Hello Mother!
Don't worry about Elder Fox and i being so far from Tana, cause we are cool. That's why you don't have to worry. We are cool. Nah, but seriously though, things are going great. No worries here. We are teaching a lot, and receiving a lot of blessings so it's all good. This week has been one of those ones that felt reaaal long though. Like, I just try to think back a week ago, but it's hard, ahah. It's great though, just lots of hard work. 
Also, I got your package this week! Thank you so much for all the candy, it's super bomb. You know those special candy corn m&m's you put in there? Ohhhhh dang. I only let myself eat like two a day in hopes that they'll last me a while. It's all so good, and we are going to bake those cookies right after we are done emailing here. I am stoked. 
Oh yeah, you know that Madagascar thing you sent me from the LDS Living magazine (I think that's where it was from??), yeah, well if you read it you read about a town that takes a one hour bus ride, then one hour hike to get to. They also had photos of the missionaries baptizing in the river and stuff. Well that's where I worked in my first area, in case you forgot or something, so seeing that all typed up in magazine form was weird haha. Cool though. 
The October Liahona has a few different things about Madagascar too, which I found pretty coool.
You asked whether or not you should send the conference issue to me, and the answer to that is yes. I want it. It's true that they distribute them here, but it's also true that I want my own copy. If it is not out before you send the package, then that's okay.
I don't quite know yet if I'll be for sure able to skype or not, though I assume I will. It seems reasonable, but I'll find out more about that. 
A christmas list? Well did you get that letter that talked about that MoTAB cd? That's probably what I want most. And other than that.. maybe jerky, haha. Pictures or postcards. 
I'd seriously be stoked on anything. All I can think of is food and that cd, haha.
Okay, but yeah, things are great up here on the mission. Time goes by all the time, and it's sweet. People say Bonjour to me all the time, and who doesn't love that?
I am way jealous that it snowed down there, haha. Hopefully this winter will be a bit better than last winter sounds.
Maybe I should bring my journal with me when I write on these things, cause I seriously can't think of anything anymore. I know that cool stories happen all the time, but I don't remember any at all. 
We found some big dead cockroaches this week, so I guess that's cool.
Also, the power goes off about every night, haha, so that's pretty cool too. 

Well I hope you all have a cool week this week, for I will be sweating my head off. 
Until the sweat gathers in my eyebrow.
And then drops into my eye.
It happens.


:)





Elder Bergera 4 lyf3

Dear Mother,

I am pretty sure you can still send pictures. I don't know why it didn't let you before, maybe there were too many or it was just being a silly dumb computer, but yes, you can still send pictures, for Chelsie sent me one this week. Maybe just try it twelve more times or something. I don't know. I don't know much about computers anymore, haha. My knowledge is already ancient, the way technology moves these days.

So due to popular request, I am including some pictures for you all to enjoy and look at.

#1 - Okay, I don't remember the order, but one of them is a picture of a house and some boats by the water. This picture is part one of an unfinished two part series. This picture shows the 'high tide' of it all. I think it actually gets a bit higher than this, but this is pretty high. I'll get a picture of low tide. It's pretty cool stuff, except when this is the path that leads to your investigators house. It pretty fun though, just one of those extreme nature phenomonons (i don't know how to spell that anymore). Tides are like turtle tsunamis.

#2 - A baobab tree. These are pretty common here, but they are a different type of the ones you may see in Madagascar Advertisments. There is a huge old fat baobab here that I will most likely get a picture with one of these days, so look out for that.

#3 - I added a picture of Elder Fox and I on our year marks. It's way weird that I've been out here a year now. The actual yearmark was really just another day of work actually, but still a little weird floaty feeling that mark the day's uniqueness wifted the day. I tried to make the picture match the one I sent home to you guys last year, so you can see how much different I look now, haha. My hair made me look really young back when I first got to the mtc. It's all good though now. I am a man.

#4 - Here we see a few missionaries walking their way to the ocean for the baptism last Saturday (the 13th). My companion Elder Kovacs walks along with Elder Hansen on the hot sand down to the shore. Baptisms are cool.

#5 - I attached also a cool picture of me sitting in front of a cool tree. This also took place on my year mark.I found out yesterday that I will be watching conference this weekend, so pray that I'll be able to focus to malagasy enough to get some good messages. I am not as worried this time as I was six months ago though.Anyway though, things are good. I love you all. I'll try and write more next week!

Elder Cruise Control Bergera

Here is a picture my companion Elder Kovacs took last week. We walked down a path as a school got out, and this is what followed, haha.

Bonjour!
I am glad you saw my matureness in how I wrote last week despite of nothing to reply to. Quite mature of me indeed. 
Haha I talked to a Malagasy lady last week who said she could read and write english very well, but just had trouble speaking. She wanted to practice speaking more. I invited her to come to our english class that we teach every saturday. She kept repeating, "Thank you very much indeed." haha. 
Oh yeah, you know that one email you tried sending with pictures? Well I got the email, but it didn't come with any pictures attached, but I appreciate the thought behind it. That's what truly matters.
I will try really hard to take lots of good pictures this next week and get some real good ones for next week, okay?
This will be a good week anyway. It's like you said, I will be hitting the noon of my mission. Pretty cool stuff. Pretty weird stuff. It goes by so fast and so slow, haha. It's good though.
That new age thing is way weird, but good I suppose. It'll get people right out after their missions, and quit lollygagging. I think it's especially good for the sisters. 21 is a long time to wait for a mission, haha. 
Okay, quick answer sesh:
1. It is not yet rainy season, so it is not rainy yet. It'll start next month and go through until April-ish. Way fun.
2. The sun sets at about 6:30, so yeah, I get to see the stars everynight.
3. I don't know what the southern cross looks like, though I would like to. Help?
4. Taylor Workman has another kid! ahaha cool! Okay, that wasn't really a question, but that's way cool. Good for him. I'm proud.
5. New things in my area? Well I hear the muslims praying about 5 times a day, but that's not new. This town was settled in by Arabs of some sort, so there is a muslim background. Kind of a cool cultural thing.

But I have to go now, but I promise to get lots of sweet pics you and a nice juicy email. Mmmmmmm.

I love you all, thank you for the letters and love.

Elder Austin "Back When I Started My Mission, You Had to Be 19" Bergera

Hello Family and Friends!
Hello Hello Hello! 
When Malagasies answer phones, they say 'hallo?' haha. It's like they are speaking english and they don't even know it.
Hm.. I really don't quite know what to say today.
Last week we have tried to sort out the people who are really trying to progress and come close to God, and the people who just.. well sort of say so. I actually read a really good talk about this sort of thing in the November 2007 Conference Issue Ensign this past week. The talked titled 'Do It Now' spoke mostly about procrastination and laziness. The speaker talked about how those two things are the attributes that slow down and block mankind the most from really pursuing excellence. We all have so much potential within us, each and every one, yet there is that little tick that tocks inside us that prevents us from really magnifying that potenial. If we were to really buckle down and do then we could do miracles. We'd reach places we never would've expected to be. Raging rivers of opportunties could flow to us at immense speeds; crashing with turbulent success and experience. 
And yet, the coo-coo clock of idleness seems to tick tock its way into us all.
That's the most disappointing thing I have seen on my mission so far. Way cool families who could benefit so much to what the church has for them. People who are latching on to worldly things because they don't quite know what else is in store for them. People who feel the spirit during lessons and even sometimes tell us that they know the church is true, yet they lack the umph to come to church and really dive in to the whole experience. I know it can be scary at times, getting into something new (especially about one year ago this month, I knew that quite well), but God has such cool things in store for us all, you know? We just have to put trust in Him, and do. 
I can't believe how much time I used to just waste before in my hip teenage days, haha. It's crazy wack. 
Maybe that's just 'missionary me' and I'll be all hip and lazy again someday.. haha. Who knows. 
Other than that schpeel, I don't know what to say.. haha. I got all talking a lot again. 
I've been studying some Conference talks a lot lately, and just trying to get all prepared for conference. It looks like I will likely not be watching conference in English.. again, but I expect my Malagasy comprehension has improved this past six months, so we'll see. It'll probably still be about 3 weeks until we get it anyway too.

I just want to give a shout out to my good ol' friends Reggie Brody and Mathis Trent. They'll be hitting their year marks soon, so rah rah roo to that! And don't worry Helper and Doug, you'll get there soon. 

'Saotra.

Elder Bargara

Here we meet again,
So this week has actually been a way cool week. Well, I shouldn't say 'cool' in that sense because really it has been probably one of the hottest weeks of my life temperture wise, but still. You know what I mean. 
But yeah, it's way hot up here. I don't really know what in °F it would be. I have no idea. I can't really remember too well all that stuff. What I do know though is that a lot of the houses here have metal roofs that do NOT cool down very well. Many a times this past week I have sat in the houses of investigators with sweat trickling down my face, and I just wipe it off and keep going. I've started to carry around a 1.5L bottle with me as I go around throughout the day, and even now I think I need more. It's good though. I love it so much up here. It feels like I am actually on an island now, you know? With big old coconut trees and sand and things. It's good. I really am loving it.
I am trying to pick up on the dialect as well. We worked with a branch missionary yesterday, and as we were walking around he taught me some of the Sakalava words. Sakalava is the tribe/dialect up here. They can all speak Merina though, like I think I said last week. So a missionary could really work here with just speaking the official language, but I think it's fun to learn the dialect. It's like you are learning a language within a language. A dream within a dream. Things are getting deep. Inception. No but seriously though, just for an example: Banana: Merina (official) - Akondro, Sakalava - Kida. Isn't that fun? "Ohatr'inona ny kida?" "Six Cent (that's french)." "Ataovy." A classic conversation.
Another fun thing about this week happened last saturday. We had a baptism last saturday, and Majunga is one of the last places here in Madagascar that still does ocean baptisms, so you know. It was at the ocean. Even cooler news: I did some baptism interviews last friday, and after we had finished up one little family, the Elder I was with asked them who they wanted to do their baptisms. The mother of the family chose me to do hers! Oh bless you maman'ny hiasana. Bless you! So, long story short, I baptized her last saturday. In the ocean. With waves, and sand, and shells, and boats, and all that cool oceany stuff you always dream about. I was there, baptising in it. Just an incredible blessing.
Enough about me though. These people up here are way cool. The little girls don't wear shirts until they are about 10 I guess. Everyone still thinks were are french. All in all though, things are good.
Things are good.
We have one branch up here, and there are four missionaries. The branch president is way cool. A way solid guy. I met him yesterday at church and he just really seems to know what he is doing. The english class up here has some really good english speakers in it which sure impressed me. 
it's like I said though, things are just good.
I think that's about all I have for this week though, for we are about to leave the cyber soon. 
I'll catch you all next week!


Elder "I just started my third journal" Bergera

Hello Earthlings,
So yeah, I'd love to tell you all the cool new stuff I have been doing in my new area. All the cool coast things (yes, I am on the beach), and all the cool everythings, but I can't yet. Well I could tell you the little bit I have seen this morning, but that's about it. You see.. okay actually, we'll start on Friday night.
Last Friday night (not Katy Perry though), my new companion and Elder Marsh's new companion came down from mahajanga to attend the zone conference that would be happening that saturday. they came to the house, and we started the transfer right there. My new companion Elder Kovacs (who is, to answer your question, American) and I went out, caught a taxi, and after a bit of a journey went to the assistance's house to spend the night. The assistances have a nice house. The next morning we went to the office for the Zone Conference. Elder Cook, a regional Seventy for this area came down to Madagascar and attended our zone conference. Well, i guess he did a lot more than just attend it, but you know what I mean. He gave a really good talk about obedience and about sticking to the principles in Preach My Gospel. All in all, way good. Just a real motivator. It really gets your gears all back in order, if you know what I am saying. Elder Cook is a real smiley guy to, haha. I think that's his favorite thing to do. One of the most memorable things he said was "I love this book!" He said, referring to Preach My Gospel, "hahahahaha!" I wish I could be half as optimistic as this guy, haha. 
Following the zone conference I went on splits with a few elders and helped them work in their area, for I no longer have an area in Tana. This all went and according to plan. In the evening we returned to the Assistance's house for one more night.
The next morning we were at the bus station at 7:30 a.m. ready to go. We sat in the bus for about an hour waiting for everyone to get in and ready to go, then at 9 we finally took off. 
Twelve hours later we got to Mahajanga. Yeah, that was a long ride. I don't know exactly how long it would take to go 500km in America, but here its twelve hours. The whole ride was pretty much big snake bends the whole time. I must say though, I felt way blessed cause I really didn't even get car sick that entire time. And truth be told, the first nine hours weren't even bad. Yeah, we crossed some pretty sketchy bridges, but they were cool. I mean it's cool to not know if a bridge will hold out or not, right? Or to hear the metal plates holding the bridge together move and pop. These things are cool. Once the sun went down though, that's went the going got tough. I don't know why, it's as if my sanity were tied to the sun, and once it faded, so did I. But, as all things do, the journey ended. We pulled up to our house at about 9 p.m. and that was that. Now we are here. It is a lot hotter here though. I haven't even been here a day and I can already tell you that. 
Another thing worth noting is that they speak a bit of a different dialect here. I can tell that their conversations are different, and maybe one day they will make more sense to me, but as for now I just hear it. It's not too hard though, really, just different.
One the bus ride here though, I sat next to a lady and I didn't know what she was. she wore a thing on her head you know, like a shawl thing, and when she spoke on the phone I had no idea what it the world language it was. Maybe hebrew or jewish. Are those still living languages? She was pretty white, whiter than malgasies, but not cacausian. She spoke malagasy, but you could tell it was not her first or second language. Nothing more really to say about her, but she was cool and noteworthy anyway. She gave us some orange slices too, which was nice. Oh yeah, and she kept falling asleep and bobbing her head around, then the driver would do a sudden brake press, then she'd hit her head on the sit infront of her. I felt bad, but I didn't know what to do, so I let her sleep on. Elder Marsh actually did that in a bus once, super hard. I laughed a lot that time, but I didn't dare laugh at the lady. 
A cool thing about being on the beach is that we can walk around in sandles on p-days, which is way cool. I feel cool. And the sweat on my forehead feels cool too, haha.
Anyway, I think that about does it for this time. The heat is calling me.
I love you all so very much. Even though I am a lot further from the office now, don't cease to send me letters, haha. It's a cool things to do. You want to be cool, right?
Okay, thank you all for your support and prayers.
Elder IceBerg

p.s. I actually couldn't see those pumpkins you were talking about in those pictures. i believe that calls for more?

Hey Mom,

I am stuck at a computer that I can't get to change into an english keyboard again.. it's way annoying to have to press the delete button all the time for when I forget about the key changes. I'm a lot better at it than I used to be, so its okay.
So about the transfer news....
Yes! I will be getting transferred! we got the news last night, and now i am way excited because i am going to a way sweet place. I will be going to a province called Mahajanga/Majunga (depending on the french or malgasy spelling), which is up on the northern part of the island. its the northern most part a missionary can go so far, and it is apparently the hottest place on the island as well. and we are now entering into summer. I am way mega excited though, way ready to sweat my head off. Its the one place that i actually really wanted to go to; and now im going! i am not too stoked for the 14 hour bus ride, but oh well. that is certainly a small price to pay for a super cool area. I should be up and all settled in by next week.
though I must admit I will be sad to leave ol' Elder Marsh here in Tana. and it is way nice to be able to go to the office every pday and look for the sweets.... again though; it's a small price to pay. 
I have seen a lot of good success here in my current area of sabotsy namehana. it's a small little branch, but I have really enjoyed my time here. 
all this moving around really just makes me think.. it's so crazy how fast a mission goes.. it really is! i mean I definitely dont feel as though i have been in my second area as long as i was in my first, but now here we go. I have been, and longer; and now I am already moving. Time is so precious, you know? (and it's too bad i have to waste it pressing backspace) but seriously, every day counts, you know? even if it feels like thats "just another day." but that day matters though! 
It's good. c'est bon for sure.
You asked if they had malagasy scriptures in large print: i guess. I mean, they are pretty large print to begin with. Just the standard copy, so I mean yeah. they are larger than the normal english script; which is good.
To answer a different question: malagasy missionaries can go to any number of the mtcs in africa. Ghana, South africa.. i have a feeling there is another one too in there but I might be wrong.

anyway though, i really dont know what to say anymore. this french keyboard thing keeps distracting my brain and then I lose tract of what I want to say. 
ya'll can be expecting postcards soon, i think. they should be getting close!
I love you all!

E. Austin Boston