Rogenio's Baptism

August 17, 2015
Hey,

I always love getting all of your news and updates. I am glad to hear that you are all doing well. It's been a pretty long week, looking back some of the details seem distant. Let's see if I can remember everything.

Tuesday, we got to see one of my favorite amis, Prundencio. Do you remember me telling you about him? He is the son of the man who is the equivalent of a senator here, and the one whose car caught fire right in front of our house. He is making good progress, he reads the Book of Mormon more than most of our other amis. He is always very interested in the stories, and fills us in on everything he has read. We are working on getting him to come to church. One of the challenges, though, is the distance--our church building is quite far away.

Wednesday, I woke up with a crazy knot in my right shoulder and neck. Must've slept poorly, however, this time was worse than other times. Looked in the mirror and saw th

(Mom's note: The email only went this far, leaving us worried about what had happened. Not sure if the cyber cafe lost power (which happens quite a bit), or if Eric was just going for dramatic effect.Thankfully, another email came through with the rest of the story.)

Looked in the Mirror and saw that one shoulder was actually higher than the other and my neck was cocked to one side. I felt like I was standing up straight, but I guess not. I made a makeshift brace for my neck, and that helped quite a bit.

That same day, I did a split with Elder Legbanon. We walked pretty far out in their sector to meet with a former voodoo fetisher. He had some interesting stories to tell about mobs of angry men trying to bury him alive.

Saturday we had our baptism for Rogenio. I am not sure I have told you about him. He is 20 years old, so that makes him my peer even though we've been raised on different sides of the globe. He has friends who are members and he was interested in being baptized himself. He took the lessons and progressed rather quickly. He really liked learning about the Plan of Salvation. Now that he is baptized, he is considering going on a mission and his 2 brothers are also interested in learning about the gospel.

Sunday, Rogenio was confirmed. We were a little worried if he would show up on time. However, upon arriving, we found that not only was he already there, but was wearing very nice Sunday attire. We hadn't even told him he needed to start looking for a white shirt yet, so his friends must have helped him. It is so great to see him making efforts to integrate himself into the church.

Rogenio looking classy in his new church attire!

Our apartment was not touched by transfers. Elder Marurai and I are still together, as are Ribera and Legbanon. I love the people of Porto Novo, I could stay here my entire mission!

A bit of business: Now that I am officially in my 2nd year, there will be some things I need you to do for me. Do you remember that list I typed up for you before I left (things like finding housing at the Y, course selection, etc.)? Maybe you could email me a copy of that so that I can help keep track of things, and maybe send some friendly reminders. Would that help?

Anyways, hope you guys have a great week, I swapped computers so I will try to send some photos now.

Love,

Elder Walls