Monday, October 19, 2015

I'm Not Mad At You, I Just Want You To Preach Unto Me Smooth Things, Cause The Holy One Of Israel To Cease From Before Me


check out this pic of me buying knives
oh yeah by the way, i bought some knives




This lil' guy whos encased in an ox horn




This one with the weird sheath is my favorite




this one was a poor purchase, its a little too unweildy to cut steak with. useless

all together again

ive also had a blast buying and translating these malagasy childrens books
The first one is about a giant who gives the moon to his wife, so the villagers accidentally kill him because they think hes a tree. it makes sense in context.
Second ones about a cocky little upstart princess who calls her crocodile canoe stinky and the croc decides to punish her. this is the start of an unexpected and fantastical adventure.
The third one is about a guy who is born with just ahead so he seeks out god to get a better body. God turns his brothers into dogs.
The fourth is about the malagasy bigfoot, who can speak and sometimes marries malagasdy women. The villagers kill him too.

Our super cheap chinese bike lock broke so we went old school and found a chain smith to get us hooked up. its heavier but more reliable. Sometimes... sometimes the old ways are the best



Sad story: we have an absolutely amazing investigator, Velombita, who is just golden and basically has been willing to do anything to get baptized sinc week one. The problem is hes still legally married to his prior wife because in madagascar is both parties dont accep^t the divorce in a written contract, its not legally divorced. Even thoguh they live in completely seperate houses and Velombita has a new wife and takes caare of all their kids, the old wife wont accept the divorce, because, you guessed it, its not allowed in fomba to divorce if you already have kids. We took a trip out into the countryside to go visit her, but we werent able to convince her to accept the divorce. But the plains at sunset are beautiful. the man in the picture is the village cheif coming out to greet us.



We had a baptism, which was obviously the highlight of the week. The 3 female "ines" got baptized, Naurine, Perline, and Pascaline, all amazing investigators. The two little girls are member kids who got baptized by theyre older brother and father, also in this photo. Saulther, their older brother is also are DMP and an all around cool dude.
Heres Elder Garcia's type up of Perlines story

Toliara. The southwest corner of the Lord’s vineyard. 

Elder Ahlstrom and I were on our way to teach a less-active, Tsiavy, when we heard someone call out from the side of the road, “Elders!” We were startled and stopped our bikes to talk with him. His name was Raphael, and he was baptized around 2012. He was a less-active member of the church, but he wanted to come back. He just needed someone to visit him. He was walking with his girlfriend, Perline, and she was also interested to learn. We set up a program with them, and the next week we came back and taught them together. 

To our surprise, the next week they came to church together! They were already keeping all of their commitments: praying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, reading  the Book of Mormon, and coming to church. Their faith started to grow. Elder Ahlstrom was transferred to Ambohibao and Elder McCrary came in his stead. Raphael changed some things in his life and came back to full activity, receiving a calling to become the teacher of Elder’s Quorum. He gives wonderful lessons. Perline started to read the Book of Mormon, and it helped her to gain a comprehensive testimony. 

She was interviewed for baptism—but she failed her baptismal interview. She and Raphael live in the same apartment complex, and are next door neighbors. They aren’t living together, but they are living very close together. The Law of Chastity, which we thought we had ironed out and solved for them weeks earlier, was still a problem. We taught it again, and they committed to live it. She was interviewed again, and she passed. She was baptized two days ago, and confirmed a full member yesterday. They were both so happy at the baptism and after she was confirmed. They are a great couple that one day we hope will one day get legally married, live in righteousness, and go to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. That is what missionary work is all about, helping these people to have faith, repent, be baptized, and endure to the end. Raphael and Perline are off to a great start.  What a joy and a blessing it is to bring souls to our Father in Heaven.




the dirtiest, most annoying, but also cutest pack of kids in toliara. its impossible to teach lessons when theyre in the neighborhood, they just wont shut up.


a video of the said pack of kids. my voice is really annoying in this for some reason? i hope thats not what i always sound like. sorry for changing the camera orientation part way through but i repented.






Toliara pixxx

Our English calss in Toliara. Theyre great, but i miss the giant one i taught for a year straight in Tana


We helped a lady mash up her flour #service

packages from mom and supplies from Tana. Thanks Mom! I love you much more than my face betrays in this picture.





















































Miscellaneous pictures of Toliara

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