Family here in Mada - August 13, 2012

Do I still have to answer the million questions if I'm already better? Well I'll answer them in order. I WAS sick from Wednesday night to Monday morning. They thought that it was malaria but that was never confirmed. A lot of people thought that it was because of the climate and temperature change. On Friday we went to the office and I just slept on the couch at the office while Sister Adams and Sister Gray, the nurse, took care of me. They gave me some pills and I took all of those and then I just slept the days away. And now, I'm as strong as an ox!! Your guys' prayers really did help a lot. Thank you so much.

President and Sister Adams are older than President and Sister Donnelly. But I'm not sure if he is retired or not. I hope I can keep in touch with both of them. 

There is a baptism planned for the 25th of August. There are five getting baptized. Three adults and two kids. There is a dad and his son getting baptized together. The mom and the oldest daughter are already baptized. So that just makes it ten times more awesome that we are making them one. Their family is actually my new favorite people in the whole world! They have five kids and I think it goes the same as ours. Except the oldest daughter is only ten and I think ten times cuter than Melissa. Her name is Valerie. The son who takes my spot is so talkative and just a crazy little kid that is just plain crazy. So I think he holds up the fourth child slot really well. I'll get some good pictures of them for you guys. 

This Sunday I went to the Itaosy Ward, while Elder McLaughlin went to Ampitatafika. A member comes and picks us up at the Ampitatafika church and then we go over to the Itaosy ward. For being a ward they are not that big. They actually have a smaller attendance than Itaosy but Itaosy has more priesthood holders so they get to be called a branch. On Saturday they practiced new songs in the French hymn book so for all the songs we sang out of the French hymn book. I sat next to one of our investigators and I clearly stated to her to not laugh and then she said don't give her a reason to laugh. So I thought that was fair and confidently, as best as I could, sang in French. Relying on my skill of the tune and trying as much as possible to stay away from consonants, I think she still smiled a couple times and played it off as itching her nose. But it was fun nonetheless trying to make the weird Malagasy version of French sounds. ha ha! 

During the Sacrament a mom with her baby walked out of the chapel because she was crying. The baby, not the mom. And as the Sacrament was being passed I saw another one of our investigators take an extra piece of bread and an extra cup of water and set it on the mom's seat. Of course the investigators didn't know that the mom still took it outside when the deacons went out there but it was just a huge testimony builder to me. Just a huge act of love, helping others receive a remission of sins. It was a huge missionary moment for me. It just keeps reminding me that each of us need to not only have love for others but SHOW it too. It just makes your day so much better. I love serving a mission because it is a time to show so much love for other people. There won't be another time to give this much effort for a cause so important than right now. Serving a mission is such a normal thing if you grew up in the church but it is just so much more than a simple decision. It is simple to say yes to serve and everyone should but it takes a lot more than a yes to serve the full two years. For some it takes time to realize that, for some they knew it before. But everyone knows by the end and whether you've worked hard or not, it's over forever. There won't be another time to serve a mission as a 19 year old. Well that is my shpeal about a mission. I'm pretty sure that I've said the same thing already about four times. 

Today as you can see, you got the email a little later today. And that is because we went to the ZOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohooooo!!!! It was beautiful by the way. Of course it did not have the variety of animals of a normal zoo but normal zoos don't let you in the cages so the lemurs can crawl on you either, do they?!?!?! I think not!!!! And that is totally what happened! We just sweet talked to the workers and they let us in. They gave us a jar of honey and we put it on our fingers and shoulders and face and the lemurs just crawled all over us like they were our best friends. As soon as the honey was gone they just turned their backs on us like nothing ever happened. I was very hurt for the next few minutes. Lemurs would not make a good pet, they only want the food not the love. But there were tons of types of lemurs and snakes and hawks. I am going to try to go to the croc farm next and have snakes crawl over me. I don't think they like honey though. Maybe I'll even jump over a croc!! Just kidding, don't worry Mom. Or maybe I should do it now, while I have the Lord's protection? We'll see. And yes I took tons of pictures but I can't get them loaded up onto Photobucket for some reason. It's being dumb!

That was my week, hope ya like it. Transfer news comes in this Sunday night. And nine new kids are coming. That means nine missionaries are training. Me and Elder McLaughlin are working two areas, soooo..... Who knows? I sure don't! I'll talk to you guys next week.

Cheers mate! (it's a British thing)

Love,

Elder Walker