Christmas Phone Call

Seth called today and it was the best phone call EVER!! We got to talk to him for one hour. He had so much to say and I wish we had more time. Here are the main highlights of the phone call. His companion's name is Elder Djanku he is from Ghana. Apparently he has trained A LOT of missionaries and he must be good at it! He seems very good about following the rules and getting stuff done. They are extremely busy in Sierra Leone. Seth said that they will teach about seven lessons a day! The gospel must be booming there! Today alone they had six appointments. He said that the little African children will call him "pumwee" when they see him. He said that it means white guy. He said that they'll run up to him and just hang on him. He said that they are all really cute. I can tell he is learning to love the people. He said that cars honk as they drive past and see the missionaries. It sounds to me like the people are very friendly there. Seth has been assigned to the Bo branch in Sierra Leone. Bo is a four hour drive from Freetown. He said that the roads there are all completely dirt. There are no taxis. The "taxis" there are actually motorcycles. The missionaries will pay the driver of the motorcycle to drive them wherever they need to go and they just hop on back! He said that it is very green and beautiful there. He said there are a lot of street vendors there. They are everywhere you look. He said he absolutely hated the MTC. There was a wire fence there. He said it felt like a compound. When he was there they were in class a lot and studying. He said that they also had 45 minute gym time. He mentioned that they played football during this time. The best way to write him is through dearelder.com His apartment is one of the best ones in his area. It is new and they are the first ones to live in it. There are four elders per apartment with two bedrooms (one companionship per room). Each apartment is a district. He doesn't know his zone yet. He loved the Ghana temple and was able to go there a few times while he was in the MTC. One of the languages there is Creole. It includes many words from a variety of languages. The people there also speak a lot of mende. Seth is hoping to pick up on these languages quickly. He's heard that once he gets them down that it will be easy to learn almost any other language. That will be a great skill for him when he gets home! It was an awesome phone call. I just wish it could have been longer. I miss him so much and I pray for him everyday. I am so proud of all of the work he is doing. We will both be better people when he gets home. Even though this seems impossible to get through right now. We will be getting an e-mail on Monday. So I will have more to share then!