Marriage, baptism, conference - May 7, 2012

This week was pretty good. No it was actually way great!
So on Tuesday I interviewed this couple to be baptized this past Saturday and the Father has been ready for the longest time but we held off until the wife was ready too. SO the interview went well with the Le Grand (the father) but when I interviewed Monique (the mother) at the end she said that she wasn't going to be baptized, just her husband. ?!?!?!? ???? UH?! The weeks before this, she said that she was completely ready to be baptized. I heard her say that this church is true and the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. So you can imagine my surprisement when she said that she wasn't going to be baptized. I was pretty bummed.

On Thursday I interviewed this young woman to be baptized this last Saturday too. She passed with flying colors. She was taught with Roney and Slater (his first companion here in Toliara) and she always shut down when we brought up baptism, and wasn't really progressing. So when the area got combined with me and Fryer, she got cut out of the schedule. But then she started to come to church again and so we went back to teach her. The first time back in a month or so, I just decided to give her a baptismal date and she accepted it. It was amazing. Then later that day we went to visit a recent convert but she was out of town so we decided to teach her son. He has also been taught for a really long time. He has come a long way from where he was when he first was taught. But he has come to the point where the next step is baptism. So I simply asked him what was keeping him from baptism and he was still wondering if he was allowed to be baptized more than once. I knew that we have already taught this before but I guess it wasn't clear. So I showed the scripture in Ephesians 4:5 "One Lord, one faith, one baptism. I told him that there is one lord who is Jesus Christ, but there are many "anti-christs". There is one true church but there are many false churches on the earth. And there is one baptism that is true and valid, but there exist many different modes of baptism. At that point we decided to give him another baptismal date for the 19th of May. To our surprise he said that that was too far away and said he wanted to be baptized this Saturday. Well me or Smith couldn't find anything wrong with that so right then I interviewed him and got him ready for baptism. Also, Smith and I are asking every member and investigator for vezo words (the dialect here) so that we can make a dictionary for the future missionaries. MAN, there are a lot of weird different words! We have almost 200 words. It's fun to learn a different language, and then learn another.

Le Grand and Monique's wedding

On Friday the people I talked about earlier (the husband getting baptized but not the wife) got married!!! Getting people married here is so frustrating! They require all this paperwork but their filing and record system is not really up to date or organized. Anyway, they got married, it was awesome and it went well. The marriage in-charge person talks for about one minute and then signing papers takes about two minutes and that is the wedding. They didn't even kiss! Malagasys don't show affection that often. A random photographer walked in and started to take pictures. After he tried to get them to buy some but then I told them not to because I took some with my camera and they can have those for free. :)

Elder Smith, their three baptisms, Brad

Saturday was the baptism. I baptized all three and it all went well. I was a little worried after because I forgot to bring a towel to dry off after so I just had to use the part of my clothes that weren't already wet. haha!

Sunday we had conference and because I prayed really hard the power stayed on the whole time we were at church. It went really really really well! I love the choir too. I love the song "Come thou fount of every blessing". It reminds me of when I sang it in high school. My brain was pretty tired after trying to understand the conference talks. But I understood a lot more than last time. It is kinda cool to see how much I've progressed since then. Then after we went over to a member's house to teach a referral but they weren't there. So we just talked about the gospel and just had a good time. After she gave us a little rice because she is practically the nicest person alive. She runs an epicerie (little store) and always gives us free juice and bread when we stop by to teach other people. But of course we sneak in the money for it when shes not looking.
Well the mission here is going great! I love it! I hope all of you are studying the scriptures and goin to church every week. Remember, the church helps us live the gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be converted to the gospel and not just to the church.
Love,
Elder Walker

What do you usually eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Breakfast: at least two oranges if not three, and cereal if I have milk. Lunch: Riz cantonnais with pineapple juice. Dinner: Riz cantonnais again, or Sedaap with cheese. Which is kinda like Top Ramen but a lot better. Or rice at a members house.
How often do you get invited to someone's house to eat? Not often because people are extra poor here. But sometimes we get a nice surprise from someone and get served right after we are done teaching.
Tell me something funny that happened this week? So as some of you know, missionaries always pray before they go out to work. I was praying in English and I kept messing up, especially at the end. I must have repeated myself three times before I could say it right. Elder Smith was laughing pretty hard. No more English for me.
What was the best thing that happened this week? Gino wanting to be baptized this last Saturday.
So far, what do you like best about your companion? He is way organized and clean. And he can cook really delicious bread/cake.
Will you send a picture of you and your companion? Maybe... if you love me lots.
Do you meet for the full three hours of church or only 2? Just two. Sacrament and then split into Sunday school and Primary.

Do you get an English edition of the Ensign, especially the conference issue? Yes, but it sometimes takes long. Last conference, none of the missionaries got a conference issue. No one knows why...