Letter 8

Dear Family and Friends,
We were just getting a good start to sending out our letters closer to on time when we lost our internet for over a week! We were told that a ship ripped out the main communication cable and it totally took our internet and we could not use it at all. We are so happy to have it back! We hope you are all doing really good and thank you so much for your responses to our emails. That means so much to us. Make it a good day!
Love, Mom and Dad,

4 July 2011 “HAPPY 4TH OF JULY” (Spike, thank you for that awesome electronic 4th of July card.)

21-May-11 – Miracles continue to shower down on Benin. Today was the baptism for KUAOVI Marie Laure. (her last name is in all capital letters) This is the mother of Nadia and Deborah. Sister Marie had been active in the church for about 4 years now but could not be baptized because she was in a polygamous marriage. We don’t know all the details but the husband was not much of a father and husband so after years of putting up with him she told him it was over. Today Nadia spoke at her mother’s baptism, it was a wonderful talk. Marie knows she shouldn’t hug missionaries but when she with a huge smile put her hand out to shake I brushed it away and broke the mission rules. She is a wonderful person. She provided a drink of juice and a little cake to everyone in appreciation for her baptism.We attended the seminary graduation at Akpakpa. Precious is the teacher and she and Nancy arranged for a graduation gift for each of the kids. It was a real tribute to Precious the way each of the young people responded and learned this year.We went to a fireside at the Gbedjromede Branch. It was about in-stakes activities. We will be involved in helping them get going.Wow, we need more couples here.Brother Brian Larsen, his wife, Lyn, and their three children came to Cotonou today. He found us at the church. He had been to Benin before and knew Elder Black. He is here again for some art studies for his wife’s doctorate.

22-May-11 – The Larsens came to church and then we fed them lunch before they got a taxi to Abomey, (about 3 hours away) where they are doing their research. We had a jar of crunchy peanut butter and their kids loved it so we sent it with them. They loved us for that!The other day I was whistling and Precious told us that in a tribe in Nigeria it was bad luck to whistle in the afternoon if the sun is shining because it calls out the witches. She said it wasn’t her tribe.

23-May-11 – Today we had an all Benin outing to Ouidah, the birthplace of Voo Doo and the location at which approximately 10 million slaves were shipped throughout the world. The Python Temple is part of the Voo Doo historic center. We were able to go in and have pythons wrapped around our necks while we had photos taken. Nancy was a hit as she is very brave in dealing with these snakes. Having 10children has helped a lot! Sister Kabula, one of the sister missionaries, is really afraid of snakes and as much as she didn’t want to have one hung around her neck, she still agreed to it because Nancy asked her to. The sister missionaries love Nancy, as well as all the missionaries because she pays individual attention to each one of them. It is much more difficult to do that because there are 35 of them but she truly cares and they know it.Ouidah is steeped in history and tradition. The colonial era is evident in the very old buildings that crowd the center of the city.A Portuguese fortress (later French), also dominates the city. This is where the slaves were confined prior to their initial selling to the slave traders. When enough slaves were ready to load on a ship they were marched, chained together, for about 3 miles to the beach where they were ferried in row boats to the waiting ships. The lodging on board the ships was atrocious. They had to lie down,chained to each other, all the way to their destination. The special decks were built with about only two feet between them this, so that more slaves could be loaded on each ship. As many as 50% of the slaves died on a normal passage and as few as 30% on a good passage.It is always a somewhat somber feeling walking the last 100 yards making footprints in the sand that today hide the millions of footprints that were once made by peaceful men, women and children as they were led to a life of servitude and in most cases misery. This is known as among them, if not all, would have made this same journey to the beach, never to return?” Some things have gotten much better with time.We received 10 water filter systems today. Now the missionaries can have clean water without having to purchase it. Hurray!

24-May-11 – We loaded the missionary supplies from our apartment, with the help of Elders Shaffer and Attiogbe, into the Herr’s truck for transport to the new mission office. We are excited because now we are more free to work with the missionaries and branch members.Les and I went to all three group homes, Zones des Ambassade or Finangnon as the area is called, Fidjrosse, Gbedgame and to the sister’s apartment where we installed the new 3-filter water systems.They have been drinking “bottled water” for at least a month. They were so happy to get them. We will do the rest tomorrow.

25-May-11 – We installed the last of the filters this morning at the assistants, the mission office and the president’s home.We went with Carole to see Ange and her new baby. She is not a member but we are good friends. Her husband Patrick is very nice to us and was really glad we stopped by.Tonight we had a great storm. It thundered and flashed lightning for about 1 ½ hours. It poured down rain and soon our street was running like a river (about 8 or 9 inches deep). Elders Zufelt and Gnatsiko were here but couldn’t cross the street to go back home because of the amount of water. They stayed, ate some soup and talked until the water receded. I don’t think they minded eating at our place, do you? WE love the rain storms as long as the lightening doesn’t come too close!Les Here: At one time Nancy made the remark that she was surprised that the power hadn’t gone off yet. Just as the last word escaped her mouth the house went black. We all laughed and accused her of the problem and of using here “Voo Doo Magic”! Elder Gnatsiko said he didn’t even have time to knock on wood before the “black out”.

26-May-11 – The roads showed, by the large water puddles everywhere,that we did have a nice storm last night. It rained again this afternoon but not like last night. Elder Boateng told me that last night’s storm had scared him really bad. He is from Ghana, Africa and has been here for about a month.We got the African run around as we tried to buy a new cord for our printer. When we finally found where we could order one the cost was nearly that of a new printer and to boot the printer was bad also. We were told that the cost to repair our old printer was going to be pushing 80,000 francs. The price of the new printer was 49,000 cfa with two ink cartridges, so we bought the new printer.I had heard that the people in the markets adjust their scales to favor themselves. So when this good lady weighed out 3 kilos of potatoes (At about $1.20 per lb.) and there were what appeared to me to be less than the 6.6 lbs that should have been there I quickly glanced around and there were some sacks of rice that weighed one kilo each. I had her look at where the needle was on the scale and then replaced the potatoes with 3 sacks of rice. Well, the stories are true. She tried to explain that one kilo of rice weighed more that a kilo of potatoes and as sincere as she was I found myself almost believing her but not quite. We discussed the differences of rice and potatoes for a few moments more then she smiled and put more potatoes in the bag. I smiled and told her thanks. We are still friends.This happening reminded me of the time Lynn convinced two fellows that it takes more gasoline to coast down the hills than to actually run the engine. No wonder Lynn turned out to be a lawyer. Nancy worked with Carole and Nadia on the upcoming Mother’s Day primary songs. Mother’s Day in Africa is on the 29 of May this year.The three branches are learning of love and compassion for parents and family as well as others from Nancy. She is doing a great job.

27-May-11 – We did the usual stuff of helping missionaries today. Not much else happened other than rain.

28-May-11 – Hi, this is Nancy: Today we had 2 different baptisms.The first one was at 11am (supposed to be at 10am)and the next one was at 5pm (supposed to be at 4pm, but as Pierre would say, “That’s African Time”. There were 3 baptized in the morning and one this afternoon. She was a young girl probably 12 years old. Her father baptized her, which I have only seen in our first mission with the LOKOSSOU Joahiem family. Anyway, this father was so gentle as he laid his daughter down into the water and drew her up again. You could just feel the love between the two of them, actually, I believe there were at least the "three" of them for I know that the Lord was there today, too. It was so tender.Today Les held a meeting with the branch presidents. They went over the new “unity” homes and later today they learned that Pres. Ayekoue was coming. He also met with the branch presidencies and decided to make the calls for the group leaders of the 3 “unite” homes, which we have been hoping and waiting for. The calls will be extended tomorrow, Sunday—Mother’s Day in Africa-- and the following Sunday we will hold church for the first time in the “unite” homes. This is great because the elders have many people waiting for the opening of the church in their areas and it has cost them taxi fare every Sunday to get their investigators to the Branch. We have already had several people join the church in these areas and that is even before the church is open for them. This will be a great step in the history of this mission. President Ayekoue also told us that we would be over the “unity” buildings with the missionaries. We are excited for that.Nancy, Precious and Carole worked on Mother’s Day cards for tomorrow.The Primary children will sing a song to the mothers in Sacrament meeting and then hand out the cards to the mothers. Without Nancy this day would have come and gone unnoticed. As it is, the Primary leaders are really excited for tomorrow to come.We ran out of ink in our nice new HP printer while making the Mother’s Day cards. It printed 17 sheets of colorful flowers w/a thought.Now, that doesn’t seem like the ink went very far, does it? Well,Elders Gnatsiko, Zufelt and I went to see about getting more cartridges. We took our old printer with us because we were a little uneasy about the testing which had been done 3 days ago. This place,unbeknownst to us before today, was a dealer in HP products. When we got there we asked them if they had a cord to fit our old printer.They did. We plugged it in and lo and behold the printer worked. The cost was only 15,000 cfa. Now we have two printers. If only we had gone there first we would have saved about $70. I’m sure we can put this printer to good use, though. Don’t you just love Africa?Les drove the truck as Carole and I delivered the Mother’s Day cards to the various Primary people in our 6 church buildings. Tonight we ate tacos, what a nice change of pace and brought me a little more to home.Just as we finished eating, our son, Mike called. The connection was bad but we were still able to tell that Anna and he were the proud parents of a little girl, Haylee Ann Southam 8lb. 5oz. 19” long. Anna is doing great, they both are. We are so grateful for that.CONGRATULATIONS. [A little black malaria mosquito is flying around me, trying to get my blood!]

29-May-11 – Carole brought Silvi to church with us, a girl who had not attended church since we were here with our last mission. We think she had a very good day. Sister Southam gave President Ayekoue a gift and card for Sister Ayekoue for Mother’s Day and she also gave President Ayekoue an “early” Happy Father’s Day card. He was so happy. She gave them a candy bar and a card she had written a note on. President Ayekoue’s wife did not come to Cotonou this time and Nancy was not sure if she would see her before they move back to Coted’Ivoire and she wanted to say “thank you”.Today all the leaders of the Unite homes were sustained. We will begin church in each building next Sunday. This is going to be exciting.Nancy wanted to stop to see why Chantal did not come to church for Mother’s Day. She told us that she had been under the weather for a few days. She doesn’t have a firm testimony of the gospel but doesn’t want to be without it either. She was so glad we stopped by. Nancy really knows how to help others feel wanted and accepted. President Ayekoue came by our home just after we got there and asked Sister Southam for some food for his trip back to Lome, Togo. She hurried in and got him some good munchies and sent him on his way. We feel so good that he feels comfortable enough to come to our home and ask for favors. He is really a good man Today is Mother’s Day in Benin. At 6:00 a.m. Precious slid a gift for Nancy under our security door. It Is a wooden wall plaque specially written for Nancy from Precious. It read, “BONNE FETE DESMEREES MOM, NANCY, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE DOING. YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION MOTHERS. I LOVE YOU, MOM. From PRECIOUS.” She also had them engrave with a wood burning tool, this on the back, “This is a Special moment to remember Special mother’s like you, because you are always in our hearts. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, MOM. I LOVE YOU!!! Precious.”What a nice gesture. Elder Gnatsiko and Elder Zufelt brought Nancy some flowers. That was really nice, too.We celebrated Elder Gnatsiko’s birthday today. We had the 4 elders from his apartment (Elders Boateng, Gnumatsi, Gnatsiko & Geisler) over for dinner. Elder Gnumatsi, who speaks no English, said that this mission is great and Elder Boateng who is from Ghana and does speak English thanked Nancy so much for letting them come over. It is kind of a retreat for them and helps them get ready for the week of work..He wished all his meals were like this. We had roast chicken,potatoes and gravy, green salad, corn, bread and butter. Then the sister missionaries showed up. So now all of us topped off the evening with chocolate cake, ice cream and jell-o. It took several hours to prepare and clean up, but it was really yummy. Les and I both worked on this meal and the cleanup!

30-May-11 – It rained hard this morning for about an hour and then lightened up until about 2:00 pm. It was an awesome storm. We had the Menontin Zone (Elders Leach, Nyuiadzi, Muebejayi and Balekelayi)over for a FHE meal of Hot Cakes and Eggs followed by chocolate cake and ice cream. They really liked it.Lionel wants to help Frere Elvis to start his business. And he also wants to wholesale all of Paul Dansou’s eggs. Both things would be great.

1-June-11 – Today Elders Zufelt and Cannon went home. They are great missionaries and we will miss them. Elder Cannon took our Christmas gifts for our grandchildren with him to give to our kids. That was so sweet of him. I need to call one of our kids to get them from him.We then bought cloth for the sacrament tables and took it to a member in Akpakpa Branch to cut to size and hem. We picked them up later today. She did a beautiful job.

3-June-11 – We had a zone conference where Nancy and I spoke for about5 minutes each. Nancy spoke of Primary and its role in missionary work. The President really liked it and talked about it for nearly 30minutes during his training. One thing he said was that he really hadn’t thought about what a big part the children can play in bringing the parents to church. He is going to focus more on the primary as a great tool.We delivered materials to the Unitee homes in preparation for Sunday.The group leaders are so excited, the elders are excited and we are excited also. This is going to be a great day in the history of the church in Cotonou, Benin.With the death of our neighbor across the street the traditional rites have begun. A large canopy has been erected in the front yard, people have had clothes made of matching material and a LOUD sound system has been put into non-stop use with the preaching being only about 20minutes while the remainder of time, until about 1:00 a.m., music of all sorts resounds throughout the neighborhood at an eardrum piercing level. In this case the speakers are directly below the windows of the missionary apartment. The windows cannot be closed because of the heat. After several hours of continuous eardrum testing music we received a call from the elders. They asked if they could come over to our house to sleep. We are not much farther away than they but we can close the windows because we have air conditioning. Elders Gnatsiko and Geisler spent the night with us.

4-June-11 – We had a group meeting with the landlords of the properties we rent. It was just an informal meeting held by President Ayekoue where a brief explanation of the church was given and then we had refreshments. 8 of 14 landlords were there. It was a very good meeting.Nancy and I then drove Elders Royer and Muchipayi to the Togo border where the Gublers picked them up. That drive always amazes me. The drivers are so unsafe, selfish and irresponsible. When you consider the number of accidents that we see then by extension there must be a ton of them every day in Cotonou. The drivers are truly amazing. Well, we have probably kept you too long reading our very late email but we hope you are getting a better understanding of where we are and what we are doing. As usual, I have stayed up too late getting this to the mail, but it really is time to do that. May the Lord bless all of you. We want you to know how much we love you and miss you. Be sure and “Make it a good day, today!”
Love,Mom and Dad, Les and Nancy