"I wouldn't want it any other way."

 "I have loved my mission! The best two years. And seemingly the only two years that I have really lived." - Elder Devin Masse 

MAILING ADDRESS

ELDER DEVIN MASSE'

L'Eglise de Jesus Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours

B.P. 3171

Douala, Cameroon

September 29, 2014 - "See you in America!" - LAST LETTER FROM AFRICA

 Area: Pointe Noire, Congo

Dear Sister Masse,
It has been a great blessing for us,Sister Monga and myself to come to know your son,Elder Masse. The people of Cameroon and Congo in Pointe-Noire have been blessed by a dedicated service of Elder Masse,we will really miss him!
His itinerary will soon be sent to you.I'm in a Mission tour with a general authority I will get back to you once I'm back in the office.
Sincerely
President Monga
Brazzaville Mission

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Dearest Mother,

Well here we go again. The very last email that I will send from
Africa to you for probably a very long time. In any case, here are my
thoughts about your questions.

I am guessing I probably won't be too hungry considering I will get
some plane food, but if that doesn't work out, I can think up
something while we are on the way home.

If it's at all possible, I would really like just to go straight to
the Stake center and get released. That would be my vote if
possible. So Airport, food maybe, Stake center, and then home! We can
talk about that though when I get home. Ha ha. Weird...

Bring a jacket to the airport. I might be cold. Or a blanket. We will
see what happens.

If I am hungry I will let you know. I have no idea how I will feel though.

Well for dinner Sunday night we could eat whatever. I really don't
care. =). Have Aiden decide for me. That will be the best thing. =).

I will let you know what I picture my first days home. I would like to
go to the dentist and get my teeth checked out. And I really want to
go to the temple so we will talk about that too.

I have plenty of money don't worry about it.

I don't think I need anything. My checked bag is a little heavy but I
am prepared to pay for the fees in Atlanta if I need to. I am not too
worried about it though. It will get home one way or another.

Well I can't think of anything I don't want you guys to do but it will
all work out in the end so who cares? =). We will see what happens.

I had my exit interview with President Monga- and that was awesome.  I love them and will miss them. 

Well that is about all I got! We are getting ready to go to the beach with the Bailey's so I'm gonna run!

SEE YOU IN AMERICA.

Love Elder Massé

September 22, 2014 - " I have loved my mission! The best two years. And seemingly the only two years that I have really lived."

Hey Dad,

I love you. I look forward to hanging out with you soon and listening to music and talking for several hours. It's hard for my brain to realize that I have literally not listened to DCFC in two years. But it was a great trade off and I wouldn't want it any other way. I have loved my mission! The best two years. And seemingly the only two years that I have really lived.

See you soon!
Love, 
Elder Masse

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Dearest Mother,

This week is my last full week and it really blows my mind. It's
probably a good thing that I have SO MUCH stuff to do this week. It's
going to be absolutely nuts so we will see how it goes.

Today is P-day and it's going to be a busy day. We played
basketball, we are at cyber now, I am going to the art marche after we
are finished, and then we will probably head home for the night to
clean, get ready for the week, and rest a little bit because I am
absolutely whipped.

Tuesday is a normal day, probably, where we will work all day as usual.


Wednesday,  President comes to give us interviews and to do my exit
interview because I can't go to Brazzaville anymore.

Thursday,  I am going on splits with Elder Garland and preparing our
baptismal candidate for the 27th.

Friday,  splits with Elder Tripp.

Saturday, we have a baptism for one of our candidates as well as 12
other people. 12. Yes you read that correctly.

Sunday, we don't have church because Pointe Noire is completely shut
down for elections which means there is also no church. And up to this
point the news on the street is that President Monga has asked us to
stay in the apartment for the entire day. 

And then Monday again. And then I am home. Crazy.

Sunday, I testified and gave a short talk for 15 minutes... But I
don't remember a single thing I said. Weird how that works. Anyways,
that was Sunday  and I took a million photos with a lot of people and a
lot of women came up to me and said they wanted to cry. 
 It was kind of weird. But I am glad that people are so
concerned about me going home. 

Anyways, my mind is going nuts. I am trying to focus but I am having a
rough time doing that so I will talk to you soon. Love you mother. I
will see you very soon.

Love Elder Massé

September 15, 2014 -letter from Aiden, 3 weeks until end of mission, Sis Bailey Birthday, Miss Natalie a lot,

 dear. devin how are you  do you wveant to  sleep in my room with me and do you want top bed or bottom.  what do you want to do when you get home.  mom is puting a desk in my  room for you.  do you want to play catan with me  i love you  Aiden

Hey Aiden,

I would love to sleep in the same room with you buddy. Would you rather have top or bottom bunk? I would like the bottom if that's okay with you. Just let me know.

I have a lot of stuff that I would like to do when I get home. I want to go hiking, and camping. I would like to go swimming and play board games with you guys. And there are about a million other things I want to do too.

If you want I could teach you a little French too! What do you think about that? Let me know what you get this email. =).

I love you Mr. A. I will see you soon.

Love Elder Massé

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Dearest Mother,

It was a pretty short week and time just seems to fluctuate back and forth like that right now. It  goes really fast at some points and really slow at others, but all is well. It's weird to think that my homecoming will be the 19th. I try not to think about it honestly.

The week was good, and there wasn't much that happened besides receiving my travel plans. My focus now is just to work hard for the rest of my mission and try to have at least a small iota of concentration on the task at hand. Although it is INCREDIBLY difficult to concentrate when two years has passed you by and all you want to really do is see your family again.

To be completely frank though I miss all you guys, but for whatever reason the person I miss most in Natalie. I have thought a lot about her lately and I think I am just really stoked to spend time with her in one of the best vacation spots in the world. I look forward to studying together, working on projects, going on dates, and spending time together just laughing, talking about the Gospel, and life in general.

I do miss all you guys a lot, but I am not homesick yet and I don't imagine I will be. I will wait until I get on the plane and then I think I will have the right and possibly then the desire to be homesick. Ha ha. But then again, it might not come considering how close I will be to home.

It will be nice to get a break for a week and stay up all night talking about life and whatever else. You guys will be dead tired and by the time I get home it will be like me getting up in Africa so I will have all the energy I need. Ha ha. Good luck keeping up with me. You guys will probably have worse off than I will but we will figure that out soon.

The week was great, and I will talk to you soon. It's weird to think about going home. And I will be home soon.

I love you. I will talk to you soon.

Love Elder Massé

September 8, 2014- Getting Robbed - I didn't tell mom for obvious reasons..., Happy Birthday Sister Bailey

Hey Dad,

It's been an okay week. There were some ups and some downs but that is pretty normal, however there was one thing that I didn't tell Mom for obvious reasons. I know you will tell her, but I didn't want her to freak out. Ha ha. Anyways, here it goes.

So Friday morning I wake up at 6:00, hop in the shower, and I am dressed and ready to go by 6:30. Before leaving my room I grabbed my shaver, my pen, and my journal, because I use every scrap of time I have to claw my way through my journal entries. I am honestly very looking forward to not writing volumes upon volumes of words everday.
It takes so much time...

Well, I grab my journal and my pen and my shaver and I head out into the living room and notice an unusual amount of light pouring in from somewhere. As soon as I stepped into the room I could sense something was wrong and immediately my eyes were drawn to the corner of the room where an extra door and gate, (that we never use), to the house were wide open for the first time since I had been there. I knew something was wrong and it didn't take me long to figure out we had been robbed.

I immediately looked at the couch to my left and saw that my backpack, my blue and black Dakine one, was no where in sight, and immediately after that I did a 180 and looked into the hallway and saw that all the money on the table was gone.

I was shocked.  I was upset that my backpack had been stolen mostly because of all the adventures I had had with it. It went up Helens, I took it to France, I took it hiking up some slot Canyons in Utah, it went to Africa, and it was going to go to Hawaii too. But it was gone.

All in all we gathered that they had taken only about 300 - 400 dollars worth of stuff which was fortunate actually. And not to mention, if the thieves actually knew what they were doing they would have made off with a lot more, but alas, I am thankful.

They ran off with about 60,000 francs, which is $120, give or take, my backpack, Elder Tripps suitcase which had a bunch of clothes in it, they took a pair of my work jeans, (Lol), my Gerber Leatherman, a DVD player, a small radio, our companionship phone, (which honestly was probably one of the worst losses), and that was it, if I remember correctly.

It could have been much much worse. I managed to save my drivers license which I found with my wallet in the inside of the gated area of our house. If they had searched a little more they would have found my camera, my watch, more cash, and all my memory cards since the beginning of my mission. We were fine though.

We chained the gate down so that they couldn't break in again, they cemented the bottom, because honestly the house has way to many doors. There are five ways to get in and out of the house. Anyways then after they they put six bolts on the door to protect the inside as well. I think it's good now. I have taken some extra precautions now and chain the front door every night, make sure every door in the house is locked, and not to mention, there are more than 30 doors in the house, African design for you so keep that in mind.  Anyways, we were fine, everything they took is replaceable so all is well. I decided to give Elder Tripp one of my suitcases and all my clothes when I leave so no big deal. It's honestly awesome to be rid of all of it. Ha ha.

So that was my week. All is well though. We were protected, and I don't think they will be getting in anytime soon. The apartment is pretty secure now so I am not worried.

Well that is about all I got. I will talk to you soon. Or better yet, see you soon. Only three p-days left. I will see ya when I see ya.

Love you Dad.

Love Elder Masse
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Dearest Mother,

The week has gone quickly and time is running out unfortunately. It's so hard
not to think about going home while I am just sitting there making
dinner, or cleaning dishes, or brushing my teeth, or writing in my
journal and it just gets worse as I write a new date in my journal
everyday and it seems like I am writing a new date every five minutes.
Seriously. 

I haven't packed yet
and I don't plan on it until my last day. I honestly haven't thought
about it too much, but my goal is honestly to get rid of everything. I
just don't want to have to deal with so much weight and junk. But I will see what happens when the time comes.

The week went pretty great and everything seems to be going pretty
well. We had a baptism on Saturday for a man named C. and he was
confirmed on Sunday and he even testified as well. I thought that was
really cool. He has a good testimony of the Gospel and he is doing
great. We should see him on Wednesday and Friday so that will be fun.

The week was fine, but it was utter chaos honestly.

I have three weeks left, give or take, according to my calendar. The
week of the 29th will be the week I go home so it will be really
really short. It's weird to think that I will be flying in a bunch of
airplanes soon. It should be exciting. I am excited to be honest but I
will miss my mission.

Well, I guess that is about all I got. I will email three more times
and I will be home. I imagine I won't write anything on that last
Monday, but we will see what happens. Who knows.

And that was my week. Looks like you and Dad have been really busy and
you both seem really exhausted. Ha ha. All is well though. I love you.
I will see you soon.

Until next time,

Love Elder Massé

September 1, 2014 -Area Seventy Elder Hamilton, Bore Testimony at Zone Conference, Cheesecake!, 25 lessons, "I plan on finishing strong"

Sister Masse,
We are sending a picture that we took yesterday of the Elders with President and Sister Monga and Elder and Sister Hamilton who is in the 1st Quorum of the 70 and in the Central African Area Presidency.  We love Elder Masse and know that you are anxiously awaiting his return home.  He was able to give his testimony yesterday as the final one in a Zone Meeting.  He has served well and faithfully the wonderful Saints here in Pointe Noire,

Sincerely,

Elder and Soeur Bailey

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Dearest Mother,

It's been an awesome week. I worked hard, I taught a ton of people, I met a member of the 70, we had an awesome zone conference together, I saw my mission president and his wife, I had my final zone conference of my mission, we ate great food, and everything is just awesome.

It was an excellent week and it was extremely exciting to have so much stuff to do and so many people to teach that I don't have time to teach them. I have to get more people at sacrament meeting!

Zone conference was awesome. We spent a lot of time talking and chatting with Elder Hamilton and having an open discussion with him. It was so cool. We talked about how we could help further the work here and the things that we could do to help our investigators, recent converts, and members come to church on Sunday. He was super nice and really fun to talk to. After Zone conference ended we ate taco salad and had cheesecake that Sister Bailey made. I about died because of how good it was. Cheesecake is amazing. Anyways yesterday was awesome and we all really enjoyed laughing and learning with Elder Hamilton as well as President Monga and his wife. And Sister Hamilton, of course; she taught too. 

I love Sister Bailey. She is such a nice woman! And she is just like my mom too. =).

This week was great for teaching. We slammed out 25 lessons and it was awesome. I was super stoked. Anyways,  I am coming home in a month. I am just getting to that point where I will just tell you everything that happened soon anyways. Ha ha.

Needless to say, it was a great week, all went well, and I plan on finishing strong. And that is what I will do.

I love you. Talk to you soon.

Until next time,

Love Elder Massé