Is it really the raining season again?

Hey everyone! This week has been amazing and fun and very wet here in Antsirabe, it has rained at somepoint almost everyday of the week. But it is ok as we have nice rain coats and awesome people to visit!

Tuesday we went to teach this awesome guy named Losien. He has been learning for a bit from the missionaries and seems to learn very well. We learned about the Plan of Salvation and specifically learned about the first question of the lesson "where are we from?", it was a pretty good lesson. We also met with this awesome investigator named Lalaina who just sucks up the lessons and just gets it, unfortunetally because our area just split Lalaina now lives in the other elders area so they now will have to take over teaching him.

Wednesday we found this cool new family named Feno and Hery. When we stopped by the first time Feno was the only one home but we had a great first lesson with him and hopefully next time we will be able to teach his wife to.We ended the day going to visit Bruno and Lala (some poeple who were recently baptised) and began a review of the Plan of Salvation lesson. I have to say that Bruno and Lala were very prepared when the missionaries came, they love the gospel, participate in church, and had just absorbed all of teachings that the previous missionaries had given them. Also another cool thing about this family is that they always feed us a little food at the end of every lesson, this last time we had tsaramaso in a sauce with mangahazo (beans in a sauce with mangahazo which is some form of root that I don't think exists in America). It was basic Malagasy food and was a bit bland by itself but it became surpisingly good as you mix in some salt.

Thursday I went on a split with Elder Jensen the zone leaders trainee while my comp Elder Razafimandimby went with Elder Koplin in his area to show them around as they, Koplin and Jensen, are whitewashing. All I can say is that we had a great day. We taught a total of four times and found a potential new family. It was very fun working with Elder Jensen, he is very funny and has a great attitude, then at the end of the day we went to this delicious little restaurant called "Be Sofina" or "Big Ear" in english where there was some absolutely divine food and juice.

Saturday we did some contacting and found some potential new people to teach but the biggest thing from that would be a lesson with a small family that has learned for a little while named Rakotoarimandimby and Meline. We get into the time and one of the first hings that they tell us is "so you two have been teaching us for a while now and while we like learning we are Catholic/Protestant and we won't change churches". Now that sorta put a damper on our moods but we still persisted telling that obviously we don't force people to do anything but we just invite people to act. We then shared a lesson on the Apostacy as they had not yet learned about it and I thin that it was one of the best lessons that I have yet taught with my companion so far. We were a bit forward with the information as we felt that it was needed but I feel that they understood what we were saying and that the Spirit tesified to them, now we just need to see if they will do anything about it.

I think that is it for this week everyone, it was great and I would say very successful. Also side note I will finally be able to watch Conference at some time this week so next week I will finally be able to tell all of you what my favorite talks are! But until then I wish you all a great week and that we all may come closer to Christ.

Elder Nelson

Welcome to Antsirabe!

Hey everyone! Dang this has been a crazy week so far just everything moving around at once such as leaving Tana, getting to Antsirabe, meeting my comp (he is a great teacher of the gospel by the way!), and just getting to work. The area that I am in used to be the Zone Leaders area and their program is great, they were just rocking it here! Anyway here is the rundown of the week,

Monday we got up a bit early so we could go to a place called 67HA to buy some lamba (clothe) for my companions suit that he is making. After that we went and headed up to a zone verses zone soccer match where we played hard but in the end we were defeated but that is fine because it was still fun and to add on to that I got to hang out with some awesome people so bonuses on each side. That evening we taught Labarre again (our excommunicated member) and he is just doing great. We were reviewing the first lesson, ending on Priesthood and Labarre was just eating it all up, it was great to teach him.

Tuesday was yet again our meeting day so we were at the office all day and the time that we tried to teach ended up not being able to learn so that was a bit of a bummer.

Wednesday I moved out. I was to get to the office before 10 in the morning so we tried to get there early which was about 8 or 8:30. After that the APs took us to the bus stop called Fasankarana and that place is just a mess, no order at all. But we got a bus (I rode with Elder Tangarasi who is a great friend that I lived with when I was in Ampefiloha) and we sat there for about and hour until we finally left. The drive was about 3-4 hours long with a quick lunch break. Then right as we were about to get to Antsirabe our bus died, let it be said that people were not happy and most of the other passengers caught other rides the rest of the way. Eventually the bus got fixed (apparently the oil was way low) and we got into Antsirabe just fine.

We then got picked up by some of the other elders in Antsirabe (Yeagley and Horsepool) and got taken to our house where I got with my now companion, Elder Razafimandimby. I have known this guy for most of my mission, we started in the same house, he followed me to Tamatave, we lived together in Itaosy, and now we are companions, lets say it is a small world here. After getting together we went straight to work and like I said earlier Elder Razafimandimby is a great teacher, he knows how to really teach to peoples understanding and I have a lot to learn from him.

Aside from that we just worked a bunch, trying to learn the names of all of the  investigators and members (and there are a lot) but I would say right now some of my favorite people right now would be Bruno and Lala who were just recently baptized so we are going over the lessons again but they are just amazing people.

That is about it I think, have a great week everyone and I will see you amin'ny herin-androany,

Elder Nelson

Gah, Transfer News was a bit bitter sweet this time

 Hey everyone, like the title above states transfers were this week and you all can probably tell that I am a little annoyed with it, so here it is. Saturday we get a call from President Foote and he tells me that I am being trasferred to Antsirabe with Elder Razafimandimby as my new companion. Now I was glad because I was getting back out to province and apparently Antsirabe is amazing  and I am going to work with a Malagasy that I have known for most of my mission but I have only been here in Ambohipo for one transfer and I was just having a great time with Elder Pinson here but it appears that there is something for me to do in Antsirabe now.

But here was the rest of our week-

Monday we got lamba (cloth) for Elder Pinson to make a suit which took a it of time and then played some basketball at the office. We were also able to meet with our Athiest investigator on the Book of Mormon and he said that he really would like a copy to study, heres fingers crossed that he will actually read it and begin to mikorokoro(nourish) the little faith that he has.

Tuesday we had all of our meetings and also meet with one of our less actives named Kennedy. He had questions about tithing so naturally that is what we talked about.

Wednesday we were able to bring our Second Counselor named Heliode to teach Rafika and Antonio. As Heliode is a bit younger he was able to really break the ice with them and we were able to really have a really good lesson with them, we pretty much reviewed the Apostacy and the Importance of Prophets as they had questions about that. Then we had times drop after and so we went tracting. Not many people let us in but we were able to find some amazing people that study the Bible together and were incredibly interested to learn about the Book of Mormon and as I  happened to ahave an extra copy on me I graciously gave it to them with an explanation on the atao hoe Bokin'  iMormon. We then ended the day teaching Alex and Nalia (who I am going to miss very much) by teaching them about the Plan of Salvation. We put a lot of focus on how the Plan of Salvation gives us an "eternal perspective" that enables us to continue. Most of the time we all focus on everyday things;food, the days activities, clothes, ect. But we helped Alex and Nalia  begin to understand (as there is a lot) all the things that we can gain through out eternity.

I am going to skip a bit to Friday where we taught our less active Kennedy again. Kennedy is progressing very well but he just has lots of bad habit from being less active for so long so we tried to address one of them about the nature of God and Jesus. And it was just very difficult. He got part of the teaching  but another part was impossible for him to get which is annoying as you are trying to fix things but  it just is not getting into his mind. Besides that Kennedy is ahaving problems with his younger brother. HIs brother has pretty much gone a little crazy and Kenny takes care of him but his brother just drives him up the wall but we try to help him as much as possible.

Saturday we met with Ramon and reviewed prayer with him. We are pretty sure that he understands what to do and the meaning of it, he just needs to do it. After that they fed us some katsaka (corn) with sira mamy(sugar), it was pretty good actually and it is nice when people like to feed you. At the end of the day we had another lesson with Alex and Nalia, and that lesson was just guided by the spirit I think. We changed the lesson last second and it was just what they needed right then, and that is  just one of the greatest feelings ever; knowing that a lesson was guided and that what you taught really helped someone.

That was about it for this week, it sounds like you all are doing great, so lets all go out and have another one shall we? See y'all next time!
Elder Nelson

Great week, that is all I have to say about it

Monday we relaxed a bit and played so much basketball, it was great and we were dominating. Then that evening  we had a little family home evening with a part member family named Labarre and Dennis where they fed us some great food, voajombory  with henakisoa (beans with pork) there was so much but it was so good and they insisted that we kept eating. We then shared a small spiritual thought about the importance of prayer and scripture study in our personal lives and with our families and they just loved it and promised to begin praying and studying the scriptures as a family whenever they could.

Tuesday has sorta turned into our meeting day. We always have to go back and forth to the church for our various meetings through out the week which just wastes time going back and forth so to fix that we ended up just stacking all of our meetings on Tuesday. Now we are at the church for just one day and can spend the rest of the week out working.

Wednesday I got to go on a split... to Ampefiloha! Yep I got to go back to my last area and got to work with the Zone Leaders trainee Elder Francom. It  was so fun going back there, Elders Delbar and Francom are just tearing it up. I got to see and teach some people that I have never met before that coul really progress and also see some good friends and people that I used to visit which was a huge plus.

Then I think I will end this with Sunday and it was such a good day in the fact that we were able to keep going all day. So we had church in the morning but as it was fast Sunday we went out to work right after. We had plans and and so many back up plans that as times fell through (which a few did) we were able to go and teach someone else right after which just made for a great end to the week.

Our week was great and it just flew by, I hope that the rest of you all had a great week as well and that we all have another one incoming, until next time,

Elder Nelson

A split that I had with Elder Kissi last week

I walked into a small pole that had spikes on the side (it was dark) but it ended up tearing a nice hole in my pants, you could say I was not happy that night (also Elder Pinson is pretending that a colored pencil is a wand in the picture)

Elder Francom from my split

Rado and Hanitra, a recent convert family that I used to teach

More Elder Francom

A family that we teach that just moved to another missionaries area, we were sad to see them go