June 6 2013

Manahoana ny fianakaviako! 

     Let's see...  Geez I just don't know what to tell you!  Oh!  Hah we found a way to infiltrate the system and email without it being counted towards our minutes so that's pretty neat haha.  I may or may not be doing it right now... Mihomay!  It means laugh.  Get it, cause I'm laughing?  Yeah cool.  16 emails today (mostly from mom and dad) but yeah!  Tsara be!  So yeah it's cool here being a missionary.  P-Days are pretty much the only days we come back to the main campus because we go to the temple and stuff.  Last week we did some initiatories and earlier today we did sealings!  Sooo cool to be able to perform that so people can be with their families forever!  AAANNND on our way out of the temple last week we ran into the one and only TYLER HAWS!  He said hi to us, told us good luck, it's fine.  We're just celebrities and stuff.  Whatever... P-Days are actually super busy!  Today we got up, planned our TRC lesson, got breakfast, and then took the bus to main campus.  I had a Dr. appt and he gave me some more antibiotics so that's pretty neat I guess.  At MTC-West we do though have the luxury of going to Brighams landing on PDay!  So last week we went to this cheese steak place, and jamba juice!  WE WERE MISSIONARIES IN THE REAL WORLD!!!  Everybody was saying hi to us, asking where we were going, staring at our sheer awesomeness.  It was great!  One thing i love about MTC WEst is that it's kind of like we're in the real world!  We cross a street to go to class and rain tree everyday and cars are always honking at us and we just wave like, "hey.... sup... yeah we're missionaries... no biggie."  Anyways TRIAL OF MY FAITH FOR THE AGES!  Last PDay we're at the cheeseseak place you know getting food and such things and the TV is on.... I look... and sportscenter is on... I look even closer.... CUBS VS WHITESOX highlights.... I was dying!  Weber was like... If you look you're breaking the rules... What a noob right!  So he wouldn't let me watch CUBS HIGHLIGHTS!  Which was fine... But then!  The NBA playoffs highlights came on!  AHHHHH!! But. I did not watch.  So there you go.  Are you proud?  Good.  Anyways since last PDay it's been quite the week.  Sunday was awesome but super sad.  First off it was fast Sunday haha so it was sooo long.  At church it was testimony meeting so all the greek district went up and bore their testimonies in Greek... then Mead (best friend) was like.. so do I get a shout out?  Haha so Weber and I went up and bore our testimonies.  I bore it on how I know that the Lord is always there for me, gave my Greeks a shoutout and then... bore my testimony in MALAGASY!!! WOOT WOOT!  Granted.  It was super simple, but it happened!  So I was stoked.  Instead of doing temple walk we do Wyview walk where pretty much we just walk around ahah.  Elder Rawle (who I've gotten close to lately) and I walked around, sat at a bench and just talked.  I really like talking.  Haha it's just nice to reminisce sometimes and not worry about Malagasy.  though the Malagasy is coming and i know i'll get it breaks are really nice haha.  At dinner I talked to a sister Hallmark who is heading to Alaska!  She was super cool and it was nice to talk to a sister.. not a girl.  In the words of elder Mead and I, "What's a girl?  I don't know... They're a myth...!" The devotional was like a reenactment of William richards life so the guys was like telling the story of Bro Richards and Joseph Smith in a first person way... It was soo cool, we sang praise to the man after which was sooo sick!  After we watched the Testaments, but I felt the spirit soooo strongly when Christ helped the father regain his sight and it was most definitely the spirit testifying to me that my Redeemer truly does live and bless me everyday.  After we got back and it was the Greek districts last night, as I've said before they're all international and Elder Mead is my best friend in the whole world here, and Elder Johannsen is up there pretty high.  The night before we were up till like past midnight talking, and one of the Elders, Elder Rawle (another best friend) had his parent deliver us pizza!! haha so yeah we had pizza delivered to us at like 11:30 at night, Saturday night was great cause we just sat, talked, chilled, exchanged war stories, and enjoyed each others company!  I loved it.  so Sunday rolls around and we all have to say our goodbyes.  So now I know why girls love doing photo shoots... We spent like and hour and a half just taking stupid pictures with everbody and I loved ever second of it!  After that we said all our goodbyes.. I most definitely cried a bit saying goodbye to Mead and Johannsen, you already know we were singing john mayer as I walked back to my room  haha.  so yeah... Elder Mead is now in Greece, he said he might come to BYU after so that would be sick!  I love that guy... He made me feel so comfortable and at home the first couple of weeks.  So yeah... Kinda really sad but it's fine.  I WILL BE IN MADAGASCAR 3 WEEKS FROM YESTERDAY!!! ASFSALDFJLASDJFAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!  #pumped #cantstopmenow  So yeah.  our teachers will tell us occasional stories about the mission, different areas, how mada has doubled in members the past couple of years, how the spiders the size of your face are super crunchy, how the rat lemurs will crawl on the netting of your mosquito net at night, how we won't get the language till like 8 months in, but how every second there is the best second ever.  I'm seriously stoked out of my mind.  I'm halfway there!  Guys!  I'm a missionary!  It's just cool to like sit back, look down and see that nametag that says Elder Roush ny fiangonan'ny JESOA KRISTY ho an'ny olomasin'ny andro farany.  yeah its memorized!  But holy crap!  I love it!  Every day is the longest day of my life, but they're the shortest weeks and it's the most rewarding feeling!  The lessons are starting to become about actually teaching the investigator (our teacher) and not gettign the malagasy down, yesterday when we taught Henry about baptism, the atonement and how it can help him get over his drinking he said yes to baptism!  I know it's not real but Brother Sell our teaher who was playing as Henry as the investigator said, "yes i'll get baptized as long as I always feel like this after!"  Sell said he actually felt the spirit during our lesson!  AHHH!  So yeah... It's coming!  I loved a scripture that Rahalay Burton shared with us.  2 nep 25:23.  With it he gave us this quote that is amazing.  "It is bye grace we __________ after all we can do."  It is by the Saviors grace and mercy, we can find success as long as we give it all we can do.  I love that.  Always make sure you go the extra mile in everything.  Don't get discouraged!  Keep moving forward with faith and never look back!  Tiako Ianareo!  I love you all!  Mas To!  Be diligent

 Fitiavana,

 Elder Roush

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 30 Elder Roush Reporting live from MTC-West

Wassup, wassup, wassup ya'll!  This is THE Elder Roush reporting LIVE from MTC-WEST!

        Haha anyways... Yeah!  We are the "pioneers" of the future of the MTC, at least that is what President Nally has told us!  He also said don't tell your parents any of the bad stuff about it... Haha.  Yeah.  Anyways!  It's actually awesome.  We live at Wyview, which is a BYU housing, the whole southern half of Wyview is supposed to be missionaries even though there are only 150 of us so far that are here.  THe apartments at Wyview are so nice!  We're living in actual apartments with couch, kitchen, and a room bigger than the one at the MTC yet we have only two poeple per room!  Also, it doesn't feel like prison here, which is SOOO nice.  We can just like walk around with out electic fences and sentinals at each point.  Haha that's not real, but it felt like it back at the Main campus!  We have classes at Raintree apartments and haha it's kind of super ghetto.  Class is in an old bedroom, they just put a whiteboard and a couple of desks in there haha.  It's us, and the other Malagasy distrcit in the living room, with a rooom to teach investigators in the apartment also haha.  I love it.  It's not crowded, it's super different, and I feel like they aren't nearly as strict.  So yeah... MTC-West pioneer, RIGHT HURR!!  It's lehibe!  So... After i emailed you people last week i saw ELDER DREW SMITH!  Safe to say it was a reunion for the ages.  I was walking in the cafeteria when i hear, "Jake!  I mean... Elder Roush!"  And across the room, is the one and only elder drew smith!  I screamed kind of like a little girl, ran as fast as i could, set my tray down almost spilling my food and grabbed that skinny white boy!! Hah i loved it!  We ate lunch together and reminissed while our companions just kind of sat there.... it's fine.  They'll get over it.  i saw him a couple of other times before I made the move to MTC West, I said goodbye and i shed a bit of a tear.  Ya Know... Manly things.  So yeah there's that.  i also said bye to elder Blair, and Gustafson who are now in London and Norway.  Also, last sunday i had to say goodbye to Elder Webb, who was my neighbor when we got here.  What a guy.  He was so great in helping me feel comfortable, accepted, and part of the crew here.  He was so funny, we occasionally traded war stories, we sang every moring in the shower to either Mayday parade, T-Swift, Disney, or Queen.  the dude was a stud.  He's now in Latvia and boy are they lucky, he seems like a goof but he has such a strong testimony and is going to tear it up there!  The greek district leaves on monday and I will definitely be crying.  Greece doesn't allow americans so they are all international.  I told you about elder Mead from Leeds England.  He is my favorite person ever.  We're so close, ahah we have a bromance/best friend thing going.  Whenver I see him he says, "hello best friend" in his British accent haha!  Last night we were all up talking about life with me, him, Johannson from Sweeden and the other Malagasy district until like 11... I'm gonna miss talking to them!  On a serious note, I'm really struggling with my district.  All of them are like insanely smart and are picking up Malgasy really well, the two sisters are FREAKING annoying and say the stupidest crap, and it seems like Elder Weber and i are really opposite.  Don't get me wrong, I love Elder Weber, but last night him and Elder Fisher (one of my other roomates/a guy in my district) were talking about ethics and philosophy for 45 minutes... And didn't even try to include me, not that i'd want to be; i had no idea what they were saying.  That's when I went upstairs and talked with the otehr district and Elder Mead/Johannson  for two hours.  We talked about girls, sports, movies and all that good stuff, stuff I actually enjoy talking about!  Sometimes i really wish I was in the other Malagasy district just because I am already REALLY good friends with all of them and connect with them all so well.  Like Elder Payne, Christiasen, Fox, and Rawle... Those are guys I'd like love to still be friends with post-mish.  I love them, they make me feel included and like i actually belong, compared to my district where last week Weber taught us O-Chem because we were bored with studying.  Haha.... it's fine, I just needed to vent.  I know that this is where the Lord needs me to be and it's just a trial of my faith, i just need to keep pushing forward.  that's pretty much my new motto... Is pushing forward with faith the He will provide.  Malagasy is super hard, my district drives me crazy, and i've been sick this whole time, but i know that eventually it's goign to all make sense and I'll be able to vent in malagasy haha.  My teachers are great, we jsut got a new one Brother Aldous, we talked him up to his little Sister's teacher (she's going to Denmark) and we persuaded him to put the socks on the bears and ask her out.  He did, we planned the date and then we got a dear elder a couple days later tellign us how it went ahha! He's in Cali so we couldn't find out how it went but yeah he wrote us!  good times. he definitely put the socks on the bears (i'll tell you that story ssome other time)  In other news my favorite thing to do during gym time is.... FUTBOL!  That's what i call it now because elder mead says it, and it sounds alot better than soccer hahah.  but yeah!  Who woulda thought!  i love soccer!  We've played it the last couple of gym times, yesterday since we're here at MTC West we got to play on the intramural turf! I was reminiscing about the days with the YELLOW EAGLES!  so of course after i scored, I mimicked a yellow eagle dance and ran around the field flapping my wings haha.  Oh! Fun fact!  Last week i played soccer with THE Danny Ainges son!  he's actually a really cool guy!  He's headed to Chile!  We talked BYU basketball (he's on the team) and I bragged how I said hi to tyler haws once, and he said he hangs out with him occasionally... so yeah its whatever. I had a conversations with an Ainge haha.  Anways... i think that's all... Keep the prayers coming PLEASE.  keep the letters coming PLEASE. Yes I am getting the dear elders, i don't know if you got my checklist but yeah... Veluma!  Tiako Ianao!  Mas To!  Remember to put the socks on the bears.

 

Much love,

 

Elder Roush

May 28 2013 moving to MTC-West

Elder Roush got moved to the new MTC-West. Here is a picture of the group that moved with him.

1 week down

Manahoana izy ireo!

Well 1 week down in the MTC, to be honest I was hating it until Sunday. When people say, "just get to sunday" they really mean it. Sunday was amazing. After a great devotional by Sister Mary Edmunds, we watched a talk by Elder Bednar entitled "Character of Christ." Honestly. Life-changing. But really, pretty sick haha. After watching it I am determined to not let anything get me down because I know that this mission isn't about me and my struggles. I'm on the Lords errand and it's about the people of Madagascar and their wants and needs. Well that was my spiritual note hah. First order of business, thank you for the letters from family.. and Yevi. Haha the rest of you guys need to pick up the slack. But really. That's real life. I like letters; letters are like the best thing ever after 6 hours of learning sentence structure in Malagasy. The subject is last so we have to form our sentences like, "was a prophet Joseph Smith," or "better write me some more letters you guys." Haha my vocabulary has skyrocketed to a flash card pile of about 150 cards, I know about half of them but my flash card pile looks menacing to the other Elders haha. Even though my DL Elder Lee Chip Sao can already carry out a freaking conversation in Malagasy... All the kid does is freaking study.... and write me up for telling stories of the glory days that aren't "missionary appropriate." I guess telling the boys about my BYU adventures takes away from the spirit... hahah. It's fine, it's story time again tonight in the zone leaders room. AH! My zone leaders are the coolest guys ever. My favorite one/new best friend is Elder Mead from Leeds, England. That's right, one of my best friends is Brittish! He's heading to Greece. The other zone leaders are Elder Martinez from Spain who's hilarious because we have like no idea what he's saying, Elder Johannson from Sweeden who is like my secret man crush, and i'm his. We told eachother. They're also headed to Greece. Then there's Elder Webb from Spokane Washington who is headed to Latvia next week, we've gotten really close the past couple of days so it sucks that he's leaving but I guess that happens.. haha. The other ZL's are leaving in two weeks. Elder Mead promised me we're going to be best lads forever... so that's pretty dope. I'll miss those guys... But it's cool because I like my district... oh wait haha. No I like the other Malagasy district! Tha'ts where all my friends are! It's fine, Elder Weber and I are here doing our stuff being all missionaries and stuff when Elder Lee and Elder Fisher who are our roommates/other guys in our zone are already making their own sentences without a dictionary! I can't do that! Haha it's fine, OUTWARD mindset! That's mine and Elder Weber's phrase we say when one of us is getting discouraged! Well I've taught 4 more lessons to Jean-Jaque... Haha funny story, I accidentally said that Joseph Smith was breast fed by angry men.... The word for kill is mamono, the word to breast feed is manono. Oooops.... Haha it's okay though becasue Jean-Jaque is just one of our teachers acting like he's an investigator. My teachers are Brother Burton who is probably the best/coolest/funniest teacher ever. He's the one who was my EFY counselor, which sucks because he's going to be gone for the next two weeks doing EFY... Then there is Brother Sell who is really cool. He's super chill and really funny, he also knows the Cosgraves! Then there is Brother Sender who didn't start teaching us till yesterday becasue he's been playing as our investigator... Not sure if I like him yet because he doesn't seem to know what happiness is, that's all. He's way too serious for my liking. We just got a new teacher named Brother Aldous... Safe to say Max has a lower voice than him... Haha. Tsara teny Malagasy... Malagasy is good. But not really, haha it's still super hard but hey! Who ever said Rome was built in a day! My goal is to speak Malagasy by the year mark of my mission! WOO!! I'm gonna do it, and it's gonna sound DOPE at my homecoming haha. But really, I know if I have faith and keep working my hardest, I'll eventually know how to differentitate to kill from to breast feed... and really that's all that matters. This week starting monday has actually gone pretty fast, surprisingly haha. We have just gotten into a routine, we just doing our thang! Finakaviana! Momba! Which means About Family, it's like our phrase we say to trip other people out and it sounds tsara... Yeah that's right. I know a couple of words. But really it's true when they say the days are long but the weeks go by fast... It makes no sense but it's like real life. Umm... What else. Oh! Yesterday Elder Weber and I taught our first lesson in Malagasy WITHOUT notes! We felt so accomplished after! We taught Jean about Ny drafitra ny famenjena or Plan of Salvation! We kind of messed up some parts so Brother Sender told us that Jean-Jaque was confused when we said that after the fall of Adam... Spirit World. We forgot to talk about that whole thing we call life on earth... Haha oops! We're making baby steps... While Elder Lee studied during personal time on P-Day... Then he sang a hymn in cantonese just for fun. It's about to get real racist in here but the kid is the typical asain child haha. No seriously... Like Weber and I were in the ZL's room talking until like 11:45 (oops) and when we came in to get the key at like 11 Elder Lee was at his desk reading sentences to himself! Haha it's crazy! Umm... I'm making friends I guess, let's just say the people in my zone know me. It did like a swan dive into a bush during a mad game of "bases" and now have a sick cut on my upper thigh. Haha everybody saw too... So that was my moment in the light. Sorry I'm just all over the place but I'm trying to remember what I've done... Sunday we had our sacrament meeting, which was neat and then the 1st counselor and his wife talked. Brother Parrish... the 1st counselor... Is the reason why babies cry when they come into this world. The man straight up told us he'd send us home if he heard we broke 1 rule.. Rules like not praying for the hour after class before bed, rules like not talking to the other gusy in the zone after class, and rules like having a tie tack on your tie... The man is insane. Haha umm... also I was in the choir! On Tuesday we performed for the devotional where Elder Nash spoke (which was great) and I felt like I was in MoTab haha! Cause they like panned across the choir while we were singing and I got a close up!!!! In front of the whole MTC! Safe to say I had a few high endowed (pretty) sisters come up to me after and say that they saw me on the big screen.... It's whatever really haha. Umm... I think that might be all... I'll try to send some pictures. Keep writing! Letters are manna from heaven, and I guess it's okay if you email too. Hopefully you're putting this on the blog so the people know what's going on in my life... Maybe advertise it on Facebook ahah. At lease put the pictures up. Manahoana! Tiako Ianao!

Much love,

Elder Roush

Elder Jake Roush first week!

5-17-2013

Manahoana fianakaviana! Salama ve?!

Wow... Haha I'm a freakin missionary! It's such a crazy feeling to look down and see a badge that says "Elder Roush Ny fiangonan' I JESOA KRISTY ho an' ny olomasin' ny andro farany," it's pretty neat I guess haha. I dare you to try to pronounce it. Jesoa Kristy is like Zesoa KRRistie with a roll of the R haha. Wow I have so much to tell you guys haha, well first off I have forgotten to send the letter that I was supposed to send the first night here... so be expecting that hah... Anyways it was crazy to walk into the MTC and be in that environment, freaking nerveracking though. After I received all my material I went straight to class, met my companion and learned some different Malagasy greetings. My companion is Elder Weber from Dublin... Ohio hah he has red hair and stuff, we've gotten along pretty well up to this point. He is 19 and half and has been in the BYU marching band for two years haha, he's a bio-chem major and just LOVES chemistry. As today as dragged on, I've come to know that he is a know-it-all, he doesn't believe in breaking any rules, follows our schedule super strict and yeah he's kind of been super annoying the past couple of hours. But you know... it's whatever. i'm over it... Not really but hey it's a growing experience, it will make me better and i've just been annoyed today! So I guess all of that is good. I have two other roommates, so there are 4 guys in my district haha. There are 7 other Elders going to Madagascar and they're in my zone. The guys in my zone are total studs, I love them. Elder Payne and Elder Christiansen are my favorites. They're in the room next to me. Fun fact. My DL Elder Lee Chip Sao (elder lee for short) from Tahiti who is in my room, can speak 8 different languages and now he's like super good at Malagasy. The guys in my district (Elder Lee and Elder Fisher) are very, very studious and I don't know if they know what fun is. They are super serious haha so i really wish that we had some of my other buddies in the zone in my room. Oh! Also. We're getting moved to Raintree on the 30th I think haha... so yeah... there's that. Also. I head to Madagaskaria on June 24th... Oh and my P-Day is on Thursday, we didn't get one this week so you people are lucky that I get to write you. And fetching holy crap some of the rules here make it sound like a prison! I just want to DANCE! There is no dancing allowed and you like can't look at girls and yeah... haha its fine. Oh and there are two sisters that are the first sister in the Malagasy mission in like 5 years so that's exciting furr sure. So... I like go through these bipolar stages of missing home and then just being like amped on the spirit... I usually miss home when I'm in class. We had 5 hours straight last night and I swear i've never had such a headache. We taught our first lesson in Malagasy this morning, yeah... haha it was sooo cool but i had absolutely no idea what I was saying, I was pretty much just reading the phrases off of a paper, but hey! It's progress! We have to teach again tomorrow and I've memorized a couple phrases to add onto the like 30 words I know.. Atonement... Sopaonaofotaon. Yeah it sounds like Soup on a Futon.. dope right? Haha but really. Malagasy is so freaking hard everything has a rhyme to it, the words are the longest words of my life, I roll all the R's, J's are dz's, o's are oooo's, tra makes the CH sound. So like yeah.... I'm dying haha so like pray HAAAAARD for me; cause that would be prime, also I'm still coughing and have a cold so I must have the black lung or something, who really knows. yesterday was like the longest day of my life, we were in class for like forever and I feel like I barely learned anything, haha I was so discouraged if we're being honest with ourselves. But today was a new day and that is all that matters and there were many tender mercies. Today I saw Elder Blair (i almost cried cause we both said OH HONEY) and Elder Gustafson who are some of my really good friends from BYU and I saw Elder Giacalone who had his SYL day today where all he can do the whole day is speak in Hungarian... haha that's in 4 weeks for me! It's gonna be TIGHT. There are so many Elders and Sisters here haha like really. The tools of the MTC are the ones who try to talk to you in their language to show off... I just say manahoana, ny anarako dia Elder Roush back because that's just hello i'm elder roush and it sounds freaking sick. Our teachers are talking about Madagascar and it's getting me stoked, haha i'm gonna lose like 50 pounds of weight and I won't understand a word that anybody is saying until almost the year mark but i'll be in MADA BABY! Haha i'm so scared about this stupid language because it's been the hardest and most discouraging days of my life these past couple days but i've been told that I just need to make it to Sunday and keep moving forward and everything will get more fun and a lot easier haha. But yeah prayers would be much appreciated, oh and AUNT KIMBERLY AND THE SHIELDS CREW I love you people, your package was one of the highlights of my day; it gave me the push to get through the second block of classes today so.. tiako ianao (tikooyanow) Which means I love you! But really, I just love you all super much. Oh and a shout out to Caleb b/c it was one of THOSE days at the MTC... hahah. hah.. hah yeah. VELOMA! I love you fianakaviana! (family)

MUCH LOVE,

Elder Roush