Akory é!
Well, there ya go I guess, another week of our lives down in the books. Mine happens to include cool pictures though, which I made sure to post on my Facebook (nooo not actually, that was a joke! but there are more pictures up now) And it's true, as you were all wondering, they do actually have scouts here in Mada. They however are not called scouts, because of the Malagasy way of pronoucing things, they are called 'scoots'. Absolutely hilarious. I'm pretty sure if scouts were called scoots in America I would not have had the self confidence to be one of them...
F and A, our star investigators in the T branch, got married on Thursday!! They had already been married 'vita fomba', which means according to Malagasy tradition but not legally, so we had to work with them to get them to be 'vita soratra', which is the legal wedding here. That process can be an extremely hard one for investigators, especially here in Ft D where it is so common to not be vita soratra, because it involves getting copies of birth certificates and forms that prove the person was not married before. And if there are people who were born out in ambanivolo, the countryside, then they often have to go all the way out to where they were born or else have someone send the papers by bus. And considering how much money people generally make here, about a dollar a day or so, depending, that is pretty difficult. However for F and A we were able to do all of their paperwork stuff here in Ft D! So thank goodness, that was quite a blessing. We had a little party after the vita soratra (eating banana creme pie) and taught a lesson about the temple.
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| Newly married couple |
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| The Wedding Party |
And then just yesterday when I went and taught them they asked tons of questions about the temple and what they need to do to go there and about baptism for the dead and such. YES. Their baptism should be this saturday, the 15th. Getting people going to the temple is the big goal of 2014 for Ft D, so it is all very exciting.
The cutest baby ever!
A new investigator of ours closed a lesson with a prayer and expressed his gratitude for the two apostles that came to teach him. Well, not quite.... but I appreciate the gesture haha
So I am going to take some time to tell a little bit about some of the best investigators and less actives that we are teaching. These are all people who should be prayed for!
--- F and A, T branch. I just explained about them, great people. They learn with their son J and their friend, O, and her son, Od. All five of them should be getting baptized on Sunday. O is way ridiculously smart and understands very well, whereas the others struggle a little bit on the understanding part. Great faith, but it takes a while to get them to grasp the lessons. One of the problems is that F and A can't read, so that is a work in progress.
--- B and his wife, T branch. B was extremely diligent just a little while ago whereas his wife was not, she had barely even learned with us at all. He came to church consistently and was progressing very well, but all of the sudden it seemed like the tables turned and his wife became the diligent one, just a few weeks ago. It is good that his wife is more interested, because they aren't vita soratra and we need her to be faithful and diligent as well to be able to set that all up and get the paperwork, but B's decline is what worries me. It may have to do with his work
--- J, the owner of a nice restaurant in town, A branch. Learned from the missionaries a long time ago in Tana, but since moving here to Ft D has lost contact with the church, mainly because the church wasn't here when he moved here. And we are now teaching him however many years later! And he believes, understands well what we teach, but has just one problem... his wife is a devout prayer at another church, and he is afraid of causing problems in his family or her getting mad at him etc etc. He also was telling us how he has a lot of other problems going on in his personal life and with his family. So me and Elder Mitchell were trying to think of what we could do to best help him the other day, to help his wife and family get interested and learning as well. Thinking hard and praying hard we couldn't really see the best way to go about it. But obviously we planned to keep teaching him and trying to work on it. And we went by to teach him the next day, stopping by his restaurant to see if he was there, and he wasn't. But his wife was! So we got to talk to her for a decent while, make contact, get to know her a little bit. Now we at least have ground to start from, so we were very grateful for that answer to prayer.
--- O, A branch. Young 16 year old guy, but very diligent. Not very much to say but that he is progressing well towards baptism! He has a bap date on the 22nd of March. He is good friends with a couple young men in the ward, so he has been taken in very well. Reads and prays like a champion.
--- E, A branch. Already told you about him last time, but he has got to be one of the most humble and sincere, quiet guys I know. But that doesn't keep him from listening and understanding perfectly what we teach him, and from asking quality questions! (We think he is dating a recently reactivated less active member.... but then again, you never can tell with Malagasies. Dating to them is to talk a little bit more frequently with the other person than you normally would)
--- H, A branch. A single mother who is friends with a member in the T branch. She went a little less diligent just recently, but is now back to coming to church every week. She too is another one of our extremely smart investigators who truly wants to know about what we teach, and understands it when we do teach it.
All amazing people, we are very blessed to be able to teach them. Those are some of the most progressing ones that we have.
Mom:
There is this big kind of mass email that my friends from BYU set up, so I can keep in touch with them. Annie I keep in touch, and I keep in touch with other people occasionally just depending. Me and my MTC comp, Elder Christiansen email most weeks. But yeah, just depends.
SINCE WHEN DID ALL THE BABIES GET SO HUGE AND FAT!?!? I thought it was illegal to give babies roids... but the cuteness level is extremely very high, I am proud of all your good work.
Thought of the week---
D and C 64:33-34. "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days". It is by those small things everyday! If that werent true than missionary work would be absolutely pointless, because what we do are small things every day that help other people see great things come to pass in their lives later on.
Thanks for the prayers and love and emails! They are noticed.
Love
Elder Fox
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