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

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