amboahaolo (Fox) news

Hellos all around! Just sitting here wondering where all the lemurs I was promised went...

Word of the week: amboahaolo, which means fox! I had to go digging through the Malagasy bible for that one cause obviously they don't really have any foxes in Mada so they don't know what they even are.

  This week was a crazy one for sure! Plenty of stuff happening to keep us occupied. The first was that we moved houses! There are now just four of us in the nicest house in Mada I am fairly sure. It is ridiculously nice, way to nice for little missionaries like us! Like a mansion one could say. So I definitely cannot complain about our living situation one tiny bit! It is much closer to our area, we just walk  up the biggest hill in the entire world and then we are there, so a much better proximity than the last one. No more crazy buses just to get to work in the morning.

    Another thing is that on Thursday our ward had a big long talent show that took up a decent portion of our day. It was super fun, and we got to interact with members and nonmember friends that were there and stuff. Little Malagasy kids dancing is just too hilarious! So with those two very time consuming things during the week it wasn't as productive as we had hoped.

  But despite the week being a little slow the work is going awesome! It has certainly accelerated recently in the number and quality of investigators we have, as well as those who have taken good steps and our now progressing. We are working hard on commitments and pushing for getting more baptismal dates, especially this upcoming week. There are many extremely diligent investigators, two came to church before we even began teaching them, and would benefit from having a goal to work towards. Obviously the same goes for all investigators, but I am excited about some that seem especially prepared. Fewer of our times have been falling through as well, which has been a huge blessing. This upcoming week should be good! I am working on small talk with people and getting to know, which is super hard. It is a learning experience every time, but I now understand a lot more than before so I guess that is a start!

   Had the weird experience while on a split with elder Mitchell to teach in English (there is an English speaking family that he works with) it was so awkward! How do you even do that? I don't remember how teaching sounds in English anymore. Thank goodness we speak Malagasy here! hahah they served us mac and cheese, which was delicious.

Due to my failure to provide a good story last week here is one.

  Here is a better inspiring story of a family, a man we still visit and teach. He has a daughter who is about 12 or so, maybe a little older now. She started learning from the missionaries by herself, no support from her mom or dad. She would walk to church, taking her two younger siblings with her every week. And every week she kept learning from the missionaries until she was baptized. Her mom then became interested because of her daughter, started learning as well, and then was baptized. The man told us recently that his heart was changed one Sunday. His entire family wanted him to come to church with them, but he refused. And he felt so bad he said, that he never wanted to feel that way again. He overcame all his bad habits. He was baptized. And then, just a few weeks ago at the baptism, he baptized one of his younger daughters. SO COOL. They are really an amazing family; Could you imagine a 12 year old doing that as well??

 

Mom, answers to your questions:

1    How much do things cost here? Literally nothing. Approx exchange is 2000 ariary is one dollar. We get delicious malagasy meals on the street, that absolutely stufff us to the brim with rice and yummy cooked things on top, for 2000 to 4000ish. There are more expensive things to eat here, and Shoprite is definitely more expensive (in that we spend 20 dollars there). Little stores sell all kinds of cookies and crackers and such that are very cheap. One thing of cookies is about 200 ariary, depending. They sometimes do prices in francs though. 5 francs is 1 ariary. So math is often involved in buying.

2    Our contacting is normally door to door. There is no knocking, however, as you just stand outside and yell 'oh dee oh!' (i dont actually know how to spell it) most people are very hospitable here.

  So I tried getting pictures up in this cyber but it didn't work, so if possible I will just do it at another one today, and if not for sure next week. There are some good ones to add.

Dad:

  Glad the craziness of missionary work is still going strong! totally awesome. And a double thanks for the advice! That is very good to have. Sure alot about obedience huh? It is all very true!

 

Scripture of the week:

2 Nephi 26:23-28, 33     The Gospel is for all! I love the way Nephi says it, he says it all! Can't argue with that. God does things for the benefit of mankind, I have certainly been able to see that truth here in mada, every day.

 

Love yall!
Elder Fox

(you should let Riley know that I got his letter, tell him thanks and that he is the best! And a big congrats!)