Dear Mom,

 

I honestly have no clue where to begin... this week has been, I think, the craziest week of my mission. I was in my journal so much this week. There was one day where I was just tired of writing, so I wrote one sentence then I decided to give up and record it on my camera.  So Elder Lavering got on my bed and we talked about our day and at the end it was 40 minutes long... crazy day. I think what made this week so crazy was all the emotions I felt. I am not going to talk about a lot of the things that went down because they are very personal for the people that were involved... but I thought I would let you know that this week was definitely an interesting, yet gratifying one.

 

Last Tuesday, Elder LaFleur made hamburgers and they were amazing. He made onion rings that we threw on the burgers along with a guacamole that I made. I will definitely incorporate avocados into our diet when I get home... so good! And before my mission I didn't even like them... I was crazy.

 

The zone avec le president de mission

President Jameson came to town this week with Sister Jameson and we had zone conference and it was fantastic. They talked about some things that I really needed to hear and shared some amazing insight. I love learning from President Jameson so much. I am so happy that when I get back from the mission he will only be 10 minutes away. What a blessing! I love that man so much. He is such a spiritual giant. He announced some very exciting news! Recently, he went to Central African Republic to meet with the President to talk about the country recognizing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and now the country has been officially opened and Elder Holland will be in a month or two to dedicate it. President Jameson said that North American missionaries will not be going there due to safety reasons but soon he will be sending 4 missionaries to start officially preaching the Gospel in that country! So, we were all super excited to hear about that and I am sure that we were all a little bummed to hear that none of us would be able to serve over there. I think President knew we would be a little bummed to hear that we couldn't go there so he saved the bigger news for last. He has also been to Gabon a lot recently, and in the past the Church has had no progress whatsoever with getting the Church recognized over in Gabon, but recently Church has sent representatives and President himself went and they talked and discussed what the Church would do for the country and a miracle came about and now Gabon is open for the preaching of the Gospel! He also told us that he has requested that Libreville be the 4th city for the North American missionaries! So we are only waiting for a french speaking couple to accept their call to Gabon and a few weeks after, President would send his missionaries to start preaching the gospel! How awesome is that!? Elder Holland will also be dedicating that country during the same mission tour when he dedicates Central African Republic. So it is possible that I could go work in Gabon :)

 

Elder Lavering and myself at the Military Hospital

 

Our Mormon Helping Hands activity over at the military hospital

 

We had our Mormon Helping Hands service project on Saturday and it was a great success. It almost was a failure though... we got to the project and no one was there. Finally, people started showing up about an hour and a half after it was supposed to have started. We had two grown men arguing amongst each other about the stupid little shirts and who could wear them and who couldn't... I say arguing but they were screaming at each other. It was very pathetic... "Hey look at us! We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we focus on love and unity!" HA. I wanted to say something so bad but I kept my mouth shut. President Njampou came late and when he came he saw that the service we were supposed to do had already been done. As he was walking around he ran into some US Navy guys who were fixing up an area at the hospital and he asked them if we could help and they gladly accepted and before they realized what they said yes to they had about 70 Mormons running towards them wanting to help them with whatever. They were blown away and you could tell that they were impressed. It was neat talking to Americans... I miss American English. The head honcho guy was telling me that he has his own religion and prays at his house but he really appreciated what we were out there trying to do... and that is simply to help. He said, "It hits you right here..." as he was put his hand over his heart. He told us that he would be painting next week and we (the missionaries) immediately told him that we are more than willing to help him out. So hopefully we can get that programmed and help out our Navy friends.

 

Our second counselor in the branch presidency was unjustly thrown in jail and Elder Lavering and I went and visited him after we received a call during companionship study. He had been in there 3 days and we didn't even know... He called multiple people before us and they did nothing. I was pretty peeved with the lack of help that was offered by the branch members and dropped some pretty heavy words on a specific individual and he didn't like that at all... but guess who was at the jail when we went for the second time... him! I got to him :) Needless to say... Oscar is now out of jail. This will be a story that you will have to ask me to explain when I get back... it took over two pages in my journal and I could of easily cranked out 5 or 6.

 

We have an amazing investigator named Catherine who loves to preach the gospel to every single person she comes into contact with. Well she has been talking to one of her neighbors named André and invited him to her baptism, which will be this Saturday, and she has read in the Book of Mormon with him and everything. So we went and visited André and started teaching him. He has a crazy past. He used to be a professional fighter and won the Cameroon title twice and the African title once. He was a beast! That all came to an abrupt end when his car stalled on the train tracks. He saw the train coming but thought to himself that he had time. He tried and tried but it never started. He looked back at the train and saw how close it was and started to panic. As he was panicking his arm hit the lock on his door and locked it and he yanked on the door handle and broke it. As his last effort he busted the window and started to climb through when the train hit. The train went completely over him and completely cut off his leg and his stomach... he said that his intestines were out of his body when people came to help him. It is a miracle that he is alive. He has so much faith and wants to more fully understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is very excited to go to Catherine's baptism and come to church. He almost committed himself to baptism! Hopefully things will roll out nicely. I like the guy.

 

We went teaching with the Gaileys for a few hours on Friday and it was so much fun. I love translating. Elder Gailey was able to crank out an awesome testimony in french. It was very simple but very powerful and the Spirit was definitely making his presence known. They really want to teach with us and work with us so I am really looking forward to working with them. We were at their house earlier this morning emailing photos and they were on their couch together studying french. They are dedicated and serious and awesome. I love the Gaileys!!

 

I am so happy to hear that everything is going well for you all back home. I hope I can still jump high... I wish I could play basketball more. When I was at the MTC I could dunk every try... and then I tore up my ankle. I just need to go running every morning. That is way cool that you were able to go see Les Miserables! I would love to see Phantom of the Opera. I have not yet received your package but I know that it will get here. Usually it takes two weeks. The Gailey's just went to the post office today and there wasn't a package for me.

 

All is going well over here in Douala. Yeah, there are difficult days but the joy you feel as you serve always beats out the trials of the mission. I am so grateful that I still have 9 and a half months left. Le temps passe vite!! Je t'aime!

 

Elder Schmid

 

Elder Mpungu, me, and Elder Rakotoarisoa...try saying that three times fast.



Emmanuel!! One of my converts back in Yaounde! He is now head of
communications for the church in Cameroon and he hasn't even been a
member for 7 months!

Sweet! Zion is in Douala!