Waterfalls - Feb. 6, 2012

This week was pretty adventurous! On Tuesday Elder Landon must have eaten something bad because he was throwing up all day and we couldn't go out and work. I got a lot of cleaning done in the house :)

On Wednesday, one of the missionaries was sick so different missionaries were staying with him at the hospital while the other went with a mini missionary to work. So Elder Landon stayed at the hospital for the day while I worked. When I went to pick him up, me and Elder George with his companion took a taxi. It was pouring rain and parts of the streets were flooded to about three quarters of the tire of the car. I tried to get a picture of it but it was already too dark to tell. But every time the taxi slowed down or stopped, rain would pour through this little crack in the car and get me wet. My right arm was soaked by the time we got to the hospital.


On Thursday, Elder Landon was feeling better and we went to Ankazobe again. We usually go on Saturday and Sunday but we both wanted to be there for the baptism. While up there we taught a lot of people, contacted a lot on the street and tried to explain how to get to the church on Sunday. While going back to the hotel, Elder Landon and I heard this waterfall! So of course we checked it out and took some pictures by it. It was pretty cool.



This doesn't make Mom nervous at all...

Please tell me I didn't see this.

On Friday we got up read our scriptures and went to eat at a place called a "hotely" for breakfast. It is a more casual resturaunt kind of thingy. I had a delicious omelette with fries. After we bought bus tickets and waited for two hours for it to fill up for us to get going, I ended up sitting next to a father with his sleeping 1 or 2 year old sitting on his lap. We are about 45 min. from our house and suddenly the baby just throws up all over my leg!!! So I automatically make weird sounds to get the father's attention and then he sees it and is yelling at the people in front to pass his bag back to clean it up. And as that is happening, she throws up again!!! Luckily, most of it just got on herself but still way gross, it had some distance. I didn't count the seconds but it seemed like I had this throw up on my leg for about abajillion minutes! It was already quite warm sitting in the bus and the throw up didn't make it any cooler. Finally we get the bag, he cleans it up, my pants are still wet and there is an acquired smell for the rest of the ride. The father was so nice, he kept saying over and over "this is so embarassing, this is so embarassing." Good thing was that I didn't even feel queasy or anything, I think I'm ready to be a father. We'll see when it gets on my skin or even worse... my face. I don't know about that.

On Saturday we had the baptism planned. Everything was ready to go. I was determined to get this 13 year old boy baptized! We go to the church to see if someone started to fill up the font, so we just asked the guardian of the church and he said that someone came early that morning. So we thought that it would be good to go. We get to the church at 3, and what do we see in the font, a whole whomping 4 inches of water! Someone did come but they forgot to close the drain so it was just going straight out!

We spent the next hour filling up buckets and cups to fill the font.

But we finally got it up enough and got the baptism done. I'd like to think that he is going to be an awesome missionary someday and thats why it was so hard to get him baptized. We can only hope.

Eric and Elder Walker

On Sunday, we went to church, Eric got the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the classes were all good. After church we visited an investigator who has been taught everything has come to church a ton and probably knows more than some members about the gospel now, but he hasn't come to church the past couple weeks. For some reason he is not ready to be baptized. I asked him why and he said that he was scared because members have said that it was hard to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that he is scared to go inactive after 5 months or something. I asked him why someone would go inactive. I told him that it's becuase they don't have a true testimony. So I asked him how do you get a testimony. I showed him the second to last paragraph in the Book of Mormon introduction. It says we need to read, ponder and pray about the BoM. And if we do with sincere prayer, we will receive an answer. So right then I asked him if he was willing to offer a kneeling prayer and ask Heavenly Father if the BoM was true of not. So he did and I could not believe the presence of the Spirit that was there. It was so strong I started to tear up a little. After he was done we just waited there a little and felt the Spirit. Now that I looked back I wish I waited just a little longer than I did. But after I asked him what he felt and he said that he felt that the BoM is true. That this church is true and that the way of baptism is true, by the priesthood. He said that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and he receives revelation for us. That Joseph Smith saw God and his son Jesus Christ. I asked him if he was ready to be baptized on 18th of February and he said "not yet". Ugh! I know that he doesn't understand something completely that is holding him back, I just have no idea what that is. Let's hope on Friday when we get back that he has made some progress. So that was my week here in Madagascar.

1. Did you get our small envelope package yet? What about our birthday box? I have not gotten either.
2. Did you get your baptisms this week finally? Are you getting some good new investigators? Yes, and we have five planned for the 18th of Feb.
3. Did you say you were in a ward right now? How big? There are about 115 people on average to church every week. I've seen it as low as 82 and high as 130
4. I have our Missionary Moms lunch this week. Any special messages for the moms of your friends? Just that I miss hangin out with them. :)

I love you all I hope you all have an awesome February month. Especially the 20th... :) [Brad's birthday!]

Love,
Elder Walker

Malagasy construction. I heard those are really strong wood poles.



Things to keep a roof down; bricks, tire, cement post, and a canoe.



My bound "Preach My Gospel"

[This is how he ended this week's email to his sister, Dani. Such a cute brother!]

I love you so much! I love you so much! I love you so much! (I typed every one of those sentences, no copy and paste involved, that's how much I care about you.

Love,
Your cooler, awesomer, older, better, immensely blessed to have you as a little sister, brother