I learned that it is important to know AND to ask which voice is good

Again, another week gone by. And this week flew!  Literally feels like yesterday that I was just in the cyber writing!  This week has been another great one, but I ended up exhausted at the end from all of our activities on Saturday!

 

To start off, we got to celebrate two birthdays this week.  The first was Tuesday for Soeur Bella.  We had no idea that it was her birthday, but we had planned to visit her anyways.  We got there and they were about to start cooking and preparing all of the food!  So we helped them prepare and definitely helped them eat.  We had some futu gnam (pronounced footoo nyam), which is like mashed potatoes that you use like pâte with a really yummy red pima sauce and chicken, a sort of african corn dogs, and popcorn, all with sparkling cider.  It was delicious!

 

 



Making the futu gnam by smashing the yams



 



 Eating African Style

Friday night we got to celebrate with Soeur Pauline of the Tokoin branch.  She made us some pâte rouge (one of my favorties in Africa!) with fried chicken and Vimta (like a middle eastern soda that's DELICIOUS!  almost as good a Guarana, but it's not the same taste.  Vimta is more of a berry type of taste).  We then opened us some gifts and sang and took pictures.



Celebrating at Soeur Pauline's



Our present for Soeur Pauline.  Credit to Elder Kabedeh for buying the pagne

So Saturday, we had two church activities.  Saturday morning was with our branch, the Wuiti Branch.  Many of the members gathered together at about 9 o'clock, when we had some instruction and then split up into companionships.  We then split to go into all of the parts of our secteur to do OVB (ouvrir votre bouche) or door-to-door.  I got to work with Frère Raphael and Prince (Soeur N'Guessan's son, pronounced Prance).  We sent off into the northwest corner of our secteur.  Prince had the idea to go Résidence du Bénin, which is where the super rich live (there's a lot of French Yovos (white) there).  In reality, its excatly like a normal American community; it's just that almost every house has a guard sitting out front.  We contacted one family and lots of guards, but didn't really get too much done.  But hey, it was nice to see grass and gardens!  We then left and started heading back to the branch, always looking and contacting.  Finally, right before we were supposed to be back at the branch, Prince had the idea to stop at his friend's house.  His friend wasn't there, but his friend's blind grandfather was.  Prince began talking to him about our message and how it is about the Restoration of Christ's church that Christ himself established on the earth.  The man then went rambling on against our message for 30 minutes!  I even got sunburnt from standing out in the sun for all that time.  Several times I tried to break it off so we could leave, but he wouldn't have it.  Finally, we got back to the branch where everyone was waiting for us before giving our reports and eating lunch.

After that, we headed over to Tokoin for another great activity about faith and listening to the Holy Ghost guide us along the Iron Rod, or the Word of God.  I've attached a picture of this activity.  

The main part of the Iron Rod course.  Notice those who were led to the great and spacious building.

It was a really great activity, and many of us, members, missionaries, and amis included, learned a great deal.  I was one of the people that guided, switching between being the voice of the Holy Ghost and being the voice of Satan, and it was very interesting seeing it from that perspective.  

We all really have to make sure which voice is good and which is bad.  At times, it may seem like both are good, but slowly Satan leads us in the direct opposite direction of God.  I learned that it is important to know AND to ask which voice is good so that we can tune in to the voice of the Holy Ghost to guide our lives in accordance with the commandments of God. 

After all of these activities, I was exhausted and Sunday was a bit of a struggle for both my companion and me.  But we both got our rest today, so hopefully we'll be in good shape for when the Assistants come tomorrow for a split!
 

That's it for this week.  I love you all so much!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

Found this at Soeur Dopé's.  Did they mean Rambo or rainbow?