They for sure have lava-lava type native dress cloths here! Are we not in Africa?? Haha yeah, but I will most certain get you one. It'll be purple too just like you like it. I have already bought a little array of keychains too, so you're on the ball with that one. 

I have not yet received the package yet though, but I heard that they may go and grab those tomorrow, so we'll see. It is okay though, even if it is a bit late. I will survive, haha. Heck, I still have some stuff left from the last one! It'll be nice to have some nice birthday supplies though. We are going to be having a reaaally nice birthay bash on my birthday though, and what I mean by that is we will be making hamburgers that night. You better believe it! On top of that, we will be eating something I have only learned of in the last few months: jello cake. Oh? What's that? Let me break it down for you:

1. Bake a cake. Simple enough.

2. Boil up some jello mix. Not too hard.

3. Once the jello is ready to be cooled, pour the hot jello-water mix into the cake. 

4. Refridgerate.

It is genius. I don't truly understand all the physics of the thing quite yet, but it makes something just short of magical. I don't know if Malagasies would like it much though.

Culture tip:

The Malagasy people like candy and other sweet things... to a limit. They thing our food is too sweet. That is a hard lesson to learn the first time. Many beginners bring their favorite brownie recipes to dinner appts with members only to found out the little children are crying because the too sweet brownies are making their teeth hurt. Ouch. But, if you make the brownies just right they will love you for life. Just take it easy on the sugar.

And that's your tip of the week!

We've been having a pretty good time here in the office lately though. This past week, two office specialists came in from South Africa to install completely new computers here into the mission home. The mission office is looking way nice now. Elder Aloi and I also spent many hours looking through old folders and throwing away those that were of no worth. You would have been so happy seeing how much stuff we threw away. Seriously. On friday I literally spent hours shredding old documents. The shredder eventually over heated and I had to resort to shredder #2. Oh office problems. Life is so hard. 

As far as the work is going, we have seen a real improvement in the work here! Well, really we actually just have a really solid investigator right now. Yesterday was the first time we had an investigator at church since our area split. All of our old investigators still come all the time, but they are technically in the sister's area now. The person who came yesterday is the wife of a less active man we found just a month or so ago. Their names are Narys and Hasina. Hasina is the wife, and she is a pretty golden investigator. She's really bright and used to be an English teacher actually. "Za te hahafantatara fotsiny ny hoe iza izany Mormona izany. Olona izy sa ahaona... tena curious be aho." haha. miteny vary amin'ny anana. They are very cool though, and accepting of everything we have taught so far. Yesterday at church, the first talk given was about Temples and it was PERFECT for them. After the meeting all they could say was that they felt happy. You can't help but be happy with them when they say that. They brought their little five year old daughter with them too. The little daughter doesn't actually speak Malagasy (something found in very well off families), but we've got solid people here in the ward who'll help her out. 

All in all, things are going really well here. And yes, time sure is running out. It's really weird.

To answer your question though, I would prefer to give my homecoming talk on the 22nd if at all possible. I think the closer to my actual arrival date it is, the better.

And thanks for cleaning me out some room in the pink room, haha. I appreciate it. 

I'll talk to you in another week!

Elder Bergera