Mama Yvonne Returns!

Hipsta pic of my cell phone with the authentic TOGO CELL! It's actually the worst network on the face of the earth, but it's still authentic African coolness.

Hey Everybody!

So things have been going same old, same old out here in Togo. 

I got my big package though... so big thanks to Mrs. Hunter and Pauline for sending me some good stuff... they will definitely be put to good use while I'm out here. I will not confirm whether or not the whole bag of Starburst jelly beans have already been eaten (hint: they have). Carne asada beef jerky???  Yum! (trying to ration.)

So Happy Easter to everybody! I hope everyone had a much better Easter than I did out here... honestly, there wasn't anything special about it. If I hadn't looked on the calendar or if nobody told me that it was Easter, I would have thought it was a regular Sunday as usual. Even the talks in Sunday weren't on Easter, nor were any of the lessons throughout Church. Kind of strange. Soooo... yeah... probably one of the lamest Easters I've ever had compared to the ones back home. It's okay though! Today, we had a good Easter Monday, as the district had a little soccer game... the branches made three teams and then the missionaries made another team and they did a little tournament together. I didn't play because I'm awful at soccer and all the jerseys they had wouldn't fit me because I'm a huge American!  They actually played the game at a legit stadium on turf...it was pretty weird to see in Togo, but the stands were completely run down, nothing like the nice field. I deemed it the "Cowboys Stadium" of Togo! Haha! Honestly, the stands look like they were made at the same time as the Coliseum in Italy...they were that junky...not even benches, just slabs of concrete!  I was able to talk to all the American missionaries though as we waited for all the games to pan out...Elder Seidl scored a goal! Everyone was shocked, being that he's a little American against these big Africans! That was cool, and it's always nice to get to know the other missionaries in the field because they're the ones going through the same problems as I am! 

That was a lot of fun today... and actually... we had a Relief Society activity this past Saturday too... I can only deem that experience as certified crazy. One thing I've noticed in all the district activities here is that the two I've been two have lasted all day on Saturday. At this activity, all the Branches did these really crazy dances that they had been working on for months. They were partialy native but also mixed in with some hip hop. Then, all the RS from each branch put on a little skit about... errr... I have no clue. I honestly had no idea what any of the skits were about but they were weird. It was funny seeing some of the women in my branch in pants though... I didn't even recognize them because all the women here wear pines 24/7! (Togo Fact: a pine can be best described as a skirt wrapped around your waste like a towel). 

The one standing up is the wife of our branch president and it was really weird to see her in mens clothes like that. The one sitting down is our RS president. I didn't get many pics from the activity, so this was the best I could get.

So, yeah... those skits and dances took all freaking day to do! But during the half time (I guess you could call it that!), everyone separated into their branches and they all ate food together (yeah forget big tables with serve yourself food). I followed Elder Kunz and Elder Gunderson to their branch because I was talking to them anyway. I got to eat some pretty good mayo salad and some rice with chicken. It wasn't half bad to be honest! I also got three sodas! Score! It was funny though... Elder Woodland, who came on the mission right before I did, just keep getting loaded with food. He was next to Elder Welch, who kept saying that he was full whenever a lady would come and bring them food. So, they just unloaded tons and tons of food on Elder Woodland... most of it was pate... poor guy!

Elder Welch and Elder Woodland... notice the smirking face of Elder Welch as Elder Woodland has a huge plate full of rice (which was given to him after he ate three huge balls of pate). He was not happy to say the least!

So yeah... I don't think this RS activity was anything like the one's that go on back home! It was pretty fun though.

One thing that can get kinda annoying out here... the kids love to climb all over us. They honestly are not happy unless they're on our laps or messing with us in some way. Elder Kunz was trying to show me some pictures while we were eating and the kids just kept coming over and wanting to play with the camera. It was so funny watching him just talk to me as if he was having a regular conversation while he's batting away the two kids who kept trying to take his camera. He was a pro though.

Hola the crazy dog! She's finally not as scared of me as she was before so we're buds now.

Things have been going well between me and Elder Owusu as of late though... I definitely could feel the power of people's prayers for us this week. I haven't been getting annoyed like I usually was. It was really cool to see the power of prayer working again this week... hopefully we continue to get along better this week, because I can't say that all of our problems are solved, but things are looking up. The thing I've been noticing about him is that he doesn't like to talk about a whole lot of stuff, even when I'm asking him how things are going. It's tough, but I've been finding ways to handle it.

Let's see... what else happened... oh yes. So remember Mama Yvonne? She's been on a trip out to the village to take care of her mom for the past two and a half weeks. It was only supposed to last a week, but every time we called her to check up on her, she kept saying she was staying longer. So, I was getting kinda bummed. But, she came back! She called us to let us know she was back, but we were planning on seeing her at the RS activity. But, we went to one of the member's houses and she surprised us! Turns out the RS invited her to help prepare food for the RS activity the next day. When I saw her, I got so happy (as did Elder Owusu!). I wanted to go up and give her a big hug because I missed her so much!!! It was like seeing a long lost friend! Anyway, I'm glad she's finally back.

This week was pretty slow, but I'm happy to finally have two full calendar months out here in the mission field! It's still not a whole lot, but it's better than nothing. I try not to be one of those missionaries who counts the weeks or days... a lot of missionaries do this though: "So, we're basically almost at three months, which means, with the MTC, we're at five months... which is almost 6 months! So basically, we're already a quarter way through the mission!" Elder Kunz kept saying that today and I was like noooope... too new in the mission to even be thinking I have any time under my belt! 

Well, it's getting to be a bit late now. Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers. I think this week, I'm definitely going to be focusing on the gift of tongues and speaking up during lessons. I've been trying to help out Elder Owusu this week by speaking more during our lessons, but it can be hard with the limited French. So, pray for that! I will say that the French does improve week by week, but it's very, very slow and can be hard to quantify most of the time. At times, I feel like I'm never going to be comfortable in this language, but I know that one day, it will come without me even realizing it! Elder Gunderson always assured me that the language barrior does fall, it just takes about 6 months or so. I worry a lot though, because my 6 months out here on the mission is coming up and I don't feel as comfortable in the language as I would like. But I pray for it everyday, with the faith that one day I'll be a pro at this whole French deal.

Love all you guys! Thanks for the prayers and support... it does help more than you can imagine.

With Love,

Elder Hawkins

P.S. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FIGHTIN' PHILS! 

Note from the Fro: Yes, it's opening day for baseball here in Philly...it was one of the first questions he asked, said he could "feel it in my bones"! Which made him "super depressed".  This is a kid who lovingly stored away all his Phillies t-shirts, probably shed a tear to say goodbye to them!  Luckily, his friend Steph bought him a red tie and hand-embroidered a Phillies "P" on the back so he can still feel connected.  Thanks Steph! He said he was going to wear it tomorrow for sure!  I also asked how the weather was.  I hear it's been hot, dry and dusty, with the rainy season looming and that the wind causes power outages. Here was his reply: 

"Just hot as usual. I think I'm getting used to it though... I'm still sweating a lot but the ring around the collar is definitely not as bad as usual. The anti-persperiant stuff you sent for my face actually works really well with that so maybe send some more if it's not expensive.  Apparently the rainy season starts at the end of this month so that's when the exciting weather stories happen.

Not many power outages though... it did go out in the middle of the night. I thought I went deaf because I couldn't hear the fans as usual! Then I realized the power went out and I just prayed for it to come back. Not 10 seconds later, the power comes back on and the fans start pushing that nice hot air again! :)

Also, apparently, the power goes out in Souza (where Elder Kunz is) all the time... but where I'm at, the power is usually pretty consistant.

And I think my time is almost about up! ONly got two minutes left!

Thanks for all the prayers and the packages. And tell grandma hawkins I got her card finally! Tell her thank you very much for the card and also grandpa's funeral thingy (that said who was giving what talks and stuff) it was really nice.

GTG!   Love you!" 

This week, we'll be praying for that language barrier to drop!!  Go Elder Hawkins, we know you can do it!  

Oh Africa....March 11, 2013

Well, can’t believe another whole week went by! Tuesday and Wednesday can start off a bit slow, but once it hits Thursday, the week starts to go by pretty fast. Then, what do you know, it’s already time to start writing my weekly email once again! 

Things have been going great out here though! Kodjo and Yvonne both got baptized this past Saturday, so needless to say, our week was a good one. The baptisms went well, although I think Kodjo is scared of water. Right before he would go under the water, he had the funniest face… like he forgot that he would have to go all the way under water! We ended up having to do the baptism twice, but he was pretty excited finally having done it! Actually, both Yvonne and Kodjo were super happy before and after the baptism. After the whole service, we were at a lesson with Kodjo’s brother and Kodjo just walks in and he’s got his swagger on as always (at least, that’s what Elder Owusu says… all he does is pop his collar up on his polo shirts, but I will say he does walk with a certain kind of boss/swagger-ness about him… don’t worry if you don’t get that!). 

 That is the all famous Mama Yvonne though! Haha... I just get a kick out of this picture... so ridiculous. Sooo... in Togo... they never count and tell you when they're taking the picture... hence all the really funny faces.

 These were all the people ready for baptism and their missionaries taking a picture together. I'm standing right next to President Weed actually! He came and visited Togo for some meetings and was able to attend our baptism so that was pretty cool. Apparently he always goes to the baptisms in Benin (since he lives there) but it's pretty cool to have him come out to one in Togo. I wasn't able to get a picture with Kodjo because he left as soon as the service was over but he's in the very back between two white elders on the right-middle side of the picture... descriptive I know but he's also making a really funny face. Which is why I love him because he's always making these super funny faces whenever we see him.

I’ve been doing pretty good as of late. Hit a few rough spots here and there, but that’s to be expected every once in a while! On Thursday, we got a visit from the Assistants (to the President) and they stayed with us. Elder Gunderson bought a grill to cook some chicken on… problem was that we weren’t able to get the coals hot at all. So, we just decided to give up and order some pizza. Yup, that’s right… got some good Hawaiian style pizza. Cost me 5000 francs for one pizza but it was totally worth it! Definitely not as good as the pizza back home, but here, you learn to like the little things that you can actually get. So, Elder Gunderson, Elder Robison, and I all chilled on the roof and ate our pizzas. Then we all slept up on the roof which was cool until the mosque went off at 5 AM as usual... who knew that walls could absorb so much sound. I was worried about getting eaten alive by the mosquitos, but they didn’t get me too bad.  Oh yeah… going back to that chicken we were trying to cook… we forgot that we left that chicken on our grill all night… and just so you know, they did eventually get cooked! Just took all night. We ended up throwing the three chicken legs to the school next door… I wish I could see the faces of the kids who find three fully cooked chicken legs outside their school classroom! Haha… oh Africa.

It’s actually been hotter than usual this week. From what I’ve gathered, it seems like this is the hottest time of year right now (right before the rainy season). However, I’m not sure what their definition of hot is here because to me it always feels hot. It’s been hard since losing my sun glasses too… I actually went to an eye doctor today and got a prescription. But, my goodness, when we went to the glasses place to buy some frames… I don’t think I’m going to get prescription sunglasses anytime soon. It was going to cost at least $100 regardless of the frames I got. And all the frames there were like these crazy designer brands (Gucci, Ray Bans, Coco Chanel) that I wouldn’t even buy in the US let alone Togo! Sister Leavitt told me that she just buys the cheap sun glasses and walks around blind most of the time and she says it’s just fine. I think I’m just gonna do that too because the sun is way too strong to walk around without sunglasses. Figuring that the sunglasses on the street are only 500 francs anyway, it’s not too big of a deal.

So, I’ve had a few questions about the churches around here. I’ve gotta say, people believe in some pretty crazy stuff. Here in Togo, there isn’t a whole lot of Voodoo but everyone believes in its power and is scared of it (won’t lie, I’m scared of it too!). But there are tons of crazy Christian churches here too. Apparently, what happens is people go to Ghana and get their “doctorates” to become pastors. Then they came back here and set up their own churches. You honestly can’t go on a road here and not find a church… most everybody here in Africa belongs to some sort of church. I would say that most are Evangelists, then Catholics, and then various other religions. Well, actually, I would say that Islam splits the country with Christians. Tons and tons of mosques here, always with the speakers too. I would say that pretty much everyone here is nice to us, regardless of what religion they are. 

There’s probably more I could say about the religion stuff, but I think people got the general idea of what religion is like here. People love, love, love to put Jesus stuff on their cars and things here. You always see these huge Jesus heads on the motos here, as well as in the taxis too. It’s kinda corny, but it’s kinda cool too! 

Soooooo… let’s see… nothing much else has been happening. The Leavitt’s told me and my comp to be looking for a new apartment in my sector… problem is that the people we’ve been teaching have all been on the outskirts of our sector so we haven’t really had the chance to find any good apartments for us. After our latest inspection though… I think we might win most improved! I think the price for that is 4000 francs… i.e. $8! Wohoo!!!! Crazy right?!?

The French is coming along well… I’ve been trying to study more often during my free time and Sur gave me the advice to study vocabulary during down time so I’m going to try and start doing that… I’ve got this cool dictionary that I brought from home (I’m pretty sure either Fro or Sur used it back in the 90s right before I was born because there’s a calendar thing in it dating back to July 1992, and the dictionary is organized by category, cooking, directions, daily routine, etc.). 

Thanks for all the support and prayers from everybody… getting close to having to go, but just know I love you guys and am thankful for you. Hope everyone is getting ready for Spring… sad I’m missing one of my favorite times of year, but it’s all good. I mean, where else in the world do you get to feel like you’re in a Sauna for free all the time!? 

No, but really, I’m having a blast here. I’m finding that the key to the mission is loving the people you meet and having fun too. I’m learning to really love this little country and I’m trying to cherish every single moment I can here… since Elder Gunderson and Elder Owusu both have under a year left to serve, they like talking about all the things they’ll be doing when they get home (and I don’t blame them!). Instead of getting down about how I have just gotten to the 20 month mark (ouch), I’m just looking at how I can cherish every moment here on the Dark Continent. You just gotta learn to appreciate the little things, if you know what I’m sayin’.

Anyway… love all you guys! Thanks for the letters and thanks for the emails. 

Love,

Elder Hawkins

P.S. To Sean and AJ: where have you kids been?!?! 

Apparently what people used to call Africa in the 19th Century!

So this is the aftermath of us trying to take a picture with Yvonne. Basically our Branch so us trying to take a picture and then everyone from our Branch came over. 

Yeah... kinda awkward when all of the RS came over and it was just me and my Comp (the only guys) in the picture! Our DMB (le dirigeant de mission de branche) came over for some random reason too... things in Africa are just random... oh and in this pic you can see how the African moms carry their babies! I've seen 8 year olds being carried this way... I think it's ridiculous if you're that old and your mom still needs to carry you.

Note from the Fro: Glad he manages to look on the bright side every week!  He didn't mention those "rough spots" in his emails to me and never says anything bad about his companions, which, as the Fro, I appreciate!  I laugh a bit about the pizza because he thinks Hawaiian pizza is SO not real pizza.  But I did cringe a little over the chicken in the school yard thinking those kids probably ate it!  Hope it was well and cooked and maybe on the chicken jerky side by that time. 

* For those of you who would like to hear from Trev, er, Elder Hawkins personally, please send him an email!  If you haven't emailed him, he doesn't have your email address.  He was very prolific at writing down street addresses in his address book, but forgot email addresses completely!  I know he would love to hear from you.  And you might want to write before he calls you out here in his weekly letter (ie. his Conestoga buddies this week)!  You can write to him at: trevor.hawkins@myldsmail.net  

The Email - March 4, 2013

It's that time of the week again! 

Africa, africa, africa... I think sometimes, when people think about Africa, I think they expect me to have to kill a lion with my bare hands every day in order to eat or fight gazelles at the watering hole in order to get fresh water. Thank goodness, it is not like that!  

Things have been going good though. With the care package I just recieved thanks to Fro and Mrs. Hunter, I have been surving and thriving well! Ah... so good to eat real food and drink good water! When I got that package I was crying tears of joy and happiness! Nothing makes a missionary happier than recieving a package from home... well, okay... that's not true because honestly, the people you meet out here are what really make you happy! Still, packages are amazing!!! 

So, can I just say that Mama Yvonne is just amazing!?! People always talk about the perfect investigators in the MTC... people who are just ready for the gospel in their lives... this amazing woman is one of those people! We've only been teaching her for about a week and we had a baptism set for her at the end of this month. However, it gets way better! We have had a lot of trouble in the past with getting the members and the branch presidency to help with missionary work. But of course, with Mama Yvonne, everything is different. Our Ward Mission Leader and our Branch President went over and visted her without us even asking! Then, when she came to church yesterday, it turns out that her neice is already a member of our branch! Small world, huh?! So, at the end of church yesterday, she just came up to us and was like... okay... I need to be baptized THIS SATURDAY!!!!! She has been loving the church so far and it's only been a few weeks... I'm really proud of our branch actually... they've been really friendly and open to her since she got here. So yeah... she's just awesome! I can't wait for this Saturday!

Our other ami that's getting baptized this saturday is named Kodjo... now, Kodjo is an interesting fellow. He really likes meeting with us but he just does not get what we're talking about at all sometimes. Like we'll explain a concept to him and then ask him if he had any questions and if he got what we were talking about. He always answers with this little smile and laugh, saying, "Franchement, j'ai compris tous." Meaning, "frankly, I understood everything." Elder Owusu and I have now learned that all that really means is "frankly, I didn't understand anything!" It's been really hard for us to get him to remember what we're talking about, but we meet with him everyday because he's currently between jobs right now. We've been meeting with him for over a month and a half now, so I really think he is ready now. He actually told us we should meet with his brother because he would be interested... his name is David and he's really cool... really down to Earth guy and always has tons of great questions for us. The fact that his brother his getting baptized will only help both of them. So, I'll let you know how things go with him this coming week, too. 

Anyway... other than that... nothing too exciting happened... aside from the crazy hurricane like storm that randomly came in Saturday night! Boy, that was super scary! Wind going at least 50-60 MPH with rain going like crazy... we had to move in everything from the balcony so that it wouldn't get wet, or worse blow away. I couldn't even believe how bad the wind was getting though. What was really bad was hearing the tin roofs of our neighbors just banging in the wind... I felt really bad for them! I cannot even imagine how bad it will get during rainy season in a few months... I've only heard horror stories about that! So yeah... the next day wasn't too bad in terms of damage though. A few collapsed roofs here and there but I was surprised how the place held up... but the stagnant water here is so gross... and smells really bad since people have no problems just "taking care of business" out on the roads... if you know what I'm saying...

So... fro asked me to explain what "pate" really is... no it's not noodles... it's really just flour or cornmeal (I think it's cornmeal, it's actually called "Foufou") mixed with water and beaten to death until it becomes a gooey/dough-y substance. Then what you do with it is you take a little handful of it and dip it into the sauce... which is usually this gooey mixture of weird leaves and their staple spice "pima" (like an African jalepeno). Oh, and you are only ever supposed to use your right hand to grab the pate and dip it in the sauce... never your left (and that's because, apparently, that's the hand you use to wipe your butt with! No joke... that is the soul reason you only use your right hand and not your left hand). Sorry if that's too much information for some of you guys out there, but I gotta tells things as they are! 

Pima (photo from the Hobo Traveler)

I actually had some yesterday... and let me tell you... it was a struggle getting this stuff down (as it's rude to leave any food on your plate). I honestly felt like I was going to throw up the entire time and then Elder Owusu was struggling too because the sauce was too spicy for him... we were both crying as we ate all the pate because it was just too much. After we finished he was like "Oh man I think there bringing out more pate." I just looked over at him and gave him a death glare. I was just like you better shut up man! He was just joking around... but I was really scared they were going to bring out more pate! Then, after the mangez-vous, I was sick the whole rest of the night for some reason... oh boy... pate is something I most likely will not miss when I come back home. 

Pic of FuFu (left) found on Wikipedia

So to make up for the pate yesterday, Elder Gunderson and I went out to an amazing Chinese restaurant in my sector today. When I walked in, you would really have thought you were in a Chinese restaurant from back home! Goodness it was so nice, but so expensive. We spent 17,000 francs there which is almost $35 or something! Still worth it though... had some good fried rice and curry pork. We walked over two miles just to get there so it was well worth the trip all over creation to get some real Chinese food!

Pretty good p-day I guess you could say! It's amazing how fast the weeks have been flying by though. I can't believe I'm already in my 7th/8th week... almost two months now! Now that I got some time on my belt (and I'm no longer the newest American missionary!) I feel like time is starting to go much faster. I feel like it was just a few hours ago that I was back here typing my letter home for last week! I can definitely feel the French is getting stronger and stronger now... which I think is what helps things get moving. I'm always praying to have the courage to talk to people in French here and I think it's working... Elder Owusu has been had a sore throat all week so I've had to step up my game a little bit to try and help him. He's been handing me the reigns a little bit too in lessons and what not, which I feel like is a good sign that he trusts me and trusts that I'll know what to say! Still, I'm always looking to improve though... I've been a little lazy this week in terms of my hour of language study every day... when I stay home from 12:30 to 2:30 (that's when you're supposed to eat lunch and do language study) it's pretty hard not to take a little sommeil! The heat just wipes you out during the day... I can easily understand why everybody just sleeps all day here! It's really hard not to because it's so darn hot. 

I don't have a whole lot more time but I hope everyone enjoys the letter this week! Don't feel like I had too much to write and I have much more to say but I gotta get going now! Sometimes I wish I could just copy and paste the things I write to people who write to me directly because you might get a bigger picture of what my life is like! Oh well... no big deal though. 

Hope everyone is doing well. I pray for people here and back home all the time so I wish everyone the best of luck. Also want to let Jack know that I got his letter from Christmas finally! And I also got Vicky's letter that she sent to me in the MTC. If I could get Vicky's email, I would love to say thanks (I already have Jack's!). 

So yeah... thanks again for the package! It was super awesome and a big helping me eat good stuff over here! Elder Gunderson and I are going to try to build a grill outside so we can get some good BBQ going... maybe you should send over some BBQ sauce!? That might be good for our grill that we're going to build! 

Oh jeez, almost forgot to tell Ben congrats on getting engaged! Best of luck to the both of you! You know... I hear the Ghana Accra temple is really nice this time of year! *wink

Okay, I really do got to go now! Hope to hear from you guys soon and talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Hawkins

P.S. We got a "not-a-pet" bird this week... my comp named her Rihanna... she flew into our house one day so we decided to keep her! She's pretty awesome... well was... we haven't been able to find her since the rain storm :( My comp was really bummed... I hope she's not dead. I never got a chance to take a picture with her so I'm pretty bummed too... we had so many good memories... always finding her chilling out by the trash can or under a little weed in our driveway... ahh.. she was so cool. RIP Rihanna (only if she's dead though).

Yes, the African sun messes with you... big time.

No idea what "Rihanna" looked like, so I'm just guessing from a Togo stamp I found!

Note from the Fro: Oh how my boy makes me chuckle.  Ok, you're right, laugh right out loud at times!  Goodness, guess he's just telling it like it is, but still.  I told him to really paint a picture for us of what it's like there, and well....there you go.  I still think it's funny that he feels he doesn't write much in his letters!  I know for a fact that while he was at the cyber, he was emailing me back and forth, writing this email, and answering people that emailed him personally, at least 5 or 6 if not more!  Yes, that kid can type fast!  One little explanation in case anyone was wondering, an "ami" is a "friend" or someone who is investigating the church.  And according to the missionary couple in Togo, the heat this week has been almost unbearable!  They also confirmed that the wind and rain were, in fact, hurricane-like.  Although Trev knows better than anyone exactly what that sounds like having once camped through a hurricane here with the scouts, and experiencing Sandy before leaving for the MTC!  No wonder he thought the tin roofs would have all been gone the next day.  I asked him today if he met the new Elders that just arrived from Provo.  

He said: Yeah... I don't know half of them but of the three I do know, I met two of them at the most recent baptism. My goodness, they were SO WHITE! I kept thinking... gosh was I really that white when I got here! They were still in that shell shock stage where they just didn't know what to do really. I gave them the advice that there will be days that just really suck and you'll get pretty home sick... but I also told them that those days always pass, no matter how hard it gets. So, we're gonna have a few more baptisms this week so maybe I'll get to talk to them again and see how they are doing. 

I just love that they all watch out for each other out there.  So blessed to have such amazing young men serving together! I'm hoping that he and Elder G get some more time together still.  Sometimes, you just need someone willing to walk over four miles to find Chinese food in Africa. ;)