Mumford in Mada: A Swim in the Ocean! (Well. Kinda)

Hey hey everyone!! How's everything hanging out there? It's pretty good here. You know. We had baptisms!! Haha that'll probably be the main theme of this email. I don't have much more time left before we need to get on to some other stuff, but I'll get some stuff in here still.

So like I said before, we had baptisms. And yes, they were in the ocean! We had 2 investigators get baptised. Their names are Yvon and Sylvia. No they're not married, but we think it's a possibility. Haha. But it all went pretty smoothly. We had a little program at the church with hymns and talks and then we all headed out to the ocean! I got some pictures of it, so hopefully you'll take a peek at the bucket and enjoy! There really was nothing like it. It was unusual being in that much water in so long. And by that I mean being in enough water to swim in. I don't really remember if the water was cold, I was just so excited about being out there I couldn't really think of much else. I was a little worried that the waves would cause a problem, but it all went smoothly. I was able to do it all without having to start over! Haha so I guess that's an accomplishment. After it was over I didn't want to leave. There's just a calm and hard to describe feeling when you're out in that water. But I guess I kinda had to return to shore at some point. It was amazing getting to do that in the ocean and not many people get to do it, but one thing I realized was that no matter if it's in the ocean or in a font, the baptism is still the same sacred ordinance. Being a part of a baptism, no matter where, is one of the best experiences ever, and I'm always so thankful for when I get to be a part of them. So yeah, there you have my little stop in the ocean!

The rest of the week... Not a whole lot out of the usual. Still teaching lots, but also trying to find more people that will learn. One thing kinda interesting about here is that it's a lot more muslim influenced with the Commorian people. I think that's kinda what adds that touch to Mahajanga that makes it unlike any other. There's some cool looking Islamic churches here too. The people are also very welcoming. We have a few investigators that we teach now that come from an islamic background, so it's kinda cool. One interesting thing that happened this week was when I was stopped to take a drink of water and a guy was walking past and told me it wasn't okay to drink water while standing up and he told me it was from the prophet Muhammed. Whether that's really the case or not, that was just something unique that happened.

We're still also teaching less-actives and trying to help them come back. And we've had some success with that! I think a lot of people would come back if they were just visited. That's another struggle we have here, is that the home teaching is virtually non existant here. So we're working with the elder's quorum presidency to get that fixed. The branch still needs lots of guidance from time to time. Yesterday's sacrament meeting was kinda... Interesting. Haha. We had to go up and talk to the branch presidency about some things that were missing from announcements and whatnot and we still need a keyboard player. So any that has some fahaizana with keyboard feel free to stop by!! Haha :)

Can't really think of anything else. Hopefully the pictures this week make up for the lack of the past few weeks. I'm trying to be better with that! And also this week I hit my year mark in country. Oh how the time flies! I feel like I say that every week, but it's true. I remember that first day stepping off the plane into this crazy cool place not being able to talk to anyone. I think I've come I couple steps from that time. I'm so grateful to be here!!

Anyways, we better get going. Love you all and hope everything is going well back there! Tiako ianareo!!!

-Elder Mumf

Razaza getting his hair chopped off