Driving in Africa

"Driving in Africa is a contact sport"-President Morin

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Alexandre Magre <alexandre.magre@myldsmail.net>	Jan 25

It is also a sport where you get to tell off (and pay off the referees).

So, after seven months it finally happened. somone hit us. not a motorcycle, because that happens all the time, but an actual truck hit us. (more on that to come later)

So, this week was a lot of fun. we started off the week by going with the hedzranawoe zone to their zone activity. They went to an old slave house. It was a place where they kept the slaves until they were shipped off too "occidental" countries. It was really interesting. The poor people lived underneath the floor boards of the house. They couldnt stand up. only sit, squat or lay down. to go in, they made them crawl through little holes and live there. Upto 100 people lived there. We got to go down and crawl around underneath the floor boards. It was really cool activity. Afterwards we went to festival of glace. Elder Hanks the zone leader (who goes home next week) ate ice cream for the first time in 2 years. He cried. We have a lot of pictures. and a video.

On tuesday we had a flat tire, so we had a fun time fixing that.... we lost our car jack so fixing it was difficult. but being in africa, impossible isnt a word so we went to a guy on the street who puts air in tires and he fixed our tire! he pulled out a jack out of no where, and fixed the tire that had a massive hole.

Im not kidding when I say that nothing is impossible here.

We taught Dele. we are trying to help him get his dowry problem fixed. Elder Archer(who is next to me) just told me that we can buy whale meet on amazon. But they just recently banned it.

anyways, we taught Dele. We have been talking a lot on repentance with him.... since he has made a lot of mistakes in his life. But he is a great guy.

On wednesday President came to Togo. He is going around to talk with all of the BIshops and Branch Presidents. He is wanting to see How they are getting along with the missionaries and things like that. HE is also discussing the new plan we have as a stake/mission in TOgo. The Ward missionaries are going to have proselyting secteurs. They will find and teach investigators, then the assistants will come in and do a baptism interview to see if the people are ready. Our mission is suffering on missionaries. so, its really the only thing we can do to double our forces in TOgo. Benin, they dont have a stake (Africans say that they are to wicked... BIRTH PLACE OF VOUDOU!!!!) seriously though. In Benin people our obsessed with voudou. On the road we see people in these huge... cages? that are decorated with cloth and look really cool. they claim that an evil spirit is underneath and things like that... oh, Benin. 

Thursday was The best day, and the worst day. We went to go see a branch president in the morning. On the way there, A big truck carrying sand hit that back corner of our pickup truck! Elder Dioulo and I didnt feel a single thing. (I guess he just bumped into us) president was behind us, and said that he swerved into our lane and hit us. Then he proceeded to say that "Driving in Africa is a contact sport". True that.

Afterwards we went to the orphange that we repainted to see how they were doing. THe pastor who ran it said that the money we gave them to but wheel barrows was actually used to buy food for the kids. President then asked if they still needed food. The pastor said yes. SO, we went to the market with pastor and bought a ton of fish, And a ton of cooking oil and a few 50Kg bags of rice with some corn flour. IT was probably one of the most spiritual things that has happened so far.

I dont blame the pastor for not buying the wheelbarrows. He actually asked his staff If we should buy food, or buy the wheelbarrows.

In the afternoon a police officer pulled me over again because I kept going when the light turned yellow. (it turned yellow as soon as i got to the light. I argued with him. HE said "you ran it right in front of me" I said "you cant even see the light buddy, so you dont even know." we argued for a couple of minutes and he gave me "grace" as he said.

Friday we continued to see bishops. That was good.

On Saturday We met with the stake president. It got heated. But thats a story for when I get home...

We saw Fabrice and Paul this week. Finally... we havent been able to get a hold of them for a while, so on saturday it was nice to talk to them. they were just super busy with work, and their phones stopped working. They are actually still interested which was a huge relief for us. WE thought we were going to have to drop them, but nope!

So, my week was full of love and happiness and adventure.

I love you all.

Elder Magre