Soa ny Fiainana! (Good Life)

Sorry but I did not get a ponderize scripture this week! I'll be sure to get a good one this week!

So pretty good week! We have a lot of good things going here in Fort Dauphin.

Monday we didn't do much except for chill around and play pool. Monday night I just stayed home while Elder Jensen went out with someone to our program. But it went way well though! We have Krystal and Nono! He has completely changed! He wants to be baptized! Completely different from what he was like the last time we taught him! It's great!

Tuesday I also stayed home. It was not fun. At all. I hated it. Elder Jensen was able to go out for a little while and get some of our more progressing investigators. So it sounded like everything went well.

Wednesday I went out to work and it was great! We were able to teach a lot.We taught Krystal and Nono first thing and had a great lesson with them and got things figured out for them to get married and baptized! They are awesome! But they are probably moving far away and won't be back until June so I may not get to see them. We taught Ruffin and he is awesome! He's going to Institute and Church every week; it's awesome! We taught Germaine and Augustine that night and talked all about the Andro Sabata. It was a super good lesson. I hope it'll help them to feel the Spirit more every Sunday. 

Thursday was a great day too. We stopped by some less actives that we were asked to visit during branch council. We caught him at home! Nicolin was his name. Way cool kid. We shared a little vatsim-panahy with him and he said he would come to church! We got a referral from a member in the other branch and taught them and they are way cool. It's a very poor lady named Cela that is not married and has 3 kids. Before we taught them they asked about Priesthood Blessings. So after we taught them we gave 3 of the people there blessings. It was way cool. We taught Rina and Anita and they are now on date for the 11 of June. We taught Lanto and Dorothe that night about Temples and Eternal Marriage and it was awesome! At the end of the lesson they said, "2017". They already want to go! They are awesome! And then we taught Gerard. He's a taxi driver that is a friend of Danielson. We found him and he accepted to learn from us. He and his family are so awesome! 

Friday we taught Mahala and Alvine. That was a hard lesson. We found out that Mahala is still smoking and so we had to move their baptism back. It was a very emotional lesson. They were crying and it was just very hard to tell them. But it's good. They are good to go for leaving the cigarettes though. We are trying to get them in May here sometime. It should be good. I am very excited for them. We taught Francisca later that night and she is awesome! She wants to get baptized so bad! And her family is way awesome! They really want to know where the real and true church is. 

Saturday we had another good day. We went back to that one less active that we went to on Thursday. Well his brother was there and is also less active so we taught him. He is way cool too. We were able to get a baptismal interview too for Selmann! And he passed! He's getting baptized next week! It's great! I'm way excited for him. He wants to go on a mission way bad. 

Sunday we had a good day of church. I gave a talk on preparing for missionary service. I think it went pretty well. We had pretty good attendance and a lot of investigators came! We went to Ruffin and he taught us the first half of the Plan of Salvation. We showed up and asked if had read the pamphlet and he apologized saying that he had only read about half of it because he had a lot of homework. And then he proceeded to teach the whole first half to us. It was awesome. We taught Patricia and Mamod a great 1st lesson. They had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the Apostasy and the Catholic Church and it went great. We were able to answer all of their questions and I testified at the end of the truthfulness of the Restoration and I could feel the confirming witness of the Spirit telling them that it was true. 

Well this morning we hiked this place called Peak Saint Louis. It's huge and was quite the hike but we made it up and down and got some great pictures. It was way fun but a lot of work! I'm really tired and just want to go home and take a nap before I go out to work. Talk to y'all next week! 

Elder Coleman

Baptism and feet problems

Kind of a weird week this week. But it was good we had a baptism! Yay!

Ponderize of the week: 2 Nephi 31:20

Monday we didn't do much. Just kinda chilled. We went to this restaurant that has a pool table and played some pool. Elder Koplin and I were on a team and we won; it was great. That night we went out and taught Krystal and Nono( pronounced like the English"no"). They are an interesting couple. She almost got baptized but then we found out that she was living with a guy. And the guy is being difficult about getting married to her and might just move away and never come back. They want to get married but that is weird to me to be married to someone that lives far away and probably won't be coming back anytime soon. So we had  a talk with them to figure things out and then went ot Danielson's and had great food. 

Tuesday we had a great day. We taught a lot. We taught Mahala and Alvine and they are awesome. They are on date for the 30th and are totally going to catch it. They are so awesome. They just need to go get married this week. They finally have all their money. We taught Dimby, the pastor in the Lutheran church and kinda drilled him pretty hard on Priesthood Authority. He believes that Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon are true but has a hard time believing that Thomas Monson is a prophet now. Also Priesthood Authority doesn't click with him super well. But we hit it pretty hard and hard enough that there is no way he could misunderstand. We also invited him to be baptized if what we were saying was true. He couldn't really make a decision then but we gave him some time to pray and think about it. We taught this way cool new family, Bakoly and Toky. We had a little time to tract and so we knocked on one door and they let us in. We actually had to come back later when her husband was home but we taught them and they are awesome! Just a great day!

Wednesday we had a good day as well. We taught Ruffin and got him on date for June 11. He's awesome. We've only taught him twice and he has already come to church 3 times, Saturday and Sunday of General Conference, and goes to Institute. Way cool guy. We'll get him baptized and out on a mission. We taught Dodi and Sarah as well and they are starting to not be as cool as they were when we first taught them. They seem to be losing interest and I think their pastor knows we are meeting with them and is giving them more responsibilities to keep them away from us. Kind of a weird deal. 

Thursday I had a split with Elder Koplin and it was way fun! We had a good day. We went and taught Pierrot and it was a super good lesson. He believes the Book of Mormon is true! Now we just need to help him see what that means.We taught Rina and Anita and they are doing awesome! I love them! Also this day I went to the doctor becasue I thought I had another ingrown toenail. The doctor wasn't there so I went back the next morning.

So on Friday, I went and got some things for it to take down the infection. I am hoping that I can just keep the infection down for the next 2 months and then just get it fixed in America or even in Tana. They don't want to do it down here because resources are very limited or nonexistent so I would either have to fly up to Tana and get it fixed or just deal with it for a couple months. So that's the plan. But that also meant that I had to stay home a couple days to get the infection down. So I stayed home all day. Seriously awful. We were able to get a split in halfway through the day so that our program could get worked. 

Saturday was a similar deal. Went to English class and then went home after that and halfway through the day some of the other Elders came back and switched out my companion. Then at 3 we had a baptism! There were 10 people getting baptized and Wiquinze was the only one for us. The baptism went great! The keyboard was set to the "Choir" setting so the music was kinda weird but hey it worked out. 

Sunday was great! We had a ton of investigators at church! 17 of them! And Lanto came to church! It was so awesome! I got to help give the Fanahy Masina to Wiquinze. That was way awesome. Church was a little long though yesterday. It was just one of those days. We had a trade off again so our area got worked. This next week should go a lot better.

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Coleman

Conference! It was Great!

Well it was an awesome week. Loved it so much. This was the best general conference I have ever had. I received a lot of personal revelation and guidance and it was just awesome. I love listening to the prophets and apostles.

Ponderize 2 Ne 28:30

Ok so Monday was awesome. We went out to this place called Akoba and it is super cool. It's just a beach that is way gorgeous. There are tons of people that surf there. We just walked along the beach and it was way relaxing. As we were walking, there were some kids playing beach soccer so we joined in and totally destroyed them! It was way fun! We beat them 2 to 0. Playing in the sand is super tiring though. That night we went and stopped by a family that we are teaching but didn't really have time to teach them before the bus showed up to take us out to Phase 3 to our soiree with President Danielson. Super Good. Loved it. 

Tuesday was a great day. We were able to teach a lot and had a great day. We taught Mahala and Alvine. They are awesome. They are going to get baptized on the 30 and are working way hard right now to get married. They have been saving up money for quite awhile to be able to pay for the marriage. They have enough now and I believe they left today to go get the final things they need. We talked with Wiquinze too about conference and gave him a conference notebook for him to take notes. Anjara and Marcielle are doing great too. They are also saving up money to go get married. They are awesome and have a great testimony.

Wednesday we had a good day. We went to go teach a new investigator, Ruffin, but got way lost trying to find his house. And we stumbled into the house of another investigator that we didn't know about until then. So little miracles! And they lived right by Ruffin! So they guided to his house and we taught him all about the Restoration and it was great. We taught Dodi and Sarah that evening about the Book of Mormon but we were completely out down here. So we stopped by the cyber and printed off a bunch of pages for them to read. It went way well but kinda got awkward when their pastor showed up at the end of the lesson. 

Thursday we had a very bad day. We got dogged by literally everyone. It was very hard. We were still able to catch a couple of times but most of them weren't home. Lanto and Dorothe were among those that we taught. I love them so much. They are so solid. We just kinda reviewed with them about the Holy Ghost because they didn't really understand it. We resolved a problem that showed up during church. They teacher in investigator class came off kinda rude and they were kinda mad about it. But we are all good now. 

Friday was pretty good. We had a lot of lessons. We taught Mahala and Alvine again and made sure they were coming to conference. We went and visited Velosoa and taught him. He's less active and he really wants to go on a mission we found out. So we are going to help him with that. We are teaching a Lutheran pastor right now but he is having a hard time connecting Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the church. He says he thinks it is true but doesn't quite understand what that means. Kinda frustrating. We had a soiree that night with Fr. Nary. He's awesome. He is a return missionary. Served in Johannesburg. Way good at English. Also will probably be our next Branch Mission Leader. 

Saturday was conference! It was seriously so good! I have never prepared so much for conference. The whole week leading up to it I created 4 questions that I wanted answered by conference and prepared a layout for how I was going to take notes. I wrote my note in one color of pen and then my thoughts, impressions, and promptings in another color. Seriously filled like 8 or 9 pages. So much. And so good. We also went ham inviting people to conference this week and we ended up with 14 investigators at the Saturday Morning Session! It was literally half the people there! It was awesome! We tried to go out and teach that evening but we got dogged so we just went out and invited more people to come to  the Sunday Sessions.

Sunday was awesome! The morning session was just perfect for investigators. They got to see the prophet and hear great teachings about the foundational doctrine of the church. Seriously perfect. A lot of these talks really hit home for me and spoke personally to me. A cool thing happened during conference, actually during the Saturday Morning session, but the first two speakers spoke and it was as if they were speaking directly to me. It could not have been more direct. And I just felt the Spirit so strong. It was just a witness of the divinity of their callings and that they are truly called of God to bless us. They are the true and authorized servants of God on the Earth. Sunday evening we went out and taught a couple of times. We taught Walter and he is turning out to be super great! We just need to get a Book of Mormon so he can start reading it. And Germaine and Augustine are hitting a bit of a road bump. They are trying to get something ready for their marriage but it isn't working out so they might  have to go themselves. That would be expensive. So it will be awhile before they get baptized. I am really impressed with them though. Their hearts are in the right place. They have a testimony and desire to go to the temple. God is preparing them to do great things. 

Well this was a great week! I love general Conference! I am very sad that it is over and it's crazy to think that I will see the next one in America! Weird stuff. This week we have a baptism! I'll send Pictures! 

Am-pitiavana,

Elder Coleman

The soccer game, Cool ocean pic, conference in a closet

Awesome week here in Paradise! We're gonna have a baptism!

So great week this week. I seriously love it so much here. It's so fun being a missionary.

Ponderize: Alma 36:27

Monday we taught a lesson to a cool family. The daughter is the only that comes to church as far as I have seen in the last 2 weeks but the family is really cool and we are pushing to get them all to come to church. Oh also we went to the beach for P-day Way cool beach. It's called Libanona. Very nice. We went and walked out on some rocks and it was way cool. We had a soiree that night with President Danielson and it was super good. I love his soirees. We did it at another members house and it was super fun to meet them.

Tuesday we had a great day. We taught 12 lessons! It was awesome! We taught an interesting lesson about prayer. Daniel, one of our investigators said that he prayed about the church and Joseph Smith and got a weird answer. He said he saw like weird demonic things in his dream that was way scary. So we explained to him that obviously wasn't the answer to his prayer and it actually turned out to a good lesson. We taught Wiquinze (pronounced weekends) and did a practice baptismal interview with him and he did way good! He's way awesome. 

Wednesday we had Dodi and Sarah. They are a new family that we found and they are awesome. Very humble and very willing to learn. We just stressed Joseph Smith more and prayer and it went great. We tracted into some pretty cool people too. We tracted into this guy that knows Danielson. They work together out at Rio Tinto. He was a way cool guy and very interested in the church. We also found this guy that is ex-military and is missing a hand because of some grenade training gone wrong. SO that's unfortunate but he's a way cool guy! 

Thursday we had a way cool lesson in district meeting by Elder Jensen about Peter. It was super aweosme I liked it a lot. It was all about all the different things Peter went through to become the great prophet that he was. We had a pretty good day of work. We taught Rina and Anita and they are awesome. I love them so much. We taught Josoa and Edvardine and they are so awesome too. We had a great lesson with them about life after death. He seriously loves when we come over. He's so excited. Lanto and Dorothe are way awesome too! They want to get baptized so bad. 

Friday we had a pretty good day. Fr Ferdinad took us to a less active named Velosoa. He's 20 and I guess he used to help the missionaries. But he's  a way cool guy. We taught Zatolo and lImbaraza too. They are an investigator family and are seriously dirt poor. We have to take it very slow with them. I felt way bad for them cause their daughter was super sick when we were there. Wiquinze had a baptismal interview that day and he passed! He's gonna get baptized! I'm so excited! We taught this Lutheran pastor guy named Dimby too. He's awesome. He believes that the Book of Mormon is true. We just need to help him see what that truly means. 

Saturday was English and we had a good turnout. Elder Koplin and I had a lot of fun teaching that. We did some tracting by the church after English and ran into one of our English students. He said he wanted to learn so we followed him back to his house and started teaching him. He has a way cool family too. We were able to teach Maresaka that day and he's another challenge. He can not read. Like at all. So we have to go very slow with him as well. 

Sunday was a great fast Sunday. It was a great testimony meeting and a great turn out for investigators. We got dogged by a lot of people though. We were able to catch some great times though. We caught Dodi and Sarah at home and taught them about the Book of Mormon and that was way awesome. We are actually out of them so it was a little weird but it worked out. We taught Walter, the ex military guy, and it was awesome. He had tons of great questions about the pamphlet and it turned out to be a great lesson. I've noticed that while fasting, I don't really get all that tired anymore. Like yeah I am tired but not as much as I should be. I can really feel a difference. As you focus on others during the fast you will not only more spiritual strength but physical strength as well to carry on in the work of the Lord. Super cool.

All week this week we had some repair man in our house fixing things. Well I think he broke more things than he actually fixed so it gives him more of a reason to come back. It's kind of annoying because we need the things fixed but he's making a mess. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Elder Coleman