Mumford in Mada: Dreams do come true.

Yes. The transfer news is here. And is is exactly what I had hoped for? I guess you'll just have to wait until the end of this letter to find out ;) Yep, I'm being that Elder who keeps you all on your feet, but the weird thing is... This will be my last time surprising you all. That's so weird!! But yes, you have to wait til the end of the email. If not there will be consequences.

So this week was actually quite eventful. We did a little streetboarding as a zone on Thursday. In case you don't know what that is, it's when you and a group of people make a big board and put lots of pictures of topic in the church and then people come up to you out of their own interest and you can just talk and explain to them about the church. It's basically to let people know more about the church and to pick of contacts who could become investigators. Our topic that we did as a district was about the Plan of Salvation, and we along with a bunch of other districts and their boards went to a marketplace in Mahamasina and tore it up talking to peeps. We didn't get a whole lot of contacts for us in 67ha, just a bunch for a lot of other areas. It was still way fun though! We did it pretty much the whole day. I'll get some pictures up on the bucket!

We also got to watch conference, FINALLY! We got to go to the office on Saturday and Sunday with all the other missionaries to watch it. Let's see... I don't have my awesome notes in front of me and I forgot to take pictures of the drawings. I'll get that out soon! But for now I don't really remember a whole lot of stuff, I'd have to go back and watch them again. I just remember loving it so much. It had it's kinda weird/ funny moments to it. Like when those people made an opposing vote during the sustainings. Very interesting. I think my favorite part of the conference was after a seventy gave his talk in spanish and then Uchtdorf came up and started going off in German. All the missionaries were roaring with laughter. My favorite quote from conference was Shakespear's "twas I but tis not I", and how God cares a whole lot more about who we are now and who we will become rather that who we were. It's just so awesome to me that no matter what things we've done in the past, no matter what regrets we have, we can always press on with a new purpose in life because of the Atonement of Christ. And that's why I'm out here, to help people start over. And I saw that in a way this week when we got to attend the marriage of two of our investigators, Rija and Elienne. They were already living together and have a kid with one on the way, just not lawfully married. But they finally took that step and got it done. They're going to be baptized pretty soon here as well. We won't get to see it, but the marriage was very special to me. Seeing how far they've come. I told yall about this before, but Rija was a drunk when I first started teaching him. But we got them back on track towards baptism. It took some time, but they're all but there. I know that they'll make it to the temple as well. This mission is just so AWESOME! More awesome than a snotnosed 21 year old kid could put into a weekly email.

Aside from all that, nothing to much happened. I said a lot of goodbyes and took pictures with people before I leave here on Wednesday morning to go to my next area. Me and Elder Walker are still doing well together. I'm gonna miss working with him. But I know he's going to do great things. Oh and I'll spill part of transfer news. So Elder Walker is leaving 67ha too and getting transfered to another area in Tana called Tanjombato. He's pretty stoked about it. And 67ha will be whitewashed by two Malagasies, so that should be fun! Haha.

Alrighty, well I think I'm about out of news for the week, at least for the stuff that's in my head. So It's time to really spill the beans. Elder Mumford will be going to a little place called Andranomanelatra. And for all of you who know nothing about it, it's a place in Antsirabe. Yep. My boyhood dream is coming true. I'm doin it. I'm going down to ANTSIRABE!!! I am so excited. That's seriously one of the places and areas I have long dreamed about going. It's out in the beautiful countryside of Antsirabe. It's going to be COLD!! There'll be mountains. I still haven't got a close up look at it, but that's what everyone tells me it's like. Oh and just a side note: I get a car. Yep! So I'll get to learn the valuable life skill of driving a standard transmission. My companion's name is Elder Mack and I literally know nothing about him, but I'm looking forward to working with him. Ah!!!! Everything is just so great :) I couldn't ask for a better area to finish off. I've even said before that I would take this over Fort Dauphin. Dreams do come true. And I'm gonna work my hardest and enjoy every minute of while I'm there. I'll tell you all about it once I get there! As for now, pday is running short and I got a lot of stuff to do. So if you find that your emails didn't get replied to this week don't be offended! At very least I have read all of them and I'll get back next week. I love you all so much!! This journey has been such a rollercoaster for me and you all have been there with me to this point. And now I'm starting the last chapter of my mission. It's gonna be fun :) Tiako ianareo!!! Til next week when I'm in Antsirabe!!!

Elder Mumf

Cartmill strikes again