So Much Rain....

It's crazy how it's freaking Monday again already. I swear it goes by faster and faster here.

So last Monday was interesting. We went to go contact this crazy drunk family but they weren't home and so we contacted the house right next door. The guy seemed nice and let us in but then he just started ripping into us. He told us that we can't teach the bible if we don't have a degree and nonsense like that. And he also was talking about how God is different for everyone and then he pointed at me and was like "like you, God for Americans is money and that's it." And he said a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember but he really ticked me off. I just told him straight up that he was wrong and lit him up a little bit but we got a return appointment so you can see that this is a really weird place.

Tuesday I went on a split with Elder Lehr in our area to give a bap interview for one of our investigators and it was way fun. We taught the Brady Bunch first and taught them about the Book of Mormon. They already knew a little bit about it because they have all been to church a couple times already. After that it was just more contacting... Contacting isn't all that bad but I would prefer to teach people. We lost some time after that because we had to print a bunch of invitations for an open door we are having at the church on the 11 and 12 of December. We taught Jeremy after that and holy crap was he on one. He was bouncing all over the walls and all his friends were there too and they were bouncing off the walls too. We tried to do like a game to teach some principles but it just made it worse. We had Fanasina after that and she was the one getting interviewed for baptism. We did a quick Vatsi-panahy (spiritual thought) from Alma 7:11-13 and it was so spiritual filled it was ridiculous.Then Elder Lehr told me about this way cool thing that that scripture talks about why we use consecrated oil. It has literally no healing properties but it's a symbol. If you read the first verse of that passage, that is what it is symbolic of. But olives, when they are first crushed, are the color of blood. The oil is a symbol of the blood that actually heals and everything that it covers is in that first verse. I thought that was way cool. We ate at Sofia's that night and the food took freaking 2 hours to make and that was super lame.

Wednesday was the day of rain. So much rain in not a lot of time. We did a lot of tracting in the rain and that was a lot a fun... not. Everything just becomes super slippery and I almost fell a bunch of times. Actually I did fall once and it hurt so yeah lame. We taught this new Investigator at the church after our meeting with the Branch President and it went way well I think. We taught the whole first and she seemed to understand and be ok with it so that's a start. She wants us to teach her again so that's a good sign. We contacted these other people; well actually they pretty much contacted us because they were like "hey come in and teach us we want to learn from you guys" so that's was good. They are way awesome and we have another time with them this week which will be cool. We had Marcellan and I gave the vatsi-panahy from D and C 58:2-4 which is a way good scripture. If you have time, read it it's awesome. We went to J to finish off the day but he told us that he and his wife would not be attending church anymore until President comes down here because they are sick of all the rumors and negative comments they get all the time. We tried really hard to convince them otherwise but they would not budge. But we found out later this week that a lot of what they said is coming from themselves only. They are just putting words into other peoples mouths in order to have an excuse not to go. Soooooo lame.

On Thursday we taught Ralaivao's dad again about the Pre-Mortal life. We went to Soa and Philibert after that and taught them and it was an awesome lesson. We get there and they are like "Where is your church at? cause we really want to go. We've let Jehovah's Witnesses teach us before but you guys bring something else and we really want to go to church. But we have to work on Sunday in order to have food but we really really want to come and will try to make it." We just promised them that if they really try, that God will help them and bless them for doing so. It was way awesome. We dd a little contacting around their house and found some cool new investigators so that'll be good. We went to Olga's house and she had had her baby the day before! And she totally seemed just fine  like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't pushed a watermelon out of her body the day before in a 3rd world country. We visited a contact after that, Lalao and Jean Jacque. They are way cool and were way accepting of our message from the start. They asked us where our church was without us even bringing anything up about going to church. 

Friday we spent freaking 3 hours making a bap program because of slow internet and the Office Elders not sending us the template for like an hour. So during that time we read about other religious beliefs and it was way interesting. It just made me realize how true our church is. Nothing that any of the other ones had made any sense whatsoever. For example, Jehovah's witnesses believe that Christ was not resurrected but returned to earth as a spirit and his body was destroyed by God. And that he was not crucified on a cross and that Christians should not celebrate Christian holidays because they are Pagan. None of that makes any sense. We also happened to come across some stuff about our church which was so ridiculously false it made me laugh. It was also on the same website as the J W stuff so I'm not sure if I should believe the stuff about them. We taught Ludovic after and he ticked us off way bad. He straight lied to our face more than once and just kept making excuses so we aren't sure that he will be getting baptized at all cause he is so lazy and won't do anything. We did more contacting and found even more awesome contacts and then taught a member family about Lehi's dream.

Saturday we had a baptism.  Super weird though. We had one getting baptized, Fanasina, and the other branch had 2 getting baptized but they never showed up. For some reason we ended up waiting for 2 hours for them and they never showed up. After the baptism we taught a guy right next to our house named Be. He has at least 100 birds in and around his house. They wake me up every morning because they all like to make a lot of noise at once and it's usually when the sun comes up. It was good though; he's a cool guy. We got dogged by a lot of times but one of our recent converts was home so we taught her. I shared the same vatsi-panahy from D&C 58:2-5 and it went way good. As soon as I started the Spirit just came in and my Malagasy just started flying from my mouth it was awesome. The Spirit is a great thing. 

Yesterday we had a "stake" conference but it was a DVD of General Authorities over the Africa Southeast Area talking about things specific to this region. I'm sure Elder Gant saw the same one but he actually understood what was said. The only thing I understood the whole time was the word "ebola" which was said by all of them at least twice. We got the DVD though so we'll watch it in English at some point. Only two of the Brady Bunch came to church today and that was it for investigators so that was kind of lame. But we are making a push to get a bunch more investigators to come to church so hopefully it'll be better next week. We taught that rich family again with the servant whose name is Alfred. The lady's sons were there so we just showed the First Vision DVD again. The lady is way awesome and as soon as it was over just asked where our church was cause they really want to go. That is like so rare with rich people here. First off, to get in the door is a miracle. Getting back in the door is another, and wanting to come to church is another. And they aren't making excuses. The sons go to a Catholic school and they usually require students to go to their church on Sunday. They could have said yeah we have to and it would have been normal but they just immediately were like, no, we don't have to. We can go to your church. Super awesome. We did a bunch of contacting after that and came across a naked guy which is just all kinds of fun you know. We knock on the door, the wife comes out and says "oh yeah come in" so we go in and this guy is just naked with a blanket over his dignity and he had his legs crossed. So at least he was considerate. We got a return appointment and told him that it would be perfectly fine if he wore clothes next time. And to finish it off, we taught the investigators that are related to Etienne again. It's an 18 year old guy and his 16 year old sister. All the Elders here think she is like super attractive so that's probably why she's been taught before haha. 

Well for today we haven't done anything and I think today is just going to be a chill day. Last night we made the chili and the breadsticks that mom sent me and it was way good. We didn't have garlic powder so we used Cinnamon instead and it ended up being pretty good. You'll have to give that a try mom and see if it works. 

For Thanksgiving this week our zone is going to play frisbee in the morning and then have zone meeting and eat pancakes. Then for dinner we are going to this way nice hotel on the other side of town to get a way good dinner. We've been eating at home a lot this month to have enough money to go and we are going to make it haha. It won't be turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and funeral potatoes but it'll still be good. 

I think that's it for this week. Well keep on keeping on and all that. Read Matt 18:23-35 if you have time. Way good story told by Jesus and I read it the other day in Jesus the Christ and it really stuck out to me. It's just super good. 

Elder Coleman

Poopy Week

I apologize for the vulgar title but it is very appropriate for this week. But it wasn't entirely poopy.

This week was a transfer week so it was kinda hectic. We got 2 new missionaries in Fianarantsoa and it is now a zone. But on Tuesday before they got here we had to move stuff into a new house for them. So that was actually pretty fun not gonna lie haha. But that day when we woke up we had 0 water pressure at our house which means 0 water was coming out of the sink or the shower or anything. That was super lame but it came back on later in the day and it's back now so it's ok. We just had to get pump water to brush our teeth and shave and stuff so not a big deal. 

Later that day we were contacting because our whole program just fell apart this week which I will get to later but anyway yeah we were contacting. We came across this way cool family and showed them the Restoration video. Well it turns out he is a 7th day Adventist and if you don't know what that is basically their only doctrine is that the Sabbath is on Saturday. Obviously they believe more than that but it's like the main thing they talk about. Like we talk about the Restoration and they talk about the Sabbath on Saturday so that's that. Anyway, he starts quoting scriptures at us and they just go along perfectly with what we are trying to teach him but he reads into them so backwards. I just wanted to slap him in the face and say "look what you are saying makes no sense". For example, He talked about how Adam and Eve coveted even though the 10 commandments say not to covet. Well that's true that they say that but the 10 commandments were after Adam and Eve. You would know that if you read the Bible like you were supposed to.

So yeah on average this week, 1 person didn't dog us each day. Which means we did so much contacting... But we got tons of good contacting in. We contacted this rich neighborhood and found tons of people. We found this lady whose husband runs the airport here in FIanarantsoa and while Elder Connault was talking to her this random lady from India came up to me and started talking to me in really good English. So I got to do my first contact ever in English. It was really weird actually. It didn't feel natural I guess haha. 

I've been looking so much ever since I got here for some of that tea that I had in Tana and I finally found it. Our member help showed me where some was growing and I got to pick it fresh from the ground. So great. And we had a ton last night and it was sooooo good! I love this Fruit Loop tea.

We taught Marcellan that night too. He's someone we're working with to get the Melchezidek Priesthood. He doesn't have it right now because he is currently married to two wives. He has to raise 400,000 A, which is a lot for a Malagasy in order to get legally divorced to his other wife before he can get the priesthood. We gave the spiritual thought from DandC 122 which is just super awesome. Read it sometime it's way good. We shared it at Jean Chrys soiree too. 

Elder Johnson and Elder Rigby got here Wednesday night and I got to see them the next day at district meeting. It was so good to see them. Elder Rigby was Elder Hammer's trainer and Elder Johnson came with me. He's from Las Vegas. And on our way to the district meeting we found this huge chameleon that was at least a foot and a half long it was so cool. Elder Connault put it on a stick a carried it around with us for a little while and terrified all the Malagasies. That was way funny. 

We taught Soa and Philibert out on the mountain on Thursday and it was a way good lesson. All we did was read the first chapter of 1 Nephi with them but it was way awesome. It just brings a special something; the Book of Mormon. Yeah we just invited them to read it on their own. They had already been reading but they are a big family and only had one so they all hadn't had a chance to read it yet. We gave them another one but I don't see why they couldn't just all read it together.

All of our times after that dogged us so we did more contacting. We knocked at this one house and they guy comes out and asks if we are the Mormons. That's weird because no one knows that name out here but yeah. He told us he wanted to know more about Joseph Smith and about that Joseph Smith book or the Book of Mormon. We are obviously super excited at this point and try to teach him right there but he didn't have a lot of time so we just tried to set up a return appointment. That's when we found out he doesn't live in our area and he is visiting his brother right now... So lame. 

But anyway we visited that lady whose husband works at the airport and she says that her husband can't learn cause he works all the time but she can so we showed her the Restoration DVD. She seemed really interested and we are going to go back this week so hopefully something will become of it. 

I think I've already talked about Ludovic but we got him a bap date set up and did a little interview with him to make sure he knows everything. He's pretty good and knows most of it so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get him baptized. We also have Jeremy whose baptism is coming up and we didn't get to teach him this week because he just was never home when he was supposed to be so it's whatever I guess.

We started teaching this new guy, George and his family. He's way cool and asks a lot of good questions in the lessons but because of that we don't get very far with the lesson. Like we have taught 2 lessons and have taught through prophets. But he's a way cool guy and I have high hopes for him. 

Saturday morning started off with a wedding. We got to attend the wedding of a guy in our branch. He is now officially married and can hold the Melchezidek priesthood which is soooooo good. We need so many Melchezidek priesthood holders. 80% of the branch is women I swear. 

We taught Fanasina whose baptism is this Saturday and just did a quick review before the real interview tomorrow. She's super ready and I don't think we have anything to worry about with her. 

Jean and FLorine are doing awesome too. We read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon with them too and they seemed to like it. Jean said he had read a little of it already but I don't think he had. He did read the pamphlet we gave him all the way through though. 

We went to Etiennes and gave them a spiritual thought and they brought so investigators to us too so that was way awesome. They are 18 and 16, boy and a girl, and they want to learn from us so that's way good. We could use a lot more of these kinds of referrals too. They would be so much better than tracting. 

So church yesterday... just poopy. Neither Ludovic nor Jeremy came to church. This is Jeremy's 2nd week not coming so we can't baptize him on Saturday obviously and Ludovic needs to come if he wants to get baptized. It's super frustrating. But Later that day Elder Lehr gave us a referral of 2 FLF's and they were super drunk and crazy but I guess they want to  learn. We just told them not to be drunk at our time with them tonight. 

The last 2 nights we made tons of good food. We made tortillas and the red beans and rice and last night we made more tortillas and spanish rice. So so so good (thanks mom). Fun story of the week, I fell in a hole. The roads here are awful and there are some huge holes in them. Well it was dark and we were walking down the street and I fell in this huge hole in the road. Don't worry I fell with style rolled and climbed out of it so smooth it hardly looked like anything but yeah. 

Today we all climbed up this hill and went to the other side with this super awesome view. I will send pictures when my camera is not dead. 

Shout out to Mrs. Kelly and Susan Honey who emailed me this week. I love getting emails from people and they totally just made my day.

I think that's all for this week. Keep it real everyone.

Elder Coleman

Ny nono vetaveta, blessings, and transfers

The weeks just go by faster and faster here I swear. It seems like it is going way fast but also like I've been here forever. It's just a weird feeling. But boy what a week.

Last Monday I emailed a little early so yeah it was like 2 in the morning back home. But after we emailed we went to a book store and I bought some books to help me with Malagasy. I bought a book that teaches Malagasy kids Malagasy (so perfect for me) and a Malagasy dictionary which I hear helps a ton. But yeah that was our P-day. Oh and we printed of Magic cards and taped them on to playing cards so now we play Magic sometimes when we are at home at night.

Anyway, on the important stuff. We contacted a lot. Nothing really too exciting except we got some more people to teach. And the highlight of that is we contacted some rich people which is weird here because rich people don't want anything to do with religion here. Anyway, they let us in and we happened to have the Restoration video with us because we were going to show it to a time later that day. They had a DVD player and so we watched it. They liked it and we got a return appointment with them so that's super good. The Joseph Smith movie just has a power to it. And the best part requires a little bit of explaining. So rich people here don't like to do anything themselves usually. So they hire mpanampies (helpers) to do most things for them around the house and stuff. So these people had a mpanampy and his name was..................... Alfred. I almost started to laugh but then Elder Connault did laugh but it was ok because they had seen Batman.

Wednesday I went on a split with Elder Lehr and that was way fun! All of our times dogged us so we just contacted all day and found some ballin' father led families which this branch desperately needs. While we were contacting we found Elder Ralaivao's family. They aren't members but their son is and is on a mission right now in Mada. I actually went on a split with him in Tana once; I don't remember if I mentioned that or not. He also trained Elder Covey who came with me. Anyway, the grandma was way sick, and we gave her a blessing.

That blessing though was the second of four that I was a part of this week. We gave one to one of our investigators parents. We gave the one to the bebe and one to Jean Chrysy. Jean Chyrs is the one that used to be the Branch President. He's a way cool guy. And the last one happened when we were contacting. We came across these Jehovah's witnesses and one of them had been way sick for like three days already and they invited us in and they wanted us to give her a blessing. And then they tried to get us to go to their church and give us invitations and stuff. Not sure how that works but whatever.

We had district Meeting and it was way good. It was about us being the light of the world and how people see us as missionaries and will apply anything we do to all missionaries so it's important to be examples of Christ in everything we do and say. That obviously doesn't just apply to missionaries but to everyone.The couple here shared their conversion story and it seemed way good even though I didn't understand all of it. We continued the day by going clear out on the mountain to teach. We had Florent with us who is a way cool kid. I say kid but he's 18 and is the Young Men's president. He's such a stud though and he's way good at teaching. He helped us so much. We taught one lady out there who is way awesome and has tons of faith. But she is paralyzed on the right side because of a stroke probably and there is no way she could ever make it to church. Her husband is also too old to ever make it to. It's kind of sad but they're awesome and I think we'll keep teaching her so she can become super knowledgable and can get everything done for her in the spirit world.

Friday Was just a good solid day of just teaching. We taught the Brady Bunch and I seriously love them so much! I don't know if I've already told you about the Brady Bunch but they are a super poor family that lives right below us. I'll take a picture of our house and their house sometime and you can see the difference. But anyway they are super awesome and they asked us to teach them. We taught them about the Sabbath Day and got them to commit to come to church, Then we taught this guy named Tinah who is just so awesome. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one. He said he would pray about it and then thanked us for coming to his house and bringing the love of God to him and all this stuff. He's such an awesome guy. We taught Jeremy again and did another Bap interview so he'll be super ready for his baptism which is and he's super ready I think. He's a stud. We finished of the day by giving a spiritual thought to some recent converts, Onja and Oly. They have tons of kids and all of them are boys except for one girl who is like 15 or 16 I think. I shared Alma 37: 38-40 and then the rest of the chapter until the 2nd to last verse. It's about how we have Liahonas in our lives but they will only show us where to go according to our faith.

The next day, It rained so much. I have never seen that much water ever come out of the sky, I didn't know that was possible to have that much water come out of the sky. But yeah it was ridiculous. And the thunder is the loudest thing I have ever heard. It was like it was striking right next to you. Sometimes it was actually. But I had my raincoat so it was all good.

Yesterday was super great! We took 6 of the Brady Bunch to church with us even though that wasn't all of them. And one of the investigators clear out on the mountain who is 9 months pregnant right now came. We also had like 155 people at church which is way good for us. I had to say the prayer in sacrament meeting and that was interesting but it was ok. I had to write stuff down and practice it but I did it. We are trying to get more members to help us with missionary work and it made me think of that schedule that we have in our ward for dinner and driving for the sisters. SO I made a calendar for members to sign up to help us through this month and next. I honestly don't know if it'll work but hopefully it will. It was also fast yesterday and holy crap I was paying it. but we made a huge meal that night and it was way good. We made three kilos of mashed potatoes, 1 kilo of hamburger, and 1 kilo of assorted veggies and mixed them all together and put them in these perogie like things. It was actually way good and super filling.

We have a transfer this week and we got transfer news last night. Fianarantsoa is becoming a zone! And Elder RIgby (Elder Hammer's trainer) and Elder Johnson from my group are coming down here to split an area and Elder Rigby is becoming zone leader. I'm way excited for that.

One last thing. I saw this like 7 year old girl the other day with the craziest eyes I have ever seen. They were like gold and I just can't even describe how gorgeous they were. I will find her again and take a picture.

Well keep it real everyone, Elder Coleman

Mission Stats

So Many Splits....

What a hectic week this week.Just so many things happened that it's just ridiculous but it was a way good week.

On Tuesday we taught one of our investigators, Jeremy, who is just an absolute stud. He's only 10. We were teaching him about tithing and it was a little difficult because he just wasn't getting it. But the real cool part of the lesson was like halfway through, his younger brother fell asleep. Jeremy left the room right in the middle of the lesson to get a blanket and put it on his brother. What a stud. Like for real.

We taught Fanasina, another of our 10 year old investigators, about the Word of Wisdom and it went way well. She totally got it and we taught them this fun way to remember what not to eat or drink.

We taught Mario's family that day too and oh my goodness is this guy a stud beyond all belief. He's the guy that reminds me of Braxton. But he is a recent convert and his best friend, Etienne, is also a recent convert and they consistently study the scriptures together. They also will take their scriptures and go out and visit members and share spiritual thoughts with them. So ballin'. Anyway, we taught Mario about the Book of Mormon and used the introduction and like the picture of the map of the world in the back of our Triples. It was a way good lesson. They learned a lot and it was way fun to teach. When I told them that I had Native American blood in me they like freaked out and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I don't know how to tell them that it's not exactly a lot but it's whatevs. Whatever strengthens their testimony of the Book of Mormon.

We went to the dentist again.Elder Connault bit another rock and broke the part that got fixed last time. But it was way quick this time. We took a bus and the dentist didn't charge us. We got back to the house and the Zone Leaders came. They came to do splits with all the areas and we got Elder Arrieus. He's from French Canada but he was Elder Rice's favorite companion and they are very similar so it was like being with Elder Rice again for a day it was way fun. We climbed this mountain in our area to get to some investigators and it was so cool. There was this random big school out in the middle of the jungle and they had a volleyball game going on and it look so fun. We walked all the way out there and our investigator dogged us so that was lame but it was a nice hike haha.

We had  a soiree with our ex-branch president that night too.  It was way good food! I really don't know what it was but it honestly looked so nasty. It was like this green paste stuff with bones in it. And it's rude to not eat everything so I had to swallow some bones. Yeah super fun. While we were at the soiree, the AP's had come down and were just chillin at our house. They were going to do splits the next day and the day after.

Since the zone leaders and the AP's were doing splits at the same time that was 4 people for three companionships. So me and Elder Connault did an actual split where he went with Elder Arrieus (again) and I got..... Elder Fox! It was so sweet! We went out onto the mountain to teach all our investigators out there and it was way fun. All we taught that day were first lessons. Elder Fox is seriously so good at Malagasy and teaching and just being a missionary in general. I felt so inadequate teaching with him honestly. But it was so fun and I learned a ton.

Before we did our split though we had district meeting and we just followed a scripture chain for our lesson about hw the Holy Ghost will help us. Elder Fox commented about how when we are put into a compnaionship where we know more Malagasy then our companion is when we learn the most. When we are put into hot water and have to float, that is when we really recognize how much God is helping us. It made me think of that split last week with Elder Mack where I was the one that had to do the talking and no one could really bail me out. My understanding and speaking improved so much in just that one day and I now recognize how much He has helpe me learn this language. It's rediculous.

The next day we got dogged by tons of our investigators and so we were just trying to go visit those that had dogged us earlier in the week to see if they were home and could learn. We happened to be near a member whose husband wants to learn from the missionaries but everytime we go to an appointment with him he isn't there. But, she informed us this time that he was home at the moment and that he could learn. SO we went and taught him a quick spiritual thought about faith and got to know him a little bit. I guess he had learned from the missionaries before and had gone through all the lessons but he worked on SUnday. He talked to his boss and got to have the morning off but he still had to work a night shift. The missionaries at that time told him that he couldn't be baptized because he still worked on Sunday. SO naturally he was ticked because he had done what he could. SO we told him we would talk to our leaders and see what we could do. I don't know the right answer but I think he should be allowed to be baptized.

Right after that lesson we went to the house next door and taught this super stud named Fabrice. He's a young dad who really wants to have God in his life. we taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one and invited him to pray about it. We also invited him to attend conference but he said he wouldn't do it until he had prayed and received an answer whether it was true or not. This guy has some potential.

We reviewed the bap interview questions with Jeremy just to make sure he's got it all down. He wants to get baptized so bad and we are trying to get him done by the end of this month. Elder Connault made me do the review while he took a nap but it went well.

And finally we got to watch conference! It was such a good conference too! I'll just pick one talk from each session that I liked. Sat morn, Uchtdorfs talk. I just loved it because it's Uchtdorf for one and for another thing it showed that picture of those stars and it was so nice! I miss the stars so much. You can see them better here then in Tana. Anyway I just like how we can receive any knowledge we want if we follow four simple steps: 1 Search the word of God, 2 Consider, Ponder, be thankful to God, etc. 3 Ask in the name of Christ 4 Know and Live the doctrine. We have to use the right instrument to know spiritual truth just like we need a telescope to see all the stars. one quote I liked from it was "If you do your part, it will come... and it will be glorious" 

Sat after: I liked Jorg Klebingat's talk mostly becasue of his name. No but really it was just way good. Those 6 steps he gave to highten your spiritual receptiveness and spiritual well-being were so sweet. 1Take responsibility for your spirituality 2 Take responsibility for your physical well being 3 Embrace obedience sincerely 4 Get good at repenting thoroughly and quickly 5 get good at forgiving 6accept trials as part of the mortal experience

Priesthood: Uchtdorf, "Lord is it I?" enough said on that one. That ones pretty straight forward. We need to self evaluate and realize if we are the problem or if we have problems we need to take care of. Sun Morn: Monson, "ponder the path of thy feet" that one's pretty self explanatory.

Sun After: Carlos A Godoy, I really enjoyed this one and felt like it applied to me too. It had a good self evaluation question too; "If I continue on this path will the promised blessings in my Patriarchal Blessing be fulfilled?" And it was all about making like big long term decisions which I will need to start making pretty soon. I liked the 3 dingana (steps) he proposed: 1 Ponder choices with the end in mind. 2 We need to be prepared for the challenges that will come. 3 we need to share our vision with those we love. THey will help us and those kinds of decisions always affect our loved ones.

Ok one last thing and I'll end this ridiculously long email. After conference on Sunday we went to teach people but we got dogged yet again. SO we decided we would go visit Jean and Florine. We taught them the 1st last time so we went with the Book of Mormon. As we taught their whole demeanor changed. They went from, "We are Catholic and we don't want to listen to you" to genuine interest. As we taught they became interested and understood exactly what we needed them to. We gave them one and asked them to pray about it and to not trust us. Then Jean told us that this is exactly what he was looking for. He said they had let the Jehovah's Witnesses in and they just spouted their beliefs at them and didn't really leave them anything. But we gave them proof of our message and had asked for them to find out for themselves. SO instead of a "i guess you could come back sometime but we are always working and never know when we'll be here" it was a "yes come back on this day after we have prayed about it". I can testify of the power of the Book of Mormon. It was serious so sweet! and during the lesson Elder Connault was talking about Jesus and couldn't remember the scripture for "other sheep I have... etc." but right when he turned to me to ask if I knew where it was it just popped into the forefront of my mind. The Spirit was helping us out immensely in that lesson, and by helped i mean he was teaching.

Well that's it for this week and we've got more splits to come this week with the district leader so that never ends I guess. Sorry for the novel but yeah I'm not actually sorry.

Peace out!

Elder Coleman

I almost didn't recognize Austin! He never wears hats!

 

This one is labeled, "How I Spent My Halloween"