MISSIONARY:
Someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that others may be with their families for ETERNITY.

Monday, August 27, 2012

First P-day in Mada!


Well he is so good that he wrote 3 separate emails to Grant, Wyatt and me.  So here is a quick compilation of them all.
First mine.
Hey mom! Before I start I will warn you that I am typing on a French keyboard so the letters are all in the wrong place, I can't find the period either. Aha! Found it. You have to capitalize to make a period.
Anyway. We have all the time in the world to email, although we have been asked to keep it to about an hour.

1Tell us about London and Johannesberg, what did you do with all that time?    London airport was the worst. No fast food anywhere. Terrible. I slept a lot during that time, and had a hamburger and chipos, which are actually fries. Silly brits. Johannesberg was pretty cool, they took my gorilla tape though. They said it wasnt allowed because I could tape someone’s mouth with it. Surprisingly they let me keep my pen, although I could totally stab someone with it. We talked to a guy that was headed home in both airports, one from France and one from the Joberg mission. Super legit.

2.
Besides beautiful tell us something about Madagascar. Madagascar is filthy, and loud. There are no rules for cars so as long as it runs people drive it. Rattling, squeaking, smoking cars everywhere. And forget about rules of the road. Drive around someone in your way, cows on the road, taxis stop right in the lane. But no one gets mad. Super weird, that's just how they drive here.

3.
What do you think if your companion?  My companion is pretty cool, really nice, very helpful, and very Scottish. I only understand about 60% of what he says, between the accent and calling pants trousers and whatnot.  And he is going home in January! So we are going suit shopping today.

4.
Tell us about your house.   Our house. In the middle of our street. Our house.  haha our house is drafty, I always am wearing a sweater and pants. Hopefully that gets better once summer comes. No, I am not mistaken, seasons are backwards, just like everything else. The stove only half works, the two burners in front don't turn on at all. The back two are alright,
at least they light up.

5.
Are you understanding anything?  Not a dang thing.  haha I am understanding a little bit, but not much of anything really. They talk so fast and run their words together so bad. It's a little silly. Also they use French words on and off in their conversation, and about 90% of their numbers are in French.  Silly. I do understand that every single person says I am super tall. Malagasy
people are short, like your height is the tallest person mom. Lava be! That means really tall. My companion goes "It means loveable" haha but I already knew it.

6.
What does your p-day involve?  Email time? can you sent photos?  P day is for cleaning, and then shopping, going to the office, and whatever else we need to do. We have laundry in the house so we don't have to do that on p day.

7.
Tell us about your first investigator visit First investigator, I don't know her name haha but she told me. The lesson was going pretty well I think, she was asking questions and looked satisfied with the answers, and then the baby cried and she started breast feeding it. Yep, right in the middle of the lesson. Turns out all the women do that. Doesn't matter when. Even in church.

Luke is huge! Walking around, riding geese and whatnot. What a champ. Tell the families I send my love but letters are 1.50 per so those will be a little slower than they were in the MTC, not to mention how much slower they will be from the future. It's 10:15 now. I love you so much! Thanks for the email, it was really great to read.

Dads. Bon Jour faza! haha I spent nine weeks learning Malagasy and I get here and that's what everyone says to me. A mix between French and good old fashioned racism. Yay!

There are 84 missionaries here right now including us, and a lot of areas haha one companionship per area so 42 areas. Nine cities, most of the areas are in Tana.

I love hearing about the stories from the Ritzville clan haha the RV story made me laugh pretty hard. I can seriously envision that whole scene.
The kids were very anxious to claim their beds while Grant and Daniel were setting it up in the dark.
I did not understand a single word at church on Sunday, but I bore my testimony in Malagasy so that was a cool experience. The members speak a lot of French. I don't know french. Plus the acoustics were really bad in that  room and people like to talk all at once so I was lucky to even understand enough of what they were saying to write down the malagasy word. Crazy. I definitely know what you mean about the new language between the mtc and here, but I got to bear testimony about the WOW at one point and I did pretty well on that, and we taught a first to a lady named Rosa too. She is so cool! I am so excited for her, we contacted her my first day at her bar/restaurant thing and she
seems excited. I really hope it goes well, we are teaching her this Wednesday I believe. Keep her in your prayers!

Well, I have to go now, sorry you got the short stick today and the last email, I will rotate that in the future. I love you so much! You can read everyone else’s emails so you get my week, I think I covered everything in the emails. Oh! Except that the way to get to peoples house is almost exactly like in the incredible hulk when they are running through the city. Legit.

Thing I will never forget about Mada: Women breastfeeding and all the american music. Love you! Tiako ianao!
Wyatts.  First of all, you slept in whose truck?
Madagascar is awesome! I'm not understanding much of what people say except "Elder vaovao"-new elder "Elder Galbref"-how they say my name, no th sound in Malagasy and "lava be!"-really tall. I get that one a lot. Also, all the little kids say "bon jour faza!" which is just a rascist term for white people because they think you are French. Their face when you respond in Malagasy is priceless. So shocked. This city was built for about 500,000 people that are about 5 foot 6, so as one of two million people living here and being 6 foot 5 or so I don't really fit anywhere. But it's all good because I am doing the lords work! And I'm getting good at ducking haha.  We taught some ladies in a house I literally could not stand up straight in.

Definitely everything I hoped for, and once I can understand people it will be even better! I have seen a turtle, but it was dark and we were in a hurry so no pictures.

Well, I am glad you are enjoying my truck, and bumping that gospel talk everywhere haha don't blow my speakers though. If you can find it, listen to a talk called "The Character of Christ" by David A. Bednar. So legit. It might be an MTC exclusive though, so I don't know.




1 comment:

  1. What a great first in country letter. He is going to have the most wonderful experience. Thanks for passing along his emails. He is gonna do great.

    Jim

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