Mission to Madagascar!: 9/21/15 - Sambatra's baptism, listening to the spirit, and happy Sunday!

Salama ianareo! Na dia tsy nandeha tsara ny asa tam' asabotsy, mbola nisy Batista!

Hey guys! Me and Elder Tainter had a balling week! Training is going really well. I love watching Elder Tainter's progress. It is such a neat experience.

Talata: We did a lot of tracting today. Tracting is really humbling. I'm not going to lie. Getting doors slammed in your face, getting sworn at, etc. It's just not fun. I've been letting Elder Tainter do most of the talking and I'll try not to say much. It's hard to just watch him sweat. But when we do get a house that accepts you it surely motivates you to keep going. We tracted into this one family. It's actually a brother and sister. They are both older and not married. The sister is handicapped and her house was destroyed by the last storm so she has been living with her brother in his small house. This Tuesday morning we are going to see what we can do to help. They thanked us for our kindness and told us that they wanted to come to church. Woo hoo! #servicefodays

Alaorbia: Me and Elder Tainter did member splits and had a 10 lesson day! I had Elder Tainter go on splits with Ernesto. They couldn't communicate much the whole day. I remember having a day like that when I first got to Mada. It's scary but nothing makes you learn more than when you get pushed. We found some less actives and the spirit taught the lessons. This work rocks!

Alakamisy: We are preparing Christoffe and Niry for their baptsim in a few weeks. We had a practice interview today. They need a lot of reviewing. We'll keep doing that. We also had a zone meeting today and talked about the incredible confirming power of the spirit.

Zoma: We've been going ham on less actives this week. Today we taught a bunch of lessons. We were able to teach Samson. Samson has been someone that people have been working with for awhile. We didn't really know the problem other than he just did not have the desire to come back to church. We noticed that when we went to the house that he would just be kind of serious but during the last lesson Elder Tainter and I decided to take a different approach and spend the first little while just getting to know him. We asked about work and things that he likes. We laughed and it was a great time. Then Elder Tainter shared a wonderful spiritual thought. I know the spirit was there. It was the same with other less actives that we taught, Perline, and Faniry. We have been trying so hard and still have not seen them come to church once since I've been here. We took the same approach. It was a great day listening to the spirit.

Asabotsy: Today was Sambatra's baptism!! We were so excited for him! It was a wonderful day. After the baptism he made sure to tell me that there was nothing that was going to stop him from going on a mission. I had to hug him after he said that! Haha! He said as soon as he makes his full year then he will go. The rest of the day we did a whole lot of tracting because appointments that we had fell through. But in the wise words of my previous comp Elder Thompson, "No matter what happens the rest of the day after a baptism, it is still a successful day." We didn't see a lot of success tracting but it was impossible to be sad. Why? Cause there was a baptism. Earlier in the week me and Sambatra found this less active named Andry. He has been less active for a long time. His wife was not a member. recently we got a text from him asking us to come to their house to teach her. Today we found the house and were able to teach them a beautiful lesson about the spirit. Andry bore testimony of the truth of all this and it was a wonderful day.

Alahady: Church was awesome!! I can't tell you how happy I was. We had 130 people in attendance. Guess who came to church today?! Samson, Andry, Perline, Faniry, etc! We had 6 that we taught this week come back to church!! Me and Tainter were dancing in the back! Haha! Oh what a wonderful feeling it is! The spirit is real. I know that to be true. It confirms truths. It directs people to the right path. We just need to listen!

Well I love you all. I hope everything is good in your 1st world country. Joke. Have an amazing week!

Bisous, bisous!
Elder Mack