August 20, 2012

Hi Everyone,

That's great that Michael got his mission call, be sure to
congratulate him for me.

This last week has been really good. The funk I was in the week before
seems to have dissipated, I'm doing a lot better. Right about the same
time the overcast sky went away. Hmmm..... But things are great here.
Our apartment is doing really well, we're having fun.

I heard a rumor that I'm going to be transferred to Togo in a few
weeks. Considering I didn't ask for that and the Elder refused to give
his source, it's actually a little frustrating because I won't know
officially for at least 2 weeks.

This Saturday was a big deal. Instead of the usual baptismal service
we had a giant service activity for all of Cotonou. It was a part of
the Pan-African day of service the church was doing. We didn't really
have all the members in the city show up, but there were a lot of
people there. It was really strange to go outside in a t-shirt and
jeans. I ended up burning on my neck relatively badly, I hadn't
thought about my collar tan line. Oops. It hurt yesterday but now it's
better.

My companion and I had to go renew our visas this week again. It was
interesting to do it the second time, I felt a lot more old hat at it.
Also, riding in the air conditioned car was a really weird feeling.

Also, I got the package you sent me! And the pageant postcard too.
That was fun. If I interpreted right the piece of paper that was taped
into the package, it wasn't opened up at customs. As far as things
that I want/need for the next package, I still haven't found good acne
cleanser here, but I've found every other hygiene product I need. I
would like a fair number of metal oil vials, the one I have is leaky
and it turns out that you can only order the little plastic things. I
figure that would be a good parting gift for companions.

Today we went to the grand clothing Marché at Missebo so my companion
could buy some new pants. That place was gigantic, it reminded me of
my first P-day here when we went to Dantokpa. I understood a lot more
about what was going on this time. I also noticed an intriguingly
large number of what appear to be Iranians. If anyone reading this
ever took an econ class, I'm starting to understand how the concept of
comparative advantage works in the global market. It makes a lot more
sense when there are more than just two countries in play.

Two things from last week I forgot to talk about. I gave my first
sacrament meeting talk. I talked about home teaching. I think I did
okay, I had to cut about 5 minutes out of it due to time constraints.
Everyone seemed to understand me, and during Priesthood someone said
they actually learned something from my talk and were going to apply
it. So I'm counting that as a success. The second thing is that I got
another haircut. I just took the longest length on the buzzer and hit
my whole head. It worked pretty well, sticks up a bit in the back
though. Oh well. Can't be too picky here.

Saturday afternoon was interesting too. When we came back for Lunch,
we decided to recall all of our appointments. They all bailed on us.
So we ended up leaving the apartment planning to go to a member's
house and then figure out what to do from there. It actually ended up
working pretty well.

Some random old white guy told me I was doing a good job this week. I
have no idea if he was American or Canadian or what.

We had two investigators named Christoph come to church for the first
time this week. One is a new investigator we found this week who met
with the missionaries while he was in Ghana almost a decade ago. The
other is the 70 year old we've been teaching since May. I didn't even
know until the second hour that the older Christoph was there, it made
me so happy to finally see him at church! He really loved the
experience. I'm really hoping he can work up the courage to be
baptized before I am transferred. We've been really lucky with him, we
always seem to catch him right at the best moments. The members have
been really good with him too, which is something that I love.

The amount of crazy things I've seen on my mission continues to climb.
This mission is truly like nothing else in the world. I'm finally
beginning to understand Mormon's constant lament that he couldn't even
begin to write the hundreth part of the history of his people.

Yes, I got the picture, thanks! Take a picture of all the family today
before jacob leaves, and send that to me too. I want to see everyone
together. Through flat-me in there too.

I was told yesterday by one of the members that I'm getting bigger.
Looks like I've stopped losing weight. Maybe I'll go weigh myself soon
and find out.

I love you all, personally and collectively,
Elder Christensen