So the week kind of started of a little slow. On Monday I was kind of losing my voice, I thought it was from singing too much with our investigators. So I just thought that I wouldn't sing with anyone Monday night. Well we didn't and then Tuesday morning came and I completely could not talk. It was super weird and really frustrating! Since Elder Austin would have a big load on his shoulders speaking for the both of us with being here for just three weeks, we decided to stay home. We figured it would have been too tough for him to understand the Malagasies and my sign language the whole day.
Wednesday was a lot better. It was a little hard to talk but I didn't want to stay inside a whole other day. So we started off teaching English and it tuns out that I learn just as lurch Malagasy as they lean English. I was acting a little silly in class and they said a word that I had never heard before. I asked them to explain it and it best translates into "goober" haha! Its my new favorite word. Later in the day I had to depend on Elder Austin to take over some of the lessons because my voice was going again. I'm very lucky to have to best future Malagasy speaker in the mission. He even got complimented by the other elders in district meeting when he said the opening prayer.
On Thursday we headed of to district meeting and it was just a good meeting, nothing special. But after Elder Austin and I went to this new fast food restaurant. There is only one other fast food place that I know of and it is owned by Chinese people and it is really expensive and not that filling. So this new place was supposed to be a lot better. You could get a good sized burger with fries and a drink for 7000 AR which is like $3.50. I'll tell you what, I'm going back there today! It was super good, of course it didn't compare to burger king but it was definitely better than the Chinese place. It is just the place to fatten me up before I go home.
Nothing special Friday besides Elder Smiths (my comp Toliara) birthday! Happy birthday!!! The big 2 0.
On Saturday we went with the other two elders in the house and played soccer with their ward against another ward in Tana. It was super fun. I did not do the best because I didn't wear my cleats and it was like this dirt/grass field and it was really bumpy. I'm just making excuses, I'm actually just horrible at every sport now. I'm too weak to do anything haha!
On Sunday, for a couple Sundays now, we have been getting a solid ten investigators to church. It is so cool when you have devoted people. You can definitely tell if they are converted or not. We have been taking a new stat, and it is seeing how many recent converts are still active. We started from January. And it was super weird this week because last week we had almost everyone there but this week we had about half. The retention rate here in Mada is about 74%. Our goal is to get it up to 85% by the end of the year. If we just baptize correctly instead of too fast, that goal should be easily met by the end of the year.
Later that day we went to these investigators that have been taught twice, a husband and his wife. They came to church so I was already surprised about that because most people don't do what we say until the forth or fifth visit when they actually know that we keep coming to their house. We went by to teach them on Saturday because that was the scheduled time but the husband Claude was working so we taught the wife Lorette anyway. We taught about the Book of Mormon and since they already came to church I wanted to see how diligent they were so we gave them the whole introduction to the Book Of Mormon to read before our next time which was the next day right after church. So we came back the next day and they actually read it!! The husband too! We asked him what he liked about it and we went paragraph by paragraph summarizing it. Without even looking at it! He was so specific as to the day of when Moroni gave the plates to Joseph Smith. I was so super surprised and extremely happy!!! He is going to be an awesome investigator! Later that night we went over to this less actives member house. The husband stayed active long enough to get the Melchizedek priesthood but then the whole family went inactive. The three kids went to Toliara for a year and have just gotten back, so they all knew the dialect down there. So as you can imagine I was excited beyond belief. I was trying to remember all the words again and it was super hard to change back. It was really fun to talk to them but they don't seem that serious. I just asked them why they stopped coming to church and they simply said that they were lazy. We'll see if that is the only problem. It just makes me sad that people know the truth and then turn away from it. I don't think that they understand that this is concerning their salvation. I think that word is thrown out too casually. It means a lot more than just a place after we die. It is eternity of a state of happiness or not. Hopefully I can get that across better when I teach now.
Hopefully you all can do some pondering and think of what salvation is. Think of what you are doing and what you are lacking to receive the happiness that you want. I know that families are forever.
Love,
Bradford
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