A very valid question. I feel like it is just a constant repetition of Yellow Mountain (Jameson will remember this) every day we have free time to spend looking for our vast less active pool. Maybe that plays a part in why they are less active in the first place, they just can't bring themselves to go up and down some stairs for the true church of God. Completely logical... right.
Happy 25th birthday to Steven Fox! (soon) keepin' it young and classy!
I can tell you about another pretty boring week here in Tana. (okay, I say boring even though the work of the Lord is never boring, it is just sometimes not as exciting to those who read/hear about it. And sometimes it is boring in that we had to do a lot more of the unappetizing aspects of the work than the awesome parts.) It was a hard one for sure, as we spent lots of time looking for members' houses based off of a list of addresses we had and names that we have marked with who is active and less active. And let me tell you a little bit about how Malagasy addresses work (which, remember, is what we have been going off of.)
Malagasy addresses go somewhat like this-- you will have a house, for example, III S 268C, and that is the address. Where you are standing, after looking for 45 min and asking 294 people where the address is, is III S 267C. You are so close you can almost taste the house. But then you look at the addresses of all the other houses and realize that as you go up the stairs the number of the house triples by intervals of 4.26, while every other house is a prime number divided by the square root of the number of banana sellers in the area, and every fourth house on the left actually has a fake address that requires the use of advanced Comorrian to decipher the true meaning of it, and if you go down the stairs the addresses basically don't exist except for two that were probably stolen from another house down the street and then put onto their house. And then someone tells you that the actual address is somewhere in Burlington, Indiana.... To go house hunting here you basically need to bring a squad of members, three tour guides, a graphing calculator and notebook (to do all the calculations to figure out the algorithm of course), a sherpa to carry your bag, and a fruit/beverage vendor to keep you well nourished during the quest. Moral of the story-- it is always an adventure trying to find these houses. But it is going well, we are finding some and have started working especially hard on the less active Melchezidek priesthood holders;
One such less active high priest is a guy who was one of the first people baptized here in Mada, back in the 90's, and was on the high council for a while. He, however, had some bad experiences with disagreeing with others on the high coucil during disciplinary councils. He then fell away. But it was interesting, he talked about a whole bunch of things that made it sound like his problem was so complex, so hard, and that he just could never come back to church. He was super upfront about everthing, and the second we walked into his house he just started spilling it all. I didn't say anything the entire time, just sat there and listened and thought (I dont think he really knew I even could speak Malagasy well) while Rakoto said a few things to him. Afterwards I was talking to Rakoto about it and he seemed somewhat awed and surprised and seemed to be of the opinion that it was a huge complex problem that would take forever to solve and figure out. But literally, like the entire time he was talking I was just sitting there thinking, and had the overwhelming impression that none of those things he talked about should even be worried about-- the only problem he actually had was faith. Pure faith. Nothing else contributed to his going less active except the fact that he just didn't have enough faith, despite all the things he said and claimed and told us. (Obviously you can say that for most less actives, but somehow, I don't know exactly, this one felt different. Hard to describe, and who even knows if I am right, but that is just the strong impression I had.) I told Rakoto as we were leaving that time that I thought it was extremely simple, and we would have that guy back at church within 3 months if we are able to visit him frequently, so I pray that the Spirit will be able to work mighty changes to this man's faith as we continue to visit him. Just something interesting.
We had a surprise opportunity to go down to another area and do baptismal interviews because the district leader was sick (who is Elder Hein actually), which was fun. I always love baptismal interviews. However, they are not quite as fun when the people aren't ready and don't pass, because you have to spend half the time thinking of a nice way to tell them that they are going to have to do some more preparation. That has actually been a problem in this mission, doing bap interviews to get them done and not to see if the person is truly ready or not. So lots of unready people have been baptized in the past, something we are trying to stop.
Our investigators are dropping like flies it seems, for just the most random of reasons. Moving out to the countryside, leaving for work, programs changing and never being caught at home, sudden disinterest, etc. But we press on! all you gotta do is find new ones and it's all good. Whether finding or teaching, it's something that has gotta be done. And so it will, no matter how many stairs there are.
That's all. keep strong everybody, and just remember, life is good.
Love
Elder Fox
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