1/5/14 - CTR,Taxibe, the Sabbath

My beautiful ohana and friends!

Happy New Years! Tratra ny toana voavoa! I hope everyone had an awesome new years!  I hope you got to spend time with family, make resolutions, blow up some fireworks, etc.  For us here in Mada, we went to that French restaurant that we went to for Thanksgiving.  I had the steak.  It was pretty good.  It came with some tater tot kinda things.  Is it "Mo Bettah"?  NOPE :p 

 

Today we went to the Ranomofana National Park.  There is a tourist area and a beautiful river.  I saw many species that I've never seen before but they move too fast to take a picture.

 

So instead of a Malagasy word this week I'm going to teach you a phrase.  This is a phrase that I have repeated a lot lately.  I have a CTR ring that I always wear.  A lot of people ask me what CTR means. I tell them it means "Choose the Right" but in Malagasy you say, "Fidio ny Tsara".  Choose to do good.  Choose to do the things that lifts you and others up.  I also want to share another word, it is "halo" (hey-lew) which means umbrella.  This past week the halo has been my best friend! haha.  We have had some hard rain storms come in this past week. I really needed my halo. 

 

So this week was pretty good for me and Elder Hammer.  We had some long days here.  Most of it was tracting.  A lot of our appointments fell through this week because people were at parties or they had a hangover.  Yes, we are teaching a lot of people about the word of wisdom over here.  But me and Elder Hammer did get to meet alot of new people... new potential investigators ;)  We've had to take a taxibè a few times. A taxibè is just like a little bus.  I love making contact with people on a taxibè.  It's like I sit by someone and I think, "You can't go anywhere.  You're mine."  hahahahaha Nah nah. Just kidding. But it is super nice.  You get to meet some awesome people on the bus.  But really every time I enter a bus I can't help but think, "Who is my next victim?!"  haha.  Joke.  

 

I think this week went well and this new week should be even better.  Hopefully everyone will be home and sober.  We should have a full schedule this week.  I'm hoping for a good turn out at church next week.  Yesterday we did not completely "0" out like we did last Sunday.  We had one investigator come!  Next week I know we will have more. 

 

In our zone meeting we talked alot about how we can encourage people to come to church.  That is a common problem that all misionaries have is investigators not coming to church.  A big lesson that Malagasies need to learn is the importance of the sabbath day.  That will be super essential for people to learn here.  Me and Elder Hammer are working with two awesome investigators right now.  They are Ernest and Bessa.  Ernest is an older investigator but he's been coming to church and he has been so diligent in reading The Book of Mormon.  He is in Alma now and his scriptures are marked like no one I've seen!  It's awesome!  I really hope that I will be able to see his baptism.  Bessa is so cool as well.  We taught him yesterday.  He is a new investigator.  He is receiving the gospel very well.  His family though has 3 different faiths.  Bessa is FJKM (Fiangonana Jesoa Kristy I Madagasikara - The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar).  His wife is Catholic and his kids are Adventist. He told us that he just wants his family to be one faith so that thay can pray and worship together.  So super cool.  He had some very good questions and he's understanding the lessons very well.  That's it for now.  Have an awesome week and get back into the swing of things after the holidays!
 

- Elder Mack