Letter 7

Well, here we are again still trying to catch up in getting these letters sent out to you all. We are getting closer! :) Thank you so much for your letters in response to them. Only 2 weeks and we will have a new mission president, President Robert F. Weed from Fallon, NV and his wife, Rebecca. And this will be a new mission....the Benin Cotonou Mission. We are all getting excited and are busy getting things ready for them to come. It's going to be exciting watching a new mission begin. We hope life is being good to you. We are doing great! Well, here is the next week of our adventure.


14-May-11 – Wow, internet again and phone calls out of the country,looks like we are back in business. [Well, we were for that day! The internet is still not working up to par and today is June 14, 2011]This morning we had 4 baptisms and then later in the afternoon we had2 more. The missionaries are working hard and we really have great ones here. We stopped at the Fidjrosse apartment, prior to the second baptism, to pick up something and Elder Workman mentioned that they were going to a baptism. We asked him if they needed a ride and of course they did. We ended up with 6 inside the truck, Nadege, (the one to be baptized, her 2 year old daughter, Carole Somakou, our African daughter, a young man that wanted to watch the baptism, Nancy and me, and the 2 Elders, Workman and Muamba, inside the camper shell. All was going well until we stopped for a red light. A kind policeman came to my door and asked for our papers and then motioned for us to park. It seems that our truck is only licensed for 5 people and it was too dangerous for people to ride in the back. For those of you who have seen traffic on any given day in Africa you will be dumbfounded to hear that the two in back were in a more dangerous situation than tens of thousands on motos, in crowded mini-buses and any number of death traps with wheels. The officer was very nice as he wrote up the ticket. He did mention that for 10,000 francs the ticket would magically disappear. I have had a change of heart concerning bribes. If we pay bribes then we are becoming a part of the problem and even though the bribes are less than the ticket, in the long run, we may be helping a society to change. I told him no thanks I would take the ticket. He told me where the police station was and that I should go there on Monday to pay the ticket. I asked his name and chatted for a few moments. He asked if he could go now, as if he was giving me one more chance to offer him some money, and I said sure he could go. I smiled, shook his hand and told him thanks. Carole got out of the truck and said she wanted to talk to the officer a minute. She came back, got in the truck and the officer came back to Nancy’s side of the truck.
He looked at Nancy with a smile, gave her our documents and took the ticket out of her hand. We didn’t understand, but thought that was cool. We thanked him again, put the 2 Elders in the back seat with Nadege and her daughter, and Carole got her and the young man each a moto-taxi to ride to the church for Nadege’s baptism. It did turn out to be a good day. A LITTLE SIDE NOTE: Carole told Nancy later that when she talked to the officer, she asked him if he would take 1,000 francs. He told her he only wanted some money for his ‘pocket’, meaning some food. So he said he would take the 1,000 francs and that is when he brought us the papers and took back the ticket. He really was very nice. Oh, and, Elder Melongi is doing better. He was very sick in the hospital, so it is taking him more time to get better, but he is.


15-May-11 – All three of the branch churches were jam packed today.They had people standing in each one. It will be so nice when we get the “Group” homes in operation. We don’t know the reason why we haven’t started them yet but it will be nice when we can get going.Nancy here: We visited with Mary, a Nigerian who we knew from our first mission, her husband and their new baby girl. She was born about 1 month early and is very tiny but doing good. We, also,stopped by President and Viviane’s house. They helped Les and I as we were trying to speak French with them instead of just English. That really does help. He gave us some mangos from his farm in Togo.They were so delicious. There is nothing better than fruit freshly picked from the tree. They are such good people.

As we talked with Precious today she told us of an exchange between her 7 year old son and his grandmother. The grandmother said that she was a prophet in her church and Destiny, her grandson, told her that she was lying to him. “There is only one true prophet and that is Thomas S. Monson. Why are you lying to me”? She then asked him wherein the Bible it says that the prophet is Thomas S. Monson. He told her that it didn’t. But Joseph Smith was the first prophet and the prophets from him were ordained by the 12 apostles and the prophet today is Thomas S. Monson. He told her she was not a prophet and for her not to lie to them anymore. He told her very plainly that she was a liar and not to try to tell him any different. He is a good kid and will make a fine missionary one day.

The sisters stopped by tonight to bring us something and to see a magic trick. After a couple of tricks we showed them how to play Mennonite Manners, a really fun and easy game that was taught to us by our Amish friends in Ohio. They really enjoyed it. Teaching people the rules of a game in a foreign language is tough but with a lot of sign language, grunts, groans and a lot of laughs it works out. We also had the Assistants to the President, Elders Attiogbe & Shaffer,here. They were sending in their reports for the week to the Mission President. Elders Gnatsiko and Zufelt who live across the street came over because there were a couple of young men, Mark (Herve) & David (a Nigerian) whom knew from our 1st mission, wanting to talk to us so they came to help.

16-May-11 – For P day we took Elders Wolthoff, Workman and Thomas shopping. We then took them to lunch at Baggett’s, down by Canon. It was a very relaxing day which we were ready for.


17-May-11 – Elders Zufelt and Gnatsiko along with branch presidents Rogatien and Joachim Lokossou and I went to see the landlord of the Menotin chapel this morning in hopes that we would not be required to pay the rent for an additional year. The contract was vague and we thought that we could move out after two years. The building is way too small now that the church has grown so much. But he explained to us that we were on the hook for the third year. We could move out if we wanted to but he wanted his money anyway and he smiled. We will have to be more careful in future negotiations.With the new mission here in Cotonou we have need of security men to be on the clock 24/7. We were told that the church position was to have a professional security company hired to provide the security. I didn’t feel that we could trust guardians from some odd ball company more than members of our own church so I wrote an email to the area leadership expressing the idea that a member could form a company and then by contract he could provide the needed service. He would be on the same level as any other security company. I got a reply saying that the man, Ebenezer Coleman, who was the man I should talk to was in Cotonou right now and I could go talk to him. We will do that in the morning.


18-May-11 – We talked with Ebenezer Coleman from Ghana and I presented the idea of a member-owned security company. He was delighted with the idea. We called the member that we had previously run the idea by and invited him to our apartment to explore the idea. He came running. We outlined some things he needed to find out and sent him on his way. He was so excited and so grateful to us that we would consider helping him start a business.We went to see some sick elders in Zone des Ambassade. Elders Kittaka and Mampianona were both ill. Sis. Herr was helping them by phone but Sis. Southam insisted on taking them some chicken soup. They were so grateful for the soup. They hadn’t eaten anything and it really tasted good them. We will follow up with them and Sis. Herr in the morning.

While there the elders told us a disturbing story. It seems that a short time ago about ½ mile away from their apartment a body was found on the beach. This appeared to be a cult or sacrificial killing. The boy was about 10 years old. He had been decapitated. His bowels were removed. His head and severed hands were placed in his stomach cavity. This is actually a very safe area and the killing they suspect was done a long distance off and the body brought here to dispose of. What a tragic thing for this young boy and his family.When we got home Elvis, our new security guru, came to show us what he had found out today. He did really well. He gleaned a lot of good information from security companies and from the guardians themselves.We think this will work out great for him. He will have to hire at least 5 more men. This job opportunity will truly help the unemployed members here. We are excited for them and especially for him.

We had a kind of funny thing happen today. While standing next to the counter in the Camp Gueso Pharmacy, the nicest pharmacy in Benin and one where such an incident is unexpected, a rat ran past Nancy and several rows of cabinets of medicine. An employee was in hot pursuit and a couple of ladies scurried out of the way. The rat made a hard right turn, sliding on the slick tile floor and hid. After a couple of moments he made a break for it only to run into a fellow who had the isle blocked. Not seeing any escape he turned around and ran to the front of the store. We heard several shoes slamming hard into the floor, some other things hitting the floor and a few muffled squeals.There were about 25 people in the store and the rat really didn’t stand a chance. After a moment things became silent then a big burly employee came by us with the dead rat in a plastic bag. I told him“good work” and he smiled and replied “thank you”. In a bit of irony the music in the background was “Welcome to My World”. The rat or us?

19-May-11 – We met with Ebenezer Coleman and Frimpong Dwamena this morning and introduced them to Frere Elvis. We had a good conversation and they had an interview with Elvis. We left to prepare a written proposal for them. Elvis went to see another security man,a friend of his brother. The information we received there was really good also. We typed up a proposal and emailed it to Ebenezer. We will look forward to see if Elvis is successful. I tried all the ways I know how to impress these men with Elvis. I hope they will like his proposal. This could be a great opportunity for Elvis and several other members of the branches here.


20-May-11 – We started having Carole tutor us again today. We need it. Following this we picked up Precious as she left the mission office after cleaning all day. She told us that Sis. Herr was adamant about using professional guardians other than Elvis for the mission office and that Pres. Ayekoue wanted that also. I became so frustrated that she thinks that she is the decision maker and she is going to have what she wants even if it costs the church more and good saints here are left out of the employment picture. As we were stewing about this the phone rang. It was the area president John Dickson. Nancy didn’t catch his name at first because the connection was poor. She asked who she was talking to and he said, “this is President John B. Dickson but you can call me Jack.(we were friends in college) We talked awhile and I vented some of my frustrations. He mentioned that he and Delores would be coming to Cotonou in the future and wanted to see us again. We were thrilled with that. He asked us if we could offer our help to the mission president in getting the new proselyting areas placed onto some maps so that the group homes can be started. We told him yes. We said goodbye and went to see the mission president who was here for today and tomorrow. We talked to him about the security at the mission office site and he was all in favor of using a professional security company but if that company were owned by a member of the church then all the better. He was excited for Elvis and wanted us to be sure to help him with his plan. He told us about how Ebenezer Coleman was a returned missionary and someone gave him a chance and look where he is today. He and we know that all many of our good saints need is an opportunity, not a hand out but an opportunity to excel. Those opportunities are few and far between. Then he mentioned what we had done to help brother Paul Dansou and how that has blessed his life. In the morning we will ask him how he knew about Paul, no one was supposed to know. We do know that Elvis and others deserve at least an opportunity. I got a little emotional as we discussed our dear brothers and sisters here in Africa and he said to Nancy and me, and all three had tears in our eyes, that when he looks at us what he sees is love for the African people. It was quiet for a moment and then we left for home. God gave us two tender mercies today, Presidents Dickson and Ayekoue.

Well, all good things must come to an end and tonight this email needs to get put into our email lists and get sent out. Hope you are all still doing well and, “hanging-in-there!” President Ayekoue has been a wonderful Mission President and we have loved working with him. He has had some very difficult and dangerous experiences and he has been so blessed with the Lord taking over in his life. We cannot doubt that this Gospel is true and that it is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are very sad to have President Ayekoue leave us. He has been such a good mission president. We love him and will miss him so much. May Heavenly Father bless you, President Ayekoue."Au revoire et A biento mon President."Fais en une bonne journee. ( “Make it a good day!”)Love to you all, Mom & Dad, Les & Nancy, Elder & Soeur Southam