And just like that . . . I'm home!

 March 24, 2020

Welp, definitely during the whole last week never did I think that during that same week I would be home! The week was going as normal as we were trying to get a girl named Aline ready for baptism and trying to set up groups in our ward so that our aims could take the sacrament on Sunday and get baptized when we got a call Thursday morning that we had an emergency leadership meeting. Over a skype call, the president informed us all that within 48 hours all of the West African missionaries would (were supposed to) be evacuated and we needed to all go back NOW and prepare. 

It was a pretty neat and sad experience as our President expressed his love for us and bore his testimony that he knew God knew where we were, what was happening, and this was his will. You could almost touch the spirit, it was so thick in the room! We closed with "God be with you till we meet again" and we all definitely cried. We spent the last 48 hours before I flew out on Saturday morning giving everything that we had away, cleaning the apartment, saying goodbyes, filling out the area book so that when missionaries do come back they can find all our aims,.. and playing dunk ball on our mini hoop we got in our apartment 😏 I flew out Saturday morning on a direct flight to Houston where I met up with some other elders and senior couples headed out of the Congo then flew out Sunday morning to Utah. There were a whole 11 people on our flight! 

It was almost a bittersweet experience walking down that escalator and seeing my family. Mentally I was not prepared to be home, to see my family, to no longer be a missionary, (or prepared for how dang freezing and dry it is here!) In my mind June 8th was when I was done. When I could stop the grind and push it took every day being a full-time missionary. I had goals fixed, plans made, people to help and things to change before I would be ready to come home. But "my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts" and that's one lesson that the Lords been teaching me over and over again. I know there are hundreds of hundreds of other missionaries in the same case who may be asking why? Why were we torn from the mission and people we love in a time where they need us the most! But the question is never to ask why, rather ask "what does God want me to have in this experience?" than to seek personal revelation as to what is the next step he has for you. I echo the talk from Elder Bednar saying that you are not called to serve a place, but you are called to serve the Lord! Even though I'm home and released as a full-time missionary that does not change the fact that I'm still called to serve the Lord for the rest of my life, and I'm so pumped!! 

I've found that the mission is just a microcosm for life. We show up brand new so innocent and confused and bit by bit learn about our purpose here. We receive commandments and rules to help us stay safe and be blessed. There are so many lessons we learn and experiences that we have. The things taken from these experiences are impossible to truly express with words and to truly convey what we felt, saw and experienced, but nevertheless they made us. Here are just a couple of the many experiences that I learned on my mission-

1. Lifes not fair. Crazy simple, right? But I saw it over and over. Many times, I was asked sincerely "Elder Briggs, why was I born here in these awful circumstances?" I struggled to answer that question. Why was that? Me, born in literally the best country in the world, to an amazing family who loves me, and honestly had the cutest and flowery childhood ever. While this kid was born practically into a living hell. Awful family, awful situation, 0 opportunities, and a struggle to eat and live day to day for the rest of his life. It is my personal belief that God does not give us situations that we cannot handle or learn from. God knows his children and is aware of their circumstances. But, also, in saying life is not fair does not excuse the commandment to help those in need, deprived physically and spiritually. Because we have been given much we must give.

2. Circumstances don't change people, people change circumstances. What I mean by that is that just because someone is poor or in an awful situation does not mean that they will be humbled by it. Everyone in Togo is about in the same boat, but there are all types of people just like you see here. Some are prideful, some humble, some angry, some kind. It all depends on you! Those who would be humble and kind under any circumstance end up being the only ones capable of changing their circumstances.

3. We are SOOO blessed and spoiled! News flash, about 95% of everything that you own right now, IS NOT NECESSARY. We are all so spoiled and blessed and you will probably never have the opportunity to truly realize to what point you're blessed. Words or pictures aren't really worthy to truly explain it unless you live it. But I hope the experiences I've shared can benefit you even if it's the slightest way to be more grateful for how much God has given you!!!

4. God's Church is again on the earth. After 2 years of talking to hundreds of people about religion and Christ, I realized how confused the world really is! Haha, its legitly, a war of words out there and fights between churches as to who is right or wrong. This is the ONLY church on the whole world who invites the world to ask God himself if what we say is true. Why? Because each one of us knows what will happen if they do! The Holy Ghost WILL testify that it's true. Simply, those who read and pray will know, those who don't, won't. Christ is coming again, and we are his church to prepare his way in these latter days. I would have said all that before my mission as well, but my conviction of it didn't come until I was fought time and time again, by pastors, amis, false prophets, all twisting the truth of scripture into lies. It wasn't till I had to fight for my life as to the truth of my testimony of this gospel that I truly came to feel with every fiber of my bones that this is true. I testify to you that it is true!! I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love life!

Elder Briggs

Benin Cotonou Mission 2018-2020

President Nelson, the Modern-Day Prophet

 March 16, 2020

Welp, I guess worldwide this week hasn't been looking too hot and I would advise you this week not to read Revelations in your personal study if you want to keep from freaking out even more 😉 With everything going into a freeze because of the coronavirus, the near future looks uncertain, especially in regards of missionary work around the world, but that doesn't mean that it's without hope. I encourage you to go on lds.org and watch the video that Prophet Neilson released. I know he is a prophet called of God in these last days. For me it is so clear now as to why the prophet has been announcing all these changes in how the church runs in the last 2 years! Like people is he not a prophet or what!!! Ministering? The new Come Follow Me program that is HOME Centered? It isn't a coincidence!! 

I had another experience that showed me he is a prophet of God this week.  This week I got straight up the most attacks against the Book of Mormon that I've gotten on my whole mission!! It was the weirdest thing! We have recently been challenged to teach 2 lessons everyday about the restoration of the gospel in preparation for the General Conference. As soon as that challenge was made literally it's been war on the Book of Mormon here! We spent 7 hours straight on Saturday running into and teaching people who used every excuse to deny the Book of Mormon. The thing is, they can't deny it. It's there and the only way that you could logically or spiritually deny it is if you were to read it, study it, then receive a confirmation by the holy ghost that it is false. Thing is, though, that they will never get that denial by the Holy Ghost, let alone probably will not even read it. But I've read it, and I know it's true. The world will get more and more hostile towards the church in future years President Nelson said, so we need to get more and more grounded in our faith! 

Here, it is like a bubble of the world and although church is canceled, we are now able to still hold baptismal services and go out proselyting for now. Shout out to all those missionaries who have served faithfully but due to the dang coronavirus are getting sent home! @elderbracken love you bro!

Stay healthy y'all and don't get corona! Hehe, and may you win the war over toilet paper at the grocery store this week 😉

Elder Briggs

Hey dad! That's insane about the virus! Literally the cases doubled over night and if this is anything like Moses' day there must be 6 more coming. I honestly see no effects really here from all that stuff except that now we don't have church and all our baptisms got cancelled last week. Honestly though it's like the whole world is getting a slap of what Africa deals with every day! Like down here they literally laughed out loud when they heard there wouldn't be church because of the virus. They thought it was the stupidest thing haha! Ya I've kinda been getting that vibe as well that life back home isn't all roses and confetti and even though I know I'm going to be home soon I'm trying to do everything to stay focused. 

week was kinda rough, I got hit by a moto and got x rays (nothing broken) but my thigh is soo bruised and swollen, so I've hobbled everywhere. I hope there's no deeper damage to it. Then they shut down missionary work and we couldn't baptize, so it was rough, but through all that I've still been happy! I definitely don't want there to be any regrets about the end of my mission and its weird. It's like Satan is throwing that trunky temptation and I have to always be correcting myself. 

Thanks for all you've done for me dad! The older I get, the more I realize how much crap you went through at work and just dealing with life (sweet that's what I got to look forward too). But I guess you got through it, so I probably will too, maybe. Hah,a love you dad. Have fun in Washington!

ELder Briggs 

first born in the wilderness

Bass Drop in Sacrament Meeting

 March 9, 2020

Alright, cool experience we had this week! So, we had had a ratez vous, which is when an ami just doesn't show or gives a lame excuse as to why they can't meet with you and it was getting late. We still had some time left before we had to go back. Suddenly the thought came to go visit this member who was going through a rough break up with her husband. We knew she probably would be at work and not at the house, but we just felt like we needed to swing by there and then this other member's house. Well, we go by and guess what! She wasn't there. BUT her sister friend who we have been trying to teach for the longest time was over and we were able to teach her! Then we went to the second member's house and had been planning to try and start a friendship with the older son who isn't a member and kinda rebellious. We show up and guess what! He isn't there.  BUT the dad who works 24-7, 7 days a week 365 days a year just happened to be there, who also isn't a member and we were able to talk with him and get a rendezous set up with him! 2 coincidences? Maybe, but I don't think so. I think that God has an agenda for his children and a timetable for their conversion. We say that our plan was not god's plan, but gods plan turned out to be way better (like usual). It makes me think of Jacob 4:10 

Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.

True that or what? 

A highlight from the week. So, I play the piano in sacrament meeting and we use this huge bass speaker for the microphone. Well, it wasn't working so they were just practically yelling trying to give their talks. I decided it couldn't be that hard to fix and started messing with it during some ladies talk. I don't know what I pressed but suddenly the radio started BLASTING this super annoying music so I quickly rip the plug but guess what it was battery back upped! It took me like 2 whole minutes trying to get it turned off while everyone just stared at me.

Love y'all and have a great week!

Elder Briggs

no pics, maybe next week 😜

Bean Boozled and Break In

 February 24, 2020

Wow this week was great! So, first we went up to Kpalimé to do splits and showed up just as they had gotten robbed! (hold up, not yet at the great part) We rolled up about 9 at night and their gate was wide open along with their front door. I thought they were just trying to scare us or something, but they weren't even there, so we called them up and told them we were in their apartment waiting for them. They were super confused as to how we got into their apartment as they had locked it and hadn't come back... So, we hung up quick and checked to make sure no one was still in the apartment. The guy had broken the gate open just by chiseling a tiny bit of cement from the bolt on bottom then had smashed the lock open to the front door and had stolen the Elder's cameras and cash from his wallet. Ya, so gotta hate that guy right. But at least he left the bikes, piano and couches! Haha, he even left all the credit cards in the Elders wallet (I guess he isn't too much a techy guy).

I know I could have fallen... But I didn't! 😉

Besides that, the splits were sweet and we did a bunch of interviews for candidates they had up there. Y'all know that game Bean boozled? The jellybeans with nasty flavors that are sometimes good, sometimes gross (for example skunk spray, rotten fish, rotten egg, throw up etc.) Elder Cullotta got that sent to him and we played it that night until every jellybean was gone and it was hilarious. Elder Raymond and Elder Singo both ended up throwing up everywhere. Luckily, Gods on my side or something cause every bean I got wasn't poisoned! 😎

This is clearly not the goats first photo shoot

We've got an ami that hopefully will be able to get baptized this week if he can get his marriage situation worked out named Thierry. This week it's like God has just been placing so many people in our path who are so prepared to hear our message. I've realized the difference of God placing someone in our paths or not entirely depends on our willingness and desire to FIND people that God wants to bring to his gospel. We are tools in his hands and when we have the desire to serve him, he will use us to bring to pass his miracles! 

It's a monkey! Haha, the dude tried selling it to me too - it was tempting!

Anyways, I realized I need to keep it short cause I don't have much time left, but I hope y'all have a great week and make someone's week around you better than it was gonna be!

Love Elder Briggs

Cute kids at the pump!

Check Kids' Hands Before You Shake Them

 February 17, 2020

Hope y'all had a great week and are doing well! I would like to wish you a late happy valentine's day as well! Haha me and my comp totally forgot that it was valentine's day until we asked ourselves why there were so many random hearts and love ads everywhere. Our conversation was pretty awkward after that it went like this "wow it's valentine's day, I totally forgot". "Ya cool right... uh love you I guess elder" (moment of silence) "... uh love you too" (then a really long moment of silence)😂

This week flew by but honestly was rough work wise because every day we had a meeting for something! Tuesday zone conference. Wednesday morning district meeting. Thursday morning formation for district leaders. Friday morning weekly planning. So, Saturday was the only full day we got!! Haha and on top of that me and my comp got some gnarly food poisoning from whatever we ate at zone conference, so Wednesday we were trying to get over that. 

Our mission got emergency transferred 3 missionaries sent here from Liberia. Apparently, they are pulling all the missionaries out of there because of something going on over there so we also had that change up this week. 

So, it's not too often now days that I see something new or experience something out of the ordinary that I've never seen before, but this week I did something I've never done before! I shook a kid's hand with poop all over it! 😳 Ya it was very gross. Kids (or most people in general) don't use toilet paper and just use their hand to wipe then wash it off and this kid had just gotten off her bucket right as I walked in and in the dark I didn't see what was in the bucket or on the hand! 

Look at these kid's eyes carefull.

On the mission I've got to say hands down my favorite thing about it is watching the change in people's lives from what they were on day one when we met them and months later when they are baptized and performing priesthood ordinances and callings. We had an ami that we were teaching this week and his name is Kokou. When we came to the end of our lesson he said if he didn't work he would have us come by every single day because of the feeling and happiness that he felt talking to us! HOW COOL! He could feel it! The happiness the gospel can give us! He said that during the day he was depressed and sad but when we opened the Book of Mormon and started reading all those feelings went away! I've seen that exact thing happen to sooo many of our amis we're even teaching currently, and it blows me away as to how much happier and full of light people become when they act on our message! 

This week they have Presidental elections for Togo on the 22nd so we've all been told not to go out that day! So, on a special day as the 22nd we get to party in our apartment, 😉 but the people seem pretty freaked out about what might happen and are all planning like it's the end of the world, so I'll let ya know how it goes next week.

Love yall!

Elder Briggs

 Went back in the woods to relieve myself and realized it was actually a voodoo sacred forest with sacrifice alter and everything. oops. 

All American and God's Love

 February 10, 2020

Everything switched up this week! We had transfers Wednesday, and I got a new comp! His name is Elder Raymond from Georgia and is a super amazing guy. He is a convert to the church and came on a mission after leaving the marines and his testimony is rock solid. We've been having a blast as this is my first American companion in almost a year and it's even more of a blast because there are also 2 other Americans in our apartment! A newbie is getting trained by Elder Williams. Haha, we decided we better take advantage of the chance we had and go try and play basketball this morning, but we ended up just walking around for 2 hours because Togo only likes soccer, so every basketball court we could find was on private school grounds and security would kick us out. Oh well, at least we tried 😂

 Just wanted to share one experience we had this week! We have this recent convert named Larissa who is 15 years old. In our follow up lessons we taught her about missionary work and challenged her to give a brochure to someone she thought was in need of our message. Well, she ended up giving TONS and got rejected a bunch by kids in her school. But there was one girl who decided to read the brochure. The next day she asked for another and another till we were able to get her a Book of Mormon and she started reading that too. Well now we've started teaching her and she's coming to church! Her aunt, at first, said we couldn't teach her, but Larissa started talking with her and her aunt said that she acted 'different' and if the gospel could change her daughter's rebellious attitude to the light she saw in Larissa, she would let us teach her!!! Haha, so OF COURSE we made her the promise that what we would teach her would change her, also!! Her name is Aline and she is someone literally so prepared for the gospel! She (Larissa) explained to us that some priest lady had said it was her fault that her mother had died when she was younger because she had some 'bad spirit' in her and her dad now blames this little 13-year-old for her mom's death and dropped her off at her aunt's house. She basically has been labeled "rebel and cursed'. When we taught her we were able to testify how much God really does love her and how it was not her fault that her mom died. People, I have never felt the spirit SO STRONG!! I promise all of you that something that God really wants us to know is, it's that He loves us and we can be made whole through him. 

Love y'all!

Elder Briggs

 Haha I bought foufou for 500 francs and my comp bought for 300 francs. There's literally no difference!! 😂 It was honestly pretty nasty cause it wasn't peeled all the way.

How we felt about our foufou.

What is up dad! With just all the stuff that happened the last couple weeks I haven't really had much time to be able to respond in the way I wanted to till now with my new comp!  But I had read your email and it has helped me the last couple weeks. Now that I'm on a mission I totally understand what you're saying about how your mission was. Definitely the Nephi affect where you just get tied to a mast - Liahona stops working - and the tempest rages all around even though it's not your fault. Sometimes I feel like we read so many stories in the Liahona magazine where it's like "so and so stood up and held strong against something bad like drinking alcohol and miraculously God saved him from that situation, and all turned out in the end." But it's not always true. Haha, they never tell when the guy in the story stands up and then gets completely wrecked and suffers. Thats how it usually ends. But it's totally worth it. Even though it's often confusing and easy to doubt yourself asking "Am I really right?" You always come out stronger in the end. 

During all this I read exactly what you told me in the bible in Galatians 1:10

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not..." “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

That says it perfectly right! Haha, after all the crap I've put up with on the mission I swear I'm gonna come home and will just be so patient and chill (don't take my word for it though😉) thanks for your faith dad! Gee how thankful I am for my family. I never realized how lucky I got till I got here and saw the real world and the awful situations that missionaries I know have had to go through. (Americans and Africans) and it comes my turn to say how my parents have abused or hurt me and I got nothing to say! What a blessing, right! And I thank God every day for you guys. I learn so much every day and it's crazy how the mission has flown by and slow at the same time.  I'll be excited to go home, but as of right now I'm not yet ready. God still has got some stuff to throw my way. I've got a new comp and literally a stud. He's from Georgia and joined the church 6 years ago. He has joined the marines but got kicked out because he couldn't shoot and so he found his way on a mission and is a spiritual giant! There are also 3 Americans in my apartment now and I realized I had totally forgot how to just talk normal and joke around and so much stress has just disappeared! This transfer's gonna be a good one. Love you dad!

Drunk Hugs and Bike Jump

 January 28, 2020

Alright here are a couple highlights from this week!!

1. This last week we were up in Kpalimé doing splits and entretiens (interviews) for the elders up there and we got to go up there Monday to see some waterfalls. Then Tuesday we did a split and I worked with elder Raymond! So, this sector is up in this mountain village and is one of the biking sectors here. We had biked way out to visit an ami and on our way to the next rendezvous his gear changer on back completely fell off, so we spent about 1 1/2 hours walking back towards the apartment. We were able to find a moto mechanic who was able to put it back on and we were finally off again. We were flying down this dirt path and there was this concrete canal up ahead of us that we had to cross. He yells out "check it, watch me jump this". He's going but didn't have enough speed, so when he pops his front wheel up it goes into the canal and slams into the cement wall and he goes flying over his handle bars and landed on his face!!! Haha, it was hands down the funniest thing. I died laughing! Don't worry I didn't laugh till I made sure his jaw wasn't broken). Well, lesson learned, we check out his bike and the gear thing was broken again!! Luckily, though, we able to rig it and keep going. Morale of the story . . .

Kpalime

2. We were sitting about to start a lesson with this girl we are teaching when we see this clearly super drunk guy walking towards us. He is wearing this rasta hat and has this huge African necklace. I was just praying he wouldn't come near us but nope, white guys in ties are drunk guy magnets. He gets to us and starts doing sign language! He starts doing the sign of Jesus Christ and so we figure he's asking us we talk about him so we say yes. He smiled so big then leaned down on the bench we were sitting on and gave each of us a 30 sec bear hug 😂So it turns out he was deaf and now try and imagine trying to explain the restoration to a deaf drunk guy! Basically, impossible but he took a seat and we had him read in our brochure that we had. I guess he really liked what he read because he told me he loved me probably 20 times and hugged me even more! Haha, so we got his number and he got ours (so we can text) and we thought he would leave. Nope. He followed us to our next rendezvous and finally my comp sat and occupied him while I taught. 

This is the last week of our transfer and will be getting calls this weekend. My comp is going home so understandably really trunky, but we've been able to push and do a lot of great things this transfer! 

I would like share with y'all a quote that Jeffery Holland said that my brother sent me.

 "If for a while the harder you try the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who have ever lived."

That describes life for me perfectly!! Think about it! Everything worth fighting for in life doesn't come on a cheap price tag. Every true hero you know has fought for something and despite the odds, came out on top. Every prophet, every apostle, Jesus Christ himself, and every disciple. And that means we, as his disciples, will experience the same thing. We will fight against Satan and he will fight even harder against us. But the beautiful thing is that as we put our faith in Jesus Christ, when it gets harder, we only get stronger and that's how faith grows! How grateful I am for the hard things in life that make me reach out for Christ's hand when life pushes me down. Love y'all! Have a great week!! Elder Briggs