Lizards and ... Asthma?

January 21, 2019

Amis birthday

 If you have Asthma or Tuberculosis listen up ;) So, I probably went the most north I'm going to go in Togo this week doing splits with the Elders up in Tsevie, which is a town up north! We ended up going to these villages which are even more north of Tsevie because they are trying to start a branch up there and it was super cool! Just jungle everywhere. You could look and see rolling hills (haha which is the closest thing to mountains I'll probably find). There are just tons of little trails shooting off the road and they all go to these little villages, but we just ended up going to the bigger ones. Anyways, we were waiting at this member's house for an ami and I saw this lizard I saw fall out of a tree into a bucket of water so I pointed it out to the member and jokingly asked if he had ever eaten a lizard. He told me no, BUT he fed it to his son once who had asthma. He started talking about how there were all these natural healing things from all these plants and animals, but eating the meat of a lizard specifically cures asthma AND Tuberculosis!! Who knew right!? Yep, he said if you've got either of those cook up some nice lizard meat and it will cure it right up! So now I'm getting curious, so I ask him if there are any other special animal healing powers I should know about and he told me how if you take a forest turtle (that they sell at the local market) and you eat the underbelly of it, it will make it so you can run from here to Benin without getting tired! Haha I have no idea if it works for real but if you happen to have asthma or tuberculosis please try it out and let me know if it works 😉

Another funny thing that happened was at this baptism service we attended! So, I don't know if the kids here have fear of water just from the super painful bathes there mothers give them, but I found out that kids under 2 definitely don't like baptismal fonts! There were 5 people getting baptized at this baptism and the room was packed full of people. This one sister named sister Aime was getting baptized and she has 2 twin girls who are about 2 who were sitting by us so their mom could sit upfront. Well, as soon as the doors to the font open up these twins start bawling at the same time, and pretty soon every single child in the room was starring at the font bawling!! So the brother who was baptizing was trying to talk louder than the wail of children scared of water, but as soon as the mother of those two twins got up to get baptized it got worse! As soon as they saw their mom in the font they went hysterical and one of them ran out of the door to the door of the font to save her mom! They ended up having to take one of them out and covering the eyes of the other one while their mom was getting baptized cause they couldn't stand it. It was really funny but also really sad to see all these kids so scared of water! 

Hope y'all have a great week!!

Elder Briggs 

Tsevie (Chevee-ay)

Trolled by...Members?

January 14, 2019

A good example of why we
shouldn't throw our trash in rivers...

So we were walking down the street this week and we were super late already to do interviews for the sisters at the church which was on the far side of our sector. Well, this guy stopped us on his moto and that's pretty typical for people to just start talking cause we stick out like a grain of rice in a pot of black beans, and we explained what 2 white guys are doing in Africa and started to share our message with him. Well, he sounded pretty interested but when we tried to give him a brochure of the restoration he wouldn't take it. That was really weird cause usually when you tell them it's free they take it no problem so we were kind of weirded out already, but then he wanted to take us to his sister's house. He said it wasn't far so we followed him on his moto to this house back behind this little boutique. Everyone was sitting around this table with alcohol all over it and were slammed! At this point, we are really confused about what we are doing here but we get introduced to everyone and all of the kids that live there and then this guy who we had followed just looks at us and was like "aahh got you guys! I'm actually a member of the high council in the stake over!" And he proceeds to show us his Book of Mormon and everything. It was frustrating cause now we were super late but it was hilarious! AND biggest plus is that we ended up giving the brochure he didn't take to his sister's family and now we have started teaching the whole family! 

We had an awesome Conference with President Dube from the 70 this week which was super good and had a pretty rough baptism Saturday for 3 kids from part-member families. We had combined our baptism with the sisters but when we had all showed up on time no one was there! Not the leaders, candidates, guy who brings the clothes, no one. Well, when everyone finally got it going 2 hours late they reminded us that we are on "African" time and when we say 2:00 it's practically the same as 4:00 :') But hey, it finally happened and they all got baptized so that's what counts right! 

Love y'all and have a great week!

Elder Briggs 

Proverbs 23:3

January 7, 2019

So, Wednesday I almost went septic from overeating! Elder Sorensen and I had been out in the morning and then had come back for lunch. Rookie mistake. We totally forgot that after lunch we had a rendevous with an ami named Seur Bienvenue who has fed us every single time I've been over there. Well, we got there and she hadn't just prepared a little food, she had prepared a 3-course meal! It was the first time we had seen her after new years so she decided she was going to treat us well and sat us down in a room and started bringing food out. First, you got to know a little about the women here. They get super offended if you don't finish their food and you will hear for days from them that you didn't like their food. They might not even ever prepare for you again!  But it's not just that, they get offended too if you don't eat fast enough! Haha, It's like they judge your manhood based on how much and how fast you can eat. So she brought out this salad and we are trying to keep pace on it but I'm slowing down. We finish right when she comes out with these HUGE plates of Kuskus (kinda like rice) and I swear each plate was enough to feed a small family. I start spooning it down but my hope is lost by this point and I'm thinking of serious alternatives. faking sick, throwing up, dumping it all in my bag, anything. It was so good but a stomach is only so big! Well, I decided the only reasonable thing I can do now is pray and my companion was the answer to my prayer! God surely enlarged his stomach or something cause he helped me out. We taught and left... to a dinner appointment!! 

With 4 elders at this dinner we were hoping they could pull the weight but nope. We peeled foufou and she gave us each our own big balls of foufou to eat by ourselves. With every man for himself, I decided if I slowed it down then she couldn't plop another one on my plate once I was finished (like I saw her do to my poor companion). With stomach and throat and mouth full, I tried to get up and I've never been so close to throwing up in my life. If I would have put my bag over my shoulder I know for a fact that would have been the self destruct. We waddled home and that's when it got bad. By the next day, I was super, super sick. Bad enough that the Office elders had to come to stab me with a needle to check for malaria. Luckily it wasn't that. I think I might have just found the physical limit for food.

The miracle is that we had had appointments planned for that day and after I got tested Elder Sorensen gave me a blessing. We had a lot to get done in our sector so after the blessing we decided to go out anyways to our rendevous and the second we got outside most all of the symptoms went away and I didn't feel sick one bit after that. I could walk fine, I could open my eyes without pain, everything! Just went away! I testify to all of you that the power of the priesthood is real and living. It was lost but now it is restored and how thankful I am for how it has blessed my life! Love y'all and have a great week!

Elder Briggs 

Proverbs 23:8The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

How Many People Does it Take to Baptize Someone?

December 31, 2018

Christmas dinner with an amazing family!
We are teaching the Boy right now.

Hope y'all had a great Christmas!! Christmas here was definitely nothing like home but the best part was definitely talking to my family! We spent the day just visiting some amis and members and we had a surprise dinner at one of our amis houses! We showed up and Seur Mary decided that we were going to teach her all the Christmas hymns in the hymn book while her daughter made dinner for us. haha She learned almost everyone and sometimes she would make us skip hymns until we got to a "more upbeat one" that she could dance too. 

Haha, we had a really interesting baptism this Saturday! We baptized Sandrine and Jean. Jean only has 1 leg and his other one is prosthetic so we were trying to figure out how we were going to baptize this man without drowning him so, Finally, we decided Elder Sorensen would baptize him and help him go down, and then I would be behind him to lift him back up once we got him all the way down. Haha, well it worked pretty good at first but his other leg without a foot kept coming up because there wasn't the ground to support him. So after having to redo it a couple times we decided that I would hold his leg underwater, and then once it was under I would move to the side and help lift him up and FINALLY, we got him baptized 😂 This guy is literally the nicest guy in the world and was so ready to hear the gospel. He works in this shack up against a wall repairing and shining shoes and when the missionaries stopped by one time he started asking a bunch of questions. Pretty soon he started walking the 1 1/2 miles on this wooden prosthetic leg to get to church even though it hurts a ton. I've just seen the end of his progression since I got here but his testimony is so strong. When we asked him who he wanted to baptize him he said "it doesn't really matter to me as long as he has the priesthood authority to do it". I just wanted to give him a hug right there and I'm so happy that the missionaries were able to find him. One thing I'm starting to learn is that there are no accidents in missionary work! Have a great week and a happy New Year!!

Elder Briggs 

Baptism of Frere Jean and Seur Sandrine

No explanation. I was pretty confused too 😂

Shattered windshield? No big deal! Just staple it back together!

Political...Vacation?

December 24, 2018

 Now remember, if you're ever having
a bad day.... you're never alone😉  

Merry Christmas eve everyone! So, We had a pretty good week! It was especially dedicated to studying and planning, and going INSANE  because we weren't allowed to leave our apartment for 3 days this week! Togo had their election and not to get to political but lets just say that the people and the president have a problem with one another and so people like to show how they feel by manifestations and stuff if you get what I'm saying 😉 Its all good now, nothing really to crazy happened. I mostly just think they had us do that as a safety measure just in case and so we wouldn't look like we were involved in politics. Haha, But it was good they had us prepare like it was either the end of the world or the Second Coming and so now we probably won't run out of food or toilet paper until the end of the transfer! 

In being on a mission here I feel like it is easier to see what Christmas is about. We don't have snow, or lights, or Christmas trees, or family around to spend time with. But the one thing we do have the same is the celebration and message of Jesus Christ. One thing I hadn't really thought about before this Christmas was the question of why do we have a need for a Christmas anyways? We all hear the words of "peace, light, and hope" during this time but do we truly understand that Christ's purpose was more than just to bring a nice feeling and happy thoughts but to save a literally fallen people! Elder Holland, I think, put it best (as usually right 😉) He said "we cannot fully understand the purpose of Jesus Christ without first understanding the fall of Adam and Eve. That there was a literal Garden of Eden in which they lived and because of their fall, made it impossible to ever return to God's presence. The world was forever lost in despair." But despair was not the plan of God. In Cor 15:21-22 it says " for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. (21) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." But it wasn't just anyone who could redeem man from this fall. In John 10 it teaches us that only Jesus, being the first born of the Father and Son of God in the flesh was capable to give his own life and then take it again. Christ, the creator of this earth was not sent as a solution in case Adam and Eve ate the fruit but was foreordained before the foundations of this world to save us from sin and death. But his life on this earth wasn't the end of his purpose. I really like this excerpt from 3 Nephi 11: 

10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

13 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying:

14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.

We now prepare for the second coming of the same Christ when he will once again appear to man and every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall confess, that Jesus is The Christ.         
Merry Christmas!                                                                                                                              
 Elder Briggs