Christmas 12/30/13

So this last week was great but had quite a lot of difficulties. On Monday we had our Bi-zone super P-day which was super super fun. We played football against the Bo west zone and I totally rocked the defense. So much so that I got injured a little. But it's ok just scrapes and bruises... all over my body but I feel fine now :) Then we watched The Incredibles because it was a family movie and we are focusing on families on the mission. And we had some good fried rice. (Africa fried rice not Asian).

This week was week 11 in training.  So I had to take the lead in everything. It's hard to stay focused and make decisions. I realized I really like letting someone else make the decision and I just follow supportively.

Challenges: Hard things this week were we have no fuel for the generator and so we have had no light for almost the entire week. The Bo electricity will sometimes go on during the night and the day but for some reason it's never on when we are home and preparing for the next day so we have to plan with flashlights and candles. And also our sink broke so we had to wait for the plumber to come fix it so we could have clean water to drink and wash our dishes with. On Thursday we waited all day but he came right when we had to go to choir practice. So he came the next day.

Elder Lehr titled this picture "Why I'm getting fat!" Luckily this was for all 4 Elders in the apartment.

Christmas: Christmas was great. We cut a small banana tree from outside and put it on the table and we made fake snow from some magic snow powder that Elder Hovley had. We also did a small gift exchange that was really great. We went out and shared a Christmas message with a lot of people and we got 4 free meals haha. And one of Elder Hovley's recent converts made us a huge meal and made us a Christmas cake that was super legit. It had frosting and everything and was so good. And I LOVED calling home :) It made me so happy. And by the way we didn't have light or water that day either haha.

Saturday: So sadly we were not able to have a baptism this day because the investigators went to their family in the village for Christmas and New Years. But we had a great branch party and it was interesting because they nominated me to be the chief judge for the contests. There was a dancing, eating, and knowledge, competition. It was kinda a pain to judge but it was fun.

Funny stuff: So people are probably wondering what is the weirdest thing I have eaten here in Africa. So story time. While we went to the butcher he gave us an extra piece of meat that we later found out was cow anus......... We put it in our stew and so I really don't know who out of us 4 had it or if all of us had a piece or what. Oh well. :) And this morning we found two ROUS's (rodents of unusual size) aka rats in our apartment. So what did we do about it :) We killed them with a machete :) hehe So much gore. Not really. It was a pretty clean cut and they were very very dead.

Other stuff with food is that i was talking to Paul one of my recent converts about what he has eaten and monkey is really popular here. Even cats so I might eat those sometime. I asked and he has even eaten a giant spider. (shiver....) I could never do that.

Well this next month we are hoping that Mustapha,Tenneh, and Gbesseh will be baptized and we are sure that they will. One thing is that last week we were teaching like 20 people but almost none of them are serious and they bounce us like crazy so we are going to spend some time finding people who are ready to hear our message.

Cool Lesson: so there is a new investigator who was a referral from other missionaries. He asked us to tell him more about Joseph Smith. So we taught the restoration and it was a very powerful lesson and he just asked all the right questions. Then at the end he was like "next time i want you to teach us more about Adam and Eve" which is lesson 2 any way the plan of salvation. So it all worked perfectly. His name is Ibraham and he seems to have a strong desire to come.

Another miracle was there is an old man who invited his brother to church and his brother Joseph is super smart and seems to know the doctrine super well and he came his first time and asked what he can do to join the church and that he is here to stay. Sadly he is actually supposed to go to a different branch because of where he lives but he will be such a blessing to that branch.

I Love you All so much

Elder Christian Lehr

P.S. We made a delicious macaroni cassarole on Christmas and the other day we made homemade hamburgers. Man it's so good. And last night we had a stir fry with Indian sauce. Sooo good. We are eating well.

P.S.S.

So no the baptism didn't happen yet but Daniel seems to have only a small interest but Tenneh and Mustapha are going to be baptized. They are just out of town for a bit.  And I really have been humbled and realize how blessed I am. I was born in a righteous family that loved each other and in Utah where it's peaceful and in America where all your dreams can come true. And I have had wonderful friends and literally just had everything. And now I'm here where they have almost nothing.  No one wants to visit Sierra Leone, haha, but it is good. I think of you (mom) and the rest of the family a lot but I am working hard.