Elder Jake Roush's Madagascar Adventures: December 16, 2013

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..