First Week in Magical Bè-Kpota!‏

• Heya World!

  
  

  I am currently typing on a keyboard in French, and they have removed the option of changing it into English, so in advance, if you start seeing words misspelled, assume it to be that instead of deteriorating English, please and thank you!

  
  

  First off, CONGRATULATIONS Amalia Barrow Salmon on your wedding!!!

  
  

  My letter this week may be brief in regards to what is happening on the mission front, but nonetheless I will tell you all about my new secteur, and more so I hope to tell you about my recurring thoughts this past week. I hope you will bear with me as I try to articulate my thoughts (they kind of all just spill out as soon as I start typing, like a running dialogue in my head). So onto this adventure we set off!

  
  

  So let us start with Bè-Kpota, with its beauty, and its... dead people. Yeah, there is the largest selection of dead people that I have ever seen found here in my secteur, albeit in the form of a cemetery. It wouldn't be such a special sight, but here in Togo they don't believe in burying people in the ground and so there rests large concrete tombs above the ground. So we get to walk through that everyday... and every night! Eerie as it may be, but I like the creepy things... or not. Honestly I don't like creepy things, and you can ask many people that I am the most scared in the room when a scary movie is on, a little pathetic on my part, but I live with it.

  
  

  My companion is amazing! His name is Elder Kouadio and he is from Côte d'Ivoire. He loves to cook, to work, and to sleep. The latter is possibly due to his age, for he happens to have six extra years under his belt than I do during this mortal state. Yeah, I do feel rather young around him, but I will get over that all. I am also with two others in my apartment, Elder Ringle, who I happened to meet as he was in the MTC and I was in the Referral Center, and Elder Soanantenaina, he is from Madagascar. They are all super cool so I am happy here.

  
  

  Shout out/rub in the face for Elder Hawkins in Kodjoviakopé, the water pressure here is AH-MAY-ZING!! :P

  
  

  So now let me turn my thoughts to something of a little more spiritual, I hope.

  
  

  My thoughts go to a talk that I happened across this morning given by Neal A. Maxwell back in April of 1978 entitled, "The Women of God" and it touched a special place in my heart. In this talk Elder Maxwell speaks of the mysteries of God when giving specific roles to His sons and daughters. It was something that people often question on the whole equality dispute, and here it was simply put so that all the world can understand, it is how God planned it to be.

  
  

  There has always been a sacred nature and a special reverence given in regards to womanhood throughout all time. There have been very significant impacts through Heavenly Father's choice in His daughters sent to this world. The list is very long, and each has in fact effected the world as we know it. The part that started to turn and turn in my mind is that, as we well know, God is the same yesterday, today and forever, that leaves no room to dispute that he continues to choose the specific work of His daughters. So my thoughts turned to my mother.

  
  

  I often have felt, in recent months, after that whole angsty, rebellious teen phase, that my mom has always been an inspiration to me. She, though left alone early to raise her children, has always found a strength to stay resolute in the faith, and has been able to give us the opportunities that we have needed to be successful in life. She has set an example for me to follow in loving my children, to withstanding adversity, and to staying true to the gospel. She has had much challenge in her life based on situations that she was placed into, but nevertheless she arose to be a strong-spirited and loving person. 

  
  

  I know that God specifically chose her to go through those trials, to be my mother, and to put up with all of my burdens. I know that God did all those things because He loves me, and more importantly, He knew that this day of realization would come and now I have to make it up to her.

  
  

  God is amazing, He has blessed my life with my amazing mother, my sister, my future wife and daughter(s)maybe). Yes, men in my life have made a difference, but woman will always make the greater. I love the blessings of the Lord that come through His chosen angels here upon the earth. They truly bless the lives of billions through their loving grace, and their resistance to the beatings from the world for "empathy during agony is a portion of divinity" as expressed through the Savior in His precious moments upon Calvary's crest. Women are amazing, be grateful for the women in your life, for I am for those in mine.

  
  

  That was the little thought that I had today.

  
  

  Sincerely,

  Elder Haggard