Mission to Madagascar!: 9/7/15 - Goodbye Thomspon, Hello Tainter, and a miracle!

Salama Ianareo-O!!!! tena marina fa izaho niteraka tam alakamisy! Arabaina!

Hey y'all! Well, it has finally happened. I have a kid :p hahaha! I'm training! Yay! Oh my gosh it is way fun. I met Elder Tainter on Thursday and he is a baller! Dang, that boy is so outgoing. I swear, he is ALWAYS looking for ways to serve. He is definitely a Preach My Gospel missionary. I love it! Here's my week:

Tuesday: I got to go on a splits with the Elders from Mahajanga Elder Coleman and Elder Heiden. Oh they are ballers. I missed Coleman soo much! We got to tract a lot. We were able to get into this one house and teach a family but then we found out that they actually live in Tanjambato. (Dang it Elder Snell!) Well we passed by this apartment building and we decided to tract it. Yikes the people were soo mean. I felt like an American missionary at that moment. Joke. Zero people accepted in the whole building.  The highlight of the day was when Sambatra was able to overcome a trial and we set a new date for him next week Saturday to be baptized. :)

Wednesday:  Thompson died.  My companion finished his mission today. He's headed home. I'll miss him.  I went on splits again. I got to go with Elder Horspool who is also training. The split was great. We took Ernesto with us and Elder Horspool did not really know what to think about him. haha! Ernesto is seriously one of the most diligent people I know but he is still a clown. When he would bear his testimony, it was strong and wonderful. It was amazing to see him change. A few months ago he had so many problems but he changed his whole life around. It is incredible. We went to Christoffe and Nirys and they told us they will be getting married on the 10th. Yay! We just need to finish the lessons then they can be baptized!

Thursday: We had our training meeting in the morning and I got my baby boy! I promise I'll take good care of him Mama Tainter :) We weren't able to go out to work till 5:00pm but when we did, we went to a less active's house. The lesson went great and Tainter bore an impressive testimony on his first day! We then taught Christoffe and Niry and it went very well as usual. They rock! Then I had to play a little trick on my son so I took him to a member's house (he did not know they were members) and I had him teach Sr. Manda. Sr. pretended to be a hard headed Jehovah Witness. It was a safe learning moment. I can remember the agony of my first lesson in Mada. Tainter did really good. Proud dad. Sorry Mama Tainter I'm just breaking him in.

Friday: My sons first full day of work! Woo hoo! I had Elder Tainter go through the area book and he found this teaching record that was a "must return". We followed the map and it took us to a less active's house.  The lady there told us that the guy we were trying to find moved but she wanted a little spiritual thought. It went great and we invited her to come back to church.  SHE CAME! #ballingmissionaries #imhumble Then we taught Joseph Richard the Dentist. I shocked Tainter because I slayed (with love) Joseph Richard right in front of him. Elder Thompson taught me well. My poor boy, he's only two days old and he had to see that.  Joseph Richard asked for another blessing and we gave it to him. On Sunday guess who finally came to church? YAY!! HE DID!

Saturday: We finally taught Haja today. Haja is the guy who stopped us on the street weeks ago and asked us about eternal marriage. He finally called us! So here's his story.  He was dating one of the members before she got baptized and when she was about to get baptized she broke up with him because he wouldn't accept the gospel. She said she wanted an eternal marriage. He is more open now and he wants to be a member so he can marry her in the temple! He loves her. Kinda cute right? One problem is he knows a lot of our members and their former sins. Yikes. He needs to learn about how people can change. They can repent and be forgiven. We'll fix that. I am just hoping he actually gains a testimony for himself and not just because he wants the girl back.

Sunday: We had a great fast Sunday! A lot of less actives came to church. It was great! Then there were a lot of investigators that came to church. Outstanding! I love this work. Today I got a call from Fy from Ambohimangakely. Do you all remember Olivier and Liva? They have been investigators for 3 years but they have not been able to get baptized because they are not legally married. If you remember the guy had already been married but he was not able to get a divorce because his first wife moved to France. They have been very diligent about learning the gospel for the past 3 years. I just found out they are getting married on Saturday. Finally! I don't know how it happened. It seemed an impossible situation. I'll find out on Saturday when we go to the wedding. It's a miracle!! Woo hoo!

Well y'all, it was an outstanding week. This is truly the work of the Lord and I love it. I have a great son. It is weird to think that when Tainter is at a year, I'll be home already. Yikes! I love you all.

Bisous bisous!
Elder Mack

We had to kill our own goose. He tasted so good. Thank you goose.

Last week Elder Mack attended a famadihana which means "turning of the bones." He said it is a Malagasy tradition where every seven years the extended family opens their ancestor's tombs, they gather the bones together, and hold them in the air and dance with them. It is looked at as a way of respecting their ancestors and bringing the family back together. Here they are preparing the bones to dance with. The family invited the missionaries to their famadihana.