Pictures and Stories and News...Oh my!!!

Andre is on the left with his trainer Elder Tingey next to him

This email might be a little disorganized, but I hope that you all enjoy hearing from me a little bit more. I apologize for not saying a lot of this earlier, but P days have gotten busier and busier.

Today we visited the Gorilla park and got to see a bunch of gorillas and stuff. They are on a reserve here in Cameroon, and, well, it's a zoo dedicated to gorillas. You can get pretty close to them though. There was a time where we got to walk through a dense portion of jungle. It was really neat. Probably (and surprisingly) the funnest part was walking on this trail next to one of the enclosures of gorillas, and trying to dodge the poop they throw at you (yes, throw at you. Elder Shmid got hit a little). 

There was also a really gigantic tree there (as you can see in the picture). I'm not sure how big it really was, but one thing is certain: I really want a treehouse in a tree that big and tall.

I had my first baptism baptism this week. I baptized Valerie. She is the daughter of another investigator we have named Daniel (I used his bathroom a couple transfers ago). She has been attending church regularly for a couple months, and has heard all the lessons plusiers fois, mais (translation: several times, but) she only accepted baptism recently. She got baptized with her cousin, who Elder Tingey baptized. Brother Daniel was so excited about that. He jumped up and hugged us when he heard the news.

I got to play piano for sacrement meeting a couple times. I can't play - at all, really. I can play the melody in the right hand and then play chords with my left. It works out okay - we have a super watered down hymn book thingy here. The way the name the chords and stuff in French is different than in English (they use solifege, but "do" is always the note "C." So there are chords that say "Si b" and that trips me up a bit. I tend to think of it all abstractly).

We caroled people this week. I just took a guitar around and played chords around a couple of hymns and sang with people. It was fun. I got to really brush up on my guitar playing, and it ended up being really useful! Don't ever tell your children that playing guitar or anything is stupid (mine didn't; they encouraged me playing guitar, just for the record). It ended up being really valuable. People really liked having the guitar with us.

Elder Tingey is getting transferred! After being in the same sector and Apartment for a full year, he is going to Douala. Elder Buck will be replacing him here. Elder Buck is from Douala. I only met him in passing once. He trained my friend Elder Nash, and now Elder Tingey will probably be finishing his mission there in Douala.

The other day we bumped into a white guy, and I felt really akward talking to him. It was the strangest thing ever. Here is a guy from the states, speaking my native tongue the way I speak it, and I couldn't hardly look at him in the eye without feeling really akward. It's kind of fun to be so completely enveloped in a culture that it feels strange to interact with some other part of the culture I was originally used to back home. In the states, just talking to another white guy wouldn't faze me (obviously). Now that I have lived here for a couple months, talking to anyone who doesn't belong to Cameroonian/Central African culture, in appearance, language and mannerism, is completely foreign to me. It's strange, but it's fun to be able to say that I am now comfortable with another man's culture.

A brief explanation: there are only three areas in my mission where I can serve: Pointe Noire in Congo Brazzaville (Republic of Congo), Douala and Yaoundé in Cameroon. Those are the only cities that are safe for whites to live in. There are a couple of other places to serve in my mission, but I will never see the DRC, nor the other side of Congo Brazzaville. The gospel is not yet in Gabon, Central African Republic and Equitorial Guinea. Gabon might be opening soon, but their argument is "Well, we have over 300 churches in our country. Why do we need yours too?" Well, if you have 300, 301 isn't quite such a big difference, is it? We hope that Gabon is a little bit more receptive soon.

I hope you enjoyed more anecdotes and pictures this week. I love you all and I hope you have all had a merry Christmas!

- Elder LaFleur

From Kendrick

So, I just wanted to mention how blessed we feel as a family to have Andre serve our Heavenly Father in this way. He loves his mission and its exciting to watch him grow. He loves Cameroon and the people there.
Yesterday, for Christmas, Andre was allowed to contact us. Usually missionaries can call home only on Christmas and Mother's Day. Thanks to today's technology, we were able to not just talk to Andre, but see him as well, thanks to Skype! I took advantage of the moment and we took a family picture. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and thanks for sharing an interest in my son and his adventures in Africa.

NOt much time but... December 19, 2011

I wanted to send a couple pictures. So this is Elder Tingey and I with our new machetes. We went au champs this week (worked on someone's farm) and so we decided that in order to be prepared to do it again, we needed machetes. I took a couple of pictures like this. Just remember that the "field is white already to harvest."

Pictures, andd..... December 5, 2011

Here is a picture of our zone at thanksgiving with all our food, and here is a nigerian song that is super popular here. Elder Tingey was able to get a copy of the CD and I ripped it to my flash drive. Don't worry - I'm not listening to it. I really wanted to know what kind of music is popular here, and well, here it is.

One more experience while everything is loading. I bumped into a musician the other day, and he and I talked a little bit. He was a guitar player, didn't know how to read music, but man could he play. The style of music here fills two genres: religous and pop, and this guy mixed the two. He played this song for us where one of the lyrics was "Shake your body for Jesus." To be honest, it felt really sacriligious, but he could really play guitar.

That's something that's interesting here in cameroon. Everyone believes in God, everyone is chrisitian, and everyone loves to talk about it. That's one of the more difficult parts of serving here - you get people who just want to talk, not committ to a specific church.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy.

Per usual, not much time... December 5, 2011

So I'll type as much as possible here.

First of all, thank you for your emails. It really means a lot to me hearing from all of you. I hope you all enjoy reading these ones.

This week, per usual, not much has happened. We had thanksgiving, and that was fun. I'll send pictures of our zone at thanksgiving. Basically, we just ate a bunch of rottisserie chicken and mashed potatoes, as well as drinking Djino and Topamplamoose. It was fantastic.

Francoise is going to be baptized, most probably. I have high hopes for December 24th. She has totally committed and is now reading her scriptures and stuff every day. I love going to see her. I just really hope she wants to keep going.

I have a couple new investigators I'm excited about. Francois (unrelated to francoise) works at Camtel (cameroonian telephone company) and he is awesome. I love going to see him. He's a really sharp guy, and after giving him the book of Mormon, read through the first 5 chapters of 2 Nephi, from the start. He has committed to living the word of Wisdom, which is tough for him to do, but I really hope he is going to pull through and make it to baptism. I get the feeling he will.

Charles is the husband of a recent convert. Charles has had a troubled past, and has had some troubles with his wife, but now is coming to church, and has started settling differences and helping his wife out with stuff. He is really receptive of the gospel, and has also committed to the Word of Wisdom. I really hope he makes it to baptism too. I get the feeling he will - he already has extra support from his wife.

Sorry this email is skimpy. I don't have much time... Again...

- Elder LaFleur

More fun times from central africa - November 28, 2011

Bonsoir, devoted readers and fans!

So recently, we have been rebuilding. Our two most progressing investigators got baptized (the doctor and his wife), and so now we are in rebuild mode. I have high hopes for a few of our investigators, but our biggest challenge is having investigators get to church. Investigators coming to church is super important because it signals an investigator is progressing towards baptism. We don't want to baptize someone who isn't going to be active at church.

I think the reason church attendance is such a difficult key indicator to have a high number of here is because of the cultural opinion of what church should be. On average, people don't go to church to worship God, although that's what the pastor will be saying you're doing. Church here is more of a social gathering and performance than it is a sacred time to worship the Lord. Elder Tingey went to another church once (he promised an investigator that he would go to his congregation if the investigator came to ours), and told me all about it.

Basically, it started out with a rock band up front playing rock music. They were all getting into it and stuff, the band was totally rocking out, and there would be a pastor up front yelling stuff through a microphone. The pastor finally said "Alright, now confess your sins!" and everyone jumped up and started screaming all their sins. There was a guy there who yelled something like "I'm committing adultery with my neighbor!" while another guy was like "I stole from the supermarché!" and this and that. The band is still all rocking out and stuff, and then gigantic baskets get passed around. The pastor yells "Pay money and God will forgive your sins!" This money, of course, goes straight to the pastor, but never mind that. People are dropping like 50 000 cFa into these baskets (that's like $100; a lot for Cameroon), sometimes more into these baskets.

Finally after like a half hour of this the pastor calms everything down and asks for more donations in white envelopes. He said something like "Now this donation is between you and God." The woman next to Elder Tingey was dropping another 50 000 cFa into this thing. After that, the pastor gave a brand new mercedes to a random guy. The guy in the congregation who got the mercedes talked about how he has been praying for a new car.

Finally, the talking started, and the pastor taught something. Basically he taught that "Not all revelation from God is acceptable." Basically if God gives you an answer to a prayer you don't like, you pray and tell him to change it. He claimed that prayer is what changes the will of God (not a belief in our faith; you should always pray humbly).

And so, church for other people here is like going to a rock show. So a lot of people have trouble going to our church, where we don't have a band or dancing and dolling out the free cars. 

In other news, I finished the 12 week program for training. I am now a full fledged in the field missionary! I had to be trained for 2 transfers, and now I'm trained!

We are getting some new missionaries in the next few months. One is coming January (he should be entering the MTC in the next couple weeks), as well as a bunch more in may when Elder Tingey's generation leaves (that's a replacement force of 10 more missionaries; not a whole lot of missionaries get called to Cameroon). 

Elder Tingey and I had a cake off recently. Basically I took the recipe my mom gave me and Elder Tingey took his recipe and we gave it to a bunch of people and asked which was better without telling them who's cake is who's. It ended up being a tie, unless you count Elder Tingey's vote, in which I would have won. But whatever. I just enjoyed eating all that cake.

I also taught a District meeting using a nice long allegory about jazz ensembles. I don't have my notes with me, but next week I'll bring back what I taught.

Anyways, that's it for this week. Bonsoirée, and Excelsior!

- Elder LaFleur

All Your Base Are Belong To Us...

This week is moving along nicely. I had an interesting experience with a couple of pastors though.

So this week I got told that I am going to hell, and dragging everyone else around me down too. It was actually kind of funny. I thought for sure I would get all upset when it happened, but it ended up being a nice contrast.

There is an investigator named Francoise (not real name) who knows that our church is true. But there is a pastor Etienne and a pastor Steven who belong to her old church who keep showing up and telling her that she needs to come back to their church. She isn't though. She knows that our church is true.

Anyways, we show up one day to talk to Francoise about stuff, and pastor Steven laughed and said something along the lines of "If you give me a million cFa, I will join your church." Elder Tingey totally chatiè'd him (chastised in broken franglais) by quoting the scripture "seek ye first the kingdom of God." Pastor Steven got all emberassed and was about to walk away when pastor Etienne showed up and started getting in our faces. Then pastor Steven tag teamed with him and yelled loud and clear that we are of the devil, we are preaching the devil's doctrine and that we need to go back home and fix our gospel. 

I didn't say anything. To be honest, it was kind of pathetic. I mean, there are differences between our two churches, but we don't march up into people's faces and tell them they are of the devil. The only thing I could think about was the reference Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." And so, we just stood there for 30 minutes and let them tell us that we are evil. I figured it wasn't worth arguing, despite the fact that they were saying plenty of things that are not true. So Elder Tingey and I just stood there.

The situation reminded Elder Tingey of something a Congolese Elder told him (his name was Elder Nsimba, and he was the man). Elder Nsimba said that "People only throw rocks at a mango tree if there is good fruit." So the only reason people were bashing us is because we have good fruit! Just like it says in the scriptures, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

They packed up and left, and then we talked to Francoise for a minute, and then set up another rendezvous with her. We then went back later and Etienne was there. He kind of looked dumbfounded. We walked in and sat down, and right before we started, Etienne ran off. We spoke with Francoise and had a really awesome rendezvous. The Spirit was super strong, and she is getting closer to baptism. Once again, "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

Please note that I did not mention any denomination that these two belong to. This was on purpose. We as missionaries do not seek to bash another man's form of worship. We don't even enforce ours on other people. We invite others to come unto Christ by receiving His restored Gospel. We do not with to diminish any other man's form of worship, and believe that every man should worship as far as his own conscious will allow. 

So that's it for this week. Je vous aime!

- Elder LaFleur