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

Hey Mom! So I have some news:
I got transferred! haha last monday we got the transfer news; and now
here I am in the middle of this mountain of a city called
Antananarivo. If you want to know the name of the area that I am in;
it's Sabotsy Namehana. Now I don't know if it was the living in the
relatively small town of Antsirabe or what; but this city just seems
so big to me now. I can't even believe it. For example, i counted a
building that had about 20 stories on it the other day; and that just
seems crazy to me now. mad crazy. This tana place gives me culture
shock sometimes.
The other day though, after our planning session, we went to this
pizza place down the street, casa pizza, and guess what? thier pizza
had sauce on it! usually pizzas here don't, but they totally did. and
you won't believe whats next; they had donuts too. good donuts.
legitiment donuts. I bought two of the little sweeties.
I got to go up to the office again too, which i haven't been to for
about four months, so that was way sweet. Bad news though, I still
haven't gotten the cookies. Don't worry though, I am sure they are
well on their way... maybe.
Dang; typing this message is super hard. Usually down in Antsirabe I
would just change the keyboard to an American keyboard; but this cyber
which i am at doesn't have that option dang it. So now i am stuck on a
french keyboard and it is suuper annoying. Most of the missionaries
here have just switched over by only using the french one; therefore
becoming used to it. I never wanted to before because it is way
annoying, at least for the first few times; but I guess i will try to
do it now. Seriously though, it's way annoying.
So yes, my new companion. His name is Elder Raoilson, and yeah, he is
Malagasy! I have another malagasy companion! woooo! but rather than
like my first one; he is almost finished with his mission. he finishes
in June, so I will most likely be his last companion. He is good at
english too. He says he didn't really know any before; but has just
picked it up through working with us white-ys, which is pretty
impressive.
Our ward is pretty cool, and I got to bear my testimony yesterday. I
am pretty sure that's the customary thing to do when you are new to a
ward. So I got up and did it. I'll tell you the truth, it was way
easier than when I did it back in December haha. My companion said my
accent sounded pretty good; so sweet. You asked how I was doing with
the language, and all i would say is that I am still learning
everyday.
Oh yes, before I forget, when the new conference addition of the
Ensign comes out, I very want you to send me a copy, okay? I have read
that addition you sent me in the MTC a lot, and I love it. I also
found the edition to the session before that; so now I have a little
collection of conference additions and I love them.
Oh yeah, I saw that Elder Swindle you were talking about. Him and his
group came in last week. I recognized him from school, he was a year
younger than me, but I didn't know him too well. When I saw him, he
told me the last time he saw me my hair "was like *and then he made a
hand gesture at about shoulder length*" and i said "funny seeing you
here." It was nice.
But if you caught that, that now means there are two groups behind me
now. I am getting old.
So i tried to add more pictures but this compùter is weird, so just
one for now. But this is a picture of a really cool family down in
Antsirabe, and if you notice that little fellow there on the left, you
might see his face preaching the gospel around SLC before too long!
well i think that about does it; i've grown tired of having to fix my
keyboard mistakes.
I'll see you next week! I love you all!

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.

I may or may not be able to email next week. You see, this easter is sunday, and that means the next day is easter monday. In america, you wouldn't really give that day a second thought, but from what I have heard so far, it's suuuper crazy here. I am super stoked! But that also means that all of the cybers will most likely be closed hosting parties. So I probably won't be able to email. Who knows though, we will see.
I don't have a ton of time to email today either. We went down to an area called Ambositra. Right now two missionaries work there, and it is the woodworking capital of the world. It took a little bit less than two hours to get there this morning, and the first thing we did was hike up to a waterfall! It was ssoooo hot. It's supposed to become winter here pretty soon, and up here in the mountains, it apparently gets pretty cold! Too bad it wasn't cold today. The water fall was sweet though, I'll send you pictures later though, for I left my camera in the car.
Another great thing about Ambositra is we found a restaurant that had soft serve ice cream! As far as Ambositra goes, there is pretty much cool wood stuff, and that's about it. That's the word from the other missionaries, and I believed it, haha, it didn't look like much was going on. BUT, the ice cream heaven. They do have ice cream at La Gastros, the pizza place, but it's not to-die-for. It's not soft serve. THIS was. Oh, it was way good.
ALSO, I found a wooden owl for your collection, and I bought it. The wooden stuff in Ambositra quite impressed me. Tons of sweet wooden trinkets and pretty much wooden stuff. I didn't really spend to much, I feel like this mission has turned me really stingy with my money. Honestly, the owl really isn't a super special looking wooden owl, just, kind of a small wooden owl. But I got it anyway, so just know that. I figured I would have to have something to repay you for the cookies, which I am still waiting patiently for. :3
Well I think I don't really have too much to say this week.. sorry, a bit short.
Okay, one more little sweet thing.
Uh...
Cow tongue is all-right.
Okay, I love you all
Goodbye,
Elder Smelly-Pits (cause the deodorant I bought here isn't too de-odorant-y)

ps how was conference? I think we have to wait a few weeks to watch it. we must wait for the malagasy translation to come in.