Letter 1 from Africa

January 17, 2011
Following a five day stay at the Missionary Training Center we were able to return home from Friday until Tuesday morning when, at 5:30, our son, Dave arrived to take us to the airport. We were running a little late and the security line was very long and slow and it looked as if we would miss our plane for sure. Randy, our son, had met us at the airport and thank goodness he did because he had us go to the International check in area, a little known area of security. We were able to get through security in only about 5 minutes instead of standing in line for 45 or 50 minutes and missing our flight.

As we walked down the hallway in terminal #3 a bald headed man came up to me and said, “Aren’t you Paul’s dad? I am Kenny Parcell”. What a pleasant surprise. We talked to him and his wife for a while and enjoyed each other’s company. We were on the same flight to New York but didn’t get to sit by them. We did see them after the flight, however, and got a picture with them and talked a little.

We flew to New York, to Paris and then on to Cotonou, Benin and it took us 30½ hours from the time we left our house until we landed in Cotonou . As we deplaned we walked into the, all too familiar, atmosphere of Africa. It seemed somehow strange yet very familiar. The sights were easily remembered, the sounds were friendly and the smells that we were once accustomed to flooded our senses once again. We had one very pleasant moment as we deplaned. Because of Harrmatan, a season of cool dry air, the night was remarkably pleasant. We had expected the usual hot humid sauna-like air that we knew so well. We met Elder and Sister Herr who took us to our apartment and for the next two days tutored us and then left us for their home in Togo. It has taken a few days to get sort-of-ready to go (a bit of a jet-lag is with us) but we are, somewhat, getting into the flow of things. It has been SOOOO nice to see our old friends. John-the tailor, Giberto-the hair dresser, Romeo-the carpenter, Belvina and Cato, Nancy’s little friends, and their family, Robert the café owner’s wife, the lady at the shop, our friends in the church and many of our beggar friends have greeted us with warm hugs and excited voices.

The mission president came on Friday for Zone Conference. In our interview with him he told Nancy and I that one of the reasons we were called back to Africa was because the people had told him that they had learned love from the Southam’s. He continued with lots of things as to why we are back here and we are content to know that this is where we should be.

Saturday Les and I attended a baptismal service where we met the Lokossou family, that we helped teach and went to the temple with them the last day of our mission in 2008. Coffi George, and many others were there and it was a wonderful afternoon. Sunday was even more wonderful. We won’t list all the friends we met but what a great day of reunion. Angel and Nancy hugged and laughed like a couple of high school girls. Jacque, one of Nancy’s piano students was the pianist for the church meetings. So many others greeted us with so much love and expressions of gratitude that we were back. So far this has been an extremely gratifying experience and it should only get better. We are so glad to be here.

January 21, 2011
This week has been a whirlwind. It started when I (Les) walked into the kitchen and saw a bunch of ants scurrying across the counter top. I announced to them that the “thumb” was back. I felt like I was in charge until the next morning when I saw 5 or 6 of the little guys carrying a sign that said, “you may be back but now there are more of us”. I knew then the battle lines for the kitchen had been drawn. We will see what happens.

January 22, 2011
Well, I can tell you that Les is NOT winning the battle with the ants. Those little things are found EVERYWHERE along with their cockroach friends. Yesterday Les found one in the guest bathroom drain and squished it and I squished one in our living room as Les, Precious and I scurried around trying to catch it and these things are NOT small!

Things are hopping here. We are beginning a new program for this area. It has worked well in other parts of Africa. We will rent a house with living quarters upstairs for the elders and the 1st floor becomes a small branch meeting house. One of the Elders will be the branch president, one will lead the music and all four will speak and pray, a lot.. They will only have Sacrament Service and then a Sunday School class for investigators lasting only a total of 2 hours. No Relief Society, Priesthood, young men, young women or primary. Each of these "Group" homes will be no more than about an hour walking time from the next one. They want the people to only have to walk no more than about 30 minutes. As these groups grow other aspects of the gospel will be added. The group home will be large enough to add the whole church program. When it gets large enough a branch president will be called from the local people. This is an exciting time but boy is it keeping us busy. We agreed on taking one group home today and need to sign 2 more in the next few days. When our new mission is organized in July the mission offices will be here in Cotonou. We looked at buildings for the mission president’s home and mission office. These people are fun to work with but they do know how much money they want for the buildings. The one building that we looked at for the home of the mission president was super nice, so was the price. It was about $2,600 per month. We looked at another one for just half that. But, it is fun. We have been dealing with some very rich ladies who are very tough negotiators but they love Nancy. One of the ladies told me (Nancy) that she feels like we are sisters and knew each other before we met today. We have to let the locals negotiate from now on because the "whites" are "rich" and we get the higher lease rates.

We attended a wedding Friday for a fellow, Thierry, that Elder Richard taught and baptized when we were here before. He and his wife, Cherrifath were married along with another couple. We drove about 20 miles, to get to the Marri, the city offices, which is where the Mayor was going to marry them. They chose this area because they could save money on the marriage because a member, Paul DANSOU, knew the officials there. The wives were baptized the next day. They couldn't be baptized until they were married. This is a slight technicality that is so common here. A total of 9 people have been baptized in the past 10 days.

Well we had better get this in the mail and then get to work again.
Love, Mom and Dad...Les & Nancy...Elder & Soeur Southam

GOING FORTH IN FAITH...