Sept. 12, 2011

Well that has to be way fun with Melissa and Brian back. I also love being around family, so I just count everyone in Madagascar my family for now.

This week has been pretty good! We had three more baptisms this last Saturday. One of them is Theodore who I talked about before, another is Nicole, the daughter of my first baptism and Zertride. It was kinda funny but when baptizing Zertride, she was kinda scared of the water, so she would not trust me and go down into the water. It took about eight times until she was good to go. Other than that, everything went smoothly. Then the next day at church, they all were there and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was awesome! It was kind of hectic at church though because everyone was asking me for stuff like, where are the people who just got baptized, can you play the piano for sacrament meeting, who is confirming the people, do you like Justin Beiber. (yes I got asked that)

My Malagasy is getting better little by little. The main key thing is confidence and not being afraid of messing up. It's tough but I'm used to laughing at myself by now. We have some amazing investigators right now, except it's hard for some of them to get to church because they live so far away. Me and Smith have to take a 20-25 min pouse ride out there and then walk some after that. (We don't use bikes anymore, because they always broke and cost too much to fix them). But people love the Lord here and are way diligent in trying to keep the commandments. It's kind of funny, because once one person gets baptized, all their friends do too. Malagasys don't like to be the first ones to do something and they also don't like change. Something like going right instead of left to go to church can stop someone from going. It's weird but true.

So the best story I can think of for the week is when the DMB (the wife) was helping with a time. We were teaching this family and the wife and kids are really accepting but the husband is a little hesitant, so he basically just Bible bashes the whole time. So he is asking Elder Smith and the DMB questions, they are answering, I am just sitting there because he is talking too fast for me. I ask Elder Smith what his current question was and it was if faith was believing before you see the miracle or believing after you see it. To me I thought it was logical that it was before but he wanted an answer, so I shared Alma 32: 17-18.

 17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a ^asign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe.

 18 Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to ^abelieve, for he knoweth it.

I really like those verses and when he read it, he had the most priceless face on, and our DMB just busted out laughing! I know they tell us not to Bible bash but it fit perfectly with what he was saying, so I had to. Anyways, I just thought that it was funny that the DMB just started laughing, a little innapropriate but they live by each other so its OK.

I'll save a story for next week just in case nothing exciting happens next week. Sorry forgot about the apartment pictures but any pictures are better than none, right?



Little girl, is DMB's daughter, she is so hyper all the time, but super cute.



Me and Elder Smith

The baptism

Big, scary, mean chameleon. They hiss by the way.

If my emails are too short you can tell me and I'll try to make them longer, I just don't know what else to say besides being here in Madagascar is amazing! I love you all and hope that you are all healthy! Continue to be missionaries any moment you get! I'll also try to get some handwritten letters out this week, so be looking in your mailbox in three weeks or so! I'll talk to ya next week!
Love,
Elder Walker