Time is flying by

Dear most beloved friends and family!

Wow, its monday already? shewt! that was fast! I have a feeling this transfer is going to fly by so fast! haha. it has really been a great week. I wish i could sit down and tell you about each of the miraculous miracles and experiences i've had this week but unfortunately, you'll just have to wait til some other time. dont worry mom, i've got them all well documented in some personal letters to ya and in my journal. sorry everyone else... ;)

anyways! New Kru Town is sweet. dont know if you could tell by those two photos i sent last week, but the area is pretty run down and pretty poor. Its amazing to me that it doesnt bother me any more! im pretty sure im adjusted to Liberia quite well now. In fact, we just received a bunch of greenie missionaries straight from the states. sometimes i ask myself "will i ever be able to fully adjust when i go back home?" haha i forget sometimes that we're in such different worlds.

So ive decided to attempt to explain a bit of what its like to be a Caucasian in Liberia. First off, Liberians LOVE america. about 99.9% wish to travel there someday, and very often they will try to become friends with you and then beg you to help them get a visa! good thing i can honestly tell them that i have no earthly idea how to help even if i could! haha. anyways, everyone is so friendly and i dont think i've ever felt threatened by them. You do feel a bit like an animal in a zoo at times, but i adjusted to that by week 2. The funny part is, once in a while you will see another white man (often Lebanese. ive never met an american man here.) and you'll find yourself staring... and even when i look in the mirror sometimes, i feel just odd and out of place. my mind thinks im black, even though im probably the whitest cracker in the books.

Anywho, there are lots of ups and downs about it. When we walk through the streets and neighborhoods, all of the children run and shout to come see you "white man white man!" or, more commonly, "China man, china man!". they grab hold of you and are so eager for your attention. it really does warm your heart 99% of the time :) the other 1% of the time, when its not so pleasant, is when you're a bit tired and exhausted and your patience is worn thin and you look at the brown matter left on your arms and hands that those little children left and wonder if thats dirt on your arm, or something else...

Now, i should also say that there are about 10% of african children that have never seen a white man before, and so when they see you they go running. that is, unless they are an infant in the arms of your investigator and simply stare at you with eyes wider than an elephants and then begin to scream bloody murder. Yeah, having an innocent little infant be deathly afraid of you kinda wrenches at a few of your heartstrings at times, but its all good now :) most times, when a kid is scared of us, the parent and all the surrounding people just laugh along with us.

People do change the way they speak when we come around, 70% of the time speaking gibberish or "chineese" as they say. and the other 30% of the time speak what they refer to as "sireies" or rather proper English with some weird accent that they think americans sound like. and now, the longer im here, i believe that IS what americans sound like although when i first came, i was wondering what this strange accent is... haha.

of course it is always fun to be white and fit in with the natives. when you eat african food and speak their dialect they love ya to death. all i've gotta do is walk around with my scripture bag on my head like an african and everyone is hootin and holleran! haha or if i speak "Kru"(a native dialect) they get a real kick out of that. The more Liberian i can act, the more they laugh and love ya. its pretty easy now that im adjusted to make em laugh. at first, i was so white that they acted like the president or a police officer was in their misdt or something. haha.

lets see, what else... prices of most things are a bit more expensive because they assume i have a lot of money. thankfully, ive gotten fairly good at negotiating in the market and get a fairly good deal on most things. although sometimes, because Im white, i can get free stuff or get a "sampler". and of course, i can always act clueless if i do something wrong or if im curous about something. its pretty sweet to be a white man in Liberia! as the natives say, there are three types of people in the world. White men, Black men, and Liberian men. im proud to say im slowly making my way to becoming a liberian man! :) haha

well, this week has been terrific. thank you for your prayers on my behalf. and thank you for the missionary efforts each of you make to spread this wonderful gospel! I know it is true. if any of you are doubting your testimony, i encourage you to remember what the book of mormon teaches us in the concluding paragraph in its introduction. That each of us can recieve a witness of its divinity through the power of the holy ghost, and that when we do so we will also know that this Church truly is the Lord's kingdom on the earth today. of which i so testify, in our master's name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

love,

elder fairwell