Hey Family,

I wasn’t able to communicate with you last week because I got transferred.  I got to baptize Fr. Sahi who I am super close with and it was awesome.  I also got a certificate with my companion for having the most baptisms in the mission.  It was so special.  Well I love you.

Love,

Elder LeBaron

Family,

You guys look like you had such a good time in California!!!  It was such a great week!!  My connection is better this week…not perfect, but better.  Haha  Super weird that Brandon is married, but that’s awesome.  So I’m getting transferred.  It’ll be nice to get a change.  I’m still in the dark where I’m going, so I think it’ll come Saturday where I go.  I knew I was gonna be transferred.  I could just feel it! It was like the Lord was preparing me!  We have a lot of Elders coming and going so it’s a little nuts right now.  Typically thats how it is like it should’ve been today, but all the other stuff changed it.  Fr. Chris and Fr. Jean got baptized Saturday!!  It was awesome!!  Thanks so much for trying to send me another package.  I pray this one gets here.  hahaha!!!   The mission doctor said it wasn’t a big deal.  He said it’s because the water isn’t clean here, so I have to just drink bottled water, but like it’s impossible for me to drink bottled water all of the time.   I’m not worried I was blessed with the immunities!!  The lord will take care of me!  Good news is my stomach is a lot better.   I’m like 71 kg so I don’t think I have lost that much weight.  I just look really skinny hahaha!  My health is great though so that’s a huge blessing. I just have to be obedient and those blessings will keep on coming!!! I just think president was super worried and thought it was worse than it was hahahahaha I love my Mission President.  He’s the best! I hardly see him not really he writes me though almost every week!   He just sends like a scripture to read or gives me a good quote or something and just says he’s praying for my heath and stuff…just simple stuff.  Its cool.  He’s a great guy.   The missionaries just don’t respect him, which is sad! It will change soon hopefully! If I don’t email just know I’m still alive lol!! Maybe they’ll be sending me to the city so I will have a better connection, but idk we will see what happens!! haha I’m just so excited!!!  I’ve grown to love the mission!!!  I have seen by turning myself over to the Lord I’ve been so blessed.  The Lord is so great.  I have gotten so close to him!   I’m so happy I love it here!!!  I have really grown to love this place. I’m sad to leave it but excited for the new adventures!!   BTW, before I forget the names of the girls that got baptized last week were Sr Blandine and Sr Aminata haha I forgot to say that last week!  So this transfer the second assistant is gonna become the first cuz the first is leaving and he is kinda a punk so we will see what happens with the power the president gives him.   I pray he doesn’t destroy the mission lol!!!!  hahaha  Good thing I get a long with all of them!  I really love our ZLs!  They’re awesome! Bottom line is I just try my best to just stay focused on the now!  I’m getting a long better with my comp.  He is off and on haha He cracks me up though.   He reminds me of justin and tanner in a way it is weird haha! Missionaries remind me of different people back home and so do members.  Its weird like Menegbes wife reminds me of Simone it is so weird they are like the same person!!  Haha!!  I’ll miss these members tons!!!!  I love this place!!!  It’s ok though.  The bishopric is so awesome too.  I love them so much.  I got their emails so I can write them.  Just so much happened here.  Great memories!!!!!  It’s been so good for me though.  I’ve needed them all!  I’ve grown to really love my comp.  He has had a rough life!!!  My comp really saved me after Wabunga.  I needed that guy no question he whipped me into shape!  🙂  Well not sure if I’ll get to email next week because of transfers.  I’ll be ok though.  Don’t worry about me! I miss you guys like crazy but I’m also so focused!! The Lord just fills the void!! 😘  It’s starting to really click for me!  I’m going to ball my eyes out the day I have to leave this place!!  That is so great to hear that you guys are reading Preach My Gospel as a family.  That makes me so happy!!! That is seriously so important!!  It is revelation from prophets!!!  This week pray that Fr Siee can keep preparing for his baptism and also that Sr Mireielle can soften her heart!  Also pray for Fr Silivan the weird voodoo Hindu guy hahaha!!  Don’t worry we are bold with him and my comp said he was gonna take all his stuff and burn it lol!!  haha Yeah so don’t worry!!😉😘  He is the best!! yeah I love that guy!!! He has really opened my eyes!!!  It has been super cool.  I have seen the Lord’s wisdom in putting us together!! It is great he has helped me so much!! I’m sad I’m leaving him and this place, but I know everything will be ok.  I will just work my heart out!!  i love you guys too so much!!! i will you guys too!!!!!  I love you guys too!!  Its in the Lord’s hands!!  Have a great week!!  Love you guys!!!! Have an awesome week!!!!!😘  Hope you love my little gift in my second recording!  😉😘 

Love,

Elder LeBaron

 

Hey Family,

Holy cow this connection is horrible this week!  🙁 Oh well.  Good news is I feel great!  Sorry I didn’t reply to the other emails I don’t have great connection haha!  Transfers are next week.  I just have to say the baptism last week was seriously the best experience ever!!  If I get transferred I’m going to miss Family Brou so much!  So I can’t believe school is almost out.  That’s crazy!!  Sacrament meeting was great! Basically the members just got up and just talked about there experience with us and how the missionaries changed their life and stuff.  It was super cool!    Not cool, but our freezer and refrigerator doesn’t work so that’s not good.  We have been trying to get this person to fix it, but its been a struggle haha!! We have to just make what we got and then buy stuff haha hopefully it gets fixed soon.   It works like off and on! For real we are spoiled in America!! I now just have to buy food more often and use what I have on reserve!  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear everything from Conference.  The missionaries from here all just think that it is just revelation for America. The missionaries are funny here haha!!!  President Nelson is the best!! I  haven’t been able to hear any talks though 🙁 I tried to download some talks, but the connection was so bad I couldn’t.  Hopefully I don’t get sent to a village because they may not have internet there and you won’t hear from me.  The fact we don’t have internet everyone is really hard for the missionaries that serve here.  Crazy thing about this mission is the thing about this mission is the fact that not only is it a struggle for Americans it is also a struggle for the other Africans as well haha which says a lot! yeah that is true!  My French is starting to come!!  Not prefect but getting better haha!  Don’t worry.  It’ll be perfect by the end!  🙂 We have FHE with family Brou tonight, so that will be awesome!!! I love that family!!!!  This week was hard because I was in the hospital so much doing all the tests for my stomach.  I didn’t get a lot of time to study and teach, which was really hard.  The good news is since I’ve been to the hospital a lot it is less likely for me to go to a village haha!  It was a hard week, but man you guys always pick me up I love you guys sooo much you have no idea what you do for me hahah!!!!!  I’m just glad I got you guys for eternity!!!  I am so blessed!   My comp has the worst family life! I get more and more details about it when he shares stories with investigators!  It is so sad to see how some people live here man you got no idea haha!!! I feel all of your prayers and thoughts!!!!! Last night I had a dream about mom, Josh and Ben!  They were all sitting on a rock by the beach and I walked up to them and gave them all huge hugs, but Josh was just looking at his phone and I was like wow man I haven’t seen you for 4 years and that’s how you’re gonna be and then he realized I was standing right there and gave me the biggest hug ever and he and I just cried in each others arms!   It was super weird though!! Like it was like Josh didn’t even recognize me and then when he did he like flipped and hugged me so tight!!  It was pretty great!!!  I seriously miss him so much you have no idea hahaha!!!  I cried in his arms to in the dream!!! It was a super crazy dream like it felt like I was right there with you guys.  It was so weird!  It was like I was with you mom and you were like Josh, Josh sweety…Tyler is home!   It was like the Lord gave me a little gift after the week I had.  I love my brothers so much.  I miss them sooo much!!  I feel their love!! I miss Zach and Tan so much haha I got so close with them before I left!!  They make me feel so special!  I feel their love in their emails!!! I love them!! Keep them coming   always even if I don’t reply!!!  Keep it up haha it helps me so much!!!  Just pray that Fr Koffi can stop his word of wisdom problem and then Fr Chris will do what he needs to so he can be baptized.  Well, I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for always being there for me!!!!!! I love you guys:!!!!!!!😘😘😘😘

Family!!!!

I’m doing great!!!!  🙂  We crushed our baptism goal this month!!  We had another seven baptisms on Saturday!!  Experiencing those baptisms made all the pain and trials ALL worth it!!!  Here’s who was baptized.   Fr Brou, Sr Brou, Sr Vanessa, Fr Kevin, Fr David, and Sr Amiata, and I can’t remember the name of the other lady who was baptized by her husband.  I’m feeling really good right now!!!  Pray for Family Brou’s oldest daughter though because she doesn’t want to get baptized!  They are such an awesome family, and I know it would be so good for her to be baptized with the rest of the family.  We are gonna try and get her to get baptized this next month!  I forgot to tell you guys this last week, but I want you to start doing something! For the next 13 weeks or so I want you to read the Preach my Gospel together as a family, and then have each of my brothers take turns giving lessons on the different chapters for family home evening!  It will prepare my bros so much for a mission especially with the expert RM back at home!!I was just realizing how this world is getting worse and worse and my bros need to be better prepared for the mission!!   Also, my stomach is feeling much better.  I’ve gone to the hospital and had some tests, and they want me to come back on Thursday for an ultrasound.  I can’t believe all the change that came with conference.  I think it’s all good change though!  It’s so awesome that Elder Olo’s family are staying with you!  Oh, I got to play the piano this week, and the Lord has completely preserved my ability to play!!  He has also helped strengthen my ability to sing!  It’s super cool!  I love singing lol!! It was so great!!!!  I love it as always, and I miss playing the uke so much!!   I wish I could beatbox, but I have to be careful not to call attention to me in public.  Its pretty tough because everyone looks at me like I have issues haha, but its all good its a great way to teach the gospel!!! hahaha My comps do think its super cool I beatbox haha! Next week are transfers, and I’m pretty sure I’ll get transferred cuz there are like 4 or 5 new Americans coming.  They were supposed to come with the last group, but they’re French was bad so they had to stay at the MTC a little longer lol!  I’m so grateful my French is getting better. 😉 Thanks for the prayers!!!  Also, will you please thank Alban for me?  I love him so much!  He has helped me get some great people to help me here! Like Elder Onleu is taking me to the hospital tomorrow cuz I saw him when we had conference and told him about it.  He is such a stud!!!  Before I forget have you tried sending another package cuz a lot more elders are getting them?  I hope so!!  🙂  Well I love you all so much!   Please pray that we can find people to teach and stuff and also for Fr Chris and the others I talk about in the recording!!  Have a great week!  I love you!!!

Beaucoup d’amour,

Elder LeBaron

 

Hey Guys,

It was an awesome week!  Nothing super huge happened this week.  Monday I just clean the whole apartment and stuff before emailing.  I’m at a new internet cafe cuz its closer and my comp doesn’t want to go to the farther one cuz he literally comes with me just for me to email.  The Internet doesn’t work, so yeah hence why the recordings haven’t been sent lol! Then Tuesday we had district meeting and after it we literally just sat at the church all day and then taught like one family later so that was frustrating lol! Then Wednesday we went and got Elder Ayamas new comp and then after that just went back to the apartment cuz it basically took up the whole day, but I got to see Ologundudu cuz he got transferred, so that was awesome!!!!!!  I just chilled with him all day! Then Thursday we were at Beninkoso and Friday as well just going around finding people to teach out there.   We found one lady that was strong catholic and my comp just straight up told her that her church was the mother of abominations, so that didn’t go over well hahahha! He’s got a strong personality, but he gets the work done haha  Its great to watch lol!! Saturday I don’t remember what we did lol and then yesterday we had a conference at the church, and I gave a talk so that was cool!  We then went to some young couples house out in Beninkoso for dinner and then after that came back to the apartment.   The thing that was frustrating was we wasted like the whole day there cuz my comp decided to counsel them about their marriage lol but yeah so that was basically the week! I went and played soccer this morning as a zone so that was super fun.   I got sunburned though!! but yeah thats like it!  I wish that the recordings worked cuz I have so much more that I’ve said in them.  Oh well lol!!  haha Yeah I’ll keep making them so hopefully one day I can send them lol!!  It just takes ages to download!! hahaha So I’m figuring this mission life out!!    The work just keeps on going!!!!  I love it here so much!!!!! Seriously though time is flying!!!!  The blessings of missionary work is so real!!!!!! I get chills just thinking of it!  You get to have 6 missionaries!!!   The couple we’ve been teaching are getting married on the 29th!!!! So pray it stays that way!!! French is really coming and my comp is such a stud.   He and I have gotten way close!!!  He is super tough to work with, but I’ve learned to just totally love the guy and he and I get along great!!!!  He has helped me SOOOOO much!!! District meetings are every week.  I teach like every time cuz it is just us four in our apartment that are in our district so its great! The spirit is great!  My comp is a super spiritual guy!!!  I love him and our zone is awesome!! I’m super close with our zone leaders.   Mainly one of them.   He just randomly called me the other day just to talk to me! He’s a stud!! I’m doing great!  Love you so much!!!!!!!!!  My health is good, but I keep losing weight.  I’m skin and bones.  Haha!  Don’t worry though because I’m doing great.  Well I have to get back to the apartment because they’re delivering water.  I hope they get the filter fixed soon!  I love it here!  Please pray that I can take care of my ingrown toenails.  I have two of them.  🙁  Keep the prayers coming!!!! Pray for Fr Chris he’s that guy that says he’s a prophet and stuff that we’ve been teaching lol.  It’ll be super dope to baptize a prophet…haha!  He might get baptized we just have to teach him more.  Pray for Family Brou too.  If they get married, they’re going to be baptized too!  I love you guys soooooo much!!!  Have a great week!

Love you guys with all my heart!!!!!

Elder LeBaron

Hey Guys,

So last week long story short we left our area to some random market for Elder Ayama to buy a new white shirt and to get us stuff for our apartment and it just took forever so we got back at the apartment at 6 and my comp wouldn’t leave with me to go to the cyber and he was super dumb about it hahah, so that was frustrating!!   To be honest it was super hard to not be able to email you guys last week, but I’ve been praying that I can just forget about you guys and focus on the work and then that happened on Monday, like literally it was as if the Lord was like you’re not gonna email home cuz like on the way home our transport was all wacked out and we had to change to like 3 different cars and one of them got in an accident with us in the car lol!!  We were in bumper to bumper traffic, so it was like nothing just a little dent lol!!  French is a tough language to master, but I’m just trying to keep up the practice!   The ward is good! They don’t feed us a whole lot, but its not a big deal cuz we have been eating pretty good at the apartment!  But its okay. Everything is super great now we because we had 5 baptisms on Saturday!!! The members don’t like doing missionary work, but we had an activity at that village Beninkoso this last Saturday in the morning, so that was super great for them!! Also for the village 4 of the people that we baptized this last week were from the village!!   We also could possibly baptize a whole family by the end of the month if they get married and stuff so it would be like 7 more people!!  We have FHE with that family tonight, so that will be cool!!
My relationship with my comp is great too.  He’s really a great guy and he’s helped me to learn so much!!!  There’s still a language barrier, but the French is starting to come more. My comp is a convert to the church.   He has an older brother in this mission as well, which is cool.   Its just him, his older bro, and his other brother that are members.  The rest of his family is just kinda all over the place.  I’ve realized I’ve been acting too prideful and need to just let him teach me!  My health is super great too!  I’m like a skeleton though lol, but like health is great I feel like its just the normal adjustment to Africa cuz like I’m not hungry, and I’m eating great!  Everything that went down with my old comp has settled.  I’m just close with everyone which is such a blessing.  I’m staying through this transfer with my companion.  Elder Ayama is getting a new person to train tomorrow cuz Elder Da leaves today to the Congo cuz his visa came.  Hard to believe he’s leaving already.  Time on a mission is a funny thing.  Sometimes its so long and other times its super fast.  Thats why I’m just trying to focus on the days and just give it my all all the time cuz it will be done before i know it!  I can’t even believe I’ve been on my mission for four months!  It feels like I just left.  How’s grandpa doing?  I’ve been praying for him a lot.  How is grandma darling handling it.  I also pray for Ben every day that he gets into Surg Tech.  Pray that Fr Chris can keep coming to church so we can baptize him, and also Family Brou, and just pray I can focus on the work!  The start of my mission was rough, but its so much better now!!!  Honestly though I think about home too much, but all of this  hard work has helped me to really start focusing on the mission.  I still get homesickness sometimes and I worry about you guys.  It comes and goes.  Its not that I’m worried its like i just see stuff that reminds me of home, and I know you guys will be taken care of!  Man you guys have helped me realize so much! You got no idea!  I don’t know how to even explain it but you have answered my prayers hahah I love you guys so much!! This is seriously the best experience of my life!!  I have been blessed so much!! My comp has helped me to realize how to really be obedient and it has been hard.  I’ve realized how much Elder Wabunga rubbed off on me lol!!  The Lord has a great work for me to do these next few months!  Well I have to go.  The AP’s are at our apartment ready to pick up Elder Da.   I love you guys so much!!!!!

Beaucorp d’amour!

Elder LeBaron

Hey Family,

Happy “belated” birthday Justin and Dad!!!  I totally forgot with all of the stuff that went down last week!!!  My mind has been in another world…literally!!  LOL It was a pretty good, long week. haha I’m exhausted!  We’ve been working super hard.   My new comp is great, but likes to do things his way haha.  With time we will be good!  Good news is he is a great worker, which is what I need right now and he only speaks French so even better!!!  He is a stud!!  He works with the members so well.  He’s been on the mission for only 6 months!  He was the Ward Mission Leader before he came on his mission, so he really understands how to work with members.  It’s awesome!  The work is great!  I’m exhausted, but feel so good!!  Also, he’s VERY obedient, which is so wonderful.  I see the Lord’s wisdom in all of this.  Everything has worked out so perfectly!!!  The Lord has blessed me so much this past week!!  We have a ton of investigators that we have been teaching for a while, and they’re starting to be more involved in the lessons and stuff and are progressing more! Our goal this next month is to have 10 baptisms!!  So pray we can accomplish that!!
My health is good.  My stomach has been feeling weird though.  I’ve been getting these sharp pains in my stomach when I eat.  It’s probably because we’re eating more now because my comp loves to eat!  I am not going to send a recording or anything cuz I don’t want to waste the time.  These computers are soooo slow, so I can only do so much.  Josh, I’ve been praying you get into BYU all week and that Ben can get accepted to serg tech!  Also, crazy what happened to grandpa!!  He’s in my prayers!!!  It was like the spirit told me something was going to happen to him and what I specifically needed to pray for!  Please pray for my investigators (Sr Martine, Sr Sara, Sr Watowadi, and Family Brou).  I’ll continue to pray for all of you!!!  Love you guys sooo much!  Have an amazing week!!!!

Love,

Elder LeBaron

Hey Family,

What’s up?  This week was pretty nuts with my comp getting sent home!  I still don’t have my new comp.   He was supposed to come today, but has yet to come lol!  I’ve just been working with Elders Da and Ayama, so its been great!
Elder da and I have gotten way close!!  Service is the key!  I’ve been serving all of my companions the past several weeks and it makes a big difference.  How was your week??  How is grandpa? He’s been on my mind a lot this week!  I’ve been really worried about him.  All of the missionaries are treating me good.  I think everyone is more respecting of me now because they know after what happened with my comp I won’t stand for disobedience and major rule breaking.  It’s kinda funny!  hahahha It’s all in the Lord’s hands!  My new comp is going to be a trainer for the first time and only knows french, so that will be interesting but I’m actually happy cuz I think I’m gonna learn a lot of French!!  Elder Loukombe is his name or something like that hahaha! But yeah I’m stoked I heard he’s kinda stubborn though so we will see how that goes lol!!  I’m stubborn too, so this should be fun.  As long as we’re obedient and work everything will be ok!  hahahaha I’m not gonna make any judgements till I actually work with him though!  I’ve really learned that doing the right thing is hard, but the blessings that come make it all worth it!!  We taught a few people last week!  I just pray I can remember where my investigators live cuz I have forgotten where a lot of them are haha its not good!  We taught the other day and I have been trying to practice French a lot at the apartment with Elder Da, but its hard.   I think my problem is I just need to practice more!  I have the study down and stuff, but I just need to get better at teaching hahaha!
It’s hard cuz we don’t have a lot of time to practice in the apartment.  I just pray my new comp helps me out with that when he comes!  It’s awesome Josh has applied to BYU!!  I can’t wait to see if he gets in!!! I have been praying he would!! I know me leaving was super hard on the family! I pray every day for all of you!  I love you guys so much!!!!! hahaha Well, I feel so much peace now I have seen the Lord’s hand work in amazing ways this week!!!  I feel so much better now that my comp is gone.  It was seriously the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.  Also, my French is starting to come a lot easier too!   It is amazing!! The blessings always come after the trial of our faith!   I have learned so much!! I have so much more on my side then I realized!I know I have done the right thing, and the Lord knows it too! I have seen his hand in all of this and finally see His wisdom!! Well I love you all like crazy!  Have an awesome week!!!!!!

Love you!!!

Elder LeBaron