Ho Ho Ho

Just question and answer time this week.

Is the rice in Mada sticky like the rice from Korea?

Not at all, it's way loose. They have this stuff called "vary gasy" which is just malagasy rice. It's red, pretty weird but there is definitely more flavor to it, adds a nice touch to the food.

Are you cooking it on the stove?

Yeah, when we make it at home. Pot and water, yay for Africa!

Have you done the finger trick to judge the amount of water needed?

I haven't actually, I have yet to be the one to cook the rice, does the finger thing work with stove rice too?

Is your bed reasonably comfortable? Just a curiosity, not like I can send you a new one.

It's not bad, it's just straight foam. I have doubled up mattresses too so that is a little softer. Decent support, nothing to desire but it works.

You are about 6 months in or so. How are the clothes holding up? You haven't said much about laundry, are you having it done on a rock by a little old lady or is that not allowed?

My clothes are holding up pretty well. We have laundry machines in the house but the dryer is toast right now so we are hang drying all our clothes inside (which sucks, worst thing ever. They dry stiff as a board) And this morning the washing machine was acting weird so that might be toast too actually. Fun fun. No little old ladies though, we can't give them our garments and they are really hard on the clothes they wash too so I'm not sure what we are gonna do.

Mom forgot to ask which stocking was yours?

The boring black one. Just a proselyting sock.

Loving the pictures that you are posting to Photobucket. Trying to find a good one of Bubba. Haven't forgotten.

Sweet thank you! If you could find the one of me and mom in NY, we are on like an elevator or something I think, mom should know but if you could put that one on there I would appreciate it. I love seeing the pictures from home too, pictures of stuff you guys are doing is always appreciated. Shooting, lounging, whatever.

I will for sure be sending pictures of him in his Christmas pj's. We expect the same from you.

Oh for sure. I noticed I have some in there, and my comp too so we will be doing pictures of that. I also have decided I will be on ornament duty for my first Christmas once I get home so expect that.

Christmas call is as follows. We are allowed to Skype on the 24, 25, and 26 of December. Now remember I am 11 hours head so essentially I can call you on your day before Christmas Eve night, Christmas Eve morning, Christmas Eve night, Christmas morning, Christmas night, or the morning after Christmas. Now Christmas morning and Christmas Eve night would be ideal but it is going to be hard to find a good cyber open on Christmas day here so I don't know if that will work. My day after Christmas morning is your Christmas night, so that might be the best. We are going to talk to the cyber in Itaosy to see when they are open, because that is the best one. So we still don’t know when we are going to talk to him.

In other news, on Christmas our movie options are Legacy (crappy quality pioneer movie, or I think 17 Miracles. That one isn't bad but it's not exactly a Disney movie you know? I don't know how I feel about that. But anyway, Christmas is still Christmas.

Have you received any more packages?

Not yet, I guess they move pretty slow in December so we will see.

 Maybe you could form a band and sing us some carols.

Videos take a long time to load, but I am working on it. I love you, be patient with me there is a lot going on.

Have you heard anything about Christmas calls home? When can you do them. Where will you do them? How long can we talk?

I told Dad basically what I know, but you can get the time frame from him. I will do the call frol the cyber in Itaosy probably, depending on when they are open. That is the best cyber we have found but it is closed a lot. I know they won't be open on Christmas Day though. We can talk for like an hour. Or like five, I'm not sure... But yeah, I am going to try to keep it to an hour. I love you! So much.

How are your Investigators?

Victor did come to church again! Victor is becoming more diligent. So we will see. Renee is stellar, diligent and interested and reading the book of Mormon and just being awesome. Olga was supposed to be baptized Saturday but Thursday me and Elder Hansen went to do the baptism interview and she was sick, like really sick. She couldn't even sit up. So me and Elder Hansen gave her a blessing, Hansen anointed her with oil and I gave her a blessing. Pretty freaky, and probably really butchered. But, it got the point across. We stopped by the next day to see if she was doing any better and she was feeling better but she was still sick. She told us that her husband was coming back though! So that was interesting. He is really good at English, his name is Simeon. He has lived in London, Paris, Norway, Holland, Sweden, and a bunch of other places in Europe. He said that he felt really bad because his wife got sick and he wasn't there to take care of her. So according to him "God changed [his] heart" So they are going to get Vita Soratra again and we are teaching him and they can get baptized together in a couple months. Kind of a bummer she has to wait but it's better that they do it together anyway. I guess that's what you get for eating bad rice. Blessing in disguise say what?

Anywho, I love you mom! If you could find that picture of me and you in New York on the elevator of the rock that would be cool, just stick it on the photobucket so I can print it out. I like that picture.

I love you so much, and we are two weeks from Christmas. Woo Hoo!!

Love,

Elder Galbreath (I tried to type Garrett but it felt weird)