Elder Masse Baptism Sept 2014

Elder Masse Baptism Sept 2014

Monday, July 28, 2014

July 28, 2014 - Pointe Noire, Elder Tweneboah, Lasagna, Hot Chocolate, Ramadan, Haircut,



Elder Naughton


*These pics are from the Bailey's blog- the amazing senior couple in Pointe Noire!


Comp: Elder Tweneboah (from Ghana)
Area: Pointe Noire, Congo


Dearest Mother,

The week has gone awesome as it usually does and things are looking bright. Including the sun. I don't have a whole lot of time left today because of not being able to go to the cyber we wanted to go to this morning we closed because Ramadan is today or something and the owner of the cyber that we go to is, go figure... Muslim so he wasn't there. 

But! On the flipside I did get to see about five thousand Muslims praying which was really cool, and I was going to take a picture but I had no desire to die or get stabbed. Anyways, that was my morning. 

I unfortunately do not have a whole lot of time but I will tell you what I can. As I always do. =). 

The week was awesome, I love Elder Tweneboah, and things are just so easy with him. We had companionship inventory last week and he said that he has to tell the mission president that he never sees me eat lunch or breakfast which he laughs about everyday. But I do. Ha ha. For whatever reason he just never sees so he made a joke out of it and that was the biggest "problem". I love him. 

It's been super fun training him to. In any case, I love training. 

His French is doing okay and little by little we are working on it. I have made a goal to speak only in French with him out in the sector and I try to do it in the apartment. 

Oh my goodness. The lasagna dinner this week was amazing!!  Do you know that every single one of us gained two kilos, at least, at that dinner? It's hard to resist a huge pile of cheesy lasagna when it's right in from of you. And garlic bread up the wazoo. 

I also got my haircut. A three all over.  

It should be a lot easier next week with information and with a good, solid email. We have go teach in about 30 minutes to D. and then Elder Tripp and I are making hot chocolate so I will talk to you next week.

You know I love ya =)


Love Elder Massé

Monday, July 21, 2014

JULY 21, 2014 - "Congo is sweet and I love it here" - New Mission President; Mission Split on July 1st, Training,

*these pics are all from the Bailey's Blog- Thank you!!!  What an amazing senior couple!





Comp: Elder Tweneboah (from Ghana)
Area: Pointe Noire, Congo


Dearest Mother,

It's been an incredibly fast week. I know I say it a lot, but
literally feels like I was writing you yesterday, or even a couple
hours ago. This entire week was just a huge blur and I suppose that is
due to being in a new place and having so many new people to teach and
see. It's awesome and I love it. I love Congo!

Here we go.

1.What the weirdest thing you saw this week?

 Well... I can't really think of anything weird that I saw, but
Congo definitely has it's differences from Cameroon.
2. Baptisms?
We did have baptisms this week and for the two people that got
baptized I interviewed both of them! They are really cool, a brother
and a sister, and they are both very active and integrated into the
church. They go to seminary, institute, they do choir, and they have a
ton of frends at church. It's great.

 3. What made you laugh out loud?
I can't think of anything specific as usual, but I laugh everyday
when I joke with my companions.

4. What’s something you walk by everyday?
Well, we walk by fond tie-tie which is probably the largest market
that I have ever seen in my entire life. It's massive and you can find
just about anything you can possibly think of. There seems to be no
end to it either. It just goes on and on and on.

5. How is your comp?  How is his English?
He is great and he speaks English, as in, that is his maternal
language besides his tribal language in Ghana. We understand each
other perfectly and I can say anything and he gets it. It's his French
that I am working on little by little.

6. How is it different from Cameroon?
Pointe Noire is completely flat and there aren't really any
landmarks so I have to just use my wits and the map in my brain to get
around. It's really not that hard though because everything is gridded
and I look at every situation as always having at least a couple
solutions, so I am always finding new roads and shortcuts. Ha ha. It's flat, the sand is grey, white, beige, black, it really just depends on where you are.

We have a surprsingly large number of Recent Converts and less-actives
so it appears that most of my teaching will actually be going towards
after lessons.
 I will still  always have new people to teach.
 It seems too that people are a lot more receptive to the Gospel
here, in my humble opinion. They are, by far, much more poor than
Cameroon, and that seems to have made people really humble. Last time
I checked, Cameroon wasn't even in the top 20 most poor countries of
the world whereas Congo is always within the first five. That makes a
very large difference.

7. What do you love most about it there?
I just love change. I love having new people to meet, new
challenges, new obstacles, and so on. I love change and that has
honestly been the best thing for me.

8. What are you doing today (or going to do?)
 After everything else that needs to get done is done i.e. shopping, emails,
cyber, cleaning, etc.  Elder Tripp and I are going to go home,
clean, take showers, make cinnamon rolls, turn on our air conditioner
and get the "ice box" to 55 degrees, and eat steaming hot cinnamon
rolls in a freezing room. I am so excited. Ha ha.

9. How is the marche different?
Everything is imported here because they apparently don't have a
good agricultural system themselves so everything is super expensive.

10. Have you been to the beach?
Nope. But I think the Baileys are planning a trip.

11.  Tell me anything!!
Well, Congo is sweet and I love it here.

 So this week we had Zone Conference with President Monga and it went
fantasically. I fell in love with President and Sister Monga the
moment they walked in. President Monga has the best laugh that I have
ever heard, and Sister Monga will talk to you about anything once you
start talking to her. They are so awesome!

I can't really think if anything else. My mind is pretty lost actually
for various reasons. But life is awesome! I love the Congo.

I love you! Have a great week!

CONGO.

Love Elder Massé

Monday, July 14, 2014

JULY 14, 2014- " C O N G O is one of the sickest places I have ever been to in my entire life", chess, church, tribal language, DCFC, marche, 17 lessons,

Comp: Elder Tweneboah (from Ghana)
Area: Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo


July 14, 2014

Dad,


Alright man. Here we go...

Congo is one of the sickest places I have ever been to in my entire life. It definitely isn't Paris or Oregon, but it just has a homey feel that makes it feel like one the coolest places on the planet and no one can really understand that except me. I just feel at home here and I love it. Currently we are in the dry season, which is funny beause that means that here it's cold. The nights are super mild and sometimes I have to go put on my jacket because I am so freezing, but I love it. Hey. We have a freaking dryer. Can you believe that? A DRYER.

Anyways, Congo is awesome. It's ugly, and there is trash EVERYWHERE, but I really don't care. Congo is sick. We walk through several inches of sand everyday and this isn't like walking on a beach near the water sand, this is completely dry sand that swallows your leg up to your ankle if you aren't paying attention. The sand ranges in color from black to white and there is almost every color of sand that exists on the earth in between.

The work is going great and we meet in the official church building built by the church! The branch I am working in has twe sets of missionaries and we are slowly working towards the split so my goal is to baptize people and prepare the members and future missionaries as much as I can for the split that I will be absent for.

Elder Tripp have an on-going chess game that we play for a couple days. It's kind of like gameknot. He plays. I go out and see if he has played or not and I play. Then he goes and so on. We finished our game last night after started three days ago and I made a couple of stupid moves and went with guns a' blazing. Anyways, I love chess. Haven't played in forever, but awesome. I plan on playing with Tripp for the rest of my mission so that will be fun.

I love the people, the tribal language here is sick and I want to learn as much as I can and the members and missionaries are awesome.
We taught a grand total of 17 lessons last week which was cool too.

And one of the biggest announcements that I have. Drum roll please.

For the first time in 21 months, I heard my first portion of Death Cab in the middle of a quartier in central Africa. I will follow you into the Dark. I was teaching a lesson when I heard so I literally stopped everything I was saying and doing and listened. It was really second nature to me and I couldn't stop it. Anyways, it was sweet and I thought I would share that with you.

DCFC!

Congo is sick. I will probably die here and I am excited for that. I have 2.5 months left and then I will come home and I will work my tail off to the very last day. And that was my week! Congo is sick, chicken is cheap, and peanut butter is in abundance. I love cheap marches.
Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Masse

Monday, July 7, 2014

JULY 7, 2014 - IM GOING TO THE CONGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Transferred from Cameroon to the Republic of the Congo on s Boeing 737

Elder Masse quickly emailed briefly on the morning of the 7th to let us know he was in Doula, Cameroon, and about to catch a plane for Republic of the Congo to Pointe Noire.  

This letter tells all about what happened on the 7th!! (and THANK YOU to the Bailey's in Pointe Noire for the pictures!!)


Brazzaville


-----------------------

July 14, 2014 

Dearest Mother,

CONGO IS SICK! I have been waiting for this my entire mission and at
long last my wish was granted by a loving Father in Heaven. I love this mission!

Well, here it goes. We got transfer letters last Saturday, we left for
Douala on the Bus at 2:30 Sunday afternoon, I then wrote you from
Cyberlink in Douala in the morning, and then that an hour after
finishing up with my emails the Colemans came to pick us up for the
airport. Ahh!! I freaking love this mission!

Well let me start with the airport because that is where we left off
on my journey to Congo. The Colemans picked us up around 10:30 and we
went directly to the airport. We unloaded our bags, got scanned by
some guy with a wand, and then walked inside and waited forever in a
bunch of lines. The line took forever because they had two women
checking people in for a Boeing 737 which holds around 150 people so
it took the longest time. Not to mention that lines DO NO exist in
Africa ANYWHERE so everyone was cutting in front of us and I would
sarcastically joke about me letting them go ahead and so on and so
forth. It wasn't fun, but eventually we got through and every thing worked
out fine. AND! I managed to escape the evil clutches of BAGGAGE
FEES!!! First bag, the black one, 32 kilos. Not toooo bad. Second bag,
27. Awesome. She just smiled at me and bowed her head with a face that
said, "Oh boy". In any case, it worked out great, our luggage was
fine, and we eventually started boarding the plane an hour and a half
late because we are running on AST... African standard time which
means that if you have a meeting you always show up late because that
is just how it works.

In any case, the flight was awesome and I was so excited to be on a
plane again that I couldn't sleep. Ha ha. The flight was an hour and a
half and we actually got fed lunch which consisted of a chicken thigh
and some cantonese rice. It tasted great, the flight was awesome, we
landed, and we actually got out right on the tarmac which was awesome.

Before long we were shuffled into customs, we got through pretty
quickly, and we met the Baileys shortly after. They have a blog by the
way but knowing your sources you probably knew that after I told you
their names last week. Ha ha. They were super nice and they took us to
the house out in Mpaka because we really live in a huge house, and at
that point I said goodbye to Elder Etherington and Elder Naughton and
said hello to my Ghanian companion, Elder Tweneboah, and Elder
Ralison, the companion of Elder Tripp.

The night was awesome, Sister Bailey gave us a lasagna to eat along
with peanut butter fudge bars and some cookies. The food was
delicious, I unpacked, I wrote in my journal, and eventually I
snuggled into to my nice air conditioned room. 13/15 transfers with
AC! Woo-hoo!

Soo. I freaking love Congo. I love my sector, we meet in the official
church building, (the first official church building I have seen on my
mission), we have a basketball court with midget hoops but that's
okay. The house we live in is sick. We have a blender, a nice set of
knives, a deep-fryer, a waffle maker, a generator when the power goes
off, a washer and a DRYER, a electric oven and heating pad, a nice
fridge, a huge living room, and so on and so forth. I love Congo.
Elder Tripp and I have been playing chess for the last four days too
because we found a chess board. The people are amazing, I love the
members, I love the kikongo, the language they speak here, and
everything is just awesome.

My companion is on his second transfer so I am his dad! I get
to train which is cool. He speaks English and Trie and speaks no
French. So little by little I am helping him. He is super funny and an
amazing soccer player and he was Elder Simmons companion in the MTC.
He is so great and I love him.

What else...

I finally got to see Garland again! You should write him if you have
some time. He would love to hear from you and he told me to say hello
to you but I figured you could do that yourself. It was super cool to
see him and catch up a little bit. We haven't had a whole lot of time
to sit down and talk but we will see how that goes. It was really cool
to see him again though. I love him.

There are now three missionary apartments here in Congo. Garland and
Sperry are together by themselves in one apartment, I am in Mpaka with
Ralison, Tripp, and Tweneboah, and the other apartment is Naughton,
Etherington, Johnston, and Bybee. Things are great.

And that is what I got for today! I love you! Have a great day!

See you next week!

Love Elder Massé

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

DRC KINSHASA MISSION HAS SPLIT! ELDER MASSE IS IN THE NEWLY CREATED MISSION: REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO BRAZZAVILLE MISSION

Photograph of the northern wall of the Mormon temple in Mesa, Arizona

Statistics

Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission

Following is a list of the congregations belonging to the Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission

LocationRepublic of Congo
Creation DateJune 30, 2014
Number of Congregations1 District, 8 Mission Branches


Congregations


Last updated on August 1, 2014

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/unit/republic-of-congo-brazzaville-mission/





NEW MISSION PRESIDENT:
On July 1, 2014, our Mission officially became the "Republic of the Congo, Brazzaville Mission." President Elie Kyungu Monga. 

He served as a counselor to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Limbubashi Mission President for the last three years.  He and Sister Monga were looking forward to getting back to "farming" their 60 acre farm, building a home and being with their 4 children.  However, when they received a call from the Office of the First Presidency in March, their whole world changed. 



Sister Vianney Mwenze Monga and her husband, President Elie Kyungu Monga, who will preside over the Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission; they are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission
Elie K. and Vianney Monga
Elie Kyungu Monga, 47, and Vianney Mwenze Monga, four children, Upemba Ward, Katuba Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake. Brother Monga serves as a counselor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Lubumbashi Mission presidency and is a former counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, elders quorum president, ward Sunday School president, and missionary in the Ivory Coast Mission. Coordinator, Seminaries and Institutes. Born in Lwamba, Katanga, DR Congo, to Mudyavita Banze and Banza Kalumba Wa Mulanda Banze.
Sister Monga is a former ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, counselor in a ward Relief Society presidency, ward Relief Society teacher, and seminary teacher. Born in Lubumbashi, Shaba Zaire, DR Congo, to Felix Kyela Monga and Alphonsine Mutombo Ilunga Monga.
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Republic of the Congo Facts:
http://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=view_country_reports&story_id=178


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865600158/Two-new-missions.html?pg=all