Aza Manompo Sampy

Hey everyone!! It’s good to be back after another week of good work. It’s been another good one and I hope all is going well back on the other side of the world.

Where to begin.. Well. I’m not sure if I mentioned this in an email before, but we teach a malagasy that’s super good at English. His name is Ricardo and he’s a very friendly guy. It’s the weirdest thing teaching in English for me. I find myself translating back in my mind some of the vocabulary back from malagasy. Haha. So Elder Hull is usually the one leading those lessons since my mind seems to be hardwired for teaching people in Malagasy. Ricardo asks lots of good questions and it's hard to keep those lessons under an hour sometimes, but we do somehow. So that's a unique thing for me.

The beginning of the week was a little interesting because Elder Hull once again had some problems with something he ate. Haha. On Tuesday he woke up and he was going to the bathroom every few minutes. I don't know how, but somehow I've been very blessed and haven't had really any issues with the food, even when I first got in country. But yes, the majority of that day was spent in the house with him recovering and getting in some anti-diarrheal. I can spare the rest of those little details.

The investigators are still doing well for the most part. We finally got 8 of them in and got some baptismal interviews done! One of the couples didn't make it though. The wife isn't ready knowledge-wise which is weird because the lessons went well and she was getting everything, and the husband apparently still smokes, which we made sure to check and double check that before. So those were kinda surprising to me, but we set a new goal and we're working towards it. The rest all passed though! There's one family of 4 and then a mother and her daughter getting baptized all this Saturday. So I'm way excited for this saturday! The rest of the investigators are still doing good. It seems like in every area there's one specific challenge. Well in Ampitatafika it seems that that problem is smoking. We have 3 that we're working with to help quit. They're all progressing, little by little, but still gettin there. So that's been an interesting experience helping them with that.

One weird experience. This past saturday our whole schedule just crashed, so we had a little time to porte a porte. We were going around and this guy comes up to us and asks what he needs to be saved. He let us into his house and we explained what we were all about and he wants to learn from us. His name is Martin. But we were sitting and at the end of the first introductory lesson he points to this patch on the wall and tells us that behind it is an idol that their landlord had placed there. Little creepy! So he asked us what to do to be saved from it. We told him to tell the landlord that's not okay and to get it outta there. Then he asked us if he could give it to us. And me not wanting anything to do with it said, "Uhm... yeah. Just destroy it". Haha. So that's your weird experience for the week.

Overall everything is still going well. Still workin on that malagasy, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. We were eating at this hotely we usually eat at a few times a week and because of that the waiters all know we speak malagasy. A man walks in and sits down and the waiters just start making small talk with us and the guy just does this double-take and his eyes are wide open like he couldn't believe I was speaking malagasy. We got talking and I overheard him telling someone, "That guy's a malagasy!" haha. So that made me feel pretty good. Still trying to stay humble about it and work to my ultimate goal to have a pretty good mastery of the language.

Elder Hullskies is still doin pretty good. We've become pretty good friends and we joke around a lot with each other. It's fun being a trainer I've decided. I guess we have 8 more missionaries coming in this next transfer, so I could possibly be training again, and whitewash an area! Honestly I think that would be fun, but we'll see what happens in 4 weeks! Man. My time in Ampitatafika is slowly starting to wind down. I will have been here 6 months and rarely does anyone stay in one area longer than that, so yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be bouncing. But I'm just trying to put all of that aside and focus on getting Elder Hull ready to lead and finishing off in Ampitatafika with a bang.

Well I think that's about all I have for now. I'm still alive. And I'm still a happy boy here in Mada. I'll get on to some other emails now! Tiako ianareo daholo!!

-Elder Mumfs

P.S. Today is Pentacost here, so none of the good cybers were open. Therefore I might not get pictures up this week either, but I'll try!

Winter? In June?

Dearest Family and Friends,

Hello everyone! Wasn’t it just yesterday I was emailing? Weird.

This week overall went pretty well. The first 2 days were kinda rough though. It seemed like anything that could possibly go wrong with our schedule did. It was pretty mahakamo. Nobody was home it seemed like. Plus we couldn’t get a member to help us, so we couldn’t get into any houses where there wasn’t another guy. We were literally saying to ourselves, “Welp, let’s go see who’s gonna dog us next” Haha probably not the best attitude, but it’s what happened. However in that extra time we had we didn’t just go do more tracting, but we got a hold of the bishop and sat down with him for maybe 2 hours with a list of all the members in Ampitatafika and had him go through and underline all the ones that were inactive. Good thing we did, because he had underlined about 80 names. Yeah. 80 less actives. So that’s kinda been our focus the last little while in trying to get out and see those people. About half of them have either moved or just plain unreachable, but we still have plenty we can try instead of door-to-door. So yeah, we’ve talked with the ward and hopefully we’ll get some good help with some reactivation efforts.

By Thursday  things finally picked up again. People were in their homes ready to receive us and the things we taught. Plus we got some more member help. Rackin up those member presents! Good stuff. There was one kinda weird experience this week with teaching. The guy's name is Solo. We went to his house and of course he was happy to let us in. At first it seemed completely normal. We asked how his Book of Mormon reading was going because he had just gotten one the week before. He said it was going great and started quoting word for word the introduction page. Haha. We told him not to memorize it, but just read it and understand it! But yeah, a little later on in the lesson I started to smell his breath and yes indeed he was drunk. He didn't seem like it at all before. We were asking him questions to confirm that he was understanding everything and he kept answering correctly, so we kinda just kept going. So we'll see how much of it he remembers in our next lesson and maybe we'll slip in a little Word of Wisdom talk ;)

I don't really know what else to specifically talk about.. Oh! Our washing machine has been broken all week and we're still waiting on a new one. In the mean time we get to hand-wash clothes! Yay :) Haha. The real Mada experience! And it's actually been super cold here. When we walk out of the house in the morning to get some breakfast, we can see our breath! That should not happen in Madagascar... But it's all good. We have our little heater that keeps comfortable in the mornings and evenings, plus I have a sweater. Not the best, but it gets the job done. We do have a new addition to the house. I'm awful, but I don't remember his name... He's super quiet. He's another Elder from Rwanda. He speaks English as far as I can tell. But I'll be better at talking to him and making him feel more at home.

The training is still going! I've been making more of a conscious effort of having Elder Hull involved as much as possible. Every lesson I've had him talk about at least one or two things. I've even put him on the spot a couple times with things we haven't gone over. Mwahahaha! I'm not that cruel, but that's something I'm grateful Elder Moulton did. I didn't always like him for it! But I know I wouldn't be where I'm at if he hadn't pushed me. So that's what I'm trying to do with my trainee. And he's been doing alright with it. He still struggles sometimes with certain words, but hey. I was there. So I help him out whenever he's trying to find those words. It's been a good thing for him though I think. And now I'm at the point in my Malagasy where I'm pretty comfortable. But I'm doing my best not to be content with where I'm at and to keep pushing myself to keep improving all the time. Overall that's been going purty well.

I can't really think of anything else... So I'm gonna get to some other emails! I probably won't have pictures up this week. This cyber is being really slow and I could be here for days. But I'll do my best next week! Anyways, love you guys! Go have an awesome week for me! Tiako be ianareo!!!

Tadidio:

Aza miantsampy ny hazo tsy fantatra!

-Elder mUmF

Kindof a crappy picture...

Ao Tsara

Howdy y'alls! Manaokory. Mbo soa avao! Yeah, I learned a little teny Toliary this week from one of our investigators. Who knows, maybe I'll get sent there one day. In my dreams maybe. Haha. Anyways, it's been another good week here. To be honest, this one seemed to go a little slow, which I think it's because the week of transfer news is always like that in anticipation of what's gonna happen. But still a good week. It's hard to believe another transfer has gone by. Time keeps on moving, but are we? Yes.

That awkward moment when I run out of things to say and it's only the second paragraph. Not a whole lot happened out of the normal. Luckily I haven't been sick at all this week. But we did eat at that member's house again this week and it claimed another victim, Elder Hull. Haha. He had the exact same problems with his intestines and... Yeah. It didn't smell very good. But now it's safe to say that we will never eat at that member's again. The reason we go over there is because there's an investigator that lives with them who we teach. But then after we're done with the lesson they tell us to eat with them. This week we'll have to find a way out, even if we have to tell a little white lie to get out of it :)

We did have another cool experience. So we went to one of our investigator's houses that was kinda out in the middle of nowhere. But we get there and there's a lock on the door. Very mahakamo right? Yeah. And it was already getting a little late, so we decided to make our way back to catch a bus so that we could finish the night working closer to our house. But right as we were walking there was a lady that was yelling, "Misionera misionera!" from her little balcony. We went and she asked us if we preached the Book of Mormon and we started getting a little excited and told her that of course we did! She immediately invited us in and there was her family. We got talking and it turns out they had learned from the missionaries a little over a year ago back in Antsirabe. They ended up moving because of work here in Tana and they haven't seen the church or missionaries since they got here. But they had kept the copy of the Book of Mormon they received from the missionaries and I guess they've been looking for the church since  but with no luck. So it was a blessing for all of us in that we were able to find them and that they are now learning with us! Way cool. They're still not vita soratra, legally married, but they say they're still working on that. They're way smart too. So I'm hoping as we go along that we'll see real progress with them and they'll eventually make it to the temple one day. That's the ultimate goal. But yeah, there's your cool story for the week!

Other than that, not really much to share. I know, I'm lame... But I'm still an alive and a happy boy. We're still making some progress with the investigators we have and hopefully by next week we'll have some baptisms. So we're getting ready for that. We've also shifted our focus a little. We discovered that there's actually a lot of less actives in Ampitatafika, so instead of doing porte a porte we're going to make more of an effort to reach out to the less actives and to help strengthen what we already have in the ward. But yeah, overall the work is still going well.

The transfer news didn't affect me at all which wasn't a surprise. But it turns out that Elder Connault will be heading off to Reunion. He's excited and I'm excited for him. Not gonna lie, if I got transferred there I'd be pretty bummed. But hopefully he'll find success there. We've been through a lot and I'm gonna miss that Conoober.

Anyways, I think that'll do it for the week. I'll get some pics up and catch up on emails. Love you all!!! Have a mahafinaritra week!

Ny kibo tsy mba lamosina!

Tiako ianareo!

-Elder Mumfy

When Elder Hull was sick I had a little time... So I looked through my pictures and decided to do a little something to remember Grandpa Mumford. :)

Beans.

Manahoana tompoko! Hey there again :) How's life going for everyone? Hope all is well! Everything here is still moving along. Honestly, it feels like it's been a little while since I wrote an email like this, but I guess it has been a couple of weeks! That Skype was so awesome by the way. There's just nothing like seeing and talking to everyone! And it was good to find everyone looking and doing well.

Let's see... Well I guess I have 2 weeks to catch up on. I'll start with a little about the week before last. Nothing really out of the ordinary. We did do a little streetboarding competition with our zone. Streetboarding is a lot like skateboarding except completely different. Haha. Helpful right? So each companionship made a little board with some things about the church with some pictures on it to get people's attention. I've got pictures of it that I'll add on rehefa avy eo! But yeah, we ended up kinda teaming up as a district, Ampitatafika, Itaosy, and Tanjombato. We went to this place that touches all three of our areas. But because of that, all of the people we came in contact with were from different areas. It would've been nice to get a few contacts for our area, but oh well. We're all in this together. And we know who we are... Haha okay I'll stop with the High School Musical sing-along, but you get the point. Oh and the other thing that happened. So I was telling you guys about this at the Skype, but I'll write about it anyways. We went to this place called Alakamisy that's wayyyyyyy out in the middle of nowhere. So it was an adventure for us. The reason we went all the way out there is because there's a family there that's been coming to church who want to learn from the missionaries. One of them is already a member, but got the others interested. They're amazing. When they don't have enough money to take a bus, they walk out 2 and a half hours to get to church. Talk about faith! I really hope that they can just stick with it, because I know the Lord has many blessing for them if they continue and eventually get baptised and enjoy to the end. Such a testimony builder for me! But yeah, way cool experience there.

This past one has been a little interesting. I mean when isn't it right? But we had more times fall through than usual as well as the back-up plans. And when that happens, what do we do? Yep. Finding! We got to do 6 hours of it. I guess I really can't complain, I know in most missions 6 hours of contacting in a week is nothing. But I actually don't mind it much. I think it's fun getting out and exploring new places we've never tried and meeting new people. We're also working with the ward to get some more referrals and so far that's worked out well. We're starting to see some results from all the finding and we're starting to have a program full of appointments, so that's exciting. The investigators we teach are still doing alright. There have been a few unexpected problems that have come up. The couple that was supposed to get vita soratra this week had problems with their paperwork so they couldn't. But they say it's a for sure thing this week, so I'm really hoping it goes through. There's another one of our investigators who has a baptism date coming up soon, but we talked about the Word of Wisdom and it turns out that he smokes 3 cigarettes a day. Not a huge deal, he says he's still trying to quit completely, so hopefully he can do that soon. So not really huge problems, but ones that will still require a little waiting. So the baptisms we had planned for this upcoming saturday will probably be pushed back to early June sometime. Still looking forward to that!

This past Saturday was... Not pretty. Haha. I got a little sick. The night before that we had dinner at a member's house, who by the way is probably the richest family on this side of Tana. Anyways, I guess the meal didn't sit too well with me because the next morning my stomach was all in knots and I was completely out of it. Haha. Elder Hull wouldn't even stay in the same room as me because it smelled so bad... Haha. I don't think I need to go into too much detail. But it took me all day to get it whatever was bugging me out of my system. I'm pretty sure it was all the beans I had. And the sausages. Haha. But now I'm just like new! The reason I tell you all that story... Well I guess there isn't really one, it was just something interesting that happened. You're welcome :)

Well I can't really think of much else that's been going on outside of the usual. Things are still going well. Elder Hull is still a little awkward with his malagasy, but I was certainly there too! He's improving though and I'm learning more and more from this experience as well. This is the last week before transfer news... So weird how the time goes by. I highly doubt anything is going to happen to me because me and Elder Hull are on what they call a 12 week training program. But ya just never know. More and more missionaries are leaving than coming in. More areas are going to be closing and with the last 3 transfers being curveballs, I'm not even gonna try to guess what'll be thrown my way next. But we shall see!

I think that's about all for now. I'll get on to other things and of course get some much anticipated pictures up. Sure do love you guys. Tiako ianareo!!! Mandra-pihaona indray!

-Elder Rakotolavabe

       So I was uploading pictures onto photobucket and it was being super slow and then all of a sudden the computer just shut off. Technology isn't my friend today. But we have to go now. There might be a few that made it on, but I'll get the rest on soon, I promise! You guys are the best!

-Elder Mumford

Thanks for the chat!!

Hey everyone again! Just have a couple more minutes, but just wanted to drop another quick line in. I'm so glad it was able to work out to Skype again and that it worked out so well. You guys are awesome! I'm the luckiest missionary out there :) Talking to everyone meant so much to me. It's hard to say goodbye as always, but we always have next week for emails! I'll be looking forward to that as I always do. Next week I'll catch you all up on what's been happening here and pictures of course! Again, you all are the best!!! Tiako ianareo!!! 'Til next week!

-Elder Mumf

Where did April go?

Hey everyone!!! Salama ve? Tsara izany. Madagasikara is still keeping me alive and well. This week fleeeeeeeeew by. April fleeeeeeeeew by. The past 9 months have flown, really. Guess the time flies when you're having fun! And that's exactly what I've been having :)

This week has been pretty good. It's been a little interesting, because we've basically had 3 days in our program to fill. Before, we worked 3 days in Itaosy and 3 in Ampitatafika, but now that the areas are split again those 3 days became very free and open. So we've kindof spread out our times across the whole week so that there isn't any one day where we have no lessons. We've had some referrals from members, so that's helped a great deal to fill up our time. But as always when we don't have times lined up for us to go teach, we gotta go find 'em ourselves. Haha. Yeah, we did quite a bit of porte a porte this week. 6.5 hours worth! More than I've ever done. But it actually proved to be effective. We were able to find some people that are open to hearing our message and we were able to get some phone numbers. So hopefully we'll have some solid investigators from that. We had kindof a funny experience this week. So we were walking around looking for people to talk to, when this malagasy comes up to our side and said in a perfect american accent, "Hey guys, how's it going?" Me and Elder Hull both did a double take. We proceeded to talk to him in English (Felt so weird!) and he said he had learned from missionaries before. He gave us his number and told us to stop by when we were around. Way cool! While we had a lot of people have the classic excuse of "mbola manao zavatra" and didn't want anything to do with us, we were still able to find people that greeted us with a smile and wanted to hear more. I also found that tracting can be fun if you let it be! There were times where we would just talk to people on the side of the street, and at first just have a normal conversation. But almost always it led into talking about the church and inviting them, which is way more effective than just going up to people and giving the same little speel. Wow this paragraph is long! Sorry, but anyways, hopefully we'll see some results from our finding.

The investigators we have now are still doing well. We got one of them to quit coffee! Booyah. Other than that, just still teaching them and helping them get ready for baptism. We're hoping to have a few more coming up on the 17th, but we'll see how it goes.

Me and Hullskies are still doing well. He's still somary sahirana amin'ny teny gasy, but it's okay. We were all there! Elder Hull is a great guy though. It's fun working with him, even though I'm doing most of the things we do. But I'm trying to have him as involved as possible in the things we do around here. Maybe when we do a little tracting this week I'll knock on a door, move out of the way, and say "here you go Elder Hull! Mazotoa!" Muahahahaha! Okay, maybe not quite that mean, but I'll still push him so that he can learn. It's really the only way. But yeah, so far I'm liking being a trainer. It's weird and stressful at times, but anytime I feel even a little frustrated I just reflect about how I was when I got here and immediately all of it vanishes. Haha. But we're having fun out here, and I'm getting a lot more practice with Malagasy in, so that helps!

Let's see... Can't really think of anything else to say for now. Mother's Day is coming up!! To be honest, it kinda snuck up on me and I haven't really made any plans for how the Skype is going to work... But we will! I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to yet. Usually we kinda get an outline for when we should do it from the mission, but that hasn't come. So I'll ask around and as soon as I know I can send a quick email from a cyber to let y'all know when it'll be. Sorry I don't have an answer for that now... But I'll get that out once I know when we can! I'm so excited!!!

I think that'll do it for this week. Just still keepin at it! Have a great week everyone!!! Tiako ianareo!!!

Mandra-pihaona!

-Elder Mumford

Vaoteraka ny Zanako! And Conference!

Hey hey!! Guess who. Yeah, it's just that one vazaha out here in Madagascar again. What a week! It's been a little bit of an unusual one, but still good. Where do I start...

So in the beginning of the week I was trying to get out on splits with ward missionaries as much as I could so that I could kindof start solidifying a new schedule. But only on Wednesday was I able to do that, so I still worked in Itaosy a little longer with our trio. I think I'm actually going to miss Itaosy a little, even though I didn't work there that long. There's some great people there. Plus I'm gonna miss working with Elder Connoober, we've had some great times packed in those 6 weeks. But I'm also looking forward to focusing on Ampitatafika from now on.

That brings be to the next point, I'm a trainer now!! That's weird. Haha. Feels like just yesterday I was still with Elder Moulton. Crazy stuff man. Anyways, on Friday I was told to go to the office by the APs and I was told I could come alone. Yeah, that made for such a weird hour long bus ride to the office. Nothing like that bus from Tamatave, but still. I'm gonna have some serious companion separation anxiety when I get home! Haha :) But I finally got there, popped a squat on a couch and waited for about another hour. Then the APs and President Adams walked in with my little baby!! Haha okay, he's not a baby, but I'm sure he feels like it right now ;) His name is Elder Hull and he's from Virginia, about 10 minutes outside of D.C., so that's cool! He's a way good volleyball player who's going to play for some university in California when he gets back. I just forgot the name of it. Anyways, the reason he came at a random time is because he tore ligaments in his ankle playing basketball at the MTC. So he went ahead and finished up the MTC with doctor's appointments and stuff and then went back to his home for another 7 weeks to do rehab. Crazy right? I'm just glad he's doing alright now, we do lots of walking! But I'll try to take it a little easier on him for that. He's a great guy, super nice. Kinda like me, a little on the quieter side, but that's not a problem for me. We haven't had many chances to teach together yet with all kinds of stuff going on this week with lots of meetings, and then Conference, but he's already making progress on the Malagasy. Every time he speaks Malagasy it makes me smile a little bit, not because it's funny to watch him struggle, but because it takes me back to when I first got in country and how I probably sounded the same way with my thick american accent and how there were things I was really stuggling with. But if I got better at it, I know he can! I'm trying to get him as involved in lessons and stuff as much I can and just doing my best to be a good example. But so far it's been fun being the mentor, if you will. Wow this paragraph got long... Haha.

We also got to watch Conference!! That was good. By the end of it I kinda felt like sleeping, but I enjoyed it. On Saturday we all got to go to the office to watch 3 sessions in English with other missionaries which basically took all day. Then Sunday we all watched the first Sunday Session with our wards in Malagasy. I was surprised, when I payed attention I could get most of it. The thing that's so hard about listening to it in conference is that the speakers use such a broad vocabulary, things that not even a lot of Malagasies know. But it still went well. Haha poor Elder Hull, didn't get a thing out of it so he just caught up on some sleep. Then we got to go watch the last Session at the office again. I just loved it! I think my favorite talk was by President Uchtdorf talking about how the Restoration isn't just something that happened and is done, but is still going. Don't sleep through the Restoration! Honestly right now I'm having a hard time remembering the talks... But I did take good notes! So be proud. ;)

Other than all that, not much happened during the week. Conference pretty much took up the whole weekend on our schedule and getting my trainee and going through orientation again took another solid day. Zone meeting took up another good chunk. It's been quite the week. But nonetheless, a good one. I'll get on to some pics and other emails for ya. Have a great week everyone! Tiako ianareo!!!

-Elder Mumf

My little trainee Elder Hull!