Another Week in Kodjoviakope

Dear World,
                I hope that all is well for those of you that receive this email throughout the world. It is always a great day as I sit here at the start of a fresh week and read your wonderful emails and reflect back over the many different experiences that we all face in our day to day lives. I’m grateful for each one of you and for you who are in my life. Thanks!

                So to begin this week we went to Soiree Familiale, which is Family Home Evening for our group each Monday at the church. I don’t really remember what we did there, it isn’t always the easiest for me to follow the lessons mainly due to my French but another reason is because I don’t always agree with what is being taught. There are trials that little groups such as ours have to overcome, and that is why we missionaries are here.

                Man, it seems like such a long time ago as I write about the week that we just barely experienced. Each day on a mission is a week, but each week is a day. The time is flying by super quickly. I can’t believe that this week I will hit my month mark in Africa and next week will be two months on my mission! The time is flying by, but sadly I feel like I don’t know too much French for how long I have been studying it. With more time it will surely come.

                Again, I hope that you all had a great Fourth of July! Happy Birthday America! It’s not that I am patriotic, but I miss home. Not so much that I want to be there again, made that mistake once before, but there is just something that is missing when one is away from home. Don’t worry about little old me, I am still loving life here in Africa! In fact…!

                So before touching on that point I feel like I should explain the rest of my week. Which I left off on Tuesday, and this day was somewhat special because we found a CANDY SHOPPE!!! Three cheers for Candy! It is called, “100% Bonbons; Africa Pure” (hilarious title if you could see the slums that it is in). Small little things like that make my weeks here, and the Peachie-O’s were a very nice addition to Institute the next day.

                Wednesday, Institute. Another Frere Alex infamous speech where the only person listening is himself. He and I truly don’t see eye to eye, and I feel like our incident on Thursday will better explain our situation here, but alas before that another bon chose (good thing). Soeur Sonya, a recent convert, is a professional seamstress. She made me four ties! They are made from Pine which is the fabric that they use out here in abundance. They are so sweet! I love ties as many of you well know. ;)

                Now, Thursday we had our interviews with the Mission President that come around every three or so months. I’m not quite sure how often they happen, but that is what they said. He spoke to us about being obedient and adamantly about not texting, calling, or visiting the apartment of the sister missionaries. There is a very large group of missionaries here that are hormone driven, and the sisters are not excluded from that list. It is sad, and to be honest one of the biggest strains on companionships is that the African Elders are attracted to African women. There happened to be an emergency transfer due to that situation this week.

Anyways… We have our Coordination meetings with our Ward Mission Leader each Thursday at 6:30. Coincidentally the Ward Mission Leader is… can you guess? Frere Alex! So let us recap. He is the Group Leader, the Institute instructor, and the Ward Mission Leader… Yeah… So we showed up for our Coordination meeting, but funnily enough  he had scheduled a Reunion de la Pretrise (priesthood meeting) at the same time that he was in charge of. Many of the members were there with us missionaries as we waited for Frere Alex… 6:45 rolls around and we hadn’t heard from our fearless leader. Again at 7:00 still no sign of him, but finally at 7:15 he shows up. Members and missionaries are upset at him, but he says to the missionaries, “come here.”

                As we follow him to the side of the church building to have our coordination Elder Hawkins and I both tell him that he needs to have that meeting with the priesthood and we can reschedule our coordination, but him being him said that they can wait. We put our foot down. We kept our meeting short and efficient, and this week will be very exciting as we tell him ways that we know that the group will grow if he will just forget himself and love the group. There is no love between he and the members and it is stressing the missionary work here when nobody wants to bring their friends to church.

                It feels helpless sometimes as we have to build from scratch here in Togo. I know that we can do it, it is how many other countries and places have started, but they are very deep in the traditions of their fathers.

                Friday, weekly planning happened, not much else. Oh, aside from me cleaning up our Carnet du Secteur (area book) because it was a joke. Nothing was in order, the records were poorly kept, and there was no way that I could ever try to get in contact with most of the people that they had kept records for in the past two years.

                Saturday, we received a new contact. It was a whole family! Those of you that have served missions or know how important families are for both yourself and the church will understand how exciting it is. They had received the lessons clear up to Dime et Offrandes de Jeune (Tithes and Offerings). They understood much better than most of our investigators and they were willing to be baptized, all aside from the father. He was being stubborn, and we can’t baptize the family until daddy decides to be baptized as well. I mean, it is for good reasons that he doesn’t want his family baptized without him; he doesn’t want his family religiously divided. I respect him for that, and the testimonies that are developing in his family will help soften his heart and prepare him.

                The cutest part of this family is that they have a handicapped baby named Marie. She has down-syndrome, and I have never seen a black person, let alone a baby, with down syndrome. She is super adorable!

                (This is the continuation for “In fact…!) Saturday was my first baptism! That means that I have taught him all the lessons and I was the one that performed the ordinance for him! His name is Edem. He is quiet and shy, but he has a simple yet powerful testimony. Africans don’t usually have them, they always feel like they need to be the most eloquent or spiritual, but in all of there long testimonies they lose some of the spiritual power that could rest there. That takes us into Sunday.

                Fast Sunday! We went to the testimony meeting, where only five people bore testimonies, each being about 10 minutes long, and Frere Alex bore his testimony twice! I’m glad that we were able to take the Sacrament, it truly is a great time that I have to reflect on my Savior and it is the time that I feel most at home here on my mission. There is peace and safety in those few minutes that no matter how bad our week was we can be happy there.

 That was my week. It has been good. There are ups and downs that we each have in our lives, and mine here as a missionary is no different. Life is an amazing thing! I will enjoy the precious moments that I have here as I prepare for the next step in life. I will try to learn and continue to grow each day as I prepare myself for an eternal life to come. The gospel is sweet, simple, and yet so hard. I will look past the difficulties and have all the dreams that I have ever wanted.

                The idea is to make the choice today what Kingdom you want to inherit. After you decide that, and you are firm in that decision, each decision after that has been already made for you.

Love you all! Have a great week!


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Elder Robert Eugene Haggard II