Heyo!
Sorry to hear that the furnace went out at home. Man, the heater here is working better than ever. I'm in a constant sheen of sweat, and there's no remedy. I gave up on deodorant all together. It can't compete. It really literally does nothing. I still smell just as bad at the end of the day, and sweat just as much.
Speaking of sweating, it was zone dinner at our place last night. We made Sloppy-Joes (kinda). It was A LOT of work, and the house was COOKIN'. It was nice though. I made rice crispy treats using the marshmallows you sent (score! So good.) Rice crispies are only 14,000 Le here! Ah! Score... Special K costs like 28,000 Le, if you can even find it. The beloved Sabaugh (pronounced sahb-ahsh) supermarket no longer carries them. Sad day.
Regarding the Hondas (motorcycle taxis): Helmets are rare. However, you have no reason to fear. As you know, motorcycles are unsafe in America because of the number of cars on the road. There are a grand total of almost no cars here. So, they're as safe as they could practically be. No worries, the real danger is in being struck by a Honda as a pedestrian. That can be remedied by looking both ways before crossing the street.
After coming here, the concept of any form of "crackdown" is laughable to me. The police here are corrupt like crazy. You can pay them off for anything. As a natural consequence, mob justice rules here. We don't have any problems with that, since the people here love us white guys. But man, the things they'll do to teefs ("theives") is ridiculous. I better leave that up to your imagination...
I finally got two packages from home!! It was definitely a piece of wonderfulness in my life. We (my companion/me) can't wait to enjoy our Christmas presents! I did also receive a letter about Jonathan Hale, regarding his mission with Brigham Young, sending a letter to Joseph Smith. It was really neat to read. We, the missionaries here in Salone now, are at the tail end of the groundbreaking here. We are the last of the harbingers, and the storm of the gospel is about to sweep through here in full-force. A new area out in the bush will be opening soon, and we will be receiving more missionaries than we are sending home. Things are growing in a quick way around here.
Speaking of, we had a baptism last Saturday (sorry, no pics yet. Forgot camera at home). I got to baptize this kid named Junior and Elder Priddis baptized two others, and a fourth was baptized by a branch member. So, chalk me up for 4 conversions! ;D We were anticipating more, but as always, there are kinks with regards to worthiness. We are expecting another 2-3 to be baptized on Christmas, to bring us to a total of 7 this month. Not bad at all.
The Freetown mission conference was fabulous! It was great to spend a couple days with all the other elders. I met a fellow statesman, Elder Tims. He lived in Puyallup for 20 some-odd years before moving to Arizona right before his mission. He's awesome. Don't be surprised if you see a letter from him addressed to Hil... Gosh, I miss her like crazy. I wish I could hear from her. Well, no matter, in due time...
So, in Freetown, as you likely know, we sang to the hospital, did the whole choir program thing, and I got to conduct it all! It was way fun. We had lots of (REAL) food, and Elder Priddis and I enjoyed staying with the Kenema Elders (Elders Tippets and Mazani) in the mission home with President and Sister Roggia. AIR CONDITIONING!! She made us pancakes. OH SO GOOOOOOD!! We also played a game of football, Bo v. Freetown. Bo won, of course. I took some small video on my camera, which you can view when it makes it home. It'll be a few months until another American heads home, so bear with patience. I also videoed the skit by the assistants. It was way funny. I can't wait for you to enjoy it.
Elder Vaughan
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