So much contacting

Hello everyone, this week has been great and hard but I loved it!

On Tuesday we did a lot of tracting and contacting. After that we had a great meeting with our ward mission leader, Bro. Nambina. He is a returned missionary and is probably the most diligent DMP(ward mission leader) that I have ever had. After that we again had some contacting to do (you will see that this will be a recurring theme for this week). Our last lesson for the day was with a recent convert named Sis. Lala. She is doing wonderfully, a bit shy but her family is helping her get adjusted and it turns out that she had not yet received a triple combination (Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price) so we need to get that fixed.

Wednesday we got our meeting with the Bishop and he is just a great guy. I brought him questions such as, who is going to the temple, getting ready for a mission, ect ect and he had very good answers for every single one, it's very nice being in a ward where we don't have to worry about anything. Right after that we had a visit with a recent convert family and then they are doing fine. Then tracting for the rest of the day, like I said we did a lot of contacting this week.

Thursday we got to visit a less active lady named Sis. Sharline(?) and she is gradually making a come around, she even made it to Sacrament meeting this past week which was amazing to see. That evening we went to visit Voanghy and Ory, we reviewed with them a bit on the Plan of Salvation, which turned into a review of Apostacy and Joseph Smith and I tried so hard to get them to see the importance of coming to church. These people have apparently been learning from missionaries for just under a year (for those of you who know Elder Mumford he taught them when he worked here so its been a while). At the end I just bore the biggest witness that I could, hoping that they would feel something. At the end they said they would pray about coming to church which is all we can really ask of them.

Saturday was again a day full of contacting until we finally got into a lesson with this man named Naina who explained to us all of the things that he didn't understand the reasons for doing certain things. For example he doesn't see the reason that he needs conformation with his Catholic baptism, why he needs to pay money to the church ect. and now he doesn't really go to any church. He will be a hard one but I think that if we are careful and explain to him the importance and the reasons of doing things then I believe that he will grow to be a great person.

The only thing that I want to write about Sunday is that I just enjoy teaching Joseph and his family, mainly the reason is that they ask questions if they don't understand the teaching. So often there will be people that just sit there and learn passively and end up not changing but J and his family are progressing so well it is incredible. They are just an awesome family to teach.

That is about it for this week, work hard everyone, next week!

Elder Nelson

My zone leader Elder Cartmill

We did a zone activity today of hiking a mountain, it was great and the view was amazing.

This is everyone heading to the hike.

Astro Mountain

Elder Ralaivao and a member from Tanjambato

The mountain in the distance is close to where I work, to the left on the flat part

Elder Razafimandimby

Elder Delbar

Some of the elders brought a football

Elder Ralaivao being goofy

Happy Mothers Day!

Hey everyone, quick shout out to my mom; Happy Mothers Day, love you !
Ok, now on to the rest of the week,

On Wednesday we had a great lesson with one of our recent convert
families which is doing very well right now; there names are Rado and
Hanitra. We talked abit and had a lesson about faith, honestly a very
good lesson. Then the rest of the day was spent contacting and having
no one letting us in or wanting to set up a return appointment, it
turned out to be quite a rough day.

On Thursday we had another lesson with one of our rencent converts
named Tata, he is doing well and is loving his time in the church. We
spent some more time trying to contact and again no one wanted to
listen. Honestly this is a bit of a culture shock compared to how it
was in Tamatave; everyone wanted to listen and invite us in. We then
had a lesson with Ory and his wife Voanghy on the Plan of Salvation.
The still haven't come to church but they listen and learn very well
on the things that we teach.

Friday we had a combined Zone Meeting where we heared from Elder Snow
the Church Historian along with his fellow historians Brothers Turley
and Nielson. I thought that we were going to learn about church
history but instead we learned about the way church history is run;
the things they are doing right now, things they have done, where
buildings are located and a whole bunch of different things. One thing
that Brother Turley has worked on that I am sure most of you have
heard about is "Family Search". It was really amazing to hear about
his work. Somethings that stuck out to me are 1.) We need to have the
right perspective on the work we are doing, 2.) The Temple is very
important and 3.) When the work of God begins moving along faster,
Satan increases trials and hard times; that I think is something that
we all need to remember.

On Saturday there was... Skype call! It was very nice to see my family
again and to hear their voices. It was a very special time and one
that was enjoyed by all of us. That evening we taught this young man
named T and his family about the Plan of Salvation. It was honestly
one of the best lessons on the PoS that I have ever had the pleasure
of being a part of. They listened well and had some very good
insights/ questions.

That is about it for this week everyone, good luck to you all that are
going on missions soon!

Elder Nelson

Part of the house

Elder Cyusa studying

These kids in this picture were just carrying a board on top of their

heads, just having the time of their lives

Ampefiloha!

Hey everyone, this has been a great week! I have been transfered, got my new companion, am learning the area, had great lessons, and had the opportunity to bear my testimony at church.

So Monday I said goodbye to a lot of the great people that I love in Tamatave, they are all so awesome.

Tuesday I travelled to Tana, got there in the afternoon, met my companion Elder Munanira and got to work. We spent most of the time visiting people so that Elder Ahlstrom (the elder I am replacing) could say good bye and take some pictures.

On Thursday we went to this area called Anosipatrina (?) where we ended up doing a bit a tracting which is fine with me right now, it helps me see more of the area. But our last lesson of the evening is what really made the day special. We teach these people named Voanghy and Ory; they have been learning for a while and Elder Munanira tells me that they may be dropped soon (which would be a shame I think, they seem like very cool people) but we get into the lesson and we teach about the Plan of Salvation. The thing was that this lesson just flowed, you could feel the Spirit. We taught them things according to their needs and they were actually listening, not the usual blank stare but actively listening and learning, intriged (?) by our lesson. At the end we invited them again to church and apparently in the past when ever they were invited the just said no because they have their own church. But this time, after what I believe was a Spirit led lesson they said they would come in two weeks because of prior plans. It was just such a good lesson.

Friday I got sick, so we went home and I slept for a couple of hours. After that and some medicine I felt much better.

On Sunday I had the wonderful opportunity (honestly it is great) to bear my testimony to the congregation here in Ampefiloha, I believe that it went well and everyone enjoyed it. Our last lesson was with some recent converts that we stopped at for a short visit but we got interupted by this random drunk guy who wasn't really etting anything that we were saying but at least I got to meet the recent converts and get a relationship going with them.

That is about all for this week I think, have an awesome week ianao ireo tsirairay (every single one of you)

Elder Nelson

Elder Munanira, camera randomly decided to work for a bit

No Title This Week

Hey everyone, how has your last week been? For all of you I hope that it has been great. For me it was an awesome week of work, conference, and last night transfer news.

On Tuesday we got a little message from the Office that someone should be coming to fix one of our broken ACs. So we stayed at the house waiting for the repairman to come but more and more time passed without him coming. Eventually (after we made some calls back to the Office) we learn that the repair man is not coming then but would be coming the next day. So we promptly got ready, out the door and had a good lesson with an investigator with Bernard and his wife Rebecca. Bernard has actually been coming to church for the last little while but his wife still has not but we will keep trying.

On Wednesday we again waited for the AC repairman but this time he came and got the AC actually blowing air but not cold, oh well what can you say. Then for the rest of that day we met with Y but unfortunately she couldn't learn for very long as she had caught this eye infection that everyone in Tamatave has been getting and she wanted to rest. We gave her a short spiritual thought and re invited her to conference that weekend. Then pretty much for that rest of the day we contacted.

Thursday.... Thursday was a dark day. There were no lessons, no meetings, no stopping by at less actives, nothing, squat. For somereason no one was home or couldn't learn that day. It made for a hard day it needed to happen at some point I guess.

Friday we met with a referal from one of our members and had a good first lesson with him. I was actually impressed with how much he knew. From what he had told us he had never learned with the missionaries before and yet he had good answers that made for a very enjoyable lesson. Our last lesson for the night was with a part member family, we are currently teaching the father and daughter. They have been learning for a while but the father (his name is Norbert) has recently been coming to church. We learned about the nature of God and the Atonement, Elder Connault created a very good environment about the Atonement and our relation with God.

Saturday and Sunday we watched conference with our branches and in English. During the Sunday afternoon session we had about 200ish people, that with members from three branches. Then that evening we got transfer news and... I am being transfered out of Tamatave and back into Tana to work with Elder Munanira (who was also trained by Elder Webb) to work in Ampifiloha and I think that I will be staying there for a while. That is about it for this week everyone, hope that you all have a great week incoming


Elder Nelson

So many splits!

Hey everyone, this is Elder Nelson again and as the title states we did a lot of splits this week.

The first one was with Elder Price who is currently working in Toamasina. To start off I just want to say that I love working with Elder Price, he is just the type of guy who stays completely focused on what really matters. For example we were teaching this lady about the Apostacy and Prophets and let me tell you this lady really knows her Bible. At the end Elder Price just stated what we believed, didn't try to prove anything, just bore testimony and taught by the Spirit. At the end she was focused and interested about what we said, especially about being able to hear and learn from the prophet in this up coming week or so.

My second split was with Elder Razafimandimby and boy that day was a hard one. Our ways of teaching are pretty different and as I am not yet fully fluent at Malagasy I had to focus very hard on what was being taught. He likes to state and to tell the lessons to people (which is pretty much the only form of preaching that Malagasies know aside from the ours) while I have been trying to teach people more by using questions and getting the investigator to think about what we are triing to teach them. We taught Gabriel (one of our progressing investigators) and encouraged him as he has been trying to get off coffee.

The last split that I had was with my Zone Leader Elder Bowler. Elder Bowler has about three months left on his mission and is probably one of the best masters of Malagasy and teacher that we have. We needed to do some contacting near the beginning of our time but it was super good because I learned so many new things from him, for example how to teach people for the first time.

That is about it for this week, I know that we all have a work to do and right know I am loving it all, see you all next week,


Elder Nelson

Happy Conference! (for those in America or other such places)

Hey everyone! I hope that you all had a good time at Conference, for those of us here in Mada we have yet to see it (small price to pay I suppose). Now for the rundown of this past week.

On Monday we had a great Family Home Evening with Elisette and her family. We taught them the way to have FHE, our member help brought a spiritual thought, we gave a little bit more instruction, and we ended with a super fun game. It is basically you go in a circle, the first person says a word, the next repeats and adds a word then on and on. It was such an awesome time, especially as I was teaching something that I had been doing for as long as I remember.

This week also though was a bit rough, working wise, as Elder Connault got sick a few times this week so we were in the house for a while but at least it was a time to 1.) Study/ read the scriptures 2.) Study Malagasy and 3.) Catch up on sleep, and I can tell you all that some of all of that was done.

So on Sunday we got quite a little suprise, we had 8 investigators at church and 1 less active that we have been trying to get to come for such a long time. One of the investigators that came, his name is Norbert, has never come to church, ever, as far as I am aware before this last Sunday. For most people they would have been dropped by now but Norbert is the father of a member named Frido (who is a bro by the way) which makes him and the rest of his family a part member family so we need to stick with them. The other is another part member family who apparently just got Vita Soratra (legally married) and now say they can come to church because they are legal and everything now, I don't know and I'm not going to argue it.

Finally Alfred, the less active. The reason that Alfred has not been coming to church is because he needs to work alot and his boss won't give him the day off which normally we understand but we also knew that he could make it to Sacrament Meeting because well he used to. We kept visiting him and nothing was happening. Then we learn that our Branch President had gone to Alfred's house, you know just to visit and all, and together they figured out a way for Alfred to at least come to Sacrament. This is just so awesome because missionaries have been visiting Alfred for a while and almost nothing has come of it. Then comes the Branch President and Alfred comes to church. This shows that visits from members truly do have an impact. I hope that we all won't forget that.

That is about it for this week everyone, go and have another great one!


Elder Nelson

Easter in Mada; party for some, service day for others

So this week was Easter which apparently is one of the biggest holidays in Mada so nothing what so ever was open, that is why this one is a little late.

Tuesday we got a little shot as no one wanted to learn so we ended up tracting for a good portion of the day which for the most part was unproductive until the very end. At the last house we contacted a guy answered, we introduced ourselves and he says "sure, come on in". We sit at his table for a second, talk some more, show him the name of the church.

He pauses for a sec, tells us to wait, leaves, comes back with a Bible, some other pamphlet and.... an old copy of the Book of Mormon! We were super confused, wondering if we had found an old investigator. We asked if he had learned from missionaries before, he said that he had not, and that he had gotten the book from a friend. But he said that he had questions for us about the book. He then literally tells and shows us that there is some stuff in the Book of Mormon that is in the Bible ( showed us some footnotes and stuff) but he did not understand where the rest of the scriptures come from because he can't find them in the Bible. This shows that 1.) that he (Jean Jack) has actually read most if not all of the Book of Mormon and 2.) he truly wants to know more about the book, super excited to begin teaching him.

Thursday we had a decent day, caught some of our planned lessons, contacted and found some new people to teach. That evening we taught Elisette, planning to focus more on her children but as we get into the lesson I could tell it was not going to go well. Everyone was just lecturing or telling them information and it was plain to see that they were not really listening. I was thinking on how to help them learn better when a thought popped into my head "why don't we just introduce Family Home Evening?". It seemed so simple as FHE is said to be the best place for children to learn gospel lessons. So I sorta just but in and ask Elder Connault " can we talk about FHE really fast?" he thinks about it for a sec and says sure, go for it. So that is what we talked about for a good deal of the lesson and set up plans to come that coming Monday to help them learn.

Yesterday (Monday) we helped clean the now chairs for our new chapel, about some 600 chairs from what I heard, with members from all of the branches in Tamatave. It was a great time and it ended with a little lunch with everyone, it was so awesome. One elder named Elder Herrin said something that I really liked as everyone was gathering for food "look at everyone, everyone is just so happy. The gospel just makes everyone happy man". Looking around I did see that the what he was saying was true, those who truly follow the teachings of the Church truly do have greater happiness in their lives.

That is about it for this week, thanks for reading everyone, it was a great week and I look forward to another.

Elder Nelson

These are Elder Razafindresetra and... 

...Elder Tiu, they live with us, super dope

This is me when my camera started working for a tiny bit

so my camera decided to work for a tiny bit so I was able to get some pictures to send, these two are of a service activity that we did with members from all of the branches at the brand new church building here in Tamatave, it is so nice, to bad I won't be here before it opens