Salama vazaha! Inona vaovao? I hope that you all have had a great week! Mine was mahafinaritra! Sure is hard to have a bad week when you have a new family come to church! Plus they are already legally married! Haha Solofo and Vivian are a great new family we found and they are friends with a less active family so not only did they come to church but the less active family came too! It was great. Plus Andry's wife, Sarah, and his daughter, Valerie, now have baptismal dates! Man, I cant wait to see him baptize them. He is the less active member that came to church a few weeks back all smiling and pumped. Life is great as a missionary! This week we have had lots of great lessons and cool experiences. One thing that has been on my mind a lot is how to help people endure to the end. I love the church. It sure is cool when you have investigators show up to church and in Elders Quorum the lesson is about how we can better serve with love and the Spirit. Rodeo said something way cool in his baptism testimony a few weeks ago. He said, "When I first came to church, I thought it was way weird how everyone in this church knows each other and talks and hugs and stuff. But then I thought if Christ commanded us to love others as ourself how will we ever do that if we don't have good relationships with those we go to church with?" Haha I loved that. The church isn't just a group that holds meetings every week but its a team. We should be helping people along the way. One thing I have learned is that enduring to the end is not just a personal or family thing. We all should be helping each other along the way. Its part of the baptismal covenant we make.
In Mosiah 18 it says, "8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life--
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?"
I love how the first thing it says is if you are willing to be called (God's) people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens. We should always be striving to help our brothers and sisters along that straight and narrow path. I really love how the church does not record home teaching visits anymore and how it is simply called ministering. If we want to truly help those around us, visiting them every time there is an activity or every time the bishop asks you to visit them or their family asks for a visit isn't gonna cut it. We need to truly care about them. A friend doesn't need any motivation to help their friend, its just that they care about them and want to help them. Last conference, if I am not wrong, there was a talk that spoke about a young woman not wanting to go to a certain activity because she simply didn't think she would enjoy it. The mother replied something along the lines of, "why do you think this activity is for your enjoyment? Every meeting or activity in the church there is someone there or someone that should be there that needs help or a friend." I love that. Being a missionary there is nothing that makes me more happy then seeing investigators, less actives and recent converts be taken in well by the members. I hope that we can all work as a team in this whole enduring to the end thing. It makes things a lot more enjoyable and possible when we do it like that. I am so grateful for this church. I know as we all strive to serve as Christ did, we will find so many people in our path that need our help. I hope you all have a great week! Veloma!
A selfie with Bebe Claire, who I baptized a long time ago. She is Rachel's grandma; the great grandma of her daughter who was baptized last Saturday. I forgot to send this last week.
We have a leak in our kitchen sink and the bucket filled up so I went to empty it and there was a dead mouse. Didn't know mice liked to swim haha.
Rachel's daughter Nancia got baptized last week. Rachel is one of my favorite investigators in Ambohimanarina! She was baptized over a year ago.
View of area
Kids sliding down this for fun haha.
A little 7 yr old investigator reading the plan of salvation pamphlet by candle light when we walked into his house. His parents are progressing very well! The boys name is Valimbavaka, which is answer to prayer in English.
Some awesome member/investigator kids.
Pics of us at our dinner with Tina and Harilala's family along with our investigator Saholy and her family!
A Malagasy last name..its even shortened to fit on the badge haha.
