Letter 6

7-May-11 – Wow where did the last 6 weeks go? We went home 4-Apr-11to 4-May-11 and while there Estelle, our dear African friend, died and was buried in Ouidah, some 30 miles away from Cotonou. The church paid for her coffin and a bus to transport about 25 people to and from the burial.While home Les was checked by a surgeon, who had him have a CT scan,and our family doctor, both of whom pronounced him “hernia free”.They are not sure what his pain is (possibly a torn muscle or a pinched nerve) but it will surely go away in a few weeks. When we went in to see Dr. Welch he checked my (Nancy’s) heart only to find an irregular heartbeat. He ordered a Holter monitor and a CT scan. She was pronounced clean of heart problems and this allowed us to returnto Africa to finish our mission.While at home, we were able to see family and friends. I was able tospend a few days with my sister, Mary, and my brothers, Robert and Jerry in Orangevale, California. Mary has been diagnosed with Renal Cancer and is being treated for it. She is such a strong woman. This was such a “tender mercy” for Mary, Jerry, Robert and I. Our sister, Julie couldn’t be in California at the same time so I didn’t get to see her and I was sorry for that but very grateful to be ableto see Mary, Ron and family. Les and I were there for the birth ofPaul and Josey’s third child, Kate, for Heidi’s graduation from UVU,for some of Steph’s (Kim’s daughter) volleyball games and for a few soccer games of Brinley and Jocelyn’s (Dave’s daughters). It was a wonderful time and a great rest and regeneration for us. Now we are ready to get back to work!While at home, President and Sister Weed, our new mission president,came to see us. It was such a delight for us and we so enjoyed visiting with them about this Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan Mission which will be changed to the Benin Cotonou Mission on July 1, 2011. The Weeds are such good people and are prepared to serve as our Mission President and wife in this newly formed mission. He served a mission in France and so is fluent in the language, what a blessing that is.Sister Weed is much like Nancy, sweet, honest, simple in needs and desires and not the least bit pretentious. We will enjoy working with them immensely.May 5th found us back in Benin and we are so happy to be back, so that we can finish our mission. The reception we have received is marvelous. We have been told by several people that we are the only couple who has ever gone home from this area for any reason and who has returned. Many did not think we would return but some told us they knew we would because they were praying so hard. So when we did there was an abundance of joy, hugs, smiles, and expressions of love and gratitude. These are really good people, so who would not want to come back? The missionaries here are so great and they, also, are so happy that we have returned. I am sure they missed Nancy a lot because she such a good mother, doctor, confidant, friend and cooks for all of them whenever she can, which hasn’t been very much, lately.Coming back to our apartment was like coming home to Africa, once again.We met with President Ayekoue, the mission president, last night for awhile. He is a very good man and a great teacher. He assured us that we would be working with the missionaries and the branch leaders. We were happy for that. The other couple will be handling all of the paper work-type of responsibilities and that is a great relief for us,we much prefer to work closely with the people.

8-May-11 – Today is Mother’s Day in the USA.. Many of the elders will descend on our apartment to use our MagicJack phone hookup so that there will be no cost for the traditional phone calls on this special day. Some of our kids called me on Saturday so the Elders could use our phone. We were going to talk to the rest of them on Monday butthat is when the major telecom cable got cut by a ship snagging it.At least that is what the news over here said happened. So the phone calls from the others didn’t happen. I did receive some very welcomed and sweet letters from the kids and that really made me happy. Thanks for remembering me!Another beautiful day in Africa. Elder Gnatsiko gave Nancy a woodcarving. That was really nice, a great start to a great day along with the breakfast I fixed for her. We walked to the Gbedjromede Branch this morning. Sacrament meeting was packed. There were many investigators. Pres. Ayekoue spoke in Sacrament Meeting. He is really a good teacher. He told the story of a young lady who was in love with a young man. There was no work in his part of the world but he found some far away. Together they put on matching rings as a token of commitment to each other and when he returned they would take the rings and be wed. After he had been gone for a long time her friends started to tease her and mock her because she was true to her commitment. After a long time of mocking, she decided to take off her ring and throw it away. She did and just at that time she heard cheering and music coming from her village. Someone came to her and said, “It’s your fiancé, and a huge party is being made. Come and greet him.” She was happy for a moment then realized that she had just thrown the ring away. She started to look for it but as the daylight faded she finally gave up on finding the ring. Her fiancé came to her and seeing that she had thrown his ring away he said, “You didn’t really believe I would return, did you?” And he turned and went to the big celebration without her. In the gospel, we all have rings or another name for the rings is covenants. Are we going to keep our rings? Do we have the faith to hold on to the end? The story had more detail but that can be added by anyone wanting to use the story. One thing I thought was that a CTR ring could represent the covenants. The story has a great set of morals and types and shadows.Several elders came over to make the traditional Mother’s Day call home. It was a good thing they did because near the end of the day the internet went out.

9-May-11 – Preparation Day, a day of relaxation and shopping? Well,we started off by taking Soeur Lawson to the hospital. While Nancy went in with her I headed for the store to buy the groceries. Iturned down a road I had never been on but I knew where it would come out. I turned toward the store and drove for a block or so when a kindly police officer asked me to pull over. I asked what I had done wrong and he told me that I had disrespected the law. I have since thought about how he said that and it has meaning, I think, much more than “breaking the law”. In any case I had gone up a one-way road in the midst of a very crowded market the wrong way. I was surprised. I had seen no sign. He was nice enough but continued to write the ticket. He commandeered my papers and license and told me to go to the police station to pay the fine and pick up the papers. I asked him to go with me to show me the sign. He went down the street with me to the beginning of the street and sure enough there was a sign there. Only thing is, I had come onto the road a few blocks back and he wouldn’t go there with me so I let him off at his post and went down the street that I had earlier gone down so I could see the sign. Lo and behold there was the one-way sign. We have recently had an election and some overzealous voter had plastered the sign with his favorite candidate’s poster. Even though a lot of it was gone now it was quite difficult to even recognize it as a traffic sign. One of our missionaries here, Elder Gnatsiko, has a lot of contacts and I mentioned to him that I had received a ticket. “No problem” he said,“I know the commissariat”.When we first got to the police station, the man we were to see was busy burying a “body” that they had found in the market place very early that morning. They said he had been killed during the early morning hours. When we finally got to see the commissariat, he greeted Elder Gnatsiko as an old friend and wrote us a note to take to the police station. We did, we picked up our papers free-of-charge and went on our way. I will be more observant from now on. We got Soeur Lawson home and she appears to be fine. We then went shopping with Elders Zufelt & Gnatsiko, Cannon & Nyuiadzi and Leach &Balekelay.The internet is still out, we can’t mail letters to the U. S. and we can’t call out of the country for some reason. We feel quite isolated here in Africa as far as communication goes, anyway.


10-May-11 – We took two beds to the Akpakpa apartment today. Now every missionary has a bed. We also visited the Fidjrosse apartment.Elders Wolthoff and his companion, N’dala and Workman and his companion, Muamba were there with their. We have a few problems still with the building there. They cannot turn the hall lights off and the lights in the bedrooms continue to flicker after they are turned off. A toilet leaks and floods water into the hall, only one electrical outlet in each room works and a shower drain is plugged. These Elders are good to live with these problems, but sometimes they need to squeal a little louder to get them resolved. Soon all will be well,we hope. Still the internet is out, we can’t mail letters to the U. S. and we can’t call out of the country for some reason and now the power has been turned off. It is as if we are on an isolated island somewhere in the middle of the ocean with only an airplane as our sole source of contact with home. We have never been without the ability to contact home before and it is a very strange feeling. This will only last a short while and all will be back to normal.


11-May-11 – We received a call from Elder Nomenjanahary about his companion Elder Melongi. He is chilling, very weak and running atemperature. Malaria!!! We took him to the hospital where he was tested and treated. He will spend the night in the hospital and his companion will remain with him, also. We got food for them. Elder Melongi wanted bananas. He gobbled them down like a starving man. A short time later they all came up. He won’t eat that fast again. At least the power came on in the middle of the night last night, but itwent out again tonight for several hours. The internet worked for a few moments tonight. Yes, we ARE in Africa!


12-May-11 – The doctor said that Elder Melongi’s condition was dangerous yesterday but that he was doing much better today. He should go home tomorrow. Nancy spent most of the afternoon working with Nadia, a Primary chorister for Gbedjromede Branch. They are preparing for the Primary program and Nancy is teaching her the songs.Carole is her interpreter. Nadia doesn’t read so that makes it a bit of a challenge but certainly not insurmountable for Nancy. Also,Nadia is very smart and loves being the chorister. She is probably about 27 years old but has a heart of GOLD! The internet is working somewhat, the power went off again today for a short time and we still cannot call out of the country or send mail into our country from Benin. Sometimes I feel like we are. We love Africa!

13-May-11 – We got Elder Melongi out of the hospital today. He is feeling much better. It cost $208.00 for the 3 days he was in the hospital. How would you like to pay those charges at home!!! Yes!!!On the way to the hospital, we were stopped by Fred, we don’t know his last name , but he is the visa agent for Togo. He told us his wife was in the hospital and was going to have surgery. He needed financial help and said that if we could help him we would have no trouble with getting Togo visas in the future. We thought that would be a great trade off so we contributed to his cause. We often need visas. I hope he follows through.We had internet for a short while today again. We were told that a ship somehow had snagged the undersea cable and broke it. I personally don’t see how that could happen. Maybe tomorrow we will have telephone and internet on a steady basis once again.
We love you and miss you all..Love, Mom and Dad, Les & Nancy, Elder & Soeur Southam