"John the Baptist", unresponsive kids, and sleeping on roofs

I am opening my first package of garments tonight actually! BIG MARK! Health is great, eat too much, gonna start an exercise program, course I do all that for mosquitos, deet is great. Should last the rest of my mission easily. Haven't tried the Debit again. Didn't get an interview with Golden but tht's okay cause I was really tired with my voice. It kills after all that translating. You asked how my health was twice... LOL! And I got the package with the reflector stuff. Thanks!

So the thing with companions, I know it sounds like I don't like most of them, but it's not that. I love all my companions. I keep in contact with and like them. I just share my feelings on certain subjects. It's me that's going to be reading these again after I get back and I can analyse my life after. Our goal in this life is to better ourselves to become perfect like our Savior, so I want to know my weaknesses. I guess it's kind of a lamely justified reason so I'll omit the other feelings. I've actually become very patient here. I mean kids yell/sing at me everyday telling me that i'm white, a fact I know very well, Old people yelling at me and insulting me all day, but it's weird cause no matter what they say, I love them as a brother or sister I knew before. The kids are innocent I know. I took a video of them singing too. SO FUNNY!

Well the conference was great. Everyone loved Elder Golden's discourse and he got asked some interesting questions. It was great though. We had one baptism last week. We have a good service the 20th coming up.

At the baptisms, they call the person who is going to baptise, John the Baptist. "Now as John the Baptist we have...." Elder Golden about flipped. He was like WHAT?!? I thought it was weird too but none of the other missionaries made a move so I didn't think anything more of it.

So I have a terrible yet kind of funny story... We were walking back to the house in sand like usual. We came to an intersection and there was this group of little kids. Normally they sing or stare at me. This group was coming around the corner and pointing and making noises that sounded like their language Evé. So I thought I'd try to make them laugh and point and act like I could talk Evé too. Kids laugh when I do that. But these kids didn't even see me, they kept walking and I realised they didn't hear me. Kakou explained why they didn't hear me. They were DEAF. Wow... I felt like a total jerk. Kakou was laughing so hard though.

So one person we baptized has become SUPER strong. We gave him a Gospel Principles book, the new one, and the next time we stopped by his house, he had a 4 PAGE TALK written. he asked, how can I give a talk at church? . . .. . That was crazy... He's a great guy.

Last story and I gotta go. So the power has been cutting out every night for the last month. It's always when we're sleeping. So Elder Cruz and I wake up immediately and go outside cause it's too hot. We wait 20 minutes to an hour. Bam. Power. BUT This one night the power cut out around 10 or 11. An hour passed and Cruz and I were too tired. So we took our mattresses up on the roof. We used a TON of mosquito spray and with the great breeze up there were saved from the death heat wave. This is truly Africa. It was a fun experience. : )

Well that's all and I gotta go. I love you all VERY much and got a couple presents for you guys! the boys too.

LOVE YOU!

Elder HAlvorsen

Mmmm...mmmagggottts!

Health is good. [Elder] Cruz was sick. Don't know if it was malaria... Haven't tired Debit card again. Weather is hot. Compy is good. Fav Scrip. There's too many... All of Alma 29 is good. or 1 to 10. lol! I heard Tess was engaged. She told me. CRAZY! When did you get a Jetta?

An apostle at Jared's house! WOW! That is too cool! I'm happy for him! I can't check the blog. Don't have time. Rushed again... Tonight the power cut off eight times in the last hour...

So here's some fun stuff about what's been going on. So it's hotter then normal, don't know how in the world that's possible, but it is, and I now have SALT DEPOSITS coming through my pants after one day. Yeah. That's hot. lol!

We had a fun maggot experience. I was going to open the garbage can to throw something in and I tried grabbing it by the top, but my hand kept slipping so I thought heck I'll just reach around the side of the lid. I flipped it off real quick and ya... HUNDREDS of maggots all over the place. On the rims falling off the sides, on the lid, crawling all over.

SO I call out Kakou and told him to carry it out into the sun. Then the small portion of 200 that fell on the ground, I got a broom and swept them off onto the other sidewalk. I turn around and heard a scuttering behind me. I look and all of a sudden four lizards come out of no where and started eating all of the maggots! All of it. It was like pac-man lizard style! It was great! So We tipped the garbage can a bit and they hopped right in and took care of all of them! I love the lizards here now. And they love us. : )

So when I went to the bank to go get my money transfer, there was a Nigerian there and he had literally 5000 american dollars all in Franklins. It was ridiculous. I said, why do you have that here? He said Amreica money is better then Africa money. Case closed. Lol!

Another thing about my comp. He's 26... Ya not kidding. He's ANCIENT! I thought he was like... 20. But oh well. I really do like him a lot. He taught me some cool stuff and also how to make these cool bracelet things. I'll make em for the fam.

The Zone conference is tomorrow in our apartment with Elder Golden and I'll be translating again. It should be really good. I'm pretty stoked for this. We worked really hard this last week too. We should have some good baptisms coming up.

Also We didn't do anything for my year mark. The only thing that I'm gong to do is burn a tie, a shirt, a pair of socks and a pair of pants on my year and six months. Well I gotta go.

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope you're all doing well!

Elder Halvorsen

The mice are eating well...

Heat is killing me. I put on sun block, got burned still.... No rain... PRAYING! We'll have two baptisms this week. I have stories but I left my stupid planner at the house. My Apt doesn't have AC. MY new companion is great! His name is Elder Kakou. So I spelled it wrong the first time. He's fresh from the MTC and I'm his Trainer. We get along well. Health is great. I'm learning to cook a bunch of stuff with Elder Kakou. Sonds like you guys had a bunch of stuff going on. And another car? Dang... Lol! That sounds cool though. I would love to drive it.

Well I bought some masks today and got burned playing soccer. I got some statues too. Nothing too crazy. I had a lot of stories about a ton of funny and sweet stuff but I really can't remember. AND LUCK HAVE IT! I had it right next to me! Gonna open it up.

I saw two little kids ding dong ditch this poor old lady. It was actually quite hilarious. The kids just took off running.

AFRICAN EXPERIENCE! We found this guy we thought was an investigator. He's CRAZY far from our house, but someone showed us. Se we get to the beach and we see this shack. We're thinking interesting... Okay. And then we take this tiny little side trail winding through this plantation of palm trees and end up in this tiny hut on the beach. Wow... It was intense. His house is a little bigger then our pantry and made up of palm leaves. We took a picture together.

I got the package with my debit card from the Bailey's. The mice ate really well. The soup and bacon bites are gone. As for my card, I tried it and it said action forbidden. I don't know if it's activiated or what. So that's what it said. I'm going to try another place.

I bought a bible in évé so I'm: going to try and learn this language really really well and speak it. Also had a little ice cream party for my comp. It's been a decent week.

Well I love you all very VERY much and miss you all!

Elder Halvorsen

Fixing the kinks in the new apartment

This is now the third flipping time that I've written this letter. First time the computer tweaked and THEN after it had erased everything the computer saved nothing, and then the power got cut in Togo. Good start for the morning.

Well I"m in the Souza Nétimé branch. Health is good. Package wasn't rummaged. Out of Deodorant. Africans believe in Roll on only and it's girl marks... New apartment had a TON of problems. Some self proclaimed lock smith took a crowbar to our door and broke the lock. He charged us three bucks. Then water started overflowing in the kitchen and our drunk guardian got his sons, beat the concrete around this big lid thing with hammers, put a ladder down and his son dressed only in a pair of tight boxers went down, no shoes, basically diving in just the worst smelling sludge I've ever seen... Was so gross. Did not receive the reflector stuff either. That story about Chan sounds terrible but super funny. Reminds me of the pooped pants I cleaned up at Home Depot. And With Bro Baxter. : ) You can tell him I did learn a little Fong bé and I'm starting a little Ewé.

Here's a couple little stories. Just after last week's internet we went outide and the Muslims were burning a goat they just killed. Right in the middle of the road. Fun times. We dumped a huge bucket of water on Geisler's head from the roof and started a water war inside the house... Took an hour to clean. Some kids threw a strobe light in the middle of the road and we kept walking, but Geisler stopped to do the Robot, and it turned out to be a mini bomb firework. He jumped so hard and it was So funny.

We were on the roof of this four story building and some kids had spotted us from the roof, so I started doing the YMCA dance and we got about 25 kids down on the street to start doing the YMCA and after the Maccaraina. They cook here buy using grinding stones and coal in these little firepits. Just like the native Americans. Most people cook like that anyways. We got stuck in a huge march for the UFC. We were in a taxi. Dead stop for all the Traffic. And then the next day we got stuck in another when we were walking. It was a bunch of people that were excited for the World Cup. Wow... It was crazy. They block the whole road. Some crazy guy come over and started hugging us and asking for money so we told him to get off and that we didn't have any so I thought I'd pull the I speak English card and he most definitely spoke english too. I just said great. Lol.

Well that message was way better the first time, but oh well... I'll explain more when I get home and have some photos. The 28th is coming fast! The year mark! It's been so fast! I get Kakoo the 14th. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll have my debit card soon too so all is good. Thank you! I love you all and miss you a lot!

Elder Halvorsen

Elder Halvorsen's testimony

Health is good. Companion, Elder Geisler, is getting transferred next week to Benin and I will receive a Brand new Ivorian missionary from the MTC. His name is Elder Kakoo. Christmas was great and New Years was fun too. I'll bear testimony at the end. I re-sent the email again. Sr. Bailey called and talked to me about the package. THe money transfer worked out great. It's funny cause I actually ended up pulling it out FARTHER away from downtown but in a WAY nicer facility. Lol!

Yeah I can't believe that Jon will be home in 3 months. That's just too crazy to think about... And with Kirtley. I got a letter from her family saying she had been evacuated.. Man that's just nuts...

Did Andrew get a hold of you? I told him to give you a call.

Okay. Now the fun stuff. New year's was great. Kids have used fireworks all day everyday since I came here and man.. EVERYONE had fireworks. We did too... We threw them off the roof. Lol! We ate so much that day. I thought I was going to explode. Everyone invited us over to eat. Then I was too tired so I decided to go to sleep at around ten cause we were all so tired. At exactly 12 the apartment started shaking... There were SO many fireworks. Not just little ones... We're talking an army might have turned around... It was ridiculous... It went on for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then the stupid rooster woke us up again... UGH.

It's more difficult being a District Leader then I thought. I've got to keep all these Elder's in line and staying in their positions as missionaries. It's rough... Good experiences for me though. I'm learning how to deal with all kinds of people.

We just moved apartments today. First off we went down to this market where we buy food, but there's a member next door who sells wood things. CRECHE SETS MOM! : ) They're a little more on the expensive side, roughly 20,000 cifas, I think that's forty bucks, but they're pretty cool. I don't know if you want it to look African or just a normal type creche. Let me know.

There are also masks for 8 bucks and cool wood statues and necklaces and all types of things. If the boys want something, nows a good time.

So we got back to the apartment and Fr. Dieudonné came by and says, you guys are moving today! Surprise! So we ran around packing things and getting ready. We moved everything in about 4 hours and we finished moving everything around in the house. Then we realized ah. Gotta hit up the internet. So I lock all the doors and there was just one door left to lock. I put the key in, locked it and pulled the key out. But something went wrong. The lock and tumblers followed. Yep. We are currenlty locked out of our house... Lol! The guardian next door has a key but he wasn't there so we're going to stop by his house on the way home. It's been an eventful day...

So it's kinda weird bearing my testimony in English cause I always do it in French, but after everything that I've seen here and everything I've been through I have taken the testimony that I had before and turned it into an unbreakable rock. I have easily moved every obstacle out of my path in this mission because of the testimony that has been built. I look at other churches and other people that don't have the Gospel and I just ask myself, How can you think that that church is right when the bible clearly states what we need to do, and you're church doesn't do it? How can you let yourselves live in darnkness? Even with the Book of Mormon as a second witness that completely backs up the Bible, how could you believe in anything else? There's is not a single question that I have, had or will have that I have not anwsered easily with this Gospel. The answers to eternal life are only in one place as stated in the Bible, One Lord, One faith, One baptism. Jesus built one church on the Earth and he made his church on the foundation of Prophets, Apostles and HIM being the corner stone and Leader of all righteousness.

I know without a doubt in my mind that this church is his church.. I know that everything that is is here because of a Heavenly Father that loves us and will never leave us alone and in darkness. The gospel is so easy to understand and so easy to live. We just have to follow what somebody else has already done, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's always easier to do what has already been done because we know it's possible. We know it has been done and can be done. It's the path that is the choice. The straight and narrow where our Brother has already walked and leads us along as well, our the wide path that only descends into darkness. I have chosen my path and will hold on the Rod and the Wisdom of our Father and his Christ instead of the knowledge of man. This is my testimony and this is my Rock. Which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love you all very much. One year has passed and one year remains. I'm making the most of it for these people.

Elder Halvorsen

DON'T HUG ME!

The cat was really good actually. I'll spare you the details, but I have photos and a video, so you'll know after the mission. : ) I know the package wasn't supposed to be anything crazy mom. : ) I was happy to get a package and have something for Christmas. : ) Yeah Baxter is right. Almost every house in Prairie ridge is better then some people's best here. Imagine dirt floors with nothing but coconut palm leaves as walls and a mat for a bed. Most cook on coals only too. Even some of the well off people. Yeah the boys will regret not going on trips. Right now I just have this longing to go hiking and rock climbing and dirt biking and snow mobiling and the GYM Man I miss the gym... Yeah I can't believe that the year is just right there.. and they say it gets faster.... I like that idea cause sweating every moment of the day sucks, but I really like it here. I'd love to work in an embassy for the US. I think they get paid pretty well too with all the government benefits.

No water or electricty for two days? Cake. Lol! I've done that for a week in a half. : ) Thanks for the money transfer. That was actually pretty easy so I think that'll be the new way to do it...

SO There are a lot of things I forgot to tell you guys about what's been going on. So at our apartment, there is this car garage with parts everywhere, junker cars and garbage. They LOVE to put it on our doorstep. SO I deliver a nice little present every night in a little plastic bag.. [not sure what to make of this...] Then one day one of them peed on our door mat. So we tossed that too.

I had my first very awkward encounter. There is this pretty cute girl. We visit her sister to teach her. One day the cute girl met us in the road. She smiled and walked toward me and at the last second tries to throw her arms around me. She doesn't know the rules, so it wasn't intentional, but automatically without even thinking I like ninja chopped her arms with both of mine and said NON! That's against the rules! Lol! NEVER in my life have I rejected a hug just automatically like that; especially from a cute girl. It was really weird, but cool at the same time. lol! It was difficult to explain the rules to her after that...

So my French got a good exercise again. I translated last Tuesday for our Leadership meeting, then again the next day for the Zone Conference, and AGAIN Thursday for a DISTRICT LEADER TRAINING. That was weird... I'm this 20 year old basically telling 30 to 60 year olds how to do their job and the 20 year old is the one that has to translate cause they don't have a clue what Elder Leavitt was saying... It was an interesting feeling. Even President tried correcting me cause he thought I misunderstood the question and I was like no. I said it exactly as he did.

So kids light firecrackers here all the time. They'll throw those little ones at us and explode them in the street all the time. So Christmas night, we got up on the roof and chucked some at them. It was really funny. You'd throw one and they'd shoot off in all directions and start cracking up.. Then they started retaliating. It was a fun Christmas.

We had two good baptisms the 26. They're both strong. We have another three already ready to go the 9th of JAnuary with a family hopefully too.

Something funny they do here. If you talk about Thomas S. Monson, you read Thomas S Monson right? Here they say Thomas S Point Monson. The point after the S.. they actually say S point Monson. It is THE funniest thing of all time! Lol!

On the home from the baptism, we decided to go eat at a restaurant so we all pile in this tiny taxi, six elders, and I thought that Elder Dea had already closed his door so I wrapped my fingers around the post. Slam. Fingers got slammed in the door. At first I was just confused at this sudden pain. Then I started shouting in French, OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR! It was really funny. Fingers are fine. Not even a bruise. I was blessed. : )

Our piano guy at church. He does these freestlye hymns... It's really funny. At the beginning or end he'll just kinda bust out on his own little rythm that works with the hymn. He's actually really good.

The road I live on is the Houphouet Boigny Boulevard. You find the road Tabinde, then go on that road till you cross the road Noépé, and our house is right after that road in front of a little car dump. Our house is white.. And the pronunciation of Houphouet Boigny is "Whep poo eh Boing ee." Lol.

Well that's it for this week. I loved talking to you guys! I wish Austin would've talked better. That made me a little sad he wasn't even able to talk clearly to me. We'll he gets another chance in just six months. I love you all very much! Happy new year!

Elder Halvorsen

Pre-Christmas call...just to make sure the calling card worked :)

That was so weird... You sounded exactly like Sister Leavitt when you said Bonsoir. I thought it was the leavitts home phone in Togo.. We were in the middle of planning when you called. This sector is gonna make me a little tired. there's a lot of work to do...

Yeah. Never send packages to Abidjan again. Only to Benin. the couple will bring them over. If I do go back to Ivoiry coast, I'll just wait to get home. Then you wont have to send stuff. President DID NOT birng my package. Not happy at all. The time to call will be around 1 to 2 my time, right in there.

Man I miss snowmobiling. Wait... What's snow? Hahah. That was lame... Umm... No offense but I don't think I would ever wear an arm band that flashes.... The stickers would be cool to put everywhere. But a flasher? Hmm... Togo feels COMPLETELY different then Benin. It reminds me of Côte D'Ivoire a little bit. Benin is a more negative place really... It's hard to work there. Here it's a lot easier. We just got a district here and now we have four branchs. President is in town. Got a meeting tomorrow with the other DL's and the ZL's. Then we have the Zone conference all Wednesday and then a party at the Chruch thursday and Christmas Friday and a baptism saturday... Wow... This week will be crazy...

Well I have a couple stories this week. I told you about the side walks with the big bricks that shift sometimes right? Well they dump sewage and throw garbage in these holes. Elder Geisler most definitley fell in one.. LOL! It was so funny! Just his right leg but he was like "I feel so gross!" we had to walk another fifteen minutes before we found a taxi too. Oh man. lol!

I have eaten something interesting now. Dog. Yes I have betrayed Ruby [our black lab]. It was good actually. Was really spicy though but good. We also will be eating Cat for Christmas. We're killing it and everything [great], so I'll let you know how that goes...


I think I said the water here is bad already. Even after it's been filtered it has this weird taste. I'm finally getting used to it. It was disgusting at first. I took a huge gulp and barely got it down...

Here's a fun story. You know "The Other Side of Heaven"? There's a part where someone dies and the ladies are crying really loud. I witnessed that for myself in person... We Contacted someone and they brought us into their house. there was this girl in front of this 6 or 7 foot stone thing with Jesus in a little cove and she was on her knees just bawling with her hands in the air, I swear, exactly like the Tongans in the movie. Wow... So We sit down inside and she walks in and says "Okay! I'm all yours!" Like nothing ever happened. So We start singing and she says every line like really REALLY slow which is really incredible for an african cause they already sing SLOW and she starts picking apart every word. So we start over just Geisler and me and she stares at Geisler the whole time with this big smile on her face... Like maybe a foot away... Creepy. So we started teaching after that and during the ENTIRE lesson she kept saying" Jesus! Jesus! oh Lord! Jesus! God! Jesus!" The loudness of her voice varied, but it was constantly that for a good 15 minutes until we left.. She was flipping crazy....

Well I'll be talking to you in a couple days anyways, so I won't write much more. And tell Austin, I had my [Eagle] Project almost ready and finished it a couple months after.

I love you all and am excited to talk soon!

Elder Halvorsen