Mumford in Mada: A Curveball of a Week

Whoa! I'm back at the cyber emailing again... That was fast! The weeks just keep flying by. It's almost a little scary how fast it's going... But I guess that's what happens when you're living it up and enjoying the work.

Won't lie, kindof a crazy week! But I'll get on to what made it so crazy a little later on. You know me, gotta keep you all on the edge ;) So we officially have 5 baptisms coming up this Saturday, bap interviewed and all. Way excited for them! It's so cool to see people changing and preparing themselves to make this big step in their lives. And what's even cooler about it is that it's all them. They're the ones that make the choice to come closer to Christ. Yeah, we as missionaries might help them see the things that they need to do and invite them to be baptized, but in the end they're the ones that change their own lives. It's just so awesome to see that as a missionary. Anyways, super excited to say the least.

This week has been mostly rainy, which I don't mind a bit actually. It's been keeping things cooler, so I'm all for it! Got some good teaching in and a full schedule up until Friday. That's when Elder Fisher got sick with a fever and different things. So the past couple of days have been interesting. One of them I got to go on a split with Randriamamonjisoa who works in Ambolomadinka. It was nice getting to see around a different area a little. We stopped by a wayyy cool member's house. We sat and waited for another guy to meet us there. While we were waiting, the dad of the member family pulled up a chair and sat next to me and we had a full on conversation in Malagasy. We talked about Madagascar and the U.S. and all kinds of random things in between for about 10 minutes. It was just like talking to an old friend! It just felt so great being able to just talk and not really have to think about it. Still not fluent by any means, but I've improved a lot! So that was my split. Then yesterday I stayed at the house with Elder Fisher all day. It was one of the longest days of my life just sitting in that house. Got some studying done and cleaned up a bit though, so it wasn't all bad. Sure hope he gets feeling better soon. Seems to be doing better today, so that's good.

So we had kindof a bizarre experience with a drunk guy this week. Haha it was so weird! I figured I had to share it. So we were just about to walk into the gate of a house that we were going to teach, when a guy who was clearly wasted stopped us and wanted us to come to his house and teach him. He kept saying over and over in English, "I must hear the word of God." We kindly invited him to come to church and eventually we were able to get into our time. Well, halfway through the lesson, he comes back and just walks in the house, sits in the corner, and tells us to keep going. Everyone was weirded out at that point, but we let him be anyways. Every once and a while he'd say some random thing in English and me and Fish would be trying so hard not to bust out laughing. But we made it through alright! Then as we were leaving that house, Jerry (the drunk guy's name) insisted on having us come teach at his house. We tried getting out of it saying we had a busy schedule, but eventually we caved and decided to just go see his house. The funniest was when he'd say things like, "Come with me! If you believe in God, believe in me!" And just the way he said it was the most hilarious thing to us. It's just one of those things you had to hear for yourself. So we got to his house, exchanged numbers, read Esther 9:1 with him cause he wanted to, received his hand goodbye, and left. So that's my crazy random story for the week!

I've been getting a few requests to talk about investigators more. I'll try to be better at that! But 4 of our baptisms coming up all live together and are all women. 2 bebes (grandmas) and 2 grandchildren. They were actually a referral from another missionary. They had already learned quite a bit, but recently they just moved to Mangarivotra. So we've been working with them and getting them set for baptism. Since there's no man in the house, we've had to get a lot of members to come and help us teach, which helped a lot I think. Then the other baptism we have is another girl that lives with the Elder's quorum president and his wife. Her name is Lily and she's from Tana. Kinda sad. Don't know many details but she's an orphan. But it's good that she's been living with solid members who have taken her in. She's 15 and a little shy. But she's opened up a lot to missionaries since the first time she was taught. So cool she's getting baptized finally!

Okay. Now the moment you've all been waiting for... Transfer news!! So one of my best buds that's been living with us, Elder Razafimandimby, is going back home to Antsirabe since his two years are gone. Elder Austin is going to Toliary, that lucky duck. And then there was the curveball. The very last thing I was expecting. Apparently Mangarivotra, my area, is closing down. I guess there's just not enough missionaries to be specifically assigned there. It'll still get worked, just combined with another area. But still, it was a huge shock to me. AND. I'm getting transferred to an area called Ampitatafika. I'M GOING TO TANA!!!! I'm super excited about it. I've been kindof going back and forth between being sad about leaving Tamatave and being so excited about this new area I'm going to. I wasn't expecting to leave my first area this soon, no one was. But I'm excited for what lies ahead of me. Plus I get a Malagasy companion. I forgot his name.. but I'm actually very excited about that. It should speed up the learning a little, that's for sure!

So yeah... My week in a coconut shell. Lots of changes coming up! But what I've learned from the past is that change is usually a good thing. My next email will be from Tana! So crazy to think. Anyhoo, better get going on some other stuff. Love you all!!!!! Tiako ianareo!!!!

-Elder Mum

A giant chameleon we saw on the side of the road!