I'm sure you noticed that there was no email from Jamin forwarded yesterday; because of the escalating dangerous situation in Abidjan, all the non-native missionaries were evacuated out this past week and sent to other countries so we didn't get this until late yesterday. As you will see when reading, we had been notified about the evacuation, but had no idea where Jamin was for several days until I got a surprise text meassage on my cell phone Saturday afternoon right in the middle of watching a cheer competion for Karissa's all-star team - think high energy, high noise level, packed bleachers at a huge gymnasium - "Hi Mom its me Elder Lewis call me back at this number...!" - now imagine me leaping up and telling the entire crowd to be quiet so that I could talk to my son...ok, that didn't happen but I wanted it to! Instead I got out to my car as quickly as possible and called him back. How great it was to hear his voice, know he was safe, and be able to visit for a short time. He had a hard time changing his thoughts from speaking French to speaking English, which was fun to hear, he down-played the scary part of his last week, was sad to have so suddenly left the Ivorian people he was working with, and was excited about this new area and opportunity.
"So yes I am in Togo now ! Because Côte d’ivoire is having a lot of
problems with government and military and other countries are starting
to get involved and it is really just starting too get hot there. There
are all the African missionaries that are staying there, and all the
others got shipped off to either Togo or Benin. So those missionaries
over there are warriors now I wish them luck.I am excited to be in Togo now because there will be a huge explosion of the church here in Togo, the ones here will be the first ones to start it, ha and again I am the newbie! Its alright that just means president thinks I can do it.
Whenever one of the Americans have a problem or a question and ask one of the people in Togo, the native turns to me and says would you help this guy out or
they turn to me and start talking to me because they don’t think the
white Americans will understand;its hilarious!
So we went to church this Sunday and I had to tell everyone I was American and not Ivoirien and then when they hear that I am a black American they get excited and want to shake my hand because they say it is very rare to see a black American, most say I am the first one they have seen!
The church here are branches; the church is still beginning to grow here, but the members are strong!!!
I'm grateful that we have a priesthood holder (in our family) who can give blessings (MY DAD!)!!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment