Elephants, Malaria, and a Blind Man - Ahoutoué, Côte d'Ivoire

Bonjour tout le monde! 

It's been a few weeks, but I'm alive and well. Here are some of the highlights since my last email:

We went to the zoo as a zone. They had all kinds of animals from all over Côte d'Ivoire. It was really cool to be together as a zone. I finally fulfilled my long-standing goal of seeing an elephant in Côte d'Ivoire. 

I was sick for about a week and a half with what they suspect was malaria. So that was exciting. We were stuck inside for days on end and it got really boring. I mean, not for me, I was either asleep or on the toilet, but Elder HoChing must have been bored out of his mind that week. Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better now and things are back to normal.

The last week and a half since that sickness ended and we got back out to secteur has been one of the best parts of my mission. Something about being locked up for such a long time made me really start appreciating the days that I get to go out and do missionary work. We have found so many opportunities to serve others. On our first day back out, we helped a group of boys throw a pile of logs and branches up to the hill where they were building a house. We've become village-wide legends for it. And thanks to that, we have been given more and more opportunities to serve. It's been a great week.

We spent quite a bit of time out in Ahoué, our second branch that only has two active members. With every formerly-active member that we meet and talk to, it seems that we're uncovering layer after layer of the mystery of what happened to this branch. We're trying our best to help these people rediscover their faith in Christ. We've met some amazing people in the process.

While on an exchange with Elder Nelson in a village called Memni, I met a member named Frère Jonas. Jonas has been working alongside the missionaries for more than five years now. Probably the first thing that you'll notice about him is that he's completely blind. Despite it, he walked us around that village and took us from house to house, person to person, as if he cod see them all perfectly. He's a brilliant man. We helped him out by taking his water buckets to the river about 10 minutes from his house. We filled the buckets with water and carried them back to his house by carrying them between us on a bamboo stick. 

There is a great work for us to do here. I'm grateful everyday that I have the opportunity to do it. There is nowhere that I'd rather be than right here. 

I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Farr