I'm going to answer some questions here.
Q: How many Elders work Yaounde?
A: There are a total in 8: 4 in two different apartments. We have a companionship for each branch (4 branches). There are two in Bastos and two in Ekunu. I'm in Bastos I.
Q: Do you ever meet as a district?
A: Our apartment is our district. As far as further, larger organization goes, we do not have a district currently. Just branch presidents and the mission President over them. So sometimes life is tough when branch presidents aren't unified with us or their members (not always the branch president's fault; all our presidents are wonderful people).
Q: How about Zone Conferences?
A: We just had one! It was great. It's typically once per month, and only occasionally the Mission President is there. Turns out President Jameson is only at the mission home 8 days a month. This is not your typical "California Mission." We are pretty remote here in Cameroon.
Q: Do you ever see the assistants to the President?
A: Nope. In fact, I will probably never be an AP, nor any North American Elder. DR Congo is still in heavy war, and so it's not safe for me to be there, or any white for that matter.
Q: Do you keep track of how many teaching hours, how many contacting hours and stuff like that?
A: We keep track of number of teaching visits in the presence of a member, to recent converts or less actives, or to other investigators. We keep track of the "key indicators," eight different things we keep track of (see PMG [Preach My Gospel] chapter 8). If you're interested in being a missionary, or if you have to work with missionaries, read that book. It is a gold mine of information and mission stuff. It's the crown jewel of learning how to be a good missionary.
Q: Are there any sisters serving in your mission?
A: Yes, but they're in Brazzaville, Congo. They aren't even members of the Pointe Noire zone there, so I will never see them. In fact, I don't think sisters get sent to Cameroon, period, at least from North America. Don't know why.
Q: Was that picture taken inside of the Relief Society President's house?
A: No. It was in front.
Q: What is that curtain behind her?
A: That was the entrance to the bathroom of her house. Her house was the kitchen/bedroom/front entry way/family room you saw in the picture, and then a sink in the bathroom. It's really small for her and her two kids (16 and 5) but it was better than where she lived before. She has running water and electricity here!
Cameroonians cover door entrances with curtains. I don't know why. It's just what they do.
So things are moving along in Bastos I. I'm really enjoying it here. Frère Brent (the physician Andre has been teaching the Gospel to; for more about him, see previous posts) is totally gung ho about this gospel, and he is going to be a fantastic member someday. His wife is having trouble accepting completely, but she is progressing. I really love that family. I just got a text message from him the other day about how he knows that God is with us and that we are really helping him and his family. that was really encouraging!
Anyways, I hope you all have a good week this next week! I'll give more information about sending snail mail!
- Elder LaFleur
PS - You don't know a real thunderstorm unless you are in one in africa. The only thing even close to what it loooks like is this techno video by the band called "Underworld," the song named "Two Months Off" or something like that. You stand outside for 15 seconds and you are completely drenched. Rain in Africa is awesome.
I realize that Andre's current message is a little unusual. His email started just as this posting does, and rattles off a bunch of questions and answers. Most of the questions came from Joanne and I, but I think some came from other sources. I added the Q: and A: to help and the blue was my interjections in case there are new readers and wonder who Frere Belunga is.
ReplyDeleteMany of the questions come from me wishing to compare his answers to how my mission was structured from some 20+ years ago to France. Again, I realize now as I re-read Andre's email, that many non-members of the Church are following his adventures here on this blog. I will attempt to clarify a few things so that those individuals understand.
By now you know that male missionaries serving in the Church are given the title of Elder. So, Andre isn't called Andre, he is referred to as Elder LaFleur. In my mission, we often just called one another Frère which means brother in French. So my question to Andre about the 'sisters' was in reference to female missionaries who receive the title of Sister.
Within the mission, groups of Elders are broken down into zones, and then smaller groups within the zones are called districts, and districts are made up of one or more companionships. It sounds like in Andre's mission its done a little differently.
Assistants to the President (or APs) are missionaries that are called to follow direct direction from the Mission President to benefit the entire mission. Below APs are Zone Leaders and below Zone Leaders are District Leaders. These are missionaries generally who have been out for a while and can be a resource of support and guidance (under the direction of the Mission President) to the other missionaries.
Andre mentions how the Sisters are serving in Brazzaville which is in the Republic of the Congo. In Andre's mission (DRC - Kinshasa) there are actually 6 countries being served under the same mission President. Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea. As Andre described, its unsafe in some areas of his mission for white missionaries, but in Cameroon, he is safe. There are actually many missionaries serving in this mission, most coming from other neighboring African countries. As was announced in the Church's General Conference (Oct 2011) there are plans to begin building an LDS temple in Kinshasa. Andre has mentioned in previous blog posts that there are 8 stakes in Kinshasa, so the Church is growing and has already a strong membership.
Here is a link to the video Andre mentions in his post-script: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsE9iXoXB6s
ReplyDeleteCorrection, Andre said that there are 6 Stakes in Kinshasa.
ReplyDelete