Mumford in Mada: Right Back at It

Ry Fianakaviako sy ny Namako,

Hey hey everyone!! How's it hangin out there? Hope everything is still going and going well. Unlike the past couple weeks which have either had a big surprise or sickness, this one was much better for me. I've been up and at it all week and I feel great. Still have a small cough and a little sore throat, but that should clear up soon. Still taking my drugs and getting a little more sleep at night to be safe, but I'm pretty much back to normal. IT's been way nice getting out and having a full week of work. The best feeling is coming back to the house at night even when you're way tired, knowing that it was a day full of solid work and effort. I missed that when I was sick. So yeah, just glad to be up and going again!

Even though I don't get to work Ampitatafika as much as I would like, the work is still going well. Two of our investigator couples got their fisoratanas (marriage certificates) done! So that's pretty exciting news. It's looking like we'll be putting off the baptisms we had scheduled for the 29th to the 19 of April, the next available day. I was really hoping that we'd have some baptisms later this month, but with everything that's happened with us being sick and with our new schedule it's just not possible. There's still a lot more things we need to go over with them to help get them ready and we figured it would be best to have them wait a little longer and have them all ready than to rush them. So that's kinda where we're at right now with that. Still very solid investigators. It should be a very good turnout for the 19th of April.

This week we had Stake Conference! IT was held at a university building and there were soooo many people there. Maybe 2,000 I'd say. We got a lot of new stake leaders put in. Plus Elder Renlund spoke, which I really enjoyed. But other than that I didn't really get a whole lot out of it... Hahah got a little bit of doodling in though!

We had one way cool experience this week. It was a day we were working in Itaosy and we had a couple of hours free so we had no choice but to do some porte de porte. We got quite a few return appointments from it actually. But the last door we knocked on turned out to be the most promising. The guy came out, saw us, looked at our nametags, and asked, "Mormona ve ianareo?" and when we told him we were missionaries he got a little smile on his face and said, "Ah! Mandroso!(come in!)" Dera is his name. We went in and talked with him for a little bit and it turns out that he learned from a couple missionary back in 2006, but then he and his family moved and never heard from the church since. So I'm thinking there was a pretty good reason we went down that path to knock on his door ;) We got a return appointment and he seemed excited and open from learning from the missionaries again. So I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes with him.

Other than that, not much new. Still working at the language and everything, but overall I'm starting to feel pretty zatra. Pretty comfortable and feeling more at home in Madagascar. I mentioned this in my email last week, but I've gotten to where I just love every chance I get to talk to people, even if it's just a little conversation with people on the bus or whatnot. It's been one of my favorite parts of missionary work, just talking to people and about their lives. It's fun! Haha. Missionary work really is fun. And out here you never know the adventures you'll have.

Well I'm gonna get to other emails and try to get more pictures up. I love you all so much! Have a great week!! Tiako ianareo!!!

-Elder Mumford

I figure this is what I'd look like if I were a Malagasy. Good look for me huh!