orphanage in Africa

Alex works in an orphanage

Hello 2016

hello. 2016!!!!!!! man oh man, its finally here

 

 

I dont know where to start! its been a pretty crazy week here in West Africa! I hope you all had a great new years and had a lot of fun! i know I did!!!

So, on monday we were supposed to come down to Benin to do some planning and other stuff. But right before we were about to leave we got a phone call saying that something came up and that we were no longer needed. so, Monday turned into the Bruno Mars song "today i swear im not doing anything!" because besides laundry, and cleaning, and going to do a little office work, we literally did nothing.

tuesday was really awesome. We taught Dele on obedience... which turned into another conversation about why Alcohol and Pot are not good. But he is making an effort to stop. but, its all in a days work. 

We taught Fabrice and Paul about chastity. (With new years coming up, we wanted to let all of our investigators know that "these are the things that they should do") I know they understood.

We met up with the Eastwards, a family from nigeria that was just recently baptized, and we watched the movie on how the church started in Nigeria. They loved it! It was awesome.

Wednesday we taught dele again... He didnt get the message about Pot because his Hat had a big pot plant on it.... maybe next time.

Something exciting! we Brought a sick sister missionary to the hospital! 

So, The 31st was a massive party. We tried teaching our investigator Fabrice again at the church, but the stake center was having a huge party. which we assisted because fabrice, paul, and dele attended! it was a lot of fun! the primary children dressed in traditional outfits and did traditional dancing to some african pop music.

the 1st we went to blaise's house in the village in Djagble. so that was fun.

SOm one of the sister missionaries (different sister than before) got sick and we had to take here to the hospital. well I got sick the same day. Like pretty bad. So, having to take care of the sister, while being sick. was not fun. But, Its all in a days work.

sunday, we went to church then back to the apartment because i was sick.... still.

Now i feel better, and im in benin!

So, that was my week in a nutshell!

I love you all,

Ill see you guys later this year!

Elder Magre

Party!!!!

party!! hooray!!!

 

Alexandre Magre

 

Hello Family!

How are you! I feel soooo much better. so, i finally figured out what was wrong with me. I had a bacteria in my stomach!!! yeah, africa is seriously trying to kill me.

So, this week was actually pretty good. we had a really good time. and We were able to work out a lot of stuff.

so, a few weeks ago (when we made the two trips to benin because of an incident that happened) I went into presidents morin office and he told me that I was going to be transfered at the end of this transfer. He has asked me to start training Elder Jorgensen because he will be one that is replacing me!! so, Im finally going to be out of the Togo Office! hooray!! In all honesty though, and as weird as it may sound, im going to miss it. Ive honestly learned a lot, and ive grown as a missionary. Plus Its getting Hot. and i mean HOT!!!! Yup, its finally the Hot season, and its only getting to get hotter. So, im getting out of the air conditioned car, and into the scolding hot west african sun... so, Im excited. In all honesty, i think im going to die of heat exhaustion.  haha. I am going to miss paying off police officers though. Thats elder Jorgensens problem now! haha!! sucker. (The other day he asked me to show him how we have to do it)

So, this week went well. On tuesday Elder Dioulo took me out to festival de Glace, an ice cream shop/restaurant that is super expensive. (its usually filled with white people) So, truth is Elder Dioulo and I had a rough time together. we got along for the most part, but we had our difficulties. In all honesty he kind of let his calling as an assistant get to his head a little bit, so he was really mean, and hard on the missionaries. But, after a zone leader (and president) called him out on it, he made a huge change. and it got better ever since, and he actually became somewhat cool. 

Anyways, he took me to the restaurant and kind of apologized for being so difficult on me and having been at times a jerk. He was actually Sad that he isnt going to be able to finish his mission with me (He goes him in two months... and im transfered.) In all honesty, I really did like working with elder dioulo. That guy knows the bible like the back of his hand. And in all honesty, we get along great now! We got along before, but we werent the "best of friends" but this past little while, he has been making an effort to change.

so, on wendesday we did some office work. President is coming to togo so we needed to Call some of the bishops. President wants t meet with all of the bishops here in togo to explain the missions new mission strategy. ward missionaries. The ward missionaries are actually going to have secteurs now. they are going to go and find and teach people living there. since our mission has a lack of missionaries we are having to close a lot of secteurs. which is making the bishops mad since "we arent baptizing". so, the ward missionaries are going to star working in the areas where missionaries cant go since its a closed secteur. Its actually kind of interesting.

thats what they did in the ivory coast, and thats why the work progressed so well there. (also maybe because the mission presidents set quotas for the missionaries of baptizing four people a month... president morin and the inter region are trying to end this because THATS NOT WHAT WE DO!!!!)

so, one of the bishops here who works for the church invited us to come eat at his house. when we got there, he actually took us to a pizzaria! haha! it was awesome!!! there was air hockey and everything there! it was at one of the big hotels by the beach. so, anyways... that was fun.

Teaching wise things are going well for us. we taugh a few lessons. PHillips is still progressing really well. he came to church today! sadly, we dont know if he is married to his wife (legally) its still the same problem. the dowry.

Fabrice and paul have gotten weird. a lot of missed rendez vous, (I actually had a nightmare last night that they held Elder Dioulo and I hostage). We are going to have to abandon them.

Aristide came to church! he is the stake presidents contact! He is older, but is really intrested. we are planning on fixing his baptism date in the week to come! 

so, thats all we got for the most part.

this week was actually pretty crazy. im going to end my email here since its already kind of long.

I attached a picture of some awesome african children. moroni and isabelle. (dad is an excommunicated member!) so, exciting stuff.

I love you guys, stay safe, and remember that if a police officer pulls you over, a tip usually does the trick!

bye bye loo

Elder Magre

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...

 

t

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.