Hole

Salama tompoko! How is everyone? Hope y'all had an awesome week. Things here in 67ha are still dandy! Still coming home every night with waterlogged shoes. Guess I should learn by now to pack some sandals, but honestly I don't even really care anymore. It is what it is!

So this week we had zone conference!! It was a pretty balling time. It took up the whole Thursday, but it was well worth it. President told us that our zone has the best stats he's seen since he's been here. Which obviously it's not about numbers, but that's still pretty cool. Oh and I got to be one of the translators for the malagasy missionaries there for a while. I found that translating from english to malagasy to english is way easier than the other way around. I was probably talking faster than I'd ever done before, but it felt so good when I was done. We talked about the importance of planning for success in the time we have in the mornings. That was basically the big thing we learned about which was definitely good. It's like a fisherman. He can be out of his house all day, but how much time is spent in preparation to go out? He's gotta bring the right bait and everything else so that he can be successful. Much like a missionary. We spend a lot of time getting prepared so that when we're out we're using the time effectively. We also had a nice surprise, we got to watch Meet the Mormons! It made me so happy that I got to see that. I absolutely loved it! Especially the part about the Candy Bomber. And also seeing that guy opening his call took me right back to those same chills and excitement. And I'm in flippin' Madagascar. I'm pretty dang lucky to be here.

As for other news, not a whole lot. We didn't quite get as many hours in as last week, but the zone conference is kinda to blame for that. We still got close though! 25 hours. This week we're totally gonna get it. Oh! And we have a baptism this week :) Bertha is her name. She's been learning for about 2 years now waiting to get legally married. She got the marriage done a few months ago and she's finally getting baptized on Saturday. Her husband also seems interested, he's just always at work. But we're hoping this pushes him to want baptism too. I'm excited. My first baptism in 67ha. And my first in a poo river!! Pictures to come next week. Me and Elder Walker are still doing good. The dude is already mahay. So it's nice that even though he's a trainee, that I still have someone who can handle responsibilities. Funny moment. We got absolutely dumped on with rain the other night and so everything, even the main roads were flooded up to our knees. We were walking and then all of a sudden the sidewalk disappeared from under me and I fell in a hole up to my waist. Luckily I was able to get out of it quickly. I just got up and kept going. I think I learned something about myself there. I could've just had it and went home early or something, but I just kept going and we ended up having a great night. You just gotta be willing to laugh at yourself sometimes and keep going. So yeah, that's about it! I'm trying to think of something else, but I'm kinda out. We're almost out of time here and I still gotta get to your guys' emails! I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!! Tiako ianareo!!!

Aza maditra,

-Elder Mumf

Soaked Shoes

Hey hey everyone! How's it going? This is probably my favorite part of the week, getting to tell ianareo about my week and hear about how everyone is doing.

We're still hanging in there pretty well here in the old 67ha. This week we had a goal to hit 30 total hours of proselyting. The mission goal every week is 28. This includes time in lessons as well as time finding people, like tracting and talking to people on the streets. We came super close, we got 29.6 hours. But we're still happy with the effort we put into it. It took lots of discipline. When times fall through, whadayado? Go out and talk to people close by until your next time. And because of that we came across a lot of people. Probably at least a quarter of them ended up being drunk, some were kinda stuck up, but then again there were some very nice and interesting people who could potentially be investigators. Like one time there was a banana seller that randomly asked us what time it was as we were walking by and I happily replied, "Amin'ny enina izao." And they got all excited that I speak malagasy and seemed genuinely interested about what we're doing. Then there was another time where a man stopped us and wanted us to come to his house. He was in a pretty apostate church and wanted some spiritual help. I'm not sure if he was drunk or just crazy, but we get there and he thanks us a million times before we even say anything. When we asked if we could start with a prayer he said, "I must bow down to you!" and so he did and while doing so prayed to Jesus. Pretty interesting stuff like that. So yeah, those were the highlights of our adventures of the week!

One lesson I learned this week was kinda your classic K.I.S.S., something my 5th grade teacher Mr. Lance taught all of his students. Keep It Simple Stupid! It's amazing how the simplest things can be the most powerful. I learned that while teaching this one couple. It's interesting, the guy is malagasy and his wife is spanish and doesn't speak much malagasy. So as we were teaching about Joseph Smith, he was translating to her in spanish. It forced me to use simpler, more powerful statements and I really felt the spirit as it testified to me and to them that this is all true. Because it IS! We gave them a Book of Mormon and now they're excited to read it. So yes, sometimes simpler is just better.

Elder Walker is still doing well and adjusting to his life here in Tana. He doesn't care too much for the crazy bus system or the crowded markets that reak of rotting fish in our area, but we're still having some fun out here. He's already way good at the language for how long he's been here and it's fun to watch and help him progress and teach him what I've learned through experience. Oh and we found this SUPER good place that makes juice. It's a lot like Jamba Juice actually, just without the crushed ice. We stop there almost every day now and I get a liter and a half of banana juice. Which is funny because before the mish I wouldn't take anything with banana in it. Guess that's what Mada bananas do to ya!

That's about all the things that really stuck out to me this week. Every day it seems like I'm coming home with my pant sleeves rolled up to my knees with completely soaked through shoes. I'm sure I'll look back on all this and miss these days, even if it's not the funnest right now. I didn't even realize it was Valentine's day this past week until I got here. But even if this is a little late I hope yall can feel my love for ya! I'm such a lucky dog to be out here and with all my loved ones back there supporting me. Have a great week everyone! Tiako ianareo marina dia marina tokoa!

-Elder Mumf

The Texas Ranger

Howdy y'all! How's it going back there where it's really dry?? Yeah, it's still been pretty wet out here. Surprisingly enough it hasn't rained for about half the week. And of course the one day I don't take my umbrella because I think it won't rain, it does. So I'm a little wet, but tsy manahy. So that's my little weather update for you.

So this week I got my second kid!! First of all I dropped off Elder Tiu at the office to go to Tamatave and I got to be on a split with one of the visa waiters going to South Africa. I don't think I've mentioned that before. There were a bunch of malagasy misisonaries who had problems with their visa's to go there, so about 8 of them have been scattered around working in different areas in threesomes. Elder Razafindrakoto is the one staying with the Itaosy Elders and was with me while I waited for my kid. It's always fun just speaking malagasy all day, even through studies. Thursday morning I went to the office and there he was! Elder Walker is his name. He came along with a Sister who's in Reunion right now, so we we had some company in the training meeting. It's funny because they were briefing him about all the things to watch out for in Mada and they just turned to the Sister and told her pretty much she had nothing to worry about since she'd pretty much be in France. Oh the joys of 3rd world countries ;) In that meeting we went through and talked about all the places in Mada and we got to Mahajanga... I wanna go back so bad!! But this is where I need to be.

Anyways, Elder Walker is from Texas in the San Antonio area. His family has moved a lot around America and so no, he doesn't have that accent. He's adopted from Colorado and the oldest in his family. He's 18 and just graduated high school. Before the mish he made pizzas. He did track before the mission as well. And it's been fun to be with him so far. He was the only one in his group, so he got lots of Malagasy practice in. He's already way good and he pushes himself to speak, so being his trainer is no biggie. I just help him along the way. But yeah, there's a little bit about my new trainee!

This week as far as the work goes went a little better. We were able to tract into a lot of our times and find some families. I learned a big lesson this week about faith! So we went one day and did a little tracting since we had some time before the next lesson. And from one house we hear some girls calling us vazaha and so we went and talked to them and asked if their parents were home. They were and they immediately let us in and we had a little lesson about the restoration and Joseph Smith. Rajaona and Noeline were the names of the couple. They seemed pretty interested in it and afterwards they said they'd be at church the next day. Now I can't tell you how many times people have said that to me and they never do come. So I just thought to myself that there's no way it's gonna happen, especially after just one time with them. To our surprise, Noeline came! And by the time we greeted her she had already made friends in the ward and sat by them in the Gospel Principles class and everything. So that was my little lesson I learned this week about faith. To have some! I have the restored truth in my hand and it has power to change the lives of people. And hopefully for Noeline and her family this is the start of a big change in their lives. All because we decided to talk to those girls calling us vazahas.

Anyways, I think that'll pretty much do it for this week. We were a little late today and we gotta get back out to work soon. Got some pics up on the bucket so ankafizo ary! I love you all. And yes I mean that! Get back to yall in a week! Oh and it's my chick mish. How crazy is that??? 18 months down. I'm gettin old! Love you all!

Mumf

don't even wanna know

About as scenic as it gets here

One pregger cat!

Me and Elder Tiu

Mumford and Son(s)!

Yeah, I've got some transfer news. And it directly affects me. But you all know the drill. Either read the whole letter before or be a chump and scroll to the end, take your pick!

So this week went alright. Still very wet and more wading through uncharted waters but what's new. Doing our best to find some fresh new faces to teach. We have some cool people on the program, but not many progressing. Could be doing a little cleaning up of the program here along with some finding. Sometimes when they don't come to you, you gotta go to them right? Right.

As far as a cool experience I had this week, here's one. So we have this couple that's learning from us and still waiting on some money so they can get legally married. We weren't exactly prepared with a lesson to share with them one night, so we talked about their Book of Mormon reading and all that and how their saving up was going and afterwards asked if they had any questions. They then asked how they can get money to take care of everything they need, because it always seems to just disappear before they can save any of it. That's when we reviewed about Tithing :) They had already learned about it, but I guess the missionaries before barely skimmed over it and didn't go into real depth. We talked about it and the blessings that we receive from paying one tenth. They were kinda blown away and didn't realize before that they could do something like that and receive blessings. Without hesitation they accepted to live the Law of Tithing. I know if they do that that they're going to see great blessings in their lives like I've seen in mine through living that law. Rija and Elina are their names :) Now they just need to get to church! Haha. As with so many of the people we teach.

Yeah, so we still have a lot of stuff to do before we go out to work, so this will be pretty short and to the point. I guess I'll let the transfer news out! So Elder Tiu will be going out to Tamatave (the lucky turd) and I'll be getting a brand new trainee!! His name is Elder Walker and he's from Texas. Yes. Walker the Texas Ranger. I'm pretty excited about it, it'll be fun to train again! I actually already knew I'd be training since last Monday night, because we got a hint from a reliable source and it was, "He already has one son and with this, it will complete the pun in his name". So yep, now it's official. Mumford and sons! It'll be an adventure. Plus this means I'm pretty much guaranteed one more area after this that I'll stay in for 2 transfers. We'll see what the future brings!

Anyways, with Elder Tiu leaving tomorrow, we still have stuff we gotta do to get ready for that. But I love you all!! Have an awesome week!!! Tiako ianareo!!

-Elder Mumford :)