So lots of changes......Otherwise not much has changed

March 20 2017

We invited Fr Rodrigue to be baptized (he of course said yes. He has a very powerful testimony) We showed him the video of Joseph Smith and he cried. So I'm really excited for him, his baptism might be this week if we can teach the lessons in time. He also already respects some of the more difficult commandements so... not many problems there. Also, transfers! I am no longer with my longtime friend Elder Bouthot; I am now with Elder... Dou! Elder Dou comes from the Ivory Coast, he has also been in Yaoundé the longest. Elder Bouthot has been transferred to Doula A, the branch of Douala (that is where Elder ZoBell served) Elder Zobell will be the new companion of Elder Dou's old companion (Elder Kenabualu) and Elder Best will be with Elder Pindi (Elder Odimba is also in Douala, with Elder Tataiho). So lots of changes. It will be really cool and interesting to work with Elder Dou, Elder Wright said he is a very good person. Otherwise not much has changed. Our other amis with baptismal dates progress slowly, but they progress.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

​Many of the Zone at touristique Express to say goodbye.

Pokémon sandshrew

March 13 2017

We ate sandshrew this week... some explanation: we ate pangolin. It looks like the pokémon sandshrew so... yeah. It wasn't the greatest thing I've eaten, very tough skin and it tasted too much like liver for my taste. I don't like liver. Anyways, we got Fr Rodrigue (the investigator who has visions... literally) a Book of Mormon! We also invited him to get baptized; he accepted. So, really excited for him. Fr Frederic is going well, but he still has his foot problems, which means he can't get to church, plus some eye problems which make it difficult to read. So... yeah. Fr Essomba seems to have disappeared, but we did see his wife. I think he has lots of struggles financially right now. We had lots of amis at the Church, many were younger children. I hope the Church will influence them for good (and that we can meet their parents sometime soon.) Transfers are next week. We did two splits and I worked with Elder Best and Elder Wright. It was cool. We also got couches for the apartement, which is nice. I looked through my journal (which I still need to write in more) and it was fun to see the changes since I came on my mission.

But yeah, I might need to get new clothes soon. I didn't think I'd change so much on the mission...

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

almost one year!

March 6 2017

Yep, almost one year. Weird. It feels like school, in the sense that it seems long but when you look back you realize that, nah, really wasn't that long. 

Sr Lydie did get baptized this week! Fr Frederic was a bit busy this week so we weren't able to visit him, sadly, but I hope we will this week! We did find an investigator who totally has visions about the Book of Mormon. He came to Church one time because he is from one of the villages and saw a Church and said "Oh hey, a Church." So he came in. I think he said he was a priest or something and he has taken religious classes. Anyways. So at the end of one lesson he starts praying and my companion and I just sit there, because we don't want to interrupt his praying. Then at the end of his prayer he takes a journal and starts writing like crazy. Then he explains what he say and it was pretty much a chapter from 2 Nephi. The chapter that says "and there will be many who will say 'eat, drink and be merry; for tommorow we die; and it shall be well with us'" plus a few other chapters before and after that one. So we shared the chapter with him. So I really pray that the lessons will go well with him. Sadly we are out of Book of Mormons. Yep.

I love you all and miss you all too! Je vous aime!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

But we have AC!

February 28 2017

It is good to hear that all is going well! I'm writing a bit late this week because we changed apartements. The new apartement is really nice but a little small. Elder Bouthot and I will be studying in the living room because there is no room in the bedroom for our desks. But we have AC! Sr Lydie should be getting baptised this week which should be cool. Fr Frederic is still healing but we pray that it can be fast so that he can come to church. A new ami, Fr Roger, has accepted the Book of Mormon, he is really eager to learn. I'm a little rushed and I didn't bring my journal so I might miss some things. We visited Fr Essomba again and had a nice, quiet lesson on the law of chastity. He is also going through some rent troubles (let's just say things get complicated here sometimes).

Something I learned this week was that one objective of the mission is to convert me, so that later in my life I can help others and my children. Also we are back to our normal schedule, apparently there were some miscommunication somewhere and our schedule hasn't changed.

Sorry for the short letter but like I said, a little bit rushed.

Je vous aime!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

kitchen in old apartement

kitchen in new apartement

We celebrated with cake (which had the flavor of sugar, but still, cake)

February 20 2017

Let's see... we invited Fr Frederic to baptism and he accepted, so we will have to work on assistance with him, which could be difficult because of his leg. Sr Lydie was not baptized this week but we put her for the 4th of March and we hope she will be ready by then. The English classes are going slowly, we had six people at the first one and five of them were children, but we hope to have more this week! We had some good lessons with new amis, one being Fr Roger, and hope to progress with them. There are schedule changes for us: wake up at 5:30, excersize and prepare for the day till 7:00 still but personal and companionship study are 30 minutes, then we get a meal and then we go into the sector at 9:00 am and return at 6:00 pm. SO that's different. 

I had a great birthday. We celebrated with cake (which had the flavor of sugar, but still, cake) and we also celebrated the "sommet" (summit, or one year mark) of Elder Bouthot two days after with ice cream. So it was good.

President Monga is coming on Wednesday for a zone conference (I think, still not entirely sure). Tell everyone thanks for the birthday wishes! I'm glad that you keep on learning and growing andI love hearing about what you learned! This week I learned that prayer is really powerful. I had some difficulties this week but by prayer (and loving companions) I received lots of support. So remember that God is always there, even in the most difficult of times, like with Job.

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Russell

And now for some silly missionary lingo: Pondu

February 13 2017

So, Sr Camille got baptized and confirmed this week! We are also going to start teaching English so that we can find more people to teach. Street contacting isn't very effective. But we continue to press foward! We hope that the English classes will attract a lot of people. We also have another investigator who will be baptized soon, Sr Lydie. She has been coming to Church for a while but her schedule limited the times we could teach her, but she said she could now do some lessons during the week. So that should be good. Fr Frederic got out of the hospital (he had a motorcycle accident and broke his leg) and he has to go back because some parts of the bone didn't stay correctly placed. But he is doing well. I'll be glad to start teaching him again. Other than that we had an uneventful week, though we did set some mouse traps because we've been having a mouse problem recently. Caught one so far.

Forgot to take pictures AGAIN. Yeah, really need to get better at that. We were told that we would have a new apartment in about three weeks so we also need to get rid of stuff, like old sofas. Though now we will be further away from our sector, so going to spend some transport money going into the sector. 

Thanks for the birthday wishes! And Happy Birthday to Stacey! My goodness how did I forget that in my last letter. I would also like to say thanks to everyone for their support, spiritual, mental, physical, no matter how. And I'd like to say how grateful I am for my loving family. And my Heavenly Father and lots of other things that go along with that (but above all for Jesus Christ and the atonement). I'll be sure to take and send photos this week.

One thing I learned this week is that we need to be patient. Sometimes very patient. and we need to be charitable, those kind of go along.

Je vous aime tous!

Nous ne craignons pas l'homme!

Elder Russell

And now for some silly missionary lingo: Pondu (Pah-dew, the pah is nasal) leftovers of a meal (technical French term is "Les restes")

Frying fish isn't easy

February 6 2017

This week was a pretty good week. We were able to get lots of things done and find some new amis. We bought some new mattresses for some of the other missionaries (with mission funds of course). Sr Camille will be getting baptized this week, that will be cool. Another amie, Sr Lydie, will be baptized next week. It is interesting because they are amies who started with missionaries long before us, so they both know the principles of the Gospel pretty well, just took a while for their conversion. Some things I learned this week are 1: Frying fish isn't easy 2: Working in a restaurant would be hard (my companion showed me a bit what that would be like) and 3: It is really sad when someone is a good person but they don't understand/except the Gospel (already knew that but still sad). We visited Fr Essomba again and... he just sort of disputed on every word that came from our mouths, even little things that didn't have anything to do with the Gospel. So yeah... still praying for him. Oh, we had transfers too. There were two transfers in the entire mission. So everybody except for some Sisters in Brazzaville are staying in the same place. Ummm... Fr Christian wants to serve a mission, so he said he'll start preparing for that (and yes, it is a book on autonomy) so, yay!

Other than that not too much has happened, we visited an ami who has a good heart, Fr Achille, but we haven't finished the restoration yet. I took a picture of Elder Pindi (Elder Kincaid's companion), but I really need to get better at taking more pictures. Should've taken a picture of Mount Fébé, that is where Cameroun was dedicated for missionary work.

So yeah, nous ne craignons pas l'homme! (That formation means, "We don't fear man!")

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Russell

Elder Pindi says hi