Yoooooooooooo, Merry Christmas everyone! (That was mainly just for all those who I will not be seeing on Skype in a couple days)
Word for thought-- mitlitiligne, which means to frolic in Antandroy. Yeah, right, I was thinking the same thing-- who would need to say "to frolic" in Antandroy? Well lets just say in comes in handy when I explain the Selestialy (Celestial) kingdom...
So, now for the Elder Fox's opinion section of our newsletter this week-- Why women completely own men in just about everything.
I can not even say how many times we have been teaching a mother or a wife or a daughter in a family and then the drunk male of the family comes stumbling into the lesson trying to convince us that he speaks English or that he is not drunk or that he really needs to stop but he just can't because some sort of evil spirit is stopping him... The only evil spirit stopping you, my friend, is that bottle of whiskey.
While in the meantime the mother is taking care of her four kids while simultaneously working, leading the Relief Ssociety, building a spaceship, and balancing four baskets of bananas on her head. But let's not carry it too far shall we, there are some pretty mindblowing diligent, smart, and dedicated males here.
One of those men happens to be President D of the Branch. Wow. I hadn't met him until yesterday and had the opportunity to join their branch council, but it was then that I saw one of the reasons this branch of the church is killin' it, and that's because he runs it like it should be run. The branch definitely is not perfect by any means, but it has the organization, foundation, and capabilities needed in order to allow for the huge amount of growth it is receiving. But yeah, he is certainly not included in my sexist generalization that all the men here are drunk. Because they aren't all like that!
And skype in just a few days, yeehaw! That'll be fun and awesome, obviously. I wish I had a laptop or something so I could go walk you around Fort D, but sadly that is not quite possible. So we will just be stuck in a boring closet of a room in the Tanambao church. Fa tsy maninona. And just to make sure that all is understood, I will be getting on at 6am or hopefully a tad bit earlier here on the 26th, which will be Christmas night for all of you. And I will have my email up during that time too just in case there are any problems with the skype that we need to figure out. But I have access to both mine and Jameson's skype accounts, so it should be all good.
Feel free to think of questions or any thing you want to talk about as well! I would like to let you all know that this morning I ate my breakfast of bananas on the beach, with the waves gently rolling in and the cute baby penguins dancing around me and mermaids singing in the water. It was splendid.
A big part of my week, on Sunday and Saturday, was spent giving baptism interviews for a very large group of people who are being baptized on the 28th. Obviously we have to do our own interviews because our district leader does not exist and our zone leader is a million miles away in Tamatave, so I ended up doing interviews because I am the one who knows the investigators the least out of the two of us. I was a little nervous for the interviews because I had never done one before and therefore it was a little bit of a step into the dark for me, but I am very grateful to say that they went well, the Lord did not let me go in there and screw everything up.He never does. And let's just say that by now, after having finished the first seven of the interviews (there are still more to come) I actually kinda like them! It is a really good way to get to know someone, get a feel for the progress they have made, and learn the story that has lead them to desire to be baptized. I better enjoy them, because I am hoping that there are many more to come! Baptism is the most evident, clear example of the fruit of the work of a missionary, and not only is it a strengthening experience for the one being baptized but for us, the missionaries, as well.
On Saturday was the branch Christmas party! Both branches had one, but we spent most of our time at the T one. And I enjoyed it, singing traditional christmas hymns in English, French, and Malagasy, with an interesting spin of classic Malagasy culture thrown in there. They did some little dancing thingamajigs and as well as Malagasy songs that I hope actually pertained to Christmas. Then afterwards, of course, we received large amounts of sweet things to eat. What more could I ask for? But I guess the party was a success because the next day a record number of investigators came to T, 26! Together with the other branch there were about 46 investigators at church. Praying and coming to church is such an integral part of the culture down here that once someone gets hooked on the teachings of the missionaries it is normally not a problem to get them to come to church.
On thursday we, along with our normal platoon of member help, went to teach a less active member and his family that is learning from the missionaries at a place about a 45 minute walk away. It took forever but boy was it cool. In order to get there we walked along the beach in the sand part of the way, cut through fields of weird grasses and berries that we ate (tasted not too good), and then meandered through a grove of coconut trees just completely loaded with coconuts. They went and grabbed coconuts for us so we could have something to drink cause we were thirsty... who needs water bottles when there are coconuts to drink right?
I'm not really sure if I have anything else to say, especially since we will be skyping soon, so I will fill you in if there is anything I forgot to tell about this week. It is lots of hard work here in Fort D but things are going well, we are pushing along.
I will close by wishing everyone who reads this a very merry Christmas! Or, as they say, Mirary Kristmasy Sambatra! It is truly an awesome time of year. And hopefully it is a great time of the year to us all for the right reasons. Because it is recognition and rememberance of the birth of Jesus Christ, a miraculous event that has few things that equal it in magnitude and importance. The only thing that surpasses the birth of Jesus Christ is the life that He lived. It was one of no flaws, of no mistakes, of complete obedience to His Father's will, and love that surpasses all our understanding. I loved the fact that I got transferred during this Christmas season, because I had the opportunity to bear my testimony in both branches about this message. And both times I shared with the members the fact that there would be no Elder Fox in Madagascar right now had this Christmas miracle not happened, had Jesus Christ not been born and then lived a sinless life for all of our sakes. But He did, therefore I am sitting here at a cyber in Fort D having just come from the beach where we were fishing with some members. May we all remember it. O mba mahatsiarova.
Love
Elder Fox
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