I cannot even explain to you how hot it is right now. There are no words to describe humidity that exceeds all humidity, and sweat that exceeds all sweat. All I can say is that I better come back so tan from this place that people mistake me for a Malagasy. That is all.
So, now that I got that off my chest, hello!Let me give you a word for the week-- vaozava, which means watermelon. I learned that just this morning while I was, yet again, dripping in insane amounts of sweat hiking up a mountain. And let me tell you, a vaozava at that time sounded sooooo good.
So yeah, basically what happened last week is that President Adams got bored and annoyed at having me so close to the office that he straight drop kicked me into the farthest provence in this place, FORT DAUPHINNN. (Or Ft Dolphin, as it may be called. I'm not sure if there are any dolphins here though...) So on Thurs the office elders took me to the airport, and after a series of very stressful events that revolved around the fact that the one bag I brought weighed about 80 pounds, I managed to sneak onto this somewhat small plane with a bunch of African people and fly out of Tana! It was fun, very fun. I gazed longing at the endless expanse of Malagasy jungle that we flew over on the way, picturing myself swinging in the trees wearing less-than-missionary-appropriate amounts of clothing.
But, before I continue the story, let me commence at the beginning of the week, after I last emailed you all. My Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied with running around and teaching, talking to, and taking pictures with all my favorite people. And let me tell you, I have a lot of favorite people there. I did that while simultaneously packing one bag to be brought down here with me and the other to be stashed in the office for a future date when I return. That might be a while because missionaries normally get sent down here in Fort Dauphin to just roast for ages and ages, but we will see. We ate lunch at the Bishop's house on Tues. as a final good bye slash planning sesh with Elder Thia and Palmer to help them map out what needs to be done in the two areas, and then on Weds. we ate an absolutely amazingly delicious lunch at E's. That lunch wasn't my final goodbye to them though, I saw them that night, they were the last people we stopped by.
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| Final lunch at E's |
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| Saying Goodbye |
My mind has officially decided that leaving an area on your mission is the worst thing ever. Correction, leaving the people in the area is the worst thing ever. They are literally my entire life, everything that I think about and do is for them,
and all those nights I would come back to the house either jumping with glee yippee! or wanting to rip heads off was because of them. And then suddenly, with the shortest notice ever, I had to stop by all of them and say veloma and mandrapihaona, until we meet again. So yeah, that was hard. But such is the life of a missionary I guess! That was my first taste of such an event.
And then coming here to Ft Dauphin is awesome, but at the same time ridiculously hard for me. I don't know these people, I will get to know them quickly but for now I have no idea, and yet I am asked to put out the same amount of care and effort as I did with all those who were basically family to me. And I am! I am really trying, its just... weird and hard. But worth it! It won't be long before they become my family too.
And then yeah, that brings me here, to Fort Dauphin! Beforehand, let me explain a little bit more about the missionary work in this miraculous city. First, ITS HOT. Jk, that has nothing to do with the work.
First, about 6 years ago there was just a group here, 7 or 8 members. Now there are two branches of over 120 members each.
Second, missionaries have not been here for very long, I am the 22nd missionary to have worked here (or so they tell me).
Third, there is too much work for just two missionaries. A while ago there were four, but now just two. Too much work. We go on splits with members here on a regular basis throughout the week, 3 or 4 times, in order to catch all the teaching times when possible. An example of that is this stat that the office gave me right before I left (this isn't me bragging, I obviously had nothing to do with this) that the max number of lessons taught in a week was here in Ft D, 77. That's a lot of lessons. Just a testimony to how the Lord has prepared the people in this city for the Gospel.
Fourth, the members help here is out of control it is so good. I have not taught a single lesson here without a member present. Elder Mitchell says he has only taught five his entire time here. The only problem is that there are too many members who want to help us, believe it or not. We bring like a horde of Mormons into these little wood huts as we go in to teach, pretty hilarious. But that is what allows us to pull splits and such when we need to, so it is such a blessing. I am so blessed to have been sent here.
But boy oh boy do people here suck at speaking official Malagasy! Instead they speak the fastest Antanosy or Antandroy known to mankind. Oh my goodness, I'm not sure if I would even understand them if they were speaking English they talk so fast. But that makes it fun! For now I may hate it a little bit, especially the Antanosy because I understand a lot more Antandroy thanks to E and family, but once I begin to get used to it I'm going to love it. I better leave this place not only as tan as a Malagasy but fluent in some straight African awesomeness.
The city of Ft D.... I cant even explain. I am taking tons of pictures, which I will send next week probably, that can help you understand. It is like Paradise, except better. Endless white sand beaches, the bluest water known to mankind that WE CAN'T GO IN (I'm not bitter or anything hahaha :) combined with nice paved roads, clean air and clean everything (Tana is absolutely filthy, third dirtiest city in the world). It feels somewhat like a nice little European city got lost on its way and found itself down on the far tip of Mada. Thank you, Rio Tinto.
The atmosphere is so relaxed, so chill, nobody is rushing to go anywhere besides us. They just meander along on their way in their paradise landscape. And they all love to learn the gospel, so that's good. And they love to come pray at church, which is fantastic as well. We normally have 30 to 40 investigators at church every sunday. Right!?? Tell me about it, I was even more excited about that than you.
We climbed up a mountain this morning with a group of members, it was super fun. I felt like I was in the land before time climbing through a jungle. It was hard though, I'm so out of shape and its like 565622121447 degrees outside plus 300% humidity. Thank goodness for trees that you can stab the trunk of and have a stream of water shoot out (true story, they exist)
I will give you more on our investigators, RCLAs, and things like that more specific about our lessons in weeks to come, once I get to know these great people better. For now I am just enduring, working hard to get to know them and understand that straight Martian language that flies out of their mouths.
Mom:
Leaving all the people in Tana wasn't all that bad in the moment, but that was because at that time I didn't believe I would actually be leaving. But, in reality, it was horrible. A happy thing at the same time as being extremely hard. I am just glad to have become family with those people.
Apartment= look out the window and see the waves rolling in on the beach :) what more can be said? Oh, its nice inside as well.
Elder Mitchell is a goofball, very fun guy to be with. We are different though, and have different ideas about how to do things, but we get along. I think we will work together well. He is great at becoming friends with people and supporting and loving them, which is good.
CHRISTMAS. So this is the plan for the phone call. Me and Mitchell are planning on going to the church at 6am the morning of the 26th, here in Madagascar. I will then SKYPE you. Awesome! 6am here should be about 8pm for you guys, yo-yo, the night of the 25th. If calculated correctly.
Scripture for you all. It is E's favorite-- 2 Nef 27:23. God works miracles among us according to our faith. So want a miracle? Minoa (command form of to believe). He sure has worked plenty of them in the past, and there is absolutely nothing stopping Him from doing so now.
Love
Elder Fox
Love
Elder Fox
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