Elder Jake Roush's Madagascar Adventures: March 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

March 24, 2014

Romans, lovers, countrymen, and everyone else that's on this email list,

Well another week has passed in ever so hot, humid and rainy Tamatave.. Contrary to popular belief, it IS okay to ride through lake sized puddles in bikes as missionaires... beacuse in the words of Elder Rigby "once you're already wet, there's no use in staying dry." Wise words from the rookie. Haha we've had some pretty fun biking stories. The first comes from the torrential rain we've been experiencing out here in tamatave that hasn't stopped since saturday. So yes i've already gone through 3 pairs of pants in two days... It's fine i'm over it. So... Tamatave is very flat, but there are a bazillion potholes and the paths are like up and down waves... so there are puddles everywhere!!! So we just decided to be kids again and rally through the puddles.... super fun! Other than the fact that we were sopping wet and stuff, we had a great time. The other problem when it rains is that nobody wants to learn, go to church or do anything and especially let you in their house if you're tracting... so we just keep riding through puddles being little kids. Don't worry i've got some great videos i'll show you in 14 months. The other bike story is that i had my first bike crash... and it was nice and gnarly! We were going semi fast on the main road and i turned onto a sand path and well my bike flew out from under me.. landed on my shoulder, somersaulted, then landed perfectly on my feet... Don't even worry about it. Only a small scratch and it looked super cool according to elder rigby haha. I'll show some pics! Anyways this week once again we did a lot of tracting and finding... Sadly the tracting hasn't worked nearly as well as we would have liked so i've decided next week we're going to hit it hard with visiting members, active, less active, whoever. It's gonna get crazy with them spiritual thoughts! We're trying to make a good rep for the missionaries in this branch! We want them to like us so they give us people to teach!! So that is our goal! Other than that we had some cool experiences teaching. First off theirs a lady named Olivette that we teach. We were teaching the plan of salvation and at the end she said expressed how she wishes she could go to the celestial kingdom but it's way to hard.. I asked her why and she says "well it sounds like only perfect people can go there, and i'm not perfect." She went on talking about how when she has trials she has doubts about god and stuff like that,and she feels like she's always repenting and heavenly father probably gets mad and sick of it, and it's hard to be like Christ cause he was so perfect. When i heard this i couldn't help but laugh and just say... "yeah! we aren't perfect! but that's why we're here on earth! to doubt, gain testimony, repent, learn, grown and do all we can to one day become perfect like Christ!" I bore testimony that she can and will go to the celestial kingdom and live her heavenly father again as long as she lives the gospel everyday. After the lesson i couldn't but help just feel so happy and grateful for a loving father in heaven who left us here on earth to make us learn and grow. And yeah even though we doubt, sin and fall down HE STILL LOVES US...! And he's given us His son to help us along the way, the scriptures, and prayer and so many things... I left the lesson just full of gratitude for all those things! Church is true peeps. Next cool experience is where we found the next joseph smith... so yeah pretty dope. In PMG is says to find people go about doing good... well after having no luck tracting we helped a man and his son push their cart across town and started tracting around that area. Well we ended up at a huge house... so of course we hit it! hah a guy let us in.. his name is guyette, 30, no job, no wife, lives with his rich uncle but he told us how he doesn't go to church cause all the churches say their true, so he's confused... So he reads the bible and prays... Sound familiar? YES! JOE SMITH YALL!! We shared our message and then told asked if he knew where the true church was, would he want to go there... he said "obviously." so we challenged him to pray about it and gave him a BOM! Pretty sweet experience and really cool to see how doing good led us to a hopefully awesome investigator...! I love all of you guys and i want all you guys to know that Heavenly Father loves us too. Have a good week emailers.

Big hugs,

Elder Roush

3 ice creams later

adult viewers only

Ankirihiry

Awkward

He felt like a little kid again

Knee deep #Mada

Next stop...x games

Puddles on puddles on puddles

Road Rash

Straight GQ

We be bailing here in Ankirihiry

Monday, March 17, 2014

March 17, 2014

Manakory ry fianakaviako sy namako rehetra sady ny olon'kafa!

Well here in ol'Ankirihiry we have the delightful pleasure to ride around bikes! It's definitely a lot different from being in tana where it would be practically impossible with how small the paths are... but it's fun!! Anyways this week we did a lot of tracting... like #realtalk and so we had some times open so we set our bikes down and locked them to a tree by where we were and set out to knock some doors. After not much success an hour or two later we set back to go get our bikes, and after walking like 10 minutes we think.... "wait.... where did we put our bikes?!?!" Our area looks like a maze with just paths going everywhere that all look the same and well... we could not for the life of us remember where we mametraka'd our bikes!! So for the next 45 minutes we wandered around in the dark, asking people, giving dona's to little kids and going crazy trying to find our bikes! Finally elder rigby says... "did you ever lose your mom at the grocery store? cause this is exactly what it's like! Except it's our bikes! And now we have to go row by row trying to find it!" The kid is brilliant... hahha and we found them finally :) and later that night my bike broke... #classic! Anyways things are going good here! I hit my 10 month mark yesterday, and i know it's not too big but i gotta admit, i've been feeling pretty old lately! My guess is that it's because Elder Rigby is still so new and i'm the one that's relied upon... i love it. Me and him are getting along super well and working super hard. Before you know it Ankirihiry is going to be blowing up!! #word We have some cool investigators and had some cool experiences this week! I'll tell ianareo about a couple! First of all we were teaching a lady named Olivette, she's a bit new and she was telling us about her BiM reading! She's read through 1 nep 4 and is killing it! I asked if she had gotten an answer... You bet ya :) she said she was super skeptical at first and then she started reading it and she "felt something... saying it was true." yeah. Scripture power. Keeps me safe from sin... and other cool stuff like that. Getting it...! The next experience! We're teaching a man named rameale and i was explaining a scripture to him about the plan of salvation... i'm reading the scripture and explaining it and the though came into my head.. ."i'm speaking malagasy.... wow! Sick!!" Hahha it was a pretty sick feeling just thinking... these crazy words are coming out of my mouth... NICE!!! Also since coming to tamatave i've had a lot more " wow i'm in madagascar" feelings... It's been blowing my mind lately just how homey this place feels yet i still think... freak. Madagascar bro... Crazy! It's been really cool lately just to see and feel how far i've come and think... i'm just gonna go even farther. In the fabled words of Disney's Hercules "I CAN GO THE DISTANCE!" Hahha in other news i may or may not have bible bashed this week... I didn't like it. The dude wouldn't listen because "if it doesn't specifically say it in the bible, it's not true." I tried sharing some scriptures, bearing testimony, and telling him i wasn't there to fight, but to share a message... I said "do you even want to listen if everything i say isn't from the bible?" he told me no... so instead of getting mad i stood up, shook his hand and walked out... i felt pretty hardcore for sure. haha. Other than that we had a weird experience where some referral we got 1. wasn't in our area. 2. gave us some adventist discussion. 3. spoke to us in english and russain and 4. sang us a bruno mars song at the end.... Missions are fun. On a spiritual note I was reading the parable of the . And i got thinking that what it's trying to see is" It's not how long you serve... but how you serve." It made me think of baseball and how different pitchers will get called into the game in different innings. Then you have the closer who only plays one inning and will get the save or the win... sometimes over the starting pitcher... he may have not pitched the whole game, but he gave it his all and it turned out with a win! It's not how long... but how you serve the lord and pitch the game.... Hahaha anyways... I'm gonnna go to the beach again... sooo... all y'all have a good day ya hear! Have a good week emailers. Remember to eat your vegetables.

Hugs and kisses,

Elder Roush

#hipster pic of the week

Coconut beach...Madagascar

Elder Babb-ylon

Going on a fishing trip

I promise I'm not breaking the rules

It gets pretty crazy here in Tamatave

Mobbing in a pus-pus

My attempt at a go pro

My cute little daughter - Elder Rigby

The beach and port

This one is for mom

Monday, March 10, 2014

March 10. 2014

March 10, 2014

Akory aby daholo!

Well in the fabled words of my main man John Mayer... All we ever do is say goodbye... To betongolo... then say hello to ankirihiry... at least that's what i think it says.. it's been a while since i've listened to him! But anyways i'm sitting here in toamasina (malagasy name for tamatave) and it's pretty sweet... and sticky cause it's so dang hot here haha. Anyways i'm not really sure what to talk about just cause this week has kind of been all over the place haha. So back in Betongolo is was just normal office elder stuff helping out with transfers week, things went pretty well until wednesday night when we were figuring out where all the missionaries coming and going were supposed to sleep and stuff... it was a mess but.. who cares really!? Thursday morning came around and it was time to head to tamatave... got up bright and early and headed to the bus stop with elders marsh and babb. Elder Marsh was going to Mahajanga and Babb was coming with me to tamatave. Sadly I had to say goodbye to my buddy Elder Marsh.. Since i'll be here when he goes home in six weeks it was the last time i'd see him. He's a stud and helped me get through the first parts of betongolo, when i wasn't loving it... Definitely one of my best friends on the mission. After that Elder Babb and I got on our bus and headed to tamatave!! The bus ride was like 8 hours and it was pretty dang cool!! It was super cool to see outside of all the dirtiness of tana.. Madagascar has got such a beautiful landscape and as we got closer and closer to tamatave the landscapes started turning into sick rainforest!! I finally felt like i was in africa!!! There was even a palm tree forest! I feel like buddy the elf saying that... Haha and it was fun driving down with Elder Babb, he might go play football for byu after his mission... safe to say we had stuff to talk about on the drive there. We got to tamatave and it was raining... classic haha. We got picked up by our new comps and headed to the house! My new comp is Elder Rigby and he's a stud. We get along super well and... we can talk sports!!! :) He just got finished training and this is still his first area. Ankirihiry is... special. haha The branch i'm in has a lot of problems with mifosa-fosa... or gossiping. So bad that one of our solid investigators i just met can't get baptized because of all the gossip going on! Definitely got a lot of work to do the branch... THough i think i've left some good impressions so far. I've already met a lot of the members and i told them all that my name was elder bokana be.. or elder really muscly! Haha i got that from when i first met my new ward mission leader and his family... his mom said, "ah! bokana be ianao!" haha so i thought i could make it stick :) Haha they all got a kick out of it! Speaking of my DmB's family... they're sooo cool He jsut got back from a mission in the congo so he's super good at english.. which is really fun, and his family is awesome. Last night we sat talking and getting to know eachother and an investigator named Jo for like an hour! Super fun. Also Jo... One of the investigators i've already met so far... is a stud. He's been the center of all the gossip but he's taking it like a champ and says he'll stick it out. As for the area... it's struggling a bit and we've already done a lot of tracting with little success... but we're ready to work hard. I'm praying that we can start to get things going within these next 6 weeks and just keep it going...! Tamatave is... hot! And i've been told it gets even hotter!! Hahah though it's really cool A lot cleaner than tana, all the paths are SAND, and kinda just has a beach town feel... My area doesn't have the beach though... No worries! We're gonna hit it up later today! Eat some coconuts while wishing we could actually go into the water hahah!! Riding a bike is pretty fun though we get out and walk a lot too... I'm gonna be soo skinny by the end of my stay here! Things are going well.. A bit overwhelmed with everything, but i'm excited to see what we can do with this area. On a spiritual note.. Last night we shared with Jo the story of moroni and the title of liberty and how he planted the standard everywhere. I want all yalls to read the story, and think of what you can do to plant your standard to the world! It's in alma 46... oh also! I just started reading the new testament and jesus the christ.. deep. haha. Anyways.. Jesus loves you, I love you and so does the person sitting to your right...!! haha love you guys!! Have a good week emailers!

Sami-tsara,
Elder Roush

All we ever do is say goodbye

Driving through the rain forest

Elder Marsh...hard to say bye

Fruit here! Too good!

Guy, My favorite epeserie owner

I'm on a bike!

It was really hot!

Max, our Dmp...stud

Nice view of Ankirihiry

Palm tree forest!

March 3, 2014

March 3, 2014

Dear friends, family, loved ones, and most of all... emailers,

So the subject. Elder Cartmill and I were talking about marriage cause we do that sometimes and well we were talking about whispering sweet nothings... so before a lesson i lean over to him and whisper "sweet nothings..." and he says "that's not how you do it!!" hahah. Well another week has gone by with adventures, spiritual experiences, amazing quotes of the week and well... a close to my time here in Betongolo! Yes my friends. Transfer calls came last night and I'm leaving Betongolo and the office to go to Ankirihiry, Tamatave! A beach province on the east coast of mada! My new companion is going to be Elder Rigby, and i'll be his 2nd companion! I'm a mom! Haha. I'm very excited but I am going to be sad to leave this area and the office... I've really learned to love this place a lot and the people here are awesome. Since we're the office elders we have to plan out transfers week so i got to find out transfers 2 days early so i got to go around saying goodbye to investigators and members already... just telling them i might leave... even though I already knew i was going to... Pretty hard for sure but I'm excited to go to Tamatave!! It's going to be sweet!! I'm really glad for the time I spent here cause I learned a lot of things and met great people. I ended up loving being an office elder because i felt like i was in student government again haha. I knew a lot of the goings on in the mission and helped a little bit to make things run. I got to forge a better relationship with President Adams, and because really good friends with the office couples. Sister Cloward, the office secretary is probably one of my best friends out here hahaha.. She's the funniest lady ever! I also loved working this area. It was really fun to inherit an area and to a little bit of a whitewash, but it was really fun just to see our program get better as we worked hard and were obedient. I have really gained a testimony that when you're obedient, you're happy and receive more blessings! Who woulda thoguht?? It's also been awesome to work with some really cool members and some sweet investigators... Anyways... Bittersweet to leave. But it was a good week and good end to my time here in Betongolo, we taught some good lessons and found 2 sweet new guys... 1 who is a total stud. His name is Dadafara... Very humble man and was super open to learning. We taught him the book of mormon and he listened super well and then at the end gave probably the most sincere humble prayer ever... so cool. We also had an awesome lesson with Andry about the priesthood. We had Max, our DmP who is leaving on his mission in June, with us during the lesson. We taught about the different offices in the priesthood and the power of the priesthood. It was really cool to tell andry that after his baptism he could receive the same power that the prophet and our father in heaven have! Also yesterday we had a really cool experience. We have a family we're teaching. The wife is Fara and the husband is mamysoa. Fara is going great.. She goes to churhc ever week and mamysoa is coming along! doing a lot better! Anyways yesterday we taught them the law of chastity and word of wisdom and it was such a blessing cause they're only problem was coffee. Here in mada drinking and smoking is a huuuuuuuuuge problem and it was so nice to hear just coffee hahahah. Anyways after the lesson fara tells us she had recieved some revelation... So she told us how she had been reading the BoM, pondering and praying and then in a dream she saw a bunch of natural disasters and stuff happening like mountains splitting, floods, cyclones, tornado and all that stuff. Then the holy ghost came to her and said "do you see all this?" and she's like "yeah!" and well after that the holy ghost told her "well the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is true, and if you follow the commandments in that church and the book of mormon you won't have any of those disasters happen to you..." so she told us this and our mouths were just wide open... hahha and she's like... soo..? and we were like. YOU'RE AMAZING! Hahah so yeah!! Super cool story of getting an answer to a prayer! Who woulda thought it'd happen! :) So that was a really good end to the week. haha anyways... I think that's about it. oh also.. I saw an add for a space jam 2 with Lebron in it? Is that real life? YOU CAN'T REPLACE MICHAEL!! Anyways i love you all and i'll be emailing yall next week from sunny and very very hot tamatave!! Have a good week emailers.

xo XO xxxOOxoXXo xoxoxoXXOO,

Elder Roush