Super P-Day, a Lose-Lose Situation & a 'Debul'

So Dad, you mentioned that you were listening to Rush play, "La Villa Strangiato" while you wrote your email to me?" Goodness, you have no idea how much I miss listening to Rush. That's gotta be one of the hardest things out here: Giving up good (but not mission appropriate) music. It hurts, especially on the rare occasion that we happen to hear a radio station playing something familiar. Most of the time, however, they are playing garbage.


This pain was helped a little today at Super P-Day (a zone wide preparation day) when we were allowed to watch "Megamind" and "The Lion King." Megamind was AWESOME, and super hilarious. It had some sweet music that reminded me of Josh like crazy (namely "Back in Black", "Bad", and "Welcome to the Jungle"). All of us missionaries don't really know what to do with ourselves after watching a movie. It's so... WEIRD. The Lion King reminded me of Tesia (that may have gone without saying). I'll be sure to write her a letter telling her about the awesomeness that it was. Man, I miss my music like crazy!

Speaking of Tesia, she told me that Steve Jobs died. Ah! That's a big deal now! The computer world is sad for that.

You know, seeing first-hand what outside influences do to Africa, I've definitely concluded that it's almost impossible to find a satisfactory way to help the people without digging a pit for them in the end. It's almost always a lose-lose situation. If you go in to help, then they learn dependency on the "Western World" or UN, and become even poorer/hungrier/etc. when we pull out. Do nothing, and the same outcome (plus death). It's just hard for these people. Most unfortunate of all is that it's caused by a small handful of wicked people, therefore influencing the rest of the population to follow in like suit to help themselves, rather than to worry about others. I guess that that is why Salone needs us so bad. If we teach correct principles, the Lord will prosper these people regardless of what others do.

The life of a missionary here isn't all that exciting. Just tons of hiking mountains and teaching people. I like to make sure that we're back in the apartment by dark (around 7:00 p.m.). There is no reason to be out after that. No, not even to teach. This place scares the crud out of me after dark, so I don't even mess with that.

Speaking of scary things, I saw my first Devil (pronounced 'debul') this week! I can't believe I've been on mission for this long and I'm only seeing my first. To sum it up, they are "societal sorcerers".

Here, they have national gender gangs called societies, and they have Devils that represent and lead them. Each of them have different and terrifying appearances, and are there for the sole purpose of scaring others, and performing black magic. The one I saw was wearing huge horns and animal skins and hair. Others paint themselves in blood.

Some of these societies are even involved in cannibalism. Lucky for me, the people here don't use black magic on white people. I asked someone why once, and they said that it's because it simply doesn't work on us. Hahaha, I thought that was funny. If you keep away from the Devils, they won't bother you. Well, unless you're in Grafton, but I don't live there, so I won't get into that.

Have a great week! Transfer news this Sunday! XD

Love,

Elder Vaughan