Jammin' in Togo!

Love, Love, Love this kid and his silly personality! Enjoy!

August 5, 2013- Recipe Swap

Hello Everyone.

Elder Gundersen is still alive and well. He's not saying a lot still but here are the highlights:

He ate beans this week. Dried beans. He says that he doesn't like green beans.  He didn't eat at Akif's either.  He sends his thanks to Jerine and Kris and says there will be no monkey meat.  Perhaps some chicken...

The weather there is cooler today. A whopping 79 degrees and he admits that he's a little chilly. It's going to be awful for him when he gets home in January.

He reminded me that he needs extra bags of Hugs and Kisses in his package I am sending this week.  He is hoping that if he gets transferred to Benin this next transfer that he gets a French companion. 

He answered Ryan and Kate and told them that yes, there are cartoons on tv in Africa for the kids.  not SpongeBob though, he says he misses SpongeBob.

He was happy to know that a teacher from the fifth grade had sent him a letter from himself from all those years ago. He had me send him the message he had written. I though it was pretty cute. He thought he should've written more to himself.

 

I got a sweet message from Mama (Bleck's Mom) yesterday afternoon as well. She thanked me for helping Bleck with his application to BYU and said Elder G is very loved.  It's always good to know he is loved by members there.  He continues to teach the younger sister.

 

My sister, Mindy, has a neighbor heading to Africa on a mission and has been joking with the young man about the toilets in Africa.  She told him she would get info for him from Elder G. Here is the account of their exchange- including a recipe swap!  Enjoy!

 

Hey Hunter how is the African life.  I am curious to know about the toilets there?  How are they?  Have you ever used a public one, or do you make sure to wait until you get home?  Inquiring minds want to know.  So Dyllon reached his year mark this last Thursday.  Time has gone by so slow, but a year seems so fast.  How has your past week been?  How is the work progressing in Africa?  Have you had any baptisms lately?  so have you learned any good tips for me on getting skinny.  You look like you have dropped a few pounds and I would love to drop a few. How is the Companion?  Have you been getting along better with him? It must be super hard to have a companion that is from another country and does things so completely different then you are used to doing them.  So have you ate anything that you need to make when you return?  Can you share any recipes?  I have a good one for rice.  Add 1 cup rice, 2 cups water and salt to taste.  Add butter if you have some.  Cook until all water is absorbed.  You should try it.  Works for any variety of rice! ;0)



hi mindy

They dont have toilets here. its just a hole in the ground. Ive never used one. My week was rough. My comp drives me nuts. The work is going slow. The last person i baptized was in june. Just dont eat if you want to loose weight. That what i do. I dont want any of the food here. as far as a recipe... boil water and flour together.

So are you holding it for two years?? HAHA!  About the recipe.  Do I eat that, or do I wall paper with it?  Companions are designed to drive you nuts.  That is what most of them have done for Dyllon.  I guess that is so when you get married.........you will actually appreciate your wife and she won't drive you crazy for eternity! Mindy

 

Here is an interesting link for flour paste art:

http://bookzoompa.wordpress.com/tag/flour-and-water-paste/

 

 

July 29, 2013- Trauma Lists

Hi Everyone!

Elder G is alive and doing well.  He is still in Souza Netime and feels like a transfer to Benin may be in his near future.

He didn't feel like talking about the mission much again this week. I am very blessed however, to have received a few pictures from Bleck.  Elder G is very close to this family and I know that a transfer away from them is going to be tough.

Here are a few pictures of Elder G and Elder Sahue teaching Bleck's younger sister. 

Wearing his new boots from Smith and Edwards! He mentioned that he wears them all the time and that they require no cleaning- just a light dusting every night.

Is he looking a bit thin on the top of his head to you too?

Sharing the gospel in the humblest of circumstances. I imagine that without all the modern distractions that we have at home, the spirit can be felt very strongly.

Such a handsome missionary!  A rare photo indeed- no goofy grin!

That's more like it!  The twins are getting big too.  Their little flip flops make me smile.  I also had to chuckle at their treat bags at church...some things are the same at every LDS meeting.  I still bribe my little ones (and Wes) with M&Ms if they will sit quietly until after the sacrament.

 

 

Here  is a bit of missionary humor for this week.  I wonder how many of these "traumas" Elder G has endured...

 

 

Days until anticipated release:

 

July 22, 2013- Just Push it!

So, Elder G had a rough week. He said right off..

"I had a bad week and I don't want to talk about it."

 

Easy enough...

 

I started by filling him in on the details of the week. Then I sent him a few jokes and this little cartoon that I thought was funny (sorry if it offends anyone.)

 

Yeah, Elder G told me it was lame.

 

Anyway, from there he went on to try and push every button he ever installed. I did really good until he said  Lemaire said that he thought it was crazy and weird that I asked him on Facebook Messaging if he wanted to send the pictures of himself to his Mom that Bleck had sent to me.

 

 

I fell for it! I first thought it was a language barrier and told Elder G to tell him I was only asking if he wanted them for his Mom because Moms love pictures of their Elders. 

Elder G responded with, "yeah, Lemaire says your weird and that you post dumb stuff on your Facebook page like a dumb 15 year old does and you need to stop." 

 

I went on to try and defend myself and my posts because I certainly don't feel like I post dumb stuff. I was really starting to get upset. I even quickly went and scanned my page to make sure anyone hadn't posted something I hadn't seen yet that may be questionable.  Nope, nothing I could see.

 

I told Elder G that there was nothing weird on there. He told me that he didn't know, it was just what Lemaire said.  I told him to tell Lemaire that he's the weird one. elder G sends back,

 "You see how I can push your buttons from Africa so well?"

"Lemaire actually says thanks for the pictures."

 

Then I get this...

"ok gundy was joking. it's Lemaire. I didn't say anything- Love Lemaire"

 

Ha ha! At least I thought of other things for a few minutes.  Elder G then told me that they are teaching each other new tricks and that Lemaire is ruthless when he teases his Mom. 

She's a lucky lady, don't you think? What would we do without these boys to push every button that they personally installed over time?

 

Thanks for all your prayers, support and thoughts on Elder G's behalf. You are all loved.

July 15, 2013- Hugs and Kisses to Africa

Questions from the twinners from last week.  There is not a question #1 because he answered that last week!

 

2- what time do you get up in the morning?

3- Do people know who Tom and Jerry are?

4- Do you eat chicken bones too?

5- Have you seen lots of snakes there?

6- Have you baptized any more people yet (ryan)

7- what is the weirdest thing you have ate? (ryan)

8- Do they have swimming pools in Togo?

9- Can you take a picture of a sunset for us? We have pretty ones here at home.

10- Is there a zoo there?

2-6:00

3-everyone

4-nope

5-not one

6-nope

7-monkey

8-nope

9-sometime

10-yep

Elder G called Wes this morning to have his debit card checked.  It seems there have been some issues. Great!  We got that all ironed out this morning and we didn’t have to block the card.  This makes me very happy as sending a new one over is quite the mess and very time consuming. I am a little envious that he called Wes and not me.  I have to wait clear until Christmas.

Mom-

Thanks for fixing my account. It was a bad week for money. Don’t ask. I have like $0.20 to my name and was really wanting to eat tonight. If it doesn’t work I will let you know.

The picture I sent of the food is BBQ chicken sandwiches.  Dinner with the Eastmonds last week was good. The chicken I made was good.  They brought my package and the Hershey’s Kisses made it just fine. They were not smashed at all.

Don’t wait until I am home for Christmas. I don’t want the kids to go without because of me. We can do a dinner later when I am home and if you want the tree to be up, I can’t stop you. Don’t take off three weeks when I come home.  You will be wasting your time.  I’m going to start school right away.

I made the bow and arrow myself. (Talented, isn’t he?) How is everyone at home? I got the boots and they fit fine. Thanks. The book didn’t come though. Too bad. So are you going to get a puppy now? You should get one of Sue’s. Corgie’s are awesome.

My new comp is from the Ivory Coast. He has tattoos he did himself. Interesting… Just so you know Missionaries have eating times. I’m sure there’s a way you’ll be able to feed them. Ask Dalyn. They probably have their own washer and dryer though, it’s not Africa.

In the package you send, put pictures of the other horses, Kisses and Hugs too.

Elder G

Thanks to all for you continued love, support and prayers.

 

This is My JOY!

This is the scripture that Elder G's sister selected to put on the title page of the photo book she made for him this year.  As many struggles as I know he's had, I still know that Elder G finds joy in the things he does.  I love getting pictures of him and seeing the joy on his face. This picture in particular makes me smile.

Chain Gang!

Having two ten year old kids in the house proves to be a problem when you only have one set of countdown blocks to turn. 

Remember these? It's a constant fight over who gets to turn the blocks each day...or it was a fight.

 

Dawni spent the afternoon with the twins creating this cool new bannister decoration. It's complete with numbered links!  How cool is that?  AND it also doubled as bridal shower decorations!

 

 

Just to show you how well I'm living up to Elder G's label of MM (Mental Mom) here is one final way I have found to make sure that no one else in the family forgets Elder G. Wes "lovingly" refers to is as the "Hunter Shrine". It is right next to the table in the kitchen.

 

 

I think we will turn it into the Ty shrine when Elder G gets home.