Called to Serve

9/21/15

We had boombas made in honor of Elder L's completion of his mission

Hey!

It seems like it’s been a long week, so remembering everything that happened is hard.

We have been trying and trying to reach one of our amis, A. Several times we passed by his house and he hasn’t answered his door. Then Tuesday, we passed by and he wouldn’t respond to our knocking. (It's not really knocking, people here say "Co! Co! Co!" in place of knocking.) His yard wasn’t raked as it usually is--he is usually very meticulous about leaves on the ground. We found his door unlocked which surprised us. We peeked our heads in and found he was sleeping. We also saw that he had his yard brooms right by the gate, so we decided to rake for him, thinking it would be a surprise for him when he woke up. It was fun, but I don't know if he noticed or not. More leaves were falling and probably covered up our work. But that's no problem--the best kind of service is the service that goes unnoticed!

Sweeping the leaves in the yard of one of our amis

We didn't see our American friend, Rostand Kiki, this week. That was kind of a bummer. He is giving his wife a tour of the country, so they were probably in other parts of the country.

Let's see what else happened this week . . . We started teaching a new ami named D. He seems really cool.

Friday, we went to the church of one of our amis. He had promised that if we went to his church, that he would visit ours. It was a different experience. First of all, at the beginning there were only about 5 people there (including us), so we felt like all eyes were on us. It was basically a prayer meeting, and they prayed with what they called the gift of tongues (not at all like the gift of tongues we talk about in our church). There was a lot of gibberish spoken. And everyone was supposed to stand and wave around, shake their hands, and mutter gibberish under their breath. It was very awkward for us. Overall, it was a good experience because it helped me see the contrast between the teachings our of church and others.

Today hasn’t been too relaxing of a P-Day, I had to accompany Ribera on an errand this morning that was about a 30 minute walk each way. We made it there and as we left, it started raining. We made a stop at our branch clerk's work, and then continued on our journey. By this time, the rain had become pretty heavy, so trekking through it was interesting. People always shout at us when we walk in the rain ("What are you doing Yovo!!! Come stand under this cover!! Quick, Yovo!"). But we just wave and keep on going, maybe one day someone will be impressed by that, and stop the missionaries to talk.

Walking isn’t always fun, but it is our most effective way of getting contacts. Pretty often people will just stop us and say, "I see you guys walking all of the time, what is it that you do?" They usually think we are college students or Jehovah's Witnesses. It gives us a good opportunity to explain who we are and why we are there.

Anyways, today we sang Called to Serve as we marched through rain and the puddles. We were soaked by the time we got back to the house. I had finished my laundry before we left, but now I have more to do.

Then a church leader from Togo came to look at the apartments that we found.We have looked at two decent places, so I think this time we will actually succeed in getting more missionaries sent out here.

And now were back home! That’s basically all I have to report.

Oh, we finally received more chairs from Ghana for the branch building!!! It’s been months of waiting, but now no one will have to worry about sitting on the floor during sacrament meeting!

The church has progressed so much since I first arrived. I’m glad to have played a role in its initial growth. I hope the work continues and that they have a Stake here one day.

Transfers are this Saturday. It is supposed to be a big one. We have several missionaries going home, and just as many coming in new. So, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would love to stay here, or go to Cotonou (they are close to having a Stake organized there), or it would be cool to go to Togo (that's fun to say--"to go to Togo!"). There are perks on all ends. We'll see how everything goes!

Love you all,

Elder Walls

PS Here are some photos.