Ambohimanarina, Madagascar Week 11

March 2, 2015

We didn't get a lot of missionary work done this week, as most of the time was spent moving and cleaning houses. And as I predicted from the week prior, last Monday all of the 6 missionaries in the Talatamaty house all stayed awake until 2:30 AM killing cockroaches and mopping the water from the floods. And then the following day, we all got up at 6:30 and continued cleaning the wretched place. We then got all of the furniture out of the house and waited a few minutes for the moving van to arrive. After we took the first load of furniture to the new house, we were pleasantly surprise (not) to discover that the previous owners of our new house had still not moved out. They hadn't even started taking anything out of the house, everything from spoons to beds were still in their house. So instead of moving our furniture into their new location in the house, we instead put it all in the garage and had to wait hours for them to finally get out of the house. The house also wasn't as clean as I was expecting it to be, so we had to sweep and mop the new house along with the old one. But yeah, we all waited for hours for them to move out, and when we were finally finished at 6:30 PM we received a phone call from the office, saying that our old house was a dirty, disastrous mess and that we would need to clean our old house again at 6:30 the next morning. That old house was truly something else, imagine 10 years of sloppy missionaries living in a house and never lifting (or even looking at) a broom or a rag, it was truly incredible. We spent the entire day attempting to conquer that monstrosity, in the end we did eventually win. The beast was slain once and for all. The house was such a mess, we decided that the most efficient method of cleaning it would be to hose and flood the whole inside of the house. We were walking in water that was inches deep while scrubbing off mold from the showers that must have been there from before the time of Christ's birth. It was honestly not my favorite day in the world, but I did (I admit) enjoy hosing down the entire kitchen to my heart's content. After 10 hours of giving cockroaches early salvation and washing off bathroom floors that (or so the rumors say) were tread upon by Moses of old, we finally were done. Although the house still looked like a high school bathroom, it was way better than the days prior. The new house is really nice, it feels comfortable and cozy, I even feel comfortable walking around the place without a hazmat suit on.

After the house-moving adventure, we had a day of rest from cleaning with only a few lessons. They went well, as far is I understood correctly. Some of our investigators are progressing really well. We didn't get to visit T--- this week, hopefully he still isn't drinking though. We will catch him next Sunday. 

The rest of this week was spent at stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. A 70 from South Africa came and spoke to us about the importance of counseling and councils, and the role of the family in teaching the gospel. The meetings went very slow because someone had to translate his words from English to Malagasy. But yeah, it was pretty cool.

The power company here (they only have one in Madagascar, the competition is real) is being really stupid today, so I can't write down anything else. Most of the week was spent cleaning and moving anyways, so there isn't really anything else. Just know that our new house is loads better than the trash heap. I wish you all a great week!

Elder Anderson

A spider on the outside wall of the church building, larger than Benjamin's outstretched hand.

A Picture effect from Benjamin's camera of himself.

Flooding overnight in the old apartment. This was the morning after they had moved out and cleaned the previous day. Benjamin dealt with this continually for the 3 months he lived there, but never complained. :)

Pic of Benjamin cleaning up the apartment taken by Elder Hein. 

Pic of Benjamin's companion cleaning - taken by Elder Hein.