This week was very busy and eventful because I have been transferred to a place called Doumassassi here in Togo and my new companion is Elder Bokolo; he is Congolese and we will be getting to open up the area over there and create a branch there as well! The reason for all of these transfers is Cote d’Ivoire is going through a really bad time right now and it has most definitely gotten worse so they are getting all the missionaries who are not Ivorian out of the country and sending them to either Togo or Benin. Its amazing how the Lord works! Now the work in Togo and Benin will explode and grow so much because of all of this; we are very blessed!
So this week we had went to go and see 2 other sector kings to announce our message with them as well and wow it was really amazing ! The first one( I forgot what he was the king of),when we went there and shared our message, he accepted it and then he got fearful and said that we have to go and talk to the king of Lome first (he is the king of the whole city; its kind of an odd set up here, they still have a president that rules over all of Togo) and so we understood why and we have to respect what the king says because we are on his turf and we are the Lords workers so we don’t want to cause too many problems! So we have panned to go to the big leaders meeting where there will be 45 district kings in one meeting and talk to the king of Lome there!! The second king we saw accepted our message very well and says that he would like to go to church and we have actually fixed to meet to teach them again. Now the presentation for this last week went pretty well, the king and all of his entourage were there and we had about 40 people show up and we had about 55 kids there to so there were quite a few people. But the projector for the film didn’t work so during the meeting we had to go and find a television to play the movie on and it worked well ha, and we started about an hour late because the king himself showed up 45minutes late and that was just a little disturbing to us. But the presentation itself went really well; its fun being in front of lots people now!!! But is went really well and we are planning on doing at least 2 more of them or more, this place is ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are going to bring it to them!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
February 23, 2011
Hey family!!!
This week has been a really normal week actually, we just have been working on up coming big events! Like one is we have been getting all of our investigators ready for the upcoming collective baptism for the 5 of march, which is really exciting because we just keep getting all these investigators and they are wanting to know about our church and then we share with them and teach them and ask them if they would like to be baptized and they except. I'm very grateful for the spirit that is here in Togo, the people are ready. And now secondly, we have met with the African king of the sector of Bé Kpota, and all of his entourage, and we gave them a presentation of the church and the things that we preach. We told with them that we are wanting to create a very large presentation of the church to everyone at the same time in the sector, and invite everyone to come unto it. Then the king and his entourage were discussing for a bit and decided yes, they would like for us to do that and then they asked where our church is so that they could come and visit it; what a success!! So now this big presentation is being held by my companion and I and it will take place on the 26 of February; we are expecting around 200 people, ha I'm very excited!
This week has been a really normal week actually, we just have been working on up coming big events! Like one is we have been getting all of our investigators ready for the upcoming collective baptism for the 5 of march, which is really exciting because we just keep getting all these investigators and they are wanting to know about our church and then we share with them and teach them and ask them if they would like to be baptized and they except. I'm very grateful for the spirit that is here in Togo, the people are ready. And now secondly, we have met with the African king of the sector of Bé Kpota, and all of his entourage, and we gave them a presentation of the church and the things that we preach. We told with them that we are wanting to create a very large presentation of the church to everyone at the same time in the sector, and invite everyone to come unto it. Then the king and his entourage were discussing for a bit and decided yes, they would like for us to do that and then they asked where our church is so that they could come and visit it; what a success!! So now this big presentation is being held by my companion and I and it will take place on the 26 of February; we are expecting around 200 people, ha I'm very excited!
Monday, February 14, 2011
*Sorry for the delay in updating Jamin's blog! In January I had the wonderful opportunity of driving with "Sister Grandma" (aka Larry's mom) to her new mission in Columbia South Carolina, but our planned 4 day drive took a week due to the severe snowstorm in the south! 2 days after coming home I was asked to chair the food committee for the stake Women's Conference to be held February 12 (yeah! it is done and was successful!), so those of you that know what that is like will understand why I haven't been accessing his blog!
Enjoy catching up!
January 3, 2011
This week has been some what difficult, ha, with all the new years stuff! With the people in Togo Christmas is not so much of a big holiday-its only for the children- but new years is HUGE!! They partied all day on Thursday, Friday and then again all day on Saturday. So we had all the baptisms lined up for the 1st and then only one of our people show up on Saturday for the baptisms, and there was no one that came and assisted the baptism either so it was just a little let down. So we will find out what will happen to the mission soon!
This week I have seen lots and lots of drunk people and the roads and restaurants are filled with people and when the missionaries walk down the road and the people see the white missionaries everyone seems to lose intelligence and ask for money or like to pull on their arms or touch them so we have to take taxis everywhere to keep them safe. And then still when people hear that I am a black American,they always say 'wow its my first time of seeing one' and then they just stare at me like I am some rare animal or something; it's really awkward and I don’t know how to respond to that so I say 'thank you' and then walk off.
Oh and wow for new years we stayed up until midnight and opened the new year and once it struck midnight the night lit all up with fireworks! It was crazy because everyone here can buy roman candles and all those big huge fireworks and they are inexpensive so everyone buys them and the lights just lit up and it was so loud and the skies were all smoky after because there were so many! And everyone was dancing and celebrating. It was good to see everyone have a good time!
January 10, 2011
So today is the big voodoo holiday which will be exciting, I watched a lady this morning as she was painting art on herself for the holiday and I see people having tattoos on their bodies of the names of all the voodoo gods and I saw a big wall with all the names written on it and the houses with the voodoo flags on them blowing in the wind its very interesting.
Well its kinda of been the same here just going out everyday and spreading the word, ha there is actually an anti-mormon dvd going around here and so now we are going to put out a counter dvd for everyone to see and we will then teach them all about the church, it will be pretty awesome; I love teaching large groups of people here and hearing the random questions that they have! And the members are great here, they always give us contacts. It is very very hot here but there is a cold wind that blows in which makes it dry and hot, but cool at the same time; its one of the seasons here, and there is dust everywhere! So with all the dust at night its like fog so you have to watch out for all of the motorcycles so that they don’t hit you!
So pretty soon I think by the end of the month we will be starting up all the new branches with the missionaries, so then we will have to the the branch presidents of them, which will most definitely be different but I'm excited!
January 17, 2011
Hey everyone this week has been pretty good, we had President Ayokoue come to Togo this week and teach us on some new missionary tactics. My companion and I had baptized the most in Togo but I don’t know yet for the mission I will find out in the next news letter! So this week has been filled with lots of cleaning for President, and then being taught all week! But President got called back to Cote d'Ivoire because there was alot of activity that happened over there so he had to go back there immediately! This week we baptized one-person which was great because with President being here we didn’t have anytime to teach, ha!
We all got to talk to the member of the 70 who is over West Africa which was really cool; there have been a lot of big leaders over here this week because we will be starting up this mission and with the new missionaries coming in the beginning of February there will be a lot of changes going on, we will see what happens to the district and I!! For this week the members have given us so many people to teach so it should be a week with lots of stories!! And the members always come up and ask for ideas to run things here; its really great because I get to see how the church will grow in this country; it’s a great blessing indeed.
January 24, 2011
So there is a main road here that everyone goes on to get to the more civilized places and it turns out they decided to do construction work on that road and close the whole road because there are a lot of massive palm trees in the road so no one can pass except for the people on their bicycles. So there is only one more back road and everyone was trying to get on it(this story takes place during the night time), so we take a taxi and we are on this really steep hill and traffic is just terrible, especially because it is African traffic and everyone is on motos, too, so all the motos make everything worse. So we are on the hill and we move about 2 feet at a time and this man's taxi is an automatic and it sounded so bad and I just knew his car was going to die on this hill and right at the top of it his car dies! By this time we have people getting out of their cars and trying to direct traffic and now everyone is stopped because the people really don’t know how to direct traffic and so now we have to get out of the car and walk through all of the traffic and try to catch a taxi on the other side! Then everyone is crazy and we have to stiff arm motos so that we don’t get hit because the Africans would just run you over! It was actually really fun dodging motos and stopping them and then eventually we got a taxi and went home! Oh and we made s'mores this week too; its really interesting the chocolate here is a lot better than the chocolate in America!
*So fun for me as his mom, to read the strong missionary stories mixed in with the typical young man tales of having fun dodging motos!
February 14, 2011
*Jamin's email did not come thru last week because of problems with the site, so we got two today!
This week (2/7)we have received 2 new missionaries here in Togo! It has been really fun again this week, getting the work done and teaching everyone. We got another baptism this week, he is a really awesome guy but he is really, really weird also! Oh boy, he has an awesome testimony but he is probably one of the weirdest people I have met on my mission! When we baptized him it took 9 trys to get him under but he eventually got under and he was so happy he was smiling the whole time during his baptismal ceremony! That’s the best thing to see, we were all very well pleased!!But also we have had to go around to a lot of our less active and non active members and talk to them this week, so its been fun coming up with all these different ways to get them going to church again.
This week (2/14)has been another normal awesome week, nothing really out of the normal happened this week ! And we didn’t get a baptism this week; we were pretty upset because we broke our streak since we have been baptizing every week since the 2nd to last week in December and our mission president just called us this week to tell us how very pleased with us because we were the only ones to be able to do that; WE GOT JINXED!! We will most definitely get the wheels rolling, we have quite a few investigators now. We have been getting at our members a bit this week, we have been trying to perfect them so that they can become a ward faster; our ward is a power house and they are amazing! That is why we are seeing lots of success-it all starts with the members! Oh and mom,that motivational message that you sent, I loved that one! It was really awesome, Thank you!!
*I send a 'thought for the week' at the end of my emails, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always hopefully encouraging! Here is the one Jamin was referring to.
Thought for the week: A motivational speaker for the NFL told about how hard it is to motivate people who are already at the top of their game...what do you use to motivate someone who already makes lots of money, has received many awards and all the accolades from people who look up to them? He decided to teach them to always have high expectations for themselves regardless of outside rewards. He placed a stick 12 inches above the ground and asked one of the players if he could jump over the stick. The player swaggered up to the stick, acting all silly, and barely hopped over it. The motivational speaker then asked him why he hadn't jumped higher over the stick, knowing the player could easily have jumped at least 4 feet in the air, and the player responded that he didn't need to put out that much effort when the stick was placed so low. The speaker then told him, and all the other players, that they should always give their best effort regardless of how low the expectation is, because they know they are capable of doing more and anything less is unworthy of the men that they want to be.
Enjoy catching up!
January 3, 2011
This week has been some what difficult, ha, with all the new years stuff! With the people in Togo Christmas is not so much of a big holiday-its only for the children- but new years is HUGE!! They partied all day on Thursday, Friday and then again all day on Saturday. So we had all the baptisms lined up for the 1st and then only one of our people show up on Saturday for the baptisms, and there was no one that came and assisted the baptism either so it was just a little let down. So we will find out what will happen to the mission soon!
This week I have seen lots and lots of drunk people and the roads and restaurants are filled with people and when the missionaries walk down the road and the people see the white missionaries everyone seems to lose intelligence and ask for money or like to pull on their arms or touch them so we have to take taxis everywhere to keep them safe. And then still when people hear that I am a black American,they always say 'wow its my first time of seeing one' and then they just stare at me like I am some rare animal or something; it's really awkward and I don’t know how to respond to that so I say 'thank you' and then walk off.
Oh and wow for new years we stayed up until midnight and opened the new year and once it struck midnight the night lit all up with fireworks! It was crazy because everyone here can buy roman candles and all those big huge fireworks and they are inexpensive so everyone buys them and the lights just lit up and it was so loud and the skies were all smoky after because there were so many! And everyone was dancing and celebrating. It was good to see everyone have a good time!
January 10, 2011
So today is the big voodoo holiday which will be exciting, I watched a lady this morning as she was painting art on herself for the holiday and I see people having tattoos on their bodies of the names of all the voodoo gods and I saw a big wall with all the names written on it and the houses with the voodoo flags on them blowing in the wind its very interesting.
Well its kinda of been the same here just going out everyday and spreading the word, ha there is actually an anti-mormon dvd going around here and so now we are going to put out a counter dvd for everyone to see and we will then teach them all about the church, it will be pretty awesome; I love teaching large groups of people here and hearing the random questions that they have! And the members are great here, they always give us contacts. It is very very hot here but there is a cold wind that blows in which makes it dry and hot, but cool at the same time; its one of the seasons here, and there is dust everywhere! So with all the dust at night its like fog so you have to watch out for all of the motorcycles so that they don’t hit you!
So pretty soon I think by the end of the month we will be starting up all the new branches with the missionaries, so then we will have to the the branch presidents of them, which will most definitely be different but I'm excited!
January 17, 2011
Hey everyone this week has been pretty good, we had President Ayokoue come to Togo this week and teach us on some new missionary tactics. My companion and I had baptized the most in Togo but I don’t know yet for the mission I will find out in the next news letter! So this week has been filled with lots of cleaning for President, and then being taught all week! But President got called back to Cote d'Ivoire because there was alot of activity that happened over there so he had to go back there immediately! This week we baptized one-person which was great because with President being here we didn’t have anytime to teach, ha!
We all got to talk to the member of the 70 who is over West Africa which was really cool; there have been a lot of big leaders over here this week because we will be starting up this mission and with the new missionaries coming in the beginning of February there will be a lot of changes going on, we will see what happens to the district and I!! For this week the members have given us so many people to teach so it should be a week with lots of stories!! And the members always come up and ask for ideas to run things here; its really great because I get to see how the church will grow in this country; it’s a great blessing indeed.
January 24, 2011
So there is a main road here that everyone goes on to get to the more civilized places and it turns out they decided to do construction work on that road and close the whole road because there are a lot of massive palm trees in the road so no one can pass except for the people on their bicycles. So there is only one more back road and everyone was trying to get on it(this story takes place during the night time), so we take a taxi and we are on this really steep hill and traffic is just terrible, especially because it is African traffic and everyone is on motos, too, so all the motos make everything worse. So we are on the hill and we move about 2 feet at a time and this man's taxi is an automatic and it sounded so bad and I just knew his car was going to die on this hill and right at the top of it his car dies! By this time we have people getting out of their cars and trying to direct traffic and now everyone is stopped because the people really don’t know how to direct traffic and so now we have to get out of the car and walk through all of the traffic and try to catch a taxi on the other side! Then everyone is crazy and we have to stiff arm motos so that we don’t get hit because the Africans would just run you over! It was actually really fun dodging motos and stopping them and then eventually we got a taxi and went home! Oh and we made s'mores this week too; its really interesting the chocolate here is a lot better than the chocolate in America!
*So fun for me as his mom, to read the strong missionary stories mixed in with the typical young man tales of having fun dodging motos!
February 14, 2011
*Jamin's email did not come thru last week because of problems with the site, so we got two today!
This week (2/7)we have received 2 new missionaries here in Togo! It has been really fun again this week, getting the work done and teaching everyone. We got another baptism this week, he is a really awesome guy but he is really, really weird also! Oh boy, he has an awesome testimony but he is probably one of the weirdest people I have met on my mission! When we baptized him it took 9 trys to get him under but he eventually got under and he was so happy he was smiling the whole time during his baptismal ceremony! That’s the best thing to see, we were all very well pleased!!But also we have had to go around to a lot of our less active and non active members and talk to them this week, so its been fun coming up with all these different ways to get them going to church again.
This week (2/14)has been another normal awesome week, nothing really out of the normal happened this week ! And we didn’t get a baptism this week; we were pretty upset because we broke our streak since we have been baptizing every week since the 2nd to last week in December and our mission president just called us this week to tell us how very pleased with us because we were the only ones to be able to do that; WE GOT JINXED!! We will most definitely get the wheels rolling, we have quite a few investigators now. We have been getting at our members a bit this week, we have been trying to perfect them so that they can become a ward faster; our ward is a power house and they are amazing! That is why we are seeing lots of success-it all starts with the members! Oh and mom,that motivational message that you sent, I loved that one! It was really awesome, Thank you!!
*I send a 'thought for the week' at the end of my emails, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, always hopefully encouraging! Here is the one Jamin was referring to.
Thought for the week: A motivational speaker for the NFL told about how hard it is to motivate people who are already at the top of their game...what do you use to motivate someone who already makes lots of money, has received many awards and all the accolades from people who look up to them? He decided to teach them to always have high expectations for themselves regardless of outside rewards. He placed a stick 12 inches above the ground and asked one of the players if he could jump over the stick. The player swaggered up to the stick, acting all silly, and barely hopped over it. The motivational speaker then asked him why he hadn't jumped higher over the stick, knowing the player could easily have jumped at least 4 feet in the air, and the player responded that he didn't need to put out that much effort when the stick was placed so low. The speaker then told him, and all the other players, that they should always give their best effort regardless of how low the expectation is, because they know they are capable of doing more and anything less is unworthy of the men that they want to be.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
December 28, 2010
We had a wonderful phone visit with Jamin the Wednesday night before Christmas! It was 1:00am his time Thursday morning but it was the only time available on his schedule! He has never gotten the two Christmas packages we sent back in October but he says he doesn't need or miss anything from home (besides family and friends), that all of his needs are being provided. We don't have a secure physical address to send him anything anyway for now, but we did send him some pictures attached to our email this week and he loved those! Here is how he spent his first Christmas in Togo...
"Hey Family!!
This week has really been something of a test and not easy ! but also a huge gift, because I have learned a lot this week. So with all this information with how this mission could be closed because of the war and the things like that, which is normal, we don’t want that to happen to Togo and Benin so we have been fighting to show that this mission can function with a war. And we most definitely showed that this past week! We had 15 baptisms within Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 5 of them came from my companion and I. It was a huge gift for Christmas...it was great! The 14 missionaries in Togo are working super hard, I love it!
For Christmas day we had 4 different full course meals with different member families on that day it was crazy; all 14 missionaries were together all day just going from house to house, we were all so full we all had eaten so so much on that day! And then on that Sunday we all went over to the senior missionaries house for the Christmas fireside that the first presidency gave, which was really good! And then today we went over to the seniors couples house again for a party which was pretty fun! Ha, we had a water fight in the house and we didn’t start it, they did!"
He sounded great over the phone and still going strong in his email!
"Hey Family!!
This week has really been something of a test and not easy ! but also a huge gift, because I have learned a lot this week. So with all this information with how this mission could be closed because of the war and the things like that, which is normal, we don’t want that to happen to Togo and Benin so we have been fighting to show that this mission can function with a war. And we most definitely showed that this past week! We had 15 baptisms within Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 5 of them came from my companion and I. It was a huge gift for Christmas...it was great! The 14 missionaries in Togo are working super hard, I love it!
For Christmas day we had 4 different full course meals with different member families on that day it was crazy; all 14 missionaries were together all day just going from house to house, we were all so full we all had eaten so so much on that day! And then on that Sunday we all went over to the senior missionaries house for the Christmas fireside that the first presidency gave, which was really good! And then today we went over to the seniors couples house again for a party which was pretty fun! Ha, we had a water fight in the house and we didn’t start it, they did!"
He sounded great over the phone and still going strong in his email!
Monday, December 20, 2010
December 20th, 2010
I received a message today that the mission President in Abidjan thinks very highly of our Elder Lewis; what a wonderful thing to be told about your son!
Here are some of his thoughts this week...we are looking forward to the Christmas phone call!
"Hey Familly
This week has been pretty great and also very sad. Well the sad part is that there are a lot of people dying in côte d’ivoire, and it is just a wreck over there.
I am very blessed to be here especially when you get to teach a family or a big group of very old people and you can feel the spirit so so strong there have been times where I feel likes its not even me speaking its just so hard to explain how that feeling is but I know that even outside in the blasting hot heat in the dirtiest places that you could ever imagine that place feels like a temple during and after the lesson and you can just see into the people and you know that holy spirit has hit them like a freight train; there was actually this one time there is a man that we are teaching and he had just lost his wife to death and he had actually just lost one of his legs before her death and he is just suffering with all of his emotions, he has shared with us all of his feelings and its amazing to see how much he loved his wife and you can tell how much he is suffering. And we taught him a lot of things, there is one time where his dad(who sits down and just listens to all of the lessons and is around 76years or older) while his son was feeling the spirit he told us that we are the medicine for those who are sick(a parable) and then he told us thank you and it was very sincere, im grateful to be able to be the person here that the people turn to in times of need and joy.
Wow this week has passed by really fast and its crazy to think that it will be Christmas really soon!! Well the missionaries here will be spending Christmas with the senior missionaries and we will be having a fireside on Sunday and then a party type thing on Monday! But the exciting part is that we will be having tons and tons of people inviting us over for meals, and we already get a lot anyways so we will be able to get nice and chubby! So we played football this morning for p-day and it was so awesome since all the missionaries here are American it was great, football is the best! So my companion elder cruz is so funny he always tells all the other missionaries that he can do whatever he wants because he has me at his back, its hilarious."
Here are some of his thoughts this week...we are looking forward to the Christmas phone call!
"Hey Familly
This week has been pretty great and also very sad. Well the sad part is that there are a lot of people dying in côte d’ivoire, and it is just a wreck over there.
I am very blessed to be here especially when you get to teach a family or a big group of very old people and you can feel the spirit so so strong there have been times where I feel likes its not even me speaking its just so hard to explain how that feeling is but I know that even outside in the blasting hot heat in the dirtiest places that you could ever imagine that place feels like a temple during and after the lesson and you can just see into the people and you know that holy spirit has hit them like a freight train; there was actually this one time there is a man that we are teaching and he had just lost his wife to death and he had actually just lost one of his legs before her death and he is just suffering with all of his emotions, he has shared with us all of his feelings and its amazing to see how much he loved his wife and you can tell how much he is suffering. And we taught him a lot of things, there is one time where his dad(who sits down and just listens to all of the lessons and is around 76years or older) while his son was feeling the spirit he told us that we are the medicine for those who are sick(a parable) and then he told us thank you and it was very sincere, im grateful to be able to be the person here that the people turn to in times of need and joy.
Wow this week has passed by really fast and its crazy to think that it will be Christmas really soon!! Well the missionaries here will be spending Christmas with the senior missionaries and we will be having a fireside on Sunday and then a party type thing on Monday! But the exciting part is that we will be having tons and tons of people inviting us over for meals, and we already get a lot anyways so we will be able to get nice and chubby! So we played football this morning for p-day and it was so awesome since all the missionaries here are American it was great, football is the best! So my companion elder cruz is so funny he always tells all the other missionaries that he can do whatever he wants because he has me at his back, its hilarious."
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
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!)!!!"
"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!)!!!"
Monday, December 6, 2010
December 6th, 2010
"Dear Family!
So this week has been really interesting; yes we are all together still and things have been really exciting here but not for a good reason! There has been a curfew set for every one in Cote d'Ivoire that you cannot be out after 1900h or else the police will shoot you, so we have heard gunshots through out the days of the week. Oh hope that the people will start to make good choices, because nothing good is coming of this and i worry for this country. So there was this one time we were able to leave the house to go teach but we were only to stay inside of the gated neighborhood, so we were out for about 20 to 30 minutes when we started to hear gunshots and the people started to run and yell, 'Get inside!' So my companion and I talked and I said lets go back and wait for the others, so we were there and then we saw the zone leaders and we talked and decided that they would go and search for the other missionaries, I would stand outside and be the lookout and my companion would go inside and call the president. So I was outside and then here were 3 missionaries just sprinting to the apartment; there was one missionary who has been out for a year and then there were the two others who have been out for 1 to 3 months in Cote d'Ivoire and one of them was white! So I asked 'why are you all sweaty and why did you sprint here?' Well it turns out they went outside of the gates to go teach someone and there was a gun fight right around the corner and the people were running all over because there is bullets firing and we can still hear the guns fire while we are talking, so they were lucky because someone saw the white missionary and yelled, 'hey white boy what are you doing get inside!!' Thank goodness for that missionary's skin! I can tell you that testified even more to me that obedience is very important!
It might be crazy here but there is no other place I would want to be than here!! I LOVE IT!! Everything happens for a reason! So yea its just the regular now just wait out the fire and if things get real bad get out of the country, but just keep spreading the good word, study a lot, and play a lot of soccer and other games we create!! We are missionaries we survive in any environment, without fear only faith. Oh thank you so much for all paragraphs that you have written to me, i truly am blessed to have all of you! I aim to be as safe as i can and spread the word, HAHA I love IT i was born for things like this!
Oh yea and i learned something they say that i am the first black american missionary to come here!!!
I love you all very much!!
Elder Lewis"
I am so thankful for the protection the missionaries receive from our Heavenly Father and for the blessing of calmness I continue to feel about Jamin in spite of his current situation.
Thank you all for your prayers in his behalf!
So this week has been really interesting; yes we are all together still and things have been really exciting here but not for a good reason! There has been a curfew set for every one in Cote d'Ivoire that you cannot be out after 1900h or else the police will shoot you, so we have heard gunshots through out the days of the week. Oh hope that the people will start to make good choices, because nothing good is coming of this and i worry for this country. So there was this one time we were able to leave the house to go teach but we were only to stay inside of the gated neighborhood, so we were out for about 20 to 30 minutes when we started to hear gunshots and the people started to run and yell, 'Get inside!' So my companion and I talked and I said lets go back and wait for the others, so we were there and then we saw the zone leaders and we talked and decided that they would go and search for the other missionaries, I would stand outside and be the lookout and my companion would go inside and call the president. So I was outside and then here were 3 missionaries just sprinting to the apartment; there was one missionary who has been out for a year and then there were the two others who have been out for 1 to 3 months in Cote d'Ivoire and one of them was white! So I asked 'why are you all sweaty and why did you sprint here?' Well it turns out they went outside of the gates to go teach someone and there was a gun fight right around the corner and the people were running all over because there is bullets firing and we can still hear the guns fire while we are talking, so they were lucky because someone saw the white missionary and yelled, 'hey white boy what are you doing get inside!!' Thank goodness for that missionary's skin! I can tell you that testified even more to me that obedience is very important!
It might be crazy here but there is no other place I would want to be than here!! I LOVE IT!! Everything happens for a reason! So yea its just the regular now just wait out the fire and if things get real bad get out of the country, but just keep spreading the good word, study a lot, and play a lot of soccer and other games we create!! We are missionaries we survive in any environment, without fear only faith. Oh thank you so much for all paragraphs that you have written to me, i truly am blessed to have all of you! I aim to be as safe as i can and spread the word, HAHA I love IT i was born for things like this!
Oh yea and i learned something they say that i am the first black american missionary to come here!!!
I love you all very much!!
Elder Lewis"
I am so thankful for the protection the missionaries receive from our Heavenly Father and for the blessing of calmness I continue to feel about Jamin in spite of his current situation.
Thank you all for your prayers in his behalf!
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