Week 20 we’re in the twenties❣ 🎉

He trimmed up his hair again. He was happy I noticed!  

Man the connection was great talking to him this time, only got choppy a couple times.  

We had some fun reenacting his companions pictures! I hope they got a good laugh out of it! 

He went to Abidjan for zone conference. 

At zone conference each area got up and sang a song.  Well the first group got up and sang with no piano then Caleb’s group got up and he played the piano for his group then every group after that asked him to play for them❤️. French hymns are slightly different so it was tricky on the spot but he ended up playing over 11 songs! This made my momma heart so happy!   

It was so nice they fed the elders and gave them treats. 

He was happy the food was good and it was free! 

So many words in French are so similar! He sent this to show these two words. He got called a francophone this week by someone which means they thought French was his first language! He is doing so well with his French. 

This was church he taught the youth the second hour with this guy. He ended up having to help translate more than anything because the guy teaching wasn’t great at French! I’m just so proud of him❤️.  

Church ❤️

Primary taught by this lady who serves there and this is her daughter visiting helping. 

Not many pictures and I don’t know a ton of details. We don’t get to talk to him until Christmas because President changed his P-day to be Christmas Day instead of Monday. 

His email from this week:

Joyeux Noël!

This week was pretty crazy, and it still doesn’t feel like Christmas. Also get ready for a really long email. Last Tuesday we had district council. It was online like usual, and it was like a chastising competition. It was funny at first, but now it's getting annoying. The rest of Tuesday went well. We are trying to find people to teach who will progress well, and not just listen because there is a le blanc at their house. 

Wednesday we left for Abidjan for Zone Conference. Zone Conference was Thursday, but we had interviews with the President Wednesday. We left N’Douci in the morning. It took 3 hours to get to the mission office. The annoying part was that half of that we were basically at a dead stop in Abidjan traffic. It all worked out. We had a good time at the office. We have Wifi there so I was able to go to town downloading videos in Gospel Library. It was also fun to talk to all of the other missionaries and do interviews with the President. 

Once we were finished at the office we had to find a place to sleep. We had a spot at some Elders apartment, but there was some miscommunication and it didn't work out. We were really close to sleeping at the office elders apartment, but by the time we found out we could, they had already bought us a taxi for another Elders apartment. This apartment was in one of the sectors where they don't send white people because it's common to get aggressed there. They told me that, and then immediately said that we were going to go buy dinner. It was fine, but I had what they had just told me in the back of my head which was the only thing I focused on. Also their apartment didn't have beds for us and it was tiny, so I slept on some couch cushions on the floor but it worked out. 

The nice thing about the apartment was that it was just down the street from the Stake Center where we had Zone Conference. It was a quick drive which was nice. The people that slept in the office elders apartment ended up being almost an hour late so it worked out. 

Our zone conference went well. It was with three other zones, but every Zone Conference I’ve had has been with other zones as well. It was a Christmas Conference as well. We watched some videos and then did a Christmas program. The first zone went and read some parts, and did a acapela song. It went well. Then our zone went up. I was the one on the piano for our zone. I had played the opening song for the zone conference, but when we got there I thought I was just going to do the two songs for our zone. 

Our songs went great, and then the next zone went up. That's when they started asking me, on the fly, if I could play songs for them. I said sure and I ended up playing about 8 more songs the rest of the time. Some of the songs were just the zone singing, and some were everyone. It was a little different because the songs were in French, and a couple of the hymns they sang were not in English. So I had no idea what it sounded like. There were also times when the song was different from the English version. It all worked out though and several people came up to me after and said thank you and good job. The piano was a nice white Yamaha electric piano which made it feel a little bit like home. 

After that they fed us lunch and we did a small service project. Then we packed up and left for N’Douci. They had said they would have a mission van for us, but the other village missionaries used it. Instead of going to the big bus station that takes hours, we went across the street and hired a guy to flag down a bus for us. After 30 minutes they got us a Baka for us that had no people on it. A Baka is basically a gangster van, but it was sweet.

We hopped on with a bunch of other Elders. As we went the van tried to get some other people along the way. They got a couple of them. Elder Okubalu, who is the zone leader, was with us. He was funny and kept singing Merry Christmas in English because he is from Nigeria. After a while the dude in front of him spit out the window… but it went all over him. We were laughing so hard but the guy was embarrassed. We just gave him a wipe and laughed about it. 

Once we got about halfway there, the Baka stopped and we had to get off. We switched vans and then kept going. It was about 2 hours total which is fast. Elder Doho and Elder Mondongue didn’t come with us and went to the bus station. They got back 3 hours after us. 

Friday was a small day because people were leaving for Abidjan for Christmas. Saturday we went to Tiassalé for a branch activity. We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and then ate some food. It went well. 

Sunday was a big day. The Stotts were at sacrament meeting with their daughter, along with the first counselor in our mission presidency, a bishop from Abidjan, and the chauffeur. It was nice having them all there. I helped Elder Stotts teach the youth which was fun. He speaks French decently, but because he helps in the office he doesn't get the opportunity to speak or listen to the natives often, so I was there to help him out. 

While we were in Abidjan my companion had some health problems and we almost went to the hospital. He ended up just getting medicine and we headed back to N'Douci. Well the medicine didn't work out so he said we needed to go to the hospital. We hitched a ride with the Stotts and they took us to the hospital in Abidjan. After a couple hours they let him go with some different medicine. We were ready to stay in Abidjan that night, but we had the time so we went to the bus station to head back to N’Douci. 

Usually the buses take a couple hours for us. We bought our tickets, bought a snack, and then sat down. Before we had time to start eating the snacks they said our bus was here and ready to go. It was a miracle. The ride went well and we got home not too late. Although we didn't communicate enough so the AP’s and Litchfield's were asking about us, but it worked out. 

Monday is usually P-Day, but it got changed because of Christmas. We went to sector Monday and Tuesday, but didn't do much because everyone had left for Christmas. 

On Christmas day we have a district activity in Tiassalé where we’ll play some soccer, which will be my first time here, and then eat well. Hopefully we’ll have some fun. 

Christmas Thought:

I was reading Come Follow Me and I really loved the perspective they added. They said:

“It’s traditional to read the story of the Savior’s birth in the New Testament at Christmastime, but you can also find moving prophecies of this sacred event in the Book of Mormon.”

They then gave three scripture sections that talk about Christ and his birth. One person we taught a couple weeks ago asked if it talked about Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon. Even though we read about his birth in detail in Luke 2, I love how Come Follow Me and this guy's questions helped me open my perspective about Jesus Christ's birth in the Book of Mormon. If you haven't read these scriptures yet this Christmas season, I invite you to read them alongside Luke 2 and look for connections you can find. 

1 Nephi 11:13–36

Mosiah 3:5–10

Helaman 14:1–13

Thanks everyone for your emails and prayers! I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas, and I hope we can all focus our lives on Jesus Christ all year long. 

Elder Robinson