Week 36 - Ankorondrano - The Rain Stopped

So big news this week: It hasn't rained the whole week!!! That is an answer to my prayers, and lot's of other people's too, I'm sure because the water has started to go down. Some of our investigators were finally able to move back into their house that has been flooded for the last three months! Unfortunately, there's still a lot of people living in tents or little temporary shacks on the side of the road, but the sun's been doing it's job, so hopefullly that will all get worked out soon.

It says it's Noah's Ark

 One of my companions, Elder Richard (formerly Elder Tavo, but he changed his name to his first name because Tavo is a swear word in some of the Northern dialects) is from Vanuatu, which was hit by a pretty bad hurricane like two weeks ago. His island was hit the worst, and he still hasn't been able to get through to find out if his family is ok yet... We're all praying for him. He's super hopeful about it. He's actually beaming and laughing ALL the time. He's a huge stud.

Other than that, not too much is new out here in the Indian ocean. The work is still going. We only had 11 investigators at church last week, which was a big letdown after nearly twenty the week before, but that's still pretty good for this area. It's one of the oldest areas, so lot's of the people are pretty sick of missionaries now, so it's super great to see the members getting excited and helping us out so much! The last few weeks have been great for the ward. Three weeks ago we had 134ish people at sacrament meeting, which was a new record for the year, then two weeks ago was 174. So cool!!!! Everyone was way pumped about that! Then yesterday it went back down to like 141, which is a bummer, but we can't get too down because it's still the second best!

All my people in one picture!

My men! The highlight is that rockin' tie that I got for 16 cents!

Our investigators are doing great! We've had a couple scares, but as of right now, they are all doing great. We have a baptism this week, then one on April 11, then the one after that is on the 25th, and they are all progressing so well! I love 'em!

Fun facts that may have been missed in last week's email, we went to a military base and played basketball and volleyball with all three zones here in Tana. That was way fun. Then we went to this souvenir place called the dig. So it's pretty much just random Malagasy stuff for way to expensive. Luckily, haggling is very important here, so I had a lot of fun and didn't spend more than $10.

This guy sells pineapples for 24 cents! And he slices them into a bag to go! 

We eat these allllll the time.

Malagasy Morsel for this week would be mieboebo. It's one of my favorite words to say and I'll sometimes just be whispering it to myself as we walk down the path. It's pronounced mee-ay-boo-ay-boo. And it's like really fluid and smooth, so it just sounds ridiculously cool. It means like boastful or prideful. I don't actually use it a whole ton, but it makes me really happy when I get to!

Quick spiritual side note about sacrament meeting. It's really important. That pretty much sums it up, but we brought some investigators to church two weeks ago and we missed the sacrament. It was terrible! The week after was so great! I felt so great! So this is just a quick reminder that if you go into sacrament meeting prepared and ready to have a fantastic spiritual experience, you will have one.

Love you all!