Hello!
So, after just three weeks at the MTC I feel as if I have been here forever. Not much has changed with the work we have been doing though, lots of personal, language, and classroom studying. We now have three "investigators" (naman'fiangonana as they are are called in Mada, or "friends of the church") that we are teaching. It is hard work but rewarding as we have seen our Malagasy improve increasingly. I now understand a lot of what my teachers/investigators say (although often I still have no clue) and can carry on decently in a conversation. Christiansen and I had a great lesson the other day with our "Henry" (bro. Sell) where we actually carried on an Atonement related conversation the entire 20 minutes. Still have a longgggg way to go, but we certainly have been blessed in our language learning here at the MTC.
On another note, I am down and out with a badly twisted/minorly sprained ankle from playing basketball the other day. I am walking relatively fine and have not had big problems with it, but it is swollen pretty good.
But on to better news. On sunday 23rd of this month, the day before we leave (we leave the 24th, not sure if i told you that or not), there is a devotional being held at the Marriot Center. This, however, will be no ordinary devotional as there will be some very special guests that day. One of them being President Monson, others being Elder Packer and several others from the quorum of the 12 apostles. How cool is that! The day before we leave to madagascar we get sent off by the Prophet himself! They have asked us to put together a big choir, and I am actually singing in it too (couldn't pass up an opportunity like that!). I know I know, I am a changed man already, singing in choirs and doing all sorts of crazy things like that. Very excited! I think it may be broadcast as well, rumor has it, on LDS.org I think.
I heard a funny malagasy joke from my teacher, Bro. Aldous, yesterday. It goes like this. There was a big elephant and a bunch of tiny ants once. For some reason they started fighting. The ants would all climb up on the elephant, but each time the elephant would just shake them off. This happened several times. One time, however, the elephant shook off all but one of the ants, so there was one left still clinging to his back. What did all the ants on the ground say to the ant on top of the elephant? Choke him! hahaha I laughed hard at that one.
So, since I have some extra time, and I just know you have all been dying to learn Malagasy so we can all talk together when I get back, I will tell you a little bit about it (maybe slightly twisted by my own interpretation...) Jameson, you can just skip this part of the email since you probably already know all this already!
1- All verbs start with m. allow me to repeat; ALL verbs (active ones) start with an m. which makes its painful to memorize the differences between many of them, but super easy to change the tense because all you have to do is replace the m with an h to make it future, and replace it with an n to make it past. That grammar is super easy. Some of my favorites; mahazakazaka (to run), mieritreritra (to think) and maka (to take)
2- You can noun-ify any verb. Cool right? Just add an F, add a couple ana's on the end ( no joke) and there you have it.
3- Say a word in malagasy, like managana (to build). Now change the emphasis. Boom, for all I know you could have just said something entirely different, like frog leg or something. and sometimes changing the emphasis puts it into some crazy command form that is really rude. So emphasis is rather important.
4- want to say D&C in Malagasy? Good luck, because its Fotopampianarana sy Fanekempihavanana. My best wishes on any enddeavor to pronouce that. Many have perished in the attempt.
So, that is all.
love,
Elder Fox
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