Elder Jake Roush's Madagascar Adventures: January 20, 2014

January 20, 2014,

Dearest loved ones,

Well i must admit... I'm a bit frustrated currently because i've tried to write this darn email twice... get super close to finishing it and then all of the sudden it deletes itself... So that's super fun yeah? Thought you guys would think so too. Anyways it's been quite the week and well with transfer week coming up tomorrow, it's gonna get even crazier. So. Speaking of transfers, since Elder Quigley is leaving to go home on Wednesday i am getting a new companion! Elder Cartmill from North Dakota haha, pretty cool yeah? Funny thing, Elder Cartmill is who Elder Quigley trained just before Quigley joined me in Betongolo. So that being said, I will be the Sr comp! Which is exciting but i'm also pretty nervous too... seeing as i'll be the one leading the malagasy and stuff. I'm fine leading the area (i've been doing that) and stuff but i'm scared to not have anybody to rely on with the malagasy... But to be the one relied upon!! It's pretty nerveracking for sure... But i know that this is what Heavenly Father knows will make me a better missionary and what will for sure make me better at malagasy. Anyways the work is going good, not as good a week as last week, but still going good. We had some solid lessons, found a sweet new investigator and had some super cool experiences with investigators! So i'm going to tell you about some. So. One of our best investigators is a lady named Lalatina, she's 20, and a single mom to one of the cutest little 2 year old ever! Anyways we had a lesson with her on Wednesday and first thing she said to us is "i'm really happy and want to share a little testimony!" So. I guess earlier that week she had lost her keys and was in a hurry and was super worried. So she decided to say a little prayer, and when she ended she had a little bitsika (whisper) tell her where her keys were... She looked and the keys were in the exact spot!! Then i guess later that day she had left her house and walked for a couple minutes before she had another little bitsika tell her that she had forgotten her wallet. She thought about it then another little bitsika told her that was silly and she should keep going. So she decided to trust the first prompting and go back home. Lo and behold she had forgotten her wallet!! She then bore testimony to us that she knows she has the holy ghost with her because she knows what she's doing right now is what Heavenly Father wants her to do and she said she knew the Book of Mormon was true! Super cool. Then another sweet experience. We were at a soiree with her and some members on wednesday and they invited another one of our investigators Andry, who's also a stud but we hadn't taught him in a little while cause he's been busy with school (he's 18.) So.. We had a great lesson with lalatina about Enduring ot the end and then andry came and he told us he was having trouble with reading and praying. He said he'll sit down to read the BiM or to pray and he won't be able to focus really well and there with be promptings telling him to watch tv and stuff like that. So i shared the scripture about how the holy ghost gives good promptings that influence to do good and come closer to god, and there are other promptings from the devil that influence us to do different. It's our job to discern those promptings and follow those that help us come closer to Christ. Then Lalatina, our other investigator started bearing testimony about that too and shared her experiences with Andry!! It was sooo cool to see an investigator helping an investigator like that. Really cool :) ANyways so we had an experience like that... and then we had another pretty freaking crazy one.. haha. So Elder Solofo were contacting some people that we had tracted into. She said they were Jesos Mamonjy (a church here in mada) but they still wanted to learn. So we go and it's the chick and her Dad, who's a Jesos Mamonjy pastor, AND two other pastors!!! Yeah..... Hahah so they were super nice but when they prayed it was probably one of the weirdest experiences ever. The head pastor started to pray while everyone else started like yelling jesos o! And fanahy masina (holy ghost) and other super apostate stuff like that! It was so apostate that i couldn't even say the prayer in my head cause i was just sooo... weirded out ahha. Anyways we got like halfway through a first lesson, and stopped it. But then the pastor dude said that monday (TONIGHT) he wants to interview me about our church in order to help his sermons and learn more.... so yeah that's happening tonight!! Super nervous for sure hahaha. But anywyas when we closed solofo prayed in the RIGHT WAY but htye still did their craziness haha. Okay anyways now to the funny stuff. We were tracting and some kids that i'm good buddies with, cause we always sit and talk to them on the path, were following us! Anyways we were playing around with them and i decided to mess with them a bit. So i asked them if they wanted to know how to say "i like to play soccer" in english... so i told them to say "i like to eat poop!!" Hahhahaha so we filmed t hem saying it... and then i told them what they had just said in malagasy... super funny!!! ahahhaha. They freaked out! We got a great video. Okay last thing. We had a ward party with a gift exchange... SO! I bought a pineapple and had some crazy chinese lady in a trift shop wrap it hahah. Excpet i had the pineapple hair poking out! All the members loved it, cause i kept telling everyone it was a puppy! So yeah. Good stuff. Okay last thing. Spiritual note. Friday night we ended our soiree and had a longish walk home and i was feeling pretty poopy. So i said a quick prayer asking for a taxi to come, not really expecting anything... Well about 5 seconds later... A taxi rounds the corner! Coincidence? I think not! Prayer is real people! Heavenly father loves you all, and so do I :) Have a good week emailers.

Am-pitiavana,

Elder Roush