Yuppers Feb 13, 2012

Bonsoir, tout le monde!

It is the start of a new transfer and.... I'm staying here again. Surprise! It seems pretty likely that I will be staying in the same branch that I was trained in for about a year, just like the two other missionarries behind me (Elder Tingey, my trainer, stayed in Bastos I for a year, and before him Elder Palmer stayed in the same branch for a year). Elder Buck goes home at the end of this transfer, and after next transfer the n00bs are coming in and I'll probably end up training, due to lack of seasoned pros (there is a group of nine who are leaving just after Elder Buck). We will see what happens at the end of this transfer.

Frank is still holding up. He has had a lot of trials, but is still hanging in there. I love him so much. He is awesome. I never thought I would have friends from a completely different continent, in a different language and in a completely different culture. 

I taught a guy from Belgium this week, and his french was awesome! I thought that the Camerounian accent wasn't so bad, but after hearing him talk, wow! His name was George (not really) and is married to a sister of a recent convert of ours (recent convert's name is Josephine, and her sister's name is Elizabeth). I met Elizabeth with Elder Tingey way back in the beginning of my third transfer (maybe earlier; now I'm thiking second) and she said she really wanted to hear more of this message, but she was getting married in Belgium and wouldn't be back until Christmas. So I hung onto her phone number for freaking ever, and sure enough, one day we walked into Josephine's house and Elizabeth was there, with her husband. 

Turns out Elizabeth has been going through some tough times right now. It's kind of strange, really. I don't know what her trials entail, but to any other Cameroonian woman, she is living it up right now! Her husband is white (meaning he's got money) and she should be all happy and rich now, right? It goes to show that we shouldn't be so quick to judge someone else's situation, because I could tell through her tears that nothing was going well in her life. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and then invited her to read it, and promised that she would learn how to overcome each of her trials as she continued to read the Book of Mormon.

Her husband ended up being a really nice guy. All the white people here I've met (more particularly the Europeans) have been kind of snobby. They don't talk to us nor to other blacks. They don't ride in taxis and when they do, it's only a dépot (rent the taxi rather than renting a spot; see appendix one). When we got there and started speaking french, George said "Your accent.... American?" Elder Buck and I looked at the floor in disappointment and just said "Yeah..." He believes God exists, but he doesn't see that he needs to do anything about it. He doesn't really support organized religion, nor does he really have faith in much of anything, but he ended agreeing to read a brochure. We'll see about prayer, and we will see what happens as we talk with his wife.

Other than that, it's been another week of preaching the gospel. Je vous aime, et j'espère que vous aviez une bonne semaine!

- Elder LaFleur

APPENDIX ONE ------- HOW TAXIS WORK HERE

In Cameroon, you don't rent a taxi like you do in the states. You just name where you want to go and how much you are going to pay, and taxis either accept it or reject it. You only pay for a place, and there are 5 places - 3 in back and 2 in the front seat. There are no seat belts, so accidents can get pretty nasty. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen any. I guess when you drive in chaos, you know how to handle chaos, unlike the States.