City Boy

Hey everyone!!! Sorry if this one is a little short as well. The connection hasn't been going well so it's taken up a lot of time. I'll do my best!

Well I'm here. Here in Ankorondrano. It's been quite the change, but overall it's been alright. The whitewashing is pretty new to me. I've never had to go into an area with no set program. But it's kinda fun in a way to go in and start fresh and build up from scratch. The area is pretty cool. Still don't know a ton about it, but it's good. I'm in the big city in downtown Antananarivo. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm in Madagascar to be honest. Some places are way nice and there's giant buildings like ones you'd see in Salt Lake. A little more ghetto obviously, but still. It's a city life for me now. Most places we go it's still more undeveloped and the people are poor. And there's still rice paddies. I feel more at home in those kindof places. The area needs some work, but that's what we're here to do! I'm excited to be working here. I miss Ampitatafika, but I feel like I've settled in alright. Our ward is awesome, the bishop is an ex-missionary who served in South Africa so he speaks perfect English. The ward mission leader has been awesome and showing us where all the members and former investigators live. It'll be an interesting couple of weeks getting everything lamina, but it'll be fun.

We live in a house in a city called Ivandry. The house is pretty small, and there's 6 of us in it, so it's pretty cozy. Plus there's only 2 bedrooms, and by the time we got there, they were already taken. So we have our mattresses out in the living room and have kindof just adapted to our surroundings. I don't really mind it much, but I kinda hope they get another house for some of the Elders here soon, that's what they say. The other missionaries I live with are ballers though. I'm in the same house as Elder Lambert now! He was one in our MTC group, as well as Elder Thia! It's been fun being in the same house with them. We also have Elder Peters and Elder Maditeragi (I butchered that), they're Tahitian, but they speak pretty good english, so it's been fun being with them. Elder Thompson, my companion, is a good guy. He came 6 weeks after I did. He's not even 19 yet though, haha! Still a young little squirt, but it's been fun working with him so far.

Oh and I'm a District Leader now! Not a huge responsibility, but one that I'm kinda excited to have. I get to take stats and go on splits and be in charge of District Meeting. I'm just kinda typing any random thing that comes into my mind right now, so sorry if my thoughts are a little unorganized. We have a place in our area called Analakely, which is the business capitol of Madagascar. I'm surrounded by souvenirs and cool stuff to buy, so that could be a temptation but I'll keep it under control. There's a mall close to our house. It's literally like one you'd find in America, only everything is French. I was pretty gaga when we went there to eat once. That was one time where it especially didn't feel like Madagascar. The food is alright, but I probably won't be eating there much. Let's see... I'm still just trying to get to know my way around this place. There's a lot more streets, so it's a lot different than what I've been used to. But yeah, I'll probably have more details in my email next week, my mind is just drawing a blank right now.

Well we're kinda in a hurry today as well, but I'll do my best to get to all y'alls emails. If you don't get a reply I'm so sorry! But I love you all!!! I'll also try my best to get some pictures up so you can see this wild place. Anyhoo, Have a great week everyone! Tiako ianareo!!!

-Elder Mumf

Photobucket is being dumb again... Sorry about not getting pictures up again. I'm doing the best with what I have, but I'll try again next week. Love you all!