A Petite Message

Sorry again for the delay, a lot has happened since last time.

So transfer-call Saturday came along and the only change in our district (apartment) was Elder Atherton leaving to a place called Kélégougan where the Togo assistants live. The change would take place on the following Tuesday. Unfortunately, and to my somewhat great surprise, an emergency transfer took place the following day changing the zone leader (my companion) and I now work with Elder Jackson from Indianapolis Indiana. So far he has only worked in Togo. He began one transfer before me. We get along well and work hard.

School started on the 28th of September, which calls for lots of adaptation on our part schedule-wise. During investigator class last week, our ward mission leader was teaching about work and personal responsibility. He asked the class an interesting question: "if someone doesn't work, can they rest?" I thought about this question a lot and I realized that rest isn't really rest unless we've worked, otherwise we're just in an idle limbo state of nothingness mode. (pre-mission experience). Don't do that. I've realized that my walking past certain people in the neighborhood and saying hello was more work than they have done all day. Let's just say that some people are addicted to sitting/laying on a bench in front of their house.

There's a little bit of this week. I promise I will a little more next time.

Au revoir!

Only chawarma and ice cream can make this better

This week was pretty good. Tuesday night we spent cleaning the apartment for the arrival of our mission president for interviews the following day. Elder Atherton poured a heck-ton of cleaner in the mop bucket and foamed up the apartment floor claiming that the bubbles would "eventually just disappear". Haha. They didn't. The interviews went well and Elder Atherton bought us all chicken that day.

Friday the 18th was my official year mark! It seems to have come very fast. 
It was a pretty normal day. Before leaving the apartment in the afternoon, I handed Elder Atherton some funds to buy some chawarmas and ice cream for dinner. My companion and I then traveled all over the place to do some baptismal interviews in other areas. By the end of the day I was feeling very tired but was looking forward to eating the food that Elder Atherton would bring home.

When Elder Agui and I arrived at the apartment, he unlocked the front gate and I walked up to the front porch and waited for him with the key. When Elder Agui came over to unlock the front door he stopped and looked surprised. My gaze had been away from the front door so I turned and was surprised to see the door wide open in the still darkness. I turned to my companion and we kind of looked at each other and then back at the door. We walked over to it and he reached in and turned on the light in the front room. We were shocked to see chairs turned over, couches scooted away from the walls, cushions, books and papers strewn about the room, our mirror face down on the floor, the whole room was a mess. Apparently the apartment had been robbed. I couldn't believe and/or accept that what I was seeing was what I thought it was, and I hurried over to our room and on the way I was again shocked too see suitcases opened, clothes thrown around every which way and many signs of disturbance in the hallway and the other rooms.

Arriving to our room what I first noticed was that the box that I keep my money in, among other things, was on the floor, opened, and my money gone of course. My companion said: "they took my camera?", he had left it on charge but now it was missing. I couldn't find my camera either. I felt shocked and kind of overwhelemed but I didn't want to stick around and search for things without first checking to see if there was anybody in the house or outside. I went over to the back door which I had previously noticed being wide open and I peered out a little. The shock from seing movement kind of threw off my vision for a few seconds until I processed that it was... Elder Seri moving around in the dark! At that point Elder Atherton ran over from his hiding spot in the back yard to join him and they both started laughing. The idea that the whole thing was a joke had been in the back of my mind but the condition of the apartment had thrown that idea out! "It's too much work to put all of this back for this to be a prank", I thought. But, it was a prank. I just smiled at first and turned away but then I turned back and kind of tackled them and laughed as well. Then I went inside to tell Elder Agui that it was a prank. 

We laughed for several minutes while the others put all of our items back where they were. Then we finished off the day with some chawarma and icecream. And that is the story of how our apartment kind of got robbed.

Bonjour cher amis,

    Vow, well it's been quite a while since I had last written hasn't it? Oops. Well, I've since been working with my new companion Elder Agui for about a month now.  He is from the Ivory Coast,  a  French speaking country,  so I hope to further improve ma capacité de m'exprimer dans la langue Francaise.  Up until last Monday things seemed to be going pretty smoothly.  Let's just say that if I would have written about my companion last week you may have thought I had accidentally inserted a paragraph about Adolf Hittler into my blog, BUT, all is well now and the work advances. We all have weaknesses and some of them don't really promote a non-combat environment.  Let it be known however that these matters never evolved to the full extent of that stament.
         As to the happy side of things we had the occasion of witnessing five baptism take place last Saturday.  One was a rather large mama named Odette who lives near our apartment another the young nephew of the first counselor in the ward, two young brothers who live next to the first counselor and an albino child from the same area who comes to church every week with the other kids.  It was a little difficult to prepare them because they are easily distracted during the lessons but in the end they responded very well to the pre-baptism interview questions.  (Everyone likes to be in the picture with the candidates).
   I enjoy teaching with Elder Agui as he has an amazing ability of adapting and teaching the lessons to the comprehension level of  the investigators.  You could say he is an expert of communication,  the investigators feel at ease and understand everything the way it is intended to be received.  I have learned a lot from him so far,  especially in regards to teaching.
   Today we played volleyball at the University of Lomé with our district,  which includes the sister missionaries. It was actually pretty fun and there were enough clouds to block most if not all of the scorching solar death rays.  We got in contact with a player on the team and he set us up with a net and ball. We played on a concrete court.  Sadly I didn't take any pictures at this time but we got some after at the language studies building gazebo. (Picture: Elder Seri, Myself,  Elder Atherton and Elder Agui).
        - Elder Archer-

   
 

Bonjour!

Well this week has been pretty crazy. Preparation day was sacrificed so that Elder Sagers could go visit his converts in another zone called Baguida. We pretty muched walked from six in the morning to seven in the evening, with some breaks in between of course. It was fun to see another part of Togo and meet some new people but I was very tired after that.

Tuesday was our zone meeting after which Elder Sagers and I travelled to Kodjoviakopé to visit more people. We visited Sister Sylvie and her daughter Fiona. They made french fries topped with tomato and onion and offered us some drinks. Elder Sagers is very close to their family, they are nice people.

Wednesday 

Saturday morning began with a stake service project at five in the morning. We met up at a hospital with the members and some of our investigators were even there. After handing out a yellow vest, gloves and a dust mask we hiked over to where the service was. We hadn't been told beforehand what it was that we would be doing but eventually we stopped at a lot filled with small bushes and trees. Still nobody said anything but we assumed they wanted us to clear the lot of all plant life, which is what we ended up doing. We started pulling out plants by hand until several people showed up, one with  a wheelbarrow full of rakes, one with a wheelbarrow full of machetes, and one with a wheelbarrow full of hoes. It was a pretty entertaining scene because  everyone ran over to grab their weapons and then charged back and started attacking the baby trees. In about an hour a weed field turned into a dirt field. 

Two baptisms took place Saturday evening. One on the left's name is actually Moses. Pretty sweet huh. On the right we have Nadjombé, brother to Mawate who was also baptised a few weeks ago! He even brought his best friend to the baptism so we will begin teaching him soon.

Sunday was rather sad because it was the day before Elder Sagers' departure. He gave his final goodbyes and afterwards we had several of those precious few and far between food eating appointments in a many and very consecutive kind of format.

Today, Elder Sagers left to Benin. Where he will rest until Wednesday when he will fly back to the holy land.

That's a bit of the week for ya. Have a good week yourself!

Elder Archer

Life is good

It's been a while, but everything is okay. No worries. Ahhh, where to
start. Well, we have had several baptisms since I've been here in
Togo. First was Mike. Mike is probably the biggest eighteen year-old
that I've seen and he's actually a rapper. His mom is currently a
member of the church who previously decided to "go to a different
church one Sunday" and happened to walk into "l'Eglise de Jésus Christ
des saints des Derniers Jours". She loved it and soon was baptised.

Second was a young man named Prince. We taught him with his uncle
Junior who is around thirteen years old. Haha. Next is Ingrid, sister
Edwige's identical twin sister. It is always fun to go visit them, we
like to laugh a lot. I often get them confused, especally when they
decide to do their hair the same way to throw us off!

Third and fourth are Mawate and Dedegan. Mawate is a kind of younger
middle aged lady you could say. She is very smart and picks things up
quickly. We had taught her all she needed to know to be baptised but
she still would tell us that she was uncertain. She hadn't been coming
to church and we decided to stop the visits with her. Kind of sad, but
it happens. Then, we were pleasantly surprised to see her arrive at
church one Sunday. After the meetings she walked up to us and asked:
"when can I get baptised?" then she quickly said: "I can't believe I
just said that". She told us that she had prayed during Relief Society
to know if the church was true and she had gotten her answer. I
learned by this experience that church attendance is necessary for the
investigators :) Dedegan is an older woman who sells yams at the
market. She has no money to buy the yams to sell but she has a friend
at the market who trusts her with some yams and lets her keep some of
what she sells. She is very zealous and eager to learn.

Currently we have around 25 investigators that come to church and we
have about fifteen baptismal dates arranged! So now we just need to
keep on working and hope for the best. My companion Elder Sagers will
be finishing soon and returning home on the 19th of August. Taking
over the area when he's gone makes me kind of nervous but it will be
okay. I've done it once before and it can be done again. We have a
great ward and ward mission leader here who help us out a ton. It's
much easier to work in a well establish ward unlike the semi-put
together branch in Benin. I've heard that things have gotten much
better over there however. They called a new branch presidency.

Anyways, that's a little of what has been going on. Until next time!
Elder Archer - This is my banana tree that I planted.(Technically I transfered it from the front to the back yard)

A hike into the jungle

 We hiked in the jungle today to a waterfall. It was pretty cool. Elder Amoah got to come too.

                                                       Beautiful scenery

                                                                      waterfall

                                      Me with my dear trainer Elder Amoah

                                               Next to an Anthill thingy

 Baptism of sister Mawate(left) and sister Dedegan(right). S. Mawate received her answer that the church is true during Relief Society one Sunday. She hadn't been coming but this day she came and voila, that's what happens when you come to church like you're supposed to!

     Have a nice week,  - Elder Archer

Baptisms

 Well, I'm doing fine. We have some baptisms lined up for the 25th. We had one investgator who is very smart and has received all the lessons but she feels like she doesn't have an answer yet. It's been a while since she's been to church and we were just about to drop the visits. She came to church yesterday and we were surprised after the meeting were over when she told us that she had received her answer in Relief Society. She asked us when she could be baptised. We have several candidates but we will group them together on the 25th to make things easier for the ward.

Doing well. Say hi to everybody for me.

Love,

Elder Archer 

  This is Sister Ingrid's baptism, she is very nice. She has an identical sister too who is already a member.