August 10, 2013

Howdy all,

I'm doing pretty well here in Africa. I'm actually doing really well this afternoon because Elder and Sister Semken took us out to lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was delicious. We were celebrating for Elder Tshizanga, he's going to be transferred out of the office on Monday. The funny part is, he still doesn't actually know where he is going... He knows he will be a zone leader though. The assistants have never gotten around to calling us, and President was in Togo half of the week so his office was locked and we couldn't see the transfer board. 

We ran another giant wave of blood tests for the residency cards. We had it better organized this time, there weren't 40 missionaries milling around our little office asking us to do things for them. That's because we threw them all into the garage and called them in 4-5 at a time.

On Monday I met three interesting people. In the morning I was at immigration getting my 7th Benin visa (we only get them for 3 months). There was an american couple there. They were super nice. About halfway through the chat I had with them, I realized they were Jehovah's Witness missionaries. I'm so glad our missions are only for 2 years and not 13. The second interesting person I met was a senior couple that came in to do some humanitarian/wheelchair stuff. They brought their granddaughter along, who somehow managed once to spend 8 solid months touring the world off of a hairstylist salary. The third interesting person I met was a recently returned missionary. As in, I met him between him landing at the airport and getting released (because we have no stakes here, the mission president sets apart and releases missionaries). It was super weird, watching a missionary walk into president's office, and watching a returned missionary walking out of it. That day is getting closer.

We have a couple of investigators that are doing pretty well. No one golden for the moment, but there are a couple that are progressing. The man that works at the french cultural center is doing well (clarification, he's not actually french). He's starting to get a sense of the Spirit and he has noticed a growing testimony.

We got flight plans for the Christensen couple coming in September. At this point, I have no idea whether or not I will be in the office at that point. I seem to have fallen out of the loop on a couple for a couple of different levels. 

Piano lessons are not so hot for the moment, they haven't been well advertised. The other problem is that I don't really want to teach piano, I want to teach people how to sing the hymns (very few people here have any training in reading music). But we'll see I guess. I'll keep working at it and I'll let you know.

I don't think I'll be sending much more photos home soon. Someone introduced a virus into our office system, and even though I know my memory cards will not give viruses (since I never once used them in any other computer), I can't be a hypocrite about not letting others do it. President Weed's son comes to visit next week though, I might be able to stuff my card in an envelope going back with him though. I would need you to send me back a memory card at that point though.

It sounds like life is continuing and people are getting older over there (for better or for ill). I want to be able to recognize you all when I get back, you hear!

 Love to you all,

Elder Christensen