Manahoana daholo!

       Hello again everyone! Another week down. And boy, it was a hot one! It is so hot and humid here right now. And everyone has been telling us to just wait til December and that it's not even hot right now... Haha. Hopefully it won't be too terrible, but I've survived it so far.

      

       So aparently the elections aren't even over. Everyone that we talk to says something different about it, like the results are coming in a few days. And then there's people that say this was only the primaries and that the real one happens in late December. I don't know what to believe anymore, but I'm thinking the latter. And then it might get pushed back even farther and maybe it won't even happen while I'm here. Haha so complicated and no one knows what's going on. But if we get information from a good source, I'll let y'all know.

       

      Halloween was this past week. I honestly wouldn't have known if someone didn't mention it in our house. No one celebrates it here. But people do this thing where they go and pray to their dead ancestors or something. I forget the name, but kinda weird. Anyways, we didn't do anything for Halloween. Just a normal day for us! It'll probably be the same way for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but hopefully a little more festive!

        

      So our area is 'Mangorivatra'. And we live in it, which is way nice. I guess most other missionaries out there have to take a bus or ride their bikes quite a ways to their area, but not us! Most of the people we teach live just along the main road or close. But every once and a while we'll have people that live a few miles out in the middle of nowhere. That's where we see the bamboo huts with the grass roofs mostly. It's kindof weird how things like that are just normal to me now with the sand everywhere and grass huts. It's surprisingly like what you would see in Gilligan's Island or something like that! It's way cool. I pretty much have to duck everywhere I go. I can't tell you how many clothes lines I've run into! Haha but I'm getting better at avoiding it. In maybe most of the houses I can't stand straight up in. Guess that's what I get for being a tall guy in Mada! By the way, the other Elders in the house told me there's another 6 foot 5 missionary in country and that he's leaving pretty soon. So I'll probably be the tallest missionary in Madagascar soon! Haha I think that's kinda cool at least ;)

         

      Not much interesting has happened this week. There was a mpangalatra (thief) incident that was kinda weird though. We were riding down the main road and all of a sudden we hear this lady screaming at the top of her lungs. Then she jumped out of a moving posiposy (How people get around, I'll get in a picture soon) was rollling on the road, got up and just started running in the middle of the road. I guess someone just took her purse right from her. So that was interesting! Definitely the weirdest thing I've seen while living here. We've had more drunk people come up and talk to us. It's weird because we'll tell people in Malagasy that we don't speak French and they still just babble off in it. And I'm not talking just about drunk people, it doesn't seem to register with anyone! It's a little annoying, but oh well. Guess that's just something to get used to!

       

       If I think of anything else to report on the week I will when I get some pics sent! I love all of you!! Have a great week everyone! Tiako ianareo!

-Elder Mumford

 Mango! Never was a big fan before, but they're so fresh and delicious here! Mmm. So good.

Just being artsy fartsy with my planner again! It feels good to start a fresh one :)

Another of our little friends here in the house :)

The baptism!! That kid in the front that isn't looking at the camera is the one I baptized! Very special day.

The little pool where we did the baptism :)

Fabrino! Such a cute little guy.

If any of you think you've seen a big spider back in Utah, take a look at this guy. They're huge here!

We were waiting to meet someone for a time at the church for a lesson and they were late, so we got to peel some stuff! I don't know what they're called. But those days of cutting corn off the cob and peeling potatoes came in handy!