10/27/14 - Splits and Rain

Wuzzz upp everyone!!

It was a good week this week! We had some different things happen this week but Elder Lehr and I were able to plan out and carry through with a really good week.  We found out that one of our areas, Fianarantsoa South, is getting split.  So Elder Lehr and I have been trying to find a new home for the missionaries that get transferred there.  It took a while but we think we found a good one.  It is ready for when transfer news comes. 

First to answer some of mom and dad's questions.  How's your shoes?  My shoes are great.  I'm really grateful for these shoes.  They are handling the rough roads and I have not had any blisters yet.  Do you cook?  Have you been eating well?  We usually eat out for lunch because we are away from home and then we make breakfast and dinner for ourselves.  We all contribute to the cooking masterpieces in our house.  haha.  We usually buy some meat from the street vendors and throw some other stuff with it like beans, add some black pepper on it, and add rice.  It's pretty good.  We eat really good in this city.  We do have a microwave and an oven.  Also a washing machine and a dryer and we can use it if there is electricity.  We have had a lot of problems with the electricity so sometimes have to get creative and make due.  Are your showers cold?  We have warm showers.  I'm so grateful.  Have you been sick?  We have all been sick.  We feel bad for the damage we do to our poor toilet.  How is the language?  I can definitely see progress in my language.  Some days are better than others.  Some days I can hold a little conversation with someone and other days people just sound gibberish.  I am working hard to learn so I can be more useful.  Did you get to watch conference?  I'm excited that we get to watch general conference this weekend.  Woot woot!

On Thursday, we went on missionary splits.  It was not the way I thought it was going to be split.    Me and Elder Coleman were put together.  I'm not saying that's bad but yet I am because we are both in training!  We can't talk to people really quite yet!  But our trainers just wanted to see what would happen.  losers.  jus kidding.  haha.   But it ended up being fun!  Elder Coleman is a swag guy and he knew a lot more than I thought he did.  We tracted the whole day and we got alot of return appointments.  We don't really know if they said we could come back just to be polite or not. haha. We actually went to a less actives house and we thought it went well.  We were able to share a spiritual thought with them and shared pictures of our families and it went well.  Then, we were very happy to see that she came to church on Sunday and she even came to our baptism service!  Me and Elder Coleman were pretty proud of ourselves!  I guess our trainers knew what they were doing. 

Oh my gosh!  So I experienced my first Madagascar rain this week!  It was awesome!  The rain drops are huge!  It felt so nice cause it's been so hot!  The people here have actually been in a little drought this year so it was awesome to see rain for them! 

We had another death in our branch this week.  It was so sad.  He was a recent convert with his wife.  I'm grateful for the plan of salvation.  And no, I did not get kicked in the head by this dead body.    

The word for this week is "mahafinaritra" (ma-ha-fih-na-ri-chuh) it means awesome!  I use it all the time.  haha  Well, that's pretty much it for today.  Hope all is well with everyone.  Thanks for keeping in touch.  Have a great week!

Elder Mack

This is our ward mission leader Patrique.  No, he is not super tall.  He asked me to sit down so he would look taller.  haha!

The sky over Atarandolo

I have no idea what this bug is but it looks like walking twigs

I don't know this kid but he saw my camera and posed for me.  Haha.  Malagasy kids like cameras.

This is my friend Tsyory.  He's so funny.

This is the church building.  Can you see the sign on the second floor railing?  We have our sacrament meeting on the first floor, the garage looking doors.  We've been actually looking for a bigger building too because the garage doesn't hold everyone anymore.  We sometimes stand up most of the meeting.