Mormon Helping Hands, AFRICA STYLE!

Another week down, and a lot more to go! 

This one was a bit better though! First of all, we did the very first service project I've ever done since I've been out here... aka Mormon Helping Hands, AFRICA STYLE.

Our service project this week was to go out and clean the TVT... Television Togolaise... meaning, one of the biggest and most well known TV stations in Togo! Sweet, huh?!? It actually turned out to be in Kodjoviakope so we just walked to it with all the members from our group (well a bunch of them anyway). It did happen to be at 6 in the freaking morning unfortunately... so we had to wake up kind of early for that, plus we were walking over so it would take a bit longer.

 Missionaries Unite!

30 Rock....or, not?

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got there, but, well... let me just say that TVT is a tad bit different from 30 Rock. Well, actually... it's completely different because one is a really cool skyscraper and the other looks like an abandoned military facility from the 1960s during the Vietnam War (tanks included). I will let you guess which one is which. 

Every public TV station should have a tank. Or two.

I was surprised they even still broadcasted from that place! It was completely covered in weeds and trash (most of which we ended up burning in classic Togolais fashion). However, there were tons of people who all brought their own brooms, machetes, and other cleaning supplies. I'm a little ashamed to say that I really didn't do much to help out! We got there late and everyone was already working away... I didn't even get a cool Helping Hands jacket because they forgot to give them to our group... which is typical as we are the forgotten group of the Lome District! 

Random pics from the service project, members burning trash.

However, despite that, everyone had a really great time! I was able to talk with a bunch of missionaries and got to catch up with some members from the Wuiti branch, which is actually doing really well and finally moved into their new building! However, I can't lie... one of my favorite moments of the day was when Mama Dobe (remember the lantern story?) came up and said hi to me! I was so excited to see her and happy that she even came! 

Later on Saturday, I got a second chance for service as I helped clean up the branch. Just wanted to show how well I swept up the "lawn". African's really like making sure their dirt/sand is all nice and swept up so I felt pretty satisfied in embracing my inner-African.

We ended up staying until about 11:30 or so in the morning and the members got a lot done. I will say that there were a few members who I think didn't really know what a service project was... as in they were wearing church clothes... I think they learned their lesson. 

The "football" activity today at the beach... including the sign for the beach. 

Not much else happened this week. Today, we had a fun P-day in that the missionaries and a bunch of the members from the group went to the beach to go play soccer. Playing soccer in the sand is pretty tiring I got to say. Happy to report that there was not any human stool on the field we played on! However, I did see a lot of people producing said stool on other parts of the beach. Ohhhhhhhh... Togo. 

The terrain we played on...devoid of human waste. I hope.

We also played a bunch of other fun little games like Tug of War without a rope, one ball dodgeball, and arm wrestling. I'm not sure how to really describe those first two games we played, but when I get home, I can show people how to play them! After all was said and done though, we had a great time and I think it was good for the group to just go out and have some fun together. We all had a pretty fun time. 

I just hope I didn't catch any diseases playing barefoot in that sand. Guess that's why I had to get 8 or so shots before I got here, right? 

Picture of all of us who were there. And yes, I did wear my Eagles shirt again out of spite because everyone knows that football does not mean soccer. 

As for the missionary work, things are still going pretty tough. We did get a brand new ami to come to Church yesterday which made me happy, but I still don't try to get too excited until they come for the second time. However, I do feel as though the Lord has come in and comforted me this week. I feel like I am growing to learn how to deal with crappy situations that are dealt me and learning to get through them. Also, learning how to appreciate the good in the bad! Always look for the good, in any situation, even if it seems there isn't any.  You'll find it!

I feel like that has been an overarching theme in my mission. This mission has dealt me a fair share of crappy situations and learning how to get through them has been the most challenging part so far. It has taught me that sometimes we might not get the results we were looking for but, no matter what happens, results do come. For example, I'm not getting the results I would like to have had here in terms of bringing people into the fold, but I am learning a lot of stuff about how to teach better and am improving my Gospel knowledge every day. That's something I can at least be grateful for. Also, I feel like I am getting to know great people in this group... even though we might not be the strongest or the most perfect group ever, there is love between the members which is something I definitely felt in our little activity today. 

Best be signing off now as I got a bunch of pictures to send home this week! Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and are continuing on being great. Remember, the Lord loves you, knows you, and watches over you... he's always there... you just gotta look for him! 

Love, your corny but sincere missionary in Togo, 

Elder Hawkins

So, a recent convert of Elder Haggard's gave us some coconuts from his coconut tree. Problem? HOW THE HECK DO YOU OPEN COCONUTS?!?! There's no easy "Crack Here" symbol or a tab to peel. We asked Elder Digbe to help and he just smacked it as hard as he could on the counter until it cracked open into little pieces. After that, I decided to bring out the cutting board because I was afraid of breaking the counter.

Yeah, turns out that wasn't such a great idea. After that though... a sudden Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi-like voice popped into my head... except it was Dad's voice and it said, "Be smarter than the object". So, as inspired as I was, I decided to go out on our patio and smack it on the cement. Ended up working like a charm... and also, Coconut is pretty satisfying when you eat it out of its shell! So thanks Sur for helping me out with that one! 

On My Way to Kodjoviakope!

I'll be going from Wuiti (A) to Kodjoviakope (B)! 

Hello World!

I had a pretty good week this week. A bit sad that I have to say goodbye to all these people in Wuiti, but I'm happy that I'll finally be a part of my first transfer! I will now be going to Kodjoviakope (say it like Kodjo via Kope with the e at the end like "ay"). It's right next to the beach and the Ghanian border, so that will be pretty cool.

However, it wil be a very tough sector to work in as it's still just a group (meaning only about 20 people show up to Church every week) and it's been like that for years now. The only thing the other missionaries tell me when they hear I'm going to Kodjo is "Bonne Chance"... meaning "Good luck (with that!)" So yeah, heading into the desert of the mission on Wednesday. The nice thing is that it happens to be the smallest sector of the mission so it won't be tons of walking and it's also the most built up part of the city. It will be an interesting change of pace for me, that's for sure. 

Okay, enough with this silly transfer business. The highlight of my week was definitely from today... going to the VOODOO MARKET! Now we're finally talking about some cool African culture here.

We went with Frere Francois, a return missionary who came back to Togo and married a Togolaise. He's French, but he knows everything about Togo since he's lived here for years now. He was our tour guide so that we wouldn't get ripped off like crazy... which is how touristy places tend to be like. 

Monkey skulls!

As we pulled up to the place, I instantly knew we were there because of all the crazy dead animal skulls and stuff. First thought through my head? This is AWESOME! I got pretty excited. We had to pay 5000 francs each to get in (10 bucks) which is 3000 more than other missionaries had paid a few weeks before. Fr Francois tried to talk them down the best he could, even spoke some Ewe to them, but we couldn't budge em. It's not too big of a deal because they gave us a card that allows us to come back whenever we want for free, whether it be next monday or in 10 years! 

After we paid, they took us around the whole market (which was empty aside from us and the vendors). They explained to us how they dry out the animals (which they never kill, but only take if they died naturally in the wild). They also talked to us about how they use them in sacrifices and in order to make charms and what not. It's pretty interesting stuff actually. 

Animal sacrifice alter for the "God of Fire"!

Porcupine needles!

Then, our tour guide took us into a "sacred room" with a Voodoo priest who only speaks Fon (Beninois language), so our tour guide translated for us. He should us several blessed trinkets we could get... one of my favorites was this little wooden stick that had a wire wrapped around it and at the end of the wire was a little piece of wood. It's supposed to be a Voodoo phone... meaning you talk into it and ask for protection during your journey. Then you put the little piece of wood at the end of the wire into the bigger stick... like you're plugging it up almost. Then, it's supposed to give you good luck all the way through your trip. 

I ended up buying a necklace from him and then having it blessed for me. It's this little bag thingy that has "over 41 special spices and herbs" in it and then two sea shells sewn on top of the little bag. It's supposed to give me good luck and good health wherever I go. It was funny because in order to bless it, I had to say my name into it three times, then the priest said some random stuff and shook a maracca (best way I can describe it), then to end the blessing, I had to say "I recieve this between my two hands" and then it was blessed! Boom! Voodoo POWER!

Of course, after it was blessed, we had to negotiate the price. They wanted me to pay freaking 18,000 CFA for it (over 30 dollars) for it. Fr Francois just laughed when we heard the price and I finally said I would only pay 2000 CFA for it (around 4 dollars) and they accepted the price, but they WERE NOT happy about it! I didn't even want to pay 2000 for it but I was afraid I was going to offend them or worse, that they would curse me with bad voodoo black magic! 

After that, they let us loose to do what ever we wanted. I took A TON of pictures (91 total) so I'll be sure to send as much as I can. To give you an idea of what there is, there's pretty much every animal you can think of over there. Dead dogs, cats, birds, geckos, lizards, owls, vultures, buffalo, hippos, frogs, bats, porcupines, chameleons, snakes, cows, sheep... EVERYTHING! They import a lot of stuff from all over West Africa. It was pretty cool to see it all... and best of all, TOUCH it all!

 

Left is python skin and right is crocodile skin. Crocodile skin is surprisingly heavy.

Elder Shearer with monkey claws!

Dog heads! (gross)

Cool animal skin! Tons of different kinds throughout the market to make tamtam drums

Cheetah head (I don't think it's a cheetah actually but I don't remember the animals name and I'm in a time crunch!)

Croc head!

That's a freakin' vertebrae to an elephant! Holy crap!

That's it's freaking leg bone!!!! It's extremely, extremely heavy! Like over 50 pounds or something!

Hippo mouth!

Errr...Gross bat

Overall, we spent over three hours in the market just admiring all the stuff and taking tons of pictures. I also was able to touch and play with a live chameleon! The guy brought it out of the bag, and at first it was all brown (like the bag!) and curled up. Then as we started playing with it, it started to change into a really cool green! And it's eyes are so cool! They're not aligned so it can move one eye in a completely different direction than the other. Also, did not realize that chameleons had claws... made it a bit difficult to get off my head!

Chameleon on my head!

I also got the chance to handle a boa constrictor... or at least I think it was. That was pretty freaky, but he was a nice little guy. He even got scared, which was cool to see because the snake basically coiled up into this ball with its head at the very center of it. Pretty neat... and it felt pretty cool too... first time I had ever handled a snake before!

Crazy snake in my hand!

Alright, well I should probably get going so I can upload most of the pictures I took from the day! 

Before I go, just want to ask everybody to pray for obedience for me! With this new sector, it's going to be really, really tough since there are no investigators and the church is so small. I know that through obedience to commandments, the Lord blesses his children... so this week, I will put my faith of that principle to the test... well, I'll be focusing more on it this week than I usually do!

Thanks to everybody for all the support, love, emails and prayers. It's much appreciated and I hope that everyone has a fantastic week. Take it easy everybody!

Much love,

Elder Hawkins

Note from the Fro: Whew!  Did you make it through all the pictures?  Ick, kinda gross.  Think it's so funny that his first thought was AWESOME!  Boys will be boys. I did love the chameleon, however.  I think he should bring that one home!  I do like that some weeks we see the spiritual giant and others....well, we see the boy. :) In chatting with him I asked if any other Americans will be in his new apartment.  He said: There will be a new American in the apartment. His name is Elder Haggard.. so that will be interesting... first time I'll be the oldest American in the apt! He's a little worried about his new comp as he only has a month left and hopes he's not too "trunky" (ready to go home!). I think that's why we'll be praying for obedience!  He's also a little bummed that he's leaving the 3 baptisms behind that he had set up for this week.  But says that he'll be even closer to Akif's and the Citimart, plus have a view of the beach.  Always looking on that bright side!  

P.S. Let's hope he's not wearing that weird voodoo amulet....

Greetings, from Beautiful Wuiti, Tokoin, Lome, Togo, West Africa!

Haha, that's about as specific as you can get with where my sector is at right now!

Thanks to everyone with the prayers and blessings this week! I've definitely felt them and I feel like this week went much better than last week. Times are still hard and the mission isn't easy, but I feel much more confident and better than last week. 

Things have been pretty calm here so far. However, with Elder Hanna going home in a few days, things are getting shaken up in the mission... this month, we have about 10 elders leaving so it's going to be pretty crazy. Apparently, there will be a lot of changes the next few months (till March) and then it will get quiet again because after Elder Hanna came out on the mission, they didn't send anyone out here for about 8 months... so there will be nobody to send him soon. 

So with all those changes, I'm getting a new companion on Wednesday! They usually don't switch trainers this quickly but my new comp (Elder Owusu) will train me still. He's from Ghana, so he speaks English, but he's been out for over a year so he speaks French too. But I'll let you know how we're doing. He's coming over from Benin on Wednesday (exchanging Elder Hanna for him!). 

So, I had my first fast and testimony meeting yesterday... what an awesome experience that was. There's maybe only 50 members but we went over on our time! The are many, many problems with the Church here in Togo, but for the members that have stayed strong and have truly converted to the Gospel, they are so awesome! They gave some great testimonies that just made the spirit really strong in the meeting yesterday. I really wanted to bear my testimony yesterday but everyone just kept getting up before me... I will not let that happen again! But yeah... it's cool to see some of the strong members here in Africa.

So... things have been pretty quite since last night! The CAN (Cup d'Afrique des Nations... or something like that... basically the world cup of Africa) was on last night as Togo was in the quarter finals... it was the first time in CAN history they finally made it past the group play. When they did, this city was SO LOUD! Fireworks going off everywhere... I'm pretty sure they're the ones who caused the power outage that night (because it did go out like 5 minutes after they won). But yeah... it was so, so, so noisy and exciting! Vuvuzelas, horns, anything that could make a loud noise was going on. You would have thought they won the entire thing or something! 
 

But then... last night they lost... and it was DEAD QUIET around the whole city! They lost to Burkino Faso too btw... just so Sur knows... But yeah... the city was the quietest I had ever heard the city... it was quite lovely actually. Very peaceful night. But yeah... it does stink that Togo lost because that's my country right now! (Apparently Benin has the worst soccer team known to man so it's all about Togo!). 

I've been buying tons of fruit since I got here though... I buy tons of oranges here because they're so good (and they're also green... so maybe that has something to do with it!) Here though... they eat their oranges differently. They cut the tops off and then they just suck the oranges dry... it actually works really effectively and is how I eat them now too! I can now testify that there are some things that Africans now how to do better than Americans haha.

Hmmmmm... what else to say... not much going on with our investigators or anything though. We did get an investigator to come to church who we've been teaching since I got here... his name is Elome and he's a great guy. He's only about 20 or 22 years old but very interested about religion... actually, you'd be surprised at the amount of both guys and girls we talk to in that age group. They're all different of course, but they're all very interested about religion and always have great questions to ask us.

But Elome is cool... he lives in the part of our sector that's actually not that far so I don't ever mind going to go see him! But... his family also raises rabbits... for people to... eat. Gross!!! We're buying one tomorrow to celebrate Elder Hanna's last meal here... he's going to kill it himself. I really don't know how I'm going to fare in this as I have never seen a live, cute, cuddly animal get slaughtered in front of my eyes. My goodness, just typing that makes me cringe and cry a little inside. So... yeah... I'll let you know how good bugs bunny tastes in my next letter! (oh gosh, I'm scared to eat this thing).

Things are going good though... it's been nice and cool in the mornings so I've been appreciating that. And, for the past week and half we haven't had any water pressure but it was just fixed on Saturday so it's been nice not to have drip showers every morning and also not have to wait 20 minutes for my water bottle to fill up in the sink! It's amazing how the Lord makes you appreciate the little things... and the little things go a LONG way here in Africa... as now I have gained a new appreciation for water pressure. Oh the random things I have learned in only being here 3 weeks.

The French has been going well too. I mean, ca va aller I guess (kinda just means like ah, it goes okay). People say it here all the time! But yeah... I've been getting more confident with my French so I'm trying my best to speak more when we meet people... but it takes a lot of focus to follow conversations here. Even Fast and Testimony meeting yesterday was really, really hard. It takes a lot out of you. But... I just gotta keep chugging along.

Oh one last thing I wanna say before I go... I see so many random shirts here! I've seen a red sox shirt, a guy with a BYU hat (what the heck!?!), and... this one is for Sean... a Ron Paul shirt! So many random shirts! I've even seen a guy wearing one of those Salty Dog Cafe shirts that I remember a lot of kids at school were wearing. I remember my first day, with Elder Kunz and Elder Seidl, we saw a guy with a vintage Pokemon shirt from the 90s. Elder Kunz wanted to buy it off him right then and there! I'm going to start writing down all the funny clothes I see here.

Anyway, hope that all things are going well back home. Hope everyone is healthy and having a good winter so far... I hear it's cold right now! I wish I could give you some of my heat in Togo... but lo and behold, the sweltering heat must stay with me.

Well... I love everyone! Hope to hear from people next week.

Love,

Elder "Yovo" "Awwk-ins" Hawkins

P.S. That's how people say, or try to say, Hawkins here.

From the Fro: Oh my goodness, this kid CRACKS ME UP!  Was chuckling over the rabbit.  LOL!  Hey, at least he knows exactly what kind of meat he's eating. The t-shirts also cracked me up.  So glad he's doing better.  I did get to email "chat" with him a bit (ok, it was 35 emails back and forth according to my inbox!). But he lost internet connection a few times, which was frustrating.  I'm actually surprised he was able to type out as much as he did for us all this week since I know he was also emailing Sienna, his Dad and our friend Jack, all while "chatting" with me at the same time.  He certainly IS a fast typer!  Here's some of our chat exchange:

Fro: Hey there!  How ya doing???

Elder H: Doing okay... Just reading through the long fro email right now!

Fro: Haha!  Well geez, I have to fit a whole WEEK into one email!  Craziness. Plus I had to give you some super bowl details....

Elder H: Yoooo!!! Yeah just read about it! Can't believe the Ravens have only been around for like 13 years and have won two super bowls. Eagles have been around since the Super Bowl was created in the 60s and have only even ever BEEN to the super bowl twice!

Fro: I KNOW!!  Ok, I didn't know your little trivia, which I missed during the game.  Plus, we had a lot of leftover wings...what is up with THAT? Guess Keeg will be eating them all week.  Anyway, The Baltimore Koncurat's were pretty darn excited.  Seth almost had a heart attack apparently he was getting so into it!

Elder H: Sorry... I lost my internet connection for 20 minutes or so. It's back now, so all is well. That's never happened before but Elder Hanna was telling me it can be sort of hit or miss sometimes. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.  And the French is getting better day by day. I've been trying to read the Book of Mormon front to back in French outloud to my self. I think it works and I'm going to try to start working in my French workbook from the MTC. A lot of missionaries talk about how that book taught them their French so I'm going to give it a try.

Fro: So other questions from my long email.  Do you have the repellant you took to the mtc? Are you still getting bit like crazy?

Elder H: So Internet went out again!

Okay, so the skin mosquito repellant, I've been using over the past couple of days. I wasn't using it at first because it's 100 percent DEET and it stings like crazy!!!! But Elder Hanna gave me 3 bottles of OFF repellent so I should be good now. So the mosquitos haven't been as bad as before, but one problem I've been having right now is that I've gotten heat rash on the inside of my elbows. I've been using arm and hammer powder and my anti-bacterial cream and it's slowly been going away but the heat rash didn't appear until I started using the bug spray again. So I've been cautious in how I use it.

And yeah, send everything to the mission home. I honestly don't even know what my address is here. We don't even use addresses here... people just know where people live based on descriptions. Only the big main roads have names that people know! Because people should technically know the names, but they don't of course... it's going to be really hard to try and tell my new companion where everybody lives! He's going to be relying on me for people's whereabouts, so I'll let you know how that goes. 

Glad to hear the bag is finally done! Thank goodness!! Looks really cool. Can't wait to get it! Anything else going on at home?

Fro: You mean that I forgot to write in my LOOONG letter?  Well.... I FINALLY cleaned up your room.  Yes, it took me all this time.  Silly, huh?  And it was still kinda hard, seeing your ipad next to your pillow just where you left it.  I know, Fa-ro.  And I loved all your Phillies t-shirts rolled perfectly in their own little drawer!  So funny.  I instagramed that, just so ya know.  ;)  Also, Adele went skiing for the first time on Sat, those she's quite sore from it still!  Oh, and Keegan got accepted into the National Honors Society! The noggin.

Elder H: Wow! That's hard to get into! Tell him congrats from me!

Fro: So things are better this week?

Elder H: Yeah. I've been thinking a lot over the past week about what it says in my blessing about being one who is positive and able to help those who are discouraged. And I was thinking, you know what, how is someone who is discouraged supposed to help someone who is also discouraged. I know the Lord has blessed me with a Fro who taught me well on how to pick people up when they are down... it's your example I think about when I think of helping others whose arms hang down... I've definitely been trying to smile more often when I pass people by on the streets. Thinking about how blessed I am to be on this Earth. 

Fro: (Awwww! *sniff* wiping a tear or two) That's awesome.  And you're right, someone who is discouraged cannot help another person in the same boat.  I'm glad my endless optimism was a good lesson...who wants to be sad their whole life after all?  I prefer the bright side for sure.  "There is no try, only DO!" Haha, gotta love Yoda.

Elder H: So I still need to write to a letter to everyone, might be kinda short! Hopefully the internet keeps staying up here! It's nice though... the cafe is in this huge Catholic compound thingy... they use it for parties and what not. It's really nice... I'm surprised the internet even goes out with the niceness of the buildings here. It's like a little world here... a bit like a resort almost.

Fro: Oh wow, I didn't know that kind of thing existed there!  I forgot to ask if you can buy milk and stuff there.  Wondering what kind of simple recipes I can send you? Is there such thing as cheese?  Hard to think of French speakers without cheese! 

Elder H: Yeah... cheese doesn't exist here... not sure what I'm going to do about that.

As for the milk, you're right... it's all non-refridgerated (as are the eggs... what the heck?!? How do they do that?!) but it's rather expensive... so sweet and condensed milk it is! It's not bad, but I looked at what it's made out of and it's like 50 percent sugar!!! Gotta be careful how much I use of that.

And I have no idea where to buy butter... I did find a place that sells ground beef so hopefully I can start making stuff with that. The bread here too is also really good and cheap, so I've been making a TON of PB&J sandwiches... you should have sent some more PB too! I'm like half way done it (sort of because some of the other elders have been using it... manners in Africa are definitely much different than back home). 

But yeah the Fruit is great! I'll try to mention more of it in the letter I'm writing. I know where to buy powdered milk here but it's kinda gross. I'll let you know how it goes with that... I'm sure I can buy a lot of stuff I'm asking for back here, but you just gotta know where to find it and I just don't know right now :( Hopefully, with time, I'll start to know get the hang of things and know where to go.

Fro: Welllllll....powdered milk is pretty gross here too!  That's why I say add a bit of the sweetened condensed to it.  And yes, you will get used to things and figure out what everything is as time goes on. You'll learn!  Was just thinking that next week marks a MONTH in Togo.  Wow!  I'm sure it doesn't feel like it, but time will fly.

Elder H: Yeah time does fly and I feel like the days fly but the weeks don't! But yeah... crazy to think that next week will be my month mark. I still feel like I just got here!

Fro: How often do they deliver packages from the Mission home to Togo?

Elder H: it might take a week or two to get to me once it reaches the mission home. It just depends on if the mission pres or the assistants have to come out to Togo or not. Problem is, I don't think they'll be doing so the next few weeks but we'll see. Got to go now... Thanks for talking and know that I love you lots. Thanks for all your awesome prayers because I can feel them here!

Fro: I'm glad you can feel the prayers, we'll keep sending them.  Have a GREAT 4th week.  BE STEADFAST! (from D&C 31:9 that I quoted to him this week.  Awesome scripture!)

Love you too!!!  

TI&B (to infinity & beyond...I always sign his letters that way)

P.S. I LOVE MONDAY'S!!!

La deuxieme semaine

(view of Togo from the roof)

Wow... crazy, crazy, crazy week.

First, I'm really sad to hear about Grandpa. We had our interviews with the mission president on Wednesday and he told me the news. I was pretty sad about it, but I try not to think about it too often. Though, reading your email about the funeral and then Dad's talk really touched me. And of course, those little pamphlets I carry around with the title "Le Plan de Salut" helps as well! I'm glad the family was able to get together though... I think Grandpa was smiling down that day... I'm sure it was just what he wanted.

All things considered though... it was a pretty tough week. Had probably one of my hardest days on Tuesday, actually. During personal study that morning, I had read a lot about patience and learned tons and tons from the scriptures about it. Of course, little did I know that I was being prepared for the day ahead. I was just getting super frusterated with my French ability. It's weird... some days I can get a lot of it, while other days I just don't get anything. But on Tuesday, it was really tough. Everyone says that the French will come... and I'm sure it will... but from my perspective, it just seems like it's never really going to come. That, and all the stupid misquito bites, the sweltering heat and accompanying sweat, the little know-how I have how to do things here, getting a bit home sick, and just all the pressures from being so out of place really got to me. It really was just one of the hardest days of my mission thus far. 

However... those days are to be expected. All the missionaries warned me that I would have those days. Things are still pretty tough, but one of my favorite sayings comes to mind everytime I'm in a funk like I am now. It came from one of the YSA ward leaders back at BYU. Here's what he said:

"If life were full of sunny days, life would just be a desert."

So, in all, I'm trying to appreciate the rainy days for what they are. Frere Steretta, who was one of the teachers at the MTC and the only person who served in West Africa of all the French teachers, told us some good advice about always trying to look for things you like about where you are. He said he had been feeling down for a while during his mission. One day, he looked up and saw a tree... and he thought, you know what, I like trees and that's a pretty nice tree. So, he decided to smile about it. He said finding little things like that to appreciate really help the days go by. So, I've been taking his advice and I've been trying to focus on the things I like here rather than the things I don't like.

Soooo... what do I like you might ask? Well... I like the new air freshner spray thing I bought at the gas station the other day! Man... does that do wonders to our bathroom! Ahhh... from fresh burning trash to warm bourbon vanilla. That does make me happy haha. 

I also looooooooove singing here during Church. The members here litterally sing the loudest they possibly can... it is so funny I cannot help but smile while I sing the hymns. It takes a lot of will power to stop myself from laughing... oh my goodness... it's so funny but so awesome! You can tell these people really love to sing here! 

Also, we've been meeting some pretty cool people too. We're teaching a man named Attiogbe (pronounced Achobe), who at one point was training to become a minister but quit because of some accident (I need to ask my companion, again, about what happened). However, he asks loads of great questions and came to Church on Sunday... he owns his own photo shop called "Mo's Photos"... not sure why it's named Mo's, but it's pretty cool! I need to take some pictures of it.

We also met another lady completely random, her name is Mata (I think she said Martha but Elder Kiputa doesn't think so). We met her on Saturday while walking through her parcelle (they houses here are all fenced off, but you walk inside the door from the street and you get into this little courtyard thing and on the sides, there are a bunch of rooms where people live and stuff.. so we met her walking through the courtyard thing). She was pretty interested in what we had to say, but she only speaks évé (local language here). Thankfully, we had a member with us who translated for us. But we talked for about an hour and it was really cool... her husband died a few years ago and she loves the Bible, so she was very interested. And, the next day, she came to Church with her grandson! Elder Kiptua and I did have to pay for her moto taxi ride to the church and from the church though (she's too old to walk all the way here). Hopefully, she comes again without us having to pay haha.

We've been meeting tons of other cool people though. I don't have time to explain everyone I've met, but I'm sure I'll get a chance to tell you about them sooner or later! 

Oh yeah... it rained early last week and also a bit today during the morning... crazy! When it rains here, it's like a bucket of water. It rains like a hard summer storm back home, but for more than just a few minutes. Apparently, it's pretty weird for rain to happen during this time of year, but it does make things a bit cooler albeit a bit more humid. And the roads get grooooossss... huge puddles everywhere... makes me so excited for the rainy season in a month or two! (not really). 

Well, not too much more to say right now! Things to send: definitely the deoderant, more beef jerky, maybe something that could repel mosquitos or some crazy technology that doesn't exist here that can repel mosquitos at night? Elder Hanna gave me a mosquito yellow band thing his mom sent (completely uneffective)... ohhh a new pair of pants!

Funny story... we were at a member's house, talking to a recent convert. I went to cross my legs and my pants just completely ripped right by my upper thighs. It was so embarrasing! I had only worn them twice!!! And they were my loosest pair of pants... I guess it was just really junky fabric (it was mostly cotton and like 30% of these weird fabric that start with an A or something). But yeah... had to walk home while holding my bag behind me. Thankfully it was our last appointment of the day and thankfully it gets completely dark at night so nobody noticed. But yeah... new pants would be great!

But anyway... things have been going good when all things are said and done though. I'm going to try to send some pictures now... Hope things are going good back home now that things are settling down! 

Je vous aime!

Elder Hawkins

Pics!!!

My zone... I'm in the yellow sector and my apartment is near the bottom right of the blue sector. Yeah... it's a long walk to say the least. We walk about 10 kilometers a day according to my companion... which seems about right because it takes about 30 minutes to walk to our sector (we make the trip about 4 times a day going back and forth so it adds up).

View from the front door... not as great at it might seem but I like to do personal study out here because of the breeze and I can listen to my music without disturbing anyone

Me and Elder Kiputa!

 That's Elder Imouhkuede... he's a crazy Nigerian fellow. He says some really funny things (from what I can understand though! Tough accent to conquer!)

That's Elder Hanna, the other American... he goes home in about 10 days so I'm going to give him some stuff to send home. He's pretty funny and he helps me out a ton! Great missionary!

Pick up truck?!? Why do you need a pick up truck when you can just strap 8 matresses on the back and save some gas while you're at it! You'd be surprised what kind of crazy things people haul on their little junky scooters... like furniture and tons of food.

Note from the Fro: It sure has been a rough week for the entire Hawkins' family.  Interesting that Trevor's roughest day was the very day, unbeknownst to him at the time, that his Grandfather passed away.  We got word to his Mission president, who happened to be in Togo and was able to give Trevor the news in person.  Not an easy thing to learn when you're so far away from family, I'm sure.  He was fairly certain that when he said goodbye to Grandpa Norm in Nov, that it was probably for the last time here on earth.  We are glad they were able to come visit us in PA from CA for his farewell and spend time with us before Trevor left.  I'm glad he's focusing on the positive!  Please send extra prayers his way!

P.S. That's two pairs of ripped pants now?  One in the MTC and one in week 2.  Maybe I should just send him some industrial strength thread!