Monday, February 29, 2016

2/29/16 - Heat, Rain & Zaboomafoo!

Karakory ma!!!!  Inona Kabary?

Hey y'all!  I'm getting soo brown!!!  Jealous???  Nah nah joke.  How's things?  All good?  Great!  I am exhausted!!  Haha!  The heat is a killer.  Way humid!  Rain is always soo hard.  It floods crazy when it rains here.  It floods my room everytime it rains.  I need to get that fixed.  The APs let us use flip flops one day because it was so bad.  The Malagasies thought we were crazy walking to their houses because the streets are all flooded.  Haha!  Well, here's da letter today eh?!

- We went to Lac Sacre today!  It is about a 12km walk to get there and back but the lake was way cool, and way pretty.  It's not as nice as Lac Tratriva but still so cool. The fish were huge and we got to see lemurs!  So the type of lemurs there are called Maki and when the guides call for them they yell "Mack!"  That caught me off guard cause I was zoned out when he yelled it the first time.  Haha! The maki lemurs are like the Zaboomafoo lemurs.  Remember that show? :p  Way cool!  They are used to humans so we got to get close.  They showed us crocs too.  I was kind of annoyed with the guides because they were poking them with a stick.

- Josaline is doing great!  She is getting ready for her baptism.  That will happen next month and should be around the time her son gets his mision call. Way excited. We keep telling him that we already know where he's going and he's like, "Noooo you don't!" Haha!

- We kinda rocked a families world the other week.  They were talking up the Bible and saying that there is no need for the Book of Mormon.  In the Malagasy version of the Protestant Bible there are a few verses missing and I showed them Matio 23:14.  It doesn't exist.  The daughter was like, "I've been using this Bible since I was a kid... and it's wrong...?"  Oops....!  That sparked interest in the Book of Mormon and they are excited to read it now.

- We are teaching this man named Jean Chry.  He is hard to catch cause he is poor and needs to work a lot but he is a sweet father who is way excited to learn from us.  He loves the Book of Mormon!

- We had a branch family home evening thing last Friday and it was fun. That day it rained HARD so the branch president called and said he was not going to come.  He was supposed to bring the lesson, gosh dang it, so guess who it falls on?  The missionaries and whomever is the newbie, this guy.  Haha!  We brought a few investigators and they loved interacting with the members.  They were laughing during the games and enjoyed themselves.  I'm thinking of Saholy and her daughter.

- We are flying back to Tana this week for zone conference.  We have a week there so we are going ROGUE!!!  Dun dun dun DUNNNN! (Don't worry mom, we'll be productive) :p

Love you guys!  Have a great week!  Bisous bisous!

- Elder Mack

This is Angel!  She tries to teach me French.  Haha!

This is Elder Reynolds.  He's fabulous.

Panini Thursdays!!!

This is the famous baobab tree in Mahajanga!

GET HUGE!!!!!

Pepo, pepo, peponi!!!

Going to Lac Sacre!

Here it is folks!


Any Zaboomafoo fans?

He didn't like this... Haha!  We forgot to buy bananas :p

It's a croc!  One of the most dangerous creatures in Madagascar!

Lia - Pascal followed me to Mahajanga!
        

    Monday, February 22, 2016

    2/22/16 - Angels, Goals, & Rock Stars

    It is HAWTTTT!!!!!  Raha mamay foana de ho faty aho!

    Hey y'all!!  This area is gorgeous!  I love love love proselyting here.  It is a lot different than my other areas!  Mahajanga people love accepting missionaries.  The hard thing here is to get them to progress.  We are teaching some cool people here and I am way excited to tell you guys about them. This will be a different challenge that I am so ready to take on!  I hit my chick mish date last week! That means the sisters in my group just all went home.  Way weird!  I only have 6 months to go!  No regrets and no turning back!

    - The first family I got to visit with last Monday was Abela, who is the first counselor.  He is so converted!  He loves this gospel and loves having the missionaries over to learn more.  He is from Tana so I understand him the best.  Haha!  He has the cutest daughter!  Her name is Ange!  She is 7 and became my best friend right away. Haha!

    - We got to visit a lot of members and I got to introduce myself.  I'm still trying to get used to the new dialect.  It's not too hard but still it trips out my brain sometimes.  Haha!  I got to bear my testimony to them and shared with them the scripture in Alma 13:24 and how there are angels all around us that are preparing our family, and friend's hearts for the gospel and that we need to work together to bring them to the knowledge of the truth.  I'm so excited to work with them!

    - On my chick mish date, me and my companion made some great goals that we want to accomplish.  We have goals about following the little rules because through small and simple things are great things brought to pass.  We want to excercise everyday.  Me and my comp have push up competitions every night.  Rock, paper, scissors.  10 pushups fo da losah!!!  We want to never speak ill of anyone and write in our journals everyday. Then we want to have atleast 10 FLFs on the program before he goes home.  (Mom:  I think that means "father-led families")
    - In a couple of weeks we are actually going to go back to Tana for zone conference and we'll be there for like a week.  That will be wayyy nice.

    - One of my favorite investigators right now is probably Jullian.  He is a rock star!  He got all da instruments in his room and we jammed a little bit before the lesson.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he wanted one way bad!  We pulled one out of the bag and gave it to him and then he shook our hands thanking us.  He was soo excited!  After the lesson Elder Anderson said that that was the most interest he has ever showed in a lesson.

    - My favorite member right now is Sistah Hardy!!  She is the former branch president's wife.  The branch president drowned recently and it has been a really hard time but she has shown soo much faith.  She is saving up right now to go to the temple and get sealed.

    Well, love you guys!  Have a great week!  Bisous bisous!

    -Elder Mack



    Salema and his fam

    Saying goodbye to Elder Davis

    My favorite ginger is going home!

    Carrying rice.  Wayyyy heavy!!!

    My favorite restaurant

    This is Martina and Medy!


    This is Lea and her mom

    Remember dis guy???  Bradah MITIA!!!


    Bishop's daughters

    Waiting at the airport terminal


    On my way to Mahajanga




    Outside of our house

    Elder Anderson

    Tongasoa eto any MAHAJANGA!!!!

    I saw Mirado's girlfriend at church.  Haha!  She's here on vacation.

    Elder Anderson

    Muh paradise :)

    I can finally take one of these pics

    Me and muh comp

    Beach!!!  Wow it's been awhile... 

    Monday, February 15, 2016

    2/15/16 - Transfers, Thank You, and Priesthood Blessings

    (Mom:  We just got last week's letter from Elder Mack today.  Something was wrong with the email server last Monday and affected many missionary emails.  Elder Mack was able to resend this and it is a good one.)

    Wow, where do I start...?  Infindra faritra aho ary izao vao any paradisa!!

    Hey ya'll!  Well, first of all the day has finally come.  I left Anjanahary this morning to go to my new area.  This could possibly be my last area!  I am now in MAHAJANGA!!!  This is a sick area and I'm way stoked to be here.  It is a 4 missionary beach province and it is BLAZING HOT!!!  I took a plane this morning to get here so I'm wayyy tired right now. We woke up at around 4:00am to leave.  I flew alone which was kind of scary because I had no companion.  I took two flights.  The first went to Nosy Be and then from there we flew to Mahajanga.  I got there around 11:00am.  This area reminds me a lot of Hawaii, which is cool.  You got the beach, and all the palm trees, etc.  I'm companions with Elder Anderson!!  He is from Idaho.  I lived with him when he was office Elder and I will probably be his last companion before he goes home.  He only has two transfers left.  We'll make the time count!  The other Elders here in Mahajanaga are Elder Wootan from Boston and Elder Reynolds from New Zealand.  Sorry that I have not emailed the past couple of weeks.  I have been sooo busy and I was trying to cram everything in.  I should be able to send out some decent messages to you all now.  I have so much to talk about with two weeks of catching up to do.  I think I'll just give you a few of the best stories and call it good.  Sweet!!!

    - First, Dola and Nimrode got baptized.  I had the honor of performing the baptism and what an excellent baptism it was. They were both so happy, especially Nimrode.  When I first met him I thought he was kind of a punk but he has changed a lot.  I thought he was going to cry when we went into the changing room.  He just kept saying, "Thank you" over and over and it felt so good knowing that I did my part to get him there.  I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father in allowing me to see both of their conversions.  Dola gave a beautiful testimony and filled the room with the spirit.  He is going to be a strong member and is going to do a lot of good for this ward.  I am way happy for both of them.

    - Well, now let's talk about Lemanana, Ianta and Janine shall we?  They are an INCREDIBLE family and I have loved every moment of teaching them.  Lemanana was never a part of the lessons at first but just kinda sat off to the side. Janine and Ianta have been the most diligent from the start.  Then one day both Janine and Lemanana were sick and Ianta came looking for us to give them blessings. She found us and we were able to perform that service for them.  The next day they were healed and were able to go about doing their daily work.  Janine told us about what happened.  When she did I could feel my own testimony of the priesthood growing too.  She said that after the blessing and after we left she felt burdens come off of her and she knew that this church is true and that she needs to be a part of it.  We moved her baptism date to March 12.  I know she will make that date.  Her and her family.  I love the priesthood and I know that it is real.

    - Last fast Sunday Nadia bore her testimony of the priesthood as well.  She told the story about when Valery was sick one day.  She said that he acted like he was bewitched or something.  He stood up and stood still but he couldn't talk, or respond to anything.  She said he was like a walking potato. Valery's brother is a pastor for another church.  He happened to be around and so he tried healing Valery but nothing was happening.  Nadia felt the need to call us and we came right away.  It was kinda scary to see Valery like that but we gave him a blessing and then we left.  Nadia said that after we left Valery fell down on his bed and fell asleep.  Then a couple hours later he woke up and was fine.  Nadia's brother-in-law asked her, "How did this happen?"  and she told him that those boys are missionaries who hold the power of the Lord.  I know that the Lord loves each and every one of his children and gives us experiences like that to strengthen us.

    - Another little priesthood story... the other Nadia, Moses' wife, has kind of been a hard-hearted investigator and has been hard to teach.  She has not accepted a baptism date because she said she has already been baptized in a different church and doesn't feel like she needs to be baptized again.  Last week she was really sick and Moses called asking us to give her a blessing.  We explained to her about Christ and that God heals those who have faith to be healed.  We gave her a blessing.  The next time we visited her she was up and running.  She first brought us to a couple of people that she wanted us to bless.  One woman was about to have a baby and the other was a child who was sick. The woman had a beautiful healthy baby and then the mom of the one who was sick invited the missionaries to come over tomorrow.  Too bad I won't be there!  I hope Elder Tambula gets a cool investigator out of that.  After those blessings we went back to Nadia's house and she told us, "I am ready to be baptized."  :)

    Well folks that's it for now!  Love you guys!  Have a great week!  :)  Bisous bisous!

    -Elder Mack

    Monday, February 8, 2016

    2/8/16 - Feast of Pictures

    Mom:  No blog email again from Elder Mack but he did send 57 pictures!


    Preparing for the big game



    pics wit cops



    African sky

    Elder Huata representing La Reunion

    Pet turtle.  Nice.

    Gotta walk through the tomb to get to the house

    Bradah Donne's baptista!

    Posing with Malagasy suits


    Soire at Tony's

    Bye-bye Dadabe

    Elder Coleman split!



    paid a guy to fix my umbrella

    Manda's birthday!  We made mashed potatoes, brownies, and cookies

    Revenge

    Dola & Nimrodes baptism!! They did it!


    Can you see me with my little vacuum and the job that I need to do?

    Be grateful for the big vacuum at home

    Ward Mission Leader - Lalaina

    Souer Nanaoh

    Mirado my man


    The fabulous Ghaelle

    Teaching ukulele

    Lunch appointment



    Poulet au Coco

    Elder Olsen

    Davis, Tambula, & Olsen.  Davis goes home this Saturday.

    My Betongolo mommy.  She makes me very good food!