What's up everyone?! I hope it was another good week! Happy Memorial day to all! This week was a great one! First off we had a talent show for all three of the branches here in Fort Dauphin. The talent show was by the far the most hyped talent show I have ever been too. Pretty sure the crowd was louder than the state 5a basketball tourney. haha...ok that was an over-exaggeration but still it was loud. There were a lot of funny talents that I wish I could send all the videos of but sadly 3rd world wifi isnt too fast. The missionaries did a Malagasy dance mixed with some classic moves from the good ole USA such as the nay-nay, the can-can, and the dab. It made the Malagasies laugh very hard and we were all just hoping they were laughing with us and not at us but still not sure on that one. Other than that we had a very good week trying to get this work moving here in the Tanambao Branch of Fort Dauphin. We teach a lot of amazing people that I love a lot and right now we are having to drop some as they may not be ready right now. Not the most fun to drop investigators but something you have to do as a missionary. This week I did a personal study on faith. I asked myself 3 questions I wanted to better understand about faith. First off, what is true faith? How do we show our faith and exercise our faith? And how do we increase our faith? As I read scriptures and studied these questions more there was one answer that was the same for all 3 of those questions. First off, what is true faith? We know faith without works is dead. So what is the definition of works? What came to my mind was obedience to the Commandments of God. So first true faith is obedience. Second how do we show our faith? Again faith is shown through works or obedience. Third how do we increase our faith? We know the blessings come after the trial of our faith so we must first obey the commandments and then we will receive blessings and that will strengthen our faith. So we increase our faith through obedience. I realized how inseparable obedience and faith really are. You can not have one without the other. It is impossible. Also my dad shared with me a quote that I really love and goes a long with this study I did. "Testimony is knowing or believing. Conversion is doing." So if we want to be converted to this Gospel we need to obey. If we believe only but do not exercise that belief, there will come the day that we will fall away. I know all those that nourish the seed of their faith like we learn about in Alma 32, will never fall away and we will be converted to this Gospel. I know that when we are almost obedient, we almost get blessings. If we want blessings we need to obey every word with exactness. I know as we do this we will be blessed beyond comprehension. Hope you all have a great week of Summer! Love you all!
The new zone at the restaraunt at President's hotel that he stays at here in Fort D.
Elder Blatter's first time at the beach haha.
Paradise.
The zone at the "Tent Place" Friday night tradition.
A pic of the talent show although it is not very good. Wish I could send videos!
Me with one of my favorite people I have met on my mission. His name is Lahavelo and he is a baller. Young Men's President and he was baptized in Sept. This was after our talent that is why I look like a scrub.
The zone after we made the crowd go crazy with our dance. I promise we preach the gospel better than it looks like we would.
A member asked us for a blessing and then wanted a pic with us. This is at the hospital which I think I would rather operate on myself than go there.
Last pic is with Carlos, who is our investigator. He comes and plays ball with us in the mornings and he is awesome. He said he liked the Jazz and I told him I do too. Then he showed up with this jersey and he quickly became one of my favorite investigators.
