2 February 2014
To all of you,
Where or Where did January go??
The
mission has been very busy as usual. Except for one delightful sister
we have just had the normal amount of sickness. Every missionary has
responded well. The one sister from the Congo returned home for some
medical treatment. We think that she will return following her
recuperation.
It seems that all new
missionaries go through a period of adjustment that they may question
why they are here. The president takes his time and can see their
future and knows that they have been called to Benin to serve two years
by the prophet. It is extremely rare for a missionary to return home
because they decided that Benin isn't paradise. I only know of one. I
think that as the missionaries go through the various trials and
challenges of any mission that they come to know who they are and a
little about how the lord tempers them for life and for eternity. These
young men learn a lot about persistence and team work.
Yesterday, I
attended the baptism in Gbedjromede. Unlike a year ago my behavior was
significantly different. The baptismal font had not been filled. It
took until a little after 11 am to fill it. The service was suppose to
start at 10 am. My type A behavior a year a go could not handle that.
The water runs slow here. Some of the missionaries used a bucket to
pull water out of the well to shorten the time to fill the font. Yes
the were in their white shirts and ties. I showed them a little trick
on how to keep their ties clean and not get wet. Either take your tie
off or tuck it in you shirt. Oh, they said. They were wonderful.
We started our monthly
apartment inspection. The apartments were good. Some better than
others. Does this sound familiar: A before an inspection of one of
the apartments I found a few things disgusting: Trash in the hallway
for example. A lot of trash. I counseled them to get rid of it. When I
walked into the apartment I looked for the trash. It had magically
disappeared. While no one was looking I opened a seldom used door to a
balcony, yep, there was the trash! Unlike a year ago, I just mused. I
then gathered the missionaries together and led them to my discovery.
It was looking in the closed close to hide the clothes not hung up, or
looking under the bed for the hidden soda pop can. We all had a nice
laugh. They asked if they could just drop it over the balcony.
We got more mail on Thursday. Yes, some more packages arrived that had been mailed in November. One 4 November 2013.
February will be a busy month again. Zone Conferences and a
missionary conference in Togo and Benin with a General Authority. A few
missionaries will have a visit with the General Authority.
Your missionaries are doing well. Thank you for your prayers. They pray for you as well
Elder Semken
21 January 2014
Good morning to you,
The mission is once again very busy as always. President Weed will
finish interviewing every missionary on Thursday. He interviews every
missionary about every six weeks and has frequent contact with them
throughout the month. So he and Sister Weed are very well aware of the
missionaries situation temporally and spiritually. Every missionary
will have his/her ups and downs throughout the month. Most of the time
the missionaries are pretty even. Once in a while there are things
that seem to be bigger than life. Give a day or two and things are back
to normal. For instance, I have a landlord who is may not be as nice
as our other landlords. He lives in another village 1/2 of the time,
which is not unusual. We spend more time with him trying to solve
problems. He seems to be difficult to live deal with. Just before a
major holiday on a Friday and another holiday on Monday he has left to
travel to his other home. On Friday afternoon the missionaries water
was turned off by the water company for non-payment. The water nor
electricity company are suppose to turn anything off on a holiday. So
the missionaries were without water for 4 days. We do own our water
tank on the top of the building. And the missionaries should have been
able to get water. But the door to the roof was locked and they had no
access to the tank. Results, no water. So the missionaries went
across the road and paid for water that they put in 5 gallon containers
and carried up the water three floors every day for 4 days. When I
found out about it on Friday night, I offered to pick them up and bring
them to to our apartment for showers. They thought it was a nuisance
and continued to carry the water. Now how would you like that! I
visited with the elders following their ordeal, they said it was
extremely difficult and was one of the hardest things they had to do.
The stairs are uneven and a new elder tripped and fell, hurt his back.
I think on Elder Maxwell's talk on "patience" and wonder what they
learned and what I learned. All is well. I hope it doesn't happen
again. By the way the President was at their apartment when the water
was out and the electricity went off as well; which is a usual
occurrence in our mission. The president seems to be where the
challenges are and is well aware of them. The Lord knows how he is
tempering each of us. There was a book written several years ago by
Elder Dyer, as I recall, called The Refiner's Fire, or something like
that.
Another example,
last Friday we went to the Post Office. We received about 15
Christmas packages and 25-50 letters and cards. We go to the post
office 2 or 3 times a week. They had been stored for some time. This
is not unusual. They told us that there had been some kind of security
breach which caused the delay. Some of the packages were mailed 19 Nov
and 23 of Nov and up to 21 of December. This is why we suggest DHL or
FEDEX and not USPS. Some of the packages, letters will be delivered to
Togo today. Some packages that the missionaries are expecting still
have not arrived. Those with letters and packages were very pleased.
I noticed a trend
this month of January. It is only 2/3 of the way through the month and
missionaries are short of money. I wonder if they got caught up in
the Holiday season spending more than they should have. They will be
fine, they do know how to manage.
As I have said, the
missionaries have lived many more wonderful days and have many more
stories to tell. I leave the stories for them to tell and most of the
details are for them as well to share in their own way and time. This
is true of the no water in the apartment for 4 days.
The new mission
president for our mission was announced recently. He and his wife are
from Quebec Canada. Both speak French. I understand that she is a
nurse. I don't know much about him yet. The picture is just being put
together. The new mission presidents go to Provo for four days. His
name is Pierre-Paul Morin. He begins 1 July 2014.
We hope that all of you are well. Our thoughts and concerns are for your well being as well as the missionaries.
Elder Semken
5 January 2014
Happy New Year,
The missionaries were kept busy during the holiday season. The
mission has a very nice Christmas activity. It started at 10 am and is
schedule to end at 2 pm. The activity in Togo was a week before
Christmas and in Benin the day before Christmas. They start out by
playing 6 games. The missionaries are divided into 3 groups and then
depending on the game are broken into small groups. I asked them if
they enjoyed the games and all of them said yes. Games such as
pictionary and musical chairs. There are some competitive
characteristics that demonstrated. Even the sisters are very
competitive. Following the games a there is a nice dinner and then the
Christmas program. The program is put on by the missionaries. Each
apartment or two apartments in some cases sing a song and include a
scriptural reading. The mission president gives a Christmas story
presentation as well as sings. He is a very talented musician. The
accompanied himself with his guitar while singing.
The missionaries
are then presented with a gift. As they start to head back to their
apartments they linger to visit with one another.
The Christmas season is also filled with many member dinners for the missionaries.
New Year's
frequently includes dinner with members as well. Some missionaries get
together and cook a pig and eat it. This year we have a Tahitian who
could help.
The new year has begun with Zone Conferences and Missionary interviews.
The general theme setting goals. Later this month we will have visits
by two different groups of general authorities. These include the area
presidency and other area seventies. I think there may be one from
the US. For one of the meetings Elder Vinson is having the missionaries
complete a questionnaire. It includes questions of evaluation as to
where the missionary thinks he was about 6 months ago and then where he
is today. Such as, are you reading the Book of Mormon everyday or
somedays, companion study, personal study, etc. He is also requested
that the missionaries read 3 or 4 assigned conference talks in
preparation for the training.
This past December we had very few medical issues. The few that we had were very minor.
Missionaries frequently lose weight as they adjust to their new
diet. The weight is generally muscle, since they don't get any real
exercise. They do a lot of walking but little lifting, nor running,
etc.
We are now
experiencing the dry season. This is the time when the high atmospheric
trade winds bring the sand (microscopic dust) from the Sahara desert.
Many people wear the surgical masks to minimize the amount of dust that
gets into their lungs. As far as I can tell there isn't anything to
worry about. I suppose if exposed for years it could have some negative
effect. For more than a year now we have been in what is considered a
drought. The other day when we were driving along a very sandy beach
road there were tow or 3 vehicles who were stuck in the sand. One small
car was buried past his wheel hub. Motos were having to get off and
push through the bad spots. If I were driving the mission van it may
have gotten stuck. Our trucks are very good, but I have used 4 wheel
drive 2 or 3 times.
The missionary work
is steady. One great challenge that we have seen here is the inability
for the members to visit one another, like home teaching and visiting
teaching. The missionaries are asked to go and re-teach their converts
following their baptism. The missionaries build very positive long-term
relationships with their new friends. All of us could put into action
of fellowshipping in our own neighborhood, etc. Developing the depth
in leadership and teaching skills requires a lot of time and effort.
The members are doing well. We have missionaries playing the keyboard
for sacrament meeting. Thank goodness for mothers who had their sons
learn to play. The African missionaries do not play musical
instruments.
I mention that your
sons are very firm in their testimony. They have a great deal to learn
and are glad they have the opportunity to learn to pray, study and
testify. We are very proud of them.
There is always some new experience for them nearly every day.
Elder Semken
25 November 2013
To all of you wonderful people,
We are doing well except for some small colds. This has been a very
dry year for these people and now it is the dry season which lasts until
mid-March. The roads and streets are particularly dry and dusty. The
Elders' shirts are so bad that it is very difficult to keep them clean.
This is especially true in Cococodji.
A few updates. I just
received word from President Weed that the one year old District in
Togo will become a stake in Togo in two weeks. The growth and stability
is miraculous. Elder Vinson of the Seventy will organize the new
stake. Cotonou is much newer than Togo but it may be possible that a
new stake will be in the making by the time President Weed returns home
at the end of June.
I met the first two
missionaries in Togo and Benin. The Findleys. They are from Canada,
age about 70. They have only take one year off since 1999 as
missionaries and humanitarian missionaries. They started here in 1999.
There were only 6 members of the church. Now there are 4,000 plus. It
wasn't long ago when the Southam's are there first mission only had 8
missionaries. That was in about 2007-2008. We now have 114.
To describe the
process sometimes. Remember Cococodji ? It is on the outskirts of the
city, so it seems. The President tried figure out if we should go to
the real capital of Benin. About 35-40 KMs away or maybe to Cococodji.
He sought counsel from the highest source and said it will be
Cococodji. I was tasked to find an apartment for the elders our in the
wilderness. I found a suitable place. They moved into the apartment in
February 2013. Two weeks later we decided to find a place to hold a
group. It was in the apartment below them. Remember the first week we
thought we would get 10-15 and we got 47, following week 54 and etc. A
branch was created in May. We were led to a large beautiful building.
It could hold 2 branch meetings at the same time. Leadership training
takes time and a firm foundation must be in place. Last week there were
140 in attendance. That is enough to make two branches. All of this
in less than 10 months. The work is good, though difficult. The
missionaries are happy. In some places there hasn't been a baptism for
a couple of months. But, there will be.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are pretty much the same as any other day in Togo and Benin.
We are pretty much in the saddle for now. For a while it was if we
were like riding a Brahma bull. I am in the process of teaching and
training an employee of the church how we do things with the apartments,
utilities, etc. He was an excellent football player (soccer). This
will allow an easier transition to the new missionary couple when they
come to replace us.
I am also helping to
teach and train on how to get things done. Like organizing new
branches. The individuals are very bright and capable. They just need
some instruction and they are very willing to do the work.
We have had some
interesting discussions centering around 3 Nephi 18:32 through the end.
These people are faithful but they too have challenges and some stray
for a while because of circumstances of jobs, distance to the church
etc, We are now talking more about Visiting Teachers and Home Teachers.
All of us have seen some who have wandered for a while but have come
back and have been rescued as President Monson puts it.
Never give up. Never, Never, Never.
The missionaries do a great job of teaching and doing follow-up
teaching. We now need the members to start visiting. There are
remarkable stories to be told.
Your sons and daughters are no longer young men and young women, but are now men and women. They know how to do!
Thank-you for you prayers, they are felt.
Elder Semken
