January 5,
2015
Hey!
It’s great to
hear from you and to hear about all the stories from home; I especially loved
hearing about Spencer’s mission. That is too funny that someone wanted to name
their baby Elder Walmer! I think if someone named their baby Elder Walls, I wouldn’t
try to stop them. I’d love knowing that someone was named Elder Walls after me!
Right now
were doing well. We just had the start of the cold and dry
season (it is called Harmattan). Basically
the wind blows in a bunch of dirt over the region from the Sahara. And now
its really chilly in the morning, and super dry all the time. I am
glad that I packed Chapstick.
This past
week we had a mangez-vous (translation,
dinner appointment?) that was really difficult to get through. We have had
pàte (mixture of cornmeal and boiling
water) plenty of times, but this time they did something different and it
was so terrible. Even the Africans that were with us didn’t want to eat it. We
had to keep eating though, or we would offend our hosts. The food here really is
nothing to brag about. It’s no wonder that you never hear about it in America. I
think it would be more fitting if we Americans forgot the phrase 'there are people starving in Africa,'
as a way of convincing children to finish their food, and start using 'there are people in Africa who have to eat
pàte!’
Found a Komodo
dragon on the way to a rendezvous. Or maybe the term is Gila monster, I am not
quite sure. It was freaky—not quite as big as you would see at a zoo, but maybe
3 or 4 feet long. I got a picture and I will try to send it.
Barnes and I
are getting over a lot of sickness. I forgot to mention that in my last letter.
Pretty much since the day after Christmas my companion and I have been having
bad stomach problems. This has been
going on for a week, and it’s not fun. Thankfully, the good news is that I
haven’t had an accident while we’ve been out teaching. I’ve heard of a lot of
missionaries who have, and I don’t want to join that list!
There were a
lot of voodoo practitioners in the street on New Year’s Eve, which was
interesting. They did a lot of dancing which was fun to watch. Only
one guy tried to get us to give him money.
All in all,
everything is going well, although, we haven’t had much success with our
teaching. Hopefully now, with the holidays close to an end (January 10 is a
voodoo holiday here) and being over our sickness, we will have a little more
success.
Love hearing
from every week. Always a highlight of the week!
Love you,
Elder Walls
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