Almost Thanksgiving Already???

Hello everyone!

How are you doing!? I'm doing great over here in Africa. The teaching has been going great lately, I love it! We have been getting a lot of new investigators and it is awesome getting to know these people. One thing that I have been amazed about is how people here just want to be able to know their God more fully and to devote their lives to him. It is quite opposite from the US, where many people now do not know anything about God and they don’t want anything to do with him. Even the young kids talk about God and the Holy Ghost and a lot of religious things as they walk home from school and it just blows my mind!

For Mom, I am sorry for not taking more pictures and I promise that I will! It's hard to find a lot of times when we can and we have to be careful in the sector when taking pictures because we don’t want to look like those "white people" and I don’t want my camera to get taken! But I promise I will take more and more. As far as what's available for food, we can buy chicken and on rare occasions hamburger.  We can also buy flour and that kind of stuff and we do have an oven. We can buy lots of veggies and noodles as well. We just have a hard time finding a lot of variety to eat.

 

District Meeting with Elders Rakotondrabeharison, West, Legerski, & Larson

For Thanksgiving, we are having a zone conference with the mission president at the Coleman's house and after we will have a dinner. It might not be like just like home, but it's way better than usual so I'll be happy. I am really excited for my birthday but I feel like I'll be so old! 20 is just way too old for my liking, but I guess I will be a real man:) I really hope the package gets here soon; the Coleman's said they have never had someone send mail Fed Ex and they don’t know where the Fed Ex is in Douala or if they even have one. Most people get their mail sent in US Priority Mail. Also, they have a UPS here but no one has ever sent a package through it. For future packages, I would email them (the Colemans) and ask about the specifics because there are a bunch of little things that you sometimes have to do. So I hope that my package makes it here through all of that so I have some stuff for my birthday! As for the percentage of people who speak English, Cameroon is a bi- lingual nation, but it is more French.  I would say 90% of people speak French and 10% English. Many French people understand English and speak a little, but we teach them in French.

Well, for this week I just wanted to talk about 2 experiences that I had. The first one was pretty funny.  We were out with our ward mission leader Lionnel and we were looking for a lady named Antoinette who's number we received a few days before. To get to her house, we walked 45 minutes to a marche, or market, and waited for her.  After not being able to find her, we started back to another rendez-vous but she came out of nowhere so we headed to her house. Her home was just a small room with a twin size mattress on the floor and then her personal effects on the other half of the room. It was so small but we somehow fit all 4 of us in there. In addition, the room had no ventilation at all so it was so hot! On top of that, she was cooking in the room. It was like giving a lesson in a sauna; my face and body would not stop sweating and I sweated through my pants and my shirt! It was so gross:) But it was a very good lesson and even though the sweat was dripping from my face, I could feel the spirit.

The next experience was one that I had with a man named Patrick. Patrick was a man who contacted us on the street while he was a little intoxicated (this happens quite a bit here in Africa). But when we called him later that night, he seemed very eager to meet with us so we set up a meeting. The next day we called him and then he said he would meet us at a taxi call. So after while he showed up and lead us back to his home. Well his home was a building that was under construction and since he was the supervisor, he lived there all alone. This is probably the sketchiest building that I have been in yet, built with cinderblocks and with chunks of cinderblocks all over the floor. Well, there was no power in this building so we went all the way to the top floor and had a lesson in the room there with no light but the light of the moon, sitting on cinderblocks. There he began to tell us about his life and how he regretted the things that he has done and how he now wants to have a life that God would be proud of and that he can be proud of. When asked why he stopped us he said "I don’t know", just that he felt like he should . This is the kind of people who are over here in Africa; they are just amazing. I'm so lucky to teach the people here and they have been prepared and many of those who have been taught gladly receive our message. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here in Africa and this is a time that I will forever cherish.

Since it is the Thanksgiving season, I would like to say that I am so thankful for my family: my Mom and Dad, Koltin, Megann, Skya, Grandma and Grandpa, Debbie, Trent, Luke, Marcus, Thayne, Lisa ,Biz, Lauren, Julia, Alex, Troy and Jamie. I miss them very, very dearly. I am thankful for being born in the US and having all that I have. I am thankful for my amazing ward back home. I am thankful for my Bishop and his amazing family. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve a mission. I am thankful for the prophet and his council. But I think most of all, I am thankful for this Gospel and for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for me, that suffered so much pain so that through him, I may become clean once more, and that one day I will be able to marry a wife for eternity and that someday I will be able to be sealed to my family and live with my family once more. He that gave me so much and demands so little from me. He who's debt I am always in and I am forever grateful for. I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. Go eat lots of food for me please! And most of all, don’t get caught up in black Friday; enjoy family because family is the one thing that I miss the most here. Well, that is all.  On to another week of work! Eat lots of cheesecake for me!

Love,

Elder Legerski