Follow me to Kinshasa!!!!!

follow me to Kinshasa if you want to speak Lingala

 

 

Hello everyone,

I dont speak lingala, so, im not even going to try.

i dont even know where to begin! this week has been a really great week, and really productive!

So, on tuesday We drove back to Togo. just so everyone knows, Lome is a village. it a giant village. but, its a good place! When we got back to togo, we went to the embassy so i could get pages added to my passport. Elder Dioulo was loving it. He got to go into the embassy and it was something that he had never experienced before. We get into the embassy and they have us show our passports, and turn off our phones, and give them to security. then we had to go through multiple metal dectors and so on and so forth. Elder Dioulo had a little taste of the united states.

Anyways, after going through what felt like airport security, they gave me a piece of paper, and told me to set an appointment set. so, wednesday i went back to the embassy, and had my appointment and got pages added. but i needed to go back on thursday to pick it up... so, they know me really well at the embassy now.

so, Do you remember how last year I went to an orphanage for a service activity? well, we are doing it again this year. so wednesday morning elder Dioulo and I drove to the Orphange and talked to the pastor who runs it to see if he would be okay with it. which he was! It was cool. 

So, wednesday night I had one of those moments where I just couldnt take it anymore... We had a great lesson with the okuy family (which i'll explain a little bit later) and we went to go teach a lady named laura. we drove up to her house, and i saw a couple guys who looked like some bandits. So, i decided to turn on the car alarm. Which i never do... So laura wasnt home. We turn around and I try to turn off the alarm. and it doesnt turn off. so, i try again. again nothing. we couldnt turn off the car alarm... but we had our next appointment not to far away, so we got in the car and drove off with the car while the car alarm is going off. so, now everyone in kelegougan thinks we stole the car... 

we show up to our bishops house, and now David and Eric ask us if we stole our own car. so, we locked the car, and the alarm stopped, but it was still activated. so, we went in and sang some hymns with David, Eric and our bishop. during this whole time, im super frustrated and angry. After singing a couple hymns and praying to have god let the car disappear or to have the alarm problem stop, i had the feeling that everything was going to be okay. and so i thought that ment that i was going to go outside, and that car alarm wasnt going to be set.. which i was wrong. we go outside, and again same problems. we are stealing our car. We were going to bring the car to blaise (the guy who fixes missionnaries problems) because he has an extra pair of keys, so, he could turn off the car alarm. but, if we drive the car the way it is, a police officer is going to stop us and arrest us. Then i had the feeling that I needed to open the hood of the car. when I did, we found the place where the noise comes out of. so what did we do? we cut the wires! so, now the sound is gone, but the alarm is still on. but now we dont have a car alarm going off, so people wont think that we stole the car anymore. from there we go to blaise is house, and he was able to get it to stop. 

So, everything worked out! God heard my prayer! Hooray!

on thursday we went to teach in agoe, but we got super lost. but, hey, we got to our rendez vous an hour late! but thats not a big deal because thats almost on time here!

we saw dele... He smokes.... So, just a little bump in the road, but it will all work out.. 

So, we had a great lesson with the Okuy Family. We talked about the apostasy and the restoration. After the lesson brother Okuy and sister happiness where smiling! the spirit was super strong during that lesson!

on saturday we went back to Agoe! this time,  we were on time, so, we were able to have a great lesson!

this week we taught a lot of lessons! which is a huge blessing for us! We have a lot of baptism dates set, we got a lot of member referals, and a lot of new investigators! so our sectuer is moving now! we have a secteur!!!! hoooray!!!!

Thanks for everything you guys do for me! it means a lot!

car alarms are probably the worst invention ever!

I love you guys,

Elder Magre

 

 

Ice cream/sushi.....

sushi, ice cream and twister.... and thats only the beginning of the week...

 

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Hello!

So, on monday we went to benin and had our office meeting. afterwards we went and got sushi... which was really good. then we to a super market and got ice cream. and then we played twister. Elder Teaupa is a cheater by the way because he was totally uisng his weight against me.

So, as some of you may know, elder vinson of the seventy cqme for a mission tour. so, for the past couple weeks we have been planning and planning and praying that everything will go smoothly.

On tuesday we drove back to Togo to get everything planned. we actually had a meeting with president at his Hotel about all the little important details that needed to get done. one of those things was that we need to find elder Vinson a hotel room. all of the hotels near president were full, so we needed to go and find him a hotel. so, that was cool. 

One of the things elder Vinson requested was a room where him and his wife, after the zone confrence they could eat in private with president. so, afterwards we went and helped the member we hired to make and decorate the room. It was really nice by the way. Sister Vinson LOVED it.

so, on wednesday elder vinson arrived. but he didnt come till the afternnoon, so in the morning we went and picked up president and took him to go see a bishop. President morin wants to meet with all of the bishops and branch presidents in lome to see how the relationship between the members and missionaries are.

afterwards we dropped president off at the hotel. he then gave me the keys to his car and asked to go get it washed. IT was really weird driving an automatic car.... i was so lost! You have no control!!!!

so, elder vinson came in the afternoon. we dropped him off at his hotel and then we went to the zone confrence. I got to translate again! The zone confrence was a success! And the spirit was so strong. Elder vinson gave us a lot of really good advice, and helped us to really understand our objective. He said something that stuck out to all of us. he said that when we fix a baptism date with someone we dont fix one. but two. He explained how we need them to realize that their baptism isnt just for them, but its also for their ancestors, and even their kids. It helped us realize the more eternal perspective of our work. He talked a lot about our companionship study, and how its actually three people that are studying, not two. us, our comp, and the holy ghost.

so, it was a great! we loved how everything went smoothly!

in the morning we had leadership council. Really great advice. He came to realize that our mission is forgotten by the inter region. That we have a shortage of missionaries.... like really bad... we have had to close a lot of areas. so, it helped a lot.

we were able to teach a lot... the okuy family will hopefully be getting baptized on saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

brother Okuy shared some concerns about how he has already been baptized and how his kids are too young... but we brought over brother frank. a nigerian whos family used to be neighbors with the okuy. brother Frank was baptized about a month ago. He shared his situation. He taught the lesson. we said nothing, and the spirit tesitified that it was true!!!! it was fantastic! 

We taught dele again this week. He came to church and actually stayed the full three hours. He admitted to us that he smokes, but he is going to stop.

som everything is going well.

interesting experience, pozer cut out yesterday while i was in the shower. its like the worst experience possible. you are just so lost. you dont know what to do!

anyways, i love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Magre

Halloween!!

it was halloween this week, and my oldest son, now has one year on his mission. (elder teaupa is my fils). They dont celebrate haloween here. its poor, and people cant spend money on candy to give to children. (and people would rather have the money, then candy in all honesty) the average togolese person lives on 200 francs a day. thats about 45 cents. so, you can imagine. they monthly salary for a police officer is 120 dollars a month. and they have to pay housing, food, and other necessities for there families.

i celebrated it with elder bailey, the american i live with. (i was acutally in the mtc with him). we put on our boumbas and ate candy in our living room and talked about how next year we will be back home!

dad said he did some research on how i want to go into addiction recovery. it sounds like its going to be a lot of work! haha, but ive come to realize that it is something i love doing. I want a career where i will be able to help people. my patriarchal blessing says that i will have a profession where i will help many people with their pains and sorrows. so, i think that is what i need to go into.

Honk!!!

right of way? LOL!!! honk the horn and hit the gas!

 

 

 

 

 

stop signs? Red lights? 

hello family and friends,

Its rainy season, and driving just got interesting! why? because now the roads are flooded!!!! hooray!!! so im no longer driving the Togo Mobile, but now, im captain of a beautiful boat.... now obviously some roads are better than others, but today when i was picking up president morin to take him to the airport we got drop him off at the airport, we got to drive threw a huge... deep puddle....

some good stuff is going on though here in togo. We are opening a gospel class at a local university here. we have a lot of our investigators, and converts, and a lot of members from all over togo who go to school there. We think its going to help us get a lot of new contacts, and get people intrested quickly. "teach why you find, and find while you teach". so, that class will help us do exactly that. The class started last week, and we had a couple of our investigators show up. we just need to find a time where a lot of students are on campus, but a time when they arent in class. so, its going to be difficult, but they were saying wednesdays work best.

on wednesday the bank called and said that our account didnt have enough money on it. so, i was running around trying to figure out what happened. turns out, ghana wasnt notified that we needed to pay rent for certain apartments... so that ended up cleaning out our bank account... but its all figured out now. hopefully. 

We were able to go and teach délé twice this last week. it was awesome! we taught him about prophets, and about christ and how he organized a church. He is progressing really well! he finally excepted a baptism date for the 28th of this month!!! he is a tough guy, who is hard to convince, but the spirt is starting to soften his heart, and he is starting to change. He said a really sincere prayer at the end of the lesson to know if the chruch is true. He also came to church! he said it was long, so he left third hour.... but, its progress though. 

we taught eric, and david this week. Lodonou probably isnt going to get baptized this week since we could smell alcohol on him at our last lesson. its just a little stummbling block, but we are going to be even more blunt and clear with him. maybe intervention number 2 will do the trick?

We went and taught a new guy named akouete. he lives really really far, in a place called agoe. there arent missionaries there, but the mission is going to send some soon. We drive there, and he explained how he just isnt intrested in our church. so, it was kind of a bummer, but thats okay i guess.

we are finally out of our old office. our temporary office is in the stake center... in the Hedzranwoe ward secretary office.... we put our computers here, until the internet is set up in our new and improved office that doesnt smell of mold, and that isnt about to collapse on top of us!!! 

so, the week has been good. Im happy, and healthy. and in africa that right there is a huge blessing.

I hope you all have a great week,

i love you all,

Elder Mahgray