One kind-of surprise....

May 29 2017

Well, this was a good week. We had a good amount of lessons. Things we did: gave Fr Bisso a Book of Mormon (finally!) found about six new investigators, managed to teach Fr Obert again, and had a baptisimal service, among other things. It was a pretty good week. We did talk with the Kamdem family again (contacts from our DMB who did not accept the Book of Mormon) and we had a really spiritual lesson about the organization of the Church and the apostasie. Elder Tukumbane can be quite the impressive teacher. It was cool, along with other lessons we had. Oh! We also taught Fr Frederic again and that went well, even though he has trouble reading which makes things a little complicated. 

Anyways, Fr Arsene got baptized! One kind-of surprise was that I baptized him. Fr Ismael was in Douala at the wedding of Fr Nyom and Sr Anita and we had some miscommunication where my companion thought he would be at the baptism but I wasn't sure... so I brought a change of clothes just in case, so we were covered there. It was cool. So yeah. Cool week. And first time I've baptised someone on the Mission!

Sounds like you had a good week too. I forget a lot of holidays that we have back home... It is pretty emotional when we visit Grandma and Grandpa’s grave site. As for me, I learned a bit about the pre-existence, that there we had progressed at different levels and we had different capabilities and talents, that these things had and have bearing on our state in this life. It was quite interesting.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

Felicitations (congratulations) to a certain pair of people!

May 22 2017

Our week interesting because we had two days where we thought we would have interviews with the president and then we didn't have them. On Thursday I did a split with Elder ZoBell so that he could interview Fr Arsene. It went well. 

We had zone conference and it was really emotional because it was the last one President Monga will do in Yaounde. We had a combined sacrament meeting with the branches of Biyem-Assi, Mimboman and Anguissa (so all of the missionaries in our district were there) It was hot because we were in a small room with a metal roof, fortunately the fans were working. The old district presidency was released and the old First Councilor (I think) became the President. The Second Councilor is still Second Councilor and someone I don't know is First Councilor. 

That was also an emotional meeting because President Monga was there and gave a talk. One of the things I learned from President Monga's talks was that we are always developing throughout our lives and we must develop our capacity to feel the Holy Ghost or else it is going to be really hard for us to progress in our lives. I also read some of the Teachings of Joseph Smith and he had talked about how our thoughts must reach to the highest heaven(s?) and sound the deepest abyss. I thought that was really cool

Still haven't gotten a hold of Fr Cyrille... I think we'll have to just pass by.  We talked with Fr Obert and his wife this week and we should be able to pass by more often to see them now because we know where their house is. 

I've had some fun talking to Elder Constant from Guadeloupe because he likes a lot of the same stuff I do. He's cool. All in all it was a good week.

Je vous aime tous!

Felicitations (congratulations) to a certain pair of people!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

"river of shrimp"

May 15 2017

Our week was good. We found some new amis and started teaching them. Sr Sylvie and Sr Badie, they sell wood. We met them in a members taxi (we were at Happy and we needed to get to Shell Nsimeyong where our apartement is and it is a little far away). And it has gone well so far. We still haven't met with Fr Cyrile, though we did manage to get a hold of him. Hopefully this week we will see him. The lessons are going well with Fr Arsene, he has some questions and worries, especially about when he will be in his village since the principles of the gospel are harder to keep there, but he has a lot of faith (even that his family will join the Church, he is a cool guy). Fr Rodrigue I think is learning little by little (line upon line, precept upon precept) more about the Church. He did have the faith to get baptized but now comes the hard part. I think it will help him when he has the Doctrine and Covenants and such, when he is ready. Fr Bisso came to Church! He had lots of questions which I hope we can answer our next rendez-vous. I also learned how Cameroun got it's name: when Portuguese explorers came they found lots of shrimp, so they named it the "river of shrimp" in Portuguese. When the English or French came (don't remember which) they didn't feel like saying "shrimp" in Portuguese so they said "Cameroun". Voila.

I really like Stacey's talk! I'll have to start keeping a tender mercies journal. That should be cool. Also so true with the questions. All we gotta do is keep on holding on to our faith

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Russell

Picture eating at the Chinese restaurant a couple weeks back 

I made pizza!

May 8 2017

So I pretty much just talked to you, but okay! Fr Rodrigue is still progressing, lots of little questions that come up in Sunday school. Like I said for Fr Arsene, we will be able to meet with him a lot more because he has put a hold on work to take the lessons. We had a member ask if Joseph Smith was a Freemason and we just kind of said, "don't worry about it, just worry about if the Book of Mormon is true." People are very wary of things like that here (probably because of influences from the colonization period when everybody said that anything that wasn't catholic was of the devil) so with lots of people saying "yes" really puts a damper on things. Anyways, just goes to show how important it is to gain a testimony or else you will be led away. Other than that not much more to add onto what we had talked about.

As for people you can pray fror: Fr Cyrille (like I had said, he has struggles with the Word of Wisdom), Fr Rodrigue, Fr Arsene, Fr Frederic (broken foot), Sr Yvonne and anyone else you want to add in of course.

It was great to see everyone! (early Mother's day skype)

Je vous aime avec tout mon cœur!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell