Thanksgiving - Nov. 26, 2012

This week was really good! Well the week went pretty normal up until Thursday. We had some good times with people. I just love going out and teaching people. Even if they sometimes don't listen haha!

Well last Sunday Me and Brother O'Day cooked up an ingenious plan! We agreed on doing a dinner with him and Pres. Georges (branch president) family. We would just chip in a little to pay for the bunch of American style food. O'Day said that they were super excited to celebrate an American holiday. Last year when we bought a turkey, killed it, gutted it and badly cooked it, with mash potatoes and corn. So yes I was excited for this year. Brother O'Day did most of the cooking because 1. he had time and 2. he is apparently way good at cooking! I list off what we had.

1. A chicken( because the turkeys are all small and there is more meat on a chicken)
2. LOTS of mash potatoes (one of the daughters  blended them up so they were kind of creamy haha) 
3. green bean casserole
4. plenty of delicious rolls
5. very splendid gravy that I mostly made :)
6. pretty dang good stuffing
7. We had three pumpkin pies 
8. And a delicious delicious cheesecake!

The  meal was almost too much to bear, but the three Americans put down a lot.  I was surprised how much I couldn't eat. I guess my stomach is just used to eating rice haha! It was very good to say the least. I'm not that persnickety so it ended up being a great Thanksgiving! (Elder Hansen has an English dictionary, I've flipped through it a couple times to make sure I can sound somewhat smart when I get back) And all  that we ate was stuff bought here and made from scratch. So I will safely say that this Thanksgiving was a lot better than last year. 

Wow! What a spread!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brad with his mouth full of good food!

Saturday  was the next big day.  At eight o clock in the morning we headed to the church to meet with the young men of the branch. Then we walked to a place  in our area called ambodiafontsy. As we walked we invited all the guys that wanted to come with us to play a big game of soccer! The missionaries in Itaosy came with us so we split up the four missionaries and had a seven on seven game. We actually had two sets of soccer going. The young men with other little kids and then the missionaries with the leaders and other older boys. We had a good clean game, no one fighting or getting hurt. All in all my team won 5-2! And I had assists on two of those goals. You can just go ahead and call me the John Stockton of soccer. It was a fun morning. 

We got back to the house showered got ready and went straight to the church to help set up the baptism! woohoo! We were supposed to have three but one of them didn't show up. The two people that got baptized were one child of record and then his older sister that is nine years old. Both of them are way super smart and way funny too. It is just a hoot every time we go over there. I baptized the none year old girl Manitra (which means sweet smelling) and then Elder Austin baptized the eight year old boy Sarobidy (which means precious or valuable). I know they are going to be in the Celestial kingdom someday. 

Manitra on the right of me, Sarobidy on the front left of me

 After the baptism we straight up started a branch activity. We taught about the plan of salvation and family and temples. I really likes how it all panned out. It is fun to teach members sometimes. All times actually. I just love the members here haha! After the refreshments were dried somethings, I don't even  know what they are called, little cookies and soda. While everyone was eating I snagged a pictures with everyone. It is really starting to hit me that I might not get the chance to return here so I need as many memories as I can get while serving here. It was a very fun time. 

The branch activity

Later that night we taught a recent convert, Hery. He was baptized a  couple weeks after I got here. He had a rough spot with having no work and some other stuff but  now he has a job, is diligent in coming to church every week and is just has happy as ever!!! They have five kids and they all are going to become the best people in the whole world. I love them so much! 

On Sunday we had the most turn out than I have ever been here. Not a lot of investigators per say but just a lot of members coming back. 134 was the total count. It felt really good. Hopefully we can keep it up. One of the  times that we taught was the chef and his wife. It was super weird because this was the first time that we met him. He walks in and immediately says "Hi elders". I was a little put off but thought that he must just be an old investigator. Anyway, he goes on and he actually is a member!!! And he was baptized in 1992!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is a year after the church had missionaries here!!!!!!! I was so amazed you cannot even imagine. He is only forty or so, not even that old. He must have been baptized when he was like twenty. So that was the biggest surprise of the last five months. Pretty good. 

That is basically all the news for the week. No I did not get transferred so I am staying here until at least January 9. That is when the next transfers are. They are starting the six week transfers now. So we should start to try to figure out the whole Skype thing now for Christmas. And yes I did get the padded envelope thing. Thanks for the decorations, they are really nice.  Elder Galbreath is just a fanatic about Christmas so he will make sure all of us have Christmas spirit. Christmas will be a fun one. Can't wait. Janet, you  better fill i my spot well ok?! Just try to be so goofy and weird that it is almost over the top.  But just almost.

I love you all so much you have no idea!!!!!!! I would say more thanks but I have to go out and work bye bye é!!!

Love,

Elder Walker