Sunday, October 18, 2015
One year!!!!
a year in review
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well. its official. last friday I hit my one year mark! its crazy. I honestly cant believe that ive already done one year on my mission. I dont know where the time has gone. It seems like yesterday I was arriving in Ghana, and watching people fight for luggage at a baggage claim.
A lot has happenend. and my point of view has changed. arriving here, I thought I was going to be teaching in african villages, and baptizing in rivers... while taking pictures of me and lions. but sadly no. I thought I was going to be serving in benin!! but, to my surprise, Im serving In togo. not even in the same country I was called too. (I could still serve in Benin though... but from what ive seen of benin, I like togo better).
But this past year I have grown to love the people here in west Africa as well the culture. I am so thankful for all of the people I have met, and for all of the friendships I have made that will last through the eternities.
I have also learned so much about rastafarianism. interesting...
so, my week itself went well.
It was really interesting because we didnt really have a car to do our... job...
so, we were working in our area!!!! it was great, we took some time to go and see some of our investigators.
So, on the 19th of september we should have three or more baptisms. we are planning and praying for five, but we never know!!!
Two of the guys we are teaching are named David and Eric. we taught them the restoration and invited them for baptism. They loved it so much, and they felt the spirit so strong that they excepted. our next rendez vous we taught them, and they invited one of their friends as well!!!
the next is amouzou. we have been working with him for a while. He is having some trouble coming to church since he lives really far, has no money, and has a serious handicap on his left leg.... but he came on sunday. so, we were really happy to see him!
So, we went to souza this last week to go pick something up. and I saw that someone that looked really familiar. She was the niece of Eric! one of my converts. He had invited her to his baptism. anyways, she was having her baptism interview. at the end of the interview, the sister missionaries asked who she wanted to baptize her, and she pointed to me!
so, i got to baptize her, and her younger brother! it was such a cool experience. I had taught the uncle, and the uncle gave me a contact that I had sent, and i was later able to baptize them. Sadly, I wasnt able to get any pictures of the baptism. but one of the sister missionaries has it, so, ill try and get it from her.
So, Later that day, we went on splits in bekpota. and i actually saw eric. He wasnt able to come to the baptism because of work. but As I was walking he pulled up next to me on his moto! I was so surprised!
overall it was a great week!
So, again, i cant believe that my mission is half way over. Its shocking.
But, Im thankful to be here. I love the work im doing, and im so thankful for all of your help and support! I Hope year number 2 will be just as great and crazy as year number 1.
With love,
Elder Magre
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Hello from Benin
Hello from cadjehoun, Benin
Hello everybody!
Its been a while. or as they say in ewe. bedeg bebe do. (and now you
reply back duog bedeg be).
well, the week is finally over. Three international transfers and lone
emergency transfer later, its finally over. I never want to deal with
that ever again. because its just exhausting. I dont think you realize
how frustrating it is to cross a boarder with a bunch of missionaries
who dont know what they are doing.
so, as for the emergency transfer, one of the new missionaries wanted
to go home, so we moved him to our apartment. qnd we kicked elder
jeneseri out. he was mad. anyways, elder Bailey is now training? I
guess he might train the new missionarie with presidents permission.
its not official. Elder Bailey is so happy though. he has never had
any responsibility before on the mission, so he is really hoping to be
able to train.
We got a baptism!!!! hooray!!!!! Fabrice was able to get baptized on
saturday. HE had his interview that morning, and then he was baptized
that afternooon. It was a little last minute with the interview, but i
knew it was going to work out. he has such a strong testimony. Lets
face it, the guy walks two hours to hear us. If he wasnt interested,
he would never do that!
ON sundqy he got up qnd bore his testimony on the church. it was so awesome!!!
Life is well though. excited for next week. President morin is coming
to togo, so we will be going to mission council with him, new trainer
meeting, a lot of splits, and a meeting with the stake president. So,
im excited.
I hope conference went well for you. Sounds like it was exciting.
three new apostles. its no longer the quorum of the 9 Apostles.
SO, I hope you guys have a great week.
Read the scriptures, go to church, pray....
love you guys,
Elder Magre
Its been a while. or as they say in ewe. bedeg bebe do. (and now you
reply back duog bedeg be).
well, the week is finally over. Three international transfers and lone
emergency transfer later, its finally over. I never want to deal with
that ever again. because its just exhausting. I dont think you realize
how frustrating it is to cross a boarder with a bunch of missionaries
who dont know what they are doing.
so, as for the emergency transfer, one of the new missionaries wanted
to go home, so we moved him to our apartment. qnd we kicked elder
jeneseri out. he was mad. anyways, elder Bailey is now training? I
guess he might train the new missionarie with presidents permission.
its not official. Elder Bailey is so happy though. he has never had
any responsibility before on the mission, so he is really hoping to be
able to train.
We got a baptism!!!! hooray!!!!! Fabrice was able to get baptized on
saturday. HE had his interview that morning, and then he was baptized
that afternooon. It was a little last minute with the interview, but i
knew it was going to work out. he has such a strong testimony. Lets
face it, the guy walks two hours to hear us. If he wasnt interested,
he would never do that!
ON sundqy he got up qnd bore his testimony on the church. it was so awesome!!!
Life is well though. excited for next week. President morin is coming
to togo, so we will be going to mission council with him, new trainer
meeting, a lot of splits, and a meeting with the stake president. So,
im excited.
I hope conference went well for you. Sounds like it was exciting.
three new apostles. its no longer the quorum of the 9 Apostles.
SO, I hope you guys have a great week.
Read the scriptures, go to church, pray....
love you guys,
Elder Magre
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Interesting!!!
you have no idea what i've been through this week.
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yup, its been one of those weeks. one of those weeks where you want to crack open a nice cold malta, sit back, and think about how sweet life is. (because maltas are kind of gross, and they help you realize that... although, i do like maltas though)
so, you remember how last week i explained that someone stole our side view mirrors? well we got those fixed. how? hehe...
so, on monday, Blaise (a member who works for the mission, and takes care of apartment, visa, car, stuff) takes us to Mitsubishi to get our side view mirrors. we get there, and they tell us they dont have any more. so, now what do we do. we are stuck driving in west africa with no side view mirrors. i mean, its not like people use those anyways, so why do we need them. so, we start driving back home, contemplating what will happen next. thats when i see Blaise talking to a guy on the street. If you guys knew blaise, you would understand that this togolese man doesnt take no for an answer. so, blaise is talking to this guy. thats when blaise tells us take the next righ and park on the side of the road. When we do, the guy who Blaise was talking too, grabs a piece of paper, and starts to trace the frame of our side view mirrors. then he grabs a big mirror, and starts cutting it out, in the shape of our mirrors. Great idea!!! now how is he going to stick it on... thats when he starts stuffing paper in the frame, and glues the mirror to the frame.... Blaise, you are a genius...
now, do the side view mirrors work? well, its better than nothing i guess. i do have a massive blind spot on the right side, but like i said its better than nothing. and hey, it keeps the cops away!!!
on tuesday we went to ablogames district meeting, and we fixed some problems over there. the sister missionaries have a really bad relation with the members. but, thats because they chastized them during sacrament meeting....
wednesday we had our first of three zone confrences. We started with tokoin, my old zone. president morin wanted to go to every zone individually to help motivate the missionaries, and fix problems according to that zone. the overall theme was motivation, and fasting. missionaries really need to get motivated here, so i think it helped a lot.
on thursda we had our second zone confrence this time for hedzranawoe. again, same type of stuff, but more on what that zone needed to hear.
so, wednesday we needed to print out some stuff but our printer ran out of ink. so on thursday Elder Dioulo and i went to go find ink... im going to ask you all a very serious question. Where do you find ink (more specifically HP 950 xl ink), in west africa? really think about that one...
so, our first thought was, lets go to a super market! a lot of white people go there, they must have ink. WRONG!!!! so, we drove to every supermarket in lome, to find no ink. then we went to the Grand Marché.... so, note to anyone who plans on driving in west africa, dont take a massive pick up truck into the the Grand Marché. very very small roads, that are packed with people, and motorcycles parked everywhere, and its just awful... but, in the mist of this chaos, we find a place that sells ink, so we go inside, and they sell ink!!!! HP ink!!!! but sadly they dont have 950 or 950xl printer ink. so, we begin the process again, driving through the marché, honking really load, to tell the lady selling Plantaines to move!!! and we find another place that sells HP ink! and again, nothing. Finally after the 5th time,3 hours later, we find Hp 950xl printer ink in west africa. and we didnt buy it! why? because the guy wanted to sell it to us for 80 dollars, and it was kind of a shady deal... so, finally we called a guy who works for the church here, and he told us that he would order our ink for us.... why didnt we just do that in the first place? I dont know. the thought came after we left the cavern of little boutiques selling knock off Nike shoes, and ladies selling tomatoes and onions on their heads...
so, on friday we had the last zone conference with Bekpota. that went well, it was the same kind of thing.
we taught fabrice, lodonou, and eric this week. Fabrice got the priesthood today, so we had a great lesson on that. Eric blessed the sacrament for the first time today, and lodonou fixed his baptism date for november 7th!!! he still has an alcohol problem. he was drunk at our last rendez vous.... but we are keeping him in our prayers, and hoping that everything goes well with him.
We were able to fix two baptism dates with a new investigator named Reine. she is actually our next door neighbor, so we dont have to walk very far! haha. her brother also excepted baptism.
President Morin showed us a new way to invite people to be baptized. He explained how we concentrate to much on the date, but not enough on the first engagement. which is "will you to pray to know if our message is true" he explained how focus the baptism invitation, on that phrase. and the strategy works.
lastly, i finished the book of mormon again. its still true. READ IT!!! If you haven't already, i recommend you do. If you have, read it again!!!!
so, i love you guys, and hope all goes well back at home.
remember 1.make shift side view mirrors work
2. dont drive big trucks into the Grand Marché
3.Focus on prayer
Love you guys,
Elder Magré
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Monday, September 14, 2015
Another week
Week number.... i lost count at week 2
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Hello,
so, its been a pretty boring week. not going to lie. nothing to
interesting or exciting happened here in togo.
so, those five baptisms... yeah, its going to be more like 2. So,
turns out one of our Amis, lodonou, has an alcohol problem. we figured
this out when he showed up to one of our lessons drunk. the good
thing, is that we had planned to teach the word of wisdom that day.
His good friends are going to be baptized(Eric, and David) but not
lodonou. if he stops drinking, we will baptize him.
Gladys, is another lady we were suppose to baptize, but she is leaving
for the village next week for her daughters wedding. She kind of has
her own problems too. the famous dowry. but, she was married in Ghana.
so, In ghana, the dowry is legal marriage. if you are married
traditionally, then you are also married by the state too. the problem
is that she has no paperwork to actually prove that she was married...
I hate, hate, hate the dowry. Again, we cant baptize her because of
paperwork.
Amouzou, still hasnt come to church. every week its the same problem.
He says he is coming, but he doesnt. I wish there was something we
could do! He is too poor, to get at taxi, and he is handicapped, so
the distance would be to far for him to walk.
So, I got a question last week about what I actually do in the office.
So, my job is a little bit different that what the office elders in
benin do. I work on all of the missionaries travel documentation. I
also, am in charge of keeping track of all of the money the church
spends for the mission in togo and making sure the mission has money
to spend in togo. I look at every receipt, and all of the despense
sheets, where I classify them by date, and put it on a working fund,
that i send to my mission president, who then sends it to ghana.
Ghana then processes the paiment, and I go and look to see if the
money is in the bank account. If its not (which is common thanks to
the african banking system) I go, and yell at the bank, and tell them
to give us our money!!! Its actually kind of fun. I also drive around
dropping off brochures and other missionary supplies to the
missionaries. And then I get to help my comp with all of his stuff
too. its all very exciting.
But, im not going to lie, There I times where i have no idea what im
doing. but its a learning experience.... or something like that.
this next week is going to be super exciting though. president is
going to be going to togo for interviews, so we are going to driving
around lome for the next week, and helping president. so, im excited.
I hope you all have a great week.
Love you
Alex
so, its been a pretty boring week. not going to lie. nothing to
interesting or exciting happened here in togo.
so, those five baptisms... yeah, its going to be more like 2. So,
turns out one of our Amis, lodonou, has an alcohol problem. we figured
this out when he showed up to one of our lessons drunk. the good
thing, is that we had planned to teach the word of wisdom that day.
His good friends are going to be baptized(Eric, and David) but not
lodonou. if he stops drinking, we will baptize him.
Gladys, is another lady we were suppose to baptize, but she is leaving
for the village next week for her daughters wedding. She kind of has
her own problems too. the famous dowry. but, she was married in Ghana.
so, In ghana, the dowry is legal marriage. if you are married
traditionally, then you are also married by the state too. the problem
is that she has no paperwork to actually prove that she was married...
I hate, hate, hate the dowry. Again, we cant baptize her because of
paperwork.
Amouzou, still hasnt come to church. every week its the same problem.
He says he is coming, but he doesnt. I wish there was something we
could do! He is too poor, to get at taxi, and he is handicapped, so
the distance would be to far for him to walk.
So, I got a question last week about what I actually do in the office.
So, my job is a little bit different that what the office elders in
benin do. I work on all of the missionaries travel documentation. I
also, am in charge of keeping track of all of the money the church
spends for the mission in togo and making sure the mission has money
to spend in togo. I look at every receipt, and all of the despense
sheets, where I classify them by date, and put it on a working fund,
that i send to my mission president, who then sends it to ghana.
Ghana then processes the paiment, and I go and look to see if the
money is in the bank account. If its not (which is common thanks to
the african banking system) I go, and yell at the bank, and tell them
to give us our money!!! Its actually kind of fun. I also drive around
dropping off brochures and other missionary supplies to the
missionaries. And then I get to help my comp with all of his stuff
too. its all very exciting.
But, im not going to lie, There I times where i have no idea what im
doing. but its a learning experience.... or something like that.
this next week is going to be super exciting though. president is
going to be going to togo for interviews, so we are going to driving
around lome for the next week, and helping president. so, im excited.
I hope you all have a great week.
Love you
Alex
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One year!!!
a year in review
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well. its official. last friday I hit my one year mark! its crazy. I honestly cant believe that ive already done one year on my mission. I dont know where the time has gone. It seems like yesterday I was arriving in Ghana, and watching people fight for luggage at a baggage claim.
A lot has happenend. and my point of view has changed. arriving here, I thought I was going to be teaching in african villages, and baptizing in rivers... while taking pictures of me and lions. but sadly no. I thought I was going to be serving in benin!! but, to my surprise, Im serving In togo. not even in the same country I was called too. (I could still serve in Benin though... but from what ive seen of benin, I like togo better).
But this past year I have grown to love the people here in west Africa as well the culture. I am so thankful for all of the people I have met, and for all of the friendships I have made that will last through the eternities.
I have also learned so much about rastafarianism. interesting...
so, my week itself went well.
It was really interesting because we didnt really have a car to do our... job...
so, we were working in our area!!!! it was great, we took some time to go and see some of our investigators.
So, on the 19th of september we should have three or more baptisms. we are planning and praying for five, but we never know!!!
Two of the guys we are teaching are named David and Eric. we taught them the restoration and invited them for baptism. They loved it so much, and they felt the spirit so strong that they excepted. our next rendez vous we taught them, and they invited one of their friends as well!!!
the next is amouzou. we have been working with him for a while. He is having some trouble coming to church since he lives really far, has no money, and has a serious handicap on his left leg.... but he came on sunday. so, we were really happy to see him!
So, we went to souza this last week to go pick something up. and I saw that someone that looked really familiar. She was the niece of Eric! one of my converts. He had invited her to his baptism. anyways, she was having her baptism interview. at the end of the interview, the sister missionaries asked who she wanted to baptize her, and she pointed to me!
so, i got to baptize her, and her younger brother! it was such a cool experience. I had taught the uncle, and the uncle gave me a contact that I had sent, and i was later able to baptize them. Sadly, I wasnt able to get any pictures of the baptism. but one of the sister missionaries has it, so, ill try and get it from her.
So, Later that day, we went on splits in bekpota. and i actually saw eric. He wasnt able to come to the baptism because of work. but As I was walking he pulled up next to me on his moto! I was so surprised!
overall it was a great week!
So, again, i cant believe that my mission is half way over. Its shocking.
But, Im thankful to be here. I love the work im doing, and im so thankful for all of your help and support! I Hope year number 2 will be just as great and crazy as year number 1.
With love,
Elder Magre
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Thursday, September 3, 2015
A crazy week
Its been a CRAZY week at the office!!!
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OH man, I honestly dont know how to tell you guys how much fun ive had this week.absurd.its been a fantastic week!
So, On monday we drove to benin. We got there, had our office meeting, and then just hung out at the office all day. I got to meet the new missionaries. They came to do the trainer/trainee meeting. New missionaries are so funny! Its just so awesome to see how enthusiastic they are about the work! Anyways, president announced that on thursday we were going to go to kpalimé again with him! So, we were super excited!
Tuesday, we went back to togo. nothing to exciting
on Wednesday we had a training for all of the District leaders, and taught them the importance or what they have to do.
ok, now the fun part. Kpalimé with president. so, Elder dih, teaupa, merrill, and me, wake up super excited to go to kpalimé. And president calls us and tells us that we are going in missionary clothing. We were kind of mad because well... kpalimé is a little to rugged to be wearing our missionary clothing. but we went with it.
So, we drove to kpalimé and went to the first waterfall, the same ones I had been before. It was cool. we had a lot of fun.
Then we went to waterfall number 2 (this is where it gets crazy. so, we driving up a mountain. the road is super narrow, and its a sheer cliff on one side of the road, and its of course dirt and rocks. but we made it safely up this mountain. we get there, and it starts pouring rain. Super duper hard! We walk a little way to like a visitor thing, where a bunch of white guys are living. They make chocolate and stuff like that.
So, its pouring rain, and the guide takes us to see the waterfall. so we start walking through the rain in our missionary clothing THROUGH AN AFRICAN VILLAGE BUILT IN THE MOUNTAINS (mud huts and everything) to go see a waterfall.
The waterfall was amazing. so cool. It was really big, and it was just outstanding.
on the way back to the visitor place we had to walk through rivers, and climb over dead trees (in our missionary clothes). so, we got back wet, and super excited about what had just happened.
Then we drove down the mountain. I thought I was going to die. The road was now muddy, and it was still super narrow. and water was flying off the mountain.
towards the bottom of the mountain we stopped to see a third waterfall.
And you guys wont believe what we saw.
So first we heard a noise. the guide said that they were CHIMPANZEES!!!!!!! and then we saw them in the trees jumping around. they were way to far away to get a good look at them, but you could still see the figures and them moving around in the trees!!!!
How awesome is that!!!
But, my day wasnt over.
The brakes on our truck broke. just enough to get us back to lomé... safely
so, Im not going to lie, I have the best mission in the world. Africa is crazy, and I love it.
I hope you all have a great week! I love you all,
Elder Magré
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