A week under my belt!

Dear Family and Friends!

it is very nice to have a week under my belt!

so what can i say? lets see. there are no crazy stories yet. maybe i should start with the area. i mentioned that it is the poorest of poor, and maybe that is a lie. i havent seen poorer, but im confident it exists :) haha the people here have little of material things, but much of what matters most, faith. every person everywhere is religious. its great! i am learning the area we cover and starting to recognize people and things like that. its so funny how much trouble i have had remembering these african names! haha and to make it more difficult, everyone has similar names! we are teaching like 3 emmanuels and 4 mercy's. its confusing for me sometimes. kind of humorous at others :)

the baptisms this past saturday were very nice. i performed them for our two investigators. it was interesting, with the church generator blaring right outside the window, people chatting and things like that. not exactly a powerful spiritual experience, but great none the less. the entire zone has a baptism every week. so if you have a baptism, you and your companion come. if not, you proselyte. my companion and i have 4 baptisms this coming saturday... hopefully. if they will continue to keep their commitments!

its funny how we probably committed 20 or 25 people to attend church sunday, and we had about 5 come. people dont mind telling you what you want to hear i guess! but its ok. the branch is somewhat discouraging to attend unfortunately. just because of the lack of strong members. it really increases my faith that the members that do join really do come to have a testimony. because they definitely arent joining because we have such a moving service, or they have so many friends at church! but it also makes me so grateful for the church programs! having auxiliary leaders and home teachers and visiting teachers, all of it is so important! people need a friend at church, and a calling! else they will surely fall away. but the elders here have assured me that i will get used to working with a 'weak' branch. :)

as for the people we teach, its great! we taught 26 lessons this week, and we can hardly count monday bc of a zone conference! we teach so many. i struggle because i cannot understand the koluko very well... or at all. haha but i usually have an idea what is going on :) the biggest struggle is that the people cant really understand me. but fear not! my english is deteriorating quickly and im getting there!!

the children here are great! they shake hands differently here, its this shake and then a finger snap thing. ill teach ya when i get home :) also, im still trying to figure this one out. but the children all yell as you pass by their homes  "china man ello!!" it took me a while to figure out that they were saying "china man" but now i laugh and say hi to them. its quite funny :) even the adults say it sometimes. guess americans look chinese! :)

mom, to answer your questions, i am doing wonderful. yes, still adjusting but really i am beginning to thrive. well at least thats what im telling myself :) i am not using the mosquito patches yet. this is only because every other elder here used the doxycycline and doesnt get sick. i think the Lord will take care of the rest if i am diligent in taking it. im saving them for a time when i might be transferred to the "bush" where its a little bit more remote.

yes, i do shower every day out of a bucket. its not bad anymore :) except the antiseptic that we put in the water makes my skin tingle.. haha we do pay for intranet, maybe about 1.20 usd. someday i will upload a few pics. i really dont have that many yet. ill work on taking some more for yall :)

no, i havent received any letters from anyone yet! nor any dear elders, unfortunately. but they will come :) mom, an elder suggested that you use those padded envelopes instead of boxes. and as far as things i need, nothin really. i would love things like chocolate though :) they have most things here its just 5 times more expensive than it should be. and im fine so dont worry. ill keep a list of things i think of though :) for now, maybe some international stamps so i can send letters to my missionary friends overseas. or tell me how much postage ill need to france, finland and brazil. also, dont send the cream for my arm mom, the teatree oil is working. thanks mom.

yes, on p days we clean the apt. and wash our clothes. haha my hands are raw speaking of washing clothes :)

mom, thank you for every single thing you sent me with. you ask what the best thing i brought was? well everything! haha the shoes are so awesome. i love them, they are perfect. the oils have been perfect. the amenities! the peanut butter is wonderful. shampoo is sweet. all the medicines too! and the rain gear is perfect! use it almost every day! every single little thing we put into that suit case is a blessing. thank you! i thank the lord every day in my prays for you and all the work you did to get me here with everything! 

life here in liberia is different, im still adjusting. but i can safely say im beginning to feel much more comfortable with the apartment and the eating schedule and the proselyting and everything. i am learning so much as well.

the greatest thing i must say i have been learning is how to love with charity. sometimes with my companion :) just because of the language barrier and cultural barrier and whatnot. but the wonderful thing is that i have learned that if i am going to be a successful missionary, im going to have to learn to love it. to love him. it doesnt matter if i follow every mission rule with exactness, follow every word he says, serve him. no matter how intensely i teach or study or seek for the spirit, i will be a failure as a missionary if i dont learn to change my heart. my actions can say that i love him, and they do, but im working on truly changing my heart. 1 corinthians 13 explains how im feeling i think.

it is a wonderful thing to let the Savior heal your heart. no, my heart is not broken, but its not always loving. as i have learned to reach out to the Savior, put it in his hands, my attitude and heart is slowly changing. im beginning to see it, albeit slowly, but im changing :)

my challenge to you all is to seek for charity in your lives. moroni 7: 45-48. we must! we are nothing without loving like the savior loves! no matter our faith, our works, our devotion to the Savior, we are nothing if we are not devoted to loving, not only serving, but loving our neighbors. we must! and we can, i know we can. not by ourselves, but with the help of the Savior, we can.

this work is work for me. but i know that blessings come! i am so grateful to be apart of this wonderful work! i love reading in the book of mormon about the gathering of israel in the last days, because this marvelous work is what i am involved in right now! right here in africa! its here! this mission really is the greatest mission in the world. we lead west africa and most of the world in # lessons taught. baptisms. progressing investigators. and retention. it truly is sweet.

the church is true, but more importantly this Gospel is true. live it! this is my challenge. :)

with love,

-elder fairwell