Officially in Benin

 October 14, 2019

Well, it's been 2 weeks here in the blessed country of Benin! It was definitely weird coming over and it's honestly completely different, yet the same as Togo at the same time. Here are some differences that I've noticed.

- I feel like I'm in America. There's way more big buildings and it feels way more modernized. And there are actually roads!

-Everything's more expensive.

- They speak a different native language called Fon.

- They reject money! Like half of my money is useless here. The people take your money and look at it, if it looks old or the coin is to rounded, they won't take it. 

- Their restaurant advertisements and pure deception. They have pictures of big hamburgers, pizza, and shawarma and so we go and try to order and they tell us all they sell is rice, spaghetti and tomato sauce 😂

- The streets are chuck full of motos! Anyone wearing a yellow shirt means they are a taxi driver and can pick you up. 

-They all have weird, weird names. Some examples. Omar, Onila, Stile, Anis, Nawatliette, Roc, Flouri, Marid, Urgen, etc!

Benin

I'm now with Elder Kouadio who was my chef de zone back in Togo, so we are both brand new here and it's been just great and confusing. Luckily, we've had some good members to help us and we've just been doing OVB (street contacting) everyday just finding tons of new amis! (usually here we do less street contacting and more teaching all day). 

 American visa lottery! With apparently as it says a 99.9 '"% chance of winning!

We have a baptism next Saturday of a couple who are too good to be true. The other elders had started teaching them and when we showed up and fixed baptismal dates we swear there had to be some problem. Like they weren't married, or they wanted money, or they don't come to church, but nope! They are truly golden amis. His name is Urgen and he was a pastor before the missionaries met him. After reading the Book of Mormon he gave up his profession as pastor and the church that he had and is by far the strongest ami I've met. He even does missionary work for us! Haha the best thing I like is that every time we ask him to read a scripture out loud he says "I read in the name of Jesus" so we will have to fix that. 

I would like to just share an amazing quote that I found by Joseph Smith this week! He said, "Don't climb to the extreme branches of the tree, for there is danger of falling: cling close to the trunk". In this church we have a trunk. "We have been edified on the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the key corner stone" and the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. Cling close to these things. These are the things that keep us from falling. If a member of the church will hold close to these things his whole life he will never apostatize and he will never fall inactive because he never climbed out on branches that weren't made to support him. Love y'all!

Elder Briggs 

Apparently Alma 2 is milk for babies..