December 16, 2019
Wow this week may have been the longest and packed full week so far on the mission. No joke. So, let's start in chronological order:
Tuesday we had our Christmas activity for all the missionaries which ended going super smoothly and was a blast. Leading the choir went very well (but still not better than Mr. Thorpe) and we had a dance and a couple skits intertwined with bible reading and the cool navitvity video the church made! Me and 3 other elders made this sweet acapella song starting with "Silent Night" and transitioning into "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" which challenged the legendary Bing Crosby himself. I also accompanied Elder Harman in the "Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel" piano guys arrangement.
Once again, shout out to the world's best mission president who gave us washing machines for Christmas!!!! No more bloody knuckles and hours of dripping sweat scrubbing clothes together!! After 1 1/2 years of hand washing that makes it the number one best Christmas present ever!! They look like garbage cans but they wash super well!
Went on 2 consecutive splits, one Wednesday and one Thursday, which were a blast and I saw tons of miracles of God helping us find new amis to start teaching.
Now, Friday. I know for y'all black Friday was last week, but it was this week for me. There was a voodoo festival coming up and idk if that had something to do with this. We were walking down the street towards our next rendezvous, and we see a large crowd of people up ahead moving towards us. That of itself didn't seem too weird at first. Then we see all these guys up ahead with these reed whips coming towards us and suddenly out of nowhere I realize there's this guy right in front of me walking down the middle of the street clutching this 8-inch-long hunting knife. This guy looked like he was hunting too and when we locked eyes I almost peed my pants. Luckily, he decided not to hunt me and as the guys with the whips got closer, we could see these voodoo Gods in the street coming towards us. They are in these super scary colorful costumes and let me tell ya, this ain't no culture festival. To try to explain the feeling of darkness and evil that came over me would be impossible to describe, anyways luckily right as we got to the Gods, we happened to have an ami who lived on the left of the street and was selling stuff! He called us over and we watched a second, then suddenly he and his friend yelled at us to get inside. They shoved us through their gate and he slammed the door behind him and was locking it as the dudes with whips were pushing up against it. Ah, it was so freaky, we peeked over the wall and watched as a ton of people went by and about 9 more Gods. So apparently, what they do is if you don't give them money they will whip you. I didn't dare try to take a pic because if they see your camera, they will take it and smash it. Haha, kinda messed up right? It's like forced tithing but not from the members 😂 That or legalized burglary.
Saturday nights we got transfer calls and guess what!! I got transferred and I'm actually back in Togo right now!!! They did transfers super fast, and today I got here in Agoé. I was literally so pumped to come back to Togo. I love this country so much! The best part is that I'm in the zone of one of my last areas (Kegue), so I will be able to call and see people that I thought I would never see again! Usually with 6 months left I wouldn't come back here, but somehow I'm here and so happy! I'm working with an Elder named Elder Alla, who's from Ivory Coast and super cool.
Love y'all! Have a great week!
Elder Briggs
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