ok i guess... however on thursday, the entire misssion except togo and benin are going to grand Bassam, which is the prettiest beach area in the Ivory Coast, for an activity for new year's. it should be fun i guess, i am just excited to see an actual beach, even though we're not allowed to swim. i will be sure to take plenty of pictures to show you. each zone was asked to prepare a presentation for president and mama ayekoué, so our zone is doing a dance. to african music of course, however me and elder cloward are most likely going to steal the show with american stuff, you know, show em how its really done...

thursday, we have leadership training at the mission bureau, where president will probably just "chatier" us (chastize) for our week numbers at the end of the year. so thats how i am spending my new years eve. new years day, i get to go out and teach all day!! but you know, when do i not?

you know whats interesting... in four months, about, i will be calling again for mother's day. when i call, i will have less than a year left.... that's nuts!!!

i received some bad news... Elder Tchare and Elder Cloward are moving back to Cocody soon, so it will be just me and Kouakou in the appartment. that will weird but oh well. its been nice having an english-speaker, but i knew it wouldnt last too long.

a couple we have been teaching is finally getting married, after four long months of waiting to be baptized. that will happen in the first couple weeks of 2010.

i think that the next time i get transferred, i will be going to togo or benin. just saying. fingers crossed, yeh?

well family, that'sall for this week. just know that i love ya and miss you like crazy, all of you. talking to yo all was incredible, and it won't be too long before you hear my voice again. happy new year!!!

your son,

elder call

.....December 14 - December 21.....

hello friends and family,

i hope everyone is getting jazzed for christmas on friday. i am certainly excited, as i will be able to talk to you guys!!! so before i get into the juiciness of this past week, i will describe the procedure for fridays calling.....

you will be calling my apartment and i have been given about an hour to talk to everyone. the time difference is five hours, but just to be safe, i am going to call you all briefly to tell you to call me back. just be ready by the phone at 4pm on Friday. that would make it about 9 pm my time. if the time change is only four hours, then hours then it will be closer to 5pm. so just be ready at 4 pm for my "signal."

i am totally syked to talk to everyone and hopefully sara too.

ok so this past week was interesting. we had a last minute mission conference on thursday, which went very well. we sang for the three missionaries that lost their family members; it was the first time that i have ever seen president cry. the spirit was way strong. he said it's been a tought year for him. the rest of the conference went well, as i was excited to see my "whiteys" again (elder legere,elder olson, elder skousen, elder bowman).

here's an interesting story for ya. on the way home, a police officer pulled us over and asked us for our identification. we all had ours, only elder clowards was expired by two months. the guy was willing to let us go, but only if we gave him some money. yeh i was disgusted as we drove away. i had a pathetic feeling for that man. so thanks for the heads up mom and dad, however, we learned that advice the hard way.

another interesting story: after the district meeting on tuesday, we took a taxi back to the ward building for riviera. as we got out of the taxi,another car came speeding by, almost hitting elder tchare; as i stepped back one small step, i realized that there was no ground behind me, and i fell down into a sewer about five feet down. on the way down, i scraped my shins quite nicely, and my pants and shoes were covered in what could only be caca ( yeh that means human waste) up to about my knees. it hurt, it smelled awful, but i wasnt really that embarassed; i was just flat out furious. so i walked the thirty minutes back to the apartment with my companion, looking and smelling like crap. what a lovely day it was. i refuse to wash the shoes or the pants so i just threw them away.

quite a week huh? oh well, ca va aller.

so my plans for friday consist of the same thing i do every friday, except in the morning we are eating at the stake presidents house. fun fun fun .

oh yeh and i opened the box that you sent mom and dad... i couldnt wait any longer; thanks for everything, it was great. just so you know i gave two small packages for the baileys to send off, one for the family and one for sara. they are dvds. hopefully they will make it home ok... it might be awhile though.

well everyone, i hope that the holidays are great for all of you. i will be missing you all terribly and thinking of you all this friday, well pretty much all week actually. i love you and cant wait to talk on friday!!!

joyeux noel et nouvelle annee!!!

votre fils et missionnaire vaillant,

elder call

.....December 7th to December 14th.....

" this is hard, this is not easy, but this is right."

hello friends, family, in-laws, loved ones, everyone!

this week was another interesting one, to say the least.

first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELBY!!!!

ok had to get that out. anyways, as the days are getting closer and closer to christmas, i am starting to feel farther and farther from the jolly holiday season. the only red i see is the harsh sunburn that i have. the only green is the grass and the palm trees. the only cold is the icy shower i take 3 times a day. however, thats not what christmas is about, right?

mom and dad, i got the package yesterday, but i am waiting to open til christmas, even though i already know whats inside of it. i am still excited...

this week was the first full week as district leader and as a senior companion, and things went surprisingly well. the district meeting was good. i talked about "finding people." i think it was quite effective, and i was able to mettre en pratique that which i taught, as me and companion found 16 new investigators this week. one of theses amis is named raymond. he saw us walking one day and asked us why we never stopped to teach him. i guess he had a point; us missionaries are often so preoccuied with getting to our next appointment, that we often forget there are others in our path who need the gospel too. we taught him the message of the restoration, and he was extremely interested, so we gave him a book of mormon, and invited him to the baptism on saturday, just to see what it's like. he has family members that we teach also. he's a great guy.

our apartment was partially flooded this week after a rainstorm. we leave our windows open at night because its so hot, and water just poured in. it was a pain to clean up, especially at 3 in the morning, but no harm done.

i am attaching a lot of photos to this email, or at least im going to try, most of them are older pictures from koumassi, but i figured it still might be nice to see them, considering the dvds and photos never made it there...

well just know that i love you all and i am thinking about you all this holiday season. this is hard, this is not easy, but this is right. love you and miss you!

elder call