This has been a very exciting
week so I will probably go into a lot of detail and this will probably be a
very long email. So bear with me.
Baptism: So Fanta Amara was not
baptized on Saturday because her husband (who is a return missionary and in the
branch presidency in Makeni) couldn't make it because he had a meeting with the
mission president. But we did go with Fanta to get her interviewed and that was
an adventure.
Poda Poda: So to get to the
interview we had to take poda poda which is the worst form of transportation
ever. Imagine a van with all the seats taken out and instead put metal benches.
The van should fit about 12 "comfortably" but they push in 20 people.
The door is only held up by a teenage boy who is standing on the doorway with
his pants down to his knees and he is wearing dirty underwear. Not only are
there 20 people in there but there are about 2-3 REALLY REALLY large people in
it. And there is a good chance that there is a chicken on the floor pecking at
your feet. Then on the outside of the van there are a bunch of funny stickers
like "God bless my mother" or "DOOMSDAY" haha It's funny. So
this is a Poda. Now to tell you a small poda story.
Poda Story: So while we were in
the poda there was a taxi who almost ran into us. So the teenage boy with his
pants down to his knees leans all the way out the window and slaps the taxi's
bumper and then gets in a small fist fight WHILE the cars are still moving and
then he spits on the taxi driver's car. Yeah we see this about everyday. haha Oh Salone. People have no patience here. But we are safe and she completed her
interview.
Investigators: So we have a
super sweet investigator named Donald. He is super educated and has a family.
His wife lives somewhere in the US and he is really, really interested and wants
to be baptized. We gave him a Book of Mormon 2 weeks ago and he is already
almost done with 2nd Nephi and he is taking time to really ponder its message. This
almost NEVER happens in Sierra Leone since most people can barely read. Anyway
he is awesome. And let's see. Reverend Moses came to church and knows the church
is true and wants to join us. His problem is that he has a hernia and needs
assistance but we're working with that. He is such a sweet old man. Anyway we
are having some good success. We dropped almost all of the youth that we are
teaching who are not too serious because we are focused on a mission now on
finding "kingdom builders" or people who can be leaders of the church
and also on completing families. So basically we are trying to teach old people
who are independent since youth have a strong tendency to go less active.
Food: So I still haven't told
you what the food tastes like here and I've been here for 7 months. So anyway
there are basically 3 sauces that the people make with rice. Cassava leaf,
potato leaf, and ground nut (peanut) sauce. Let's just say that what it tastes
like is you mow your lawn. Pick up the mulch and boil the heck out of it. Add
lots of palm oil and hot African peppers. This is what we are eating here. It
pretty much tastes like fire grass on rice. haha We get used to it. Sometimes
people actually make it so it's pretty good. And then as missionaries we make a
tomato sauce with cut up hotdogs and put it on rice. This is our dinner every
single day for the mission. haha That's life here in Salone.
Flash Flood: Yesterday was
crazy. We had a flash flood. The rain was so heavy that in about 45 minutes the
roads were so full of water that you could go river rafting down the roads. It
was crazy. In fact Elder Koopmans got a bucket and put it outside and within 30
minutes the bucket was almost full. It was crazy. And the hard part was going
to church since everywhere on the roads it was full of muddy water that was up
to my knees and we haven't received our rain boots yet. So we just had to walk
through it. Ahh it was so crazy. I love the rain. The worst part was that it
made me really, really want to just sit down and play Pokemon while eating some
broccoli soup. That was probably the most I have ever wanted to play Pokemon.
In fact earlier we had a fun challenge of trying to name all 151 original Pokemon. I totally completed the challenge like a boss. haha.
Spiritual thought: So recently I have really been pondering about the scripture "If ye love me keep my
commandments" and the first and great commandment. As I have been doing
this I was thinking about my reasons for being obedient. For example being: not
drinking unfiltered water which is an obvious rule in this mission. It's good to
keep the commandments because we know that if we drink that unclean water we
will get sick. But it's Best to keep the commandments simply because we love our
Father in Heaven. I feel like as we keep the commandments simply because we
love our Father in Heaven then we will feel his love and spirit more in our
life. We will gain a greater desire to keep the commandments and we will grow
to know of Heavenly Father even more. This is my small insight. :)
Anyway I am feeling better now. I'm happy. The cockroach war
is still ever ongoing. I don't know how but I just killed 400 cockroaches last
week and they are all back! I'm just like, "I thought I killed you
yesterday". Oh well. At least I'm still killing them. But whatever, it's only
temporary. A nice blessing has been that since it's getting into rainy season
it's been nice and cool when I sleep.
I forgot to bring my sd reader so I can't send pictures now.
If I get the chance I will be back on tonight, my time haha. Also for Mother's Day I will call at around 6pm my time. So maybe 12pm yours.
Well I'm off to the BEACH!! SUPER PDAY!! I'll be sure to take
some sweet pictures of us on a nice African beach.
Love you all so much! I can't
wait to hear from you.
Love Elder Christian Lehr
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