Hi everyone,
So
this week we had some interesting things happen. I guess that happens
every week, but this week they were different! The first thing that is
that I learned that the name of our neighborhood is "the living bush." I
don't really know why that is, but hey, I'm from Fruit Heights, what do
I know?
Another thing is that this week we received a shipment of triple
combinations from Accra. This would ordinarily be a great thing.
Instead, it was only a very good thing. Why? Because two of the eight
boxes weren't in French. They accidentally sent us two boxes of triple
combinations in Fante by mistake (and for those of you who have never
served in West Africa, Fante is a language from northern Ghana. Which
means there are at most three missionaries here who can read it). We
have been told they will refund us if we send it back, but that costs
shipping money......
The other day I was thinking about how much weight I've lost, and I
came up with an idea. The mission is a tithing on the first 20 years of
your life, right? Well, I'm also paying a tithing of my body weight.
With a large fast offering attached as well.
In other news, the transfers have been all planned out, and I am
staying in the office with just Elder Tshizanga. This will be a little
weird because it will be my first time (and only the second time in the
history of the mission) where two missionaries will have an apartment to
themselves. Related, because I will be THE American, they have bumped
up my responsibilities a bit. C'est a dire, I'm driving a lot more these
days to prepare me. The good news is that I've been to all of the
apartments and branch buildings now, and we have conclusively proved
that I know this city better than someone who has lived here for 15
years (we helped an investigator move on Wednesday, and I knew exactly
where her new house was, and even all the neighborhoods around it! Of
course, it was back in my second area...).
Elder Burkhart almost had malaria this week. That was interesting.
It didn't look fun. Looks like I'll be making an extra effort to take my
meds for a while.
This morning we had a great zone
conference with Elder Dickson of the 70. I had to pull double
translation duty. I had to translate all of the first half into English
for them (missionaries teaching, stuff like that). Then Elder and Sister
Dickson taught, and I had to translate it into French! Then we had some
time left over, so we let the missionaries bear their testimonies and I
got to translate it into English for the Dicksons (which was madness! I
had to translate as fast as I possibly could because everyone had a
time limit. Elder Dickson joked that although I didn't get the chance to
bear my own testimony, I got to bear 25 other people's testimonies.).
The whole thing was a real pleasure. It was so cool to see my
progression in French from that first day in the MTC, to leaving the
MTC, to my first few months infield, to being a little more experienced,
to finally being able to handle a serious translation like that.
Obviously, I was far from perfect, but I was happy to serve. It got to
be pretty natural by the end of it. Luckily, he didn't use too much hard
terminology. Except in explaining why he doesn't have a right arm. I
still don't even know that medical terminology in English, much less
French! But it was a great lesson, and I still managed to learn
something even though I wasn't able to take any notes.
I think that that is a great pageant theme. I loved Elder Holland's
talk. I would love to read it in the Liahona too, but we just heard
back from Accra and even they haven't received it yet, so we
missionaries won't be getting it any time soon.
Robin got asked out on a date? Woah boy. For some reason, it's hard
to imagine that. Probably because she was still just 14 when I left.
I
haven't really been too worried about using the office computers to
send pictures, but I feel kind of awkward doing it. The other problem is
that I haven't really taken too many pictures lately. Today for
example, I brought my camera to the conference, but after doing so much
translating, it completely slipped my mind to take any pictures. I'll
try to get some good ones soon though. We should be taking a trip soon
up a little north into Benin to go see some sights.
I'll just share with you real quick one of the main themes of Elder
Dickson's talk. He talked about Jacob 5, with the branches and the
roots in the olive trees. He talked about how, if we want the branches
and wards and stakes of the church to grow, what we really need is to
lay out the roots of the gospel with the priesthood power and tithing
and respecting covenants and such. It was stated a lot better than
that,but I don't have time to explain because the power went out twice
in the last hour.
Well, I love you all so very much, and wish you all the best!
Elder Christensen
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