Elder Ethan May's Missionary Adventure

  Bonjour amis et familles! A little bit of a slower week this week. The apartment took turns catching a cold but we still moved the Work forward here. In some important ways. WHEN IN AFRICA There's this super sketchy bridge on the 'hike' we've got to take to the family of Gédéon, the 8-year-old we're teaching. Pics attached. It looks dangerous to cross and it also is sketch 'cause it creates the perfect trap to rob someone, which I think has happened before to past missionaries. MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  We had a baptism on Saturday, but through a series of unfortunate events, it wasn't for Gédéon. It was for this old lady named Marie who is the mom of a member. We were really hoping to get someone baptized by the end of the month, and she was a good candidate. This is her story: She was going to get baptized a month ago, but she suddenly had to move over to her daughter's house to take care of the latter's kids, which meant she no longer had ...

  Bonjour amis et familles! Kinda reaching for a good subject line this week. Let's get right into the thick of it: MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  We had a fun visit to another family who lives super far out on Tuesday. The standard share a meal and a message. Before sitting down to eat, they showed us their really cool garden. Everything in this garden was edible, all the leaves and bushes and the like. There was a pineapple plant and it blew my mind. Sue me, but I always thought pineapples grew on trees. Our message was about showing love to everyone and coming to Church for Christ. It was very appreciated (as was the food!). We officially scheduled Gédéon's (the 8-year-old) baptism for this next Saturday, the 24th. It's kind of weird because I haven't ever met his parents but his sister and my companion say it's all good. So that'll be cool. We visited them twice this week.  We had a fun lesson with an older gentleman named Serge yesterday afternoon after a ...

  Bonjour amis et familles! If you couldn't handle the transfer news suspense, worry no longer. I've been transferred for the last time for my mission back to Gabon. Finally. It's something I've been waiting on for forever and I'm so thankful it happened.  WHEN IN GABON    A couple of differences between Cameroon and Gabon: 1. In Gabon, there are no moto-taxis. Hardly any motorcycles at all even. No one to heckle me to get on one. That's actually such a relief. Instead, there are many taxi-buses that go up and down the highway. They're pretty fun to ride. I'd ridden them a little bit in my area in Yaoundé as well but they are much more common throughout the city here. 2. No crazy big malls or supermarkets here. Especially in my new area. A lot of corner stores with all the essentials, though. All of them are run by men from the Middle East or North Africa. All of them. MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK The field is still as white and ready to harvest here t...

  ("...but I see them daily for multiple hours."*) Bonjour amis et familles! This was a pretty lackluster last week of the transfer as far as the Work goes. But let's review together some highlights: MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  The 4 of us were again invited somewhere fun and cultural when another friend of the Church asked us to drop by his recording studio. If you know anything about Elder May before he was Elder May, you know that I wouldn't pass up the opportunity. This guy was hilarious - i.e. he refuses to take off his gangster sunglasses and loves everybody and lets them know it. He showed us the studio space and let us play the piano. There was even an alto saxophone hanging up that I got to hold (there was no mouthpiece or reed for me to use, sadly). We got a lot of fun pictures, and although we didn't actively teach any Gospel principles, we stood as witnesses of God at all times and built a good friendship with the guy.  We were able to visit Ramell...

  Bonjour amis et familles! If you didn't read the subject line in the priest from Princess Bride voice, please read it again.  This was a pretty cool week. And no, I didn't get married. But we as an apartment (the 4 of us) were invited to a wedding. More details below: WHEN IN AFRICA/MISSIONARY MOMENTS  So I did a little split with Elder Harris for one lesson this week with a lady they were teaching. It was a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon and getting her to start reading it. After the lesson, she invited us to her daughter's wedding on Saturday. We said we'd be with our companions as well (just to make sure it was a sincere invitation and wasn't motivated by the fact we were Americans), and she said, "I'll reserve 4 places then!" So we all went. It was a really cool cultural experience. Everyone was dressed in coordinating fabric, it was super loud, and the mayor walked in with a giant orange suit and a Cameroon flag cummerbund. He was a...

  Bonjour amis et familles! This week was quite unorthodox for a missionary. I will explain. First, on Thursday, we moved apartments. We're now a little further into the 'Village' area and farther away from the city. Then, Elder Libero and I had to get up at 4 am on Friday to go to Yaoundé because Elder Libero had a dentist appointment over there. We got back from Yaoundé Saturday evening. The whole ordeal was pretty physically exhausting. And above all, they spelled my name wrong on the bus ticket.  MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  In the hubbub of the move and everything else, we still found someone new to start teaching this week. So go us. Her name is Brandie and our first contact with her showed a lot of potential. As we were helping her sort her 'okock' leaves she was going to cook up later, she told us she has a hard time believing that God loves her personally. We asked if we could come by the next morning to talk about her concern. She agreed. The next day, ...

  Bonjour amis et familles! I had a pretty good week this week. I've been adjusting to my companion, Elder Libero, and there's been some rough patches, but then I made him some pizza and we started having some miracles!  MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  First off, the day after the pizza was made (I think - the story is better if that's the case), we had 2 lessons that ended in setting a baptismal date! The first was with Carine, and old friend of the Church that I'd only met twice. She'd been traveling and otherwise AWOL for about 6 weeks. I thought I would give her a call to see how she was doing that morning. She said she was back where she was originally living, and she would love if we came to visit. So we came. After mopping her porch, we had a great discussion with her and she expressed her testimony of the Book of Mormon and her desire to be baptized. She said she wanted to do so by the end of the month. So that's what we're planning for! The second l...

  Bonjour amis et familles! It's your favorite missionary back with another update about the past week. So put your hands together for Elder May and the Village Branch! MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK  We're still having a few problems with finding new people that can progress in our area. We achieved 20% of our goal of 15 new people. But the people we did find seem like they're pretty good quality. Let's meet them: We found a lady named Esther as we were walking back from a new person lesson. She was there selling roasted corn (as many people do, actually) on the side of the road. She seemed mildly interested in learning more, so we gave her a brochure. We asked for a number, which she declined to give us. But she told us to come back to that specific spot  on Saturday and we'd find her there. So, definitely quite a few flags that would normally tell us that it wasn't gonna work out. But, to my great surprise, when we showed up on Saturday, she was more than hap...