Hey-O!

5/4/15

Hey guys,

Thank you for all of your letters, birthday wishes, prayers and everything else. It really makes a difference in my day. Mom, please thank everyone who emailed me, I don't think I will have time to write everyone back. 

The work continues to be a little slow because we our plumber keeps coming over to work in our bathrooms. So, we have had to stay home for his visits. It’s hard taking a home day as a missionary; there is practically nothing to do, but study. Hopefully he will be finished soon. Just when I think he is finished, he comes back, and then he is back again.

When we get to go out, everything is good. We have a few amis here in Tokpota and we still have all our amis from Aimlonfide that we keep track of. So we walk quite a bit, but it makes for good sport. At times I do have to say that I get jealous of all those missionaries out there with cars and AC and iPads, but at the same time I’m content because I know hard things help us to grow.

We hope to have a few baptisms in the future, but we have work to do before that happens.

Last night, for my birthday, we ate dinner with our neighbors. They are all Catholic, so we had one of them pray for us before eating. I almost laughed at one of the things that the 14-year-old girl said in her prayer. She said, "Tonight, we eat in the name of Walls." I guess that tonight if you guys are missing me, you could eat your cake in my name and that would count for me getting cake as well.

Also, I should note that stories spread through the mission faster than the Internet. Somehow they even cross the border between Benin and Togo. So of course, everyone has heard about my accident. Since I didn’t tell them about the incident personally, some of them have gotten quite a different version of the story. Apparently, In Togo, they all heard that I’d been stabbed on the road. However, one of them was shocked enough upon hearing that that he paid the fine to call across borders and ask what really happened.

As far as our amis go, we have a new one named Saurel and he is probably one of the best readers I’ve ever taught. Most amis will say they read all the time and then you ask what they’ve read and they suddenly seem a lot less sure of themselves. However the lesson after having given him the Book of Mormon, he gave us a detailed account (and completely accurate) of the first 12 chapters. I was pretty impressed. We fixed a date for him to be baptized at the end of May. He is worried because he says his family is very strong in another church. Certain other amis are doing well too.

Alright, Thanks again, call you on Sunday!

Elder Walls