Elder DrumBum in Madagascar: Hi!!

The missionaries did stop by the house.
Gave them referrals ve ianao? (ianao means you and ve just means it is a question)
They said they realized that for all the talking we do on Sundays they had never stopped by the house.

I feel that, and it is nice to visit members.
I showed them some of your pictures of Mada. Wyatt said I should not bother them with talking about you all the time. But what can I say you are my excitement right now.
I show members pictures of you guys too, it's all good.
I sent them off with some cookies.

Good lady. This part is for everyone, feed missionaries! They are poor. And they will love you if you feed them.
(Mom)Tell me about your new companion. I hope he knows how lucky he is to be with you.

I'm sure he does. I told Dad basically everything I know, I'll give you the highlights. He speaks five languages, he thinks Batman is better than Captain America (wrong), is pretty tall but not as tall as me, pretty muscular, very chill guy. I think he is supposed to chill me out. Also he wears crazy socks all the time. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

(Dad) tell us a little bit about your new companion. I didn't realize that they transferred Elders between La Reunion and the mainland. I thought that if you went there it was for your whole mission.

I didn't know that either, I think it would be way cool to train in Malagasy one of the french elders from the MTC at the same time as us. They were both really cool. Nuts. He is a couple inches shorter than me, much much more muscular than me (difficult I know) and has the thickest fastest growing beard I have ever seen. It rivals the beard grown in a day by our old across the street neighbors. Pretty intense. Also, for the first few days in country he was having a rough time remembering Malagasy, so I taught a ton of lessons those four days. Like all of them. And on tuesday and wednesday I had a mini, Mitia, so I taught most if not all of the lessons for those two days. It has been an interesting week for sure. Also Elder Seifert was born in China, and has lived in more countries than he has states. His family is in DC right now. Pretty intense. The only problem we have had so far is that he is real sure Batman is infinitely better than Captain America. He is wrong, but whatever.
We heard through the blogvine that you guys are getting more money each month. Does that mean you can still afford eggs now?

I never gave up my egg breakfasts haha cereal does not cut it here but the allotment did go up to 450,000 a month. Much easier to get by on that for sure.
How are you doing with the language. Are you getting more comfortable?

I am getting a lot more comfortable with it, by force even haha I had a mini for two days so I did all conversation in Malagasy and taught most of the lessons, then my comp was still thinking in creole so I taught most of the lessons for the rest of the week too. Much more comfortable, Elder McLaughlin made me talk to taxi drivers and stuff a lot the last week he was here too, he was worried I would get a mini for a long time or a malagasy companion and not be able to speak to them.
I was surprised to hear you are not the tallest missionary in Mada. Apparently Walkers new companion in 6'5". Maybe you will get there before you leave. I guess that wasn't a question.

Walker's new companion is at least 6'5", probably 6'6". He is a bit taller than me haha. He is leaving in about six or seven months I think though. So maybe once he leaves. Maybe not though. I went on splits with him once, in Mahamasina.
No photo from Austin's mom. I hope you can download some this week. Again not a question, boy I am not good at his question part am I.

Gotcha, lemurs and dying scots and a video for Wyatt.

Any new investigators? How are your current ones doing?

Um, we have a kid we started teaching last Sunday I think named Mahefa. He is way cool, living with, related to and working for an RM member. He is way cool, really tries to understand what we teach, asks questions, is a young man, listens intently, and comes to church. He is almost ideal. Current investigators are great, we have two with baptism dates of Feb 27th that I started teaching with Elder McLaughlin so hopefully I will be here to see them get baptized! If not though that's ok too. I am developing a genuine love for the people here, and it's starting to freak me out. I have no desire to leave my area. At all. I could stay in Itaosy a lot longer than this.

Any new wild animal attacks?

I got bit by a flea, and I squished a spider, and I caught a gecko that was sneaking around in our house, threw him off the balcony, that sucker flew far.

Any scripture or story really speak to you this week?

None that I can think of, I have been reading in Jesus the Christ and the Teachings of Joseph Smith. Those are way cool, I suggest them both to people preparing for a mission. Actually just read everything.

The temperatures were cold!! I attached a picture of the thermometer in my truck as I pulled into the range on Saturday morning.
Wow, that is pretty dang cold. I don't really think I could handle that after this. It gets to sweater weather at about 65 or 70 around here. Pretty hot.
Puppies are cute, that is why people have big dogs that are annoying and not cute!!

I assume you are alluding to Shad, who is still cute Shad disappeared overnight. He sounds like he was a stinker this week though. Party animal.

Do they wear anything special like grass skirts or anything? (Dirt doesn't count)
If dirt doesn't count then no.
How's the cockroach situation going down there? Best roaches in the world apparently.
Not in Tana, if you stay clean in the house then you don't have too many issues. Like any at all, and they are easy to kill. No hissing cockroaches yet though, I guess those are hard to come by in civilization.
What's your favorite thing about the people down there?

Once you know these people, they are super nice. Like way nice, welcoming, always wanting to feed you, they would literally give you the last rice and ravitoto they had if you asked them to. And they are so simple, and humble. I love that. No superiority issues with most of the people.

Alright, I just remembered about church this Sunday, so that's the story you get haha. So, our room in the church that investigator class is in has a broken handle, so there is no handle on one side and a handle that does nothing on the other. The bolt thingy is still in there though. So the door flaps around and bangs on the door frame if no one puts a chair or something in front of it. Well Sunday one of our first time to church investigators gets frustrated with the noise of the door and pushes it shut all the way. So we are stuck in that room on the third floor of the church with no other way out. So for twenty minutes after class people on both sides of the door are trying to get it open. We finally get it open, and everyone gets to class. So priesthood starts, we do some opening announcements, and then split to classes.

So let’s see, what happened this week. I got a mini, and worked with a Malagasy for two days. Taught English class by myself and basically the rest of our lessons for the rest of the week. Sunday Elder Seifert was mostly caught up and started helping a lot more. Um, I don't really know much else interesting that happened this week, not much interesting that's for sure. We are teaching a family right now that is way cool, and they are interested but none of them will come to church. The big problem she kept bringing up is that there has never been a Malagasy prophet. Elder McLaughlin and I always told her that it was for whatever reason and that God chose the prophets, not people. But every other church here has leaders here, even the big ones like the Lutheran church. Catholics don't have a second Pope but they don't question that for whatever reason. Elder Seifert just explained to them last time that the church has only been in Mada for less than 25 years, so there was no one here that understood all the workings of the church, and that knew enough about the church to lead it. She seemed to take that one so we will see if she asks again.

Oh! Just remembered a good story. So Elder Seifert and I had a gap, so we did a little tracting. We ran into this guy who was really excited to talk to us. We soon figured out that that was because he wanted to try and prove us wrong with the same scriptures everyone uses. We casually and respectfully taught him with doctrine and then he got off on the whole "Sabbath is on Saturday" thing. He had Old Testament scriptures and New Testament scriptures and a ton of stuff from his pastor. We seriously explained to him the reasoning behind Sabbath on Sunday a hundred times and he wasn't listening to that either.

Alright mom, I love you! Be good, give everyone a hug for me.

love you dad! And those puppies are adorable.

Love Elder Galbreath