Sunday, October 26, 2014

Malagasy McCrary's Madagascar Mission Malcontent Murmurings - PikaCyusa I Cyusa cyUsa

At the MTC its impossible to tell time because every day is the same as the last, language study and gospel study, in varying ratios depending on how much of the Sabbath it is that day. if its Sunday, flavor is added with extra church meetings. because of this, this week was much like the last. so in order to SpiceTM things up (Spice trademark of the Spice Girls) our guest photographer for this week is Elder Emery Cyusa of Rwanda, who just so happens to be my companion. 

(Captions are below pictures)


Cyusa took this the first night we were here, immediately establishing his dynamic visual stylings even as we undressed. i swear this is a shot out of Resevoir Dogs.


the thing behind us is a lava-lava like the Polynesians wear, but Malagasies don't call it that. also theirs are more decorative as you can see how detailed that one is. the text on it is french, not Malagasy, because this one was made with the intent to be sold to white tourists. i like this picture cause i was going for an 80's look.


the fabled Armenians. i say fabled cause i always thought Armenia was just the country country Petra from Enders Game was from, not an actual place. From left to right, Elders Neilson, Galorath, Ahlstrohm, Kay, Cyusa, and Jowers.  Neilson's full name is Mohonri Joseph Smith Neilson which is... unfortunate. And while his name may scream my parents want me to serve a mission his personality thankfully did not. Very outgoing guy, very funny. infamous for giving hugs that broke ribs. Ahlstrohm broke his collarbone playing soccer and was sent home to recover. He's still called though, so hes still doing missionary work and serving back home. didn't even flinch when it happened either, hes a super strong guy. he'll probably be in Armenian within three months.

 for someone with millimeter long locks, cyusa sure does brush his hair everyday. he also went to go get it cut, then took this dope pic

 you have all only seen ugly picture version of Elder Heiden, Cyusa somehow stole a shot of Heiden in his natural sensuality


Cyusa summons an eternal maelstrom to wash away the unbelievers


Galorath and Heiden look on


Cyusa fulfills his dream of being an air traffic controller. actually hes working with a language learning program TALL. its jingle is the only secular music i get to listen to, and i take the opportunity to every day. *tall*TAAAAAAAA-AAAAALLL*tall* 


i love the aesthetic of korean written over a picture of Jesus and i keep this pamphlet with me always


picture taken seconds before Cyusa made it rain Ariarys. the floor was littered with almost .73 USD. i took my clothes off anyways.



Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy is a cinematic masterpiece


The purple pair pops a squat
pop a squat is a great phrase and i will use it no matter how vaguely relevant it is
gagarin's look here is on point



Poppin a squat with my whole zone. 


JASPER_THE_FRIENDLY_GHOST.jpg


Gagarin posing for his wikipedia picture once he's president

all in all id rate Elder Cyusa's photography skills as:



As for me, i noticed that the word of wisdom pamphlets all have different models based on language (diggin' the Koreans' matching track suits and the Malagasies' capris)


the ol' recursive camera trick


Met my ol' RgAy at the provo temple! you can see he's growing his hair out for his Jimmy Neutron Halloween costume. or was it Donkey Kong? His name is Steven Fluckiger. Yes, it really is. We bonded over our shared blonde feyness. Steven's a deep thinker and knows more about pregnancy and delivering children than anyone majoring history ought to. He has a way of laughing that sounds like hes hyperventilating and an unyielding faith in the gospel (of Gwen Stefani).


Demonic possession is a constant threat at the MTC


as is THIS


Elder Turley sullies this beaut with his headsweat every night. the kid holding it has a bad face and a nice sweater.


Malagasy.jpg


Elder Baize (21, from Hawaii going to Indonesia) and I found out that our grandmothers both live in Canton Michigan and are Best BFF Friends Forever. This has deepened our friendship to the point where 420 Baize It let me see his chest hair (nice!)


i will hang dental floss around my neck in order to have the skinniest tie at the MTC
   
Almost forgot, I don't have any pictures of it but i met an awesome guy this week. Elder Carlos A. Godoy, of the Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us on Sunday and it was fantastic. he also just talked at this most recent general conference which was also very good, made me go reread my patriarchal blessing. He was one of the first people to ever give a General Conference talk in Portuguese, i believe. He didn't seem very confident in his English speaking ability here but he still gave far and away the best devotional i (or my branch president) I've heard here. So chew on that, native English speaking general authorities. also made me much more inspired to study Malagasy, knowing i can still reach people even without a perfect grasp of the language. 

Other than that, take note of my new cyberspace address and meatspace address at the top of my blog. Mail is my only real contact with the outside world and i love getting it, so if you have any inclination at all please message me or write a letter. i can guarantee ill respond, there is little else I do for fun.



Cyusa and I were both looking for so much more in this world




but then we found each other



Pretentious Landscape Shots or PLS, as in pls stop doing these



He departs

Friday, October 17, 2014

Malagasy McCrary's Madagascar Mission Malcontent Murmurings - PART II



The audiovisual experience of this Halloween season just got a whole lot more visual. I hope you've got galoshes on, because they're a great fashion accessory and you're about to wade through a digital miasma of image files. It also got more audio, as its going from completely silent to embedded video level. Check this out if you want to hear what Malagasy sounds like:



First things first, i want to explain anything that might be unclear to people reading this blog who aren't super familiar with the LDS or just don't know me very well. I've been called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I will remain so for 2 years. Right now I live in Provo at the Missionary Training Center, or MTC, where I'll remain for four more weeks before shipping out. I'm serving in the Antananarivo, Madagascar mission and I'll be speaking the Malagasy language, which I'm currently learning. While I will be performing a lot of service there, this is not a simple humanitarian effort or supply dump. I'm to immerse myself in the Malagasy culture and get to know the people of the country intimately. I'm to preach to them the gospel of Jesus Christ and try to serve them on a personal level, and help them turn their lives around. an example of this would be that missionaries often work with local people to help them quit their addictions, to smoking or alcohol or any such thing, and invite them to study the gospel.

Ugh. that was dry. one last thing, in the last post I mentioned General Conference. General Conference is an event that's broadcast worldwide where the leaders of the the LDS church talk to its members throughout the world, and it is available for anyone to see publicly. I particularly enjoyed Jeffry R Holland's talk from the most recent conference (hint hint.) It's also the time of year when all Mormons get together and perform the dance of the druids at the peak of the autumnal equinox (a secret solstice known only to believers) and bathe in moon tears.

Now to the photographs, or "photos" as the kids call em.


I tried to take a pic of these beautiful mountains but this temple got in the way



Cyusa's been converted twice now, once to the church, and second to America


Squad at the temple. the other two are Elder Jasperson (18, from Utah) and Gagarin (22, Philippines) who are both going to Indonesia speaking Indonesian. Jasperson can do a standing back flip off of literally any surface and has an oddly aggressive yet subdued was off speaking that may or may not be a result of his ear infection. Gagarin is the most impish person I've ever met and claims to have a civil engineering licence. None of the other Filipino missionaries think he looks Filipino. His claims and ethnicity remain ambiguous, his volleyball game dirty, and his giggles constant. All very cool guys. Heiden has yet to take an attractive looking picture. One of these days I'll catch him unawares and you'll all realize he looks like a thinner Daniel Radcliffe with better hair.



Since when is BYU in Provo?!



lets play a game: windows xp desktop background or Utah sky? 


some really cool assorted South American missionaries I met whose less cool friend did not want to take a picture



a nice landscape marred by my oversize load



can't wait to get to Africa!


CALLED_TO_SERVE.jpg



talk to the hand, D. Todd



story time: missionaries are organized into groups called zones, districts, etc by what language they're learning and where they're going. Trouble is, Cyusa, Heiden and I are the only Malagasy speaking missionaries here, so our companionship constitutes its own district. A district of three is absurd, most districts have at least six companionships in them. so to create our zone, they lump us together with all the other obscure language learning missionaries like the Indonesians, the Armenians, the Georgians, etc. with the loss of the Armenian missionaries who shipped out this week, our zone dropped from about 30 missionaries to 10. ours is a lonely existence. Our companionship was really good friends with these two Armenians, Elder Galorath is the bro looking guy in the gray suit, and Elder Kay is the bro looking guy with the ginger hair. I'm the back lit waif in the middle.  I like to think these two own a lot of tank tops back home. 



did i mention we get up at 6:30? on our day off we get to wake at 6:00 so we can go to the temple


this is Calvin Carpenter, 18 and going to the Dutch West Indies. Cally Carps and i go way back to when i lived in little ol' Nazareth... PA not Israel. Here I am pictured going to play volleyball and Calvin is pictured doing the lords word to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Were pretty tight, but our mothers ride together and die together. they went to Hawaii without us. Calvin is 1/4 Japanese, he says the only time you can see it when he smiles. Calvin is the most naturally athletic person Ive ever met, but that doesn't mean he doesn't do this stupid run where it looks like hes punching the air. Cal's game here is four square, and i think he might have broken an elders leg playing it cause he goes hard. i would beat him at Pokemon though.


At this point my thoughts turn to my constant companions, Austin Mahone and the Santinas girl.


Pre-public restroom entry warm-up selfie


Koala Kare has an insane corner on the baby changing station market #PublicRestroomSelfie #PubbyRestie


Post-entry cool-down phase public restroom mirror selfie


creating brand synergy between the #LDSchurch and #ThugLyfe


this laundromat inspired piece summons our final story: this is Elder Turley (18, from ???) the most unfairly endowed person on the earth. He just barely turned 18 but hes already been going to Princeton for a year. that, and hes like 6 foot infinite, hes speaks Russian and his first names Nikita, and he doesn't even have the good grace to be jerk. he has like the most friendly, prone to laughter disposition of anyone you'll ever meet. you don't get to be smart AND big. that's just not fair. He's going to Lithuania, speaking Lithuanian (what else) and is our new room mate cause hes messed up his knee playing soccer.he was supposed to leave with Armenians but now hes staying with us for another two weeks. all in all hell have probably been studying his language for 11 weeks before he touches Lithuanian soil, so hell do really well. He has a Star Wars episode 1 themed pillow case, original print.

If you've made it through all that, you can also check out a whole bunch of pretentious landscape shots i took. i have no experience with photography but I'm trying to practice framing and whatnot before i get to Mada.