It was a great week here in Ambohimanarina! Lots of people have asked me about the cyclone. There was little to no damage done in the area I am in. I am sure it was worse on the coast but haven't heard anything too crazy! This was a great week. We had some great lessons and have a lot of people progressing! Gave out a lot of baptismal dates this week too which is always great! One cool experience I had was tracting. We tracted into this young couple. They were a little rough around the edges you could say. Both had lots of tattoos and the husband was smoking and had a black eye that looked like he got a right hook to the face when we found them. We told them who we were and they let us in. They had lots of broken and empty beer bottles on the floor of their house. My first thought was oh man lets see how this goes...but as I started talking to them and we started teaching I felt like I truly cared for this couple. I felt the spirit very strong in that lesson. I felt like I really loved these people I had just met. It was a weird feeling. We left and then taught them again a few days later. The lesson went really good again. I thought man I really want these people to get this, I really want them to accept this in their life. They said they are going to come to church this week which made me really happy! I thought about that little experience a lot and noticed a change in myself. I think before my mission I would've judged those people. I don't know if I would've wanted to talk to them about Jesus Christ or his Gospel. But in the MTC our Branch President told us to pray for the gift of love everyday of our missions. I have tried to do that and I truly feel it and definitely felt it in that particular lesson. The mission is teaching me to love all people no matter who they are or what they have done. That is what Christ did. He said he came to call the sinners to repentance but not the righteous. We are all sinners in different ways and we should learn to love all that we come in contact with. It is something I am continuing to work on. One thing I have realized is that missionary work goes a lot better when you love the people and they love you. If they know you love them and desire their happiness they are a lot more willing to listen. I hope that is something I can get better at as my mission goes on but I am grateful for that little experience I had this week! Hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!
A cup with my pic and Thalias from Tamatave. She made me that and sent it down here with another missionary! Way nice of her haha.
A pic of me in a rice field.
The kids never fail to make me smile!!
A cool sunset and view of our area!
A view of our church and the US Embassy.
