E-mail dated 3/7/16

Family and Friends,

Akwaabo! Thank you, as always to every one who emailed me this week and for the support that I receive every Monday! It's always fun to open up my inbox every P-day. It sounds like it's a little bit chilly at home, and for the first time in a long time I'm actually pretty jealous! It's been so dang hot here as the dry season is slowly coming to a close.

Anyways, It sounds like life at home is good though with all the basketball and school plays that are going on! Speaking of basketball... Go Utes! Cheer loud for them these next few weeks. It also sounds like every one is still healthy and that every one is safe, so we thank God for that.

My week went by extremely fast as usual, and it was another one of the craziest weeks of my mission. Tuesday and Sunday were the only days that I was able to proselyte in my area! Wednesday was MLC and interviews, Thursday was Zone Meeting and interviews, Friday was interviews, and Saturday was a coordination meeting with the Bushrod Island district presidency. It was a crazy week! Elder Cichoki and I were together for most of it, which is nice, but I missed Elder Eguko. Thankfully he did great though without me in our area and he is really doing well adjusting to missionary work.

To add to the madness, transfer news was this past week as well and it really changed the entire mission. Thankfully Elder Eguko and I are still together, but my zone is being split and Elder Cichoski is being transferred to Congo Town! Elder Adams is coming to be my new zone leader companion and we are also getting another set of missionaries for the New Georgia branch. My new zone now consists of 20 missionaries and 18 of them are less than 6 months on their missions. I feel so old... But I'm excited to get to meet all the new members of the zone!

To answer a few questions this week...

1.  Has the rainy season started yet?

Nope, not a single drop of rain! I'm patiently waiting for it to get a little cooler here....

2.  How are your recent converts doing?  Is your branch good about fellowshipping them?

My recent converts are doing great! Jones and Caulena are so strong and Browne, Precious and the others are still coming to Church every week. They've made some good friendships in the branch, so I think they will have fellow shippers even after their missionaries have left.

3.  Do they offer early morning seminary to the youth there?  (Random, I know).  

Nope, they just have seminary and institute classes at the chapel on weekday evenings! I think around 5 to 10 youth are there, so it's a decently successful program.

4.  What did you and your companion (or Elder Cichoski) do this week that made you laugh?  

Oh... That's a hard question! Everyone in my apartment was playing Farkle one night this past week and Cichoski was losing by a lot of points until he got a roll of all 6's!! Just like that he got 3,000 points and he ended up winning. We were all screaming when we saw it haha it reminded me of playing it on Sunday nights back home with the family!

5.  How is your Branch President doing?

He is miraculously doing a lot better. He is back at his house and he can move much better and his memory is slowly coming back. I think many members of the branch fasted and prayed for him yesterday and the Lord has provided us with a miracle. Normally after strokes, if they don't recover within 24 hours then what's left of them is what will remain. But President Weegi is trying to prove that wrong! Your prayers have been much appreciated for him and his family. 

6.  Have you found any food over there that doesn't agree with you?  Is there something that you have eaten that you know that you will never eat again?

Hmmm... To be honest, it's been a really long time since somebody has fed me something downright disgusting. So far, I can't think of anything that I wouldn't be willing to eat again!

Well, thank you again to every one who emailed me and prayed for me during the week, it is much appreciated. I love and miss all of you so much and I pray daily for many of you. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Degen