Voodoo Holiday

The revenon dancers are able to keep their costume spinning around their neck as they dance around.

Dear Family,

It is good to hear about all you guys' respective illnesses, cuts and problems with your bones. Always the highlight of my week ;)

We continue to teach our amis everyday, the best we can. And we are starting to see some progress. 

One of our amis is R--, he is the adult brother of a longtime member of the church. He has always known the church, but has just decided to start investigating it. Another amis is an older man by the name of B--. He is literally talking to everyone in his neighborhood about the missionaries, which makes our job a lot easier.

In other news, I finally got my haircut situation figured out, it took quite some time. As you recall, last Monday I started cutting my hair with the clippers that I had purchased at the beginning of my mission. They broke halfway through the haircut, leaving me with half a haircut, and not very happy. I tried to find a barber, but they are all closed on Mondays. So Tuesday morning, I went to a barber and ended up waiting almost an hour ("he's on his way, he's almost here"). Finally, Wednesday, I was able to get a barber to finish up my handiwork. Unfortunately, the barbers here are not used to cutting yovo hair and I was left with pretty much a bowl cut. Finally, I found a pair of scissors and had Elder T do damage control--took about an hour. After 3 days and 3 different haircuts, I am looking good. 

We started teaching an English class. We'll see how it turns out. The first class only had a few people attend. It should pick up as more people hear about it. 

We got to go on a split with the missionary couple here. It was a lot of fun to teach with them. They don't speak French, so we translated for them. It was a great experience. They have great testimonies that they shared with those we taught. 

Then Sunday, Jan 10,  was the national Voodoo holiday. It is quite the strange sight. (Details have been deleted.) It is an unusual religion. We did get to see some voodoo dancers (called revenons). The revenons supposedly are spirits that have awaken from their graves--if you were to take off their mask, you wouldn't see anyone inside. I got some photos that I will send you. 

We went to the Temple of Pythons in Ouidah again. However, this time I didn’t even go inside. I was able to purchase some souvenirs outside the temple as they are cheaper here than in other places. I picked up some African masks and wooden animals. 

I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves back home. I’m enjoying my work here. 

I miss you and love you!

~Elder Walls

This group of revenons caused quite a scene right in front of our house 

Close up shot of one of the revenon dancers. If you look closely, you can see his hand outstretched asking for money from us. I am not sure what a spirit is planning on doing with money--who knows.

We walked really far out in our sector and found this amazing landscape

Cows on the beach. You never cease to see new things in Africa!