Rainy Season!

Bonjour! 03/31/2014

This past week has gone by pretty well you could say! A couple big changes happened, so that mixed stuff up again! First off on Monday we got the transfer call, which sent Elder Sahue over to Benin. Then I found out I have Elder Derou coming to work with me in Be Kpota! So I was pretty happy because of the fact I get to stay here in Be Kpota! They didn’t do the change till Saturday, so we worked the week till then. I’m working with my 4th Ivorian now so hey hey hey! That’s pretty cool. I love my companion though, he’s pretty nice, and we get along well, we get a lot of work done as well so things are going good!

I organized a little missionary prep class for our ward. This past week we had 11 people there, so I was super happy with how it went! From what I remember that’s even more than how many that I would see for a ward back home! It was super fun though, and one of the things I like a lot with working with them, is they all are converts of 2 years and less, so they are fresh off from the missionaries, and understand missionary work pretty well already, and the conversion process, which helps them out a lot. Right now two of them have put their papers in, and more to come. It's the best seeing that, and I can't even imagine how strong the church will be when all these young men start getting back, it will be awesome to watch! So that’s been pretty good with the mission prep!

I did a split with Elder Florion the Tahitian this past week, so that was pretty fun as well. He’s only been out a month now, but he already seems like an experienced missionary! We have some good Tahitian Elders here and have a few more on their way so that will be nice to see. On Friday night the assistants brought the missionaries from Benin over from the transfer, and ended up staying with us so that was pretty fun as well. Its nice with Elder Ritchie being assistant as that way I see him much more often! We then had a little soccer missionary work activity Saturday morning, as now that we have a Stake, they have given each ward the assignment to have a missionary work activity every two weeks, its been somewhat successful, but hands down the soccer worked the best! Ha-ha, surprise surprise. Still not much of a fan of it though. The work is still pretty consistent though so that is nice!

We have Joseph one of our Amis getting baptized this next week, and Eric getting baptized the week after, so those two will help out the Ward a lot for sure. I love the Ward here, and they do an awesome job at really getting our converts each a call right when they get in, which helps a lot, and along with that you see really how the Ward is blessed by the many different and unique talents of each member.

But yeah, so the whole weight loss thing has gotten to a whole other level now. So usually when I show people here that family picture I have in my scriptures, they never know I’m actually in it, because well, in the picture I was a 50 pound bigger Elder Oliverson, so I’ve gotten pretty used to pointing myself out, and they laugh and think its pretty crazy. But the toughest to take was this past week when I showed our recent convert Ayele, and had her point me out, and she pointed at Tanner, and was convinced it was me. So all those times I said Tanner would probably be bigger than me when I get back, they might not be so crazy.

I got a call from Desvergez this past week from Benin, it was the first time we’ve talked since I was back in Benin. And man oh man I miss him so bad! Ha-ha it was the best talking to him again and it was nice remembering those days we worked together. I got a call from Elder Sahue as well when he got too Benin, so it was cool talking to him as well! Today for a zone activity we went to a little Togo National Museum, which just turned out being a slave museum. It was still pretty cool though, and was once again really fun being with all the missionaries! Along with that, we ran into a white guy, who without doubt by looking at him you could see he was American. Along with that, he had a stone face, with a huge build, and was packing heat. So sure enough as it’s the first American I’ve seen in I don’t know how long we had to talk to him! So we did, and found out he works for the Department of State and is an army officer from Mesa Arizona, and is here right now, doing something that he couldn’t really tell us, but also training a narcotics force, and apparently is going all over West Africa doing the same thing, it was pretty cool running into him as well!

The rainy season is surely getting closer. This past week we were in our last rendezvous, when it started raining, we already had to be leaving, but waited a couple minutes for it to stop... but it didn’t, so we realized the more we waited the more flooding there would be, so we just started running, the 45 minutes way home, and I mean full out running, and at first we were trying to avoid the huge puddles, but half way realized, the roads were completely flooded, so just ended up running the rest of the way in about 5 inches of water... completely soaked, then got back and our house was flooded, but it was kind of nice at the same time, as it was so cool! But it got to the point where it was a little too cold... and now I understand what people were talking about a year ago, when they would always complain about how cold it was after the rain, while it was hotter than ever more me, but now being acclimated, I need a jacket or something. But it will be nice for sure!

Thanks for all of the love and support as always! I love and miss you all a ton! Thanks a ton for the pictures as well, they’re the best!

Elder Oliverson