hEy mOmmMMMmm, 

Okay, so the three pictures in a really quick, non-descriptive manner:
1 - The departing Pres. Donnelly with the new incoming Pres. Adams
2 - Me with a (cooler in real life) tree
3 - An old fasana, aka tomb, in the cool zoo we went to today

So yeah, that's about it! We went to a zoo today in hopes that we would be able to get some lemurs to crawl all up on us, but all the lemurs in this zoo were in cages.. so next week we will try to go to a different park that apparently has free-roam lemurs. Coolstuff.
Things with Marsh have been going well. I have really liked training so far. Yeah, it pretty much makes me do all the talking for now, but ol' Marsh is already improving on the language which is way cool. And now, he has already been on the mission longer than the Mission President!! haha. He's just got the whole 'new missonary' view at it all, like it'll never end, but I keep telling him that my last eight months have gone by really fast, for they feel like they have! I always felt like i wasn't ready to train, but when it came, I found out I was ready, haha. It's good. Life goes fast out here, and before you know it one-third of your mission is already done! But yeah, he is way cool. I lucked out by getting a cool kid. 
But yeah, we went to a Zoo today, which I really enjoyed. They had a few crocodiles, but nothing close to what the crocodile farm had. This park basically just had a large amount of cranes that pooped on trees. You would've thought they painted the trees white. Speaking of crocodiles, I am going to try to get a miniture book of mormon binded in crocodile skin. It should be pretty cool. 
Anyway, it's 5:30 right now, the sun has set, and I need to get on my way. 
Thank you for all your love!
You da best!

I'll see you in half a fortnight.


"Under my Elder Bergera-era-era-eh-eh-eh"

Post Script: Oh yeah, I was thinking, if you ever did want to give me a birthday present for my birthday, I have thought of a few things which would be of great worth to me. G-2 pen refills, warheads (cause malgasy kids are fun to see eating warheads, haha. Marsh came with some and we gave them to some kids during our English class, haha. way funny), jellybellies (I thought about those the other day, and I don't know why buy they sounded soooo goood), and those Gellin' Dr. Scholls things (My shoes have been keeping pretty decent condition, all except for the inside soul. I don't know why, but it's been getting all gnar'd up. I guess I am just a hard walker. My belly's getting bigger... buy my legs are ripped up.) Also, and this is just a whatever thing, but I have heard a thing called 'perfect pushups' which caught my attention... so.. you know... if at all possible.. haha. I just want to try to work out more, cause I don't know why but I am gaining weight. I am about... 98% sure. But I want to get better at workout out, so.. yeah.

I am alive again! Woohoo!

Okay the name of the big holiday which is going down today is called the Vingt-Sis, which is french for 26th. Technically that would be tomorrow, but I guess a lot of the partying will be going down today too. It's way cool. Yesterday we actually saw a pretty big party going down in Sabotsy Namehana (our area) with tons of people around a big stage with two malgasies dancing on it. Pretty big parties going down in this place. But yeah, the 26th is the fetim-pirenena (or the national holiday), where they received their independance from France, if I am not mistaken. It's pretty sweet. they have tons of fireworks on sale on the streets and things, and apparently there will be a big fireworks show going down tonight, so who knows. Basically life is a party. I guess the most important thing to note today is that I was able to find a ciber to email you, so never fear. Bergera is here. 

Let's see... what else 'is the news...'

I picked up my new companion last Thursday! His name is Elder Marsh from Tremonton, Utah, and he's a really cool kid. Seeing him now in his p-day clothes I can now tell you that he's a real cowboy. He keeps me in on the quality on the cows we see too, for Madagascar has a lot of cows, if you didn't know. And they all have a weird hump on their back, but Marsh usually lets me know how they are doing. Suprisingly a lot of the cows here are skinny (not really suprising though lol). He's come straight to the mission field though, ready to work which is way cool. Definitely a good quality to have for sure. We've been working way hard since Friday, haha only three days, but we've been working really hard anyway. We've been actually been having a ton of people coming up to us, asking about the church. I don't know if it's because we are TWO white guys now, instead of just me (I haven't been with a non-malgasy in a while), but a lot of people have been coming up to us, so I am really hoping to see some growth in this branch. Yesterday we had a big branch conference with a lot of the other leaders from around Antananarivo. In the conference they talked about how we have to work really hard and get more people to church if we want to become a ward. My old companion Gino actually came to the conference because his bishop was coming anyway, so he tagged along. haha he told me how his last few days as a non-missionary has been, haha, he says being home is way weird, haha, but I told him that he's moving on to the next stage now! The first photo I attached is a picture of me and him a few moments before the office elders picked him up to begin the end of his mission. 

Oh yeah, you said you wanted more pictures of me, so I'll give you three. Yeah, I've kind of been gaining weight I think, but oh well, haha. I don't really know how, but it's happening. I've started a real workout though every morning here with Marsh, so hopefully we'll see some results soon. I'm just bulking up for this cold winter down here, hahhahahaha lol lol lol. 

The second photo is me and Marsh a few moments after we found out we would be companions! Way precious!

The third photo is a cool story. Well remember how I told you about the special branch conference? Well yeah, the night before, the APs asked me for directions to the church, so I gave them the directions obviously. I can't not. So I expected someone new to be coming to church, but I wasn't quite sure. Maybe them or something, but I didn't know. Anyway, about halfway through the sunday school in pops a vahaza head, and after a few minutes of really looking, I spotted the familiar face! One of my MTC teachers, Brother Jenkins! Ahaha, I couldn't believe it, haha, it was way crazy. I had no idea he was even coming here to Madagascar, super nuts. Apparently he is here for a month doing some non-profit organization work for something, I didn't really understand it to tell you the truth. I don't really understand things like that, but it was cool anyway. I was way stoked to see the guy. It super weirded out Marsh though, haha. Just imagine seeing a familiar face like that after being in the worlds longest flight and just experiencing everything that comes with a new country, haha. I was pretty surprised, but he was mega shocked haha. It was way cool though. He actually came with us for member help too for a few hours to teach some lessons which was way cool. I can understand his malagasy now, haha. It's way cool. Oh yeah, he had a really nice canon dslr camera with him, and he let me shoot some pictures. awwww mannnn.. so good. Way good. way good. 

that's all the pictures for this week though. I'll try to get some real doozies for next week. 

I think that about does if for this week though. Things are going real well and I feel I'm all up in the groove now. 

Give cat a good 'bro hug' for me.

Okay, peace it out all on the other side, 

Secretly Sincerely,

Elder 'the fun don't stop' Pops Bergera

Hello Mother (and all others who feel so obliged to read this),

I am sorry I was not able to email last week. You see, usually we email in the morning, and it works out all right, but last week we tried to postpone emailing until the evening. But as the evening drew near, the prospect became more and more difficult due to traffic and other such eveningly happenstances that the point came to where the light hope of emailing grew dimmer and dimmer until it vanished entirely. Don't you worry though, as a missionary I learn new things every day, and part of learning is knowing when to take knowledge from failures. As you see, I am now emailing in the morning (or the morning here, yesterday night for all you westerners), and thus, my email is in existance once again. Thank you, thank you. I am back.

And that's why I didn't email last week! But another thing about not emailing last week is that I didn't get to email the Mission President, which isn't good. We are to do that every week, but I forgot. This is especially signifcant because he only has two weeks left now! My mission president right now is President Donnelly, a really cool man from Zimbabwe. I've really enjoyed having him as the president, for real. I'm going to miss him for sure. On July 2nd the new president will take over. President Adams from California. It'll be different, but who knows! It'll be good too, I mean, they are all called of God so you can't go wrong there. I'll miss the zimbabwe accent though, that's for sure. 

Okay, I also have a bit of news! Yes, so if you remember, my companion right now is very close to 'dying,' which is to say, he finishes his mission on Thursday! It's been a hoot of a time here with Elder Raoilson, but every mission has an end. Yes, so of course I will be getting a new companion, right? Okay, and I found out not too long ago that I will be training! My kid... yes. They will get here on Wednesday, and I will get to pick him up from the office on Thursday. I am way stoked! I will get to be this Elders first companion, so it really makes me want to just work super hard and let him have an awesome, successful first area, and first experiences here in the mission. It's way exciting! My only worry is that I am going from having a native companion who can obviously speak the language, to becoming the head speaker of the companionship. Just a bit of a concern, but I know that if I trust in the gift of tongues, it will all work out. I've got God on my side, so nothing should be a conern right? It'll be good though, I am way excited.

And I think that is the biggest bit of news this time, not too much craziness going on. Next Thursday is the biggest holiday in the country, so that'll be cool. It's their 'fourth of july' of sorts. I'm really wondering what it'll be like, haha. If there is anything you need to know about Malgasies, it's that they love rice. But the next thing would be that they love holidays. They go crazy. It's way sweet and only slightly scary.

So I attached a couple of photos, let's take a look shall we?

Photo #1 Washing Clothes

Here we see some malagasy women washing clothes in the river. They have a saying here which I forgot, but it says something about how this country wouldn't run if it weren't for the women. It's way true, they do so much work. I mean, it's the same everywhere, women are great. Yes. But here you see them carrying stuff on their heads all the time, and washing clothes in rivers. Next level kind of stuff. Then they always lay out the clothes to dry in various places. Sometimes they lay clothes out on very pokey, cactus-like plants which poke little holes in them, but they don't mind. One time I used a method they use to wash clothes to get oil out of my disney sweater when I slept on a Reeses once. It works.

Photo #2 My first companion

I have had the great pleasure of living with my MTC companion Elder Fox these past two months. Unfortunately, he will be transferred on Thursday. Thankfully, he is going to a mega sweet province called Mahajanga which is the northen most province open to missionaries, and right up on the coast. I am super stoked for him. Anyway, in this picture I just wanted to showcase one of his unique talents: Origami. He's pretty good at origami. 

Photo #3 Gino

My third companion, Elder Raoilson (aka gino), will be going home in less than a handfull of days. Here we see a picture of him yelling and scolding, just like normal. haha, just kidding, he never did that. He's a good guy. This was our sunday lunch spot for a couple of weeks there. Gino is a pretty mean cook, and he made us some sweet lunches on Sundays. We live too far from our house to go home for lunch on sundays, so we just packed it with us. Before he goes home he promised to teach me how to make a mean voanjobory loaka. It's a type of bean sauce to put on rice. Malagasies always think it's funny to hear a white vahaza say they like voanjobory, but it's way good! Voanjobory sy henakisoa for life.

Oh yeah, yesterday at church they gave all the fathers a tie for fathers day. They said missionaries count, haha. 

But yeah, that's about it. I can't think of much else to say this week. 

Rah rah roo!

Elder Mpihinan-bary

 Yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo Mother!
Okay, yeah, today is just a simple, normal p-day. No overly celebrated holidays, no visiting crocodile parks, nope. Just a normal p-day.
Oh, what was that? Yeah, that's what I did two weeks ago. Early in the morning we heard that some of the missionaries here would be going to an crocodile park, so we decided to go up with them! The ride took quite a while, and we had to change buses halfway through to get there. On the second bus, we had so many people on the bus that some of us were just kind of hanging on the back. Sort of. I was the last one in, and I just sort of squeezed in the back. Somewhere along the way, the guy who takes money (you see, in buses here you have the driver who drives, and a guy in the back who takes money who talks in really fast, nasel-y Malagasy), well the guy who takes money brushed up against me somehow, someway, and perfectly enough to brush my name tag right off my shirt and out the door. As the bus was going. This kind of bummed me out. You see, in an adventureous mission like this one, name tags get lost all the time. It's sort of a dream to keep the mtc tag your whole mission. Waay cool stuff. Then all the dirt and gunk builds up in the letters of your name, and you can proudly show everyone when you get home how dirty is here. Well... I lost it, haha. I'll be getting a 'south african' name! Which is a nametag made from the south african MTC, and for whatever reason, when they make name tags there, the font of the name is smaller. So yeah, I should be getting that soon. Right now I have just been using the spare that you usually clip onto suits, but it's just not the same.
So yeah, the crocodile park. Tons of crocs. I actually forgot to take any pictures of the crocodiles, but trust me, there were tons. I attached a video I took of some lemurs they had. This was the first time I've seen lemurs! Soooo stoked. I actually got super duper close to one and fed it some guava, but the video I took is way too long to try to send. Some Elders tried to get them down, but gave up. Then I held out some guava and it came down. No one else saw. Just me and the lemurs. It was so cool that it kind of scared me. Hopefully this video I attached will be able to play and stuff. They are so cool though, for real. The way they jump from anything to anything is sooo cool! Awww I love them. They make super weird noises though. If I hiked alone in the mountains, and heard these noises.. ughh. I would freak out probably. They are just weird screechy howlies. It's cool though. They had chameleons too, which were cool, and would be cooler if I didn't find those while I walked to teach sometimes. They also had a thing called Fusas, which are apparently the biggest carnivores here in Madagascar, but they arent too big. Kind of small, to tell you the truth. Kind of like a very small mountain lion. Still cool though. Oh yeah, and a HUGE turtle. Mostly likely over a hundred years old, I would think so myself. haha, he just sort of strutted over all the other turtles, and you could hear all their shells clanking and clonking all over the place. Way good. Hm... what else.. A ton of big fat crocodiles. They didn't really do anything though, just glop around. That's how I would described their lethargy, just gloppy. Oh yeah, and lastly this super colorful chicken, haha. I attached a picture of it, so hopefully you'll see what I mean. It's like a chicken found the end of a rainbow, and this is what happened to it. Pretty. Cool. Stuff.
And yeah, that's what I did two p-days ago. Along with riding buses for a long time, we actually walked quite a ways too, which ate a good portion of our p-day. I didn't really get to come on here, so I am on here now.
You asked what Pentacost was, and to tell you the truth, I don't really know. I know it has something to do with Jesus, but that's it. Maybe I should look it up. Maybe I should try to find the true meaning of it. Maybe I should've decorated a Pentacost tree. Maybe. I just don't know.
You commented on my picture of that sweeet, mostly non-disgusting pool, that it's such a hazard. haha. I forgot what America was like.
Also, don't worry, even though my haircut might look a big military... I don't want to do that. Um... nuh uh. Sgt Bergera sounds cool though. Actually...
That's way cool that the sisters all got together and made the yard look all nice for your birthday! That's way cool. Way to go! Our yard over here looks real good, tons of weeds and a big pile of dead weeds from before, so it's way good.
Anyway though, I hope this is a long enough email to keep you happy for this week!
I love you all!
:)
Happy June! This is seriously a month I never thought would come, but it's here now.

:D

Hello there again Mother!
It was great to hear your voice and the voices of all the siblings yesterday! Sure crazy huh? The miracles of modern technology! Hearing all of your voices made these last seven months feel like they went by really fast! I don't know if you felt the same way, but that's just what it seemed like. Like you said, it's probably a good thing that the phone just cut off there, and yeah, I too felt it quite abrupt at the time, but it probably was for the better. I could've spoken to all you guys all night! I might be able to do Skype on christmas, so look into that if you can. I probably could have done it this time actually, but I didn't really think about it, but next time maybe!
Okay, I think it's high time I send you guys some pictures. Am I right? Okay, here are three:
(I actually typed all these descriptions for these pictures before, but the computer shut down and they didn't save. I swear though, they were way clever before. The best even. But now you just my second-hand efforts.)

#1 Here you see a nice wedding. Nice right? This wedding took place my first weekend in this area. The newly wed bride you see dancing there in the background is actually a member! Cool huh? Her husband isn't though, but apparently he has been investigating since they have been together, so you never know! He is actually from Reunion (hence why he is white). Also you can see me, right there up front, and my companion. I am the whiter one. Elder Raoilson is his name, which sounds like raa-wilson. He's a good ol' guy. One area which we teach once a week is one huge rice field away from his hometown; you can see it in the distance. He gets a little trunky when we go there sometimes, but he goes home next month, so we just endure to the end. That's what we do.

#2 Oh hello again. Here you see a nice new swimming pool I put into our backyard. We like to do things big here in Madagascar. No, no, haha. I only joke. No, but seriously this is a pool Gino showed me in our area, right in the middle of nowhere. Apparently a nice house once sat here, all nice and all, but what-so-ever happened, and now we are left with this! The deconstructors were nice enough to let this beauty hang around for any neighbooring swim enthusiasts. I must admit, even I was tempted to jump on in for a lap or two, but no no, we must obey the mission rules, you see.

#3 Funny seeing you here! Here we are at a secret, behind the scenes look at where I got my haircut this morning! Gino (Elder Raoilson) is getting his haircut in the pictures, and I caught the motion blur of his hand trying to block his face from the camera. Too late Gino! HaHa. Anyways, yeah. The haircut went very well. The straightblade at the end really brings it all together too. Slicing and shaving in just the right places, hurting so good all the same.

And that's all I have for you today! I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! :O)

As far as everything else is going.. I got your package brittany! Thank you! The journals look super cool, and I am super excited to fill them up with all my words of wisdom. That big one means that I'll have to right more everyday during my use of it, which is probably good. I'll write more! That's always good. And your pictures are good! Mt. Loafer looks way good! I showed the temple pictures to all the other elders hanging around the office while I opened the package, and they all thought it looked really good! Well done!

The work is going well. We are going to try to do a lot of finding this week. A lot of investigators seem to have the desire to learn when we teach them, but they never come to church. So I guess the secret is just to try and find the people who are willing to come, and keep the commitments they make. That's the hardest part. I had sort of a thought this past week: our lives are really good in America. I mean, we don't have to worry about 'washing clothes' on Sundays, or having to get food cooked. Our lives are so free from the common worries of our ancestors, that we don't have to really worry about things like that. Sure, we still are busy and have our own worries in our american lives, but they are different. Coming to church everyweek is more of a 'being lazy or not' deal than 'having to do things' kind of deal. I am not giving these people an excuse to not come to church! They need to come! I am just saying.... life is good in America.

Our water comes from taps.

So, I encourage all of you to look down under your feet right now. I dare you. If there happens to be carpet under your feet, thank heavenly father for that. I haven't seen carpet in a while.. I miss carpet, haha. I dare you to look above your head, and if the roof ISN'T made of straw, then do the same. It's crazy how these people live, and it's crazy cool how lucky we all are.
I guess you could say it's a real humbling experience. Of course, the houses the missionaries live in are nice and all. Solid houses (no carpet). Though, come to think of it... the fleas would probably be way worse with carpet.. ha.

Anyways, I hope some of that made sense, and it didn't sound like rambling, haha. That's just what's been on my mind this week. Maybe next week I'll do another 'day in the life' thing, okay? Because my second area here is way different from my first.

Okay, sounds good.
Thanks for joining me this time.
I'll catch you all on the flip side.
Don't take it too easy.
Ny lalany no ny lalako.

I love you all!


Secretly Sincerely,

Elder Mimi 'Wild-Cats'

Dearest Mother - I am quite well. So I have good news! I got your package! I picked it up last Monday right after I email you. I just want to thank you and Brittany and Chelsie for those wonderful cookies! They were way good. The one 'butter button' ones had a tiny bit of mold on them, I think it was because the cookies themselves are a bit moist in nature, but don't worry, they tasted fine anyway. So here is a lesson you can learn from this: you don't need to hesitate if you want to send me a package. It'll most likely get here, even if it takes a while, no big deal :) and yeah, we are fairly close to the mission home, we can get there in about a half hour by bus if we needed to, and we've been going at least once on p-day for these past few p-days.
Antananarivo is a pretty big town, definitely more than a million people here, and size wise, it's big. I think there are a little more than 30 missionaries here in Tana. There are two different zones, which means two different sets of zone leaders. As of what town I could compare it to up there, I don't know. It's just big. Not like huge buildings or anything, that's not what it's like here, just a lot of hills with a lot of... stuff. just things, everywhere. I think the best way to understand would just be to be here, really. The roads are tiny and the cars are many. And the people are many-er (i mean there are a lot of people).
We had a baptism on saturday! Those two teenage kids I talked about last week got baptized, along with a members kid who was 10 years old who hadnt been baptized yet for some reason. anyway, the baptism went really well. the baptismal font here is way better than the one in Antsirabe. Still a tarp in a metal cage, but there arent any holes in this one and the cage is nice and sturdy. Then yesterday, my companion did the confermations, and wow. He said that they would be going out and preaching the gospel on their own, and when he said that I just felt the spirit super stongly. He also said how one day they would get sealed to their families in the temple, and I know that anyone can just say these things, but when he said them in the prayer I just felt the spirit so strongly, like it would happen. so yeah, it was a good baptism.
That was the highlight of the week, I think.
I also went to a magical place called Score Jumbo last week. Wow. I was scared. You see, score jumbo is like wal-mart, execpt probably not as nice, but to me, a thousand times nicer. I freaked out, it was so big. Of course, it doesn't have like american stuff all up in there, but it has nice things. Like, i bought apple sauce last week. What a treat! And doritos too, which were kind of expensive but no big deal. Seriously though, I felt scared and slightly intimidated the whole time, for I haven't been in a place like that for a while. I didn't think they existed here. Going back to America is going to scare me.
But yes, I think that is about it. The days go slow sometimes, the weeks go fast, the months seem to go faster.
I think that's about it.
I love you all!

Elder "manao ny solomasoko amin'ny alina"

Here I am again!
I am stuck using a french keyboard again... but maybe that is a good thing. Maybe this way I will be able to get used to it, then not even have to worry about switching it ever again. Let's hope so. I will give you a run down of the differences: the 'a' and 'q' keys are switched, along with the 'w' and 'z' keys. You have to push shift to get to the period. The 4 key is the ' key. The 'm' key is on the right hand pinky too, and that's about all the differences really; just enough differences to bug you.
I haven't gotten any packages yet, but I havent gone to the office yet, so let's hope they came :3
This ward isn't bigger than the last one, it's actually smaller. The area is the in the northern part of the Tana city (Tana = Antananarivo), and as I understand it, the area opened up only a few years ago, so it doesn't have a big base yet, but the members are super cool. Yesterday we had about fifty people to church; so no it's not too big, but I am going to get those numbers up! One of the biggest differences with this area compared to my area before is having to ride the Taxi Bes. A taxi be is a small, bus-ish type vehicle were they pack people into to get as many people in as they can. There are usually about five rows of seats, with an isle running down the middle. when things get really full, you pull out this little seat, or grab a plank of wood and set it in between the seats, creating your new seat. All nice and squishy too. Misy miala.
The investigators in this area are really cool too. There are these cool two teenage guys who we are teaching right now. They are way cool. I guess they had long hair before, but now they are all bro'n with rat tails and all the new boy-y rage going on. My companion thinks they need to get hair cuts and start looking proper, but I think they are looking cool. They should be getting baptized soon though.
I don't really have too much to say this week though, just basically getting used to the area and getting it all together.
Keep it on the easy!
I love you all.

Elder Smelder