"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, February 11, 2013

The rest of the story - Feb. 11, 2013

Well sorry I couldn't finish the email last week. We were too busy helping the new missionary couple get settled in and the computer was freezing while I was typing so it was a little frustrating but its only an email so whateves.

 But how the story goes is that everyone was fine, no broken bones or anything. My right hip and right arm were really sore for a couple days but they are good now. The people tried to get us to come back tomorrow and go to court and see what the judge says but we said "no, it was her fault that she wasn't looking, she only has two scratches on her foot and I'm fine too, bye" I'm shortening the story of course but at the end we just had to ride off because they wouldn't drop it. I was surprised that she was walking around faster than me. I mean I thought I hit her hard. It's kind of funny now that I'm looking back at it. When we got back, that's when the couple arrived from America. Elder and Sister Todd. He is a very successful mechanic Engineer and they both have the biggest amounts of faith I've ever seen. Wednesday through Tuesday we spent some time if not all the time with them. Just trying to get their situation set up. So not much else happened that week but just learning a lot from them. 

I think that Madagascar is trying to give me a very unusual farewell gift. It's trying to show its thanks through raining every single day of my last month here. Sometimes is show a little thanks, sometimes it shows A LOT of thanks. But I'm just soakin' it in one way or the other. Because I know that once it's gone I'll miss it. 

We had a Zone meeting on Monday. It went really well. We talked about new stats that we are going to start to keep track of. How to help the Branch Presidents. Things we need to remember from Zone conference a month ago. And how to keep clean. You can never talk to much on that subject in this country. haha! Tuesday we helped the Todds with getting a hoe, the gardening tool. Except, they don't have hoes in this country. They just farm a different way. So we had to go buy the shovel head, the wood handle to go with it and then go to this place by our house that makes metal stuff like little cake molds, pipes, and any other thing and we asked them if they could make it into a hoe. (It was a lot of explaining and pictures and in the end, what won was saying "it's a metal rake with no teeth. There's no gaps") By now it's kind of turned into a game to try and explain things. During my mission I have learned to not get annoyed or discouraged and everything but just try to make it fun or at least learn from it. 

On Thursday we went up to Saordroa (a branch an hour north) with Elder Todd. We went ni his truck and not the crappy bus. Woohoo! We got to the point where we had to start heading up the unpaved road. Wow, was it bumpy! It's a good thing that Elder Todd is really good with cars or else we might have been in trouble. We went up there and taught some times and then headed back safely. That area is growing so much. I wish we had more time than just once a week to go up there. We taught seven investigators up there! And they are all from the members hard missionary work. Maybe if they weren't under the Zone leaders responsibilities then the missionaries could focus more on them. They should be having a baptism up there sometime in April. 

We didn't have much time to teach as we would have liked but we were helping other missionaries and getting stuff done for our house. But we are still working hard in this area, trying to make it better than it was before. That is always a good goal to have right? We have a baptism planned in the this area on the 23th of March. So yes I wont be having anymore baptisms during my mission but I wasn't expecting to anyways. At least there will be a lot of people prepared after I go. That's what I really want. OH! Cool story time!  While I was in Toliara Elder Roney and me found this one family. They were all really cool. The parents have an 18 year old daughter and two twin boys that were 7. We were teaching them really well. We didn't want to rush anything. Roney left, I was companions with Fryer, he left and then I was comps with Elder Smith. By that time we finally got everything done for their wedding. We got that done and then I interviewed both of them for their baptism the next Saturday. The Dad was super ready from the beginning. But when I asked the mom if she was excited to get baptized that Saturday she said "I'm not getting baptized this Saturday" I was so shocked! Anyways, we baptized the Dad. We never had problems with him not coming to church. We kept teaching them and trying to get the mom baptized. I left, the twins turned eight and the Dad finally decided to baptize them. (At first he thought that they were too young to make that kind of decision but came around in the end). So now let's fast forward six months, I got a call saying that she got baptized! I was so happy you cannot believe! It took her a whole year of being taught by the missionaries, reading the Book of Mormon and going to church every week to finally feel like she was ready. It was in that same area (Toliara) that I learned about enduring. We can't be in too much of a rush to get things done. It just doesn't work that way. God doesn't work that way. Everyone has their agency and we all need to respect that. Especially Missionaries. If the investigator is coming to church often, not even always but often, and reading to Book of Mormon then you cannot give up on them. They will come around. They have to. They are spending too much time around the truth to deny it. They will feel the Holy Ghost time and time again, and they will come to know that this is the true church. I'm so grateful for the missionaries that stuck it out with her. 

I love the mission. Its coming to an end and I'm sad about that. But I don't regret anything. I feel like I worked hard and that I've changed and progressed throughout my mission. I'm so thankful to Heavenly Father for everything that he has given me and helped me with. I know that he is involved with our lives. He will never leave us alone. 

Well today we are down in Ambositra again but this time we got to steal the missionary truck instead of going down in a bus. I'm hoping to avoid as many buses as possible these couple weeks haha! That is one thing that I wont miss so much. 

I love all of you guys! Make sure that there is plenty of snow for when I get home. I might regret that wish when I actually step off the plane and I immediately get frost bite! Talk to ya next week!

Love,
Elder Walker

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