Hello everyone!!! This week was amazing. Tena mahafinaritra! (I
just wanted to be cool like everyone else and speak a language that none
of you will understand.) This past week we have been throwing out
baptismal dates left and right. We decided that we weren't following
Preach My Gospel fully and so now we have started to give people a bap
date in the first or second lesson. It is amazing how the spirit works
on people when you are bold and try to bring them closer to Christ.
So I'm basically going to talk about the last two
days of the week. On Saturday, we started our fast and to be adventurous
me and Smith decided to try something new for our last meal. We ordered
this Misao special. And the regular misao is just noodles with meat and
carrots and other vegetables. But the Special is all of that plus
shrimp a special sauce, an egg on top and to just make it the best thing
ever, OCTOPUS! Unlike the octopus Mom and Dad had on their mission,
this was cooked. And actually not that bad. it kind of tasted like
shrimp but that might have been from being cooked with it. Other than
that it wasn't that chewy and kind of tasteless. It was kind of weird
when you eat a tentacle with the suckers on it. Spiders are still
creepier. Altogether it was delicious.
On Sunday we had a pretty good testimony meeting. So
I have talked about this person before. He is someone who is really
passionate about the gospel sometimes. He got baptized on the 26th of June [does he mean May?] and when he came out of the water he said "I am resurrected". It
was pretty funny but kind of killed the mood because his wife was after
him. And then when he bore his testimony he ended by saying "amen, amen,
amen forever!" After he had received the Holy Ghost we have seen him
calm down a lot. I mean a lot! It has been like a whole different person. It
seriously amazes me every time I talk with him. But on Sunday the Holy
Ghost just got him too energized and he literally started to pound the
pulpit with his Book of Mormon at the end of his testimony. We're still
working with him :)
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| 110 year old Bible |
After the meeting we taught a investigator who is
getting baptized this Saturday. She told us about when she prayed and
asked God when people were going to come to her house and bring the
gospel. That was ten years ago. And she took us missionaries as her
answer to prayer. It was so cool to see her faith in God. She also
showed us a Bible that came from her Grandpa. He received it from the
first missionaries that came to Madagascar. She said that it was 110
years old. I definitely believed her especially when dust spurted out
when we closed it. It was exactly like Harry Potter style. Then we went
to a members house and they offered us food. We had noodles with shrimp
and then rice with shrimp and tomatoes. It was quite filling. Halfway
through we got a text from some investigators that they needed to move
the time from 5 to 2 o' clock. So right after eating with our members we
went over to our investigators who were also going to feed us. There we
had rice with chicken, steak and pasta. And for dessert we had pineapple
and flan. It was so delicious! This has been the first time where I
have wanted to eat so super bad but couldn't fit any more in! I was so
frustrated that I couldn't eat more. As the famous Aaron Lloyd would say
I was "Stupid full!" So that was super nice from them especially because
they are only investigators.
After that we went over to these new people that we
have only set up a time with. It is this couple that has been married
for so long and have had five kids. The mom has gone to church all her
life but the husband hasn't been to church since he was a little kid. We
taught a simple First lesson and at the end I committed them to be
baptized when they come to know that this church is true. The mom
hesitated but they both accepted. After the dad said that he believes in
the Apostasy and that he is going to follow us and that he trusts us.
It was so cool! I love it when people say stuff like that.
Then we went to a less active time. They were
baptized in Tana in 1984. The father has already received the Melchizedek priesthood but after that moved to Toliara where there was
no church. So obviously the father and one daughter went less active
kind of by force. Now in September the missionaries started to teach
them again to try to bring them back to church. It was hard because he
used the excuse of him being in the military as why he doesn't have time
for church. The daughter has come back to church and has no problem,
just the father was a little hesitant. But when Pres. Donnelly came
here, that was the first Sunday in 20 years that this father has come to
church. It was a miracle to say the least! A huge step for this man.
But sadly that was the only Sunday he came. Then today we got to their
house. I knocked on their gate and yelled "Oh dee-oh!" (Which is normal
by the way, you normally don't knock) I looked inside and saw that he
had a cigarette in his mouth, and suddenly my heart sank. Turns out that
there is a conflict between him and his daughter and he also had
already drunken some beer too. I felt so sad for them and started to
tear up a little bit just trying to plead with them to just drop
whatever got in-between them. We can't judge others. I think Elder
Holland's talk mixed with Elder Uchtdorf's talk is basically what I was
thinking of and trying to express to them. At the end I just told them
to pray together as much as possible. It ended well because after the
lesson they offered us mofo balls (kind of like scones) and soda.
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| Malagasy Book of Mormon - 1985ish |
The next time we taught these investigators about
the work and responsibilities of the prophet and the apostles. And at
the end of that time they fed us this delicious bread/cake. We were
really fed well that day. It was Mother's Day on Sunday for the French
and whoever has French influence (Madagascar). But apparently it ended
up also being feed a missionary day!! Woohoo! I love it when that
happens!
I love this church and the miracles that happen
every single day. Sometimes more than you can handle or would ever
believe COULD happen in one day. With God, anything is possible. Believe
it.
Love,
Elder Walker
PS: I hope this email made up for the last short email.
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| The new hymn books |
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| We cooked a chicken from a member. |
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