Me Lemaire and Sagers on our little jungle adventure:)

Bonjour!                                                                                                12/23/2013

 This past week was a pretty great one! Tuesday we had the Christmas party with the mission so it was really good to get to be with all the missionaries and President for that! Just had a lot of games, a ton of food, which was the best part, and a little program, then at the end we all got a little stocking so that was really nice! Then also I got the call that I’m being transferred to Be Kpota, to work with Elder Imoukhede so I was really excited for that as well! The time in Kegue was the toughest and most wearing, so it will be nice going back to a well-established secteur! Also he'll be the first Nigerian companion I'll have worked with the whole mission so I’m excited for that! So we’ve had a lot of dinners and meals the rest of the week, so many to the point actually to where my comp got sick, and was sick all Sunday. it’s strange that I’m better with the food than he is, but its all good!  The secteur has been good here, no doubt the toughest ever, but I can look back and say it’s where I really learned the most. This Sunday we had 6 Amis at church, so even though it’s not a ton of progress, I was happy to see it there, compared to the 0 that was there when I got here! So that was really nice. I remember a talk from Elder Eyring where he was talking about how he prays that trials will come. Hard to believe, but with someone with that kind of spiritual maturity, you see they understand that it’s by the trials that we progress more and faster. No doubt the truth with that last secteur! 

         We also finally got the conference issue of the Liahona so that’s been the best! So many inspired talks it’s amazing. I will miss the members that were in the branch of Attiegou though, leaving. We had our last meal with the Attiogbes, which was a sad one, but a great one for sure!  There are some incredible members in that branch, that understand the church and how it works. I’ve heard the branch in Be Kpota is really good as well, so I’m looking forward to that! 

       The activity was well done today! The only problem was there was a miscommunication with the member, so it took us a while and we didn’t get to the right spot, either way we were up in the wilderness, we found these guys with a hole full of crocodiles, and fed them for about 30 minutes then left, ha-ha. So it was still worth it!!  Those things are insane, one is scary enough but he had 11 in the hole, plus they’re much faster than us, which just adds on. Also we could only feed them fish, we tried to see if we could use a chicken or a goat for example, but because they have legs, and blood, that would make the crocodiles more used to killing things with legs and blood... like us for example, so we backed out of that one. Off in the distance though over the valley, you can see a huge Jungle forest, so we asked him about that one, and found out that that’s actually where all the monkeys are, so well be going there in a couple of weeks as well! Also apparently that’s where they go to hunt gorillas, so that will make that activity much more exciting! It was still all round super fun, and way pretty as well being up in the Safari area. 

        The Jungle trip was the best, no missionaries have really explored to much, but me and Lemaire decided while were in Africa we might as well make the best of it!  The work is going well here no doubt! I'll be sad leaving Kegue, but I’m excited for the new secteur! Also a nice part of last week is that its the start of Harmanttan, its where the dry winds blow down from the Sahara Desert, so actually it gets cooler than hotter! It honestly felt much more like the summers in Utah, with the hot dry air, rather than humidity,  its been really nice, and the best part, is because the air is more dry, its really nice at nights! Its crazy to think about the snow there, I forgot what that was like. The other morning I went outside to take a shower and it was like the coldest thing I’ve felt since I’ve gotten here, just because its drying up so the air is cooler and drier, but then I looked at the thermometer, and it was 85 degrees only problem is we're not used to it, so its killing our skin. It’s been nice though!

        It’s hard to believe its Christmas really, and it’s really not here, as it’s not celebrated much, which at the same time is a good thing, as it’s not as distracting! So that’s nice.

       That is super fun the whole family is coming in! I miss that time a lot! But yeah all is well here, and I love and miss you all a ton! I hope all goes

well this week and I'll be talking to you again in a couple days!!

Love Elder Oliverson

Elder Oliverson & Elder Jenkins at their Christmas Party