I played Rugby

yed rugby in africa!!! and it was fantastic

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Now, it wasnt tackle. I would of loved that. But we did play a lot of touch rugby. It was a lot of fun. it feels good.

so, another week has ended, and a new one is starting! where to start!

On tuesday i had a flash back to my old togo office days. So, now the zone funds have to cover all of the missionaries medical transport, and utilities bills, so tuesday morning, Elder Arek, Elder Mukendi and I got in a taxi and went and dropped off the money the missionaries needed, and we picked up the stuff we had too.

I had a really special experience though this last week! One of my converts (david from kelegougan) called! I actually called him back since phone calls are expensive. It was so awesome. I talked to him and Lodonou, another convert in kelegougan who had an alcohol problem. It was so great. but, i got kind of uncomfortable because they wouldnt stop thanking me! I honestly didnt do a whole lot... I dont think my converts realize how much they helped me! They changed my life! They helped convert me more to the gospel! it was awesome.

we had interviews with president this week. He did ours as an apartment. he was going to do them as companionships, but since we are three in the apartment, and elder mukendis mini missionary was sick, we did it just us three. It went well.

we had a lot of great lessons this last week. Wilfred is still progressing really well, and Lamisse also. she just needs to come to church! she is scared to ask her boss to let her off work to come.

so life is good here in menontin. Im now in my last few weeks, and im trying to make it to the end. one day at a time.

I love you all!

Elder Magre

Benin

Welcome to the good life

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	Jun 20

Afon gan gia? Its been another week here in benin. a lot happened this week. but, it was good.

So, last monday after writing home last monday We left for jericho to do a split overthere. I worked with elder MIller, and his companion came and worked with Elder Arek. 

Jericho is cool. a lot of muslims... seriously, everyone is muslim. I remember arriving in Akpakpa and being like "wow, everyone here is muslim" but Jericho wins. It was good though, I went to the district meeting, and then we went and ate at festival de glace in jericho. we ate pizza and ice cream and had big smiles on our faces.

on wednesday and thursday it was just a basic day in the area. we taught Esther and prepared her for her baptism. so, that was nice.

We did another split in fidjrosse also. I worked with elder hansen here in menontin and elder arek left for fidjrosse with elder adjo. so, we've done a lot of splits this week. but, it mixes things up... 

Esthers baptism went well. she invited her friend Fatima which was good.

Elder Mukendi baptized severain, who was one of my investigators in zogbo. so, that was great to see him baptized.

Life is good though. we are still working hard, and trying to persevere. elder arek and I both go home in less than three months.... so, we are trying to persevere at this point.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

bybye looo

Back to Togo

The promise land

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well, im back in togo!!! HOORAY!!!!! oh, how i missed this little
country! and how it has changed so much in five months! i love you
togo!!! But, like ive said before, Benin and Togo are strangly
different. Togo is seriously a villiage!!!
So, i found out who my companion is! It is the one, and only Elder
Bretherton! in case you forgot, elder bretherton trained me to work in
the togo office, and was the benin office elder while i was in the
togo office! we are having a lot of fun, but are working hard in the
secteur.
Im working in doumasséssé. they kicked the sister missionaries out,
and put in elders, so we have been a little lost for the past week
because we didnt even know how the areas where divided. its been
getting better though. Our DMP has been a hugh help for us. we are
locating where invistigators, live, and our getting used to our way
around Doumasséssé. its actually a pretty big secteur, that is kind of
close to the ghana boarder. its funny because Doumasséssé is  next to
kodjoviakopé (my first secteur) and wuiti (my second sectuer). so
visiting converts and members shouldn't be too difficult. One of my
old investigators is coming to church here in Doumassésse, (he was
never baptized because of his marriage problem) so, we are going to
start teaching him again.
its weird, because I know almost all of the members here in
doumassesse. When the members saw me they said "youre still here? we
thought you were done"... nope, just 3 more weeks!!! hahaha!!!!
So, today We had a zone activity to kpalimé! It was fun! kpalimé is
north of lomé, and has awesome waterfalls! it was my fourth time
going, so, that was fun!
so, thats been my week!
I love you guys so much!
Elder Magre

photos

photos

Sunny day

Welcome to my sunny day!!!

Akon got the weather right, its sunny. and its hot... we went out today to do something at noon, and when i walked out, I got a chuck norris style round house kick to the face from the sun. Its hot. like really hot. but its all in a days work. 

I am loving menontin with Arek. Seriously, im working with one of my best mission friends and it is so much fun! we are working hard, and have a ton of fun. I love my nigerian companion. i really do. But the weird part is that we are 3 in our apartment. so, we are at times (like right now) in an awkward tripanionship. but, its nice when the member comes and picks up elder mukendi.

a lot went ont his week. Wednesday night, we left to pick up elder miller in jericho for a split. afterwards, we went and picked up Elder Harevaa (who is working with a mini missionary) to come and be a part of this split. (the mission wants elder arek and I to keep a little eye on him since he is almost done). then thursday, we had a great split.we taught a good amount, and elder miller showed me more of the area. afterwards we went and brought them back to their apartments and i picked up elder arek.

so, thats the only really exciting thing that happened.

Our area is pretty good. we have a lot of investigators, but none that are really going to progress because of marriage problems... as usual.

 but we should be baptizing a girl named esther in a few weeks. so, that will be exciting. 

I love you all, and i hope you have a great week!

akpé loooo

elder magre

1.picture of Elder arek. my current companion. you should already know him

2. me with elder mukendi (old comp)

3. and me in my new area

rain or sun!!!!!

I dont know whats worse. the sun, or the rain.

 

 

Hello! 

Its hot and then the rain comes it gets really wet. I dont know which one I like. Oh rainy season. You hate us so much. but thats okay. 

I think the worst part of rainy season is the flooded roads. There really is no escaping getting wet.

The week went well. We found a ton of new investigators, and we had a baptism. Loriveil got baptized. Her testimony freaked us out a little bit though. she said "i felt the evil spirits leave me" (remember that here in benin  VooDoo is a big deal... and totally a real thing). haha. life is going well.

So, we did splits for most of the week actually. I worked with Elder Arek on tuesday in Menontin. We went to the far part of the secteur. it was fun. I love arek, We spent 6 months in togo with each other, and now 3 months here in benin. 

On Wednesday i worked with elder miller in zogbo, and that was great. we had a good time. We taught some good lessons and ate some chawarmas. 

So, we started teaching a guy named olivier from Chad. Sadly the church isnt in chad, but he is really interested, and loves the things we are teaching him.

so, there really isnt to much to say about this week.

Just know that I love you all!

Akpélooo!

Elder Magré

Another week

Just say Yes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

,there is a tabacco company here called  "just say yes" so, when i teach the word of wisdom I tell them to "Just say no". It takes them a tew seconds to understand the joke, but they get it eventually.

It was so great to talk to you yesterday Mother and Father! sounds like everything is going well.

so, the week went well. I love my new companion he is the motivation i need. seriously. He is ready to work hard and i love it. He's a great guy.

this week we fixed a lot of baptismal dates, and have planned to fix a ton more. we've also found a two new families, and one of them came to church this week! so, that is always a great sign. 

Thursday morning i went and did a split with elder miller. He came to show me where some of the members live in my area. No wonder i dont know where any of them live... they live far. wow. but, its not that bad.  I got to meet a new inactive family here in our area. They love the church, the wife just has some problems with the former primary president... and former branch president... and a lot of the leaders. but now that we are a ward, and they have all been realesed, she says that she will come. so, we will be working with her and her husband a lot. 

My companion had his birthday last week, we went out and ate some rabbit! it was really good, then we had a birthday cake.

so, we went and taught one of my converts floride. we asked her if she had started to read the book of mormon. she said no... but as we looked at the pages we saw that she had marked a lot of verses. well turns out, she read a lot of the book of mormon, more, than we had left her to read! and she understood everything!

so, everything is going well here!

love you all!

Elder Magré

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les baptemes

My week without a companion

my week without a companion... it was so, refreshing!           now I wasnt left a lone during this last week, but it was transfer week. Elder Kadima left tuesday, and my companion Elder Mukendi wasnt coming till saturday afternooon. so, i was stuck with two of my favorite people. Elder Arek and Elder Miller, my good apartment mates. It was actually a lot of fun. I worked with them in the mornings, and then i had a Fr. Joseph, a member who is preparing to serve a mission come work with me in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Fr. Joseph is Elder millers convert. (Elder miller has served here in menontin for almost 14 months now. he started his mission here, then was transfered, then came back. so hes a lucky guy. Anyways, during one of morning splits we found this new restaurant opening in my area, so we wanted to go see it. only to realize that there is a full on arcade built in! so that was fun, but we just played some billiards and ate some pretty fantastic chawarmas. We actually just had a zone activity there. Ive became pretty good at playing billiards. But, elder Mukendi finally came on saturday. I was happy to have my companion, but i was sad to finally have a companion again... I was really enjoying this tripanionship that we had for a couple of days. Elder Mukendi my new companion is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Just my last two companions. I actually really like him. HE isnt like most congolese people who are loud, but he keeps to himself for the most part.  I actually knew him back when I was in togo. We had done a few splits with each other back when i was in the togo office. Dieu-donné got confirmed yesterday. that was fantastic, and our branch became a ward yesterday. They called the new bishop. so, its been a pretty great week. I love you all so much, and hope you have a fantastic week! Love you, Elder magré

Voodoo!!!

my run in with voodoo. its actually pretty cool

 

 

 

 

and more revenants pictures

they actually came twice to haunt people. the second time though they came with friends

Audrey, you are going to love this email just  because i watched some revenants chase after a guy. 

Benin is known for voodoo. and saturday at our baptism (before it started) we heard a bunch of drums playing, and we look out and see revenants! a revenants is an evil spirit believed to have come back to haunt people and ask people for money (because evil spirits need money). and so we took pictures and watched these evil spirits chase people and watched beninois people run away. its a lot of fun. luckly, i was on a roof, and they were not able to see me. but, they only go after people who provoke them, if you just ignore them, and talk back to them they leave you alone.

so, that was exciting. but yes, we had 2 baptisms again this week. Yannick, and Mama Houndjo both got baptized. My comp Elder Kadima did the baptizing. It was a great service. the spirit was there (that could also be why the revenants didnt bother us at all) 

After the baptisms they got up and bore powerful testimonies. They where both so prepared by the lord! They were both so happy to be baptized and join their families. next step though is the temple.

So, its been a really great week.

We had a mission council with president this last week. He talked about some problems that the mission is facing. President morin talked about how a lot of missionaries have Cell phones... and nice ones too. It was really good.

I went to immigration... That was interesting. here in benin they give out three month visas unlike togo which gives out 1 year visas. so, that was fun. I have to go back tomorrow to pick up my visa. 

so, it was fun. We taught some great lessons, made some new amis. so, im happy.

I love you all,

Elder Magre

this is a picture of a revenants. 

and Armande's baptism from a while ago (from when i had malaria)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenants and Voodoo!!!!

Photos Benin Voodoo and Baptism