2/15/2015 - Truth-telling Drink, Cop Stop, Valentine's Day, 1-Year

This past week was packed, but with the usual errands, visits, teaching, etc.  Still, there always seem to be a few new experiences and adventures.

We heard an interesting story in a talk by Frère George.  He told of a father who asked his daughters not to fool around with his neighbors.  They promised.  Then one of them had a affair with a neighbor.  When confronted she denied it but the problem didn’t go away.  Finally, the father gave her a kadi (sp?), which is a truth-telling drink.  She drank it and died, indicating that she was lying, thus indicating the importance of keeping promises.  Before dying she asked her father to forgive her for dishonoring the family.  I asked George about the kadi.  He said it is a mixture of herbs and is commonly used in Africa on people accused of various things.  It sometimes causes thieves to go blind.

The mission has issued new guidelines for all missionaries.  Apartment cleanliness is getting more attention and we will be making monthly and surprise inspections.  We installed some new shower curtains and replace a light fixture.

We had a nice teaching appointment with Randy and L’Or.  He joined the Church in India before he met her.  Now he has found the Church here and wants her to learn about it.  Unfortunately, he is a few dollars short of paying for the civil marriage, so they aren’t legal yet.  She committed to reading and praying.

We went through the latest branch order of books and lesson materials that just arrived to divide it between branches and found that a lot of the order was delivered in Portugese.  I don’t know how the distribution center got that mixed up.

Wednesday was National Youth Day, so everything was closed.  Traffic was light and we saw some youth picking up trash.  I think that it is a major national holiday with some events around town that we avoided.  Missionaries are advised to avoid crowds for safety.

Thursday we were out visiting inactive members and got stopped at a random checkpoint.  They checked our documents and informed us that our annual parking permit is expired and the fine is $50.  After chatting a bit I told them I would renew it at City Hall (which we did) and they let us go because we are missionaries.  Another blessing.  But later, a member told us that we weren’t even required to have a parking permit because it is just for commercial vehicles.  We’ll look into that some more.

Friday we taught the first “Teaching No Greater Call” class in the Douala Branch.  Four people showed up, all very late.

Right after that we were going to teach a “Strengthening Marriage” class but only one couple came and then something came up and they had to leave.  So, we are going to advertise more to attract participants.

Saturday was Valentine’s Day so we celebrated.  Every year for the past 25 years or so our children have surprised us with something different on Valentine’s Day.  This time we once again thought we would be too far away, but we were once again wrong.  They planned far enough in advance and made us some special “Families Are Forever” shirts.

Wearing Our Valentine's Day Shirts on Valentine's Day

President Nkong and his wife Sonya came over on Valentine's Day and watched "Fireproof" with us.  They loved it even with subtitles.

We just passed our mission anniversary and have only 6 months to go.  It is starting to look like we won't have time to do everything we want to do here.  But we're trying.

The Old Douala Branch Meetinghouse

 We loaned a piano to star student Wilfred.

Wilfred and sister, Marceline, in front of their home.

 The kids shown below came over to join in our weekly family Skype.  The girls had fun flirting with Tyler.

Laurencia, Wesley, Samuel, Ruth, Purita, Aristide, & Martha

 We got a kick out of this new "Clean City" sign, since there are no public trash cans and everyone throws trash on the ground.  There aren't a lot of white hands here either.

Where is this advertised trash can?