Yo Yo Yo

First things first, with the car. I was thinking about that every now and then, there is a wide range of cars here and we have a lot of free time to talk to other missionaries. Well, not a lot really but enough. Anywho, I was thinking that a littler car, still something cool, but smaller for mileage sake. Like a Honda CRX or something like that. Or even just a little civic or something, I do like two door cars, they have grown on me since mom got the mini. That isn't going to make Wyatt happy at all, so I would be all chill with a jeep like mom's, sans daisies. What’s wrong with my daisies? Cherokee or Wrangler doesn't matter too much to me, stick would be ideal though. Just something that gets at least decent gas mileage and that will last a little while, or be easy to fix. Jeep might be better for winter too actually, if I'm gonna be going to the college in it. But yeah. 

So, this week was very interesting. So, Tuesday we had the interviews for some people that were supposed to get baptized. One guy P was fine, loves the church, has an 18 year old son that already has the priesthood, and this guy has come every week for a year. Pictures should be in the bucket. However, the other people were three kids. No problem right? Wrong. They would be the only members of the family.  It’s hard to baptize kids and then have them go cold in two years because his mom decides he needs to go back to the catholic church. Cold means inactive, it's how they say it here, not slang or anything. Anywho, so Elder Moore (district leader, did the interview) and I decided we were not going to do the baptism that Saturday. One of the kids' mom is ready except she isn't married to the guy she is living with. Divorces are super hard to get here, and she was married to the guy she lived with before. He took off 13 years ago and hasn't been seen or heard from since.  Just for kicks and giggles, let's say he does show up again. They want to get a divorce so she can get remarried. They have to get the four witnesses from their original marriage, pay x amount of money, and go back to the same place they did the original marriage and do the divorce papers. Fun right? I am sure he will be baptized when he is older and be a great member. I feel bad for the kid but I don't want him to be baptized and just go inactive down the road, that's not chill. The other two kids have no members in their family, just two quiet kids that have been told they need to be baptised. And they do, but they need to do it under the right circumstances. Thank you so much for raising me in the church, it keeps things like this from happening. Also I am so stubborn I probably would have never listened to the missionaries in the first place. But anywho, Saturday rolls around. We go out there to the baptism, and P is getting ready, and his kid is gonna baptize him! Way cool, pics in the bucket. The three kids are also in the room about to get ready. Luckily they weren't ready yet. So we remind them what we talked about on Tuesday, and get that figured out. The zone leaders asked me about it the next day and when I told them what went down they said thank you so much. They said President would have crucified them. So I am glad I made the right decision according to other people too. 

While we are on the subject of Elder Galbreath being the bad guy, I did have to disappoint some members on Sunday in Mahazoarivo. They were positive that if a guy lived in another area that we could still teach him we just have to do it at the church. Then they said he could do baptism in our area and go to church in our area and everything. I told her that was against the laws of missionaries and although I was flattered that she wanted us to teach him so bad, that I would tell the missionaries in his area and they would be more than happy and do a wonderful job teaching him

Well, on the good news side of things, we teach this guy, his name is B. He is a recent convert, just received the aaronic priesthood actually. He is super cool, crazy accent. We taught him on Saturday and he told us after the lesson, he goes "I have a secret. I want to tell you but it's a secret. Ok? (ok) My church before, it was a protestant church, and they said not to eat pork. (That's a fairly common thing here actually, law of moses stuff) but one day I went to this hotely, right here. You walked past it. I went in and I said 'What's the loak?' and they pork. I said give me a plate. And I ate it. And it was gooooooood. Pork is delicious! You guys eat pork right? (yeah) It is gooooooood. But don't tell anyone." Super funny guy, great secret too. 

Little stuff, I saw a rainbow today, so we have at least another year until the second coming.  I finished the new testament a little while ago, so I am starting the old testament now. 

Also, got a little confidence boost the other day, another missionary, with no promptings, told me I was good at Malagasy and asked what group I was in. He seemed surprise when I told him we got here in August. So that's cool. Also I have to translate for my comp at all the district and zone meetings, because he is the only malagasy elder in Antsirabe. So that has been fun. 

So, the guy that carved my little face/glasses holder thing, (no idea what that is) his name is J. He is really diligent, but has a hard time leaving his church because he has lots of friends. So we taught him about prophets and the authority of God here on Earth and it was such a good lesson. I actually managed to use Malagasy well and have the spirit there at the same time. I was really happy with that but most of all just the fact that he felt the spirit so much. It was a really really good lesson. We will see if it goes anywhere. 

So, today we hiked a mountain. It was a lot of fun, we went really high and got really tired. I am kind of rushing the last part of this email because the power just died for an hour at the cyber so I am short on time. But we hiked all the way up to the top of the mountain, saw some solar panels that bp has up there (weird right?) and saw some rice, cows, a malagasy mountain frog. I'm not sure what pictures went up, (Darn only three went up, but I will take it) the upload got cut short so sorry. I'll send more next week. 

                                          The top is their goal!

                                                              MADE IT!!

                                                                   Froggy

                                           Companion photo time.

Thank you so much for the pictures! I am so happy for Sydnee, I told her that in the letter. It's weird that Rianne is married and Kyndra is almost married. 

I love you! Please forward this to mom, there is way too much story in here for me to write twice haha

Fruit loops or Apple Jacks?

Always gotta be fruit loops. Why are they called Apple Jacks if they don't taste like apples? 

When you transferred did you have trouble taking your stuff with you?  Did you have to leave anything behind or at the mission home?  Was your drum hard to pack?

Not too much problem, I didn't bring my drum. I didn't ever use it, and it just turned into a nightstand so I left it behind. I will buy a nice one before I go home to keep but that one was just a burden for two years. I have everything I really need here. 

Stripling warrior or 3 Nephites?

That one is hard. 3 Nephites would be dope, just teach the gospel for eternity and never worry about death. And they talk to angels and everything all the time. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the never dying thing. That would be kind of rough. Stripling warriors, serve under Captain Helaman (also the prophet), fight a dope battle, have that title for eternity, not dead in battle, but wounded. Also, not one of the three nephites. Hmm, the odds are pretty close but I think I would go with the 3 Nephites. That one was rough though. 

So how is the food going?

Going good, no problems. I think I am gaining weight again. Halleluia!!

Wow an hour bus to church.  Those are dedicated members.  

You misunderstood, the members live by the church, we don't, it's an hour bus ride for us. Maybe a fifteen minute walk for them haha 

How is the pest control going?  I am very proud of you working so hard to clean it up.  

Going strong, starting to notice a significant decrease in numbers. Every now and then we bait them with a plate of old food or a fruit core, wait an hour or so, then soak it with permethrin and all the roaches we can find. The other day we soaked a pumpkin core in permethrin and in the morning there were 26 dead cockroaches by the door of the kitchen. Success! Plus Elder Moore made pumpkin bread with the pumpkin and it was amazing. 

Did you remember your camera.  

Yep.

How did your bike riding go?

Went great, I am out of shape but I remembered that I actually enjoyed biking. So that is good. I fixed  up the bike so it is actually pretty nice to ride now, you just have to do a little convincing to get it to shift sometimes. Other than that no problems. 

I love you.

Elder Galbreath