Christmas party and shopping

At the Christmas party 12.17.13

Hey everyone!  So I was a bit late getting to write my email today, so I'll try and write quickly!

The work is moving along well here in Baguida!  We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday.  We were supposed to have five, however, three of them did not come to Church yesterday for various reasons, so now it's just two.  But we are still extremely grateful for the blessings that the Lord has given us for our work here.  We still have a lot of work to do and continue to improve ourselves.

A glimpse of Church downstairs!

The holidays are coming up here in Africa!  It is definitely different, but it's still the holidays!  I have been hearing a bit of Christmas music in the street (and a lot on my iPod), and noticing how the Christmas Spirit is working its way into me!  It's weird being a missionary in Africa for Christmas.  You just don't get that Christmas feeling by walking around like you do at home, but you can find it if you want to.

the Christmas card that the First Presidency sent us!

Last Tuesday we had a missionary Christmas party here in Togo!  It was a blast!  The first part was an hour and a half of playing games!  We had musical chairs, Pictionary, Chinese football (everyone stands in a circle with your legs spread and you try and hit the ball between someone’s legs with your hands), and President Weed's favorite game: guess the color that I'm thinking of and then I splash water in you face!!!  I don't really understand it, but he loves it hahahaha!

My clutch game winning pictionary of Moses.  It took me 2.24 seconds to draw

Chinese football madness

President Weed's game

We then had our devotional where every District was assigned a scripture and a hymn to describe Christ's birth.  We were given "O, Come All Ye Faithful" which actually sounds good with a guitar, so I looked up the chords and then was able to play it for the devotional and I don't think it was too bad!  At the end of the devotional, President Weed sang us a song with his guitar and he and Sister Weed shared a few thoughts with us.  After that we ate lunch which was African fried rice, some salad, and half of a roasted chicken: literally a roasted chicken just cut if half longwise.  It sure was a blast and a great experience!

Sister Christensen made this delicious goodness for everyone!
IT WAS SO GOOD!

This starbursts package was blessed by God himself.  I couldn't believe
my eyes when I opened it.  THAT is the definition of a "tender mercy."

Other than that this week was normal.  Until today.  I did some Christmas shopping.  To start off, we went to the bookstore (the library in french) and I got a Bible in éwé.  There was an anatomy textbook in French for 100 dollars that really tempted me, but I didn't want to pay that much for it.  Then we went to Superamco, the white supermarket (if you want to find white people, go to Superamco) where I found powdered sugar, vanilla, aluminum foil, and some steak, but they didn't have any bread rollers!  (note from mom:  this is what he calls rolling pins.)  So rolling out the cinnamon roll dough should be interesting, but I can do it.  

We then went and visited a few members around the Grand Marché and I bought two pagne outifts and a drum!  I called Soeur NGuessan to come help me choose, and she brought her husband (who I've only met once because he works in Gabon, but he's home for Christmas) and Koukou, her 10 year-old son!  It was great getting to spend the day with them!  I also called Peter (the Secretary of the Wuiti Branch who is like one of my best friends here that isn't a missionary) because he is a tailor.  Anyways, we went to three different shops throughout the market, and they were all three members (or one soon to be) of the Baguida branch!  It was so cool seeing them at their work.  At President Hervé's (our branch president) shop there are five members that work there and two more came over to visit!  It was so cool to see how they still stick together as members even at work!  

one of the two pagne shops we visited

The view of the Grand Marché from President Hervé's!!  It was pretty cool!

In President Hervé's shop.  There are five people that work there
and they're all members

After we finished shopping, we got a cab home and I had to climb ninja style into my bathroom window upstairs because the other two missionaries locked the staircase door and took the keys.  I got a video, but unfortunately the connection will not allow me to upload it.

So that's our adventures from today!  I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and find the chance to give to others!  If any of you feel sorry for me on Wednesday, please don't.  I'll be in Paradise talking with my family.

I love you all!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

the moon during Harmanttan

(from wikipedia:  The Harmattan is a dry and dusty West African trade wind.
This northeasterly wind blows from the Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea 
between the end of November and the middle of March (winter).
The temperatures can be as low as 3 degrees Celsius.
The name comes from or is related to an Akan cognate.)

I saw this sign this past week and thought it was pretty cool.

Missionary work is a work of miracles . . .

Another week gone and more stories to tell.  Each week I marvel at how quickly the time has passed, but yet the United States feels like another life ago.

So I was thinking a bit about what I should write today, and the only thing that came to mind was miracles.  Many people today believe that miracles don't exist anymore, but I have seen and witnessed many around me in my life.  For instance, this past Sunday, yesterday our branch, the Wuiti branch, moved to a new building that's right in the middle of our area.  It is much more convenient for many of the members rather than walking 15-30 minutes or paying for a moto.  Together as a branch, we have really been coming together this past week to bring many visitors and friends to church this week.  Honestly, I had no idea how it was going to go.  Often times we invite many, many people, but a few are all we've ever had come.

The chapel in the new building is much longer than the last and can fit 80 chairs inside.  At the beginning of the meeting, a little over half of the chairs were filled, which was already more than normal (about 40 or so).  However, during the first parts of the meeting, more and more people kept coming in.  Eventually, we had to bring chairs from upstairs and place them outside.  Many of us spent the most part of the meeting standing.  Towards the end the branch clerk got a count, which came in at 115!  This was absolutely a miracle and an answer to the the prayers of many people, including me.  Over 50 of the people present were visitors and friends of those who are members!  Officially, we had 28 sign the visitor sheet, but many had a spouse and a family present as well.  We looked over the sheet afterwards and 10 who signed live in areas assigned to other missionaries, so we have plenty to share as well!  Only 4 of those who signed the sheet were invited by Elder Dagrou and I, so my testimony of what can happen when the members get involved in missionary work was really strengthened.

After the meeting, we had a big party on the second level of the church building, which over looks the major road just below.  Soeur N'Guessan, the Relief Society President, organized and bought a lot a lot a lot of the same fabric for everybody to wear, the men for ties and the women for dresses.  The fabric for these kinds of special occasions here is called pagne (pronounced like pine).  It's a little stiff at first, but it really lasts well.  Also, it's EVERYWHERE.  You never have to worry about trying to find pagne.  It's just finding the right pagne, because there's millions of different patterns.  My goal for the mission is to buy a different outfit of pagne for every area that I serve in.

So apparently many of you have been asking about the food.  Here there are really three types of food:  pate (corn flour mixed with water and heated VERY hot), rice and spaghetti.  However, there's many, many, many different sauces, which is how people mix it up.  For instance, yesterday after church, there was pate, spaghetti, and rice, with 5 or 6 different sauces.  Oh! and pima.  Everybody adds pima in some sort of way to everything.  Pima is just any sort of spicy pepper, and it's freaking spicy.  So the sauces that I love are sauce rouge and Aubergine.  I tried the one that tastes like the zoo again this past week, and it wasn't bad at all.  Wasn't quite good yet, but it didn't taste like the zoo and I ate it without gagging.  At home, as I'm the only American in the apartment, I usually just cook by myself.  Kaleb, along with all of my Brazilian friends, you will be happy to know that feijaoda has become almost essential to my diet.  Rice, beans, onion, and hot-dogs are really easy to find and mix together, but I've added some African taste to it by adding pima and garlic.  Its really quite delicious.  Especially when fried.  That's another thing, the Africans fry just about everything.

Well, I'm out of time, but that's life here now!  It's an amazingly incredible experience, and I wouldn't 
change it for anything!!!  I love you all!

Avec amour,

Elder Jenkins

(Note from mom:  He tried several times to upload pictures this week and finally thought they had gone.  Unfortunately all I received was the email with the description of the pictures and no attachment.  Hopefully next week he can try again so we can see the new chapel and the branch in their matching dresses and ties.)

Update 09/23/13 - he sent the pictures for this post!

Serving it up!

In the new chapel the night before!

My favorite picture of the whole day!  Left to right:  Elder Dagrou, Christian, me, Frederick, and Bashir

Gracia got a little tired.  That's one thing about Africa: when in gatherings like this, women will take other women's babies and strap them on their back.  For instance, Gracia is Soeur Assamagan's daughter, but Soeur Gilbette has her in the picture.

My plate: rice a roni with pima, pate rouge with a boiled egg, and fried chicken.  All delcious!  Very African tasts to them but they were great!

Everyone that was left after about an hour and a half of partying