long time no see
and long time no write! so first things first, i should probably tell you my transfer news. I just finished training Elder Wilmot in Ambohipo 2, now theyre closing down ambohipo back to one area and shipping elder Wilmot, Elder Iata, and Elder ME out. Wilmots off to a city called antsirabe, Iata is staying in tana and going to go be companions with his cousin(!) and im shippinf out to and area called Ambolomadinika ("little hills" which is also gonna be the name of my first psychedelic noise pop album) in a coastal city called Tamatave (in the french) or Toamasina (in teny gasy). Im beyond excited, and ill be living with my old friend Elder Johnson again! its funny because we only worked together one transsfer, but im gonna end up living with him longer than anyone else. So im gonna be packing my bags, learning teny betsimitsaraka, and taking plenty of anoying pics of the beach and the jungle! my new companons name is Elder Band, but i havent met the guy yet. pics next week!
...of elder band, but plenty of pics of ME this week.
ive been campaigning my whole mission for them to make this change
So one of the weird events of this week is that my old companion, Elder Garcia, went home (or "died" in the extremely narrow missionary vernacular) but i was lucky enough to get to see him on the way out, and the APs even let him have a long talk with me right before he went home. We had a great discussion about life and the mission and whatnot. Garcia has big plans when he gets home to grind out a bunch of work hours in a lumber mill and then go to BYU, get married and start haing kids very quickly. >He wants to be and english teacher and basketbal coach, as well as have 5 kids. "why 5?" "i grew up in a house with four kids, and i always felt like its just barely wasnt enough" we also talked about the insanity of Kareem Abdul Jabbar holding the all time NBA scoring record despite never shooting threes (garcia is good enough at english to make basketball interesting to me)
the cousins, the Venuatu Two, Iata and Tavo. Tavo had the same trainer as me, and Iata and i have gone on so many splits together we consider each as as having already been companions (wrote his name in my Preach My Gospel and everything) Ive learned enough of their national language, Bislama (a kind of pidgin english) to insult them and have simple discussions with them, though they prefer talking to each other in their island language of nadoar. Fun fact, their island is called Tana, which is also the nickname of the capital of Mada. ask Tavo to tell you the story abut when he was harpoon fishing and got dragg away by a shark and got his coral scars, and ask Iata about how he t-boned his horse into another during a race and got his back scars. Ive been promised a tract of land, free housing, free food, a horse and a girl when i come to visit Venuatu.
amissionary classic: the coke break. we sat in this little bar area and sung malagasy songs together. some girls were peeling potatoes behind the divide and joined in with us. It felt so picture book, in a way, like the unassuming start of a movie.
I took Elder Bingham, a registered audiophile, to help me purchase the very best (fake chinese) Beats by Dr. Dretm. Theyre really good and i hope they last. even if they dont, they cost like fsixth of the price of real ones so...
i also got a malabary made ofr myself, or traditinal malgasy mens formal wear. this is what male farmers (ie 95% of the countries men) men wear when they arent working. also tryin to collect the different tribal hats. this one is Betsileo
Razazarohavana (im pretty sure i slaughtered the spelling of this) my old betongolo housemate, former missionary and current bum. i saw him while on a split with Elder (T)Ahlstrom in Ambohimanariona, a branch which prays at a glamour church the church built right next to the US embassy. "you the guys with that nice church by the american embassy?" is a common question.
Delphin and his family, one of the awesome mebers of Ambohipo! Delphin (the young guy) was baptized by himself and helps us all the time, and were teaching his family now. His house is notable for being built on a cliff fce, with the ladder that leads up to his families room a few inches from the edge. freaks me the right out every time. they make fun of the trepidation i take on that latter, while three year olds rocket down it like its nothing
the missionary wall, its has all the pictures of the current missionaries. It was weird seeing garcias picture move over to the other side. all my friends are dying! im gonna watch ahlstrom and johnson die, then liao cyusa and heiden not long after that. Horspool and Te'e are already long gon, and im starting to get pretty close to the top
i also got a super tacky suit jacket made that i love, and took these tacky phots to compliment it
the kids of Zakary and Felana, absolutely angelic investigators that Elder De Klerk and Iata Baptized. the kids are Elisa, Emmanuella, and Iando.
Felana
Zakary
Elisa
Emmanuella
Iando
photo evidence that malagasy kids are taught from the womb to twerk. their mother was sitting there, clapping and cheering her daughter on and telling her to go lower
caught a pic of this guy who got super angry at me because i walked near his shoes
it was so nice to skype some of yall on moms day! kids, tell your mom you love her (I love you Mom)
