I took a selfie...and a picture of a picture

January 23 2017

Okay, I wrote in my journal a lot more this week, so that should help with details. We taught Sr Camille (she is about 22 years old) several times this week and the lessons went well. She is already changing her lifestyle and attitude so that they are more in tune with the Gospel. She has a great desire to be baptized. We also found a new amie named Sr Emilienne, who is an older amie, but the cool thing was that she did the additional study in the back of the Plan of Salvation booklet. I had not yet seen that. We also had some difficult lessons with people who are not progressing, though one of those difficult amis came to Church and I think that helped him open up his heart (Fr Essomba). On Friday we helped Elder Odimba, Elder Best, Elder Dou and Elder Kabongo move into their new apartement (which means there are only four of us in the apartement now). My companion and I gave talks about missionary work, mine was specifically that missionary work is everyone's responsability and that we are blessed by it. People came to us afterwards and said they had contacts, I think we just need a reminder from time to time. Concerning things that I learned: I learned that the Lord gives us trials also to help us repent so that we can be pardonned. Which makes sense, sometimes we are too prideful and sometimes we don't realize that we need to repent. (here is one reference: D&C 95:1)

It is good that things are going well, I hope Stacey had fun at "Best of the Northwest" and is having fun with the Stake musical. Thank you for the photos! I took a selfie in front of a small map of Yaoundé, and a picture of a picture of one of the monuments in Yaoundé.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons personne!

Elder Russell

We played football today, which was pretty fun. Still not good at it but I actually participate now.

January 16 2017

We had a district conference this week and President Monga was there. I learned lots of things and I forgot to bring my notes and my journal to the cybercafé, though I did start writing in it again this week. There was lots of talk about the importance of missionary work and sustaining the leaders of the Church. Basically, without those two things the work goes forward very slowly. There was also a talk about the importance of supporting (spiritually and temporally) the family. We have one new amie (technically an old amie), Sr Camille (Pronounced Camy), who wants to be baptised, so we will go through the lessons and make sure she is ready. A non confessionalist pastor, Fr Essomba, started taking real interest in what we were saying after a few lessons where it seemed like he just wanted to dispute, so we will see how that goes. We played football today, which was pretty fun. Still not good at it but I actually participate now. Fr Christian and Sr Joli are starting to open up to the other members, little by little. They still have some trouble with integration. I did two splits, one with Elder Odimba in my sector and one with Elder Gilbert (one of the zone leaders) in his sector (Éleveur). It was pretty cool to see the different ways of teaching. Other than that the week was pretty normal and we will see how the next week goes.

I'm doing well, though I have do some reparations to my mosquito net (but I take my doxy, so I haven't gotten sick) And Elder Bouthot is doing well also, though we are both a bit tired (because we walk alot to find new amis... and then don't find many) but ça va. We are looking at ways we can work with members more, I know we will have to talk to the Branch President and other leaders to have that work well. I love hearing about home and I hope things continue to go well! I also took some picture this week, though not many of me. I'll work on that.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons personne!

Elder Russell

Elder Kincaid with a pineapple soda

Elder Kabongo

Elder Kenabualu (ken-abwa-loo)

Je vous aime tous!

January 9 2017

This week was a somewhat unsuccessful week and yesterday we took a long, hard look at who was really progressing (or could) and who wasn't (or couldn't) We will be spending a lot more time contacting and trying to visit members also these next weeks. On the bright side, first time I fasted for a full 24 hours here! I always had so much trouble with water, but with lots of prayer and a supportive companion I did it. Sunday was interesting because, frankly, the Branch President (Jean Galbert) gave a chastizement, though it was good. I hope people will take to heart. An ami who has been having a hard time with his family and his foot came to church this week (Fr Kevin, but I only taught him once) so that was cool. Yeah. Found someone who doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and who would want to arrest him (and Mohommad) if they were on the earth. Very interesting experiences. Other than that, pretty uneventful, forgot to take pictures again. But I had some good spiritual development and I learned a lot. I really like reading the Liahona, there are some good stories in there.

Sorry I don't have a lot more to say, I'll try to get better at writing in my journal and taking it with me to the cyber cafe.

Je vous aime tous! (Mom, Dad, Stacey, Rachael, Aaron and all the rest of the family too! And of course lots of others!)

Nous ne craignons personne!

Elder Russell

Que le Seigneur continue à vous protéger et que vos plans se réalisent!

January 2 2017

So we now officially have a new sector for Bieymassi. Elder Wright is one of the missionaries and he is training Elder Kobonga (If I didn't get the name wrong) From the DRC, Lubumbashi. The mission is still looking for new apartements for that. We did get to eat with President Zang on the first and it was a great meal. And big, with delicious fruits at the end. We also got to eat poisson braisé, which is delicious, today at Fr Nicodème's. The work was a little slow because we had to help the new missionaries find their way around the sector a little, but we did have a nice look at the area book to a) take out the people for Bieymassi and b) see who the people in are sector are and how we can help them. A very nice weekly planning. So I hope this week will go a lot better.

It's nice hearing about everything back home! About the packages: I know that the Calls have my yellow card but the other packages are probably still in Brazzaville... so yeah, could be a little time before that arrives, unless President Monga came with them (but he doesn't do that very often). Oh yeah, that reminds me. President Monga is staying in Cameroun for two months to help out around here I guess, so that should be interesting. We have two meetings with him: one tommorow and one Wednesday. I got to see Elder Izere today, that was fun. We had a fun time playing foot ball but it always takes a big chunk out of the day. My companion bought a new bag, but then we saw it was too big so we are going to change it out tommorow. There are some really nice and cheap bags here, I might have to buy one before coming home. Also thanks for the French new years wishes! Now I'm going to try.

Que le Seigneur continue à vous protéger et que vos plans se réalisent!

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons personne!

Elder Russell

Me and my formateur! Elder Izere

Elder Best chillin at the Anguissa/Mimboman Branch building. They were waiting for their Branch president

Where we played football

Also where we played football, behind where I took the previous pictures

Aha!

December 26 2016

Aha! I found a picture of Elder Christofferson during the meeting with the missionaries at Cameroon!

I'm the second person in the second row, I found this while looking at Church news.

Christmas bug

December 26 2016

It was so great to see all of you also! I love the beautiful pictures you sent and I'm glad that you all look so happy. It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas. Unfortunately for us I got a 24 hour bug yesterday, which means we missed out on eating at President Zang's (Branch President of Bieymassi (Proncounced Bee-em-assi) but the other Elders kept us some food. I had terrible diarrhea and I barely slept. Fortunately that is over. We have some investigators who are progressing well, but who won't be in our sector because we are getting the new missionaries this week. Elder Wright will be one of the ones working in the new sector. Also Elder Izere is coming to Yaounde, in one of the sectors of Bastos. That will be cool to see him again. Other than that not much happened this week, though that might just be a perspective caused by sickness. Oh! We had a special Christmas sacrament meeting where the primary sang and gave little talks. There was one young man who sang very well.

I forgot to take pictures, again. Sorry.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons personne!

Elder Russell