No subject today, can't think of anything

This was a good week, just saying

Tuesday we visited Angelo and a less active named Alfred. We had a great lesson with Angelo; we learned about ... The Plan of Salvation! Honestly it went very well, Elder Connault and I are getting a lot better at working together for sure. Personally for me it is learning how to be a much better teacher and just writing so many new words new words that I don't know. Angelo is getting what we are giving to him so much faster now and is now coming to church with a lot more frequency. This guy is awesome, even if he just sometimes calls us for no reason, dump if I know.

Now our visit with Alfred; Alfred has been a member for so long and has been to the temple (which is a big thing here) and doesn't come to church for work reasons. Now we understand and respect people who need to work on Sunday because they need too but during that visit and talking with Elder Connault afterwards it just sounded that he was just giving us a lot of excuses of why he can't come to church. But he is always happy to recieve us (the missionaries) and we can only hope that the Lord will provide a way for him.

So a little awesome and "makes it cool to be a missionary" experience. On Wednesday we were heading to an investigators house, named Gabriel about an hour early because we got dropped. As we get to his house we see him just sitting in the door way reading, and what was he reading? He was reading from The Book of Mormon! What makes this so amazing aside that he was reading is that it was an hour before our meeting with him! He wasn't trying to put on a show or anything, he was actively reading by himself, so cool.

Saturday we had interviews with President Adams, it was nice and had a great time. Right after that though we went to teach some people for that very first time that we had found contacting and that lesson was just so fun. They all listened very well, asked questions and answered questions that we gave to them (even though sometimes it was a bit off).

Then to top it all off Elder Connault got sick Sunday morning. We managed to get to church long enough to get the sacrament and get the number of people at church, aside from that he slept most of the day.

That is it for this week, see you all next time,

Elder Nelson

My comp is from France!

Well, this week was interesting and tiring, so tiring but so good

On Monday we visited a few people that we usually visit (and a suprise meal from our Branch President) and those visits were some of the best that we have ever had with them.

On Tuesday I said goodbye to my mom Elder Anderson, I will miss him a ton but for know I will be with my new companion Elder Connault; He is from France, Bretaget(close enough, sounds like britain with a hard "e" on the end). Elder Connault only has about three months left on his mission and is just amazingly fun to work with. For the rest of Tuesday I was on a split with Elder Tiu and Elder Razafindresetra in Ambolomandinika which was so good, if I every come back to Tamatave to work (and if I got to choose) I would want to go to their area.

Wednesday I was again on a split until about 3:30 when Elder Connault arrived, got him home, and started work.

The rest of the week we just worked so hard, going the fastest that we could to get to appointments and if one fell through we just went to someone that we didn't get to visit in the week. Seriously yesterday (Sunday) was just visiting back up plans, our entire normal schedule just poof gone.

Just one cool thing about this week is that I learned from elder Connault that it is ok infact even better to show people what we are speaking, using examples, finding ways to help these people to see, really to see what it is that we are teaching. Simpler is better in almost every instance.

That is about it for this week, quick shout out to all of the people that have gotten mission calls great job, you're going to love it! Until next week,


Elder Nelson

Transfers indray

Salam'anareo tompoko, Elder Nelson izao!

Hey everyone, how are you doing? Things here in Morarano are going pretty well; Yesterday we had 10 investigators come to church some of which have been learning for a long time but have not come to church until that point. Also last night we recieved transfer news where I will be staying here in Morarano while elder Anderson heads to Tana to work in Saotsy Namena and is very excited to be working with Elder Midgley. I will now be working here in Tamatave with Elder Connault. I have almost nothing about him which, for the most part, is a good thing, makes things run smoother.

Monday was actually a very good day, we got three lessons; one new investigator, one recent convert family, and a less active. These people are just so cool, I just love visiting them and seeing them progress, there is a certain little happiness that comes to you when you see people that you teach change and try to be better people, just truly amazing.

Tuesday was just all over the place but strangely we somehow got six lessons with our new Branch Mission Leader, Rahalahy Cheride. One of them was a person that we had talked to in the past that just came right up to us as we were taking a quick drink break, asked if we remembered them and asked if it would be fine if we had a visit right then. I was a little in shock by the end of the day;

One thing that I have learned more and more is that it is important in fact essencial to have a good understanding of the Bible. The teachings, scriptures, sns (ect.). For all of you that are preparing to go on missions (and I know that a few are) I would encourage you to begin a study of the Bible if you have not already started. It is a completely awesome book and you will be showing people how the Bible and the Book of Mormon miara-miasa or work together, know your Bible guys.

Last thing is that on Saturday we went to visit this newish investigator that had learned about two times. We get to his house and he is just so extremely drunk, it just happened to be his birthday that day but birthday or not a drunk man does not create a good teaching environment. Elder Anderson just looks at me and says "We're just going to restate our purpose, introduce the Word of Wisdom, and state that we cannot teach you or your family (because his wife and her friends were over) when you are drunk". Now normally we do not do that but this time it seemed a little more appropriate. By the end of it his wife looked devestated not because our words were harsh, we ensured that they were firm but not attacking in a sense. No I think that she was wanting to learn and realized that she couldn't because her husband was drunk while he on the other hand was a bit oblivious and rambling stuff I didn't understand.

But we encouraged them to pray to our Father in Heaven for aide and guidance in following the Word of Wisdom and to come to church the next day. And you know what she did and she brought one of her friends which was is our lesson, with her. I would like to say that while we are to be kind and loving to those we serve I think we all need a reminder every know and then that at others we need to be firm and make a stand, and I know that the spirit will guide us as needed.

That is it for this week everyone, have a great week,

-Elder Nelson

Hello again everyone!

Hello again everyone!
Man this week has been so unusual, interesting, and at the same time very spiriual, so lets get down to it.

Ok, starting on Tuesday- This is the day where we go to an area way from where we usually work, Depot, we get there and most of the potential appointments that we had lined up just died, nothing what so ever. So we just went out and tracted/ contacted until the time for our next lesson. First let me tell you all that tracting and contacting is not the most enjoyable experience of being a missionary; constantly going to a door or a person hoping that we can get in to teach a lesson but most of the time it is just giving a brief explanation of who we are, giving a fanasana (little piece of paper, literally means invitation/inviting) for them top come to church. We did that for a good while and went to our lesson which actually went pretty well. As we left that we begin heading up the path and I hear this random voice yelling at us. Turn around and there is this guy at the gate of his house, waving us in. This is quite an unusual event mind you so we go over and he brings us into his house. We talk a bit but we aren't really sure what he wants, he's just talking for a very long time. In the end we leave him with a fanasana and an invitation to church. Hold on to that really for a bit, it will be relavent later on.

On Thursday we had in fact a very excellent lesson with J and his wife. His wife had been away in ambanivolo (countryside) for the last little while and hadn't been learning with us. But she eventually came back and our times with Juno have just perked right up, Juno is remembering things better, his wife enjoys having us around, and the lessons are just fun. Juno is helping his wife learn and even challenging her which I think is helping him so much.

Friday it rained all day, constantly. We trackted alot, and that was about it. Most of our times fell through.

When we went out to work again on Saturday it was still raining and we found that sections of our area were underwater. The main road in Veriry was so bad, flooded up about 3/4 up my calf so about knee height for Elder Anderson and the Malagasies and we got to walk through it to get to lessons. Luckily we had water shoes so it wasn't bad.

Sunday was so awesome because we got to go to a place called the Mercy Ship. It is this giant boat that services Africa and gives free medical care for people who cannot afford it for example surgeries or growths or fixing cleft lips. We got to go on because there is a member who works on the ship and made it possible for us to get a tour as her guests. It ws so nice but I felt so out of place and also I got some weird looks from people. Mercy Ship doesn't like us because it is run by a different church and they don't like us but what ever, it was a great tour and we got an awesome meal out of it.

At church that day I was looking around and I saw a face I didn't recognize. i thought harder and it just clicked, it was the guy from Tuesday who waved us in, I had completely forgotten about him; his name is Antonio. Never has it happened that a random person that we have invited to church actually comes, never ever has that happened, he even brought his wife and kid! He participated in all of the classes, answering and asking questions, it was so weird but so awesome at the same time. We will see how he does as time goes by.

That is it for this week, have a good week all!

-Elder Nelson

Lastly I am sorry to say but my camera is pretty much dead, I have no idea how or why but I can't get pictures until I can find a replacement one. i don't know why we didn't get a water and shock proof camera, that should have been so clear. I will send a picture of what my camera looks like when I take a picture. 

some service for our Branch President not this last saturday but the one before

our BP, and we just painted the front of his house

(Elder Nelson's mom here- I'm thinking this is what he means by the camera being nearly dead.  At least, the sky in the next picture is the same pink as the house on our computer.)

Elder Anderson in Veriry

Morarano -it had been raining for two days, didn't rain yesterday but it did in the evening

Akora be ianao ireo Tompko!

Akora be ianao ireo Tompko!
So another week has come and gone, gosh it went by very fast!

This week has been pretty quiet, nothing strange or unusual has really happened just good old work!

On Tuesday Elder Anderson and I went on a split with the Assistants/APs, we went with Elder Weber to Depot which is just way out there, maybe about a 20-30 minute bike ride according to Elder Anderson. But it just so happened that Elder Weber had the car that day so we just got a nice ride to Depot. My first thought of getting in that car was I thought something was very wrong/ different and then I realized what is was, it was cold. The AC was going full blast, we had some good music on, I couldn't really hear the noise outside, it felt very very odd and strange. But the work went pretty well that day, taught some lessons, I learned some good stuff from Elder Weber, and we found out that a less active that we had been trying to meet is actually related to other members, just a weird coincidence and so we were able to teach him because we knew where his family lives, it was strange but very awesome.

We met with Eugene this past Friday and it was not a very comfortable meeting because he was supposedly going to be baptized this past Saturday but for some reason he had not come to church for the past two weeks and we had decided that if he couldn't make it the week of his baptism when it the past it had been very possible we decided that it would be better to wait a bit. So now he is going to wait for another month but he seemed to understand the reasons why he needs to wait and wasn't angry, so we will see and he came to church this past Sunday so we're doing good.

That is it for this week, not much went on but things are doing good, I have high hopes for this up coming week, next time,

-Elder Nelson