They said that we were going to the beach!

Wow... this week has been full of so much excitement! On monday we had a super P-day. We are about 45 minutes away from the beach. So the zone leaders planned for the whole zone to go to the beach. So we met up and all 20 of shoved into a poda (an old old mini van modified to carry uncomfortable amounts of people) they are used as taxis. After getting lost small (a little), we found the beach! Wholly, the smell of the ocean, the sand, the warm water! the sun! So the beach is called Bureh beach, I can't send pictures yet, but look up the place on the internet. It's the most tropical beach. When they said that we were going to the beach I thought that it would be all trashy, but I guess not. We got to wade in the water and it was warm! Past Hawaii (more than)! You wouldn't believe it ... there were waves! and it gets even better, there is a surf organization there. This surf organization is just a bunch of African beach bums that play soccer when the tide is down and surf when the tide is up. I got to hold a surfboard and stand in water, you have no idea how tempting that was to jump in. I got some sweet pictures with the surfboard and with the surf guys. There was one guy there from Austria teaching kids how to surf. Thats good, because there is nothing else for them to for fun here besides soccer. They get surfboards from visitors, they just leave a board when they come. These guys could actually surf too. That was the best p-day so far. So when we come back here, we will have a place to go and surf, there is even a small hotel on the beach. 

Bureh Beach 

So on Tuesday it gets even better. You know Elder Flament and I are doing missionary stuff and minding our own business, actually we were waiting for a guy to meet us at a small junction. A man in a poda waves to me(to see if I want a ride somewhere) and I shake my head and look away. We are sitting there for about 3 minutes and this Poda has pulled over and this man keeps calling us so finally Elder Flament goes over to check it out and I follow. Ends up the guy that was waving to me was from America (he's black) and all the other people in the poda were from America too. The rest were white with Salone drivers. So I thought these Americans wanted to say hello to white men because they hadn't seen any in a while, so we greet them. We talk small and we find out that all of them are return missionaries from our church! It gets even better.... they are from California! Even two of them were from San Clemente! It was so sweet to talk to them, and talk about home and the people we know. I forgot the guys name, but he will email you a picture of all of us. They are here for a month, they are helping at some orphanage, and they were just on their way back from Bureh beach that I had been at the day before.!!! They surfed! Anyways, they are really cool guys. 

Found this in our yard and killed it

Missionary work is good and growing in our area. We have had some seriously sweet lessons. I am glad I went to brother Andre's mission prep classes, I can now apply what he was telling us all along. Its really fun sharing with people and even the occasional conversation with pastors. So last night we were opening our door ...we got through the first door, made of metal, then we had a problem with the second. Our key snapped off  inside the lock. The other elders in our apartment were not going to be home for another two hours and their phone was off, so we called a member, brother Obi, he owns a welding shop, and has built a few things in his life. Anyways, we called him and asked him to bring a simple screw driver, and he said he was on his way. After pacing back and forth, being bored for 10 minutes, 2 cars show up. Ends up he decided to go get all his workers. He came, used the screw driver to get that case off the door handle, examined it, then sent one of his men to get a hammer. He stripped the wood panel in the middle of the double doors. At this time were thinking ' the mission is going to kill us for breaking the door' but hey we are in Salone, let them work. Then we get more tense, because he calls his guys to get a generator and a grinder out. They fire up the gen., plug in the grinder, and grind into the thick deadbolt lock. after 20 seconds of a waterfall of sparks the door is kicked open and we were in. He packed up and was out. He said he would bring a new lock to pday! ahah so I guess thats one way to solve the problem of breaking a key. They put the door back together and the mission has no idea... its okay, we were going to need a new one anyways.

Till next week,

Elder Beckett  

PS - so I took the key board from the church so I could practice and eventually play in the church. It's going well!

Thank you Steven for showing me where middle C is!