3am Rat Attack

Happy Memorial day!  Enjoy the BBQ and whatever else you'll eat.    Thanks for the Pictures!  (We sent him duck photos this week.)  I can appreciate a good duck crossing the road every once in awhile. :)

Mother Duck and babies crossing a five lane road, stopped traffic on
Memorial Day weekend. 

 I can't believe you already have the garden planted and things are growing.... I'm excited to have the chance to taste all this food you got growing.  Is it weird that I can say I'll be able to eat the fruits of your labors this year?  Seems like my missions almost over with..... goes quick.  

 And this transfer we'll be getting 11 new missionaries which will impact the mission HUGE!  New areas/old areas will either be reopened or opened.  The mission is growing and thats what we need.  The people are prepared. We need missionaries here.  So many people are crammed into a small portion of land, so when you have an area thats maybe 2 or 3 square miles, you have THOUSANDS of people to teach.  Too many for one set of missionaries to teach.  Makes us keep working harder to let every ear hear the truth.  A LOT still needs to be done... 

(referring back to when he got his hand slammed in a car door....)

My hand is fine. No problems.  If I had got it slammed somewhere else, would've been a different story.  It's fine though.  And if you send some more sd cards I think it would be good.  Maybe one now, and then one when I have 4-6 months left or so.  Kendra, Your wedding sounds sweet.  I'm sure it'll turn out great.  Remember, if you have any attractive woman of age attend, don't be afraid to give, what we missionaries call, "referrals."  Your little bro needs some friends when he gets back (;  

Paynesville-Harbel-Gardnersville Combined Zone Conference

There are 7 zones, but President combined the zones and held 3 zone conferences.

This week was our Zone Conference like you already know.  Always when they finish you feel an extra energy come in and give you that drive to work harder.  Its that 2nd wind!  Something that was talked about was how we should teach about the Savior more in our contacting and talk about the unique points of the church that make us different.  This was in my email to president about it:

We ALL have seen the effects of centering our teaching more around the Savior and his atonement. Even by focusing more on the unique points of the church has helped us invite the Spirit more into our lessons. Elder Haas and I had one lesson with a man that is high up in his Methodist church. We were introducing ourselves and went into the Restoration small. Because of the time, we made it a ten minute lesson. We centered a lot around the atonement and how you can only receive the cleansing powers from it through his authority which is the Priesthood. It had a huge impact on his feelings towards us. He told us that we are welcome to come back anytime, and that if he isn't there, he wants us to sit with his family. Since the time was short with him, we invited him to read the pamphlet and pray about it. We told him we would be coming back to follow up on any questions that arise. So, this week we'll be sitting with him to see how things are.

         Very entertaining but Graphic description follows.....

We had an experience happen in our apartment this morning, that was one you'll never forget.  All of us are sound asleep when I wake up to a noise coming from our  dresser.  It sounded like something was eating the wood very loud.  I figured it was one of the mice that we have in our apartment.  I untucked my net... grabbed my light, and shined it into the dresser from my bed.  The noise stopped and that's when a 6-8 inch rat ran down from our clothes into the bottom drawer.  NO..........  I looked at the time... 3am.  Well, I'm not letting this monster get away.  I shut the door, then woke Elder Haas up.  I told him what was going on, and he was still half asleep, until I moved the drawer and he saw this thing jump out.  NO small rat!  It took off for the door and its so big that there's no crack it can fit through, so it ran back and forth trying to go through a door that wouldn't budge.  While its running around, I'm using the only weapon I have, a broom, to try and beat it.  Problem is, its so big all I was doing was tickling it with the bristles. 

Elder Haas jumped out of bed and armed himself with his proselyting shoes.  I took my position by the door to strike it when it attempted to leave again, while He moved the dresser around.  I won't lie, and I might sound like less of a man, but when you have an 8 inch rat run at you at 3am, you make some noises that normally aren't made.  We finally were able to brutally beat this giant to death and that's when Elder Skouson and Elder Egbu came in.  Now we all were up, so the rat hunt was on.  Everyone now had a weapon and we made our way to the kitchen where the rat troops were holding themselves.  We made  our way in single file, and the chaos began.  Again, another HUGE rat went running around onto our shelves and running at us.  That's when I realized I wasn't the only one who made unusual noises.  Figured it was a normal thing then, right?  As we were fighting the rat, it made its way into the so called "pantry" where they have there entrance into the ceiling.  We moved the bags around and couldn't find it.  Elder Egbu made his way in and searched.  Still nothing.  I used my big light and peaked in.  As I aimed the light around the ceiling, I got to right above the door where I had my head sticking in....  There it was, chilling above me.  Elder Skouson was right by me and I think after I stepped back, he went to look at it or something, because somehow he was right under it.  Anyway, Him and Elder Egbu were right in the action, when it suddenly dropped from the ceiling and took of running.  When you hear an 8 inch rat fall 7 feet,  You know!  I was surprised it could take it.  It then made its way out of the kitchen into the bedroom, where we later killed it.  It tried making its way onto our window that swings open, but Elder Haas acted fast and squished it behind causing it to suffocate.  It was one of those moments where you kind of felt bad for the little guy.  

After all this, we threw them outside while singing Amazing Grace, then went to bed.  Now it was quiet.  No noise of rats knocking over stuff.  I laid there trying to sleep for an hour, when I finally dosed off.  And of course, that wasn't it.  I'm laying there asleep when I get woken up to a rat that runs past my head!  What?!?!  We just killed two of you!!  I woke up and shut the door.  Now its 4am.  Elder Haas didn't believe me that we had another one, until he saw the huge tail in the drawer.  Don't ask me where these mutated huge rats come from, but the line,"Everythings bigger in Africa" That Elder Osayi told me, is true.  haha now this rats death was interesting.  Elder Haas and I were the only ones on this mission!  The other two were asleep finally.  Anyway, we chased this thing around the room, over our nets, onto the window and ceiling, everywhere!  It finally got tired and hid under Elder Haas's laundry basket.  I spotted the tail, so I stepped on the tail and moved the bag.  All those thoughts of wanting to kill it left. :) We both looked at each other and I said,"Kill it already!"  I wasn't doing it. When you kill something past a certain size, it makes some nasty crunching noises.  

We asked for forgiveness.....  as we were cleaning it up.    So, now we have 4 less rats running around our apartment.  Sorry for such a long story, but that was quite the incident that happened this morning.  

Last question, have you guys been keeping the emails both from you and me like I said, so I can make that book/journal when I get back? 

Have a great week!  Love you all!  And about those packages you said you sent through the mail awhile back.... still haven't got those ones.

Love Elder Zaugg

A Light On The Hill That Can't Be Hid

We got to watch Conference finally!  Something I really liked was when President Uchtdorf was telling everyone that we need to be grateful IN our circumstances.  (talk link)  Not being grateful for THINGS, but having a heart full of gratitude.  It made me ponder on all those times difficult things came my way, and some of the time I may  not have been as grateful as I should've been.  Gods giving us experiences to make us into HIS instruments.  So why are we complaining about our circumstances?  Sure, there not too pleasant to go through.  But think about who you'll become AFTER.  God always has that Eternal perspective, yet we seem to lack that.  We all can do better at putting on our "Eternal spectacles" to say, and look at life how God views it.  That way we can have that heart full of gratitude continuously as President Uchtdorf spoke on.  Elder Ballards talk on FOLLOWING up was good as well. ( talk link ) When Bishop Gary Stevenson was talking on Our 4 minutes and speaking about all the athletes, It made me excited for some reason. :) (talk link) Then they showed the photos of Noelle Pikus-Pace, and Torah Bright.  Elder Skouson and I both looked at each other and smiled. Even at the end when President Monson was speaking, ( talk link) he said something that stuck out to me.  He said,"Avoid destroying someone else's confidence."  I can't remember what the rest of his talk was on, but it made me think.  Not always do we think about the comments we make either jokingly or bluntly, and how it'll effect the person we're directing it towards.  It's something I'll take a better look at when I'm speaking about someone or to someone else.  Even when someone makes you upset and you want to say something, take the motherly advice of, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."  That's when Charity comes into play.  I'm still trying to understand this topic well, but I feel since its the PURE love of Christ, we need to Act how he would act in all situations.  

Yes I use my Electric shaver everyday, and yes I use the hair clippers now.  Our apartment runs off a generator so we have power from 7pm until 10:30.  Our lights don't just attract bugs either.  Seems like you turn the gen on, wait 30 minutes, open the back door, and there's the whole community waiting to charge their phones on our one outlet out back. It's not THE WHOLE community, but A LOT of people show up on our porch.  There's nothing we can do about it either.  We're the light on the hill where no other lights are, so we stick out like a sore thumb. 

This week we had our exchange with Kakata Elders, so we left soon in the morning on Tuesday, got back to our area in Harbel around 2 or 3ish, ate lunch, then went and did our service project.  One of the funnest projects I've ever done.  Our neighbors shower room was looking like garbage, so we asked if we could fix it up for them.  We had left used zinc from our leaking roof that they changed out, so we figured we could put it to good use.  Anyway, what we did, was hiked down through the bush small, found some tall bamboo, chopped down 3, and then carried them back to the house.  These bamboo pieces were like 30-40 feet long.  And maybe 4-5 inches in diameter.  No small bamboo!  When we got back, we pulled out the existing bamboo, dug better holes, pounded the newly cut bamboo in, then we nailed the zinc pieces back on and made it look nice.  We made it as nice as rusty old zinc can look, but its all organized and layered nicley on the bamboo, so it looks nice!  Now It's high enough that no one will be able to see them as they're showering.  The walls are like 6 to 7 feet high, and they aren't taller then 5' 4".  Works perfectly.  You don't even know when someones in there anymore!  Really fun project to do.  

This coming week, we'll be having zone conference to get our counsel from President Kirkham and the AP's.  We're all excited for it.  So, we'll be going back in town tomorrow, spending the night, then coming back and will start proselyting on Thursday.  The life of living in the bush........  I'll try to write more next week about our investigators, but this week there wasn't anything that stood out.  Sorry....

Have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Zaugg

Mothers Day Phone Call

Elder Zaugg told us that he wouldn't send an email on Monday, so he could download pictures for us.  Guess what...no email and no pictures.  He spent the whole time working on the pictures only to have it not work. :(

We loved the phone call on Mothers Day. It was so good to hear Elder Zaugg's laugh. 

We also loved the experiences he shared about the people he has taught. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.  

Since Elder Zaugg couldn't download any pictures, please enjoy these.

These pictures were all taken from the  Liberia Monrovia Mission blog found at 

http://liberia-monrovia-mission.blogspot.com/. 

Fishers of Men, or Fishers of Fish?

WELCOME TO THE BUSH

This place is legit.....  I'm lucky to have the opportunity to serve out here!  I'll tell you more about it later on.  Last email though:

I thank you for the motherly advice.  It's always needed.  One problem, I may, or may not, have lost my patches........  I think they're in the apartment.  (;  And I'll try to write a letter home, I just have too many things I need to do at night like study, journal, cook, and eat.  I'll try to write one in the spare time I get.  With the table manners, I mean, they're slightly different, but its still the same.  When you eat out of the same bowl, you need to be conscious that you don't eat too much of the other mans food. Also, when you finish chewing your bone, make sure to put it on the table or throw it over your shoulder if deemed necessary.  Be sure  to look before you chuck.  It can make for an awkward situation if you don't.  

Kendra's wedding is coming quick.  110 days is nothing.  I remember when I graduated from high school and the election was in 110 days.  Dad and I would always listen to Shawn Hannity and those boys about it, thinking how far it was, but it came quick.  This will come quick to. Speaking of graduating....  It's been two years since I graduated high school.....  and this is the last graduating class that will happen on mission.  The next group of kids to graduate I will be home for.  Crazy....  

The photos of the back yard look good!  I can't wait to be able to do yard work again.  The garden is looking good!  Is it getting bigger?  In 4 transfers time, you'll be harvesting..... That'll be around the same time the Ogden temple will be rededicated.  Lots of things happening.   When you mentioned that next year I'll be ice fishing with you, I was pumped!  I want to fish so bad. That goes into what we did this morning!

On Friday when we got back, Elder Skouson and I went down to the road from our apartment, and found some bamboo. Our goal for doing this, was to make fishing poles!  We brought them back to the apartment and started to fix them.  All the neighboring kids came over and were sitting with us. You now know what they'll try and go do. :) We both were trying to make them really intricate with a detailed real mechanism and what not.... yeah, we ended up just using the pole.  On Saturday when we finished proselyting, Elder Haas and I had to go to the Big open air market to buy some stuff, so this is where I bought the fish hooks.  I bought enough for everyone. When we get back to the apartment, I pull them out all excitedly to show Elder Skouson, and when he sees them...... he gives me this look, and points to a bag on the table.  I open it.... its fish hooks.  We both had bought them for each other. :) oh well, gives us more back ups right?  The whole weekend we were trying to figure out what we were using for bait, but we never found anything. The plan was to leave here this morning right after we prayed.  So, when we woke up, we prayed, got our fishing hats/gear, and then walked to the river.  On our way, we were finding huge ants that we'd smash and then throw in our bucket to use as bait.  Didn't know if it'd work, but we needed something to stick on the end.  We kept going and we ran into a little boy selling this milk candy.  Elder Skouson bought some for bait.  We were just using anything we could.  He also found this huge centipede that was on the road.  None of us were sure if it was poisonous so we used a stick to put it in our bucket. good idea right?  As we worked our way down the bank, I was handing the bucket to Elder Haas, when it slid off the end of the stick, into the small stream.  There went our centipede.  Maybe it was a blessing we lost it?? :) That was Gods way of telling us it was poisonous!  Anyway, we're walking along the side of the bank, when I see this large orange,yellow,black thing go running under a stump.  NO......... NO........  It looked like a huge fat spider.  I tried looking for it, but lost it.  Later I came to realize it was a crab, and that's what we used for bait!  We found a bunch of these little crabs that we put in our bait bucket. As we got onto the rocks to fish, we came to realize that there might not be fish in here at all. We fished for an hour and then came to a very real conclusion, that there is absolutely no fish in this river.  How? I don't know.  But we didn't get any bites.  Talk about having a fun time "trying" to fish.  I think it was all the preparation of making the poles that was the fun part. :)   Because when we got there, nothing exciting happened.  That was our morning exercise though. (;

This last week being the first of the month, all the Zone Leaders and sister training leaders had mission council.  And with us being far from the mission office, we have to leave the day before to travel, and then spend the night in the office.  That meant Thursday we had to leave.  We left Thursday right after companion study. We had to go to the other District in Kakata that's an hour away through the bush, to pick up baptismal records.  This was an hour drive in a crammed taxi on a bumpy road.  Talk about awesome view!  When we got into Kakata city, I stepped out of the cab and go to pay, When Elder Haas goes,"OHH.... that's not good." I look back at him and he's starring at my shirt.  I look down..... that's when I saw this huge yellowish red stain on my shirt sleeve and back. Don't know how it got there....  looked like it was red oil. The problem was, I only packed one shirt because I didn't think I would get dirty.  All we were doing was taking cars all day.  Yeah, bad idea.  We met up with Elder Marondera and Elder Bell to take us to their apartment.  The rain came so we had to stay there for an hour until it stopped raining on us.  Once the rain stopped, we were able to go to the place where if you're going to Red light, you can pile into a mini van that has now been equipped to hold 20 people.  During this ride, I got TIRED!!!  My head started to bob up and down.  I noticed the guy next to me and the one in front, kept starring at me. Didn't know a tired man was that interesting to look at.  Maybe that baby double chin I got going on was what kept catching their attention.  I don't know!  But I kept catching them starring at me whenever I'd open my eyes. :)  When we finally reached the mission office, I went and bought soup and bleach to wash it out.  God was watching out for me because it came out with no evidence of anything.  I got lucky.... 

I'll probably call around 11 then, so we'll see how that goes!  I'm excited to hear how things are!  The next call after this will be Christmas, and I'll  only have 1 1/2 months to go.  AH!  Have a great week! Love you!

Elder Zaugg