JUNE 30, 2014-LAST EMAIL BEFORE THE MISSION SPLITS!

This is what President said in his letter to me today: "I APPRECIATE YOUR DILIGENCE IN THE CITY OF YAOUNDE, YOU HAVE MADE A MARK ON THOSE PEOPLE. YOU HAVE NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT YOUR ASSIGNMENT AND I HAVE NOTICED THAT. THE LORD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR DILIGENCE AND YOUR GOOD HEART. THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!!"

JUNE 16, 2014- FATHER'S DAY! - World Cup, Soup resembling Snot, Paper Airplanes, Helping Hands,

Yaounde, Cameroun

Dear Dad,

Happy Father's Day!

I wish that I had some sweet story like saving an African child from a burning building, but honestly, nothing really happened this week. One of my favorite parts of the week was watching the Cameroun Mexico game for the world cup. I have actually always liked soccer and I wish that I had played in high school at least once. Oh well. I will play on some intramural team at BYU when I get there. I want to play soccer and swim a ton. That is my goal. Among other things. We will see how it goes. America is playing tonight! But! The game starts at 10:00... So that's not going to really work. Oh well.

One of my favorite parts of this week was actually the result of me wanting to take a break from journal writing. I grabbed a piece of paper and started making a paper airplane when Elder Simmons and Elder Tripp walked in and said. "Massé what are you doing?" I said that I was bored and that I was going to throw this plane off the balcony. They followed me around until I had finished and then I threw it off the balcony. It went fairly far and it made it fun being on the third story. Well... 15 minutes later all five Americans were sitting at the table making paper airplanes and after an hour and a half we had thrown over 60 planes out into the street, roofs, the ground, and so on. It was awesome! And this is what happens when you don't have a whole lot to do at night besides studying. Ha ha. It was awesome. I managed to get one of my planes all the way across the road and into the balcony of the adjacent apartment. If there was a contest, I think I won. Ha ha. Paper is biodegradable so maybe once of these days we will just go up into the mountains somewhere and make a bunch of paper airplanes with the boys and throw them off just for kicks. I thought that would be fun.

I managed to get one of my airplanes to go a good 60 yards and it was gliding in for a landing at then end of it's flight and a bunch of African kids saw it and were amazed by this flying thing. As soon as they saw it they ran off to tell their parents that some flying UFO thing had just flown over their heads. I thought it was pretty awesome.

I am learning a lot from my African companion and I think he is learning a lot from me. I fell really blessed to work with him. It is interesting to work with someone that comes from the poorest country in the world. Granted his parents are much better off than most other families, it is still interesting to see the differences between the two of us. We are a world a part and sometimes that creates a division between the two of us, but we work hard and we overcome our difficulties one by one.

I wish that I had something else to say or tell you. To be honest, I  just want to work hard and finish off my mission in a good way. That is my goal. Time is like a whirlpool now. I can't stop it and it just all churns into one big swirl.

I love you dad. I hope that you have a great day and a great week! You really are the worlds greatest Dad.

I will talk to you next week!

Love Elder Massé

Dearest Mother,

The week was pretty good. I have no complaints and I am happy.

Here we go with your questions.

          1.Where's somewhere you went this week? 

This week we actually watched the Cameroun - Mexico match for the world cup at a members house. I have actually really come to love and enjoy soccer. I would recommend that for Tate if he couldn't do water polo. I have actually always loved soccer but peer pressure always steered me away from it when I was in high school. I have always wanted to play soccer. Too bad I didn't jump on that opportunity. I would have loved to try. 

In any case, the game was good but Cameroun lost. They still have two games to play and America plays tonight! 

2.  How are things in your apt and with your comp?  My companion's English is getting really good and I really like Elder Simmons. We have the same sense of humor which probably isn't a good thing considering what I find funny sometimes, but oh well. We laugh all the time, with Naughton of course, and with the rest of the gang.

3.What's new in Yaounde?  Not much.   I am working on committing more people to baptism. So far I have three and I have a goal of five so we will see how that goes. 

4. What are you studying in Preach My Gospel as of late? I have been focusing on Christlike attributes. Something that I desperately need. Ha ha. 

5.What did you do this week to be of service?  We actually did Helping Hands this week. 

6. What food did you have this week?  We ate some really weird soup/sauce this week that basically resembled snot and tasted delicious. It really was the consistency of snot.

And that was my week. 

I wish that I had more to say about the week. It was rather normal.  President Cook will be coming for his last time this week and next month we will have a new mission President. Crazy. My mission is coming to a close. It's scary.   This is what President said in his letter to me today: "I APPRECIATE YOUR DILIGENCE IN THE CITY OF YAOUNDE, YOU HAVE MADE A MARK ON THOSE PEOPLE. YOU HAVE NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT YOUR ASSIGNMENT AND I HAVE NOTICED THAT. THE LORD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR DILIGENCE AND YOUR GOOD HEART. THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!!"

         I love you Mom.  I love you!  Have a great week!
         Love Elder Massé

JUNE 9, 2014- "Life is great. I love my companion, I love my apartment. This is my life. I am in Africa"

Comp: Elder Kabangu

Area: Yaounde, Cameroun

Hey Dad,

Well, sounds like you had a pretty crazy week. Life is continuing on for me and I am trying to work hard and be the best I can be. Being with an African companion has been quite a change for me, but Elder Kabangu is great and we are working hard. 

Elder Naughton and Elder Simmons are doing awesome and they baptized seven people on Saturday! It was a huge family and the uncle baptized all of them. He was among the first 10 people to ever become members in Cameroon and he's been a member of the church for 21 years. Pretty crazy. Anyways, the baptism went pretty well and so did the rest of the week. 

I guess I can highlight the things that happened this week. 

I went on splits with Elder Ntambwé. 

I bought some African food from a young member in our branch and the total for the food was 300 francs. I gave 2,000 and told her to keep it. 

I hit 20 months this week...  It's scary man. I measure time in Sundays now. And of course in transfers. I wake up and it's Sunday. I wake up again and it's Sunday. I DON'T UNDERSTAND. 

School is out here so I am hoping to be able to work with a bunch of kids in the branch to find their friends. 

I had my first PEC meeting ever this week. I didn't even know it existed. Ha ha. But! I went and the members asked me a ton of questions so I pulled my knowledge from being in the church. Apparently my insights were important because they made goals with the things I said. Pretty cool. 

We had nine investigators at church which was also cool. But none of them were the ones that said they would come to church. Ha ha. 

Anyways. Life is great. I love my companion, I love my apartment, I gave Elder Naughton a tie this week because I forgot to give him a tie when we finished being companions. 

This is my life. I am in Africa. And that is all I got for this week. I guess I will talk to you next time. 

Love Elder Massé

JUNE 2, 2014- I am now the oldest missionary, four months left, "It made me realize just how grateful I am for my mission and everything that is has done for me. I am forever indebted to my Creator."

Comp: Elder Kabangu

Area: Yaounde, Cameroun

Dear Dad,

This week has been one of the most interesting weeks of my life, and not much actually happened to put it into perspective. Yes transfers happened, and all the jazz but not much happened. It was just interesting to see how things changed when transfers came.

Things that happened this week.

I got my 9th companion, Elder Kabangu.

I got my first African companion.

I am a Zone Leader with Elder Kabangu.

Elder Lavering went home.

I now have, more and at the same time less, responsibilities than I did when I was District Leader.

Elder Zeregui went to Gabon.
Elder Rakotondrabeharison went back to Kinshasa.

I am now the oldest missionary on this side of the mission.
I have four months left.

Every transfer I draw out a calendar in the back of my planner that lasts for three transfers, so 18 weeks, and now I can see HOME at the very end. I don't like it man. IT FREAKS ME OUT.

I finished my 5th journal on my mission this week.

I had deja-vu a million times. Like, stuff I have seen in dreams years ago.

And I guess that was about it.

One of the highlights of this week and of my mission was talking to a lady that I taught and saw baptized when I was here over a year ago. She told me this. She said, "When you came you were a tiny infant, my child, and now you have become a man. You have truly changed."

It was sick. It made me realize just how grateful I am for my mission and everything that is has done for me. I am forever indebted to my Creator. It just sucks that I will never be able to pay Him back, but I can do my best.

Anyways, that was my week. Our apartment is awesome, Brazzaville might be opened up for proselyting for the white kids on the block and apparently it has gone all the way up to the First Presidency, so we will see how that goes. And that was my week.

I love you Dad. Stay classy Portland.

I will talk to you next week.

Until next time,

Love Elder Massé