Yes, as you saw I did not have the chance to email you last week. I apologize. The streets and the whole scene here was just crazy! people everywhere! You would think that would make a p-day super cool, but it actually was a mini-bummer cause Shoprite (the main grocery store here, comparable to Smith's cut in half) was closed. And all the cybers were closed. So we just walked a lot. We went to Tsena Sabotsy though, which was running wild! Tsena Sabotsy (which translates to Saturday Market) is a big long maze a little tiny shops and stuff. It's kind of hard to explain. There is nothing really comparable to it in Utah. The shops are these little wooden hut things, the meat section is a real doozie. Lots of meat just hanging right out in the open, but don't worry, I am pretty sure it's all clean and good. I've eaten it and I loved it. They also have tons of fruit places and vegetables. It's pretty much like wal-mart, but outside and pretty dirty. The dirt's good though. I bought more clothes that have been shipped here from places like America. I bought a really cool walt disney world hoodie that I am actually wearing right now. That part of the tsena is like DI, and I love it.
Other than that, I just ate some ice cream that I found. And that was Easter Monday (aka a sweet party).
Hm.. so you want to hear what life is like, a day in the life of me? Okay, I'll give you an example.
So last Thursday was quite and adventureous day! I got up at about six, which is super easy here cause the sun is bright up and shining well before morning. It's getting darker though.. back in December it got up about 4:30, but now a solid 5:30 is normal. That means winter is on it's way! Okay, so I got up and I read Jesus the Christ. I've been reading that a bit lately, and it's very good. The book goes in depth of basically everything in Jesus' life, and a great deal more. My knowledge and understand has expontenially increased since the beginning of my reading, and I haven't even really made a dent into to book yet! After that, I ate some oatmeal I got from my ol' MTC buddy Elder Ewell. Elder Ewell is 3 hours north in Tana, and he has tons of girls. So many that he gets tons of packages. I told him to put some goodies in a box for me, so he did. He's a good guy like that. Oh dang he gave me a pack of oreos, chips ahoy, fruit gushers, sns. I loved it! Oh I truly did. Nice american junk food. He also included some Baked Apple Pie oatmeal, which I wouldn't have ever given a second glance in america, but I have grown to appreciate the little things in life. So I ate that. My hour of personal study, followed by hour of companion study followed. Andrianajarasoa and I did a little language study before District Meeting. We read the book of mormon together, I in malagasy and he in english. We've been scooting along. District meeting went well. The couple who lives down here did the lesson. Their names are the Fareeas. They are from Tahiti, and speak french. Luckily, an elder (elder Bedwell) just got transferred here from Reunion, so he was able to translate for us. Soeur Fareea gave a wounderful lesson about Faith, and how prophets from the scriptures have used faith.
After district meeting, we started splits. I needed some baptism interviews done for my area, so Elder Smith, the zone leader, went with my companion all day and did those. They all passed. Anyway, so I went we Elder Bates to Manandona. Manandona is a small branch about 20km south of Antsirabe. Smith and Bates are very fortunate right now, for they have a car. Elders in the past (about a month ago) didn't have a car and needed to ride bikes out there every day. Our first appointment in Manandona was with a cool guy they found who was staying there for a few days. He lives in the Captial: Tana. A real cool guy, this one. He had an interest in the book of mormon and just loved asking questions. He knew a tiny bit of english too, along with another man who joined us about halfway through. At one part during the lesson, the two men were arguing in what little english they knew, and I couldn't help but just smile at that, haha. I imagined myself arguing in malagasy with another american elder. Silly, silly, silly. We gave the man a book of mormon, and we headed off to our second time. Our second time was right by their church. I say church, but really, small house. Very small house. Not as small as the Besoa church (another branch in the Manandona area, which I swear this church was about the size of my room, no joke.), but still. We were going to teach this teenage girl, but she said she was too busy to learn right now. So, not quite having a time planned, we helped some members hit their rice stalks against rocks as to knock to rice off the stock, therefore preparing the rice for consumption. It went well, and we knocked the heck out of the rice. I had rice in my shirt pocket and the little cuff in the bottom of my pants all day. We drove a little bit longer and taught a few times out in the boonies. A real hard rain storm hit for about 30 seconds during the drive. The kind of rain that you can't quite wipe away from the windshield fast enough, for it comes too hard.
That evening we had a choir practice for the Open House we will be hosting here in Antsirabe this Saturday. The theme is the restoration, and it's a big program all about the restoration, just to invite everyone and get the word out about it. The thing is though, is that I'm not sure if I will still be here this saturday. Transfer news comes out tonight, so I guess we will see. And quite bascially that is about all that happened last thurday. I hope that gave you a nice look at how a day in my life goes. I tried to give you lots of goods.
Keep on keeping on!
I love you all!

ps. I haven't gotten the box of cookiez yet. It might be in tana, which means I should get it soon, if all goes to plan. I'll keep you posted.