February 23, 2013

Hello from Benin,

Yep, change of p-day is an office Elder thing. We have to be working
on Monday because that's the day that all of the baptism forms come in,
we have to get them into the system. They tell me anyways, I haven't
done it yet.

Being an office Elder is an interesting experience, I will say that.
Right when I came in I got to experience sending Elders home. One
upside to that is that they pulled out a scale. I was in proselyting
clothes and had just eaten lunch, so taking that into account I think
I'm down to around 148 pounds. I was thinking of going all the way to
140 by the end of the mission, but I don't think that's possible
anymore. The mission office isn't exactly a Gold's Gym. I've gone from
walking 2 hours a day in the heat to a 5-10 minute walk from the
apartment to the office.

I hope you didn't throw away that international driver's licence stuff
Mom. Elder Semken thinks you sending that in and then mailing me the
new one will be the best way to go forward. If you already threw it
away, just say so and we'll go with plan B. But be warned, I may drive
stick like a maniac when I get back. I'll be mild mannered on an
automatic, but a terror with stick shift.

I'm hearing now that Togo will get a new mission.... next year. I'm
guessing it's just still too early to make the split. Everything is
more or less in place, but they're going to give everything a chance
to settle down, get everyone trained. Same reason why there isn't yet
a stake in Togo.

Well that will be fun for you to go to NYC Mom. If I'm still hanging
around in the office when my own travel plans come in, I'll try and
have a nice long layover in NYC. I'll sneak out of the airport with
Elder Gunderson and go find Jacob. Although I don't think the plane
tickets actually are purchased here, I'm guessing that's Salt Lake's
responsibility.

Malagash is the native language of Madagasar, I guess I should have
clarified that. It's actually more like an Indian language than a
South African language. To give you an idea, the Elder I replaced in
the office is from Madagascar, and his name is Elder Ragodonandrasana.
He spent 10 months here, I'm not too crazy about doing that. Of
course, President could just transfer me out in a few weeks. It's
really impossible to say for the moment.

I did get a Bible in Ewe, it actually looks pretty cool. It's a new
edition actually, so it looks really nice. And of course, it's in red
ink when Jesus speaks. I can't really read it, but I can do a passable
impression of it.

Yesterday I reread the notes from my setting apart. I've finally
started to see the accomplishment of some of the things that President
Frischknecht talked about. It's been a little testimony builder for me
that even the local leaders are inspired. It's funny how things like
that work.

Well, I don't have all that much to say, It's already the second email
of the week!

I love you all so much,
Elder Christensen

PS mom, no I don't think I need another pair of shoes. I don't walk
anymore. I'm still waiting on the last package to show up, we'll go
into the post office on monday but I don't think it's there yet. I'm
assuming that if I haven't needed something by now, I can probably
make it the rest of my mission without. But if anything pops into my
head I'll let you know.