So, transfers definitely happened this last week. And what's going down? You have to read this whole email to find out. No peeking at the end.
Anyway, this week was fantastic. I read half of the Book of Mormon. I also cleaned our house. Made bread twice. Cut my own hair (funny story...), and I read a lot of talks about cool gospel stuff! If you put all the clues together, you see that all of those things happen in the house. So yes, I was at home for a good chunk of the week... We went to Carnivore on Monday, this super good meat place like Rodizios, and then we had zone conference beginning on Tuesday morning at nine, then ending at 4:30, then we got back home at six, and then Elder Hull threw up. And then did it again. And we stayed home. Then on Wednesday, it all happened again. So I read from Mosiah and finished Alma, and made bread, and did laundry. Then on Thursday, it was all good, we had studies, district meeting, went to eat, and then he threw up again. So we went home, and he did it again. So we stayed home again, and I read through to third Nephi, cleaned the house, made more bread, and read all the talks in our big binder full of talks. Then on Friday we worked, Saturday, and Sunday too. It was a blast! I love working! It was sooo nice to get out on Friday, I was getting so jittery and jumpy, so I was working out for a bunch and just trying to stay a little bit active at least. But man, I love walking. I love walking so much.
Anyway, other than saying that it's way cool to read the BiM through way quick, stuff that I learned this week was that if your water is too hot when you're making bread it kills the yeast and you have to go buy some more and knead it in. Also... there were a ton of way good talks, so that was way fun to read. I also learned last night that Elder Glazier is going to be training this next transfer!!! Get pumped for that!!! I'm so excited for him! Transfer calls were late Sunday night and I was super happy when I heard that! So the way transfers usually go down is everyone has to turn in stats first, so that goes through the district leaders to the zone leaders then to the AP's. Then once all the stats have been received, the AP's call the zone leaders who call the district leaders who call everyone in their district. I live with our District leader, Elder Johnson, so I got to skip a step. Then he just writes down every change on a piece of paper. He started with the Tana Ivandry zone, that's mine, and that's when I found out about Elder Glazier training, then it was Tana Manakambahiny zone, then it was Antsirabe, Fianarantsoa, then Tamatave. And at this point my name was still not written on the paper, and the only ones left are what's called the An-tany Foana zone, which is all of the areas that are way far away and you have to take a plane to get to. Then for Mahajanga, he wrote no change, Toliary, no change... So that leaves Fort Dauphin baby!!! I'm heading to the Amparihy area in Fort Dauphin with Elder Pinson, who's a way balling missionary from my group! Then I'll be down there with Elder Hardy, my last companion, and Elder Tiu! I'm so pumped! Fort D is on the very south of Madagascar and there are some crazy dialects spoken there. You are also very far away from any other missionaries... And there's a beach! And beautiful mountains! And a lot of awesome missionaries have been down there so the work is just screaming along! I'm super pumped, I'm going to the area that Elder Johnson left last transfer, so he's been full of a ton of good things to say about it! Anyway, that's transfers. I'm super pumped.
Malagasy Morsel is variana. And it means distracted, and I am super variana right now because I keep just thinking about Fort D. I am way bummed to be leaving Ankorondrano now though. Menja and Fitiavana are just about to get married, soiree des quartes are just about to get going, and Bakar and Fidy were just called as ward missionaries, and there are just so many people that I love, dang it! It's all good though. When I get back to Tana I'll have to visit them all, but for now, I'm just way pumped to be going on an airplane soon to Fort Dauphin.
I love you all, and I wish you all a fantastic week filled with tender mercies and little miracles.
Mirary soa!
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2015
Monday, June 1, 2015
Week 46 - I Love Elder Rasmussen Because...
So... this week was good...
It was mostly just a lot of hard work, which was great, but then... drumroll please... on Friday we get a text from the AP's telling us to start a fast now, it was like three in the afternoon, and then they would tell us why in the evening so it didn't mess with our day at all. We immediately though, "Poop. A missionary is probably super sick or hurt. Or maybe there's some crazy political thing going on and we might have to leave Madagascar." (There's been some mild political unrest. Something about throwing the president out again, no big deal.) So we were worried. Then, at about five, they texted us again to remind us to just text them as soon as we got home so they could call us back and fill us in on the news. So... there are like 80ish missionaries here in Madagascar right now, and only two AP's... So at this point it became obvious that this was something that just pertained to us. Nice, right?
So when we finished up our program just before nine and started heading home, we were pretty anxious to see what the deal was. Then we saw the AP's car parked behind a wall kind of by the house. At this point, I decided that they were trying to prank us or something. So we walk home, all of the lights are in, and we walk into the apartment to see the AP's lounging on our couch talking with Elder Cooley and Elder Johnson, who live with us. Turns out they made us dinner. And brownies. And brought kool-aid. They just wanted us to not eat before we got home so they could have a cool surprise! It was way nice, they're big studs. They said to consider it a little reward because our two areas have been going pretty well lately. It was way cool, and it definitely made my day!
Then the next day we taught English in the morning, and usually we have everyone introduce themselves first, so Elder Delbar, a missionary who was in my group, wrote down a 1, 2, and 3, and then gave options to say in each one. Here's what it looked like:
1. Hello/Howdy y'all/hola
2. My name is.../Me llamo...
3. I love Elder Rasmussen because...
Haha it was super funny, even if I thought it was pretty dumb at first, but some people gave some pretty lame reasons... I didn't get an "I love Elder Rasmussen because he's jacked out of his mind" once!!! Psh.
And then we had a BAPTISM!!! It was great. I baptized. The water was very cold. It was also green, but the cold was the worst part. D. stepped down into the water and almost stepped out so I dragged him down in, then baptized him. And as soon as he came rushing out of the water he was rushing up the steps to his towel and warm clothes... Haha it was also a very spiritual experience too though!
Malagasy Morsel kind of goes together with that: Manatsoboka means to dunk in water. Then atsoboka means to BE dunked in water. So while we were waiting for D. to come, our Ward Clerk says, "Efa tonga ny mpanatsoboka, kanefa, mbola tsy tonga ny atsoboka." Or, in Anglisy, "The dunker already came, but the dunkee has still not come." Ah yeah!
Then church was interesting. The confirmation went really well. He was glowing all day long. But then, because our new stake center was being dedicated in Andranomena, not very many active members came to church, but because it was Malagasy Mother's day, lots of less active females came (they hand out treats to all of the mothers...) Then we had combined block because it was a fifth sunday and we had a lesson about birth control of course! So, yeah. It was just a great day.
Anyway, the church is still true. I have to keep praying and checking, you know, just in case... But no worries! It's still the right one, thank heavens!
I love you all and I wish you a fantastic week wherever you may be!
Mozotoa e daholo!
It was mostly just a lot of hard work, which was great, but then... drumroll please... on Friday we get a text from the AP's telling us to start a fast now, it was like three in the afternoon, and then they would tell us why in the evening so it didn't mess with our day at all. We immediately though, "Poop. A missionary is probably super sick or hurt. Or maybe there's some crazy political thing going on and we might have to leave Madagascar." (There's been some mild political unrest. Something about throwing the president out again, no big deal.) So we were worried. Then, at about five, they texted us again to remind us to just text them as soon as we got home so they could call us back and fill us in on the news. So... there are like 80ish missionaries here in Madagascar right now, and only two AP's... So at this point it became obvious that this was something that just pertained to us. Nice, right?
So when we finished up our program just before nine and started heading home, we were pretty anxious to see what the deal was. Then we saw the AP's car parked behind a wall kind of by the house. At this point, I decided that they were trying to prank us or something. So we walk home, all of the lights are in, and we walk into the apartment to see the AP's lounging on our couch talking with Elder Cooley and Elder Johnson, who live with us. Turns out they made us dinner. And brownies. And brought kool-aid. They just wanted us to not eat before we got home so they could have a cool surprise! It was way nice, they're big studs. They said to consider it a little reward because our two areas have been going pretty well lately. It was way cool, and it definitely made my day!
Then the next day we taught English in the morning, and usually we have everyone introduce themselves first, so Elder Delbar, a missionary who was in my group, wrote down a 1, 2, and 3, and then gave options to say in each one. Here's what it looked like:
1. Hello/Howdy y'all/hola
2. My name is.../Me llamo...
3. I love Elder Rasmussen because...
Haha it was super funny, even if I thought it was pretty dumb at first, but some people gave some pretty lame reasons... I didn't get an "I love Elder Rasmussen because he's jacked out of his mind" once!!! Psh.
And then we had a BAPTISM!!! It was great. I baptized. The water was very cold. It was also green, but the cold was the worst part. D. stepped down into the water and almost stepped out so I dragged him down in, then baptized him. And as soon as he came rushing out of the water he was rushing up the steps to his towel and warm clothes... Haha it was also a very spiritual experience too though!
Malagasy Morsel kind of goes together with that: Manatsoboka means to dunk in water. Then atsoboka means to BE dunked in water. So while we were waiting for D. to come, our Ward Clerk says, "Efa tonga ny mpanatsoboka, kanefa, mbola tsy tonga ny atsoboka." Or, in Anglisy, "The dunker already came, but the dunkee has still not come." Ah yeah!
Then church was interesting. The confirmation went really well. He was glowing all day long. But then, because our new stake center was being dedicated in Andranomena, not very many active members came to church, but because it was Malagasy Mother's day, lots of less active females came (they hand out treats to all of the mothers...) Then we had combined block because it was a fifth sunday and we had a lesson about birth control of course! So, yeah. It was just a great day.
Anyway, the church is still true. I have to keep praying and checking, you know, just in case... But no worries! It's still the right one, thank heavens!
I love you all and I wish you a fantastic week wherever you may be!
Mozotoa e daholo!
Monday, May 25, 2015
Week 45 - Two Cakes and a Wedding
So... You might be wondering about how the eggs went down last week on my birthday. (Mom's note: evidently, a tradition in Madagascar is to crack eggs over the birthday person's head and then dump flour over that.) Good news is: I avoided it. See, what happened is Elder Cooley bought some eggs and hid them on the bookshelf right by the door so he could egg me as soon as he got home at night, but, when we came home I saw them and hid them somewhere else. Then... it just didn't happen, which is all good with me!
Then we had some great cakes made by members, pictures should be included down below. The chocolate one had ice cream inside... They are both, of course, gone now.
This week has been lots of fun though! We went on splits with the AP's and we got a lot of work done. It was super satisfying! Some of the highlights included going to the first marriage I've been to here in Madagascar! It was way fun to see, and they're heading to the temple in South Africa this week! Then we also just got to a bunch of really cool investigators and less actives this week! Sorry for all of you wanting crazy stories about weird animals or things like that, but the work is honestly the best part! Then it was especially fun to see some members getting ready to go to the temple, that was probably one of the most rewarding parts. I love seeing the church progress out here! Speaking of progression, Norbert, that way awesome guy we got baptized not too long back has received the priesthood and now is the first counselor in the young men's presidency! He's doing great and he's really magnifying his calling and it's just so fun to see!
In other news, there has been some sickness at our house... Elder Cooley and Elder Johnson got way sick... They took turns being sick and throwing up/diarrheaing in the toilet for three days. Elder Cooley's was especially bad because he couldn't hold anything in his stomache, not even water. So he got way dehydrated and had terrible cramps in his legs. His legs would seize up and we would rush to try and stretch them out and massage them, because he wouldn't be able to move them at all because his whole calf would be as hard as a rock, or his hamstring... It was exciting for sure. The good news is they are both doing better now. We think it was some bad food because it was just that companionship and then Elder Hull and I aren't having any problem at all.
Malagasy Morsel for the week would be Mafana. It means hot. And it is not here. But really! We're starting to have to wear sweaters in the morning because it gets down to just above 60 degrees sometimes! Way cold.
Anyway, love you all!
Mandra-pihaona!
Then we had some great cakes made by members, pictures should be included down below. The chocolate one had ice cream inside... They are both, of course, gone now.
This week has been lots of fun though! We went on splits with the AP's and we got a lot of work done. It was super satisfying! Some of the highlights included going to the first marriage I've been to here in Madagascar! It was way fun to see, and they're heading to the temple in South Africa this week! Then we also just got to a bunch of really cool investigators and less actives this week! Sorry for all of you wanting crazy stories about weird animals or things like that, but the work is honestly the best part! Then it was especially fun to see some members getting ready to go to the temple, that was probably one of the most rewarding parts. I love seeing the church progress out here! Speaking of progression, Norbert, that way awesome guy we got baptized not too long back has received the priesthood and now is the first counselor in the young men's presidency! He's doing great and he's really magnifying his calling and it's just so fun to see!
In other news, there has been some sickness at our house... Elder Cooley and Elder Johnson got way sick... They took turns being sick and throwing up/diarrheaing in the toilet for three days. Elder Cooley's was especially bad because he couldn't hold anything in his stomache, not even water. So he got way dehydrated and had terrible cramps in his legs. His legs would seize up and we would rush to try and stretch them out and massage them, because he wouldn't be able to move them at all because his whole calf would be as hard as a rock, or his hamstring... It was exciting for sure. The good news is they are both doing better now. We think it was some bad food because it was just that companionship and then Elder Hull and I aren't having any problem at all.
Malagasy Morsel for the week would be Mafana. It means hot. And it is not here. But really! We're starting to have to wear sweaters in the morning because it gets down to just above 60 degrees sometimes! Way cold.
Anyway, love you all!
Mandra-pihaona!
Monday, March 9, 2015
Week 34 - Ankorondrano - More Rain
So we had zone conference this week. That was fantastic! We got to see Meet the Mormons too! I feel kind of behind the times because y'all are probably pretty sick of that by now... But it's way good! The last segment was tough because it showed home everywhere... It was cool that that one guy went to South Africa on his mission, Elder Heine, our zone leader, went home together with him on the plane. Then he came back, obviously, but anyway, that guy was trying to say that South Africa was way cooler than Madagascar. FALSE!!! That's not true... James' area is probably as cool as some parts of Madagascar, but that's it. And that's only because there is Rasmussen blood working there! But yeah, life's going good here.
The water is still going up... which leads to our Malagasy morsel of trondradrano. It means like the water is going up or is high. (choon-jah-jah-noo) (Note from mother: Cyclone Haliba went from the Mozambique Channel, across Madagascar just to the south of Antananarivo this week. It is over the Reunion Islands now, and headed away from Madagascar. This week will bring more rain, but then this cyclone should be done.) Despite that, we had quite a few investigators at church on Sunday, which was fantastic. The ward has really been helping us out with them, so props where props have been earned.
Like James, next week is transfers week and speculations are coming out of the woodwork. I'm just hoping that I get to stay here and that Elder Glazier will be coming up here to work in Tana so I'll finally see him! That would be sweet. He doesn't want to though, but he'll come around. Living in the big city is pretty nice! You can buy everything your heart could imagine as long as it doesn't require first world factories! And sometimes there's some of that stuff too! I've really enjoyed getting my nice cheap ties! Oh, I got new bindings on my scriptures, but my camera is dead again (on the battery hunt again) so you can just wait until next week to ooh and aww about those.
Birthday shout out to those getting old at home! Keep going! Let's see... update on Project Get Massive is going... slowly... rice just doesn't always cut it, ok? But it's good! Still getting up there! On the subject of food, I had avacado juice and learned how to make it. Get pumped for when I come home!!!
That's all I've got for the week, but you all stay safe at home! Have a fantastic week and do something fun for me!
Veloma!
The water is still going up... which leads to our Malagasy morsel of trondradrano. It means like the water is going up or is high. (choon-jah-jah-noo) (Note from mother: Cyclone Haliba went from the Mozambique Channel, across Madagascar just to the south of Antananarivo this week. It is over the Reunion Islands now, and headed away from Madagascar. This week will bring more rain, but then this cyclone should be done.) Despite that, we had quite a few investigators at church on Sunday, which was fantastic. The ward has really been helping us out with them, so props where props have been earned.
That's the big government building with some sweet clouds. Tana baby!
Birthday shout out to those getting old at home! Keep going! Let's see... update on Project Get Massive is going... slowly... rice just doesn't always cut it, ok? But it's good! Still getting up there! On the subject of food, I had avacado juice and learned how to make it. Get pumped for when I come home!!!
That's all I've got for the week, but you all stay safe at home! Have a fantastic week and do something fun for me!
Veloma!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Week 32 - Ankorondrano - The Rains
So... exciting week, exciting week. Let's start off by taking a moment to appreciate the rain...
Ok, now we're done. Yes, it's rained a lot this last week, which is nice, it really is. See, the day after it rains, my shoes get really muddy walking through all of the mud and sludge, so then I need it to rain again to clean my shoes off again. So this last week has been way nice! Other than the rain, the rest of the week was good too. It started on Monday when we went to a ridiculously expensive hotel called the Carlton.
It was Elder Hardy' year mark, so we splurged a little... or a lot. Anyway, it's supposedly a 5-star hotel and it was very very good. And it cost me $16!!! The crap is this! It was sooo goood, especially the ice cream. Down side was the food was very small... Good news was they had free refills on your bread basket, and then I bought some street food after we were done, so it was all good.
Then we got on the wrong bus and ended up stuck in traffic far from home for two hours. That was poopy. Upside to that is we got to talk to a very interesting man who was telling us why Malagasies don't like people from India. Then he was talking about how Malagasies don't discriminate. Literally he said, "Ny Malagasy tsy tia karana." (Malagasies don't like Indians) then two sentences later it was, "Tsy manavaka ny Malagasy." (Malagasies don't discriminate). Anyway, he was a delight. Then it was just work as usual until on Friday we were eatin lunch at a cheap, but very nice place that sells grilled chicken, when the guy at the table next to us bought us a drink. We got Sprite, of course, don't get too excited. Then we started talking to him and the owner, they're good friends, and we found out that if we bring sister missionaries next time, they'll give us a free cake. Unfortunately, none of the sister live close...
Then, as we left, we passed a fountain in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts. What was in the fountain? Five 10-year olds taking baths. Nice one Madagascar. Nice one. Haha everyone else was just going on like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, which is probably how it is... haha...
Then Sunday was fantastic because so many people came to church! I'm so proud of some of our investigators right now, especially Norbert!!! He is my favorite grandpa aged investigator by far! I love seeing how much he's growing!
A quick Malagasy Morsel for the week is Mazotoa. (technically mah-zo-TOO-ah, but it usually ends up sounding more like mahz-TOO) I write this sometimes at the end of letters, so I figured I'd teach y'all what the heck I was saying. It's the active command form of the word Mozoto, which means dilligent. So it means, "Be dilligent!" It's a nice traditional Malagasy goodbye. So yeah, that's neat.
That's about it for this week, I just want to let you all know that this gospel is still true. And we can always get better at something. That's not a bad thing that we're not perfect yet, it just means we get to be in the excitement of growing all the time! Love you all, and have a fantastic week!
Mozotoa e!
Ok, now we're done. Yes, it's rained a lot this last week, which is nice, it really is. See, the day after it rains, my shoes get really muddy walking through all of the mud and sludge, so then I need it to rain again to clean my shoes off again. So this last week has been way nice! Other than the rain, the rest of the week was good too. It started on Monday when we went to a ridiculously expensive hotel called the Carlton.
The outside of the Carlton. I think it looks sketchy.
My entree at the Carlton. You can see the nearly empty thing of bread in the corner.
That was the real meal!!!
It was Elder Hardy' year mark, so we splurged a little... or a lot. Anyway, it's supposedly a 5-star hotel and it was very very good. And it cost me $16!!! The crap is this! It was sooo goood, especially the ice cream. Down side was the food was very small... Good news was they had free refills on your bread basket, and then I bought some street food after we were done, so it was all good.
Then we got on the wrong bus and ended up stuck in traffic far from home for two hours. That was poopy. Upside to that is we got to talk to a very interesting man who was telling us why Malagasies don't like people from India. Then he was talking about how Malagasies don't discriminate. Literally he said, "Ny Malagasy tsy tia karana." (Malagasies don't like Indians) then two sentences later it was, "Tsy manavaka ny Malagasy." (Malagasies don't discriminate). Anyway, he was a delight. Then it was just work as usual until on Friday we were eatin lunch at a cheap, but very nice place that sells grilled chicken, when the guy at the table next to us bought us a drink. We got Sprite, of course, don't get too excited. Then we started talking to him and the owner, they're good friends, and we found out that if we bring sister missionaries next time, they'll give us a free cake. Unfortunately, none of the sister live close...
Then, as we left, we passed a fountain in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts. What was in the fountain? Five 10-year olds taking baths. Nice one Madagascar. Nice one. Haha everyone else was just going on like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, which is probably how it is... haha...
Nice, clean natural looking river, no?
Then Sunday was fantastic because so many people came to church! I'm so proud of some of our investigators right now, especially Norbert!!! He is my favorite grandpa aged investigator by far! I love seeing how much he's growing!
A quick Malagasy Morsel for the week is Mazotoa. (technically mah-zo-TOO-ah, but it usually ends up sounding more like mahz-TOO) I write this sometimes at the end of letters, so I figured I'd teach y'all what the heck I was saying. It's the active command form of the word Mozoto, which means dilligent. So it means, "Be dilligent!" It's a nice traditional Malagasy goodbye. So yeah, that's neat.
Mmm... Not quite...
Mozotoa e!
Monday, February 2, 2015
Week 29 - Antsirabe - Goodbye Antsirabe
Ela ela tsy hita!
Hey er'rybody! We'll start off quick with a small, easy word for our Malagasy Morsel this week. Learned this bad baby clear back in the MTC. Masoandro. MAH-soo-AHN-jroo. It literally means the eye of the day. So of course it's the sun. Neat, huh?
Now the quick rundown of the week:
Monday I kind of just bummed around, played some basketball, bought some food, emailed, all that fun stuff, then in the evening we had two times and ate some great rice and loaka. Ooh! I left my camera at the cyber too.
Tuesday when a drunk man in a pousse-pousse drove by and started yelling English at me, I did the natural thing and pretended I was French and didn't understand. He apparently believed he was one of the head honchos in our church and needed to give us an assignment. When we just kept walking he forgot about us pretty quick.
Wednesday I got my camera back from the cyber, I was super happy it was still there! Then we taught English and taught some new investigators and it was fantastic!
Thursday we ate rice with boiled squash leaves at an investigator's house. Delicious. Then we discovered a huge set of apostate beliefs in one of our part member families.
Friday we corrected said apostate beliefs and taught a lot of basic stuff about the temple, spirit world, and family. It was great stuff. Now we just have to go find the gospel doctrine teacher who was teaching all of that and have a nice lesson with him too. And then all of the other members too!
Saturday we taught my balling investigator that I found while I was on member splits contacting! We taught about the Book of Mormon and they promised to read it, pray about it, keep doing that, and then come to church too! Then they gave us mangahazo, which is boiled tree root, kind of like a hard potato but less flavor! Delicious. I'm gonna miss them a bunch!
Sunday we had church. When we showed up, 40 people were there. However, by the time the sacrament was over, we were up to 113, so that was pretty scary!!! That's called fotoana gasy, or Malagasy time! Then, the second counselor in the branch presidency tried to give me a talk. Bad news... I can't, sorry... (*Spoiler alert*) I'm leaving this week... That was the easiest I've ever gotten out of a talk!
Like I just hinted at, transfers are this week, and unfortunately, my four transfer stay here is over. I'm going to Antananarivo!!! My new area is called Ankorondrano and I will be in a threesome with Elder Tavo, who was in my group and from Vanauatu, and Elder Hardy, who has about six months left and I've heard he's a ballin' missionary, so I'm really excited! Elder Coleman, also from my group, is coming to replace me here in Ambohimena, so my area will be in good hands. He's a great missionary! I said a lot of goodbyes on Sunday, and then I have today and tomorrow and then I'm off on Wednesday morning to take a very long, crowded bus ride up to Tana, and then new area! I'm way excited!
Eny ary, izay ihany izao. Tiako ianareo tsirairay! Mifankatiava! Mozotoa e!
Alright, that's all for now. Love ya! Don't forget to keep your spirit nice and nourished!
Hey er'rybody! We'll start off quick with a small, easy word for our Malagasy Morsel this week. Learned this bad baby clear back in the MTC. Masoandro. MAH-soo-AHN-jroo. It literally means the eye of the day. So of course it's the sun. Neat, huh?
Now the quick rundown of the week:
Monday I kind of just bummed around, played some basketball, bought some food, emailed, all that fun stuff, then in the evening we had two times and ate some great rice and loaka. Ooh! I left my camera at the cyber too.
Tuesday when a drunk man in a pousse-pousse drove by and started yelling English at me, I did the natural thing and pretended I was French and didn't understand. He apparently believed he was one of the head honchos in our church and needed to give us an assignment. When we just kept walking he forgot about us pretty quick.
Wednesday I got my camera back from the cyber, I was super happy it was still there! Then we taught English and taught some new investigators and it was fantastic!
Thursday we ate rice with boiled squash leaves at an investigator's house. Delicious. Then we discovered a huge set of apostate beliefs in one of our part member families.
Friday we corrected said apostate beliefs and taught a lot of basic stuff about the temple, spirit world, and family. It was great stuff. Now we just have to go find the gospel doctrine teacher who was teaching all of that and have a nice lesson with him too. And then all of the other members too!
Saturday we taught my balling investigator that I found while I was on member splits contacting! We taught about the Book of Mormon and they promised to read it, pray about it, keep doing that, and then come to church too! Then they gave us mangahazo, which is boiled tree root, kind of like a hard potato but less flavor! Delicious. I'm gonna miss them a bunch!
Sunday we had church. When we showed up, 40 people were there. However, by the time the sacrament was over, we were up to 113, so that was pretty scary!!! That's called fotoana gasy, or Malagasy time! Then, the second counselor in the branch presidency tried to give me a talk. Bad news... I can't, sorry... (*Spoiler alert*) I'm leaving this week... That was the easiest I've ever gotten out of a talk!
Like I just hinted at, transfers are this week, and unfortunately, my four transfer stay here is over. I'm going to Antananarivo!!! My new area is called Ankorondrano and I will be in a threesome with Elder Tavo, who was in my group and from Vanauatu, and Elder Hardy, who has about six months left and I've heard he's a ballin' missionary, so I'm really excited! Elder Coleman, also from my group, is coming to replace me here in Ambohimena, so my area will be in good hands. He's a great missionary! I said a lot of goodbyes on Sunday, and then I have today and tomorrow and then I'm off on Wednesday morning to take a very long, crowded bus ride up to Tana, and then new area! I'm way excited!
Eny ary, izay ihany izao. Tiako ianareo tsirairay! Mifankatiava! Mozotoa e!
Alright, that's all for now. Love ya! Don't forget to keep your spirit nice and nourished!
Monday, January 26, 2015
Week 28 - Antsirabe - The Blessing of Being Rooted in the Gospel
So I'll start this week with a quick Malagasy Morsel. Basivava, BAHS-ee-VAH-vah, but it usually just sounds like boss-vahv. It comes from two words, basy which means gun, and vava which means mouth. So it means gunmouth. You use it when someone just talks a ton and talks way fast.
So now we get a rundown of the week again. On Monday we had two soirees, which was tough because that means two meals. We told the first soiree that we would bring pizza, but we decided that would take too long, so we took tacos to them instead. We called them "Mexican Pizza" it was way good. Then, on Tuesday we taught all day and while we were in one lesson, the little, old Malagasy man starts complaining about the government. He said, "Malagasies break stuff. Life was so much better when the vazahas were still in charge." He went on for about 10 minutes like that, listing every part of life that was better when the French were in charge. I thought it was sooo hilarious! Elder Razakamandimby did not. Then Wednesday, we taught English class and worked. Thursday I bought a pineapple for less than a dollar and took it home. Elder Razakamandimby turned his nose up a little bit and told me that any pineapple from Antsirabe, up in the mountains, is going to be way worse that a pineapple in Tana or on the coast. That being said, it was delicious! It was so juicy! I made grilled pineapple and covered that bad boy with honey and sugar and then I ate it all. I will probably have to do that a lot more. Then on Friday we went on member splits! I went with Setra, and he was sooo quite! So I just talked about the entire time, and it was fantastic! Saturday was poopy. There was a super long activity that we went to where the youth were making food for the members of the district under the direction of a professional chef to build experience to get jobs. It was pretty cool, but I was just itching to go because we had times to hit and places to be. I was pretty thrilled when we finally got out of there. Next time, I'm probably not going to go... Just call me the party pooper... Sunday was great! We got 20 less actives to come and we had some crazy spiritual lessons! Then, our soiree ended up in a discussion about ghosts, and we had to set a couple things straight. That was really, really funny.
This week I have definitely been seeing the blessings of families and individuals firmly rooted in the church. Since lots of the members here are way new, we have to be the doctrine checkers a lot. It is very apparent, however, who is really trying to root themselves in the scriptures and the teachings of latter day prophets. Those who study consistently and make that study a valuable use of time have a much greater knowledge of the gospel and they are more confident in the way that they live that. I guess what I'm trying to say is count your blessings. Having a long history in the church is a very great blessing and I feel very blessed to have that!
Love most of you!
Mandra-pihaona!
Other than that, not much has happened this week. We didn't eat anything crazy, we didn't do anything too crazy, we mostly just walked, biked, and sat in lessons. We've been working out a lot in the morning, and the dunk is definitely a lot easier now, but I will have to wait until I get to a house with a scale before I can see if I've been gaining or not.
Love most of you!
Mandra-pihaona!
Monday, January 19, 2015
Week 27 - Antsirabe - Cyclone Chedza
So, we'll once again start of this week with our Malagasy Morsel. Maninjitra, mah-NEEN-zee-chah, means to stretch out your hands or to reach. So when it says that his hands are still outstretched all of those times in Isaiah, that's the word. I just really like the sound of it, that's the real reason I'm using it this week...
So this week has been a party over here in the Indian Ocean! I will start with the food news, because that's all that half of you care about anyway, so you can just skip everything after this. This week I have been making a lot of tortillas. They are extremely easy so I've made them like six times. I don't always have stuff to put in them, so sometimes it's a little weird, but it all works out. My sunday dinner was a giant quesadilla with the two giant tortillas I made with the last of the flour. Then I put like half a block of this cheese stuff that I found that is very close to chedder. Way good. Then I ate it with my salsa I made a week ago and some hotsauce. It was super delicious. Then we've had pancakes very frequently. We don't have a spatula, so I've gotten very good at just getting the pancake unstuck from the pan and then actually flipping it. That also comes in handy with tortillas too. I ran out of oats this week, so I had to improvise a lot more. I just realized that the reason there is so much stuff about food in my emails is because I'm always way hungry. We always come first thing in the morning to the cyber and then eat after, so I'm always starving when I write. It's probably helped by the fact that I'm probably eating for myself, my amoeba colony, and my worms.
This week we worked our butts off again! It was fantastic! Apparently a cyclone came through, which is like a tropical storm, I've heard varying reports about how serious it was. Short story is we had crazy weather for like two days and lost all of our pretty flowers in our yard, our neighbors lost their wood fence, some people in our area lost their brick wall, and all the plants now look like they are trying to lay down and go to sleep. You can see all the corn leaning in one of my pictures.
I got some letters from home this week, and in one of them were some letters from the family back at the Thanksgiving party. Joe sent me one that shared his favorite scripture in Ether, he said he didn't know why he sent it, but I totally used it in a lesson that day. That was pretty great, so thanks a bunch! It was nice to hear from people back home too.
Then, a quick rundown of the week: on Tuesday we were going to teach these new investigators, but a cow was tied in front of their door, we tried to go around but she would charge us anytime we got close. Eventually they opened their door and helped us past the cow. Take that Satan!
On Friday we went on member splits and I went contacting for a couple hours and got six new families! I'm super pumped for them! Then, when we met back together we were teaching a lesson and I was feeling like it was going a little too long and I wanted to get going. Right then, Dimilahy, one of our member helps for the day turned to me, and said in some of the only English he knows, "Let's GO." I laughed really hard and we headed out right after that. Then on Saturday we walked past a little kid who saw me and tried to use all of the English he knew on me. So he only knew some Jason Derulo so he just ripped out his "wiggle wiggle wiggle." It was hilarious. On Sunday these kids came up to talk to me and asked me for money, I told them that I didn't have any money, which was true, so then he asked again in French. I told him I'm not good at French and he was astounded. "You mean you're not a vazaha?" I told him that I wasn't. I'm just an albino malagasy (there are a couple that live in our area that I've seen). He was just like, "oh, you're pretty tall though." "Yep." Then he walked away. HAH got him!
So yeah, it's all coming along well, I'm pumped for this next week, we've been doing really well the last few weeks, so this week we're going to try to keep that going and beat last week.
Love you all!
Mozotoa e!
So this week has been a party over here in the Indian Ocean! I will start with the food news, because that's all that half of you care about anyway, so you can just skip everything after this. This week I have been making a lot of tortillas. They are extremely easy so I've made them like six times. I don't always have stuff to put in them, so sometimes it's a little weird, but it all works out. My sunday dinner was a giant quesadilla with the two giant tortillas I made with the last of the flour. Then I put like half a block of this cheese stuff that I found that is very close to chedder. Way good. Then I ate it with my salsa I made a week ago and some hotsauce. It was super delicious. Then we've had pancakes very frequently. We don't have a spatula, so I've gotten very good at just getting the pancake unstuck from the pan and then actually flipping it. That also comes in handy with tortillas too. I ran out of oats this week, so I had to improvise a lot more. I just realized that the reason there is so much stuff about food in my emails is because I'm always way hungry. We always come first thing in the morning to the cyber and then eat after, so I'm always starving when I write. It's probably helped by the fact that I'm probably eating for myself, my amoeba colony, and my worms.
This week we worked our butts off again! It was fantastic! Apparently a cyclone came through, which is like a tropical storm, I've heard varying reports about how serious it was. Short story is we had crazy weather for like two days and lost all of our pretty flowers in our yard, our neighbors lost their wood fence, some people in our area lost their brick wall, and all the plants now look like they are trying to lay down and go to sleep. You can see all the corn leaning in one of my pictures.
I got some letters from home this week, and in one of them were some letters from the family back at the Thanksgiving party. Joe sent me one that shared his favorite scripture in Ether, he said he didn't know why he sent it, but I totally used it in a lesson that day. That was pretty great, so thanks a bunch! It was nice to hear from people back home too.
Then, a quick rundown of the week: on Tuesday we were going to teach these new investigators, but a cow was tied in front of their door, we tried to go around but she would charge us anytime we got close. Eventually they opened their door and helped us past the cow. Take that Satan!
On Friday we went on member splits and I went contacting for a couple hours and got six new families! I'm super pumped for them! Then, when we met back together we were teaching a lesson and I was feeling like it was going a little too long and I wanted to get going. Right then, Dimilahy, one of our member helps for the day turned to me, and said in some of the only English he knows, "Let's GO." I laughed really hard and we headed out right after that. Then on Saturday we walked past a little kid who saw me and tried to use all of the English he knew on me. So he only knew some Jason Derulo so he just ripped out his "wiggle wiggle wiggle." It was hilarious. On Sunday these kids came up to talk to me and asked me for money, I told them that I didn't have any money, which was true, so then he asked again in French. I told him I'm not good at French and he was astounded. "You mean you're not a vazaha?" I told him that I wasn't. I'm just an albino malagasy (there are a couple that live in our area that I've seen). He was just like, "oh, you're pretty tall though." "Yep." Then he walked away. HAH got him!
So yeah, it's all coming along well, I'm pumped for this next week, we've been doing really well the last few weeks, so this week we're going to try to keep that going and beat last week.
Love you all!
Mozotoa e!
Monday, January 5, 2015
Week 25 - Antsirabe - Prayers Do Get Answered
I will start with a quick message about fasting. Yesterday was fast Sunday, and because we have been dropping a lot of people because they aren't actually doing anything, Elder Razakamandimby fasted that the people who wanted to learn would find us and ask to learn. So now you're thinking, oh, so then someone came up and asked to learn, and it was all great and happy. No. Four people did. And then at a couple of our lessons THAT DAY they brought family members to come learn with them who hadn't learned before. It was fantastic! Especially because all of this happened after we broke our fast then headed out to work at 2, to when we headed home at 9:15ish. It was pretty cool to see how quickly our prayers were answered!
Anyway, we'll get on with this week. Last Monday, when the last email was sent home, we had planned to go to Lac Tritriva again because a lot of the new missionaries haven't seen it yet (fun fact, every single missionary who was here in Antsirabe when I first came has already left...). Then we didn't. So then we played football instead. Yours truly caught 2 of our 7 touchdowns. I'd be lying if I said I did a lot though, it was kind of a just throw it high up and he'll catch it kind of thing. I did actually run though... Then after that we went and got haircuts--my hair is way too short now... And then we picked up some food and went home.
Fun fact about this week: other than Monday and Sunday, we played basketball every singly morning. We've been getting up a little bit earlier and playing for an hour, then heading back to get ready. It has been fantastic! We played a local Malagasy club team and lost by 5 points. I think that's not bad for a bunch of missionaries who haven't played from anywhere for 2 months to a year and 9 months! I have noticed that I have been sleeping much better now! I also go to bed at like 10 and occaisionally 9:30 so I can keep up on sleep. It has been great!
Along those lines, I have also been demolishing food this last week. It started a little before we started playing basketball, so I'm not sure if it's from that or not. We have made a lot of great food this week, Elder Razakamandimby made 3 deep dish pizzas, I made biscuits and gravy to break our fast, we've had pancakes a couple time, oatmeal is a constant snack, Elder Kelsch made some no bake chocolate cookies ( also known by their real name of gorilla poop), and we've had spaghetti a few times too. An average day for me goes like this: We go play basketball, I get back and make oatmeal with peanut butter in it, then I make eight pancakes, then I study for a little bit, then I make another batch of oatmeal with peanut butter. Then I finish up studies and make a lunch of spaghetti with ground beef mixed in, just like back at home, then I eat 5 bananas with peanut butter. Then we go out and work. I buy two bowls of soup and some warm sugar milk with a bread ball at a little hotely for a snack. Then we work more. Then we come home and eat pizza. Then I eat some oatmeal as I write in my journal and then brush my teeth, put in my retainer and go to bed. Then you just repeat! It's crazy. Hopefully I am not growing any taller, that's all I can say, I already have to walk around hunched over in every Malagasy house... Maybe it's just that I have been healthy for a little, so I'm eating like normal again. I don't know.
This week we had next to no member help. That's an especially big bummer because two weeks ago we had member help every single day, all day. It's also a big bummer because we had member splits planned and nobody showed up. However, since we have been focusing on finding father lead families, we didn't have too much of a problem with needing a guy to teach with us because there were only women. So tha't good. We've found some more families and we had all of next Friday and half of Thursday planned to go do contacting in a new area we haven't been in too much. I say we had that planned because yesterday when all those people came to us, they all wanted to learn in the evening in Friday, so now it's just like half of Friday.
Malagasy Morsel for this week is manisa. mah-NEE-sah. It means to count. So for example, when I bought a Christmas advent calendar last Monday and decided to start counting up to the 25th of January (why not?) then manisa ny andro tsirairay aho. Or I count each day.
Anyway, that's the letter for this week. All of you enjoy the new year!
Tratra ny toana, samy hoa tratra ny ho avy indray, sns.
Mozotoa!
Anyway, we'll get on with this week. Last Monday, when the last email was sent home, we had planned to go to Lac Tritriva again because a lot of the new missionaries haven't seen it yet (fun fact, every single missionary who was here in Antsirabe when I first came has already left...). Then we didn't. So then we played football instead. Yours truly caught 2 of our 7 touchdowns. I'd be lying if I said I did a lot though, it was kind of a just throw it high up and he'll catch it kind of thing. I did actually run though... Then after that we went and got haircuts--my hair is way too short now... And then we picked up some food and went home.
Fun fact about this week: other than Monday and Sunday, we played basketball every singly morning. We've been getting up a little bit earlier and playing for an hour, then heading back to get ready. It has been fantastic! We played a local Malagasy club team and lost by 5 points. I think that's not bad for a bunch of missionaries who haven't played from anywhere for 2 months to a year and 9 months! I have noticed that I have been sleeping much better now! I also go to bed at like 10 and occaisionally 9:30 so I can keep up on sleep. It has been great!
Along those lines, I have also been demolishing food this last week. It started a little before we started playing basketball, so I'm not sure if it's from that or not. We have made a lot of great food this week, Elder Razakamandimby made 3 deep dish pizzas, I made biscuits and gravy to break our fast, we've had pancakes a couple time, oatmeal is a constant snack, Elder Kelsch made some no bake chocolate cookies ( also known by their real name of gorilla poop), and we've had spaghetti a few times too. An average day for me goes like this: We go play basketball, I get back and make oatmeal with peanut butter in it, then I make eight pancakes, then I study for a little bit, then I make another batch of oatmeal with peanut butter. Then I finish up studies and make a lunch of spaghetti with ground beef mixed in, just like back at home, then I eat 5 bananas with peanut butter. Then we go out and work. I buy two bowls of soup and some warm sugar milk with a bread ball at a little hotely for a snack. Then we work more. Then we come home and eat pizza. Then I eat some oatmeal as I write in my journal and then brush my teeth, put in my retainer and go to bed. Then you just repeat! It's crazy. Hopefully I am not growing any taller, that's all I can say, I already have to walk around hunched over in every Malagasy house... Maybe it's just that I have been healthy for a little, so I'm eating like normal again. I don't know.
This week we had next to no member help. That's an especially big bummer because two weeks ago we had member help every single day, all day. It's also a big bummer because we had member splits planned and nobody showed up. However, since we have been focusing on finding father lead families, we didn't have too much of a problem with needing a guy to teach with us because there were only women. So tha't good. We've found some more families and we had all of next Friday and half of Thursday planned to go do contacting in a new area we haven't been in too much. I say we had that planned because yesterday when all those people came to us, they all wanted to learn in the evening in Friday, so now it's just like half of Friday.
Malagasy Morsel for this week is manisa. mah-NEE-sah. It means to count. So for example, when I bought a Christmas advent calendar last Monday and decided to start counting up to the 25th of January (why not?) then manisa ny andro tsirairay aho. Or I count each day.
Anyway, that's the letter for this week. All of you enjoy the new year!
Tratra ny toana, samy hoa tratra ny ho avy indray, sns.
Mozotoa!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Week 19 - Antisrabe - First Basketball Injury
So this week has been exciting. We had district conference, which was pretty good, and then we did missionary work stuff. It's been fun! Fun side note: Elder Branch, James's companion, traveled with us from Provo to London and then split and went to Capetown instead of JBurg with us. Small world right?
The word of this week is inspired by my basketball game last Monday. Marary- mah-RAH-ree and it means sick or injured. Now to the basketball... We played with all of the missionaries here and it was a party. Before half of them got here we were playing a small game and I went up and when I came down, I landed on the side of my foot and dropped like a pile of bricks. It is still swollen by the way. So then I walked it off over to my water, the other missionaries showed up, I walked it off back to the court, and then kicked all of their butts. Not to be cocky or anything... Each team had one sub, and when someone scored they got subbed out, and I got a lot of rest... Haha it was a ton of fun, and we have some good basketball players here!
Then last night we had a barbecue at my house with our whole zone. It was so much fun and the food was way good! We have a Malagasy style fireplace thing so we just barbecued over kitay- kee-tie- which is just like dry firewood. It was way fun!
Living at our house has been lots of fun, we have a really good time! Elder Rice painted me a precious picture with some watercolors he found in one of the rooms. I'm keeping it forever.
Oh, I also finally got pictures of my suit. Enjoy. I am probably going back to the tailor this week to get some new pants.
This work has been going well this week. We struggled occasionally getting male member help, because the are all working or at school. We don't have any problem getting female help though... They are always super excited to... help people become converted...? We did have some great lessons this week, I really love working with Elder Razakamandimby. We've been working on getting the members to actually help more with the teaching because they usually just sit there and then at the end they maybe share a little thought or testimony. It's been coming along really well though!
Mbola marina ity filazantsara ity! Aza kivy ary tohizo amin'ny asan'ny Tompo!
This gospel is still true! Don't get down and keep up the work of the Lord!
Elder Rasmussen
The word of this week is inspired by my basketball game last Monday. Marary- mah-RAH-ree and it means sick or injured. Now to the basketball... We played with all of the missionaries here and it was a party. Before half of them got here we were playing a small game and I went up and when I came down, I landed on the side of my foot and dropped like a pile of bricks. It is still swollen by the way. So then I walked it off over to my water, the other missionaries showed up, I walked it off back to the court, and then kicked all of their butts. Not to be cocky or anything... Each team had one sub, and when someone scored they got subbed out, and I got a lot of rest... Haha it was a ton of fun, and we have some good basketball players here!
Then last night we had a barbecue at my house with our whole zone. It was so much fun and the food was way good! We have a Malagasy style fireplace thing so we just barbecued over kitay- kee-tie- which is just like dry firewood. It was way fun!
Living at our house has been lots of fun, we have a really good time! Elder Rice painted me a precious picture with some watercolors he found in one of the rooms. I'm keeping it forever.
This work has been going well this week. We struggled occasionally getting male member help, because the are all working or at school. We don't have any problem getting female help though... They are always super excited to... help people become converted...? We did have some great lessons this week, I really love working with Elder Razakamandimby. We've been working on getting the members to actually help more with the teaching because they usually just sit there and then at the end they maybe share a little thought or testimony. It's been coming along really well though!
Mbola marina ity filazantsara ity! Aza kivy ary tohizo amin'ny asan'ny Tompo!
This gospel is still true! Don't get down and keep up the work of the Lord!
Elder Rasmussen
Monday, November 3, 2014
Week 16 - Antsirabe - Here Comes the Rain
So I'll just start this one out with the word of the week. Let's be real, that's the most exciting part anyway. Anyway, mikitika, mee-KEE-tee-kah, means to tickle. Then, if you double the root it turns into mikitikitika, mee-kee-tee-KEE-tee-kah, which means to mess around with, or tinker while having absolutely no idea what the heck you're doing, as in, "I don't actually know how to fix the car, but if I just open the hood and tighten some stuff and put some more oil in, then it should work..." It's also just fun to say, so have at it!
Last Monday we all went to Lake Tritriva, sorry, LAC Tritriva... (that French stuff gets everywhere!). Anyway, it was a nice long bumpy ride, but then it was super pretty! It's up in the mountains and you get a beautiful view of most of Antsirabe from up there. It's mostly a tourist attraction, so when we got there all of us white folk had to pay the vazaha price while Elder Andriamanganoro, the only Malagasy missionary in Antsirabe right now, got to pay the Malagasy price which was several times cheaper. And then we got hounded by people selling souvenirs. That was pretty funny because they all have jacked up prices because they're used to selling to French tourists. So they would run up and show us their carved rocks or bracelets and say, "Mora be!" Which means, "very cheap!" Then when asked how much their little polished rock was, they would reveal that it was more than the cost of my food for a day if I ate out for every meal. But the lake was super pretty, I took some pictures on other people's cameras, because I still haven't figured out what's wrong with mine. Most of that is probably due to the fact that usually I don't have time to mess around with it (mikitikitika, see how useful it is?).
Then, some exciting news about this week is that the rain has started for real! The even more exciting news is that I left my raincoat back at the other house when I moved, and I didn't get a chance to get that until three days after it started raining! It's a good thing my bag is waterproof... The rain is a blast though! It just comes and comes. Whenever it starts looking like it's about to rain everybody rushes home. Then when it does come, people are crowded underneath any canopy or overhang they can get under! You'd think that people would be used to rain in a place with a nice monsoon season every year, but they're not. It's super funny. The rainy season hasn't started for real yet though, so far it's kind of clear to mostly clear in the mornings, then by about 2 the sky gets dark and cloudy, and then it rains from around 2:30ish to around 7, and then it's just drizzles the rest of the evening. Then repeat the next day! The coolest parts are that the clouds are always a lot lower than back home, so they're super huge and you can see them in detail really well! I'll have to send some pictures. And then the rain also fills up all of the sewage ditches, so you have to be careful which puddles you walk through, but that's just part of the fun! Final note, water proof shoes aren't really that waterproof... If it's not raining and you're just walking through water, they work great. But when it is raining, the water is just running down your legs into your shoes anyway, so that's that. Actually, they do a really good job of keeping the water in once it's there, so I guess they are pretty waterproof...
Let's see... notable things this week would include a split with my district leader, Elder Bowler. He is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency in the Manandona Branch, just South of Antsirabe. He's super funny and way good at Malagasy so it was way fun! However, we only taught two times and half of Preach My Gospel class before we had to go home because he was having some stomache problems... He was just laying on the floor while I taught PMG class... That was a bummer... Pun intended...
Then yesterday I learned how to make mofo sira which means salt bread. It should probably be called mofo siramamy, or sugar bread, because the recipie uses 1/4 kg of sugar, but only a spoonful of salt... Oh, it's also makes enough to feed a small neighborhood... They make it in a muffin tin over a fire, and it's essentially just muffin tops, it's pretty good though.
This week we had lunch with all of the missionaries at the couple missionaries' house. Elder and Sister Tolman, who are actually from American Fork too!, made us some delicious chili and cornbread. Of course, the chili was over rice because you have to have rice with every meal, every Malagasy knows that! Then we had ice cream and cake, which was some of the most delicious stuff I have eaten in since Sister Adams's food the first day in country. Then I also got to check their scale, which actually works. I'm still five pounds under my post MTC weight, but I lost 10 lbs when I got sick last month, so I've gained five back!
The final notable accomplishment is that I made bread again this week and it was heavenly. Thanks for the advice, Trent, because it turned out much better this time. I thought it was so good looking that I sent home a picture for all of you to enjoy to. Except you don't get to taste it... I made some rolls too, and it was nice to just eat bread and rolls for essentially half of the meals this week.
Something I've been working on a lot with those I teach is the principle of obedience. In John 7:17 it says if any man will DO Christ's will, THEN he will know if it is of God. That's true with just about anything, if you want to know if the Word of Wisdom is true, then follow it. If you want to know if the Book of Mormon is true, then read it. If you want to know if God exists, or even if you just aren't sure, then follow every single one of his commandments as best as you can and pray to him, then you'll know. I know that seems backwards logic, but science has figured this concept out too. It's been proven that if you want to be happy, then live and act as if you already are, then the happiness will come. If you don't know if God exists, then live and act as if he does and the knowledge will come. That's an eternal concept, and I know it works. God exists and he is our literal father. The gospel has brought me so much joy not just because it's something I can believe in to improve myself, but because I know that it is true and that my Heavenly Father, who has all power and wisdom, is on my side and wants me to be happy. I know this stuff is true, and like I tell those I talk to here, if I didn't know it was true than I wouldn't have left home and my schooling to come work on the other side of the world.
Love you all!
Elder Rasmussen
Last Monday we all went to Lake Tritriva, sorry, LAC Tritriva... (that French stuff gets everywhere!). Anyway, it was a nice long bumpy ride, but then it was super pretty! It's up in the mountains and you get a beautiful view of most of Antsirabe from up there. It's mostly a tourist attraction, so when we got there all of us white folk had to pay the vazaha price while Elder Andriamanganoro, the only Malagasy missionary in Antsirabe right now, got to pay the Malagasy price which was several times cheaper. And then we got hounded by people selling souvenirs. That was pretty funny because they all have jacked up prices because they're used to selling to French tourists. So they would run up and show us their carved rocks or bracelets and say, "Mora be!" Which means, "very cheap!" Then when asked how much their little polished rock was, they would reveal that it was more than the cost of my food for a day if I ate out for every meal. But the lake was super pretty, I took some pictures on other people's cameras, because I still haven't figured out what's wrong with mine. Most of that is probably due to the fact that usually I don't have time to mess around with it (mikitikitika, see how useful it is?).
Then, some exciting news about this week is that the rain has started for real! The even more exciting news is that I left my raincoat back at the other house when I moved, and I didn't get a chance to get that until three days after it started raining! It's a good thing my bag is waterproof... The rain is a blast though! It just comes and comes. Whenever it starts looking like it's about to rain everybody rushes home. Then when it does come, people are crowded underneath any canopy or overhang they can get under! You'd think that people would be used to rain in a place with a nice monsoon season every year, but they're not. It's super funny. The rainy season hasn't started for real yet though, so far it's kind of clear to mostly clear in the mornings, then by about 2 the sky gets dark and cloudy, and then it rains from around 2:30ish to around 7, and then it's just drizzles the rest of the evening. Then repeat the next day! The coolest parts are that the clouds are always a lot lower than back home, so they're super huge and you can see them in detail really well! I'll have to send some pictures. And then the rain also fills up all of the sewage ditches, so you have to be careful which puddles you walk through, but that's just part of the fun! Final note, water proof shoes aren't really that waterproof... If it's not raining and you're just walking through water, they work great. But when it is raining, the water is just running down your legs into your shoes anyway, so that's that. Actually, they do a really good job of keeping the water in once it's there, so I guess they are pretty waterproof...
Let's see... notable things this week would include a split with my district leader, Elder Bowler. He is the second counselor in the Branch Presidency in the Manandona Branch, just South of Antsirabe. He's super funny and way good at Malagasy so it was way fun! However, we only taught two times and half of Preach My Gospel class before we had to go home because he was having some stomache problems... He was just laying on the floor while I taught PMG class... That was a bummer... Pun intended...
Then yesterday I learned how to make mofo sira which means salt bread. It should probably be called mofo siramamy, or sugar bread, because the recipie uses 1/4 kg of sugar, but only a spoonful of salt... Oh, it's also makes enough to feed a small neighborhood... They make it in a muffin tin over a fire, and it's essentially just muffin tops, it's pretty good though.
This week we had lunch with all of the missionaries at the couple missionaries' house. Elder and Sister Tolman, who are actually from American Fork too!, made us some delicious chili and cornbread. Of course, the chili was over rice because you have to have rice with every meal, every Malagasy knows that! Then we had ice cream and cake, which was some of the most delicious stuff I have eaten in since Sister Adams's food the first day in country. Then I also got to check their scale, which actually works. I'm still five pounds under my post MTC weight, but I lost 10 lbs when I got sick last month, so I've gained five back!
The final notable accomplishment is that I made bread again this week and it was heavenly. Thanks for the advice, Trent, because it turned out much better this time. I thought it was so good looking that I sent home a picture for all of you to enjoy to. Except you don't get to taste it... I made some rolls too, and it was nice to just eat bread and rolls for essentially half of the meals this week.
Something I've been working on a lot with those I teach is the principle of obedience. In John 7:17 it says if any man will DO Christ's will, THEN he will know if it is of God. That's true with just about anything, if you want to know if the Word of Wisdom is true, then follow it. If you want to know if the Book of Mormon is true, then read it. If you want to know if God exists, or even if you just aren't sure, then follow every single one of his commandments as best as you can and pray to him, then you'll know. I know that seems backwards logic, but science has figured this concept out too. It's been proven that if you want to be happy, then live and act as if you already are, then the happiness will come. If you don't know if God exists, then live and act as if he does and the knowledge will come. That's an eternal concept, and I know it works. God exists and he is our literal father. The gospel has brought me so much joy not just because it's something I can believe in to improve myself, but because I know that it is true and that my Heavenly Father, who has all power and wisdom, is on my side and wants me to be happy. I know this stuff is true, and like I tell those I talk to here, if I didn't know it was true than I wouldn't have left home and my schooling to come work on the other side of the world.
Love you all!
Elder Rasmussen
Monday, September 8, 2014
Week 8 - Antsirabe - Food and Music
So on P-days we have dinner at around 5 and then go and proselyte from 6 until around 9, and we had been having a little bit of a tough time to find people then because people rarely want to meet on Monday nights, but last week we got it all solved. We went and did a little family home evening with the branch president, and it turns out one of his children was away at school somewhere else when the family got baptized, and she wants to learn. The branch president invited us to his house for a soirèe (like a small party) each Monday and he will invite some members or investigators each week and then we can teach his daughter too. We are pretty pumped, our program is just about full now, and it's been really cool to see how it filled up. We started with nothing like 3 weeks ago, but now we are starting to have trouble fitting people in. It's way nice to have that problem. Eventually we are going to have to start going on member splits all the time, which means no English at all, and that is something I am not really looking forward too... but it needs to happen eventually and it will be good for me, so I can't complain too much.
Our food this week has been fantastic. We went to Chez Billy's once with all of the elders from Antsirabe, which right now is the zone leaders, me, Elder Covey, and Elder Schroedter (who were both in my group in the MTC), and our trainers. Then we also all go to Besofina, a nice Malagasy hotely (little resturaunt), and then our house went to Pizza Inn this week, which is Malagasy pizza, and it's super greasy and has no sauce and it destroyed our digestive systems, but it was worth it. Then we've made crepes, pancakes, omelettes, spaghetti, other noodles, tortillas, burritoes, banana bread, coconut rice, and of course ramen. We have only had Malagsy food once at our house, and even then, it was Americanized some.
This week there has been a music festival in Antsirabe. It's all Malagasy music, which is pretty fantastic, and it's only at night. The best part is that you can hear it just about anywhere in the city, even half an hour plus away. So we can hear it all night long. It's usually like a mix of the mexican radio station and electronic dance music. With an occaisional banjo.
Our investigators are improving, we have three with baptismal dates and a bunch of others that are progressing. We had a few come to church on Sunday, along with a bunch of less actives, which is great. One of the big problems we are having is retention. Most of the members are still really young in the gospel and they don't have strong foundations most of the time. So when a leader does something wrong, or someone doesn't come to the funeral of another ward member, or when there aren't any elders for a few months lots of people just stop coming. Then there's also a problem with gossip and we are running at about a 25% attendance right now, which is bad. Of course, the records need a lot of work too, and we have the records of a lot of people that have moved or died still, so it's not as bad as it seems, but we are really working on getting people to remember their covenents, teaching them about forgiveness, and helping them remember that it's Christ's church. The work is going really well though. The people are loving and good intentioned so it's usually not too hard to talk with them. All in all the people are really loving. They are just great! I haven't had a single door slammed in my face and the most hostile anyone has been is staring at the white guys as they pass by.
The word of the week is manankina, mah-NAHN-keen-ah, which means to rely on. It's important for all of us to get to the point where we don't need to rely on others for our relationship with God. We should only be relying on him and the supports that he has given us like priesthood leaders, scriptures, and modern day revelation. When people have a very strong relationship with God, they work their hardest to do the things that he wants them to do, and they are solid, solid members.
Misoatra betsaka ho ny fotoana!
Elder Rasmussen
Our food this week has been fantastic. We went to Chez Billy's once with all of the elders from Antsirabe, which right now is the zone leaders, me, Elder Covey, and Elder Schroedter (who were both in my group in the MTC), and our trainers. Then we also all go to Besofina, a nice Malagasy hotely (little resturaunt), and then our house went to Pizza Inn this week, which is Malagasy pizza, and it's super greasy and has no sauce and it destroyed our digestive systems, but it was worth it. Then we've made crepes, pancakes, omelettes, spaghetti, other noodles, tortillas, burritoes, banana bread, coconut rice, and of course ramen. We have only had Malagsy food once at our house, and even then, it was Americanized some.
One of the Pizza Inn pizza boxes. We each got our own.
This week there has been a music festival in Antsirabe. It's all Malagasy music, which is pretty fantastic, and it's only at night. The best part is that you can hear it just about anywhere in the city, even half an hour plus away. So we can hear it all night long. It's usually like a mix of the mexican radio station and electronic dance music. With an occaisional banjo.
Part of the city, in the left corner you can see the spire of the cathedral on the main road.
Our investigators are improving, we have three with baptismal dates and a bunch of others that are progressing. We had a few come to church on Sunday, along with a bunch of less actives, which is great. One of the big problems we are having is retention. Most of the members are still really young in the gospel and they don't have strong foundations most of the time. So when a leader does something wrong, or someone doesn't come to the funeral of another ward member, or when there aren't any elders for a few months lots of people just stop coming. Then there's also a problem with gossip and we are running at about a 25% attendance right now, which is bad. Of course, the records need a lot of work too, and we have the records of a lot of people that have moved or died still, so it's not as bad as it seems, but we are really working on getting people to remember their covenents, teaching them about forgiveness, and helping them remember that it's Christ's church. The work is going really well though. The people are loving and good intentioned so it's usually not too hard to talk with them. All in all the people are really loving. They are just great! I haven't had a single door slammed in my face and the most hostile anyone has been is staring at the white guys as they pass by.
The word of the week is manankina, mah-NAHN-keen-ah, which means to rely on. It's important for all of us to get to the point where we don't need to rely on others for our relationship with God. We should only be relying on him and the supports that he has given us like priesthood leaders, scriptures, and modern day revelation. When people have a very strong relationship with God, they work their hardest to do the things that he wants them to do, and they are solid, solid members.
Misoatra betsaka ho ny fotoana!
Elder Rasmussen
Monday, September 1, 2014
Week 7 - Antsirabe - Trying to Read the Book of Mormon
So last week after we went to the cyber to email, we went shopping at the Shoprite, the only grocery store in Antsirabe other than street vendors. While we were there, we found a whole section of mugs for sale, and Elder Covey and I found some of the coolest mugs in existance, and we bought them for about three dollars. They are white with pictures of kittens on them. It doesn't get more hardcore than that. Mine is actually better than his because I get 5 different kittens in one big picture that wraps all the way around, but he only gets the same cat twice, once on each side.
This week has been super awesome! Our member help is amazing. We have had at least one person with us every day this last week from about 2ish until around 7. They have been a huge help because they know lots of the people who were investigating with the last missionaries, the less actives, and the leaders in the ward. There was one day where we had no help and we didn't know where to start, so we just went into our area (about a 30-45 minute walk from our house) and stopped at a market to look around and decide where to go. Then a member walked up to us, announced that she was going to help us for that day, and then started taking us around to people. She even had a list of recent converts and less actives for us! The Lord is definitely leading us to those he has prepared.
In one of our lessons with some less active members, there was a little boy who decided I was his friend, and I was chatting and playing with him a little bit before we got going. I made the mistake of writing something down in my planner and he was fascinated with my pen. It's just a black ballpoint pen that you push the button down, then have to push a button on the side to pop it back up, but he thought it was the coolest thing in the world! Then, during the prayer, he reaches through my folded arms, all the way across my chest and slowly pulls the pen out, then after playing with it for about 30 seconds (it was a long prayer), he slowly reaches back and slides it back into my chest pocket. I was trying sooo hard not to laugh the whole time! His family is really awesome though. They are pretty rich for Malagasies, the dad is a mechanical engineer and professor at a local college. Pretty rich is relative, of course, because they still have a cement floor and I'm not sure if they have running water or not. It's crazy how much we take for granted.
Today we drove way out into the boonies in Manadona, to go to a waterfall. It was super cool. We went with all of the missionaries in my district and in the other Antsirabe district. Some of the elders went and ran way up past the waterfall jumping from rock to rock in the river. It was lots of fun, and it was really pretty.
I've started to read the scriptures in Malagasy to work on my language skills, and I started by jumping around to a lot of scriptures that I have memorized in English, but then I decided to start at the beginning. I open to the first verse and it says "I Nephi, because I was born of parents pinched people with hair..." or something like that. I asked Elder Rahilahivao, the native Malagasy who lives with me, about it and he started laughing and said that it was pretty messed up--apparently the translation isn't quite perfect... Apparently people still manage to keep reading after coming across that, so it's all good I guess. The mistakes of men can't keep the work of the Lord from progressing.
The word of the week is mazoto (muh-zoo-too) it means dilligent. We use this word a lot when describing investigators and members. It's super important because those who are not mazoto, those who don't read their scriptures and keep their covenants and obey the commandments, don't have the Spirit in their life and they lose their faith. It's super sad to see. It's a hard concept for lots of people to understand that you won't be able to know if the gospel is true or not until AFTER you start living it. You have to give it a test drive first because no assurance that it's true will come until after the trial of your faith.
Fitiavana maro!
Elder Rasmussen
This week has been super awesome! Our member help is amazing. We have had at least one person with us every day this last week from about 2ish until around 7. They have been a huge help because they know lots of the people who were investigating with the last missionaries, the less actives, and the leaders in the ward. There was one day where we had no help and we didn't know where to start, so we just went into our area (about a 30-45 minute walk from our house) and stopped at a market to look around and decide where to go. Then a member walked up to us, announced that she was going to help us for that day, and then started taking us around to people. She even had a list of recent converts and less actives for us! The Lord is definitely leading us to those he has prepared.
A nice traditional Malagasy meal
In one of our lessons with some less active members, there was a little boy who decided I was his friend, and I was chatting and playing with him a little bit before we got going. I made the mistake of writing something down in my planner and he was fascinated with my pen. It's just a black ballpoint pen that you push the button down, then have to push a button on the side to pop it back up, but he thought it was the coolest thing in the world! Then, during the prayer, he reaches through my folded arms, all the way across my chest and slowly pulls the pen out, then after playing with it for about 30 seconds (it was a long prayer), he slowly reaches back and slides it back into my chest pocket. I was trying sooo hard not to laugh the whole time! His family is really awesome though. They are pretty rich for Malagasies, the dad is a mechanical engineer and professor at a local college. Pretty rich is relative, of course, because they still have a cement floor and I'm not sure if they have running water or not. It's crazy how much we take for granted.
A sunset in our area
Today we drove way out into the boonies in Manadona, to go to a waterfall. It was super cool. We went with all of the missionaries in my district and in the other Antsirabe district. Some of the elders went and ran way up past the waterfall jumping from rock to rock in the river. It was lots of fun, and it was really pretty.
My selfie from our hike to the waterfall today
The word of the week is mazoto (muh-zoo-too) it means dilligent. We use this word a lot when describing investigators and members. It's super important because those who are not mazoto, those who don't read their scriptures and keep their covenants and obey the commandments, don't have the Spirit in their life and they lose their faith. It's super sad to see. It's a hard concept for lots of people to understand that you won't be able to know if the gospel is true or not until AFTER you start living it. You have to give it a test drive first because no assurance that it's true will come until after the trial of your faith.
Fitiavana maro!
Elder Rasmussen
Monday, August 25, 2014
Week 6 - Made it to Madagascar
Well, as the subject says, I actually did make it to Madagascar, but that only happened after a very, very long plane ride. We left Monday morning and then didn't arrive until Wednesday afternoon. I slept a little, and was bored out of my mind a little, talked to the people around me a little, and lost all feeling in my lower body a little. It was great!
Then we arrived in Madagascar, and the airport was this great little podunk place. We had to sign papers in Malagasy and they asked us questions in Malagasy and we just smiled and nodded. Then President and Sister Adams met us with the AP's, Elder Fox and Elder Christiansen. I made sure to tell Elder Fox that I knew all about his mission because I stalked his blog.
Then we took a sketchy drive through Tana to the mission home.
We had a great lasagna meal there. Then we went to the AP's and office elders' apartments and slept there.
Then back to the mission home where we had breakfast-- a great oatmeal type thing-- and then we had some orientation and after that we opened our assignments. That was intense. We were in the chapel with our whole group and all of the trainers and AP's and we were called up one by one by the mission president and given an envelope with our assignment in it, then we opened it there in front of everyone. Then everyone clapped, the trainers would come up and tell a little about the area, then you went and sat by them, and the next missionary was up. It was like a whole new mission call opening.
I have been assigned to Ambohimena, in Antsirabe, a city about 3 hours South of Antananarivo! My trainer is Elder Cartmill, he's from North Dakota and he's been in country for about a year. He got up to tell me about the area, and he said that it's in Antsirabe, but that's mostly all he knows because we are whitewashing it... What?!
After everyone received their assignments, we had Sister Adam's famous sloppy joes and then headed out. The taxi-brousse (inter-city bus, as opposed to a taxibe which is intra-city) was trying to rip us off, and the AP's were coming because we had a zone conference, so we just drove with them, which was much nicer than a taxi-brousse.
We had dinner at Chez Billy, which is like a Malagasy American resturaunt, and I had a hamburger. It's in my area, so I can go to it pretty often if I want.
Then the next day we had a zone conference with Elder Hamilton of the Africa Southeast Area Presidency. I told him to keep an eye out for James when he goes to Capetown next month.
Then the next day was Saturday and we tried to find people. We don't have an area book, long story, so we had to try to do our best on our own. We found some investigators with the sister missionaries' help, and then after eating my first Malagasy meal at Besofina's, a Malagasy resturaunt, we headed off on our own to try to get the hang of our area, which is huge.
We explored an area called Senasabotsy, and we got lost and asked someone for directions and she is the ward mission leader's mom! She was right in front of his house and we met him. Then after he took us around to a few members and less actives, we wandered off again and after an hour-ish we heard a little boy call misionera, which is Malagasy for missionaries. We went and talked to him and right by him was one of the ward missionaries! Then he took us to the young men's president, who is a super dilligent guy who teaches with the missionaries a lot! Then we met 2 more of the ward missionaries at his house. It was crazy how everything worked out. We headed out that day with the goal to find the young men's president, the ward mission leader, and some members to help us teach, and we found all three in a part of our area that is huge and there are lots of people and very few members. Miracles are real, ok?
Then we had church the next day. Attendance was really low because one of the ward members' sons died and lots of people were at his burial, but we still met a bunch of members. There are lots of young single sisters in our branch, and they kind of swarmed us a bunch, but don't worry, it's nothing I'm not used to!
The kids here are crazy cute and they love to play with us and give us fistbumps. They also yell "vazaha!" whenever they see white people, which is funny, but so far, I think I've heard more people say, "lava be!" when I walk past than "vazaha" Which is impressive because you hear vazaha all the time! Lava be means very tall and I get it a ton. First of I'm white, so they notice me, and then I'm 6'6" and my companion is only 5'8" which is already taller than most Malagasies, so I am just massive. And I hit my head on stuff. But it's ok because the kids love me, and I can be as intimidating as I feel like being.
Elder Cartmill is pretty mahay (fluent) and he has been in Antsirabe for a while, just in a different area, so he knows the language around here pretty well.
We live in the same house with his old companion who is working the area that Elder Cartmill just came from. His name is Elder Rahilaivao, he's a native and he's super funny. His English is good for a Malagasy, but he still has a ways to go, which is tough for his trainee. He's training Elder Covey from my group, which is way exciting because that means we see each other all of the time. Elder Covey is going to come out of training super good at Malagsy because Elder Rahilaivoa's English isn't super great. He's being a good sport about it, but he likes asking Elder Cartmill Malagasy questions when we're home at night.
So far I'm loving it here! I'm even getting used to the smell of sewage and burning garbage that's everywhere. Sorry for the super long email, but there was lots to write this week.
Tiako ianareo!
Elder Rasmussen
London Heathrow!
Johannesburg!
Then we arrived in Madagascar, and the airport was this great little podunk place. We had to sign papers in Malagasy and they asked us questions in Malagasy and we just smiled and nodded. Then President and Sister Adams met us with the AP's, Elder Fox and Elder Christiansen. I made sure to tell Elder Fox that I knew all about his mission because I stalked his blog.
(Mom's note: we received these photos from the mission office, along with a short note to let us know he arrived safely.)
The view of Tana from the mission home.
Selfie at said mission home.
We had a great lasagna meal there. Then we went to the AP's and office elders' apartments and slept there.
Me on the office elder's balcony. I had one with my face lit up, but I looked stoned so I deleted it. Enjoy!
Then back to the mission home where we had breakfast-- a great oatmeal type thing-- and then we had some orientation and after that we opened our assignments. That was intense. We were in the chapel with our whole group and all of the trainers and AP's and we were called up one by one by the mission president and given an envelope with our assignment in it, then we opened it there in front of everyone. Then everyone clapped, the trainers would come up and tell a little about the area, then you went and sat by them, and the next missionary was up. It was like a whole new mission call opening.
Mission tags! Super cute!
I have been assigned to Ambohimena, in Antsirabe, a city about 3 hours South of Antananarivo! My trainer is Elder Cartmill, he's from North Dakota and he's been in country for about a year. He got up to tell me about the area, and he said that it's in Antsirabe, but that's mostly all he knows because we are whitewashing it... What?!
After everyone received their assignments, we had Sister Adam's famous sloppy joes and then headed out. The taxi-brousse (inter-city bus, as opposed to a taxibe which is intra-city) was trying to rip us off, and the AP's were coming because we had a zone conference, so we just drove with them, which was much nicer than a taxi-brousse.
Antsirabe from the Andranamanelatra Elders' car. That's Elder Covey driving like a boss.
We had dinner at Chez Billy, which is like a Malagasy American resturaunt, and I had a hamburger. It's in my area, so I can go to it pretty often if I want.
Then the next day we had a zone conference with Elder Hamilton of the Africa Southeast Area Presidency. I told him to keep an eye out for James when he goes to Capetown next month.
(Mom's note: this is a photo we received in a note Elder Hamilton sent to us, saying Nathan was a "fine young man.")
Then the next day was Saturday and we tried to find people. We don't have an area book, long story, so we had to try to do our best on our own. We found some investigators with the sister missionaries' help, and then after eating my first Malagasy meal at Besofina's, a Malagasy resturaunt, we headed off on our own to try to get the hang of our area, which is huge.
We explored an area called Senasabotsy, and we got lost and asked someone for directions and she is the ward mission leader's mom! She was right in front of his house and we met him. Then after he took us around to a few members and less actives, we wandered off again and after an hour-ish we heard a little boy call misionera, which is Malagasy for missionaries. We went and talked to him and right by him was one of the ward missionaries! Then he took us to the young men's president, who is a super dilligent guy who teaches with the missionaries a lot! Then we met 2 more of the ward missionaries at his house. It was crazy how everything worked out. We headed out that day with the goal to find the young men's president, the ward mission leader, and some members to help us teach, and we found all three in a part of our area that is huge and there are lots of people and very few members. Miracles are real, ok?
Then we had church the next day. Attendance was really low because one of the ward members' sons died and lots of people were at his burial, but we still met a bunch of members. There are lots of young single sisters in our branch, and they kind of swarmed us a bunch, but don't worry, it's nothing I'm not used to!
The kids here are crazy cute and they love to play with us and give us fistbumps. They also yell "vazaha!" whenever they see white people, which is funny, but so far, I think I've heard more people say, "lava be!" when I walk past than "vazaha" Which is impressive because you hear vazaha all the time! Lava be means very tall and I get it a ton. First of I'm white, so they notice me, and then I'm 6'6" and my companion is only 5'8" which is already taller than most Malagasies, so I am just massive. And I hit my head on stuff. But it's ok because the kids love me, and I can be as intimidating as I feel like being.
Antsirabe from a hill.
Elder Cartmill is pretty mahay (fluent) and he has been in Antsirabe for a while, just in a different area, so he knows the language around here pretty well.
We live in the same house with his old companion who is working the area that Elder Cartmill just came from. His name is Elder Rahilaivao, he's a native and he's super funny. His English is good for a Malagasy, but he still has a ways to go, which is tough for his trainee. He's training Elder Covey from my group, which is way exciting because that means we see each other all of the time. Elder Covey is going to come out of training super good at Malagsy because Elder Rahilaivoa's English isn't super great. He's being a good sport about it, but he likes asking Elder Cartmill Malagasy questions when we're home at night.
So far I'm loving it here! I'm even getting used to the smell of sewage and burning garbage that's everywhere. Sorry for the super long email, but there was lots to write this week.
Tiako ianareo!
Elder Rasmussen
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Week 1 - New in the MTC
Manahoana fianakaviako! Hello my family!
So you may have realized at this point that p days are on Thursdays. You may also have realized that our first Thursday was not a p day, but if you didn't figure that out, it's all good because I just told you. So the MTC is pretty swell... It's probably one of my favorite things ever!
Yes, the food is good. Some of the elders have compared it to Jeremiah 4:19-20 but I really enjoy it. Here is a sample meal: 2 small pizzas, a bowl of pineapple, BYU Creamery ice cream, an ice cream sandwich, a small salad, three cups of chocolate milk and a cup of juice from some kind of fruit or combinations of fruits. They also have soda, but I've managed to keep myself away from that so far, although I might start getting used to Coke because it kills parasites... so it might come in handy. The food changes every day, but so far it has all been pretty delicious,some of the dishes run a little bit dry, but most of them are fantastic.
Speaking of parasites, we picked up our anti-malaria pills yesterday and some of the pills are pretty interesting. The one we are on is called doxycycline, or something like that, some possible side effects include phototoxicity, which means that you essentially are allergic to sunlight and you get really painful burns from walking across the street; and you also have to stay upright for an hour after you swallow it, because if you lay down it could come back up into your throat and dissolve there, and burn your esophagus really badly, but that's nothing compared to the other one! 20% of the people who take it have really strange, vivid dreams; and other side effects include hallucinations, depression, and psychotic behavior! Some of the elders in my district have been saying that they want to take that one because it's essentially church endorsed LSD. They're joking of course, but it's some pretty crazy stuff!
Speaking of my district, the Malagasy district is the largest in the MTC and the second largest group of Malagasies ever. There are 13 of us. The largest group of Malagasies ever was 15, but they were separated into two districts. Our district is super close and we all felt like we knew each other as soon as we met, which is pretty cool when you consider that missionaries are foreordained... But I love them a bunch! We demolish everyone else pretty hardcore in soccer because we have three really good soccer players, including a pacific islander named Elder T. who is learning English. and everyone else is pretty athletic. Speaking of athleticism, we were doing vertical wall pushups in our room, and I got the second most with 6, so that's exciting.
My companion is Elder A. from Tuscon, Arizona. He is also our district leader, which means that I am pretty much the executive secretary: it's my job to make sure he's on schedule; but I am the senior companion, so I feel like the power behind the throne sometime... (That was a joke) He's a stud. He's really smart and he loves learning the language, so we get along pretty well. He's like 6'3" so he's like the fourth shortest in our district. Fourth... I'm the tallest, but a bunch of the other guys are right around his height, our shortest guy is Elder R., and we are a TALL district. With the height and the general whiteness (except for Elder T. and Elder P.) we will stick out a ton in Madagascar!
On to some very sad news. The gym is closed, so we can only play soccer or go to the little secondary gym or play kickball or volleyball... not basketball. When the gym opens in a week, our district is prepared to hand it to all the other Elders!
Malagasy is coming along pretty well. In fact, I am loving it a ton! About 1/3 of my conversation is in Malagasy, and I am having a blast! We've been teaching our investigator, "Rakoto Jean," since the second day in the MTC, only in Malagasy! The first day was super rough! He's really nice, and our teachers Ralahy (brother) S. and Ralahy A. told us he was a real investigator. We had our doubts, and yesterday while Elders P. and C. were teaching him, his white MTC teacher name tag fell out of his pocket! Elder C. said that his name started with a b, and I'd talked to a return missionary working at our devotional at the Marriott Center last night (because the auditorium in the MTC is closed with the gym) and he asked about a Brother B. After we decided that's who he must be, we were in class and he walks in, proudly wearing his nametag!!! This may not sound so cool but we were all so excited! He's going to be teaching us the rest of the time with our other two teachers! If you haven't quite caught on yet, THIS WAS A HUGE DEAL FOR ALL OF US!!!!!!! We were all just grinning when we walked to our residence hall.
Speaking of classroom and residence hall, our residence hall is in the opposite side of the MTC from our classroom, and our rooms are on the top floor, and so is our classroom so we walk a LOT. And to make matters better, the cafeteria is in another corner, so we spend lots of our day walking in the heat, which by itself is pretty good mission prep too.
I'm sorry if there aren't any pictures this week, the computers we're on can't upload them from my camera, so if they don't come, that means I wasn't able to get to one that could. But the pictures will come soon. The views from the MTC are super pretty, and my district is a bunch of strikingly handsome young men, so they'll be worth the wait.
Before I'm done, I'll just give a brief overview of an average day. We wake up at 6:30, but sometimes we get up before that, then have breakfast at 7:15, after that we head over to our classroom, where we spend about 11 hours usually. At 11:35 is lunch, and dinner is at 4:50. Sometime during the day we have gym time for fifty minutes with ten minutes before to get ready and half an hour after to clean up and take a shower, but remember that it takes about five minutes to get from the field to our residence, so we are pretty short for time. At 9:30 we leave our classroom and go to our residence, where we get ready for bed. At 10:15 is quiet time, and lights off is at 10:30. We have no free time, but I like the schedule a lot. After one thing, we have to leave right away to get to our next thing. Even during meals we barely have enough time to eat all of our food. We have devotionals at the Marriott center on Tuesdays and Sundays, it's fun to walk over with all the other 2000+ missionaries, 600 of which came in when I did. We also have choir practice after dinner on Tuesdays and Sundays, and we perform on Sundays, our whole district goes to those and it's a lot of fun. Our whole district does everything together, we are all super happy that we didn't get split up, they split up groups at 14 and they were thinking about splitting us up. Also, we get mail everyday, so if you guys would like to send some real mail, maybe even packages of goodies while I'm in Provo and that's actually affordable, please do! Elder C. and I are the only ones who haven't gotten anything. You can try DearElder, because there are lots of those coming in and I think it's super cheap.
Veloma!
Ok, we can't see the pictures in the browser until after we send it, and we can only send like 15mb at a time. This is our classroom with some of our district.
This is the view from the building that my classroom is in, there's the windows and some chairs there so we study there sometimes.
Our district going to the temple for our Sunday temple walk.
This picture is my district.
Elder A. and me at the temple.
So you may have realized at this point that p days are on Thursdays. You may also have realized that our first Thursday was not a p day, but if you didn't figure that out, it's all good because I just told you. So the MTC is pretty swell... It's probably one of my favorite things ever!
Yes, the food is good. Some of the elders have compared it to Jeremiah 4:19-20 but I really enjoy it. Here is a sample meal: 2 small pizzas, a bowl of pineapple, BYU Creamery ice cream, an ice cream sandwich, a small salad, three cups of chocolate milk and a cup of juice from some kind of fruit or combinations of fruits. They also have soda, but I've managed to keep myself away from that so far, although I might start getting used to Coke because it kills parasites... so it might come in handy. The food changes every day, but so far it has all been pretty delicious,some of the dishes run a little bit dry, but most of them are fantastic.
Speaking of parasites, we picked up our anti-malaria pills yesterday and some of the pills are pretty interesting. The one we are on is called doxycycline, or something like that, some possible side effects include phototoxicity, which means that you essentially are allergic to sunlight and you get really painful burns from walking across the street; and you also have to stay upright for an hour after you swallow it, because if you lay down it could come back up into your throat and dissolve there, and burn your esophagus really badly, but that's nothing compared to the other one! 20% of the people who take it have really strange, vivid dreams; and other side effects include hallucinations, depression, and psychotic behavior! Some of the elders in my district have been saying that they want to take that one because it's essentially church endorsed LSD. They're joking of course, but it's some pretty crazy stuff!
Speaking of my district, the Malagasy district is the largest in the MTC and the second largest group of Malagasies ever. There are 13 of us. The largest group of Malagasies ever was 15, but they were separated into two districts. Our district is super close and we all felt like we knew each other as soon as we met, which is pretty cool when you consider that missionaries are foreordained... But I love them a bunch! We demolish everyone else pretty hardcore in soccer because we have three really good soccer players, including a pacific islander named Elder T. who is learning English. and everyone else is pretty athletic. Speaking of athleticism, we were doing vertical wall pushups in our room, and I got the second most with 6, so that's exciting.
My companion is Elder A. from Tuscon, Arizona. He is also our district leader, which means that I am pretty much the executive secretary: it's my job to make sure he's on schedule; but I am the senior companion, so I feel like the power behind the throne sometime... (That was a joke) He's a stud. He's really smart and he loves learning the language, so we get along pretty well. He's like 6'3" so he's like the fourth shortest in our district. Fourth... I'm the tallest, but a bunch of the other guys are right around his height, our shortest guy is Elder R., and we are a TALL district. With the height and the general whiteness (except for Elder T. and Elder P.) we will stick out a ton in Madagascar!
On to some very sad news. The gym is closed, so we can only play soccer or go to the little secondary gym or play kickball or volleyball... not basketball. When the gym opens in a week, our district is prepared to hand it to all the other Elders!
Malagasy is coming along pretty well. In fact, I am loving it a ton! About 1/3 of my conversation is in Malagasy, and I am having a blast! We've been teaching our investigator, "Rakoto Jean," since the second day in the MTC, only in Malagasy! The first day was super rough! He's really nice, and our teachers Ralahy (brother) S. and Ralahy A. told us he was a real investigator. We had our doubts, and yesterday while Elders P. and C. were teaching him, his white MTC teacher name tag fell out of his pocket! Elder C. said that his name started with a b, and I'd talked to a return missionary working at our devotional at the Marriott Center last night (because the auditorium in the MTC is closed with the gym) and he asked about a Brother B. After we decided that's who he must be, we were in class and he walks in, proudly wearing his nametag!!! This may not sound so cool but we were all so excited! He's going to be teaching us the rest of the time with our other two teachers! If you haven't quite caught on yet, THIS WAS A HUGE DEAL FOR ALL OF US!!!!!!! We were all just grinning when we walked to our residence hall.
Speaking of classroom and residence hall, our residence hall is in the opposite side of the MTC from our classroom, and our rooms are on the top floor, and so is our classroom so we walk a LOT. And to make matters better, the cafeteria is in another corner, so we spend lots of our day walking in the heat, which by itself is pretty good mission prep too.
I'm sorry if there aren't any pictures this week, the computers we're on can't upload them from my camera, so if they don't come, that means I wasn't able to get to one that could. But the pictures will come soon. The views from the MTC are super pretty, and my district is a bunch of strikingly handsome young men, so they'll be worth the wait.
Before I'm done, I'll just give a brief overview of an average day. We wake up at 6:30, but sometimes we get up before that, then have breakfast at 7:15, after that we head over to our classroom, where we spend about 11 hours usually. At 11:35 is lunch, and dinner is at 4:50. Sometime during the day we have gym time for fifty minutes with ten minutes before to get ready and half an hour after to clean up and take a shower, but remember that it takes about five minutes to get from the field to our residence, so we are pretty short for time. At 9:30 we leave our classroom and go to our residence, where we get ready for bed. At 10:15 is quiet time, and lights off is at 10:30. We have no free time, but I like the schedule a lot. After one thing, we have to leave right away to get to our next thing. Even during meals we barely have enough time to eat all of our food. We have devotionals at the Marriott center on Tuesdays and Sundays, it's fun to walk over with all the other 2000+ missionaries, 600 of which came in when I did. We also have choir practice after dinner on Tuesdays and Sundays, and we perform on Sundays, our whole district goes to those and it's a lot of fun. Our whole district does everything together, we are all super happy that we didn't get split up, they split up groups at 14 and they were thinking about splitting us up. Also, we get mail everyday, so if you guys would like to send some real mail, maybe even packages of goodies while I'm in Provo and that's actually affordable, please do! Elder C. and I are the only ones who haven't gotten anything. You can try DearElder, because there are lots of those coming in and I think it's super cheap.
Veloma!
Ok, we can't see the pictures in the browser until after we send it, and we can only send like 15mb at a time. This is our classroom with some of our district.
This is the view from the building that my classroom is in, there's the windows and some chairs there so we study there sometimes.
Our district going to the temple for our Sunday temple walk.
This picture is my district.
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