I got kissed by a lemur!

Hey again, welcome to Monday, I can't wait to share with you all how our week went!

Monday we went to a lemur park called "Ambonimanga Rova" where we got to see some amazing animals from Madagascar, one that I loved was a chameleon that literally looked like a leaf ( I have a picture of it, see if you all can find it). While heading to the park we passed some Malagasy's doing something called "mively vary" which means to "tread out rice" or banging bundles of rice against an oil drum and "knocking out" the rice from them to then be dried. So being the good missionaries that we are ( and also seeing a good chance to learn a bit and participate in the culture) we offered our services to help knock out all of the rice, way cool experience and the people thought that it was ridiculous that white guys were joining in.

Probably my favorite thing from Tuesday was having a dinner appointment with one of our recent convert family, Jocelyn and his family. They are doing great and I love being able to chat with them and help strengthen them in their conversion to the church.

Thursday we had Zone Meeting and I got to translate the entire meeting into Malagasy for one of my good friends Elder Razafindresetra. It was a. very hard but doable and b. just so amazing to now be able to do that, truly a blessing.

Now a very sad thing from this week. Last Friday we stopped by at Faly's home, recently we had been having trouble meeting with him and having him come to church. As we entered into the house we were told that a member had apparently been very rude to Faly while at church which caused him to lose confidence for awhile. It was so saddening to be told that as we were the ones that had brought him there but he told us that he would continue reading the Book of Mormon and praying and if he wanted to learn again that he would find us.

Lastly for this week I think would be about one of our referals named Miarintsoa. She is just amazing and is making great progress; she has already come to church multiple times, is starting to read the Book of Mormon, and has a great desire to learn as she sees just home this message could truly bless her and her upcoming marriage.

I just want to say that I am happy that I am here and serving, there is nothing more rewarding that serving others in the name of Christ and I am so great full for that. Have a great week everyone and I will see you all next time,
Elder Nelson

67Ha people are some of the best in the world

Hi everyone, how was your week? Ours was pretty dang good and I can't wait to share it with you all;

Monday we were able to visit with Faly again and he still seemed to be sad and a bit defeated about his contining struggles which Elder Reynolds and I thought about a good deal. In the end we decided on sharing a great gospel principle with him about eternal families with a great focus on the temple. I truly feel that we were guided by the Spirit during that lesson as did Elder Reynolds, everything that we both said felt right and just flowed easily from our mouths, it was a truly great moment and we both felt that Faly felt it as well.
We have a new family that is learning with us whose names are Patrick and Fabien. We have only met with them twice but on our second visit Patrick had already read the pamphlet that we had left with him and had questions such as "who is this Joseph Smith", "what is the Book of Mormon?", and "why have I never heard about this before?". All of those questions were astounding to hear and showed us that atrick really wanted to learn more so as we happened to have a copy of the Book of Mormon on us we shared a lesson the touched on the Apostacy, a great deal on Joseph Smith, and a brief explanation on the Book of Mormon. We are really looking forward to meeting with them again and seeing what questions that they have.

Hery and Tina are just continuing to be amazing. During our visit to them this week they just told us all how they spent some time online looking up Joseph Smith, how they found the prophet of the Restoration movie and watched it even thought they don't understand english, and Hery's desire to come to church. We shared a brief lesson on the Plan of Salvation and it makes a missionaries heart and soul swell with happiness when he see's his teachings having an effect on others, as they try to grasp what is being taught and having it accepted. It is a great feeling and Hery and Tina are certainly providing that. Also good to know but Hery came to church this past week and loved it! It was his first time coming!

Finally thing for this week would be about this very nice lady named Noeline who I found with Elder Evans during his last week and she has learned every week since then. As we visited her she practically shared her testimony of the gospel and the good influence it has brought into her life to her brother. It was amazing to see her come to that little knowledge and receiving such joy from it, that is what I truly enjoy about missionary work honestly. Noeline also came to church this past Sunday so we sat by her so she could have someone to explain things to her. Cool thing that I saw; we had gotten distracted by other people, setting up times and appointments after sacrament meeting. We go upstairs and there we see Noeline just having dropped her children off at class and being led by a great sister who wasn't even asked to help, it was amazing to see.

I love this work, even thought at times it can be hard, Elder Reynolds has a quote "People here are like a double edged sword where some are just amazing people ready for the gospel while the others are looking just to make your life hard" which honestly is true but it is always worth it when we find one of those amazing people. Love you all!
Elder Nelson

Conference time again! (have I said that before?)

(Elder Nelson's mom here.  I didn't have time to get this up yesterday.  He did write on his regularly scheduled Monday.)

Hi everyone, sorry but this is going to have to be short but here are some of the great things that happened this week;

Monday we had a FHE with our first counselor named Emille and they had some great questions on how they could help us more and get the work moving faster, we discussed about some great things and it was just great to talk and get to know more about the members in our area. Then right after we got to meet a referal that they wanted us to teach named Miarintsoa and had dinner with them saucisse sy hericots vert (sausage and green beans) with fresh juice, twas delicious.

We are still working with Faly and he is getting better, slowly but surely, thank you all for your prayers on his behalf.

We have this young family named Hery and Tina and they are amazing. When Hery first got the Book of Mormon he apparently stayed up until 3 in the morning reading and Tina has already come to church once! This past week we committed them to baptism for the end of May, way excited for that.

It happend to be Elder Raynolds' birthday this past week and Ihad the great pleasure of breaking an egg on his head and pouring flour all over. I have a video that I will hopefully get oput next week of the event.

Lastly we had Conference this past weekend! I was great to hear from our great leaders and it truly was great to feel the Spirit during their talks and to learn from it, Conference is amazing!

That is about it everyone, love ya all but I gotta go! have a great week!
Elder Nelson

Whoo, what a week!

Hey all it is a new week and the last one was great, Elder Reynolds and I worked so hard and it showed!

This week we sent off Elder Evans to Tamatave and Elder Reynolds came later that day. A bit about him; he is from New Zealand, has been out about a year, and is a great hard worker so he and I have been doing great together.

Throughout this week we have needed to be doing some tracting and we have been finding some great new families to teach, they all seem awesome and I look forward to visiting with them and tell you all about our experiences with them all.

Now this is something that I usually do not so but if you all remember we have an investigator named Faly and this past week he has fallen on some hard times. He struggles to overcome problems with the Word of Wisdom and we are doing our best to help him but if everyone of you could remember him and his family in your prayers that would be just amazing.

I think that is all I have time for this week everyone, thanks to all that wrote this past week, wishing us all a great new week,
Elder Nelson