Akory aby! Inona vaovao? Enga anie mbola salama tsara ianareo! I am doing great and had a great week! This week we got to come to Tamatave on Saturday with President and the other missionaries that will be working here. Tamatave was the first place I served and also the first place that missionaries had to evacuate because of the plague. Its been about 6 months of no missionaries in Tamatave so the members and everyone were very happy to see us again. It was so cool seeing many people I taught over a year ago at church and active and some preparing for missions and temple. No better feeling than that. I was lucky enough to visit many of them and share a little thought with them. Crazy how fast time flies, man. This week we also had zone conference in Tana and it was great. There were lots of things talked about and I learned a lot. My thought this week came from an investigator we visited this week. He was talking about how it's great that people read scriptures and go to church but for lots of people its just a "habit." I thought a lot about that. At first I was thinking hmm that's kind of a weird comment but as I thought about it I think I understand where he is coming from a little. Sometimes we get in the routine of church and daily prayer and even scripture study. Almost like its a checklist and we have to do it. But we should do those things with a full heart striving to come closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior. It shouldn't just be a way of life, like we go to church on Sunday cuz that's what we always do. We should go each Sunday striving to be better and renew our baptismal covenants. We should pray and talk to our Heavenly Father like he really is there, not just to check it off our to-do list. We should read and ponder scriptures as if it really is the word of God, not just some homework assignment. These small simple things should be habits in our life but they should be a little more important than the other things we do each day. I know as we strive to feel the Spirit and seek His guidance as we do these things we will notice a difference in our lives and all that we do. I hope you all have a great week! Mazotoa!
A few pics of our area in Tana. Our area is called Anjanahary.
Pics of lemur park we stopped at on our way to Tamatave.
Some pics of Tamatave.
Elder Bariniana wanted his picture with the ocean haha. He is from Antananrivo and is a new elder in our mission.
A pic of how we slept in Tamatave house with no power or water and no missionaries in it the last 7 months haha. Pretty hot night.
Pic with President Honore and his wife and kid. He was my first branch president here in Tamatave.
Pic with Joseph and his family. Their two boys are preparing for Missions right now. Only one boy is in photo. His wife ,Soa, is in other photo in orange. I didn't catch them at the same time ha.
And pics of dinner at Thalia's last night. She is a really good cook!
