Don't Leave Your Garbage Can Outside

October 15, 2018

Splits with elder Manzan

Do not leave your garbage can outside if you throw liquid and food waste stuff away. We found out why this week! We had just left our garbage can outside our door the whole week and it was all full of bad rice, sauce, and who knows what else. Pretty soon it started smelling super bad but that just made it so no one wanted to take it out and put a different one in so it just sat there until one morning me and Elder Bullock went out there because now there was a funny smell in the apartment too. We look in it and the ENTIRE garbage can was full of maggots. Like no joke, it was just a garbage can of maggots and all the bags, garbage, everything in the can was just one big thing pulsing, so of course, the ground was COVERED with maggots too. I didn't get a pic but I wouldn't include it anyway cause that description is bad enough. So me and Bullock triple bagged that thing while trying not to throw up (haha the bag somehow still ripped open on our floor spilling maggot juice everywhere) but we finally got it outside. As for the zillions of maggots still on our floor turns out that bug spray we had doesn't kill them! ...But luckily fire does 😉

Voodoo art

As for the week, it was really good!! We got a bunch of new amis who are progressing really well. We are especially trying to teach the foufou mama who we go to every week who runs a little street restaurant because she is the nicest lady. We have been slowly getting on the radar by helping her clean up every once in a while after she closes up. She agreed to teach us how to make the sauce for the foufou called sauce arashid* (its like a peanut sauce) and so this morning we went to her restaurant and she taught us, and best of all, we got a rendevous set up with her and her family so I'm super excited to teach her! I respect this woman a lot, every single day she and her sisters who work with her carry all the stuff to make everything to the restaurant (pots, bowls, water, charcoal cooker, etc) before the sun is even up. Then they make these huuge bowls of different sauces on this little charcoal cookers and sell for the day and then once the sun goes down they take it all down, wash it all, pack it up and take it home. They do this EVERY DAY! And the crazy part is is that she never doesn't have a smile on her face. She is a  great example to me and just goes to show that you don't find happiness, you make it. (that is a stolen quote from Thomas S. Monson) Love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Briggs

And if you thought that was sweet there was this little girl who was about 9 and this is how she catches fish!!! i literally have no idea how she does it but she says she just leaves it for a little bit then pulls the tire up really fast. 

This is how this guy catches fish!! You cant really see it but he throws out this circular net and he just goes up and down the shore doing this.

This was written in response to his mom asking how he is really doing...

Ok, how I'm really doing!! Like straight up I really am doing great, I love it here and I make life sound like an adventure cause every day really is! I love it here and things might seem "hard" from a view in America but here its just life. I mean I still get frustrated, don't get me wrong, with companions, elders but I can't really say I get discouraged. The problem here isn't finding people to talk to or teach. You could walk up to just about anyone and get a rendevous scheduled and a second one too, the problem is finding people who will actually keep commitments and come to church. Commitments here aren't really a thing. They are more like suggestions so when you find an ami who will actually come to church, actually read, actually pray, they always get baptized. Also, everyone wants a free book but French is everyone's second language, too, so they can't read very well and it is like watching a 6-year-old try and read. This is a problem for gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Also, no one here is married and they have to pay a dowry to get married here but it is really expensive so we have a bunch of amis who can't get baptized cause it takes years to save up enough for the dote so that's sad. Also, whiskey is dirt cheap here so... yeah, that creates its own problems, haha 😂 But I don't ever get discouraged because this place is really ready!! There are so many people who are ready for our message and we rarely ever have to find people to teach because they come to us so all day we are just teaching. Also, the problem is that there aren't addresses so finding people who change their phone number is literally impossible and for about half the ward there is no way to actually find them cause no one knows where they live. haha The most insane and most humble people in the world somehow co-exist. (I will save all those stories for AFTER the mission) but I just hope I don't chastise everyone to bad in my homecoming talk because people can see pics, they can watch videos, they can even visit here. I can even tell everything I know but no matter what I say no one can truly know these people. How blessed we are for literally everything from toilet paper to running water to food and everything from there up. How hard these people's lives are and are somehow happier than anyone else I know because they don't know any different than that. haha Also Africa has a problem with nudity BIG time. My eyes have been scarred haha! But then again stories for later 😉 Laundry is all by hand just scrubbing your clothes with the clothes and hanging them up to dry. Takes about 2 hours but less you wear less you have to wash 😉 I'll send a pic. Children FLOCK!! Haha unless its the first time they have seen a white person then they cry but walking the streets rarely does a minute pass by without hearing the word "yovo" from a kid, or one running up and rubbing there dirty hands on your pants and ramming there heads into your crotch haha. The kids here are literally the cutest in the world and they are a big reason why it is impossible to get discouraged. And they actually play 'cause they don't have stupid phones or anything else to do besides marbles or drag tin can cars through the street! My future kids... oh boy I already know what I'm gonna do.

Elder Briggs