I forgot to write about this in my email last week but last
Monday, we went to the coolest little island for our pday. We went with a bunch of elders in the Zone and it was so fun. We took a 15 minute boat ride on this
little wooden boat that was about 50 cents a person. When I jumped off of the
boat, some guy was selling fresh sugar cane that was super good. This place was
so cool! It was a village with stick huts and all. The funniest thing
about this village was that the people on this island spoke English! Turns out
they are all Ghanians who jumped in boats and landed there. I felt like I was
on vacation while there. The people were nice, one even climbed a super tall
coconut tree and got a bunch of coconuts for us. Then we went and jumped in a
bunch of homemade hammocks and relaxed and drank coconut water. It was so
nice!
Now back to this week. It was pretty great. We started it
off by welcoming Elder Nokes and Elder Adjrimanahara to our apartment! Elder
Nokes is from Riverton and Adjiri is from Madagascar. So, yes I am living with
a Penguin from Madagascar. He is also training so it has been fun to be with
him. Malagash people are super chill and relaxed and I like them a lot. Elder
Nokes is the best. We went to this super nice grocery story and bought hamburger
patties and cheese and other good stuff and we are going to cook some American
food! We have already made scones and other stuff so it has been nice.
Speaking
of food, I haven't had anything super gross this week but the bishop's wife
always makes this pakali stuff that is edible but far from enjoyable. It is
like salty, slimy dough that you dip in sauce. This weeks sauce had little
crabs in it that can't be legal to eat but I don't know that the regulations
are the same here. Instead of cleaning and separating the shell from the meat,
they just pop the whole thing in their mouths, shell and all and eat it! I
tried but hated the crunch so I only tried once.
As for the work here, it is
going well. We should have a baptism with 2 people this week. Sr. Miriam and
Fr. Kiyali. They are siblings and their parents are Buddhist which has been
interesting. They haven't held them back at all which is good. Other than that,
we have so many people we teach but not any other baptismal dates fixed. I
really hope to set some soon. One struggle that we face is that a lot of the
people that we teach can't read and so it is kinda impossible for them to accept
the Book of Mormon because they can't read it. We try to encourage them to find
people that can read it with them. If I am being honest though, I can't talk
much because I am not the best at reading French yet either so I feel what they
are feeling haha.
The language is coming along slowly. Last night this guy
stopped us and just asked who we were and other questions and I carried the
whole conversation by myself! It was a super simple conversation but when I
walked away, I felt so excited because I understood what he asked! Right now I
am learning how to teach the commandments. For conference we were able to watch
one session. I didn't understand much but I really felt the spirit strongly. It
was super cool because the one session we watched was the one with the choir
from Provo. As I looked at the sisters singing I got super emotional because I
got such a strong impression that those ladies were praying for the
missionaries with their families at home and I felt so much comfort from that.
I feel like I am starting to adjust a little. People in the ward know me a
little better, people we teach are starting to be able to pronounce my
name...It really is getting better. I think having an American in the apartment
who I can speak English with and have normal conversations with is helpful too.
Thank you all for your encouraging emails, I love opening my email up and reading
everyone's super good advice. Also, I really want to say thank you for everyone
who prays for me. It means so much, it really does.
Love,
Elder Freedman
Andrews first African tie
Andrew was not able to connect his camera to the computer this week so all pictures were provided by this awesome Ward Mission Leader, Brother Bonebo
This is the guy who climbed the tree and got coconuts for all the elders
Possibly a fermented coconut????
In front is Elder Ayinde, Andrews companion
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