There's snow already in Utah? That's not a good sign.
General Conference here will still be with DVDs, so I still have a while before I will see it. Our internet video-streaming capacities here are extremely poor, so I doubt that I would be able to watch it online. I may be able to read it on lds.org in a week or two. That would be nice.
I'm glad to hear that Jacob's convert is going to get to enjoy conference. That's got to be a special treat for her. Conference here isn't nearly as exciting. Especially since we often end up watching two sessions back to back. Which makes it four straight hours. That's hard, even for long-term churchgoers.
President did say that the reason why I will be staying in the office a little bit longer is so that Elder Mary doesn't have to train two new office missionaries at once. I also have a couple of things I need to teach him still. Although his residence card application hasn't been accepted yet (this is a very long story, the summary is that immigration services forgot that we are in fact a church), and he might have to go to Togo in a few weeks. At that point, I don't know what would happen.
I did buy a lot of my souvenirs this week. I'm trying to avoid buying stuff that is too tacky. I do have a couple of good pieces though. A couple of cool masks for example. I'm still looking for a couple of little statues though. No one ever got back to me about what kind of souvenir they would like. Unless they tell me soon, I will just assume they don't want anything.
My spiritual thought for the week is John 10:14-16. The thought that the Savior knows us just as well as he knows his father is very comforting. It also is a motivation for missionary work. We are out here to help gather in these sheep that the Savior knows personally. That chapter really spoke to me this week.
Transfer calls are this afternoon. I'm one of the last people in the mission that doesn't know everything about the transfer (some people are blabbermouths).
This week was a week of food. With Elder Razanamparany going home, lots of members had us over to eat. It was all good food, I'm pretty sure I gained a pound or two. Oh well. It's weird to have him go home.
I guess the second spiritual thought of the week is one that Elder Uchtdorf has taught a couple of times. Being busy for the sake of being busy isn't a virtue. Another interpretation comes from sister Eastmond (one of the couples here) in that part of being meek is being easy-going and happy. Lately, I've been rather uptight and stressed. The Savior was never uptight. He never made people feel like they were wasting his time. That's definitely a virtue I need to work more on. If not, I'm going to be a difficult person to deal with for a long time.
We got to go on an adventure this week. The Eastmond couple invited us and the Semkens out to Porto-Novo. We went to go look at what is probably the only "organic" farm in all of west Africa. It was actually a really interesting trip. It would be very interesting to see how those principles could be generally applied or enlarged. I'm not sure if it would work here or not, but it gave a lot of food for thought (and a lot of real food too, those were the biggest cabbages I've seen in Africa!). The restaurant on-site was also the only restaurant I've ever seen here that took Visa cards. Everywhere else you can only pay in cash. There was only one downside to the whole trip; there was a miscommunication about what to wear, so we all showed up in jeans and t-shirts when really it was still a shirt and tie thing. Oops. I am going to get Elder Semken's photos though, never fear.
I heard from our american member who works at the embassy that BYU has changed the honor code? Apparently mustaches and skinny jeans are now out? Not that I was planning on wearing either of those when I got back, but I'm curious to know if it is true or not. Maybe other things changed as well.
I also heard the most interesting conspiracy theory this week. Apparently, Dick Cheney collaborated with a mission president in the US to get this man baptized, and then they put something in his teeth so that they could track him before they made him come back to Africa. Now this man needs money so that he can go back to the US and finally thank Dick Cheney for helping him become a member of the church. That was hard to translate with a straight face.
Love,
Elder Christensen
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