Merry Krimuth

Holy crap does not feel like Christmas! Probably cause it’s about 90 degrees with 78 % humity as I'm writing this… it's super weird to think it's Christmas already! I miss the snow and the cold and not sweating 24/7, y'all that are cold rn...your lucky!

Tuesday we had our zone conference and it was lit! We talked about spiritual gifts that God has given us and how we can use it to better fulfill our mission objective! We also talked about our mission wide vision and goals...let me tell ya, some BIG things are gonna happen to the Benin Cotonou mission these next couple years 😎 it’s gonna be legit! Then after for lunch they made us all T-bone steaks from Salt Lake City! It was the first real beef I've had (the beef here isn't normal) and it was delicious! Got talking with president Lundeen, turns out he's an avid hunter! So of course we talked about it for like an hour about deer hunting and elk and just about the outdoors! I twas so nice to be talking with someone about hunting that actually hunts too! I showed him the few deer pictures i have and he told me he'd try to get some pics of his deer(but he's got a mission to run so probably won't happen) it was legit...will be brining it up with him again in interviews 😁

This week was pretty normal to be honest. We didn't meet a lot of people that were like weird or funny to put in this email but, I did have an exchange with Elder Koffi! He is one of the ZLs, he is from Ivory Coast so his main language is French but you would think it's English. He speaks fire English! But anyways, it was my first time leading sector so i was a little stressed but I did what I knew how to do and it ended up being a good day! We taught some lessons in the morning, got some attieke (a Ivorian meal that is super good) for lunch then did a little contacting in the afternoon before some randez-vous, Koffi is a beast at contacting. Here door to door is super effective and Koffi is just super good at talking with literally anyone! I wanna be like him, he's an amazing roll model! At the end of the day we did a companionship council and he said "you work hard and know what to do in sector really well…it's just your French bro!” So, that made me happy that I lead sector well...now I just need to speak better French…I'll get it though.
"it will come" -LITTERALLY everyone

On Christmas Eve the ward had a party that was supposed to start at 2 pm but we knew how the Togolease work and we showed up at 3:00...andddd hungout for 2 hours before the party started at 5:00 and it was supposed to be like a 3 hour program...ended up being being done at 5:30...so we kinda wasted our afternoon, but then we got to see the ward and talk with all of them and another ward joined us so we got to hangout with the missionaries from there. Shout out to Elder Monson and Vincent! So, that was good at least!

Also, I'm getting asked how they celebrate Christmas here...they don't...well kind of... the rich do, but most people go to their home village and “party”. I don’t know what kind of party, like crazy college party or a nice backyard BBQ with family, idk but that's it I think.
They believe it’s only for children so the adults don't do anything. One guy said "santa doesnt come here, Americans and Europeans took all the presents" but I've seen lots of coal and charcoal all over the place…I think Santa does come here they just don't like what he brings… haha

So, my buddy Elder Cowley (shout out to him) in Ecuador, stole my spiritual though this week cause I also binged watched all the Christmas videos on gospel streams, they are absolutely fire! Y'all should go watch them, my favorite was "the old shoemaker" it has such a good message, about seeing our Savior in our lives. I loved it! So, y'all should go watch it with your families and friends this Christmas.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! Remember this is a time to celebrate those you love and remember Christ's birth and everything he did for us! Love you!!

Love,
Elder McKee

Ps: I miss snow and snowboarding