"Magicianary" - A missionary who does magic to bring joy and happiness as well as share the gospel with the people of Madagascar (According to Brad)

Monday, December 17, 2012

Christmas is close! - Dec. 17, 2012


Christmas is close and I am so excited!! We have been counting down the days here in Madagascar. I don't know if you guys have it over there in America, but there is something about the last day being on the 21st of December. It has kind of stolen the thunder of Christmas. But Christmas is a strong fellow so I think he is going to pull it out in the end. Another funny thing about the 21st, every single ward/branch is doing a little open house/contacting thing on the 22nd of December. Once everyone realizes that it is actually not the last day then we swoop in and catch everybody in our salvation giving net. I can't wait, it's gonna to be fun. 

Lately we have been teaching lot of recent convert/ less active times. It is just a little different focus than what I have been doing my whole mission but I guess it is just what I feel this branch needs. The lesson that I taught last week, I mostly wanted to focus on just love between the members in the ward. Just so they can start to love each other enough to serve each other. Hopefully they feel the Christmas spirit and start to do better. 

We did get this one family as a referral from the Branch President  It is a mom and four kids that are really well off and the dad is always working and never home. They have been taught a lot before by missionaries and they can't come to church because of family problems but they are so willing to learn and they just love the missionaries. They want to feed us so much too! That has become a highlight of my mission, not just the getting fed but just being in that environment with Malagasies. I love it when we can just talk and have fun. They are a super nice family, hopefully their problem can be fixed and they can start coming to church. 

On Saturday there was a little activity going on in one of the areas of the branch. So me and Elder Austin went to it with a lot of the young single adults in the branch. The members that were there was the family whose house it was at and then us with the young single adults. IT was still good. We learned about prayer and the comfort it brings. It was also fun with the young single adults there. 

Church was nice and organized. Nothing too crazy happened. After, we headed out to work and got dogged a lot! It was just tough because it started to rain and then Elder Austin wasn't feeling good so we ended up heading home early. Missionary work can be hard but by now I know that it brings happiness. So even when it gets tough and hard and whatever, if you push through even after no success with the extra effort done, Heavenly Father will bless you for it. 

I love being on a mission. It is tough and pushes you to the very edge. I hope that every man makes the choice to go and serve. 

So I guess that's all for this week. Not much to report. I hope all of you can get you shopping done this week. And if you are really in the Christmas mood, you can buy me a Christmas present and save it for me for when I get home. 

Love,
Elder Walker

Questions: 
1. How many missionaries are there in your mission? Any sisters? Any white sisters?
There are about  70 ish missionaries here in Mada and no white sisters. They only send black sisters here. 
2. Would Christmas eve be a better time to call? Or Christmas later? We could have you get on Skype anytime Christmas night and it would be our morning. So, how late is the cyber open? Could we set it up for 7:00 p.m. Christmas night for you? It would be 9:00 a.m. for us which would be perfect! Could you still do that or do we need to go earlier. We're flexible so I really need to know how things work on your end. Last Christmas we just called and so it didn't matter as much but now that you have to be on a computer we want to make sure it all works out. I LOVE that we can Skype because then I get to see your smiling face! You have to answer with a time because we only have one more email to do this. Can't wait!!
I think Christmas night for me would be the best. Except could we do it at 6:00 PM for me instead? That would be much better and safer for me because the cybers here close a little early. 

You can call me just to confirm the time and make sure it is all set up. I actually might have to set up a new Skype account because I forgot my password and username... So That will be settled before next Monday haha

PS: I have not gotten any packages yet so hopefully they will be there today when we go to the office of next week on Pday.

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