Another Good Week

Baptism of F and her daughter, C

 Dear Family,

I will try to keep my letter simple this week because I want to try and send photos. It will be the first time I have tried in this cyber, so keep your fingers crossed!

It’s been a great week, we had Zone conference on Tuesday and I really enjoyed President Morin’s message. He talked about being simple in the way we find amis and invite them to be baptized. He basically had us practice the Preach my gospel invitation but with just a few tweaks:

1-Will you pray about it?

2-WHEN (not if) you have your answer, will you follow Christ's example and be baptized?

3-We are having a baptismal service the X of November, if your answer comes before then will you prepare yourself to be baptized on this date?

He also had my comp and I give him our plan for the day so he could write it on the board (thankfully it was a pretty full plan!). He challenged us to invite every single person in our daily plan to give us a contact.

We did, and it worked out really well! We got at least like 6 contacts by the end of the day. There was even an ami that stopped us on the road just to give us a contact. It was very cool, once we made our effort to get it done, everything started going our way. I feel that’s usually how it is with missionary work, you work hard and show that your dedication, and God just takes of the rest.

President Morin also announced a mission-wide fast so that the mission would be able to 'Rise up to meet the standard,' (or something like that). He had us all buy a new white shirt to wear during the fast as well.

Thursday, we had the baptismal interview for F. We took her to Fidjrosse so she could interview with President Briga (President Morin's counselor). However, when we got there we found out he had to cancel. Fortunately, there was a zone conference going on for the Menontin zone and we went there so she could interview with President Morin. Initially, President was hesitant to interview her because she doesn't speak French well, so he suggested we postpone the baptism. I went to F and started explaining the situation in simple French. President noticed and asked, "Did she understand you?" I looked to her and she nodded, "Yes." President decided to give it a go and it went fine! Afterwards, we dropped her off where she sells tapioca and picked up her daughter to go to Cococodji for her to interview with the DL there. It went fine as well. I love visiting Cococodji.

The baptisms were great, no flaws or problems, just a very special day for F and her daughter.

Sunday we fasted, and my comp and I both noticed that it was a very productive day in the sector. We found new amis and set 3 baptismal dates in one afternoon! We both felt considerably blessed to have fasted. 

In other news, I cut my hair all by my self for the first time today and I actually did I pretty good job Maybe I will throw an application in to Great Clips when I get home!

I love you all so much, miss you guys too. Have a good one!

Elder Walls

PS I did get the package! I didn’t even realize that I had gotten it! There has been a box sitting in the corner of our room and I just figured it belonged to someone else (our apartment has a lot of extra stuff laying around, and I have no idea of what belongs to who). I was reading the Liahona on my bed when I got a better look at the box and realized my name was on it! Thank you so much, it was very nice! We’ve been eating like poor college kids these last few days because we are at the end of the month and we get money into our accounts at the beginning of the month, so having some good munchies is nice! And we pretty much keep all things in common here—sharing things is so nice and carefree 90% of the time. Every now and then you have to go looking for where your soap went.

And to answer your question about what advice I would give to someone preparing to go on a mission I would say to read the missionary handbook and make sure you are cool to sign off on living by those rules for 2 years. Most folks focus on getting the call and the excitement of being called to serve anywhere in the world. You've got to think beyond that, and what life is actually like as a missionary. Also, Elder B had a friend who took the missionary discussions as prep--even though she had grown up in the church. She said it was a very cool experience. Spending time going out with the missionaries would be good too. So there you go.

Another photo of F and C on their baptismal day

M's baptism

Back when we did autonomy training--training to help the people in the area to be more self-reliant.
Classes were given on how to find a job, start a business, continue schooling and so forth.
We were there to talk with the nonmembers. L-R Walls, Elder M., Elder S., Elder B. 

Like many youth here, this girl walks around with foodstuffs on her head all day.
Her mother sends her out while she keeps shop. The girl is taking a breather. 

Want to buy some fish? Not quite the same display you'd see at Wegmans!
I usually buy frozen fish, not this smoked stuff which has been sitting out all day.

Peace out from Benin