Salama daholo! Inona vaovao any andafy? Mandeha tsara be ny asan'ny Tompo aty Madagasikara! I hope you all are doing great! This was another great week, just as every week is as a missionary in Madagascar. The big news this week is that Sarah and Valery accepted to be baptized! That is the wife and daughter of Andry who was an inactive Melchezidek Priesthood holder. They have all been coming to church together the last two months and Sarah and Valery will be baptized on the 14th of July! We taught them a lesson about the Baptism of the Spirit and when we were done Sarah said she is ready to be baptized. She read 2 Nephi 31-33 and she loved it and she is all good to go now! Man I was skipping and jumping coming out of that lesson. They are such a great family and I can wait to see the many blessings they will receive! There's lots of other news and stuff but not enough time to type it all. Nirina, one of our investigator studs, invited us to go running with him this last Saturday morning at 4:30 am haha. He is way cool and it was fun running around the busy city of Antananarivo early in the morning when there's not too many people out yet. It was a good workout too. Sunday night we taught a lesson to a family that is awesome. The dad is less active and the rest of the family are not members. The wife has come to church a couple times and the husband hasn't come yet. They are so nice and stuff but kind of hard getting them to come to church and have a desire to change. We had a great lesson with them though. The mom said she read 1 Nephi 8 and she didn't really understand it. So we explained it to her. We ended up talking about how we need to hold to the iron rod when trials and obstacles come. Just like Lehi's dream. The father of this family really is a great guy. I asked him what he thought the difference was between the people that held onto the rod when the mist of darkness came and those that went astray. He answered that the ones that held on had more faith. I agreed. I then asked the family is it hard to follow God? They all answered yes. I agreed with them again. But I added that if we look at it from an eternal perspective and a faithful perspective, following God is easy. I mean we are promised blessings and happiness and peace right? Sure it's not easy at first but its guaranteed to get easy. It's guaranteed to end up with nothing but happiness. That's a lot easier than regret and sadness and suffering. It's all dependent on our faith. I asked this father if he believed that his family could all live the Gospel together, if he believed his family could go to the Temple one day, and if he believed in Heavenly Fathers promised blessings for those that keep the commandments. I told him I sure believed they could. And I knew the Lord's promised blessings would be given to him and his family. Man, I just wish people could see what their life would be like if they just put their trust in God and lived the Gospel the best they could. If those holding to the iron rod knew what that fruit tasted like I am sure not one would let go, no matter how hard it got. But we must go by faith. And as we exercise faith we begin to receive those promised blessings. I love the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 130: "20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated,
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." That sure makes life sound a lot simpler. If you want to be happy and receive blessings, obey and keep Gods commandments. It comes down to faith. Do you believe God will keep His word? I know He will. I hope we all can strengthen our faith so that we can endure anything that comes with a smile on our face knowing things will get better. Mazotoa!!
Me and Elder Andrianjakanavalona and Razakarison after zone conference. The one on my right is a baller haha... literally like Mugsy Bogues.
My workout set. Found those buckets filled with dried cement outside. It's been a great addition haha.
Gonna miss having random kids so happy to play around and have fun with a complete stranger ha.
A selfie with the workers of this pizza place we eat dinner at quite often.
We had a little party after our lesson with an investigator for one of their family members birthdays.
Views from top of some Elders' new apartment they moved into. Way cool view.
Us with Nirina and his friend after running at 4:30 am!
