Mission to Madagascar!: 9/25/14 - (MTC) Last email from the MTC

Manahoana ianareo,

So this has been a pretty awesome week! This will be my last update in the states! I leave Monday! We go from Salt Lake - Dallas - London - Johannesburg - Madagascar! Its gonna be a LONG trip! Madagascar is the farthest misison away from Salt Lake church headquarters. Wish me luck! So this week we got to hear from ANOTHER Apostle! It was Awesome! We got the privelege of hearing from Elder M. Russell Ballard. He talked about a whole lot of good stuff. He told us that he would talk to us just like your grandfather would. It was great!

This week, Elder Tiu got an infection so we had to go to the health clinic OUTSIDE CAMPUS! It was awesome! We were walking on the sidewalk and there were so many people who honked and waved to us. Oh we felt like heroes. haha There were also those people who weren't so nice on the street. One guy said "you guys are slaves". It was fun! But it was so weird being in the outside world! haha

So this week we were told that the Elders are going to sing for general conference for priesthood session. The week after I leave.... soo not cool.... They are doing a couple of my favorite songs too! 'Nearer My God to Thee' and 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives'. But I guess to look on the bright side I'll be in Madagascar free to go wherever I want to go - in my area. haha.

This week me and Tiu got another role playing baptism! woot woot! This guy was hard headed! It took like how many lessons but he finally agreed to baptism! And its in malagasy too so it made it extra hard. We also got a new investigator. Brother Bingham played one of his investigators named Jean Pierre. He was actually a less active member. When we found out the problem, we didn't know what to do at first. Kinda came as a shock. He lost a child recently. We were able to get him back to church after the second lesson so that was good! Oh my gosh so another companionship was teaching Jean Pierre for the first time a couple days ago. They asked, "How are your kids and how old are they?" Jean Pierre said, "I have a 4 year old, 6 year old, and a 7 year old but she just died." One of the elders didn't know the word for 'died'. So he just said "tsara" which means 'good' in Malagasy. Brother Bingham face palmed them and kicked them out. They got a second chance yesterday and did well.

Well, on Sunday we got to hear a talk from the previous MTC president. He talked about being 100 watt light bulb missionaries. He gave us a lot of great tips so we're not just 30 watt or 60 watt but 100 watt! It was awesome!

Brother Bingham showed us alot of pics from his mission yesterday and it was so cool! I'm so excited to go! He even played a song for us! It's called 'Ravoravo' by Mika and Davis. Look it up. It's beautiful! Well, I'm excited to leave! Till next week! Madagascar, Here I come! Woot Woot!

Veluma,

Elder Mack