Another week gone by. I'm definitely feeling the time starting to pick up. I don't even know where this week went! Guess that's what happens when you're getting used to things more and more. And when the language is starting to click more :)
Anyways, things have still been going well here in ol' Toamasina. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but every city in Madagascar has two names: the french name and the malagasy name. Toamasina is the Malagasy one and Tamatave French. Kinda cool, but confusing at the same time. Haha. The dad in that family we baptized a couple weeks ago got baptized this week! So that was kinda cool to see the whole family again and watch the baptism. Elder Moulton baptized him. It's cool to see a whole family joined into the church! I know they will do awesome things for it here in Tamatave.
This week I got to go on a split with one of the zone leaders, Elder Jensen. Plus, I got to lead the area for my first time. Not gonna lie, it was a little overwhelming at first since I had to remember all the times we had scheduled for the day. Not to mention the Malagasy! Haha. But I was very surprised. We were able to get to all our appointments. AND I was able to carry the lessons pretty well. I was speaking Malagasy! Haha I was so surprised! I realized that I knew more than I give myself credit for sometimes. Not just with the Malagasy, but teaching. Sure, it was still a little rough at some points. That's where Elder Jensen would take over, but for the most part I was able to hold my own out there. Elder Jensen said he was way surprised at how well I was speaking with not being in country for very long. It was a great feeling and confidence booster for me. It was also a testimony builder that we really do have the gift of tongues! All those things that I've been studying were finally starting to click in my mind and I was able to speak pretty clearly. So yeah, that was my awesome experience for the week!
We also had Elder Cook from the Seventy come and visit us. He came for some priesthood leadership meeting at the church here, and to meet with the young single adults and we sat in on that. Apparently he's over 35 countries! Lots of work. He talked to us about how he's been getting phone calls from mission presidents in places like Botswana saying they need more missionaries. I couldn't help but think about Colton Williams and how he'll be a part of that! It's so cool how missionary work is opening up everywhere. Elder Cook also talked to them and challenged them to pray and ask 2 questions: Would you have me do missionary work? And is now the time? I really liked that he gave them that challenge. Basically he said that we need more missionaries, and how true that is! One side note, I wanted to get a picture with him, but he was in a huge-o rush so no one was able to.. Oh well. I hear we'll have another Seventy coming in December for a mission tour. So maybe then!
Got asked a few questions about day to day life, so I'll try to answer some of them! The bathrooms. They're... interesting. Haha. Me and Elder Moulton have our own bathroom except for we don't have a toilet. But that's where we take our showers. And it doesn't drain all that well, so whenever we're done we have to take a squeegee and push all the water down this little drain. There's also the main bathroom that we all use. It's basically the same as a bathroom back home, except we don't use toilet paper! We use a little sprayer. I'll spare the details of that... But I think it's way better than tp. In my dream house, I will have a sprayer. Haha. We do have running water here. It's pump water, so not really safe to drink. So we have to use a filter with the sinks. And we do have electricity, but it goes out almost every day randomly. Candles come in handy a lot here! Almost everyone has a phone here. It's kinda weird cause some people will have all these phones and gadgets and fancy stereo systems while they struggle to feed their families. Some people just don't have their priorities straight sometimes I guess! Missionaries do get sick here. But it's usually just because the food did something weird to them and after a couple days they're fine. I've been lucky not to be sick! But I'm sure it'll happen sometime. Hope y'all find those random things interesting.
Not much else to say this week. A lot of times have been falling through with people out of town still worshiping their dead ancestors in ambany volo (the countryside). But all in all, things are still going well. Hotter than heck, but whadayado. I'll get some pics up! Tiako ianareo!!
-Elder Mumford
Hopefully I didn't send this one last week... But if I did here it is again! Another turtle we found in front of our house. This place is like a zoo sometimes!
People playing soccer. Very popular here. Just wish they had basketball somewhere!
The whole family is now baptized! Well, except for little Fabrino there. But I'm calling it now, he'll be a future missionary for sure! Oh and this picture is kindof awkward... It looks like me and Elder Moulton are holding hands. Promise we aren't!
The chicken bbq we had! It was way good. That's Elder Jensen and Elder Moulton on the guitar!
Rockin' sunset pic
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