About the same here in Mada, out in
the bay area, realizing that these investigators need some work. There is
supposed to be three baptisms this saturday but I don't know if it
will happen. A lot of the investigators just haven't been taught the basics.
You can't just pump these people through your routine lessons and dunk them.
People don't work like that. It is so frustrating when this lady has been
learning for a year and a half and she still doesn't know that God has a body. That should be the first thing you teach. But
anyway, I am just doing my best to teach them what they need to know. So we
might be doing some reconstruction of the program for a little while.
That is way cool about Parker and
Bryce! Then they will get home the same time and can speak portugese to each
other around the house and stuff. Way
cool stuff. Sydnee is going on a mission, that is so crazy! I wrote her a
letter, I hope she gets it before she leaves haha or her parents will have to
forward it to her.
The young womans thing sounds like a
lot of fun, I am glad you are enjoying your calling still. Just know that right
when you get really good at it you will be released so be ready.
I'm sorry you were so sick, I assume
since you said that in the past tense you are better now? I have been fighting
a cold for about a week now but I just tell my body not to be sick and then it
isn't, until I get home at night and then I crash hard.
The new bed sounds like it will be
pretty nice, and a weekend breaking it in sounds excellent. My bed is not very
supportive, but at least it isn't hard, and it makes it easier to get out of
bed in the morning when you aren't too comfortable.
1) Have you travelled to
all of your area yet?
I thought we had, but nope. Sunday
we went to church in Andranomanelatra, and the bus to get there took us an hour
outside of town. So there is still a fair amount of exploring for us to
do.
2) Anything really cool in the area? I saw
something about the top 15 sites to see while travelling and the Bilbao(?)
trees and the Stone forest(?) both of Madagascar made the list. I
remember the trees thing from when we were looking up stuff before you left but
I don't know anything about the stone forest.
Um, there is lake Chichiva (spelled
wrong probably) and Manandona mountain but neither of those are in our area.
Antsirabe is basically one big area and we all just share it, except when it
comes to work. P-day and service projects everyone is everywhere. It's super
cool really. Baobab trees are mostly in the northwest I guess, there are a lot
in Mahajanga and I guess in Toamasina too, but none here. I don't remember
where the stone forest is, but it is super cool looking from what I have seen
in pictures. I don't know that I will ever get to actually see any of them
though. The sad part about being in a cool mission is that you are still on a
mission so I don't get to do much sight-seeing. I'm sure you know what I mean.
3) Are Geckos' all over
done there or just in certain areas? I think you said that the lemurs
were only in national parks?
Regular geckos are everywhere. We
have one living in our kitchen until I eradicate the cockroaches and then he is
out of there. He eats them for now though. I just hope we don't kill him
accidentally with the permethrin. But, sometimes there are casualties in
wartime. He might be one. I'm willing. I have already dropped about 4 thou on
containers for flour and sugar. I can only buy one or two at a time though
because it is out in our area so I have to carry it around all day after I buy
it.
So how does mail and
packages work now that you are not next to the mission home?
Mail and packages still go to the
office in Tana, they just get sent up here whenever there is someone coming up
from there. There is a senior missionary couple, the Todd's, and they were down
for the weekend so they should be bringing us supplies and whatever else was
down there for us. Mail day! Yeah for couple
missionaries!
Do you have phones to
check in?
Yeah, we have phones. All the areas
have phones, we use them for whatever, all the missionary phones are free to
call too so that is nice.
Tell me about your new
house.
My new house has two other
missionaries in it, Elder Moore and Elder Baker. Elder Moore is dying in June
and Elder Baker is a newborn. Yay! They are both really cool, Baker is probably
not related to the Bakers in Washington although there is always a chance. It
is white, so that is good. We have cockroaches though, so that sucks. I am
leading the charge on eradication of those things. We clean the kitchen at
least twice a day, all the flour, sugar, corn meal, and baking soda is in
containers now, permethrin gets sprayed a lot, and they are starting to move to
other areas of the house so that is good because it means they can't get by in
just the kitchen any more. The shower handle breaks a lot, the hose part, but
it's an easy fix. The house is plumbed backwards. Hot and cold water at all the
sinks and shower are switched backwards. So that has been interesting to get
used too.
Tell me about a new
investigator or less active you have met.
Um, let's see. We teach this one
guy, he looks exactly like a black version of a young Christopher Walken. I
don't have any problems though with finding people. Serious investigators are
hard to come by through tracting though, so I am pumping the members for
referrals. It's been interesting taking over an area where the last six months
of missionaries have been a malagasy, a new kid trained by a malagasy, and then
said new kid and his malagasy trainee. I told Wyatt a lot about it but I am
remaining positive in your emails haha so I won't go too into it.
Is this a city or more
rural than where you were.
Oh boy it is rural. There is so much
ambany vohitra-ness here. That just means country side type thing. We walk an
average of fifteen to twenty minutes between times. Very open here.
Not too many interesting stories
really. Just teaching people the good old gospel, as brought to you by Jesus
Christ himself.
You left my truck at Lad and people
recognized it? They must have been irrigators people wondering why I was at
Lad. I didn't know anyone at Lad haha
I don't know what else is going on
really, not much new. Still cleaning hard and often to get rid of roaches. No
big fat hissing roaches though, just boring cockroaches, the same as the ones
in America as far as I can tell.
Well mom, I went to our other
branch, we work two here, and it was an experience. It was an hour outside of
town, on a crowded bus. Then when we got there all the people are like so happy
to see us and welcomed us in and asked who I was and told me I was good at
Malagasy and everything. Then when sacrament meeting was about to start I went
to sit down and there were no more seats. So I sat outside the door, in the
hallway, with about 20 other people that came a little late. It was pretty
cool. No piano for hymns, just straight a cappella african music. It was pretty
cool. One of the deacons didn't have shoes, I was like man, I am definitely in
Madagascar. It was pretty cool really. There is supposed to be three people
baptized this coming Saturday but due to the same concerns I voiced earlier I
don't know how they will do on the interview. So there might not be. We will
see though, I told Elder Moore not to pass them if he thinks they aren't ready.
I will not baptize someone that isn't ready. Bad things happen when people do
that. So they might have to wait a little bit.
I think that's all I got for this
week. I love you! Sorry no pictures, I forgot my camera at home today. I
love you so much, I hope the rest of the month goes well for you!
Well, I think that's all. Oh, except
I started compiling a list of all the smily and winky faces, ;) :) in the
bible. So that's fun.
Love you
Elder
Galbreath
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