HI Everyone,

Okay, I do not have a lot of time at all this week. Connection here is
deathly slow and we got to the cyber super late today because of our 
activity today. What activity is that? We went out to see the city on
the lake! Literally, they've built a city on the lake. Stilts and all
that. 

The funny part is that they've actually started gathering up
some dirt so they can teach their kids how to walk. It was really
cool, but we got caught out in the rain coming back. Don't worry, I
took lots and lots of pictures. And the tallest building in the city
was a mosque. Go figure.

That's a bummer that your roof is still leaking with the new roof. 

It's a good thing Utah doesn't have a rainy season. It's rained about 

3 times today already,and I could see it raining again today. So yeah, 

it's kind of wet.

This week was another bizarre week with my companion. I went on a
couple of exchanges, and then I actually went out with him for an
afternoon. Then there was a mini transfer and I got to be companions
with Elder Ratoniaina from the Bureau. He's from Madagascar, has only
been on his mission for about two months longer than I have. So I was
effectively senior companion. That was really interesting. It really
pushed me, and I think I learned a lot. Bizarrely, just about the
point when I had psychologically accepted that my training was
officially over, Elder Ntengo came back and the transfer was over. I
don't really know how that all worked, but now I'm back with him.
Despite that, due to some other Elders getting ill I still went on
some transfers. So our key indicators ended up being pretty pitiful
this week, even though I was out being a missionary. This week we
really should be back to normal, but we will see. I'm still figuring
out what "normal" means in Africa.

We had some interesting issues with power this week. I guess we burned
out a critical wire or something, because we kept losing power. And
just us, not everyone else in our building. So there were some rough
nights. Luckily, nights are cooler during the rainy season. We got
that all fixed though, so we are good there. I think, anyway.

I got to sit through the lecture on how to get married here, it was
very interesting. You need no less than 8 different identifications
for the two people and the witnesses, the paperwork is a mess. It all
comes out to about 45,000 CFA, which intriguingly is the same price as
my 3 month visa I got this last week.

Oh yeah, Zone conference (for all of Benin) was this last week. That
was cool, they had all the new missionaries bear their testimonies.
I'm really glad it was last week and not like my second week, to say I
am a lot better at French now is to put it mildly. I'm excited to see
how far I can go.

I'm sorry, but that's really all I can do this week. I promise I'll do
my best next week to get you a nice long email.
Love,
Elder Ethan Christensen

 P.S. yes I got Cameron's email. Tell him yes, I've had a lot of spicy
food. The equivalent they have here to fry sauce is nothing less than
really spicy peppers and onions smashed between two rocks until they
make a green paste. It can be REALLY spicy if they don't put in a lot
of onions.