Akory aby?! Inona vaovao am'nareo! Avy nidoladola kely tany Tamatave izahay ary tena tsara izany e! I hope you have all had a great week! This was an awesome week for us! We were able to go to Tamatave and go on splits with Elders there. That was awesome. Tamatave is in good hands. Also we had the great opportunity to watch General Conference! A great weekend filled of instruction and uplifting reminders and messages. I'm very grateful for the great men that lead this church under the direction of Heavenly Father and our Savior. This week we also had a great lesson with Rodeo. Man this guy is a stud. He is very open with us and talks about things he struggles with in his life. This week he talked about how he tries to always do whats right but sometimes things happen and he doesn't expect them and he slips up. I could tell how bad he just wants to choose the right and follow Christ and man, that's all you need in the first place. I told him I love his desire to follow Christ and as long as he holds onto that, the day will come where he will overcome. No matter how many times we mess up, as long as we have that desire to follow Christ we will make it. But when the day comes when we say man this "Mormon" stuff is just too hard or we simply give up, that's when we may not see success and happiness in the end. I loved the talk by Elder Lynn G. Robbins on Saturday morning about repentance and the grace of the Lord. He quoted this “Success,” it has been said, “isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” Man I love that! The only way we can go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm is if we have faith and rely on the Atonement of Christ. He later said, "Repentance isn’t His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will." I don't know about you, but that gave me a whole new look on lots of things. Obviously that doesn't mean that sin is ok or should be something we are comfortable with. But it means that as long as we never give up, as long as we follow Christ with all we have no matter how imperfect we are, we are gonna be able to receive forgiveness in the end. I love Gordon B. Hinckley's quote, "All you gotta do is try. But you have to REALLY try!" I'm so grateful for the Atonement of our Savior that allows us to pick ourselves up and learn from each mistake. No matter how big or small. I know we will improve everyday if we never let go of that true desire to follow Him. If we have the desire, we will do all we need to do to live His Gospel and receive His grace. Being a missionary is the best. There are millions of people that don't know that great message and I love sharing it with them. I hope you all have a great week!! Mazotoa!
Pics from our drive to Tamatave this week! Lots of the beautiful views. People washing their cloths by the streams and such.
More pics of drive to Tamatave. Pics of where traffic just halted forever because they were fixing the road.
Pics of some fruit stands on side of road.
A guy hauling stuff on his bike. And some other stuff!
Me with Elders Andrianjakanavalona and Randrianarison.
Pics of one of the districts in Tamatave. We got that huge burger fries and a drink for 3 dollars. Haha.
Some views of Tamatave.
A selfie with Elder Bariniaina while i was trying to help him pray in English haha.
A guy hauling his cart barefoot.
And a flooded basketball court.
Some action shots of us washing the duster.
Pics of me and Eric, who I baptized over a year ago and he helped us teach a lesson and he's going on a mission. Such a stud.
And a pic of Stromberg, Blatter, and I at soccer today.
A pic of our dinner with Jeremia and Alfredines family and our investigators Paola Henintsoa and Noela.
