What is up everyone?! It was a great and crazy week to say the least! I love my new area! We are teaching a lot of great families and had 17 investigators at church! The work is great and should be seeing some baptisms soon! Tana is a lot different than Tamatave but Madagascar is just great all around! I have loved my first week here! It was hard leaving Tamatave and the people I have grown the love but that is the life haha. This week I read a great scripture I believe it is D&C 130 verse 20 and 21. If that is not it I am sorry haha. It talks about how all the blessings we receive are dependent on our obedience. Dang that makes life a lot easier huh? Want some blessings? Do what you are supposed to, it is that easy. Doesn't say that our lives will be perfect or we won't have hard times and trials but I believe and know that if we are obedient we receive blessings. My MTC teacher told us a great quote that I might have wrote about already but I don't remember. "When you are almost obedient, you almost get blessings." I love that and it sums up my spiritual thought for the week. I had one of the greatest and most spiritual experiences of my life this week. As I told Thalia I was leaving, she told me a lot more about what led her to have Masako bring us to talk to her. First off, a long time ago, she was a Muslim and she had a dream that she was drowning in a lake but then a man dressed in white reached in and pulled her up. She couldn't tell who he was but she asked who he was and the man said, "My name is Jesus Christ." She ended up leaving the Muslim church and investigating Christian churches. Then she said she just felt like something was missing and she had a dream two weeks before we started teaching her. She had a dream of a tall white guy with dark hair who she didn't recognize. In the dream, the guy helped her with just a simple little random act of service. She said she thought it was really weird that she dreamed that but then
two weeks later she saw me and Elder Nortje walk by her house. She thought she recognized me as the guy in her dream so she told her friend Masako to bring us to her house to talk to her. She didnt tell us she had a dream until the day I was leaving Tamatave, but she just wanted to know who we were and what we were doing after she saw us that first time. Long story short, she is now the Young Womens teacher in the branch I was serving in in Tamatave. Her telling me this made me feel so many emotions. Mostly I was grateful that Heavenly Father had prepared her to hear our message. I know this gospel is true! I know there are so many people that need this in their lives and I can't wait to go find more! I love what I am doing right now! Have a great week everyone! Love you all!
Some pics of me with President Honore and his family before I left Tamatave. He is the Branch President. They are an awesome family!
The view out of my window in my room
A pic of my room
The cool shower we have that has a window way too big haha
Some pictures of my new area!! Way cool mix of city and the country side!
Here is a pic of the funeral. You can see the blue van in background with the coffin on top. (Schyler's first day in his new area, he and some other Elders had to carry the dead body into the church before the funeral. Eek!)
A pic of the sweet court we played bball on this morning with the youth and other elders!
An action shot haha
Elder Schnoor snapped some pics of when I told English class in Tamatave that it would be mine and Elder Bennett's last week teaching them. They then swarmed us for autographs haha...Malagasies are weird but gotta love em.
