Short hair, More baptisms & Hugging it out with a Juju man

Sounds like everything is moving along just fine back at home. Everything here is going well too. Unfortunately, I didn't cut my hair until right before we came to this internet cafe so I don't have any pictures yet, but I will take one tonight. Pulling out a camera here would attract too much attention. Anyway, I don't have much time because we're running late today so sorry this email won't be super long. The reason we're running late is because this morning we had super P-day. Which basically means our zone got together for an activity this morning. And we watched Megamind and The Lion King. Man. I've never enjoyed two movies so much. And Megamind was way more funny than I remember it being. Elder Taylor told me it's because I've been deprived of any mainstream media. He's probably right.

So speaking of Elder Taylor, he almost got pooped on by a woman in this way: He was standing looking at some clothes laying out to dry on some bushes and was noticing that one of the clothes looked very strangely shaped. Turns out it was a lady squatting and pooping on the side. So he ran for his life. Or something like that.

The mouse story: We were sitting around the table in our parlor having a district meeting and discussing very important missionary stuff. Suddenly Elder Essego goes "mouse!!!" He saw it running along the wall on the far opposite wall and we immediately all jumped up and started grabbing random things for weapons. The mouse had run behind a dresser and we surrounded it with our random arsenal of brooms and buckets. One of the Elders pushed the dresser and the mouse came running out. It was running towards me so I prepared myself to capture it beneath the bucket I was holding. Then suddenly out of nowhere Elder Essego came running and kicked the mouse across the room and the mouse crumbled to the ground, stunned. Then he ran up and kicked it again... and again... until it died. It was intense. And we were saved. Hooray.

I didn't shave all my hair off. I used clippers and got a 3 all around. It's pretty nice, not gonna lie. Like it feels nice. But the longer hair definitely looks better. It's all good though.

So this week was of course filled with lots of various spiritual experiences. We had tons of investigators in church this past Sunday- 15 to be exact. We have 4 people getting baptized this weekend too. We usually do baptisms here in a river but because of the rainy season the water is too high. That's why we travel to a chapel in a town farther down the road. Anyway, my time is almost out so I'll just share my latest crazy juju person story. No big deal.

So this past Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Essego in Grafton while our District Leader Elder Wood interviewed those people who are getting baptized this upcoming weekend. We had called this guy and were walking down this incredibly long dirt road way out to the middle of nowhere to meet him. As we were walking up the road a short distance we saw one of those juju guys who are known as "debuls" walking in our direction They all look different but it's basically people who dress up in these very strange costume things and have some crazy demonic spirt about them... or something. I'm not too sure what those people believe in. Anyway, so this debul had this weird looking mask that had like these tiki faces on four sides, and had this really long flowing black cloak/gown thing on, and was holding this rod that was made of two skinny sticks bound together with cord. with him there was a small child running next to him and a lady dressed in normal clothes but had a big drum around her neck. We have been told to avoid these people so Elder Essego and I walked to the other side of the road and tried to look ahead so we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves. Which is pretty hard to do seeing as how we're both wearing white shirts, ties and a black nametag. Oh and I'm the only white guy in like a 50 mile area. That makes me stick out a little. So anyway, we walked to the opposite side of the road and tried to avoid him. As we crossed to the far side the debul and lady were switching sides. So we switched sides again. And the debul switched sides. At this point we were about to meet so the two of us started to walk to the far side of the road again to avoid them. As we were set to pass by them I saw that the debul was heading straight toward me. Suddenly the debul was right next to me and started to hug me. It was like one of those really awkward hugs where the person doesn't hug you completely. It kind of caught me off guard because I was looking ahead and he came in my blind spot. But the second he started to hug me I was like "Oh um, we dun lef." But he kept hugging me so I turned and was like "EY! Lef me!" And he let go and kept walking. Man it was weird. Those people are so crazy. It caught me off guard. Haha. Elder Essego was like "When he goes home tonight he's probably going to tell all his friends he got to hug a white guy today." It was pretty funny.

Anyway, This internet cafe is being super sketchy and slow so it's not letting me attach any pictures. I was going to send you a couple pictures of the inside of our mansion and this sweet picture of me and my companion as the newest members of the Sierra Leone National team. Yup, we both bought national team jerseys. Man and they were so cheap! Only 40000 le, about $10 US. Jerseys for any other team is cheaper, about 30000 or 35000 le. So Cody Guilbeau will be excited to know that I will probably own a lot of jerseys when I come home. My next decision is which Arsenal jersey I should get. There's a white one with horizontal lines across it, or the standard bright red ones like the one dad has. So if anyone wants to help me with this incredibly difficult decision, please tell me what to do for next week. But seriously. Let me know. Anyway, my time is up so I will talk to you all again next week! As far as packages go- let me come up with a list of things before you send another one out. I feel bad because you guys are spending a lot of money on packages! Haha, I guess it's just me and my money saving ways. But okay, until next week- I love you and miss you all!


Love,
Elder Stuwy