Mission to Madagascar!: 6/8/15 - Going to Tana to be a Mom

Akoryabio, izaho no hankany Antananarivo!

Hey y'all!! So, as I said last week, transfers were coming up, and we received them last night. I'm being transferred. Yup, I will be leaving this beautiful area to serve the Lord in Ambohimangakely, Antananarivo (Tana for short). I'm finally going to discover the Tana life! I'm pretty excited! I just really wished I would have spent another transfer or two here. I will not be Elder Mumford's last comp. Elder Stringbean (Stringfellow) will be killing him (Mom: that is mission talk for he'll be his last mission comp before he goes home). As for me, I'm MOMMING again. My new companion's name is Elder Iata. He just finished training.

So this is what I have heard about my new area. It is still country side! Woot woot! Avoiding the city again! I will be in one of the few branches in Tana. I may never see a ward!!  I hear that I'm in the same district as the APs and office elders I believe. There are 3 sister missionaries. I have not seen a sister missionary here yet so that will be different. I will also be living in a 2 man house. It will also be cool to be in Tana when the new mission president comes in July. I'll let you guys know more about the area next week. I leave with Elder Snell tommorow morning to go up to Tana.

So this week was great! We had zone conference on Saturday and it was life changing. I learned so much from President Adams. He talked to us about being the "4th missionary." It's a talk. I recommend it for all missionaries getting ready to go and who are serving right now. The 4th missoinary is the missionary that does his best to serve the Lord and does it with all his heart, might, mind, and strength. Be that missionary! President Adams talked a lot about the future after a mission - how to find a job, about finding "The One." haha! Elder Lehr, so funny, he took some way good notes on that subject. :p

So this week I had the opportunity of doing splits in Elder Liao's Area, Mahazoarivo. Way cool area! But it was weird working in a city. Yikes. We taught some way cool people and some not so cool people.  haha! We went to visit one family and I could understand everyone except for the dad and eldest son and then it hit me, "Dang, they're DRUNK!" It was way funny. The family was interested but the drunk one was trying to be a wise guy.

Nothing else really major happened this week. We have been working on investigators to truly commit to their word. It's hard for people to keep commitments. They find a BILLION excuses for not doing reading or coming to church. We have been trying to get this one guy to church. We went to his house yesterday right before church and tried to get him to church. He had a mouth full of chewing tobacco and it was hard to understand him. He said he couldn't come because there was someone sick in Ft. Douphin and his family members from Tamatave were coming down to take him with them to Ft Douphin. The drive from Tamatave to Antsirabe is maybe about 12 hours. He told us they left at 6 that morning so we knew he still had a lot of time to go to church but we couldn't budge him. We were pretty disappointed  We went to church and his kids, who are going with him to Ft Douphin were at church. That guy!

I am so sad to be leaving this area. I've made a lot of friends here. I almost cried at church too. We just met a balling new family. Apparently the missionaries used to teach them but the missionaries stopped coming. It might have been that they did not come to church but it was a long time ago and they still remembered a good bunch. We started with the plan of salvation because they wanted to finish that lesson but they never did. They are way cool and I hope to hear that they get baptized someday. Planting seeds. Well, that's my update for the week!

Love you all! Bisous bisous!
Elder Mack

My 3 favorite little girls! Kanefa tena madrita be izy ireo.

My favorite family. Felana was crying when I told her I was leaving. She sucked it up for the pic and then ran to the primary and continued to cry. :( She's a doll. I'm so love. :p