Talilio irehe! That is a little bit of Atandroy for you guys, one of the crazy dialects from the south.
Anyway, I figure that if Joseph Smith was a rough stone rolling then I gotta be something like a rough brick sliding! When I write my autobiography that will be the title for sure. Now I just need to do something to fill that book! hah
Words of the week: first, a little comorrian for you! I learned it from a comorrian who is in our English class. Hidodo means hiccup, and then zima means to switch. who knew! literally the craziest sounding language of all time comorrian, complete ridiculousness. Malagasy word of the week: zazakely, which means baby. Figured it was appropriate considering recent events!
So this has been quite the week, alot of stuff has happened and there are a lot of cool things to share, so bear with me as I type fast and all punctuation and grammar goes out the window! [mom has helped a bit in the punctuation department] First of all, it was another two split week, so natuarally very busy and tiring, but rewarding. I went with an older missionary who is actually from Bonney Lake WA, Elder Dickson, for the first one. That was a good time, we had an awesome soon-to-be missionary helping us from the ward all day too. The other split was quite an experience, picture this: a skinny tall white boy who speaks english and a little bit of some weird african language called Malagasy and a huge Tahitian man who has only been in country for three weeks, doesn't speak Malagasy basically at all, and only speaks French, get put together to teach for an entire day. Yup! That was a fun one, really quite funny I must say! hahah very good experience though, Elder Huata is a cool guy. Definitely was hard though because I literally did every single miligram of the talking in Malagasy the entire day. Needless to say I slept well that night! (Remembering French now is so hard since I have been focusing on Malagasy. Our conversations throughout the day were pretty hilarious.)
It was a good full week of teaching though, we have really been blessed with the quality appointments we have been able to have. The awesome recently reactivated father who also recently baptized his son, has been giving us a ton of referrals- his sister, parents, and friend's family. It is exciting to see members who really catch the light of the gospel and have such a strong desire to share it!
I met Sister and Brother Heaps, the couple missionaries from Reunion who you were in email correspondence with, at the office. They then came to our ward sacrament meeting on Sunday, so I had a nice opportunity to get to know them! Very nice couple. Bro heaps served in France back in the 50s, in Paris, Avignon and Marseille. Jameson might be interested in this- Bro heaps was actually one of the missionaries who opened Avignon! pretty cool.
Last night we met with the old bishop of our ward to go teach. The investigator wasn't there though. However, we ended up talking to him for a good while about his conversion story and how he came to be such a powerful member, and man alive, Madagascar truly is a land of miracles! I don't have time to tell the full story, but here is a brief synopsis. He was baptized in 1999, one of the first three members in the Ampasinamalo area. 6 months after his baptism he was made Branch President, then becoming the first bishop of Ambohipo when it became a ward. His wife's baptism had to be postponed because Elder Richard G Scott was in Mada to dedicate the land for missionary work. He randomly showed up at his house. Elder Scott then proceeded to ask him why he had come to his house! (even though he had randomly showed up without prior knowledge). The man then told him, following the spirit, that it was because Elder Scott was supposed to dedicate the Ambohipo area specifically. And he did! So cool. The Ambohipo area is only 8% people from Tana, the rest come from all over Mada. This bishop asked him to bless it so that the people who learn the Gospel in this area can then go take it around the entire nation.
This bishop also told the story of the first time he went to the temple. He wanted to go so badly with his family that he put everything else aside and made that his focus. He booked a flight to Johannesburg even though at the time he had literally 0 ariary [Mada money]. The day came for him and his family to go and he needed money for the flight, and as he was thinking about it he felt the prompting that he should go ask a random man for the money and explain why he needed it. Accepting the prompting, he went and asked him. The man was impressed by this bishop's desires, thought it was a good thing, and gave him the 2.2 million ariary needed for him and the three other members of his family to go to the temple. The bishop said he wouldn't be able to pay it back very quickly, but the man said that was okay, he didn't need to pay it back at all. He just wrote the check and gave it to the bishop. Upon getting to the airport in Johannesburg, he and his family had no way of getting to the temple or even any idea where it was. This bishop said that was fine, God would send an angel (his exact words. Some faith huh?) They waited for two hours and then heard a phone ringing, playing a popular Malagasy song. They walked up and asked the person if he knew how to get to the temple. The man said yes, in fact he lived near there and was driving there right then, so he could drop them off. From that point on his entire life has just been an endless series of miracles such as that, but that is just a little taste of what so many conversion stories are here in Mada. Faith is something that comes so natural and easy for them, the Malagasies. How lucky am I to work here, huh?!
During our talk with him he said something awesome, that I made sure to write down as soon as possible. He said 'You dont realize it, but you are at the crossroads of the work here in Madagascar. You will look back and see it was something fabulous.' Wow!
Last weeks questions: My clothes are all doing fine! Elder Jensen and I have been buying some crazy African clothes, I will have to send pics of that soon. Electricity is stable most of the time, at least at our house! It goes out alot for the most part in lots of places though. The Ward is awesome. Tons of good solid members, it is one of the best established in Mada. Our bishop is great!
Dad, I love the scriptures! Thanks for the personal interpretation of D&C 68:6-9.
Kaimi, just keep up the work getting paid to do what you love, whatta win! haha I'm basically doing the same over here, minus the getting paid part. About the people: They are basically the most diverse coloring ever, from light brown like southeast Asian to intense dark, almost Ethiopian dark (but not quite). The farther away from the city you get the darker they generally get especially in the south. And me, I'm about as dark as... this white shirt I'm wearing right now haha I haven't really been getting tan, not yet at least. Summer is coming though!
Soccer situation: way good! they all play little small sided barefoot/tennis shoe soccer, so they have really good little ball skills, not too good at real big fields though. Tons of people play, I have only played twice though since being here, both big sided games. They are very quick little people though! The fields are mostly dirt, although I have heard rumors of grass ones. Who knows though, those may be myths.
Verse of the week: 1 Cor 14:13. All about the gift of tongues, something I have been praying mightily for. It is real though, definitely something that has helped me survive of late!
Love you all, wish the best, love hearing from you!
Am-pitiavana
Elder Fox
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