A trying week

This week was a rough one. Not like super bad but still rough. A trying week for sure as the title says.

So Monday was actually a good day. We hung out with the AP's a little bit and then went to this cool place called Tritriva (pronounced chi-chi-va) which is this lake on top of a mountain in a crater. I realize that that is not super descriptive but it was cool nonetheless. I took loads of pictures and will probably send some along with this email. We got back and went to a soiree with a member in the other Ambohimena Elders' area that is now our area. And it was super far. So far. Our house is so far from that part of our area. But we made it ok. I only lost Elder Reynolds once but we found each other again so it all turned out ok. The soiree was way good and during it, a transformer blow up down the street and it was super loud. Not an Autobot but I mean like those things or the power poles, the big boxes. Yeah so the power was down in the whole area. But on the bright side, it was super far from our house so our house was not affected. 

Tuesday was kinda frustrating. It was the beginning. All of our first times fell through. We were able to teach one time which was good but other than that they all fell through. Then we went to the other part of our area to teach investigators over there but most of those fell through too. I had called one and set up a time and when we got there he wasn't there but had just barely left for work. So we went to another time that I called and we had no idea where his house was. He was telling us all these names and things and I didn't know the area at all so it was super pointless. We were able to find it though because I kinda remembered where it was in general and we had him come out to his gate so we could see him. We taught him though so that was good. Then we went to Patrick and Ony and gave them a baptism date for the 18th of June. That's the date he wants because that's when the anniversary of his marriage is. The beginning of that day was very frustrating. 

Wednesday was a good day actually. We taught quite a few people and had English class. A couple times fell through but our backup times were solid so it worked out. We went to Maxime's house (remember him? He's the guy that we baptized right when I got here, on Feb 28) and he was drunk. he has been drinking again. He was completely free before his baptism but he started down that slippery slope again. He relapsed once and then slowly slipped into drinking ever day again. or most days. But yeah when we got there he tried to hide from us but that's kind of hard to do in a house that is as big or smaller than your bedroom. Yeah he hid himself under a blanket. We gave a spiritual thought to strengthen the family because they are all having a hard time. It is affecting all of them. That was heartbreaking.

Thursday started our way good. We just were hitting lesson after lesson. We contacted a guy that wants to learn from us and he's interesting. We shared a little spiritual thought with him and then, completely unrelated to the spiritual thought at all (James 1:5) he drops this question, "What is love?" It was a big temptation to not start singing I'll be honest. Yeah he was an interesting character. But yeah I got sick. It was way bad. I puked while we were out at work. So yeah we went home obviously haha. I did not feel good at all. Luckily, it wasn't in a lesson. It was in front of our member help though but it's ok they just laughed. Yeah I was sick all night; didn't sleep at all. I was just up all night puking. And it wasn't normal either it was like solid. For example, you know when a momma penguin feeds her babies? That's what I was doing. It was awful. 

Friday we didn't work at all because I couldn't leave the house. Super lame.

Saturday I was determined to have a good, productive day because of Friday. We were able to teach quite a few lessons and had lots of success contacting and talking to people. We had a meeting with the branch president and got him to start working with the people in the branch to get things running better. I miss the church where it runs. We taught Jeannot and he told us that he wasn't sure if he wanted to join the church or not. He's not sure if he wants to come to church anymore either. He wants us to come by but he just wants to learn. He's eager to learn and wants to think about it more thoroughly. That was also disappointing because he shot down any chance of us giving him a baptism date.

Yesterday we had a good day. We had a lot of lessons fall through which was not fun but we still got quite a few. And right as the day started, like after church and once we were out at work, the pedal on my bike broke off. So I had to go the whole day without a pedal. So that was fun. And then we taught Patrick and Ony and talked about baptism. I asked them if they were still excited to be baptized and Patrick said yes but Ony was like," I've thought about it and I don't think I need too. I was baptized in the Protestant church and there is one God so I don't feel like it is necessary to do it again." NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! They were investigators for ever and have learned the lessons, all the lessons, 4 times and they Elders before told me to just give them a bap date but I guess some things didn't quite sink in. So frustrating. I told her to pray about it and review the 1st pamphlet. We reviewed it with her and asked her read it again. They know it all I'm sure but now we just need to be double sure and we may have to push their baptism back if they aren't super solid on some of the teachings. 

So yeah this week was a good learning experience and I'm glad it's over. Hopefully this week will be better. I really hope so.