MAY 26, 2014- TRANSFERS!!!! Elder Kabangu, Zone Leader, Elder Lavering is going home,

Dearest Mother,

Well, I don't have a whole lot of news this week... Other than the fact that we had transfers today! Here we go. 

I am with my first African companion, Elder Kabangu, and Elder Naughton is training one of the new Elders, Elder Simmons. Did I forget to mention that I am no longer district leader? Yeah... I am no longer district leader! Which means less responsibility. Ha ha. I love responsibility, but it's nice to have a break every once in a while. 

Did I forget to mention that I am zone leader? Ha ha! 

Yeah I am actually zone leader. Weird. I have no idea what I am doing. Oh well.

I will be the oldest missionary in a couple days. Elder Lavering is going home and is freaking out. He just has no idea how to process it and I honestly feel like I will be the same way. All I know is how to be a missionary and so I imagine it will be the same thing for me when I go home. 

Anyways, that was the biggest thing. Cool huh? I don't have much else so I will just ramble on for a couple minutes. 

No baptisms, but we set a date with an investigator this week and we will see what we can do soon. 

My life is crazy. I honestly have no idea what else to talk about so I will just end there. What a crazy day. 

I love you! 

I will talk to you next week. 

Love Elder Massé

MAY 19, 2014 - Happy Birthday Mom! , Jungle, Bananas!!! Independence day of Cameroon, four new missionaries, "I have a great life"

Well, I thought today that I would write each of you at the same time and tell you about my fun adventures from this past week. Here is what has happened in my life. 

Monday: P-Day. We had a mangez-vous at one of the branch presidents houses this week and it was awesome. It was to commemorate the end of ElderLavering's mission. We ate great food, had a small family home evening,  and had a great time.

Tuesday was Elder Laverings birthday so we had a huge mangez-vous at another member's house this week. Her name is Martine and I love her. She cooked us fried fish, Folon, piment, and a million plantains. I love African food. We had a great day.

Wednesday I went on splits with Elder Lavering into his sector and I also did four baptismal interviews for a family that he is teaching. It was a pretty standard day, but I had a blast doing baptismal interviews and hanging out with Elder Lavering for the day.

Thursday was by far my favorite day this week for one reason and one reason only. I finally fulfilled one of my dreams that I have had before I ever came to Africa. Here we go.

Elder Naughton and I were heading to our last rendez-vous of the evening and we were walking through the jungle, literally the jungle, to get to their house. As we were walking I looked ahead and saw a banana tree that had fallen over and had a huge branch of bananas attached to it. I knew that this was finally the moment when my dream would be fulfilled.

I stopped on the trail and Elder Naughton turned around and asked what I was doing. I told him that we had to cut down this branch of bananas and take it home.He looked at me like I was crazy, but I had to do it.

Unfortunately I didn't have a knife with me so I told Elder Naughton to give me his pen. Ha ha. Well, I cut down this branch of bananas with a pen threw it on my shoulder, and carried it all the way home. Granted we took a taxi, but we still had a good walk before finding one.

One of my dreams was to come to Africa, go into the jungle, cut down a branch of bananas or plantains, throw it over my shoulder, and take it home. And I did it. One of the best days of my life. I felt like a boss and it was the coolest thing ever. That was the highlight of my week.

Just so you know, this branch of bananas has 124 bananas on it. I counted it. Ha ha. I love Africa!

Friday was pretty normal.

Saturday was also awesome, but not much happened.

After Thursday every day after that paled in comparison to the awesomeness of carrying a huge thing of bananas home. It was so freaking heavy too.

And Sunday we went out to our branch president's house to eat Ndolé and plantains, we watched a soccer game and then to end the night we had a small lesson/family home evening with a family that recently lost their father so a bunch of members were their to testify of the Plan of Salvation and talk about Jesus Christ. It was really cool.

And now it's Monday. Tomorrow is the Independence day of Cameroon and we are having a sleep over in Bastos so that we can make it to zone conference on time on Tuesday. We will be 12 missionaries total. Did I forget to mentiont that we got four new missionaries? Well we did. Two inYaoundé, one in Douala, and another going to Pointe Noire waiting for his visa in Douala.

I have a great life. I love you guys and I will talk to you next week!

Happy Mother's day and Happy birthday day Mom!

I love you guys!

Until next time,

Love Elder Massé

MAY 12, 2014 - MOTHER'S DAY! We received a letter from Africa!!!! Skype, electricity out

Elder Masse was supposed to skype home for Mother's Day- but the electricity went out- so we were able to skype with him for 30 minutes on the following day- May 12, 2014!   AND- we also got a letter from Africa in the mail!!

MAY 5, 2014- PICTURES!!

Comp: Elder Naughton

Area: Yaounde, Cameroon

Dear Dad,

I thought that I would explain this last transfer with a couple photos that I have taken of my companion and of course my friends.

The first is a picture of when we spent 80 dollars on cereal or something. Ha ha. 

Second is a picture of the day that we went to go dig that huge pile of earth that took two days.

Third is Elder Naughton asleep during French study.

Fourth is the African sun.

Fifth is a picture of when we climbed into the roof of our apartment and we took a picture of Rakoto brushing his teeth and Zeregui taking a shower. Ha ha.

Sixth is my companion. I love him.

And lastly is Elder Lavering and I in my daily picture!

I hope that the pictures will suffice for this week! I love you Dad. I will see you in a couple days!

Sunday,

Love Elder Massé 

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Dearest Mother,

1. We had a District Meeting with them, but it wasn't anything special. Did you know Elder Moody has served five missions? And Sister Moody four? He served in France when he was younger, they were called to be Temple President in Tahiti, He was a mission president in Haiti, and he is just about to finish serving here. Crazy. They are quite heavenly.

2. Not much. We will be "bouffing" a ton of food tonight at Olinga's house which will be awesome.

3. Everyday... I walk by Santa Lucia in Kondengui. That hasn't changed much.

4. How? Fine! 

Bonjour. C'est comment? Ça va ça va.  

How for you? Fine fine.

5. No service, but Elder Naughton and I will be doing service tomorrow.

6. Bon... Récemment on a parle beaucoup de français dans l'appartement avec Naughton and aussi Lavering et, bien sur, les autres missionnaires. Nous avons continue a parler en français jusqu'à ce que nous soyons mort! (En tant que missionnaire). Ne t'inquiète pas. On se verra très bientôt!!

So... Yes. Wasn't a huge week. Nothing special happened, but Elder Naughton and I are doing awesome and things are rolling our way. We are invited to a marriage this week though so that will be fun. We will see how that goes.

I honestly can't think of anything else. It was just a normal week I guess. Oh I guess one thing I forgot to mention. I did three baptismal interviews which was cool.

Yeah that was my week.  It was great!

I will see you very soon!

Until Sunday,

Love Elder Massé