Another week another trial

Judges is a fun book. Samson had a lot of potential for sure, and he squandered it on women and revenge. Nice guy. I think it is interesting the parallels you see between Samson and Samuel. Nazarines, vow to God, born of barren mothers. Samuel actually fulfilled his calling though and started destroying the bad guys (Canaanites I think, but that could be wrong). He actually listened to the Lord and he was blessed. Funny how that works. 

I am just starting to get to know the people in my area right now, and there is a lot of work to do as far as the area goes. The Area Book here hasn't been updated in almost 5 months, so we have no idea who has been taught what outside of what my companion remembers. The leadership in the branch are good people.  We are teaching a lot of women and young children, which is what we have been told to not do. So we are going to be focusing more on father led families and teaching potential leaders and priesthood holders. Not that I have anything against women, but unless you have both men and women the church is not going to run smoothly. Then our house is filthy, and we were told that pointedly when the couples came down for house inspections. So I cleaned the fridge and started on the stove this morning, but it is going to be an ongoing process. Then the bikes. Oh the bikes. The elder before me did not take care of his bike, and left it in pretty poor condition. Unfortunately I did not have time to fix it until Saturday. Well the bike decided it couldn't wait that long and it broke down completely on Friday night. Literally broke out from underneath me. I didn't crash, but I was not going to be going anywhere soon. So I rode an extra bike we have and it broke too, last night. So they are both at the repair shop getting made into a Frankenstein bike right now. Hopefully it will work for me the rest of my time here. 

Now Elder R and I are having to tract and contact and fill up the schedule here. Fun fun fun. I seriously started to regret coming back out on a mission. Then we got out and started teaching some people, and nothing amazing happened but it reminded me why I am here. I am not here to be comfortable, or to have fun and see the ocean, or to learn a sweet language I will never use again. I am here to do the work of the Lord and to teach the gospel. I have yet to find a story of a prophet in the scriptures who had an easy and fun life, and I don't imagine that I will. That's not why we are here. We are here to be refined in the fire and hardened like steel. We are here to be tested and prove ourselves. Nobody is going to do that swimming in the ocean and eating pizza, although everybody wishes they could. Anyway, that's my rant for the week. 

I did teach one new guy this week who was really interested. He and his wife were there for the lesson and they paid attention the whole time, asked a lot of questions and seemed really interested. They didn't come to church, but baby steps first. I am pretty excited for them, we all felt the spirit pretty strong in that lesson. Then we taught another new guy, and he said he prayed in a bunch of different churches. Then while we were teaching he told us how everything we were saying (living prophet, Jesus and God are two people, apostasy and restoration) were things that he had thought were true from what he read in the bible but he hadn't found a church that taught those things. It was super cool. 

Side note, I am totally going to come back to Madagascar at some point and swim in the ocean. 

Well for lunch today we are going to eat pizza and drink coconuts on the beach. Should be pretty epic. 

Anyway, I love you a ton. I hope you don't cry too much at Wyatt's graduation. 

Just remembered. We were teaching a lesson and a little girl, like maybe a year old, was standing right outside the door. She started crying, and I looked and she had peed herself. No diapers here, they don't have that kind of money. So it just soaked her shorts and made a puddle on the floor. The mom hears her crying and picks her up and holds her on her lap. yuck

Then in another lesson a little girl peed like in the hallway, and then slipped in it while she was crawling and it got all soaked up in her shirt and everything. 

Fun stuff from a third world country! I guess that is why they don't ever have carpet here. 

Am-pitiavana,

Elder Galbreath

1) How are you and your companion getting along?
We get along great, he is super cool and helps me out with the language actually. Most Malagasy people just let you suck if it is understandable.
2) Did your Malagasy come back to you yet?
It's improving every day. I am trying to tell more stories and explain things in different ways to get the sentence structure and active/passive/circumstantial thing down again. Uphill all the way but I have long legs so I am making headway.
3) I am excited that you are on the coast, loved your pictures of the sunrise.  Is fish a basic staple of your daily meals?
I am actually really surprised at how little fish we eat here. I have had it a couple times but that is it really. Mostly just the same old same old. Everyone makes their rice really dry here, I don't know why. In Tana and Antsirabe it was super wet and awesome but here it is almost always dry and clumpy.
4) Do you have any requests from home?  I realize that it hasn’t been that long but if you need something don’t hesitate to ask.
Nothing yet really, I will keep you posted though. Due to struggles getting my mission bank card though I got about 50 bucks out of my personal fund for living expenses and when it is all worked out I will pay myself back and buy souvenirs haha
5) I would like to hear a story about your new area.

Hmm. I told Mom about all my struggles this week. There was this crazy lady yesterday though. We were riding through our area on our way to another time and this lady was like rubbing her hands together like she was wiping off bread crumbs or something and muttering something in french, and then when we rode past her she started chasing us! She was fast too, and my bike was breaking down of course so I almost didn't get away. I don't why she was chasing us but I was not about to find out. It was weird. 

We were teaching this family, and they have a ten year old daughter who is pretty bright. We had just finished the plan of salvation and had talked about how when we are resurrected our bodies will be perfect. She must not have been paying attention though because when I asked what our bodies will be like she said "Divided in two!" hahaha which in that context would mean cut in half but we explain that when we die our bodies and spirits are divided and the body goes to the grave and our spirit goes to the spirit world. So I think that is what she thought we asked. Pretty good stuff. 

Love you,

Elder Galbreath