Ambohimanarina, Madagascar Week 15

March 30, 2015

This week Elder Evans and I have been working really hard, we have done loads of tracting and have taught plenty of lessons. Our goal this week was to achieve 30 hours of proselyting time, and we did it. We even had 5 minutes to spare. This computer is very slow, I am typing the words and then they appear seconds later, it is slightly annoying to say the least. But we got our 30 hours, and it was no simple task. If we were outside of our house we were either teaching lessons to families or going door-to-door. The last week we have been trying to contact into the more wealthy families, Our success therein has been limited, more curtains have been abruptly shut in my face than in my mission as a whole (or my whole life even, most people in America have doors and not curtains as the one barrier guarding their front door). But I'm not even mad, because a few of them let us in in the end and wanted us to return. On another note, it seems that all of the drunk people here in Madagascar want to talk to and become friends with the missionaries. It does get annoying sometimes, I am just thankful that they aren't ever violent.

I don't remember if this has previously been mentioned, but our new Stake Center is done, and it isn't half bad. It is about a million times better than that cheap and moldy apartment building thing that we used before. It is a really nice building, probably one of the nicest in the whole country. It feels just like a church back in America, the only major difference is that there are no drinking fountains in the church here in Madagascar, a minor letdown. And if there were drinking fountains they would most likely not be safe to drink from, unless they had their own nice little filtration system that is. It would be fine for the Natives, but it would upset my bowels (I have had diarrhea since Easters here!), it seems that even if you just simply look at a glass of homemade juice with unfiltered water you get an upset stomach. But anyways, the new Stake Center in Ambohimanarina, Antananarivo is very nice. Upon entering the Chapel I begin to feel as if I am back home in America, but when I leave and see the small, broken, dirty roads and small little shacks that they call houses, the dream begins to fade and I start to think to myself, "Wait... this can't be Utah, there are only Black people here". And then it hits me, the chapel's soothing effect caused by it's American appeal is lost. But, I begin to gain hope as I start to realize that if I am in Madagascar that also means that I can buy a fancy meal from the top restaurants in town for around 3 US Dollars. My heart is content knowing that food here is good, usually, and practically costs nothing compared to the cost of living in America.

The last few weeks I have started to gain a mastery over my area (the layout and such). I can get anywhere I need to, and I know the most efficient route, I wasn't quite sure it would ever happen, I thought that I would be constantly lost in my exceptionally large area, but it seems that I have indeed accomplished the near impossible. I set records last week when I didn't have to turn around in order to find the correct path a single time. That must be the power of prayer, because the week before I had no clue where I ever was (exaggeration for effect, I wasn't entirely clueless when wandering the near-identical looking paths of Madagascar, just semi-clueless). But, I really do feel like I have improved loads this past week (good thing too, because my new companion hasn't ever worked here [obviously]) I finally feel confident in my area for once, and it is a pretty decent feeling.

This last week we have gotten a lot more strong investigators in our area (strong in this case suggesting that they (the investigators) remember and take to heart the main part of our message). I have seen a lot of people recently that all agree that there shouldn't be so many churches in our time right now, and that Jesus only created one church, so (by using deduction) we can safely conclude that there needed to exist a restoration of the fullness of the gospel in order to bring back to order the true church as established by Jesus the Christ. A lot of our recent contacts agree that there are so many churches here on the earth right now, because the true authority to act in the name of God was lost when Jesus and the Apostles died. I am eagerly waiting to see their progress.

Well, that is all for today.
Elder Anderson

​I stole this hat from a Malagasy missionary in our district and snapped a quick photo - lol, I can't choose the pictures that I send on this computer, it is pretty random.

This cute kid caught three birds with his bare hands, not bad I say. He was posing for the photo.

This lizard was fairly large, half of my forearm.