I'm not sure if boombaby is on the list of words that are inappropriate for a missionary to use, but I sure hope not because that is about all I can think of to describe the transfer news we got last night...
Elder Micthell will be leaving for Tana, and three new missionaries will be flying in that same day (I may have to have a mini for a while if their flights aren't very close together time-wise.) Which, as you have all figured out by now, means that one of the branches is getting whitewashed. I expected them, if they were going to split the area this transfer, to whitewash T. Branch because it is suffering and has a veryyy tiny, weak program as most of our time is spent teaching a full schedule of progressing investigators in A. Branch that we can't just drop. The full cleansing of a whitewash is needed there was my thought. However, my mind had it all wrong. Me and Elder Hein will be in T. Branch! And the whitewash will happen in A. Branch, which is a mind blow for me.
And that now means I get a slap of reality to the face as I leave the comfort of an overfull program that left no time for any bad investigators or any contacting of any sort (which is the program Elder Mitchell and I had when running both areas) to having to build an entire program almost... which I guess is something I need to do or else all this craziness wouldn't have happened in the first place! So there is going to be a ton of hard work required these next weeks from me and Elder Hein. It will be an experience to remember. I always had a weird feeling that I was meant to work in T. Branch ever since I got here, and I now have proof that I am supposed to. A. Branch is rolling along just fine, almost too good to be true, whereas T. Branch is straight suffering hard. So let's see what we can do about that huh? (or more like, let's see what type of tools we can be so God can do something about it. I have very little to do with anything)
So that's a pretty cool birthday present right, three new missionaries to help the work here in Ft D explode. I couldn't ask for a better one.
Speaking of which, I happen to have the same birthday as President Danielson (A. branch) so you can be sure there is going to be an absolutely stellar soiree at his house tonight after we teach H.! We are making brownies and ice cream to bring, so of coure it will be good. Although I still haven't found any eggs, Ft D seems to be lany (out) right now.... and then on Tuesday night again we have a soiree with F. and A., which will be a merry goodbye to Elder Mitchell and a very happy birthday to me.
Whew, now that I got all that exciting stuff off my chest I will tell you some cool/funny/sad/what-the-heck?? stories from this week. The first of those might happen to be the fact that I am eight months in country. whaaaaat? I don't believe it.
Okay, a funny story: We have had phone problems down here, like all the phone problems known to man, meaning that even though we had four phones in our house none of them would even work enough to hold a phone call for longer than a few seconds before dying. So, as we were working on getting a new phone or getting one of those to work, we were without a phone for a few days... which is pretty funny because that is literally the only way we can keep in touch with anything that goes on in the mission or receive any news or anything... so Fox and Mitchell were rolling completely solo and disconnected from everthing for those two days. We have a new phone now, but I kind of miss that feeling of freedom and isolation, it was nice.... (that is one of the many things I like about working here, there are very few distractions and one can focus quite well on the work).
We had the craziest Sunday ever, bar none. It started all normal at church and ended with awesome transfer news, but there was some pretty crazy things that happened in between as well. E. and Sr. A., the less actives that we have been working hard with that I have told you about, suddenly had huge problems show up that led them to separate (for now at least, I don't know if its permanent) and we spent a good portion of the day searching for where Sr A. went with her kids because nobody knew what had happened to her. We found her thank goodness, but it was just a very sad and frustrating series of events that took us completely by surprise, to see a good progressing member drop back to old ways and even lower. They, E. that is, had been doing so well when suddenly things just exploded. Time, prayer, and the atonement can fix it though.
And then, right after we were finished with all that craziness and were walking out of the little development where they live we ran into this guy who was randomly weilding a hatchet and hacking at these palm trees. At first we just thought he was cutting it down to use as building material or firewood or something and stood there to watch it fall cause we thought it would be cool. That was until we noticed that everyone in the area was pulling away to a safe distance from him, and he started to wildly hack at trees other than the one he was working on cuting down... me and Elder Mitchell walked carefully past him just because we didn't know what was going on and thought something fishy might be up based on how everyone was acting around him. I then stopped and was like 'wait a second, I don't think this guy is just cutting down trees...' so we stopped and turned around to find out that it was a drunk, crazy man weilding a hatchet and all of the other Malagasies were screaming at him to put it down and stop hitting stuff. And that was when the leader of the housing development carefully walks up to him, calms him down a little bit, and then jumps on him to try to wrest the weapon from his hand. And it was at that point I yell to Elder Mitchell (our ever faithful American marine) to go to work. He handed me his bag and then jumps in to pin the guy to the ground and rip the axe out of his hand. It was quite a scuffle, but ended up with Mitchell having the guy pinned to the ground, the axe safely in the hands of the other guy, and people running to grab rope to tie the guy up. (I, of course, was instrumental in my supervising of the entire thing.... hahaha) They made sure that he was very safely bound before we left. So that was nothing I had ever seen before... don't worry mother, this is not a regular occurance here!
And just as we thought everything had calmed down and we were just going to go enjoy a good soiree with Pres D. we end up missing the bus to go to the complex he lives in after waiting for it forever, meaning we had to pay a ridiculously expensive taxi ride to get out there, go through security we would have otherwise avoided, and things like that. It was a very delicious dinner and good soiree though!
And to think, all that happened before we received the exciting transfer news that capped off the craziest day ever. Ahh, living that Ft D missionary life.
I guess its time to wash my bag, I think the white marks on it is salt from my sweat....
Thought for you all this week: D and C 131:6. "It is impossible for man to be saved in ignorance." So ignorance may not be bliss after all... in fact, it is the opposite. It is fun, sobering, and humbling to know that my job now is to help people leave the ignorance of the world and begin on the path on which they can receive salvation. Such a responsibility and joy. Don't ever doubt it.
Love
Elder Fox, who may or may not have put a few more pictures of paradise up
(a big shout out to a certain Jameson Fox who will be turning 63 this Friday!)
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