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Life Is Better In A Bikini

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Wha whaa?! Crazy week out here yet again! Have not gotten malaria yet, so life is still kicking! This week has been so rewarding, so hard, and so exciting. This week God has been dropping people into our hands. If any of you were losing faith about whether your prayers are really being heard, let me be your testament because God DOES. Won't lie—contacting all day is brutal out here, so I've been praying we will be led to the people who are really ready. We have to move on from people pretty fast because there is so much work to do, and there are so many other people who are ready and will accept our message that we need to find them first. Anyway, we were teaching one of our amis, frère Laurant, and this guy just walks up, asks to join, and plops down next to us. The next day, we followed up, and he took three pages of notes on the Book of Mormon and what he learned... it was so precious! We ended up putting both of them on date for baptism that day! We are seriously just God...
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The Sauna

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Bonjour!! Been a full week over here in Benin! Only like 70 more, Mom! Lol! This week consisted of a lot of sweat, power outages, bug bites, heat rash, and getting called yovo a lot (White person). BUT on the bright side, this week also consisted of cold Cokes, SO MUCH yummy fresh fruit, cold showers, and new amis at church!!! Seriously so cool—it's only my second Sunday, and we have been blessed to see some of our new friends at church! We met one of them last week and then his friends on Tuesday, and seven of them made it to church!!!! Literally a miracle in front of my face! Honestly, never would've thought I'd see things happen so fast! Hopefully, next week we get this place turned into a splash zone. This week I've been soooo flustered with the language! Sometimes I can speak super well, and other times it feels like I've never done a Duolingo lesson in French. Private cheffing out here for exchanges. Invested in my first meters of pagne this week and am so sto...
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A Weekend In Benin

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WOWZA I think I've started this email three times and don't even know what to say! I MADE IT! This place is amazing! I don't think I've ever felt this many emotions in a day, every day, all day before. Let me recap this week a little. SO pumped to leave MTC and finally be in the field. That was a whole culture in itself LOL. We woke up at 3:30 to get bags weighed and everyone off to the airport, caught a flight to Lomé (Togo), and then right to Benin. We didn't get to Benin till 4 p.m., so it was a long day. After, we met Presi at the airport and went to the mission home, and Y'ALL, they fed us BBQ PIZZA!! You already know how pumped I was to see normal food, let alone my favorite—some BBQ PIZZA! Have to throw this in here—so random—but President's wife is Aunt Janice, Cong, Dog, and Kim in one person! She is such a solid woman! Got my trainer, Sœur Bird, and she's so kind! There are four of us white girls out here in Calavi! Sounds like it's the fur...
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AU REVIOR

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I'M OUTTA HERE IN DEUX JOURS I leave for Benin sometime in the morning on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure, but I won't really find out until that night. So surreal. I've been thinking about this since August, and I'm finally getting there. So nervous, so excited, and 1000% not enough French vocabulary to last me the weekend! Class this week was not even real. One day we played Kahoot for three hours. We also didn't even finish all of Course 4. By the looks of it, we're also not having class for the rest of the time here. We’ve also been pulled out of class for visa reasons with Sister Nkereuem. She might be getting reassigned because there's a major war right now in the Congo where she's serving. I told her to use the Book of Mormon as the armor of God, and she didn't think it was that funny. Needless to say, I will be reading the entire French dictionary on the flight to Benin. Of course, the temple—that's always super fun! We've been going t...
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Chocolate And Flowers

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Bonjour! I hope everyone had an amazing week! My week was good—I had French class, French class, French class, and French class! I'm getting closer to holding conversations with the Francophones. Still rusty without my conjugation book, but it will get there. Don't have too much more to report back on because I'm just grinding French all day, every day. Yesterday had me so ready for the field. I mentioned we moved to the French branch last week, and I had been asked to conduct (embarrassing doing a cappella in French). They announce who's speaking in the announcements over the pulpit, and I was up first! After, we taught district lesson in French, then I got called to say the prayer at devotional in French! FRANCOPHONE! This week, I inherited a new type of clientele. Over the past weeks, I've helped sew up a few holes here and there on the girls' dresses in my room. Word travels faster than Perry in here! When it's 9 p.m. and I get back to my room, it's ...
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Takeaway

WHA WHA! It's been a WILD week, but nothing out of the ordinary for here. I'm plugging in a fair warning right now also because my mom told me I'm really sassy this week! To understand this week, I need to enlighten y’all to the idea of take away. To start off this concept, I need to explain the cafeteria situation. We got new chefs, which caused a shortage (we ran out of food). I'd also like to add I AM grateful for what I do have—I'm just hungry. This week, I've had a piece of bread for every meal, and if we're getting really fancy, a few pieces of pineapple. Unless, of course, you want chicken gizzards for breakfast. You'd think the idea of "ladies first" would mean something to all these crazy elders, but as soon as you walk in the cafeteria, it's like my dad says: "No friends on a powder day." Every man for themselves. So, getting back on track—takeaway is where you pack food to go for later in the evening when you need a lit...
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Francophone

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What's up! Another week in Accra! This week was TOUGH, I'm not even going to lie! I've not heard a lick of English in class since last Wednesday, and I have no idea what's going on in class ever! The French teachers are very stubborn, and it's honestly super discouraging the way they teach. Cannot catch me saying it again, but I would take Señor Wooly over the teaching here. They play mind games legit. We're not allowed to take notes during the lesson—only what we remember afterward, unless you snag a photo of the board. The gift of tongues is so real though. Maybe it's my violin days coming back, but my memorization has never been this good. I swear I can read something, and by the end of class, I can remember everything. One day francophone. I don't know how to even fit everything into these emails 'cause I swear something wild happens every hour. Yesterday I almost got in a car crash. Now, you may be wondering how that happened whilst in the MTC, ...
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