Week 78 - Bolongany

Akory aby! Ino ty vaovao? Wow. An email wont be able to describe my feelings this week. I am back in Fort Dauphin and it has been a great week. Getting to surprise people and see all these amazing people again was unreal! We are back and getting to work and life couldn't be any better. Our branch is still doing great despite the absence of missionaries the last 3 months. When we were all evacuated, there was one sister missionary in our mission that was from Tanambao, Fort Dauphin. Her mission was ended when the evacuation happened and she went back home and she went and started visiting all our investigators that we had been teaching! That was a great blessing and I told her that she may think her mission is over but it really is just starting haha. Man life is just good. This week I came across a scripture I had read a lot before but this time I just sat and thought about it a lot and it was really powerful. It is 2 Nephi 4:26. It says, "Oh then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?" I love this scripture. It just made me think about the Savior and my faith in the Savior a lot. Do we really believe that Christ suffered for our sins and he is the Savior and Redeemer of the world? If we do, then why aren't we just full of joy all the time?! He overcame the world and so can we! Now obviously we all won't be happy absolutely 100 percent of the time but I know we can always find joy and peace in every situation in life. There is a song by LDS Youth Album that a member in Reunion showed me called, "Peace in Christ". One line says, "when there's no peace in the world, there is peace in Christ." When we focus and center our lives on the Savior we can find peace even in our hardest and most challenging trials. I know He lives. There's not a doubt in my mind. I know He is the Savior of the world. I hope we can all strive to focus our lives on Him and draw unto his light and peace so we can have that more in our lives. I hope you all have a great week! Aza maditra! Mazotoa! 

 This is the squad in pic with Black Nadia who was at the airport. She is famous singer in Mada and she is from Fort D. She said she is going to invite us over for dinner and we can talk to her about our message when she comes for a concert in February haha.

Pics of Fort D 

Pics of the branch activity we had this last Saturday! It was so awesome to have an activity with everyone our first week back. It was really fun! 

Pics continue! For the activity, everyone brought rice or bread and then the branch president provided the food with the rice and everyone prepared it together and we played games with the kids and branch president was playing music for everyone. It was just a way fun time! 

We also got a bunch of people that sell fish and shark right outside our house and we got a pic of that too. 

Last few pics of Fort D. This pic was snagged by Elder Blatter out of the plane window flying in...words cant describe how cool it is here!

Week 77 - Velona Iray Trano, Maty Iray Fasana

Akory aby!! Inona vaovao?! Faly dia faly tokoa aho! I hope you all had a great week! I can promise you this has been one of the greatest weeks of my life and it's all about to get even better! I am here in Antananarivo and life can't get any better! I never thought a place so far away could feel so much like home. I will be here in the capital until tomorrow when I will take a plane back to Fort Dauphin and try to get it rolling again. Sunday we were able to choose what branch or ward we wanted to attend and so I was able to go back to Ambohimanarina. Walking into the chapel and seeing all the peoples' eyes get big and smiles grow, will be a memory I will never forget. The Malagasy people love missionaries and they were very excited to see us again. I was able to go and visit many people who I taught and baptized just a year ago. It was a surreal experience and I feel so blessed! Many of them are Melchizedek Priesthood holders and are preparing for the temple with their families this upcoming year. Wow. I can't even describe the joy of being here again! I cant wait to go to Fort Dauphin tomorrow also and get to work with Elder Jackson. It is going to be an absolute blast. This week in Mauritius, before we came to Mada, we met with the District President there who is a South African man. He is awesome. He said something that I will never forget. He said,"You know it's a tragedy that all the missionaries were taken from Madagascar. But the Lord works in mysterious and crazy ways. He has a plan and he knew that a few dozen missionaries would be scattered throughout the world and he wasn't just planning on letting them sit there and do nothing. He had a plan for you. Its pretty cool that you were apart of that crazy plan for 3 months." I thought a lot about that. As hard as it was to leave Madagascar, if I could relive it, I don't think I would change how things happened. I learned so much through that experience. Yesterday, I talked to Rachel who is a lady that I taught in Ambohimanarina. She was telling me about how she has had a lot of struggles and hardships this first year of her membership in the church. We talked about what testimony and conversion is. We talked about how it is a process to become converted to Christ. It is not as hard to just believe He is the Savior and that the church is true. But it is harder to live in accordance with that belief everyday of your life. It takes time and patience and lots of prayer. We talked about how sometimes you may be doing everything you should be and yet the blessings are still not there. All you can do is hope and press forward and trust in the Lord. Tolotra, a man I had the privilege to baptize, said, "Tsy hoe tokony hankato ny didin'Andriamanitra isika fa tsy maintsy mankato isika." "It's not that we should obey the commandments of God, but we must obey." As I thought more about these two conversations with people I had taught and grown so close with, I realized how much more I learned of these two simple yet very important concepts of the Gospel. In La Reunion, I feel as though I learned a little bit better how to trust the Lord and rely on Him and how I can start to become more converted to Him. I also learned that we must follow him. It's not a suggestion or something that would be good if we did. It's something we absolutely need in our life. And when we follow him he also has blessings waiting for us and he always keeps his promises. I am so grateful for this gospel and for our Heavenly Father who has a plan for each and every one of us. I hope you all have a great week. I know I will! Mazotoa!! 

Visiting a Hindu Temple in Mauritius last P-day! they were very ok with us asking questions and taking pictures so it wasn't disrespectful.  

 This one is of Stromberg eating a fruit roll up a little too close to the worship place haha. 

 These are all people I taught in Ambohimanarina. They are doing awesome and preparing to go to the temple!! So great to see them!

 Pics of families in Ambohimanarina! 

 Tolotra and Tafita had a pic of me with them at their baptism hung in their house. Man I love these people! 

Week 76 - I'm Going Going Back Back To Mada Mada

Akory aby!!! Wow well if you haven't figured it out from my title #ShoutoutBiggieSmalls I am going back to Madagascar!! I am leaving this Wednesday! I am actually on the island of Mauritius right now and got here last Wednesday. It's so cool to see a new country and island but definitely hard to beat going back to Mada! President called me and told me the other night that me and 11 others are going back this week! I couldn't be more happy! Mauritius is a beautiful island and way cool! When President told me the news he said, "Now I bet you are already smiling from ear to ear but wait til you hear this." Then he said the first place we are going is FORT DAUPHIN!!!! I assume I will be in the Tanambao branch and see all those amazing people I had to leave unexpectedly. I am beyond excited and feel so blessed! We hope that all the missionaries will be back soon but not sure. President Foote is just a stud. I love that guy. This week was great. Lots of driving and logistics with getting people from airports and to their apartments they are staying in, as 10 missionaries came over here from La Reunion. I have got to see Mauritius and meet lots of people and it is a great place. The spiritual thought I have today was a short scripture I read in The Book of Mormon this week. Its Mormon chapter 8 verse 39. "Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, the needy, and the naked, and the sick and afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?" I don't know but this scripture just hit me pretty hard this week. How often in our lives do we "adorn ourselves with that which hath no life"? We often feel that we are so busy or have so much to do or we love our tv shows or movies or social media that we forget to "smell the roses" as my mom would say haha. We forget what things really matter. The things that matter most in this life is our relationships with those around us and helping each other on the straight and narrow path back to Heavenly Father and that which will be there for eternity. I can't remember but there was a quote a few conferences ago by someone, I cant remember, but anyways it was something like "we sometimes need to let go of the world to hang onto eternity." On my mission I feel this so much. Some people will say to me when I get home, "Wow you had an awesome mission. You got to see the world and three countries and see some amazing beaches and sights." While that is true and I feel blessed, the thing I will hang onto the most is those I met along the way. The people that have been so loving and caring towards me and the people I have been able to help just a little bit see the light of Christ in their life. I hope to never let go of those things that will truly be there for eternity. I know that as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ we can learn what things truly matter most in our lives. As we follow the Lord, everything gets set straight and we will be able to see the bigger picture. I hope you all have a great week! I know I sure will. Mazotoa!! 

 Our house pic in St Marie the day we left. I forgot to say in Voice Recording but I actually got to Mauritius on Wednesday. While I was studying Wed, I get a call and Elder Boyle says "Hey we looked at your ticket wrong. You are actually leaving today." Haha. Felt a little like the evacuation when I packed that fast.  

 Elder Knudsen said I wasn't down to ask these guys for a pic at the airport in Reunion. 

 Pics of Mauritius. 

 Church building in Mauritius. 

 Elder Stromberg and I drinking some actual whole milk. It was great. I have had Subway and KFC here in Mauritius also. Wow it was good.

  When you're in the middle of driving around the missionaries on the whole island and you get a flat, who ya gonna call? 

A pic of Itema, who is the guy I found in St Pierre that got baptized this week. Stromberg gave him a pic of me and him and Wolfgramm haha he is awesome and is now a member of the church!!

Some pics of the amazing beach we walked to this morning before emailing here in Mauritius. 

 Oh yeah they have Mountain Dew here too. Don't worry I'm not drinking all that in one day, ha. 

 We bought chicken sandwiches from this guy with a box on his moped. It was good. 

Pics on the bus from the beach to the emailing place. 

Week 75 - Tsy Tontan'ny Ela

Salama daholo! Inona vaovao? I hope you all are doing well. This was a great week for us. My last week in La Reunion as I will be leaving to go to the island of Mauritius this Thursday. I am very excited! Reunion was great and I will always remember the many lessons I learned from these unexpected months on this beautiful island. I don't have much time today but I just wanted to write some thoughts about the recent death of our Prophet Thomas S. Monson. As I heard of his death this week I thought a lot about the things he taught and the examples he showed. One thing I will always remember is "Dare to Stand Alone." Many things I think about when I think of President Monson is love, charity, kindness, and courage. I love his example of these Christlike attributes. I love how he challenged all of us to dare to stand alone. I read a great talk today called "Good without Guile". I cant remember who it was by but it was really good. It talked about Shiblon, who is one of the sons of Alma in the Book of Mormon. Alma writes to his sons in the later chapters of the book of Alma and Shiblon gets a small 15 verses written to him. The other sons get a lot more than that. This talk spoke about "Shilblon-like souls." Those that do good and expect nothing in return. Those that simply do good because they want to do good. I thought a lot about that with Dare to Stand Alone. In all of our lives we will have moments when we must choose to do good and stand up for what's right even if no one else agrees or supports us. When we trust Heavenly Father and have faith in Him. We can know that even though we may not be getting praised or supported for the good decisions we make, we will always be supported by our Father in Heaven. There is a poem I love called The Man in The Glass. One line I can remember is this, "You may fool the whole world down your pathway of life and get pats on the back as you pass. But your final reward will be heartache and tears if you cheated the man in the glass." All that matters in this life is that we truly do our personal and absolute best to do what our Heavenly Father asks us to do. If we do that, it does not matter what anyone else may think whether good or bad. We must dare to stand alone and be like Shiblon and expect no praise for our good works. As we do good because we simply desire good, then good will be given to us always. Maybe not from others but from our Heavenly Father. I hope you all have a great week! Mazotoa aza maditra! 

 Goodbye pics with Benjamin and his wife Meline. 

 The Eperronier family who is Malagasy! 

 David, who is an investigator.

Our Branch Mission Leader's family, the Payets.