Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, what a great time of year. and yeah, it's a little different over here in Mada, but what better way to show your gratitude than going out and preaching the Gospel right? I think someone in the house attempted to make a pie or tart or something, but I was asleep by the time it came out of the oven. I was celebrating in spirit.
So on Wednesday we drove up to Tamatave, which is a good 6-7 hours up to the north, on the coast. It's the second biggest city in the country, with a full zone of 12 missionaries working up there. Elder Christiansen is their ZL. We just got back today. Lots of palm trees, little bicycle carts called 'pousse pousse' that pull people around, music pumping from little wood houses, rain, and tropical sun. We had a quality time going on splits in all the different areas, which is cool first of all because you get to see new areas and get new experiences, but even better was getting to work with the amazing group of missionaries we have up there. All of them are super young in the mission (except Christiansen of course) but are doing well and working hard. It is good to see the "rising generation" (at least how I think of it haha) that has such great potential. Man, they sure put us to shame, they are going to do incredible things in this country.
I went on splits in the Mangarivotra, Toamasina, and Andranomadio areas for three of the four days we were up there, with Saturday being zone conference. It was a sweet zone conference, I loved it. Learned a ton. We talked a lot about the big picture and went over the mission history and talked about the ultimate goals/destiny of Madagascar. So incredible! soon enough there will be church buildings filling the hills wherever you go here, with a temple to boot. That'll be the day. But important to that is creating the right mission culture. One that is obedient, humble, and willing to submit to the will of the Lord without seeking after personal gain or glory. What it comes down to is this-- if input is 100% then the rest just doesn't matter. You can only control what you can control. Which means that all the results of our labors are a blessing from the Lord and must be received with gratitude, not pride and boasting. and it honestly just does not matter one single bit where you serve or what position you serve in, as long as that input effort is 100%.
And Tamatave is also one of the hot spots for litchi (lyche in English...?) For those of you who do not know what litchi is let me explain by using the scriptures. You know that dude Lehi, when he saw a cool vision and everything with a tree and big spacious building and stuff? Yeah, anyways, he eats the fruit of the tree, right?, and says its the most delicious and desirable thing of all time. Yup, it was a litchi tree, guaranteed. It doesn't say specifically, but it is implied, trust me. We came home with a big basket of them, although they do sell them here in Tana.
Mom:
I have only received one of the packages, the other one must be on the way.
Mada Christmas traditions... don't really exist. They celebrate it, which normally means eating a big, nice meal, but besides that they don't have the money to have much more tradition than that. They probably go to church too.
What the heck?! Kendra Hansen is getting married? sheesh, this world just gets crazier and crazier every day.
Dad:
Well, I thought Sister Folsom and Knopf still had over a year left on their missions? That would only make sense, since I am just now hitting my 6th month mark... man that is ridiculous they get home so soon. Say it ain't so!
Keep up the good work everybody, wherever you're at and whatever you're doing. We can't have any of that laziness business around here.
Love
Elder Fox
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