Transfer News

I GOT ALL OF MY PACKAGES FINALLY!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

First off, I love the pictures!!!.  All my memories of these things have faded away, so when I see them its really weird!  I love it though.   That's cool we have players from RSL playing on the US Men's team.  That's all these people talk about here is football.  The World Cup is always on their minds and when the teams were qualifying for it, everyone was at the video clubs watching the games.  Lets hope USA can do work yeah?   Now the cute African children are just that. Cute. They get so attracted to our skin that they come running up with their slobbery hands and start rubbing your arms or grabbing your hands.  I have learned not to touch any part of my body until I can get to the apartment and sanitize myself.  :)

Some exciting news this week in the mission field.  TRANSFER NEWS!!!!  and guess what... Elder Zaugg's son is training! yay! I will have a grandson on mission now.  That means I'm leaving for the first time!  I will miss Banjor.  I got transferred to Logan Town! I'm living in the same apartment complex as Elder Erickson.  We will enjoy (;    I'm training again.  COOL.  

Also, in this last week as we were proselyting, we were walking on a new road coming from a less active members compound, when we saw this lady begging on the side of the road.  When I looked at her, I realized that this lady had no eyeballs.  It was sad to see it, it was probably from the war.  These people have been through a lot.

Some scriptures to study.  

Alma 13:20  

Alma 62:46-51

Helaman 5: 2     I was thinking about America on this one

I hope you all have a good week and I will keep praying for you!  Sorry I didn't have plenty of stories this week, but I'm sure next week in my new area I will have some!  I love you all so much! 

Until next week.
Love, Elder Zaugg



This is only half of the 44 packages that the Royal Liberian Post Office had. 
Missionaries had not received packages since May.

WHERE HAS THE MAIL BEEN?

Post taken from the Official Liberia Mission Website. The senior couple wrote:
On Wednesday as I walked into the office I was greeted by 2 Royal Liberian Mail employee's asking me why I had not been to pick up our packages.  I told them that Brother Sayon went 2-3 times a week.  They then gave me a bag of 22 packages for missionaries!  They informed me that they could not store them and that we needed to pick them up more often.  When Brother Sayon got to the office he said that he had gotten a call saying that there were packages for the missionaries.  On Thursday he went to the post office to see what had happened.  He was given another 22 packages!!!  These were packages from June, July and August.  Some of them had been eaten into by rats and mice and others were fine.  There was one package that was so badly eaten we  had to open (what was left of the box) and transfer the contents into another box.  The only thing that had been eaten (besides the box) was a whole package of Twizzlers - we have discriminating rats at the post office!

New Washing Machines for the Missionaries!



PICTURES

First things first.  Thank you for those mentos you sent in the last package I received back in the day.  They just finished and they were nice! Another thing, make sure to save my emails and letters so that we can make a book of them when I get home.

Now, let me tell you about my incident at the barber shop or barber shack, whichever one you prefer. The last time he cut my hair, he cut it flat on top so I looked like I was getting ready for basic training or something. So this time, I told him to leave it a little long in the center.  Simple enough right? I got EXACTLY what I asked for.  Home boy takes the clippers and takes a chunk out of the side of my hair and it basically went bald...  At this point I was like, well, theres no going back now.  I let him do his thing thinking he'd make it look good.  He ended up leaving a nice thick bush of hair on top of my head and bald on the side..... not completely bald, it kind of looks like my head has 5 o clock shadow. Yeah, picture this on me... haha I'll take a picture and hopefully send it next week.  It definitely is a African hair cut for sure.  Im trying to rock this style the best I can for a white man, but its not doing so hot... good thing it grows back and we can try again next time right?
Oh how I love AFRICA!! Doesn't get better than this!

So this past week, we were in a part of our area called Banjor market.  We have some investigators over in this area we teach.  As we were coming back from teaching them, there was some little kids who saw us and started screaming "white man! white man! white man!" I took this as an opportunity to get my uncle mind set back for a little bit.  When they got the right distance away, I did a studder step/ jump towards them. You can only imagine what a small liberians face looks like as a white man jumps towards them... These kids face went from being excited to say hi, to complete horror.  I couldn't help but laugh... They went running around the house, and me and my companion just kept walking.  When we were coming to the other side of the house, You could hear them again, "white man! white man! white man!" When we were almost to the edge of the house, I saw a bush that they were going to have to pass around before they could see us... so, I took off running towards the bush and hid until I saw them.  When I saw the first kid come around, I jumped out and ran towards them. These kids will have the best agility after I leave the area though.  They can turn around quick! After this we didn't see them again.  When we got through the market and were trying to get on a bike, guess what we heard again....  "white man! white man! white man!"  and across the street were the 10 kids emerging from the market across the street.  They followed us until we got on a bike.   I was enjoying myself for sure!  I couldn't believe they were still wanting to say hi even though I was scaring them...  Liberia is fun!

This next week is the end of the transfer, so I might be in a new area the next time I email, but no one knows.



I like my cereal!



My new progressing investigator that we are teaching the Book of Mormon.

Don't worry, I don't hold all of my investigators....this one is an exception

The Monkey's name is Bush....because he came from the bush.  Clever right?!

Excerpts from a letter Elder Zaugg wrote to the Priests Quorum in his home ward.

  What a privilege it is that we young men and young women have to serve a mission. With the age change almost a year ago, you are now able to leave once you graduate. That means you need to prepare yourself so you can be ready and able. Seminary is one of the best places to begin. I wish I would have listened better so that I would have known more of the Bible and Book of Mormon stories. Becoming familiar with the scriptures is a great help. They become your best friend once you hit the mission field. As you prepare now, make sure you "study" the scriptures every night. we hear it all the time, but I promise you, that as you study each day you will obtain more knowledge about the church, and you will have a stronger testimony. people can deny the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the church, but they can not deny a testimony. It is something you know to be true, and as you share your testimony with your investigators, it will bring the spirit with more power. As you are sharing it, The spirit is so strong and testifies to them what you are saying is true. make sure that as part of your preparation to serve, you gain that strong testimony. Even if its small, it will continue to grow as you study and pray.
     A mission will never be a bad decision. So far on my mission, I have had experiences that I never would have had if I would of chose to stay home. Even being in the mission field my testimony has grown. Every day I become more aware of how true the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is. Anyone I meet, I can stand and tell them that I know its the only true church upon the face of the earth. Helping people know for themselves that its the only true church brings so much joy and happiness. Seeing people repent and change their lives to follow Christ is amazing. As they feel the spirit they begin to gain a strong testimony for themselves. Bringing others unto Christ is one of the best things you could do in this life. Imagine the blessings that will come from serving 2 years. The rest of your life will be a lot easier if you dedicate only these 2 years of your time to the Lord. mission goes by WAY fast, and you will be wanting it not to go by as fast. With how fast time goes, you need to make sure that you make EVERY second count in your day. You don't want to have any regrets after. Pday comes quick and it seems like I just wrote my family yesterday.  This is why I say make EVERY second count. Every day, week, month that goes by is one less day you have to make an impact on someone's life, and one more day, week, month you won't EVER get back. 
     Make sure to go over the lessons in Preach My Gospel. Looking them over and becoming aware and familiar with them will be a great help to you. During your training, those are the things you will learn. If you understand them now the smoother training will be. Last thing to help you prepare is to pray. Prayer is the key to EVERYTHING. As you pray and ask our Heavenly Father to give you the strength to serve, he will answer you. He will give you the strength you need, if you have that desire to serve. I know this church is true. One of the simplest things to say, but it means a lot to me. No one will ever be able to tell me other wise. I have found out for myself the truth, and it is this church. Joseph Smith sealed his testimony with his blood, by dying for this church. He was and is a prophet called of God. I love you all and hope you all will have the desire to bring souls unto Christ. A mission will never be a bad thing. You will be blessed. 

Love Elder Zaugg

 

This is Terry. I love this guy!

 

5 months on Thursday

I'M 5 MONTHS OUT ON THURSDAY!!!

Things are changing at home it sounds like. Its sweet hearing all of your stories!! So Curtis coming home is crazy.  (Curtis is a young man from Elder Zaugg's home ward) I remember when He was leaving and we were going to youth conference the same day.  Weird to think how fast time flies. I can relate to him with the whole African teaching and not being able to understand thing... Not easy!  You have to live with them and be apart of their lives if you want to fully understand them.  Now that I have been out 5 MONTHS this week, I can understand them Most all of the time.  Until they get mad and start yelling... that's where they lose me. That's when I tell them they're speaking series....  (Series is what they call our language when they don't understand us Americans..) What fun it is trying to understand an angry Liberian.

I want to answer some questions from the past emails. so get ready... Your personal studying will be good if you use Preach My Gospel.  Especially if your trying to gain these Christ like attributes.  Even if you read a few pages in your Bible or BOM and mark things down and study the stories, you will learn so many things.  As I go through and mark things, new ideas or thoughts come to mind on how I can become better.  As far as the eggs smelling like fish... they smell and TASTE like fish, but they haven't for awhile.  I think it was just a bad batch for a good couple of weeks.  They probably do get fed that fish stuff as well.  

 Keep my name in the temple for sure! The more prayers the better!! Thank you for the scriptures as well.  They are great.   The language is weird.  You can't really call it a language because all they do is chop the last half of the word off of some of the words.  So understanding it now is fine, and I can speak some of it, but it isn't really a language.  You don't have to learn any words, its just how they mush and subtract different letters.  It sounds like a completely different language though. When you know what they are saying, you get used to it. 

I don't have much to say this week sorry... I will write more next time, but life in LIB is going great! Missionary work is moving along like always! I want to send pictures but I run out of time every time. so next week I will try!  If you could send a new journal then I will be able to have it here just in case I run out of room in this one.  I love to write a lot of details so I take up a few pages.

Some scriptures I found this week for you all...

all of Proverbs 13

Alma 34:32-35

Mark 13:32-37

I have not received anymore of your packages that you said you have sent. I hope that none of the Liberian post men have taken them.  I may be getting transferred this next transfer.

I love you all so much and keep you in my prayers.

Elder Zaugg

I love being a missionary!

I love hearing from you all every monday.  Makes my week(:
First off I want to answer a few questions from the last emails. I have not received mail/packages in the last three months.  Now the African Elders... Oh man what joy it is to house with some of them.  When you listen to the stories they tell, you would think it came straight from an action movie, but its real life.  You never know what kind of person you will serve with.  And yes, I have made  friends and will have friends for a life time.  Most of them come from Utah, California, and Texas.  But the African friends I have, I will definitely miss when I leave.  I know that this is probably the last time we will see each other until we meet in the next life. I don't think I will ever take my family to Liberia and show them around.  Liberia is a sketchy place if you are not a missionary protected by the Lord.  The places we go to are places you would stay far away from if you were a tourist.  But Thats why I love being a misssionary here because we get to see and interact with them and how they live everyday for 2 years.  I will never regret coming on a mission.  It has been the most positive thing that I have done in my life.  You learn non stop on how to better yourself and how to better others who are around you.  Also you become aware of what things you need to do to become a Celestial person.  When I read more and more, I find that getting to heaven is not so easy after all.  When they say that the more knowledge you obtain here will benefit you in the next life, its so true.   MIssion has OPENED my eyes really wide. The best advice I could give to you is to study the gospel everyday.  Try to be the person that Christ has intended us to be like.  We always need to be able to be the instrument in Gods hand to bring others unto Christ.  If we don't live how we are suppose to, then how can we endure to the end?  As we go to Church, study the scriptures, and attend the temple, we will be helping further the work, and we will start living the way that Christ has intended us to live.  We will begin to feel the full happiness that God wants us to have.  If you read Mosiah 2:41, we can see that we will be blessed by keeping his commandments.  Not only spiritually, but temporally as well.  Anytime we are feeling like we don't have happiness or joy in our life, then we need to take a step back and look at how we're living our life.  Maybe we aren't keeping the commandments like we're suppose to.  Maybe we're not being obedient to our Heavenly Father.  I encourage you all to take a step back and see if there is anything that you could do or change in your life so that you can be that instrument in Gods hands. but I got a few stories to write but I don't know if I'll be able to write them all.

First one....  We were out at Banjor Beach trying to teach one of our recent converts T.  I don't know if I told you about T. but his cousin who lives in america, is a member of the church and was telling T. that he should attend the church.  T. was not attending church at all, until one day he woke up and had the strong desire to go to church.  This was the week right after my training so I had the area all to myself....  We met him at the Duala Branch since, me and Elder Smith were attending his branch that Sunday.  We talked with him afterwards and he showed a great interest in the church.  I told him that we would come see him that week then he left.  We taught him for a good month and a half and he just barely got baptized last Saturday.  One of the Happiest days on mission so far.  I had the privilege to baptize him as well.  But the cool thing about the story, is that the whole time we were teaching him, he had been in a search for a job.  He would spend a couple days at a time in Monrovia searching, but he never would have any luck.  Then after he got baptized and confirmed, the following Tuesday he got a job.  We found this out when we went to teach him on Wednesday and we ran into his brother W. instead.  W. told us that T. wasn't home but he wanted him to tell us that he found a job.  We were so excited for him!! It just shows that when you do whats right, you will get blessed.  That simple.  Do what is right.

This same day, we left T's place and went to find his uncle to teach, who lives in a run down compound on the other side of the fence.  When we reached his place, he wasn't available, but his wife was, and she wanted us to talk to her and her brother.  Now her brothers name is E.  After we had opened with prayer, we were talking with them and said that if they had any questions that they should ask them so we can address all their concerns.  This sparked his interest and he replied with "Even if they dont have to do with the topic of discussion?"  We told him of course.  If he had any questions we were here to answer them.  The first question he started with was,  "how long after Adam, did Eve come?"........ Are you serious? only Liberians would think of these questions.   We told him that the bible doesn't tell us the time, we just know it was the same day.  Then you wont believe the following question.....  "What is Noahs full name?"  What?!  when do you ever have time to think of such questions?  This guy the whole time after this, was trying to confound us about Jesus Christ being God and not the Son of God.  We showed him all the evidence but he wasn't teachable.  He did not want to learn at all.  The whole time he was trying to teach us instead, but we told him to pray about it.  So we'll see what happens next right?  Maybe he'll have time to think of some more questions that won't help him return to heaven.....

I am running out of time but I want you to know at how good I am with money.  For the past week I have lived off of 5 US dollars and still had a few Liberian dollars to spare.  Just shows how the Liberian currency is worth near to nothing. I was able to eat and take transport different places for a week and still had money.  It usually takes around 20 US to live for a week, but this was the week right before we sub, so It was our affliction week you could say.  I didn't run out of money though!!  Now for next month I created a good budget though.  I will be able to spend around 2.50 US a day and have around 50 US left over to buy good food at the end of the month. it seems like a small amount of money, but 2.50 is a good amount for one day here.  I have more stories and pictures I want to attatch next time, so Be ready for them!
I love you all and I keep you in my prayers! 

Love Elder Zaugg

Sabbath Day, Rat Pee, and PePe Soup

Africa is treating me great like always! But how is everything with you all?  Now to answer a few questions.  My mosquito net gets tucked into my bed for sure.  Look who your talking to.  Do you think I will EVER let my net hang down when I know I have 6inch, 8 legged beasts roaming around my apartment?  Nope.  So I tuck my net in ALL the time.  That is one experience that I could care less to have out here;  Is a Spider crawling across me in the middle of the night.  Now the meat that was for our hamburgers (on the 4th of July)  was suppose to be cow meat.... but we don't know if its "actually" cow meat.  We just went along with what the package said, and said it was cow meat. so yeah! 

     I'm running out of time because The power kept shutting off at this email place so I don't have time to write too much, but I have a good story to tell.  We were at our investigators house named A. B.  This is the lady that we teach Pastor T. with, but this time Pastor T. wasn't there.  The only ones who were there, was mama, her, and D. who is one of my recent converts.  Anyway, we were teaching them about the sabbath day and how they're not suppose to work or do anything on Sunday besides go to church, study the scriptures, relax, visit the sick, visit family, and reflect on how things are going in life.  She asked us a question about if it would be alright for her to wash dishes Sunday morning.  We told her that if she was able to do it on Saturday then she should do it Saturday.  She said, the rats pee pee in the dishes at night so we have to wash them in the morning.  Now the interesting part of the story... me and my companion had just finished a nice bowl of pepe soup and rice from her....  You can kind of imagine how our facial expressions  changed once we heard her say that.  Oh well right? we blessed it with a prayer of faith so it won't get us sick. haha Faith is very important on a mission!!  We are still healthy and strong and haven't come down with some weird illness from it yet, so I think we're in the clear.  The joys of being In LIB!  and one more thing.  I tried a new kind of nut/fruit the other day.  They call it Tiger nut.  It tastes like maple syrup when you chew it.... weird at first, but i can handle it.
    

Love Elder Zaugg

Learning Meekness

  Hi Everyone,
Yes it is the rainy season right now.  It will rain all the way up until the end of October I believe.  They say that it gets bad in August.  I thought it was bad right now so I don’t know what to expect as "bad" anymore. Rainy season is A LOT better than dry season.  Dry season is comparable to what the bathroom felt like after I let the hot water run for a while and all the steam built up in there.  Yeah,  no fun.  That’s when things get real sweaty and gross.  You don’t ever actually fall asleep at night. Dry season is horrible to say the least.

I finished my first journal on my mission now!  I made it a goal to write in my journal everyday so that I’ll have a record of every day on my mission.  I’m not sure I will keep one when I get home, so I might as well keep a record of this important event in my life right?  I might have you send me another journal in the next 3 to 4 months though, so that I will have it before I run out of pages to write on.

Now one of the toughest things on my mission is to obtain Christ like attributes.   I really want to have these attributes on my mission, and when you pray for them, the Lord definitely provides the way for you to receive them.  I was reading about the attribute, meekness.  And some of it means that you don’t get mad easily and you don’t let things bother you.  Certain situations that I have been in  on my mission makes for a great way to learn these attributes and really makes you pray hard so you don’t  lose it. haha   I love how the Lord answers prayers.

 I Love you all,

 

Elder Zaugg

Celebrating Independence Day with Elders from Around the World

Family!

Everything is great in LIB!!  The mission is going strong! We are expecting 11 new missionaries on Wednesday, so we will be around 70 - 76 missionaries in Liberia.  Over the next few months we will be gaining so many new missionaries!  Crazy how fast things change!  Being on a mission is one of the best things I could have done.  All of the experiences I have had will and have effected my life for the better.   LIB is going to have a stake in the near future I Bet!  It will be interesting to see how developed the church will get over the course of my mission. Now we had our interviews with president this last week, and he seems like a cool guy.  Very strict and exactly Obedient kind of guy.  

So last week was the 4th of July!!!  America's Independence Day! How was it for you guys?  We made sure to celebrate Americas birthday as well here in LIB!!  I came up with a genius Idea to grill hamburgers on some of the coal stands they have... and yes, it worked!  I was having trouble thinking about what we could use to set the hamburgers on to grill, but my district leader thought out the idea of using the oven racks.  Yes, I will send pictures of this contraption we put together!  It was the closest thing, besides french toast, to home that we have had on mission.  The only problem was that the meat tasted weird and wasn't the best.  But hey, we had French fries with it as well, so its the thought that counts, not the taste right? Before we ate our food, we gathered together, South Africans, Nigerians, Ghanians, and Britain's and we sang the Star Spangled Banner.  We then had Elder Pentreath our British man,  give our prayer since his people participated in bringing this day about. ha ha   We definitely enjoyed this 4th of July!! Only one more in A-town and then I'll be celebrating back home!

Get this, last pday I was wanting to get a haircut, so we go to Logan town and go to the place where the only guy who knows how to cut white man hair is, which is about 20ld per person to get there.  We get there and his shack is open, so we peak in and the dude is packing his things up.  I say hello, and he looks up and almost falls over.  This dude is drunk off his butt and can barely speak.  Great, we just paid 20 Ld to get here and now we have to pay 20 ld to get back. No small thing! He tells me that the LEC (Liberian Electric Company. what they call electricity all the time) is going in and out so I should come back in a half hour.  huh? This man thinks I'm coming back to get my hair cut from him?  An African hair cut is bad as it is, so why would I want to see what a Drunk African hair cut looks like?  Crazy guy.  We went back today though and he was sober, so now I have a nice, Short, African hair cut once again.  Oh the joys of mission life(:
 

Alright, so I talked about my boy Pastor T. last week I believe.  This guy seriously believes what we say, but just doesn't want to leave his church.  That's the only problem he has  or otherwise he would be baptized into the church.  He knows he doesn't have the Holy Ghost because he didn't receive it by the laying on of hands.  But this week as we sat down and were discussing, you will not believe what he said to us.  We asked if he had any questions and he told us this, "I want you guys to come with me to Ka Ka Town, and preach to my people because that's where I'm from.  I only want you to come out one whole day and win souls."  Really Pastor T.? You want us to come to your home town and win souls?  If your church is from God, why aren't your preaching to them winning souls?  This guy doesn't think things through haha he should be baptized by now!  But oh well,  Having a pastor on your side bringing people to you isn't bad at all, right?  Its good if we get referrals from him(; I can see Pastor T. becoming a member in the future.  Him realizing he didn't have the Holy Ghost wasn't enough, so maybe  he'll have something happen in his life that will make him want to change.  We can only hope.
 

If you are really having the desire to gain a testimony for yourself, I would say to "study" the Bible and Book of Mormon to know for yourself.  I have gained so much knowledge about how true The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really is, and nobody will ever be able to tell me other wise.  Prayer is the key to knowing anything.  Through prayer is how you can gain that strong testimony/witness to know for yourself its true.  Every time I teach a lesson, the spirit always testifies to me of the truth of these things.  I can tell anyone I meet that I know these things are true and that I know that Joseph Smith had our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appear to him.  He is the prophet that was called by God to restore the church and its authority back to the Earth.  Without the authority, nothing would be bound in Heaven.  Everything done on earth would be for nothing.  Joseph Smith is a great man, and did so many  things to restore the church.  I love knowing the church is true for myself, so I encourage all who read this that they will do the same, and find out for themselves really how true the church is.  Nobody can convince me of it being false.

D&C 38:39
2 Cor 9:7
Just scriptures I found in my studying

Love, Elder Zaugg

Africa is Sweet!!