December 16, 2013
Salama daholo! Voavoa amin'nareao? (Rawle don't judge me if i
spelled it wrong! alika maty!) Anyways no more secret combination am'nay. So
this week. I'm just trying to think what happened hah. Well first off it was
transfers week, which is just the worst for the office elders. We're pretty much
the back up when things go wrong and people don't know who's going where, or
who's taking them, and what needs to be done. Safe to say we were super busy
this week, just not with missionary work hahah. Let's see... Kay i can't even
remember. Okay so tuesday was a pretty good day. It was the start of the crazy
week but the morning was good. To start Elder Quigley my new comp came into the
office and we started our 6 week tenure haha. But Tuesday was so cool because
there was a baptism (Not for us haha) but for the AP's. elder Smith, who was
one of the AP's was going home the next day (wednesday) and because of all the
zone conference madness the week before, he couldn't do the baptism on Saturday
or Sunday, like it's usually done. So... Tuesday. His last day before he leaves
madagascar, he got to baptize 3 people... It was pretty cool to watch it. Haha
there weren't many members or malagasies there, but there were like 10
missionaries cause lots of people were here at the office for transfers. The
coolest part though was after the baptism. In Madagascar, after the baptism
those getting baptized bear their testimonies. Well after the 3 people bore
their testimonies. The dmp (ward mission leader) of the ap's ward said that now
he was going to have Elder Smith bear his testimony, then Elder Rasmussen.
Elder Rasmussen wasn't still the AP or working in that area but he was one of
the missionaries that taught the people a lot and helped them progress to
baptism, AND he was also going home the next day. So Elder Smith and Elder
Rasmussen both bore their testimonies to us all. I translated for one of the
couples so they could understand (thought i'd add that to show how mahay teny
gasy i am haha.) But their testimonies were awesome. You could feel there love
for the work and for the country of Madagascar, all just culminating in this
final bearing of the things they know at the close of their missions. They did
their thing and then Patrick (the dmp) asked Elder Horman and a malagasy sister
who were also going home the next day to bear their testimonies!! THey didn't
even work in the area, but here came the testimonies! So we got to hear 4
missionaries bear their testimonies on the last day of their missions. Super
cool haha. Okay then after that started transfers week craziness. Crazy as
ever cause it was a pretty big transfer. Not gonna write much about that cause
it was a bunch of driving missionaries around to bus stops, houses, and above
all sitting in the horrid madagascar traffic.. #theWORST. And I'm still sick,
so that's just been super fun. It's a really fun time trying to teach when you
have no voice... Love it! But it was fine. Quigley is a lot more fun to be
sitting in traffic than Aloi was. Don't get me wrong, I love Aloi, but dude
didn't really talk. But Quigley is awesome, we're already super good friends
and getting along really well. It's weird though being companions with someone
that is going home. Seeing all the missionaries going home wednesday was hard
on me. For the first time I actually was around people going home, and I
actually knew that and were friends with them... So that was weird and a bit of
a trunkfest ahhaha. Who woulda thought that missionaries going home would make
ya trunky?? HA! Anyways this week the sisters showed us around the rest of
Betongolo and well to be honest it was pretty overwhelming. Their area is
pretty big and a little far from where we usually teach. They have more
progressing investigators and bap dates than we do and obviously we need to
teach those people. So we need to figure out a way to mix our two programs
together and get one good program going... It's really been stressing me out to
be honest. And another kinda poopy thing is that a lot of the sisters'
investigators are WOMEN!!! Don't get me wrong, women are great and all BUT it's
hard for elders to teach a lot of women cause we can't teach a woman without a
man present. And it's really hard when most of the lessons you have scheduled
for the day are women and there is no member help that can help you. Haha yes
there have been times where i grab some random dude off the street and have him
sit in on the lesson but that rarely works... Anyways... We'll see how all of
this ends up working out. And i know i need to realize it's not just me doing
it. I kind of felt like it was cause I'm gonna be the one staying here for at
least another 2 transfers and will be the chef be, but Elder Marsh the
AP/coolest dude ever helped me realize I have a comp for a reason! Who woulda
thought ahha so that was helpful! But i'm trucking through. We had our first
lesson with Andre, that cool guy from last week and it was pretty cool. He
asked a lot of questions just about the church. Like how many members, where
the headquarters was, how it's organized, stuff about it in madagscar, stuff
like that. And it was fun to answer. He seemed excited to keep learning.
Problem is that he's pretty up in the jeandarme (army/police) and can't really
make a set program cause he doesn't ever know what his schedule will be and when
he can learn... so that sucks. And he didn't come to church when he said he
would... Church also.. stunk. I did some really crappy translating and Nalyse
did another weird kneeling prayer thing during sacrament meeting... grrr. He has
hit a standstill and just hasn't progressed. Frustrating. But it's okay. The
Lord will provide a way I guess hahahah. But! Good news! Stephanie passed her
baptism interview and is getting baptized on Saturday and asked me to do it!
Woo! I'm excited. Okay next. Dada be Noel!! At the office christmas party for
the malagasy staff members i had the opportunity to dress up as Dada Be Noel or
in 'murica terms... SANTA!!! HO HO HO wassup yall :) hahah so yeah i was dada
be noel on friday with ho ho ho's some tratra krismasy and no voice! So i did
sound like an old man!! ahhaha It was pretty fun and well it was the first time
it actually felt like Christmas. Honestly. Christmas is in what. 9 days and it
doesn't even feel like it. It's probably cause the rain and the heat and the
lack of commercialized christmas. But funny. There's definitely a lot of the
mpivaritra's (sellers) selling christmas decorations. The hot item is those
really crappy small plastic fake christmas trees haha. Anyways i enjoyed it,
but it broke my heart. I'd ask the kids what they wanted and they either stared
at me like i was some big fat white guy with a beard or they said "kilalao."
Toy. Just. Toy. Broke my heart. all they wanted was a toy. doesn't matter
what. just a toy. Future children... Y'all are just gonna get a tire and a
stick and have christmas malagasy style... AND LIKE IT!!! HAhaha.. Or they would
just shreek bloody murder then as i gave them the bon bon (candy) they'd stop
crying long enough to grab the candy.... then cry as if they were going to dye
and scream "maty aho! maty aho!" I'm dead! I'm dead! hahhah soooo funny! Okay
lastly... Sorry this email is HUGE. Yesterday we had a pretty crappy day
teaching, we both felt sick, wet (VERY WET) and had just taught an apostate
investigator that told us cause it's christmas she can pray to Mary cause she
birthed Jesus.... -____- hahah. So we went to a member i like teaching cause i
needed a break haha. We asked how her scripture reading was, like we usually do
to people, she said yo-yo (so-so) and so i decided to share alma 37:44. Classic
read your scripture thought! I shared it, it was good. then she said that she
had a silly question. she told me how she's been a member since '97, which is
pretty long ago for madagscar. Anyways she said that she had prayed to know that
the church was true, and got her answer.. but after that never really prayed to
know if the Book of Mormon was true. So she was really worried that she didn't
have a testimony of the book of mormon... Well boom. I told her I had the same
worries, on my mission! I worried i didn't have a testimony cause i never
recieved that big answer, or had the crazy experience. But i aksed her if she
knew it was true and she said she knew it was from god, and so i told her,
that's a testimony! then i just talked about how you always have to continue in
scripture reading cause you can never have a perfect knowledge, you can never
have the perfect testimony and you can always strengthen your testimony. She
told me after, that she had been worrying about it a lot lately, she had been
going to institute and all that stuff trying to get that answer but then "you
gave this lesson, and it answered my question." I don't know but I thought that
was pretty freaking cool haha. I dunno but it made me feel really good cause i
felt like i was able to give advice and bear testimony from personal experience.
So yeah. There's that. Hahaha. That's it. Can't believe Christmas is so soon,
we'll have to figure out how to talk and stuff. But i'm stoked. So that's it.
That's ma email, that's the word on the street, and stuff. Mazoto dahoolo,
tiako ianareo ary tratra ny krismasy amin'ny Dada be noel!!! :)
Be fitiavana,
Elder Roush
haha ary azafady noho ny email tena lavatra be! izay noho ianao Rawle!
yo..
Jake as Dada Be Noel
Dada Be Noel with Elders
Dada Be Noel with boy
Scary Dada Be Noel
Dada Be Noel giving out bon bon (Candy)
Dada Be Noel with kids
Jake with President & Sister Adams
