Vingt-six

The time just flies for real. Well this week was not the best to be honest. We had a lot of times stand us up because of Vingt-six (the number 26 in French). It's the Malagasy Independence Day and it's a pretty big thing here. The go all out for it. 

But anyway on Monday, we had all our times stand us up except for our time with Nirina's family. They are super nice and way cool people but just really need to come to church. Her mom comes usually but the dad has a hard time coming. We had a good lesson with them and had a good meal. They always feed us and it's super nice of them. I am just so humbled by these wonderful people. We are in a house that is barely standing on it's own and here they are giving us food and making sure we are comfortable in their home. And they are always super shy/bashful/ashamed about their house when we go in. Sorry I don't know what menatra is in English anymore but that's what I meant to say. And it's all the Malagasies. They are all like that when they have two white guys enter into their home. I think Embarrassed might be the word I'm looking for. 

But Tuesday we had a bit of a rough day. Elder Reynolds tire went flat twice. It was flat when we left the house so we took it to a repair guy and got it fixed. We went to our first lesson and had a great lesson with a referral from Sr Zanarisoa's husband. It was a powerful lesson on Joseph Smith and it just reaffirmed to me the truthfulness of the message we bring. But yeah we had a great lesson with Rojo, that was his name, and when we got out, Elder Reynold's other tire was flat so we had to go get that one repaired and we lost a lot of time doing that. Then all our other times fell through after that. We did some contacting and contacted into a French guy. It was way awkward because we don't speak French. I told him that we weren't good at French (thank you Elder Connault for teaching me that) but he just kept speaking french to us. He finally realized that we spoke English and asked what we were doing there. We told him that we were missionaries and he responded by saying, "Ok well that's not for me, goodbye" and shut the door. So that was awesome. Not. I am very grateful to be here in Madagascar and not in France that's for sure. We taught Patrick and Ony for the first time in quite awhile. It was actually the first time that we have seen them in awhile too. They haven't been to church in like 3 or 4 weeks. We talked with them and they just need more time to get an answer to prayer I think. They are not fully converted and that's what we need; conversion. 

Wednesday we had to work on Elder Reynolds's bike again because the brake wasn't working. That took a lot longer than I thought it would and so we were a little late getting out. So we just did some contacting until English class. We had some success and found some cool people that we are excited to teach. English class though was a bust. No one showed up. But while we were waiting for the students that were to never come, we decided to go into the Royal Palace real quick and see the prices for the food. Well it was the weirdest place ever. It's super nice inside and I was genuinely uncomfortable. It didn't feel natural to be inside a building that nice. But after that we were able to teach quite a few people, mostly less actives and had a good time. We started teaching the guy that fixes our bikes actually. He's a member but is super less active. We had a good lesson with him about the Atonement and the Sacrament. His family is very awesome and I love them a lot. I hope we can get them to come back to church. 

Thursday was a lot of times falling through. Too many. All of them fell though actually. All the times. Gone. So it turned into a tracting day and a visiting less actives day. We did teach one investigator that is a stud. His name is Honora and he loves us coming over. He sincerely wants to know the truth. We talked Joseph Smith and Book of Mormon with him and gave him a copy. He is very interested and wants to know if our message is true or not. I see him going far. We stopped by Raivo and Prisca and talked with them for a little while. There was no guy there so we couldn't go in and teach. But they are doing good. WE also stopped by Maxime and gave him a spiritual thought to help him with his drinking. Then that night was the night before Vingt-six and Elder LEhr called us asking if we wanted to go the Royal Palace for dinner. So we went. I had some lobster that cost 2 dollars and it was way good. But that was probably the only good thing about it. They were having a huge party there due to the fact that it was almost Vingt-six and it was just full of rich Malagasies. It just made me so mad. These rich Malagasies staying at this nice hotel, dropping thousands of Ariary on alcohol, and food and wearing super nice clothes. They money that they wasted that night was more money than most of the members we teach and definitely more money than any of our investigators have ever seen at one time. The fact that these people were just blowing money on selfish passions when there are Malagasies, just like them, down the street that have nothing, barely get enough food each day to feed their families and are just struggling to get by each day. They live in mud or brick huts that barely stand on their own. If I was going fast enough on my bike and hit one, I could probably knock it down. I was beyond uncomfortable. I tried to eat my food as fast as possible just to get out of there so I wouldn't have to look at that anymore. Nothing has ever bothered me that much in my life.

Friday was Vignt -six and we had lunch at Maxime's house. It was super good and there was tons of food. We also had a soiree with Robin's family that night and we were in charge of the loaka. SO we bought a ton of beans and 5 kilos of potatoes for or celebration of sorts. I figured that would be enough for 10 people and if it was too much then they would had some leftovers. We taught a new family that are very cool. They are very interested and we talked about the Book of Mormon with them and gave them one. They loved it and they want to read and pray about it so we'll see how it goes. They are Adventists so that's the only way they'll ever come to church is if they receive an answer. We got a phone call after the lesson from the zone leaders telling us that we had to be home at 7 that night and that the message had come straight from President Adams. So that was kind of lame but President knows best and it is a Indepednece Day celebration in Madagascar so who knows what'll go down. 

Saturday we had a lessonj in the morning because that was the only time this guy could learn, Soja is his name. He's a hardcore Catholic and we had a hard time teaching him to be honest. Next week we will have a better time I think. We taught some members after that named Frem and Paulette. They are amazing. Frem is confined to a wheelchair because he can't stand up and walk. But that doesn't stop him. He still can get around without his wheelchair. He does like a weird crawl, thing with his hands and his feet. It's hard to describe. But they are super cool; I love them a lot. We were also able to teach a new kid named Marka. He actually came to church a few weeks ago out of the blue but this was the first opportunity that we were able to teach him. He's a stud and will do really well.

Sunday was a great day. I got a phone call at 7:20 that morning from Raivo and Prisca saying that they were at the church and were wondering when we were coming. Church starts at 8. Members don't even go that early. But yeah we had a good turnout for church yesterday and Elder Reynolds gave a very good talk about faith. Branch Council went very well. We were able to teach quite a few people yesterday too but the highlight had to have been Raholy and Hery. We are trying to get them off of chewing tobacco and they've come a long ways. They have gone from multiple times a day to a tiny bit a night in only one week. Seriously a miracle. They only have to stop completely now. We just strengthened them and then Raholy offered probably the most sincere prayer I have ever heard in my life. It was awesome.

And while I was writing this email, I got a phone call from Elder Connault. He is still in Madagascar even though he finished his mission. He is going around with his parents right now. But He was just in Fianarantsoa and while he was at church, he saw Herman and Celestine there! I don't know if you remember them but Elder Connault and I contacted into them and started teaching them. Apparently they are coming every week to church and have a baptismal date for next month! I'm way happy for them! I knew they'd do well and progress well. 

President Adams goes home on Thursday and it's sad to see him leave but he has finished the work that the Lord sent him here to do and boy has it made a difference. The church is so much stronger here now because of the work he has done. He was a great mission president and I am excited to meet President Foote, who is coming to Madagascar on Wednesday. I probably won't see him until next week or in two weeks but still. 

Little side note: Worms are a legitimate concern right now and I'll keep you posted but it's hard to say right now. But I truly hope it is not true. 

Anyway, have a great week everyone and give referrals to the missionaries. It makes things much easier. 

Elder Coleman

Cow hearts, Peanuts, and a baptism....

The weeks just go faster and faster I swear. This week was a good one but a hard one as well. 

On Monday, while I was emailing, I got a call from Elder Lehr saying that Elder Connault was here in Antsirabe with his family. SO we went and ate lunch with him at Chez Billys. But then all of our times fell through in the evening. Donelson decided to go to Tana and not tell us and then Michel said that he couldn't learn even though I called him that morning and confirmed the appointment. That was frustrating. And to top it all off, Elder Reynolds tire was flat when we left the house and we spent 30 minutes looking for a bike repair place to get a pump. Our pump broke so it was no bueno. We did get to teach Nirina's family and have a soiree with them. And that's where the cow heart comes in because that's what we had for dinner. Way good actually. You should try it sometime.

Tuesday we had a good day. We taught Sr Juliette's husband, Desirè. He's a very cool guy and is very willing to learn. Cool story: His wife told us that tons of missionaries have gone to their house to teach them but none of them really got anywhere. He could hear their voices and he would hide or sneak around the back and leave. But he's being very friendly with us and doesn't hide from us so we must be doing something right. And then after that lesson, we left, walked around the corner and got a phone call. It was a number I didn't recognize but when I answered, it was obviously a member. He said,"Elders, I need some help" "Ok,"I said, "What do you need help with?" He said,"I need a spiritual thought" So we go back to Sr Juliette's house and there is Sister Zanarisoa's husband, Ranzato which two other guys. He teaches them English and decided to bring them to us so that they can be taught the gospel too. He was the one that called us. Such a kidder. He's super good at English though, He just got home from his mission in Johannesburg about 7ish months ago. We were able to go teach Michel after that and it was a very hard lesson. He is just very deep in the pit of apostasy and we need to dig him out, for his sake. Then we taught this less active member and his house. He's the one that has been a member for a long time. After that we had dinner with Elder Connault and his parents at Chez Billys. We got some pictures and it was way nice to see him before he leaves for good. He's lost a lot of weight too.

Wednesday we taught those two referrals again that we got from Ranzato. They are pretty cool guys and they are already getting pretty good at English. We also got a lunch set up with Ranzato and Zanarisoa on 26 so that'll be fun. We taught English class and taught them sayings in English. They loved it so I'll consider it a success. Then we had a great lesson with Rolland and we were hoping that he would come to church. We taught Mampionona about tithing because she needed a little review on it and we got it all super clear for her. Also she still hadn't decided who she wanted to baptize her and she finally decided. She asked me to do it and I was super honored. She is such an amazing young lady. 

Thursday we had a good day also. We got to have lunch at the Tolman's house for lunch which is always a treat. We were able to teach quite a few people too after that. We went to one time and got in to the little compund where a bunch of people live and found that the guy we were there to teach wasn't there. But all the people were sitting on the ground outside de-shelling peanuts. It was the perfect opportunity to not tract so we helped them for like an hour and a half. We just sat and talked to them and they wanted to learn with us once they say that we weren't prideful white people. It was a way cool experience. The highlight of Thursday though is always Raivo and Prisca. They are super amazing and we had an amazing lesson with them. They were super involved and interested in the Drafitry ny Famonjena because her husband died. They were super eager to come to church too and I am very excited for them. They are doing awesome. We had our regular soiree with Filoha Mampionona and had super good food. I always love going to their house for dinner.

Friday we had a lot of things fall through but we were able to teach a lot regardless of that. We found a new family that seem very sincere in their desire to learn. We tracted into them and they just let us in. They are Adventists so I was a little scared that they were going to bring up the Sabbath but they didn't so it went well. We also taught Maxime and had a good lesson with them. We are trying so hard with them to get them to come back to church and get Maxime to quit drinking. We can't make him want to quit though; he has to have the desire and we can work with him at that point. The stressfulness of missionary work sometimes...

Saturday, we had a lesson in the morning that fell through and that was super lame. We went to Tiana and Naina's to teach them but they had gone to Fianarantsoa to get Naina's copy so they can get married! So we taught Pascal and had a good lesson. We then had Mampionona's baptism! It was super awesome! I was a little hard getting her into the baptismal font because of her leg and a little interesting getting her under because her leg doesn't bend anymore but we made it work. The water was freezing cold though. Like so cold. After the baptism we taught a couple more people and finished of a very good day.

Sunday was super good and super depressing. We only had 1 investigator come to church, Fidelis the 9 year old son of a member but tons of members showed up to church including 2 less active Melchizedek Preisthood holders. We had members set up to pick some investigators up and Raivo and Prisca were supposed to come; they asked us to call them the morning of and then they would come. But none of the investigators were home and Raivo and PRisca didn't answer the phone. But branch council went amazing. We focused on people and got assignments made. It was probably the best branch council that I have been a part of my whole mission. This branch has really come a ways since I first got here. It's weird that I have almost been in this branch 6 months already. We were able to get help to teach Raholy and Hery with Sr Voahangy and Marcel. They got along super well and now they have friends in the ward. Sr Voahangy was able to relate with them on the Word of Wisdom problems and it was just a super awesome lesson with them. 

Then this morning my awesome companion made this super good cake called pavlova. It's from New Zealand (not Australia) and it is probably one of the best things I have ever tasted. I'm going to learn how to make it because there isn't a lot to it. The simpler the better for me. 

Well that's it for this week. I'll be sure to think of you all when I eat more of this cake and how much y'all are missing out.

Elder Coleman

Be Sofina's

spider outside their window

Austin and Elder Connault

Epicerie by their house

Be Sofina's

Pavlova

Baptismal font

A week of interesting people...

It's crazy how fast the time flies! I can't believe that it is already Monday! It seems like I was just barely sending my email from last week. But we had a good week this week and we worked hard. 

Monday we had a lesson with Donelson, who is incredibly Catholic. He was born Catholic and will die Catholic. Well I sure hope not for his sake. So we talked with him about the Book of Mormon a bit more thoroughly and I used the Book of Mormon reference that President gave us at last zone conference to mark his Book of Mormon with the 30 most important scriptures for investigators to read. He said that he would definitely read it now that he doesn't have to start from the beginning and go all the way through. This is going to help a ton and we will see if he did it and is willing to change his mind tonight. 

Tuesday was a day full of contacting. We work in the other Ambohimena area that day(the one that was Elder Christie and Elder Morse's before) that was combined into our area. It's closer to the church and has a lot of rich people so it is kinda hard. We found a cool French guy though and talked to him for a little bit in English. We also taught this less active Melchezidek Priesthood holder that is one of the oldest members in Madagascar. When he was baptized in 1998, there were 2 church buildings in Madagascar, both in Tana and there was only one baptismal font, at the mission home. He is a very cool guy and his sister actually lives in Indianapolis. 

Wednesday we had a good day of teaching people and English class. I also learned the word for fireworks in Malagasy, afomanga, which literally means blue fire. But yeah the 26 of June is coming up so it's a little bit relevant. That is their independence day and I've heard that it is a huge thing. I went on a split with Elder Herrin, our new zone leader so he could do a baptismal interview in our area for Mampionona. Well she passed! And she's getting baptized this Saturday! She still hasn't decided who she wants to baptize her so it might be a little interesting haha. 

Thursday was kind of a disappointing day. We had a lot of times fall through but we were able to find some new investigators and teach them. They are solid and I see a good future for them. We are working really hard with an investigator named Dieu Donne and pushing him for July 18 for his baptism. We gave him the Book of Mormon thing too to help him read and we are really stressing church attendance. It's so frustrating when people don't come to church. 

Friday we had more lessons fall through but got a lot of good contacting in too. We met a very cool guy named Orlando who seems very interested in what we have to talk about. He lives in a different area but he said he's going to come to English class on Wednesday and build a program from there with the Mahazoarivo Elders. While we were talking to Orlando and his friend, some guy that I think was drunk came up to us and was talking about us "Mormons". He was talking about how the things we teach "scare him" and he was saying stuff about the Book of Mormon. Well it was almost disastrous, with him preaching anti-Mormon stuff and we are trying to contact these people. We start to take control of the situation when another guy comes out of nowhere and starts doing the same thing. He starts asking me questions, trying to catch me and prove me wrong and stuff like that. But he had no idea what he was talking about so I slayed him for lack of a better term and now he wants to learn the stuff he didn't know so hopefully it'll turn out good. We also taught Maxime and just sat down and talked about his Tenin'ny Fahendrena problem. He is still drinking toaka sometimes but he wasn't drunk this time so it was good. He knows that we are here to help and that we want to help. Elder Reynolds bore a powerful testimony to him and all in all it was a good lesson. 

Saturday we taught a lot of people and met a very interesting man. Well first we were teaching and across the street from one of our times (that stood us up by the way) lived a French guy. And he was having a yard sale with his daughter and her friends. And they all spoke English. It was the weirdest thing. Funny thing about that; The dad was talking to us and he asked Elder Reynolds where he was from. He told him and the french guy was super excited. He had been to New Zealand apparently and so they had a nice little conversation about that. But then he turns to me and repeats the question. I respond,"I'm American." and it just gets awkwardly quiet... Elder Reynolds thought it was way funny. After that we went to a contact kinda out in the boondocks and that was a surprise for sure. We get there and he gets his Bible and I figured it was just a normal Bible. I asked him if it was a Protestant, Catholic, or JW Bible and he said none of them. I was kinda confused because that is the only bibles in Madagascar in Malagasy. Oh this guy speaks English fluently by the way (with a horrible accent but still fluent) so I figured that maybe it was a King James Bible. But he opened it and he opened it the wrong way, as in it was upside down, or so I thought. But it turns out that the Bible was in Hebrew and that's how the read. And this guy is fluent in Hebrew, Greek, English, French, and Spanish. He randomly switched to Spanish at one point during the lesson and it threw me off way bad. Like I understood it, but I knew it wasn't Malagasy or English so it took me a second. Weird lesson. And for dinner that night we ate with Elder Lehr at this place called Sam's. It a vazaha place and all the vazahas happened to be hanging out there that night. I won't lie but I was incredibly uncomfortable to be in what would be considered a normal restaurant in America. It was weird to be around so many white people in a nice place. 

Sunday was good. We only had three investigators come to church which was super lame. We did have a nonmember from the outskirts of Antsirabe come to church though out of the blue so that was fun. He was an interesting guy and had some interesting insights in church. But he wants to learn so it should be good. Raholy and Hery didn't come because Raholy was sick and couldn't make the journey. We taught them the Tenin'ny Fahendrena and they both have a problem with paraky (I'm sorry; I don't remember that in English but it's the stuff you chew and it's bad for you) and coffee. We gave them a plan that they agreed on and they have the desire to quit. They want to be baptized way bad. We are pushing them for the 18 of July as well. 

The Clowards flew out today; heading home. That is very weird that they are gone. I'll miss them for sure. 

Other than that, it's still freezing cold. I know you'll look at the temperature from there and think it's not but it truly is. This is the coldest place in the mission but I wouldn't trade being in Antsirabe for anything. It's sad to think I only have 5 weeks left here... 

The Adam's and Cloward's last zone conference

The Branch Presidency

Trying to stay warm! 

This is the sand dunes.  A guy in Madagascar paints these.

This is a swimming pool.

Zone Conference

Sooo I forgot to mention one thing that happened last week on Friday... Well I was on a split with the zone leaders, Elder Obioma, and we were riding our bikes to our last time. The road we are on is more of a dirt path than anything, very mountain bike esque. And as we got near the time, the path descends gradually. Not a lot just gradually. And so I'm going and I'm making sure I'm not going to fast when suddenly I hit something, I don't know what and went straight over the handle bars. I landed on my back/left side and got super dirty. I had a little scrape on my elbow but not bad. I definitely should have been hurt more. The worst part though, is that my left shoulder landed right in some cow poop. Yeah awesome. Our last time was with members and they were laughing way hard when they saw that. Yeah and now my shirt has a big stain on it from cow poop. 

But yeah for this week it was super good. We had a very good week this week. We worked way hard and it is such a relief to have P-day right now. I'm so tired. But last week we were able to get in three lessons. We taught Donelson, a college student that's a stud. He isn't progressing super well right now but we will get him there. We taught this one guy that we contacted last week, Jean Jacques and he was super apostate. He told us that he doesn't care if his church is wrong and if ours is right but when we meet in front of God at the last day we will see who is the right one. Yikes. And then Nirina's family; we had a soiree with them and had a good lesson about the Joseph Smith with them. They are super inactive but the mom is starting to come back to church. We need him though too. We are in desperate need of Melchezidek Priesthood holders. 

Tuesday we had an amazing day of contacting and teaching. We taught this member's husband that isn't a member and we are hoping to get him interested in the church and get him baptized so they can go to the temple. She's a super nice lady and so I feel like I owe it to her almost. Just this whole branch I guess. I just love all of them. We were able to get in the door for one lesson and teach them and they were very receptive. Cool story, we were by the old house that the sisters had when there were sisters here and we decided to contact it. Well we go and their helper is outside the door and does in to get them for us. It's a nice house so there was a chance that a French guy lived there. Well we hear the helper coming back out and someone speaking in French so I though it was going to be super lame. But the guy that came out didn't look French but looked Malagasy. However, he was speaking to a Malagasy in French so that was weird. He comes over and is speaking French to us and I am just responding in Malagasy from the translation that Elder Reynolds is giving me. And this is where it gets weird. He isn't understanding my malagasy very well at this point but his wife who was very obviously Malagasy understands completely. I would say something in Malagasy, she would repeat exactly what I said in Malagasy and then he would understand but he was speaking French to us. Yeah weird. He invites us inside the gate (in French) and asks if we are French (in French) I respond in Malagasy that we are American and then him and his wife just start busting out in fluent English. Well it turns out this guy is from Mauritius and he speaks, French, English, Creole, Malagasy, Italian, and Swahili. He was a way cool guy and we got to talk to him for a little while. It was the first time I ever tracted in English so that was weird. He said we could come back and teach him though so we might have to take him up on that. We taught Patrick and Ony after that and they are doing good but Ony is still unsure about baptism. I told her to keep thinking and praying about it and that if she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true then she should be bapitzed. We'll see though. 

Wednesday, We had a pretty good day and we were able to teach quite a lot of people. We were able to see Maxime. He still hasn't been to church and we are trying really hard to get him back but I don't know what else to do. This week we are going to try to go see him more and help him to come to church. 

Thursday we had a good day too. We taught Edmond (the love guru is what we should call him). We had a very interesting lesson with him. We talked about Joseph Smith and showed him the picture of the first vision and we were talking about it when he interrupted us. He wanted to know if someone took a picture of it with a camera. I told him that obviously not. he refused to believe it that it could have happened. Once we got over that hump he decided that it wasn't true because in the picture, Jesus has long hair and he said that people with long hair aren't "tonga saina" which I'm not sure how that translates in English but essentially it means that Jesus was crazy and not all there in the head.And then he went on to say that sinners can't pray to God and that if no one is perfect then no one can be saved. But he was essentially saying that he has no sin. It was frustrating. But yeah it was a good day other than that. 

Friday was a good day too. We got a lot of times in and a lot of contacting. Just an all around good day. Nothing too special other than it's in Madagascar and it's on a mission.

Saturday was zone conference and it was super good! It was all day but I loved it. It was President Adams' last zone conference with us and he definitely went out with a bang. We had this way cool discussion on the Book of Mormon and he gave us this paper that is a way to make the Book of Mormon easier for investigators. It's essentially a scripture chase through the Book of Mormon to all of the important scriptures. It's super useful. And he gave a bunch of life after the mission advice like how to find what you want to do, how to get a lot of money, how to find a wife, stuff like that. It was super helpful. 

Sunday we had church and as we were getting ready I got a call from President Adams. He needed a translator for a temple recommend interview. That was an interesting experience for sure but it was good. We had a few more investigators come to Church yesterday too and it was way cool. We had a good day yesterday too. We had transfers last night and Elder Rice is going to Fianarantsoa to finish his last transfer. Elder Kelsch is training in Tomatave and Elder Mack is leaving and going to Tana. Those are all like the changes that I really wanted to know but yeah. 

SO that's all for this week and I'll see y'all next week. And by see I mean email

Elder Coleman

Sooo cold...

We had a very good week this week. On Monday we had a soiree with Nirina, who was leaving on her mission to Cote d'Ivore. She's way cool and it's sad to see her go. Missionaries leaving is just a sad thing like always but I was very excited for her. She's going to do great. Before the soiree though we did a bunch of contacting by her house which is super far away. We got a lot of good contacts though. 

Tuesday Elder Rigby and Elder Morley came down from Tana and did splits with the Elders here  in Antsirabe. Elder Rigby came with us that day and we had a way good time. We were contacting the whole day but it was good. We had a lot of people receive us and taught a couple lessons. We had a great time with Elder Rigby and he gave us some helpful things that we can improve on. Our last lesson was really good though. We taught Patrick and Ony and we had a really good lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and baptism. It was a very powerful lesson. Oh fun story of that day, we contacted a guy and he told us we should go back to America and save them because they are just like Sodom.... uhmm ok. 

Wednesday we did not have a super great day. All of our times fell through pretty much. It was super lame. We did get a couple times though so it was good. We had quite a few good times and we had English class which is always super fun. I love teaching English. 

Thursday we had a very good day of teaching. We taught tons of people it was awesome. One of my favorite investigator families right now is Raivo and Prisca. Their relatives are already members of the church in Tana but they aren't members yet. They are super accepting and love to have us over. They are super humble and are willing to do everything we ask them to do. They are progressing super well. We showed them the Restoration video and gave them a Book of Mormon and they loved it. They are super excited to read it and pray about it. They are Catholic and we taught them the way we pray. Usually Catholics shoot it down here but they were willing to try it and it was awesome. They just took the pamphlet and followed the way to pray in it and prayed right then and there. That's the first time I have seen that happen in my mission. It was a way cool experience. We taught another investigator family and gave them a baptismal date too this week and they accepted! And to top it all off we had a soiree with the district president at his house and it was super good food. We also had zone meeting that morning and I learned a lot from it too. I learned a lot from it and i realized how much I have learned about myself during my mission so far and how much I have changed. 

Friday I went on a split with Elder Obioma, one of our zone leaders and had a way good day. We had quite a few times fall through and some lessons with no adult male around so we ended up doing a bit of tracting for a couple hours. It was very productive and had a lot of success. We even found a Muslim lady who is Malagasy that speaks English, French and Arabic and Malagasy obviously. She also runs massages out of her house which is kinda weird actually because her house is like in the middle of nowhere. But we got a lot of good contacts out of it. We also gave another family a baptismal date and they accepted too. We've been doing a lot of that recently actually. I learned a lot from my split from Elder Obioma. He's a great missionary and I learned some new ways to do missionary work that I have never thought of before. And the way he sees the Book of Mormon is amazing, he sees it in ways I've never thought of before. 

Saturday we had a good day. Naina was super sick like way sick. So we didn't get to teach them but I hope she gets feeling better soon. We taught this one rich guy Christian and he is very smart. I asked him what he knew about us and he had heard some of the myths about us. One question that I did not expect to get asked was about the church owned archive place in northern Utah that's inside of the mountain. We got on the subject of family history too and he asked about evolution. I said that no we believe that we were created by God and came from Adam and Eve. He jokingly asked about people coming from gidro (lemurs) and that Malagasies have similar qualities as them. So i asked him, "Yeah, Well where's your tail?" His response was priceless. He said, "It moved to the front" I died laughing. I did not expect that at all. Then we had some good lessons with some people from that huge contacting experience I had two weeks ago and we taught a Lutheran family that Elder Obioma and I had contacted the day before. They were very accepting and nice but the one son was just trying to tear down everything we said. it was super annoying. He couldn't accept that those angels appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him authority. He insisted on us telling him where in the bible it said that people that were dead could come back and visit the living. It was annoying. I tried to not bible bash him but said that we are 19 year olds and we don't know everything but we do know that this happened and the only way too know is through prayer. 

Yesterday we had a good day of teaching. First off, yesterday was super cold. Like way cold. And when we got to church, we found out that L Tom Perry died. That took me by surprise for sure. I though for sure he was going to be around a little longer. I guess his work here is done though. We had very few people at church today and not a lot of investigators. I was very discouraged when the meeting started and we only had about 4 investigators there. But during the sacrament song, Raholy and Hery came in and sat with us! It was so awesome! It was there first time but they loved it. They are well on track to get baptized if they keep it up. Also Pascal passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday. It was way cool to see. Last night we stayed at Manadona's house last night and helped them clean it this morning because it is so big and it is only them that live there. it was fun. But it was so cold this morning holy cow. I haven't taken off this sweater. Thank you mom, it came just in time.

That's all for this week though so keep on keepin on.

Elder Coleman

Where they meet for church.