Great Things are Happening

3/2/15

Hey guys,

Glad to hear things are going well there. We are all doing well here as well.

We just had another baptism for our ami, Isaac, this past Saturday. We have really worked with him—he was one of our first amis here. But he finally made it! And he’s doing really well. He got up and gave a great testimony on Sunday about how the gospel has changed him. Barnes and I both were amazed at the changes he has made. Isaac even got the little formalities down—like ending his testimony with “in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen,” and everything. He also volunteered to give the prayer in Sunday School.

The Baptism itself was kind of amusing. We perform the baptisms in a pool and it is not unheard of that when we finish the ordinance, and the Elder Rich invites the missionary to exit the pool that they do it by swimming to the other end of the pool (which is closer to the changing rooms—which the changing room is really just a dark little cave with no where to put your clothes!). Isaac saw Barnes exit the pool this way and asked if he could do the same. We said, of course he could. So he started to “swim” but he didn’t really move forward, he just flailed his arms and legs while he slowly drowned. He got to the bottom of the pool and pushed himself back up above the water and the pool attendant ran over and told him to turn himself around and get out because he couldn’t swim.

Isaac is doing really well. He even said he is considering doing a mission! So that would be really cool. He’s 23, so if he decides to go, he will leave before I am done with my mission.

Transfer calls came that night too. One change: Barnes is leaving (his training is done) and he’s going to a sector in Cotonou called Gbegamey, and he will be in an all French apartment—so he will learn a lot of things really quickly now.

They are sending a Tahitian named Elder Marurai to be my new companion. He’s been out for about 14 months I believe (he came at the same time as Rich). I am excited because I really like Elder Florion, who was in Cococodji. Florion and Marurai are both Tahitian, and Tahitians are generally very nice, generous and funny. They are really nice to everyone.

The interesting point that threw us off is that Marurai has actually worked in Porto Novo before, back before I got here. It is kind of unheard of here to have a missionary go back to an area. Also even more bizarre is that they told me that I would be the senior comp.

I am certain that we’ll have lots of good experiences together. Florion was a great guy, and he is good friends with Marurai. I also hear that he is a really talented teacher, so I’ll enjoy learning things from him.

I’m excited to be staying here in Porto Novo as well. We have a couple baptisms coming up. Plus Rich, Ribera and Mayamba will be staying here as well, and I really like them all.

Oh, and that is fine if Dad wants to move to a new area. You can go ahead and move if you want, just don’t move to West Africa, I will be having my homecoming in one of the 50 United States of America and that is final!

All right, everyone have a good coming week! Love you all,

Elder Walls