Week 72 Dec 15-25th Senegal!!!

He called us from the office. 

I love hearing him talk to people in French!

We got the package he sent home with Ble! He sent it home in the same bag I sent our stuff to him in! It was presents and pagne! That was so sweet of him. 

The bowl was for me.

The girls all got a bag that he had made out of pagne and it had the left over material inside.

Bryan got a tie made out of pagne. 

Then he took us for a ride to a really nice mall that is by the office elders apartment. It got super choppy and some points. 

The temple is really close to the office elders apartment as well. 

Then he got back to the office elders apartment. 

It was interesting this week not knowing what country he was in. We didn't get to talk to him on Monday like we normally do because his p day was changed to Christmas Day instead. We knew he was in the process of getting his visa to go to Senegal but we didn't know if it would make it in time. It did! We saw this message knowing when he was back in Côte d'Ivoire again! 

Late night doing assistant stuff.  He went back and forth from the airport and all over.

It was past midnight for this poor guy. He is working so hard. His mission president right now is not strict about pictures. So these are the first pictures of just Caleb since the MTC!

Yay for pizza!

20 new missionaries coming that he has to help figure out where to put them. 

Saying goodbye to the Stott's. They were assisting the president but now they got called to be mission presidents so they are heading home to prepare for that. We don't know where yet. They will be missed. 

Caleb really likes this truck! 

At the temple for a picture.

Heading to the airport with President and his wife to head to Senegal!

Yummy food at the airport!

Heaven!

The office elders came as well.

Caleb got to sit by President on the 3+ hour flight and they talked the whole time about everything!

He made it to Senegal! He said it was chilly. I think it was in the low 70's!

This is what his mission boundaries look like right now. In June they will change to not have Senegal and The Gambia.

He found so much good food!

So crazy to think about him and where he is at. Senegal and The Gambia will be their own missions after June. There are so many new missions that will be opening. It is awesome to think about it all. 

Famous monument in Senegal about slaves.

Getting ready to ride a boat to an island. It was the zone activity for the Elders there to go tour this island. 

This is them on the boat. Caleb definitely has a missionary bubble he would always be my motion sickness kid but he did fine! He did say it was a very smooth ride. 

The island is so small!

They made it to Goree Island.  They went on a tour. Everywhere he went people were trying to get him to buy things, like put it in your hand and make you pay for it. He said it was really annoying. But the island was cool just sad about its history with the slaves. 

This guy does sand art. He puts down glue then pours the sand and makes these cool pictures. Caleb did say he filmed lower so we didn't see the not so appropriate pictures behind the guy. 

Caleb bought a sand art. It is covered by the paper to keep it nice until he gets home. 

This was an all you can eat dish so all the elders ordered it. The restaurant regretted giving that to them because they ate a ton! 

Monument at night. There are a ton of stairs and they didn't have time to go to the top. 

American food!

Nice stores.

Caleb bought a nice jersey!

Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

Nice church building.

Exchanges. 

Nerf gun battle at the zone conference in Senegal. 

I love the pictures the missionaries make on the walls!

This is so cool how fast they make the pagne. 

It was so fun for him to find American stuff. He bought all these. It is a little more expensive in Senegal. 

Headed back to Côte d'Ivoire.

It was light this time so he got to see all that he was flying over! He said it’s definitely Africa. Lol 

Not sure where he got this but it is a good quote. We love Gordon B. Hinckley. 

It was a whirlwind of a trip. But they got all their zone conferences, exchanges, meetings, and some fun all  in four days!

Picking up missionaries from the airport. 

He got this last picture with the Stotts. 

So many people coming and going all the time and Caleb needs to know it all!

Caleb and his companion Elder Mondongue from Tahiti and Pres Vore and his wife at the temple. They always stop to get pictures with the missionaries coming and going. 

Delicious food he splurged and ordered for Christmas Eve. 

His email:

Transfers, Senegal, and more

Salut

This last week and a half has been a week and a half that I don’t think I'll ever forget.

Last p-day we spent at the office getting ready for transfers. Once we finished we spent time talking to our families. We also went to the Abidjan Mall which is really nice to look at some things.

Tuesday we had transfers. We first went to Toit Rouge and dealt with the sister transfers. Then we went to Selmer and dealt with the Elders. As soon as we were done we got pummeled with questions and did two trainings. One was for new trainers and the other was for new district and sister training leaders. They went long but went well. After we helped some sisters get into their apartments.

Wednesday we spent most of the day going back and to the airport. In the morning I drove with the mission chauffeur so now I can drive in this crazy country. It came in clutch because the mission president wasn’t able to make it to the airport because of police stuff and my comp left his license after we left the office. Driving here is fun but weird. 

The first group of missionaries got out of the airport so quickly that we were there. Luckily the mission chauffeur came in clutch. We took them back to the office. After feeding them we went with Sister Vore to the airport. That flight got delayed by a couple hours, so a couple of us went back to the office. I went with the Stotts, which are the senior couple in our mission, back to their apartment. I helped them grab their luggage and went to the airport with them. They left our mission to go be mission leaders, and will be missed. After waiting at the airport for a couple hours the second group of missionaries showed up. We sent them out with the mission chauffeur and they waited for the other elders. They got out of the airport at 23h50. We took them to the hotel and then went back to our apartment. In any case, it was a late night.

Thursday we did some trainings for the new missionaries. 18 out of the 20 were english speaking which made it fun. After we took them to the Selmer stake center and paired them up with their companions. As we were sending them out we found out some apartments weren’t ready. We were pretty upset so I called the apartment guy and made sure he understood what he did wrong and that he needed to repent. Elder Mondongue and I spent time talking with the Vore’s and then did some stops before heading back to the office elders apartment.

Friday we headed up to Senegal with the Vore’s and the new elders. It was fun traveling with the Vore’s. I accidentally left my haircutting scissors in my bag which was unfortunate. The flight to Senegal was chill. I sat next to the Vore’s and had the opportunity to talk with President for over 3 hours. We talked about a lot of things but it was really good. When we landed and got our bags the Vore’s left us. Elder Mondongue and I got two sim cards because President let us. We found our taxi man that was waiting for us. It was a midsize suv, and we were 4 guys with 7 luggage and about 9 bags. It was the tightest ride of my life, and to make it better that was traffic that made the ride 2h45 long.

Saturday we went to sector for a bit with the Ouakam elders. Then we went to Gorée island. It was a mini zone activity. We took a boat over to the island and learned about what happened. It was an island where they sold slaves. It was sad but cool to see everything. What annoyed me was how the senegalese selling stuff would almost force you to buy things and wouldn’t negotiate much. And when I mean force, like follow you around for 30 minutes, keep talking to you, grabbing as many different things to show you as possible, grabbing your arm, etc. 

Sunday we went to church in Ouakam. It was the primary program and was so cute. In the afternoon we spent some time working on zone conference and also going to sector with the Ouakam elders. Monday we had zone conference at the senior couples place. They have a nice apartment. Zone conference went well, and finished relatively early. Once it was finished Elder Mondongue and I went with the Mermoz elders. We got some senegalese pagne. Later we also went to an American store that had so many American things. 

Tuesday morning we got up really early because the chauffeur for President picked us up at 6h30. We went and got the Vore’s and then went to the airport. We went through everything with no problems. I sat next to Elder Mondongue on the flight. We were the very last row which was a first for me. The flight went well. It was a lot of fun traveling with the Vore’s and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had. Wednesday we had district council and then meetings at the office. 

Today is Christmas. We spent some time at Toit Rouge, and then had the opportunity as well to go to the Vore’s place to have dinner with them. It was awesome. I spent some time talking to my amazing family, and can’t believe that next Christmas I will no longer be on the mission.

Tomorrow and next week we have zone conferences and p-day will be on New Year’s.

Spiritual Thought:

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

I love Jesus Christ. I love this season that we have to remember his birth and how important he is in our lives. I know he lives and that if we turned to him, he will be able to heal us.

Thanks for your prayers and I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

Elder Robinson

Pictures:

flying with the Vore's, at the Vore's place, at the airport, saying bye to the Stotts, selfie at 1h in the morning, Vore's and us at the temple, Christmas Eve dinner, Gorée island