Week 18 Transfer/not transferred!

Oh man this poor kid! We had to pose for this picture because he was literally ready to pull his hair out! He was told Saturday he was going to be transferred so Monday morning he packs his bags after saying sad goodbyes the day before at church. His bags were so tight because they give you a pillow, sheets and mosquito net when you get to the mission and his bags were already tight. Super stressful. He had told the sweet couple that brought his package to him Sunday to take it to Abidjan with them and he would pick it up from there because he was worried about traveling with his bags for transfers in the taxis. Then he gets a text Monday afternoon saying don’t pack your bags you’re staying in N’Douci!! He is technically getting transferred but not really! He is staying in the same apartment but they are splitting his area in half because they have so many to teach they need another set of elders! So his companion and him are splitting and getting new companions but staying in the same apartment?! 🤪 That information would have been so useful to know Saturday! This poor kid has had quite the week, talk about an emotional roller coaster! 

Eek Snake! Grateful for his companions taking care of it! 

Traveling to pick up his new companion.  He said he got to the freeway and flagged down a bus! He also negotiated with a taxi driver in French because they try to charge more when they see a white guy but Caleb knows what the price should be so he got him to agree to the fair price! I’m so proud of him! 

He got his companion and made it back to N’Douci safely.

Watching a Book of Mormon video from their phone propped up on their bag. 

He took a picture of the moon and Venus. It was so cool because so did I! I love that we see the same sky❤️. He edited this picture from the second one. 

This was my picture! 

He finally got the package while he was in Abidjan! It was 90% food! We were so blessed to have this wonderful friend who has family that was traveling to Abidjan and took a 27 lb bag for us to Caleb. I count it as one of my miracles in life that I’ve been able to send two packages to my boy through sweet, kind people. He wanted some more colorful ties so I sent the ones on the left. He was a little bored of the same few ties! 

He’s wearing my favorite tie I sent him in this picture❤️! This is his new companion Elder Kalem from the Congo. He speaks only French and faster French than even his last two companions! He’s not super excited about being in a village so Caleb’s job is to change that! Caleb has done so good with his French though blessing of being around companions that only speak French! He has said he has felt the gift of tongues many times though. ❤️

It’s Wilbur from the Charlotte’s web! 

This was the Thanksgiving dinner I had sent him❤️, and no he did not finish it all😆, yay for leftovers! 

This is what 100% humidity looks like! 🥵

His companion does not know how to ride a bike so they are walking so much! This day they walked over 6 miles! 

This is the new furniture they delivered to his apartment and the new air conditioner so they could fit all the four missionaries now. Poor Caleb got stuck with the top bunk. He said his feet get a little cold because the air conditioner blows right on them, but it’s fine. He’s just grateful for air conditioning! 

He gets a kick out of Duolingo now. He can fly through it, and skips units because he can pass them with flying colors! This lesson he had to laugh because it said he got it wrong but he literally wrote the same thing but his French keyboard has a different apostrophe. 

 Sunset. 

Caleb made this all by himself! He learned from his last companion how to make it. He said we should try it! 

Ingredients

onions

tomatoes

tomato paste

water

oil

pima/peppers

salt

seasoning of your choice

Directions

Cut all of the vegetables finely

grab a skillet and place healthy amount of oil, immediately put onions, tomatoes, peppers, etc in the pan once mostly cooked grabbed a healthy spoonfull or two of tomato paste. Add some water to make is a sauce. The more water, the runnier add salt and other seasonings to desire let it boil for a minute or two, and then simmer for a couple minutes pour on top of rice or noodles of choice. 

This is what you do to keep your air conditioning running! He anchored the cutting board to keep pushing the button😆! 

My brother got Caleb to read the Christmas story from Luke and then share his testimony and sent it to him secretly. Then he surprised us at our family Christmas party with it. Best surprise ever! I shaved it down to just be his testimony. I loved it and may have cried❤️. 

Caleb's email for the week:

On dit quoi!

This week was absolutely crazy. This email will be long, but it'll definitely be one of the more interesting that I'll send out on my mission. It started out last P-Day. I sent my weekly email at 9am, and then packed up everything. We had to head to Abidjan that night for transfers, so I had to be all packed up. It took about 3 hours. I had collected more than I used while being here, which made it hard to pack, but it worked out. At 12:30pm I finished everything and we headed out to sector to say bye to people and get our money for the two weeks. 

We first went to get our money when I got a text from President Litchfield. Remember I was getting transferred, but no one knew where until we got to Abidjan the next day. He said, to make things easier and to save you time do not pack up your suitcases, you are staying in N’Douci, but getting transferred to the new sector in N'Douci. We still had to go to Abidjan to get our new companions, but I would be staying at the apartment. I had so many feelings. Like I was so grateful to be staying especially for Christmas, but I had already packed all of my bags and had spent the last two days mentally getting prepared. 

So we didn't go say bye to everyone, and instead we went back to our apartment and got ready to leave for Abidjan. Tuesday morning we arrived at the stake center where we do transfers. The President was two hours late because he started with sisters at a different place. It was nice though because we were able to talk with all the other Elders. 

Once the President got to the stake center we all gathered around, said a prayer, and then he started listing off everyone's new sector and companions. Once he finished we grabbed our stuff and left. I got a 27 lb duffel bag package from my parents, but I don't know how they did it. It was awesome and had a bunch of food for Thanksgiving and some important stuff I needed. Aussi Tara merci beaucoup pour tout ce que tu as fait pour aider avec le colis! 

My companion is Elder Kalem. He is from the Congo and is my third francophone companion. He is cool, but he wasn't happy and still isn't happy to be in a village. He'll get used to it though, I hope, because he doesn't really have a choice lol. 

Elder Doho had to stay in Abidjan and pick up his new companion the next day, because he's training. We asked the AP's some questions before we headed back to Abidjan. Then we headed back to N'Douci in one of the mission vans. When we got there we started working on the new part of N'Douci that we had got assigned. That's what we did for two days. 

I won’t go into too much detail, but because Elder Doho was in Abidjan, he basically was able to choose everything he wanted. I could talk about that for a long time, but he took the good sector, the bikes, even the stuff in the apartment. So it was emotionally rough, especially when you're living with someone that doesn't want to be here. 

So this week was a lot of showing my companion around the sector, then showing him around all over again in the other sector, and then contacting because we don't have a lot of people in our sector. It's been fine though because we just contact in between lessons and are guaranteed at least one contact every time. So in the 2 hours of contacting I think we got ten new people. I'm very grateful for that and trying to take advantage, because it is very rare for contacting to be easy. 

My French is continuing to progress, and I'm at the point where I understand more than I don't, and my speaking is getting much better. I know I'm not good and still have a long way to go, but it's going. It’ll also help that Elder Doho’s companion is another francophone. He is from Tahiti but is fluent in French. So I literally never speak English lol.

Sunday we didn't go out to sector. My companion didn't even have a reason, like being sick or something. Needless to say I felt useless. Like I'm here in a village that's growing really fast, and all we did was sit in the apartment.

Spiritual Thought:

I came across this scripture and I wanted to share it. Is D&C 64:33-34:

Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

Small things come before that which is great. There are a lot of things we do and sometimes we don't see the results. But the Lord never judges the results, he judges if we had a good heart and a willing mind, and tried to do his will. I have been trying to apply this to my mission, but also after my mission, that the Lord wants me to try my best, and he will fill in the rest. 

Thanks for your prayers and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Robinson