Mumford in Mada: It's Here!!

September 12, 2013

Hello everyone! Man. This is for reals. I leave on Alatsinainy! (Monday). I'm so excited right now and I can't wait!!! Okay so here's my detailed itinerary:

SEP 16 LV: Salt Lake City, UT 2:05pm

AR: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX 5:40pm

SEP 16 LV: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX 8:00pm

AR: London Heathrow, England 11:00am SEP 17

SEP 17 LV: London Heathrow, England 7:10pm

AR: Johannesburg, S. Africa 6:55am SEP 18

SEP 18 LV: Johannesburg, S. Africa 10:00am

AR: Antananarivo, Madagascar 2:10pm

So yeah, I have a few days of traveling ahead of me. I'm not really looking forward to all those hours on a plane and in layovers. But I'm excited for all these places I'll get to fly over! Part of Europe, the Mediterranean, a lot of Africa, and most of all Madagascar!! I've waited 6 1/2 months for this, and it's finally here :) I feel like jumping off the walls talking about this, but it might be a little weird with everyone else around... Haha! It's been hard to focus on anything else, but I'm also doing my best to be ready for it.

I really don't have anything to say about the MTC. Tsitsy voavoa. Same old. The Malagasy has still been going well! Nowhere near fluent, but I've got a pretty good foundation. Rahalahy Sell says that our district may not have the most vocabulary coming out of the MTC, but that out of all the groups he's taught that we are the best at teaching and that that is a world of difference. Cause the vocabulary will come with time. We're not teaching anymore investigators anymore. One of our investigators, Henry (with an accented e), we were able to commit him to baptism! Even though it was just Brother Sell who played him, it was a cool experience just helping him with his problems and getting him ready to be baptized. It's gonna be so sweet to do that in real life! Henry is an actual person that Rahalahy Sell taught over in Talmatave. So maybe I'll meet him! When he first came to the missionaries wanting to know more, he was an alcoholic. But with the help of the missionaries he was able to stop drinking. He wasn't legally married to his wife, and at first she wasn't really open to the gospel. But eventually they did get married and he and his wife were baptized. It's just so cool hearing stories like that about people changing for the better. I hope when I'm there I can change a few lives too!

I have a sore throat, but it's not a big deal. I'm hoping I can get over it before Monday, but we'll see! Uhm.. Let's see. For the devotional on Tuesday we had Elder Martino speak to us. I forget what specifically is his calling but I think he's in the Seventy. It was sweet, like any other devotional. Honestly, we were kinda bummed that we didn't have an apostle our last week here, but it's all good! He spoke to us about how we need to involve members as much as we can. Oh and we didn't end up singing this week. It was only for Main Campus peeps. Lame!! Oh well. It was good being in the choir while it lasted!

If I think of anything else to tell y'all I will later today. We're going to the temple and getting fresh haircuts! So that'll be good. And I haven't been good at getting pictures this week, but I'll try to get some to send later today as well.

I love you all!! Tiako ianareo!

-Elder Mumph

Hello again! I'm back on the computer for a little bit. Just thought I'd kinda share about my day so far. We went and did another session today. It was kindof emotional, knowing I wouldn't get to go to another temple for 2 years. But it was good as always! In a lot of ways, leaving the temple today was a lot like leaving home. But I know the blessings from the temple will always be with me, and it's such a comfort to know that :)

Anyways, enough with the sappy stuff, I'll put up some pictures!

This one is of me with my flight plan. Even though I'll be traveling a good 2 days, I'm so excited to finally be off to Madagascar!!

The view outside of spirit prison! Haha :)

Elder Ricecakes taking a snooze last P-day. So peaceful ;)

Ny Drafitra ny Famonjena (Plan of Salvation). My drawing skills have already come in handy :) And in case you're wondering why I don't have outer darkness on there is cause our teachers have told us to not even get into that with the investigators, since it wouldn't really apply to them. So yeah, there's my little chart we used in a lesson!