Komlan and the man driving the moto

 



Elder Mbala and I with Komlan and the other missionaries' baptism



Hey everybody!  Well, it's been another great week!  The work with Elder Mbala is going a lot more smoothly as we have gotten to know each other more!  This past Saturday, we had a baptism with Komlan!  He's 65 years old, and his conversion has been 3 years in the making!  He's had some great trials, but he's been able to overcome them all and change his life!

 

So, I have a kinda cool story to share this week.  Well, it's a little bit sad, too, but as far as I'm aware, no real permanent damage was done.  So yesterday, we had church.  It was a fairly normal church service, but as always, it was fantastic!  The Spirit was truly there.  Gabriel taught his first Sunday School lesson after being called and set apart last week and it was fantastic.  The title was "Every member is a missionary," and he really focused on how the member's should help and accompany the missionaries in their work.  It was honestly one of the best Sunday School lessons I've been in.  Then, for the third hour, our lesson was on loving God more than the world, which was fantastic again!  So much good insight given!

 

So anyways, it was just a normal Sunday.  After church, we visited with the members and the amis and all that.  Then, after a few minutes, we went into President Preuss' office to set up an appointment with him for another member that had asked us to bring him to her house.  While we were talking with President, we heard these bloodcurling screams coming through the halls.  Suddenly, a crowd comes in the office led by Prince who is holding little 18 month old Leo.  Little Leo decided to just run out into the busy street that our church is on.  The thing about Togo is that for every car there are about 5 or 6 motos.  They're EVERYWHERE.  So, little innocent Leo, decided to dart out in front of one.  Luckily, he only got knicked on the forehead, but it was a decent knick because there was blood all over his face.  Well, everyone was just kinda staring for a few seconds while he was screaming, so I dropped my stuff and grabbed him to take him to the kitchen to wash him off.  There was honestly a lot more blood than the wound suggested.  The problem was, everybody was just crowding and gaping, so I may have yelled a little bit to get people to move.  When nobody was moving, Soeur Preuss grabbed him to take him to the outside hose.  People kinda started to freak out, but I explained to them that everything would be alright and that we all just needed to stay calm.  So, we washed him off, sterilized him, and then he was taken to the hospital just in case because it was a head injury.

 

Meanwhile, the man that was driving the moto came in and looked worried sick.  Somehow, in the bustle to help Leo, everybody had passed by him.  I spent a few minutes afterwards talking with him to consol him and explain that it wasn't his fault.  Then, a few other members followed my lead and did the same.  After everything was taken care of, we went outside where the man was talking with a few people that saw it happen.  I then spoke with him again to explain that it really wasn't his fault.  He then told me that he was very impressed with the love that he felt from everyone at our church, even though in his eyes he had about killed Leo.  He then explained that he is actually very interested in our church and would like to meet with us the missionaries.  I gave him the restoration pamphlet and took down his name and number, and we'll be passing by his house to talk with he and his family this week.

 

First lesson that I learned with this experience, keep an eye on your kids.  Second, God truly works in mysterious ways.  Yes, Leo was hurt, but he'll grow up and be perfectly fine.  He probably won't even remember what happened when he's older.  However, you never know how many souls will be saved from this experience.  Because of this, someone was introduced to the church and the love that is offered from the saints to all those who enter.  From that, he had questions, even interest, about our beliefs and our practices.  He was then led to us, the missionaries, who can provide him answers to his questions and peace to his soul.  I was really amazed at how the Lord worked in this instance in bringing someone to the knowledge of His gospel.  Miracles like this happen everyday around the world with the missionaries involved!  And I am truly grateful to be able to say that I am a part of it.

I love you all so much!  Have a great week!

Avec amour,
Elder Jenkins

 

Some Muslims getting ready to kill a cow for Tabaski, their New Years Day

 



One of the animals lived to survive another year

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?